End of an era

Today saw the end of an era for me. I have moved out of my flat in Island Bay and into a new flat in Kelburn (more on that in another post). I have to admit that I started moving nearly two weeks ago but today I collected the last of my stuff and cleaned the Island bay flat ready for the new tenants. I am sad to leave but it is the right time to move on.

I am hugely thankful to John and Linda and their whānau (maori word for family) for all the hospitality and friendship they have shown me over the past year. I have enjoyed many meals, conversations, good times and their general care. I am very thankful to God for them all.

Humbling Witness

You may have heard on the news or from Andy and Nigel's blogs about the Mangatepopo river tragedy last week. I can only began to imagine what it must be like for the family, friends of those who died.

But the way that they have responded has had a deep affect on the media and on New Zealand in general. To quote one journalist:

Perhaps it was faith that enabled them to mourn their losses without rage or bitterness; without looking for someone to blame. Whatever the reason, I have never seen any group of bereaved people behave with such generosity of spirit.

As has been said by many, our prayers are with those who are mourning. But so too should be our thanks, both to them and to God, for the way that He has and is enabling them to be such a great witness in the face of such deep sadness.

The Annual Camps

The weekend of the 12th April saw both of the Victoria University groups go away on their annual camps. I spent Friday to Sunday with the Christian Union at Forest Lakes camp site. We spent the weekend looking at what is the gospel, how it applies to our lives and how to make use of opportunities that we have to talk to our fiends about Jesus.

It was both really encouraging and a real privilege to talk and pray with students as they wrestled with the issues. One particular highlight was a session on the Sunday where we all got into small groups and discussed ideas for reaching out with the gospel on campus for the year ahead. It was great to hear them learning from their experiences over the last year, and applying what they had learnt over the weekend.

On the Sunday afternoon we headed off to Te Poupatate Marae in Fielding to join with the International Christian Fellowship on their Marae camp. The camp provides an opportunity for International students to meet a whole new bunch of people, experience Maori culture, but most importantly an opportunity to learn a little more about Christianity. This was the first time that two groups have been able to combine for their camps and it was great to be able to have fellowship together and build relationships. The evening ended with a hangi (one of my favourite meals ever!) after which the CUers headed back to Wellington but I stayed on for the night with ICFers on the Marae til Monday.

I have to admit that with the passing of years I find the camps increasingly tiring. But they are hugely significant for the groups both in terms of teaching/training and building relationships. I came away from the long weekend really encouraged, thankful to God that I am able to partner with Him and the students as we seek to reach other students for Christ, excited for the year ahead and looking forward to sleeping in on Tuesday morning.

It all adds up

You never quite know what you might find yourself doing as part of your job. As a I blogged a while back my new job title is Systems Manager and Wellington Staff Worker. As part of the change I have just completed a course run by a local accountancy firm entitled Accounting Made Easy.

The course was very helpful and I have learnt a number of new things that have helped me get my head round TSCF's accounts and handle some aspects a little better. But I have come to realise that accountancy is far from easy and not always that interesting. But this is what God has led me to for the time being.

Over the next few weeks and I have to prepare TSCF's 2007 accounts for auditing whilst getting my head round the changes that have come in this month with the government pension scheme KiwiSaver. As a result I am taking a few weeks of campus because there is simply too much to do here in the office.

It is not too bad a time to be of campus as the next two weeks are the mid semester break. Over the weekend I am off to the Christian Union camp (where I am doing a session on using media and contemporary issues to talk about Jesus) and then to the International Christian Fellowship Marae camp. I'll blog about both of the camps next week, but the camps will be the end of my campus involvement for the next 4 weeks and the beginning of 4 weeks with my computer.

My Bacteria and me

So somehow I managed to get food poisoning. Apparently the form that I caught comes from chicken but I hadn't eaten any chicken or egg as far as I remember!

This is a picture of the bacteria, campylobacter, that took up residence in my gut. They look quite interesting but caused me a great deal of pain!

The centre for disease control describes what it can do here. It seems I had a fairly normal case as it laid me out for a week!

Folicaly Challenged

So after searching, well actually after no searching at all but by accident actually, I found a verse in the bible that is positive about bald people!

"A man who has lost his hair and is bald is clean." Leviticus 13:40

In your face Proverbs 16:31! So there you go. I am at home sick, and am bored.

Cricket

So last weekend along with some friends I got to go and see the England Vs Black Caps test at the basin reserve in Wellington. For those of you back in England please don't be annoyed but it cost around twenty five pounds for a five day (admittedly the fifth day was pretty short) pass for the test!

The TSCF office is a couple of hundred minutes from the office so I got to nip down during the Thursday and Friday parts of the game (sometimes there are benefits to working evenings!). One particular highlight was being there for Tim Ambrose hundred, Collingwood's fifty and to see England's score reach three hundred.

The balmy army were a sight to behold and behear (is that a word?). Their chanting was brilliant. One of my favourites was the one about Tim Ambrose to the tune of "you are my sunshine":

We've got Tim Ambrose, just like Ambrosia. They make good custard, comes in a tin. They make good rice too, that's not important. What's important's England win.

More about custard than cricket but very funny anyway.

Kiwi's are a lot more relaxed about sport than Brits are. During lunch anyone was allowed on the pitch to play. It was great to be able to walk on the ground (you could even talk to the grounds men about care of the pitch if you were so inclined, which I wasn't). I can't see that being allowed at Lord's somehow.

If live sport had been as accessible in the UK as it is here I think I would have gotten a lot more into it (and I am getting more into it). Being at the test the atmosphere is just amazing. I have seen two international rugby games live and two international cricket tests live. Which is four more games than I ever saw live in England but at the same time I paid less than half of what I would have had to pay to see similar games back in England.

Don't believe the truth

I just found this picture that I took a few weeks ago during orientation week at Victoria university. I found it very interesting as a comment on how some people think. Whilst I was taking the picture the owner of the car came running up and apologised and said he was about to move his car and asked me not to give him a parking ticket. I was slightly caught of guard by his thinking that I was a parking attendant but that's not important. I was surprised that the owner of the car was an American guy in his forties who was a tutor at the university. I was expecting a Kiwi geography student! I explained how I wasn't a parking attendant and how I was interested in the sticker on his rear windscreen, and apologised for taking a picture of his car without his permission. He was surprised that I was interested in the sticker and explained that he'd got it because he was concerned with how people got hung up on how they must believe what they think and how from his perspective that wasn't necessary at all. A bit worrying really.

Banana in a nutshell

Watched a film today called "Banana in a nutshell". It's a documentary written around the experiences of Chinese girl called Roseanna and her struggles with being of one culture (and her parents expectations that come with that) but having grown up in New Zealand. It is a very watchable and honest film. It gives a window into the tensions of multiculturalism for Chinese families.

One of the comments that really stuck with me was when the sister of Roseanne talked about her parents cultural background. She talks about how her parents grow up in China in the 70s and 80s but then moved to New Zealand. Their view of Chinese culture is based upon China in the 70s and 80s and they are trying to raise their children according to that worldview. But because they have lived in New Zealand for the last 20 years they are not raising their children in the way that their contemporaries in China are. Because their contemporaries have seen the Chinese culture change across the last 20 years and have changed with it. Roseanne's parents are stuck with a 20 year old version of Chinese culture and have raised their children according to it. What Roseanne’s sister calls a "fossilised version of Chinese culture".

It's made me realise that I will (if I don't already) have a fossilised view of England. I have not lived in England for two years now and may stay here for another three or more. I am sure that England has changed in the last two years, I wonder how much more it will change in another three?

It's helped me understand another aspect of reverse culture shock (culture shock that can occur when people return home from short, medium or long term stays in a different culture/country). I guess talking to people can help give a picture of what England is like, but the reality is that things will have changed. I wonder what the changes are and will be?

Criss Cross cultures

I had a really strange experience today. Someone asked if it was true that when English people used the term Asian they meant people from India or Pakistan. I was offended and said no! When I use the term Asia I mean people from Asian countries (Thailand, China, Malaysia etc.). But when other Brits were asked they replied that when they used the word Asian they did mean people from India or Pakistan.

It was then suggested that because I have been in New Zealand that maybe that had changed my perspective. That may be true but I suspect it is more to do with the fact that I have taken a few teams to Thailand over the last 5 years and how that has shaped my (still very limited) understanding of Asian cultures.

But it was disorientating to be asked how English people thought about something and to find that I can no longer speak to how English people think. I have been gone for two years now and been living in a different country which has shaped my understanding in various ways so I guess it was inevitable really, but disorientating none the less.

Title change

We had a meeting today about roles in the office. I now have a new job title! I was Wellington and Web Staffworker. My new job title is Wellington staffworker and Systems Manager!

Not a lot is going to change but for the next 10 months I will not primarily be responsible for the website. That is being developed by a TSCF graduate (to whom I am very grateful!). I will keep doing 3 days a week in campus. I am also keeping responsibility for the finance operations for till at least the end of the year as well as all the other IT type stuff that I was doing before. The combination of finance and IT systems stuff led to the new "systems" part of my job title.

It probably shows part of nature but I enjoy change within work so am quite pleased to keep the finance stuff for a bit longer. It gives me the opportunity (with the help of others who are more administratively gifted than me) to finish revamping the office finance procedures and I really am quite enjoying the finance stuff (how geeky do I sound?). I start a seven week course in accountancy next week which should be helpful if not necessarily always gripping material.

Rugby 7s

Thanks to a very generous offer from some friends, Anna and I got tickets to the second day of the Rugby Sevens. It was an amazing day! There was a great buzz in the crowd, we got to see some great rugby (England had a shaky start but managed to score a point by winning the bowl) and the All Blacks won the day in the end.

See Anna's blog for some more pictures.

A year

Well 2007 is nearly over. As I am writing is now new years eve in both the UK and NZ (various other parts of the world will have to wait longer, sorry).

It is a strange thought that in a couple of weeks that I will have been here in NZ for over two years. Much has changed in the last year and there is much to be thankful for: the work on campus has grown, New Zealand feels much more like home, Anna and I became a couple (be it a long distance couple), and I have again gotten to visit family and friends back in the UK. It has not always been straight forward but at the moment nothing negative is coming to mind at the moment. Having read another friends blog I am reminded that an easy life is far from what Christians are guaranteed. All the things that I am grateful for are from His grace and not things that I have earned, and this has served to increase my gratitude to Him.

Another friend had blogged about his favourite books of the year. I have read a few good books (if I was to do eight I have to confess that would probably have to include every book I have read in the last year!) but I decided to blog about something that stuck with me from earlier in the year.

It was part of the preaching course that I studied earlier in the year. An article we read explained how as preachers the temptation can be to preach to the actions/fruits of sin that we see in peoples lives. But if you just cut the fruit off it tends to grow back. What we need to do is preach to the roots that cause the actions/attitudes to grow in peoples lives. This is how the fruit is stopped from regrowing. By stopping things at the root.

An example of this is how as we can say that sex is good but only within marriage because God has said so in the bible. And that is by no means wrong, because that is what the bible says, but it is not a full reason as to why sex is good but only within marriage. When faced by temptation to sexual sin it is not always easy (though it should be) to say "the bible says that I shouldn't do this outside if marriage so I won't". Our hearts have been conditioned by various influences to not trust God. We need to address what is going on in our hearts that is causing us to doubt God.

The other danger of preaching to fruits is that of legalism. "Don't do this because God says you shouldn't" can come across as teaching people to behave in a certain way (and to make it worse people sometimes leave with the impression that this is what makes us acceptable to God). Our intention should be to see lives transformed. I don't know about you but I haven't been able to simply behave myself out of sin as yet.

For me personally it has changed how I engage with sin in my own life. No longer "I shouldn't do this" but more "I shouldn't be like this so why am I? What particular lie am I believing in my heart that is causing me to do this?".

There you go. My end of year reflection. Happy New Year. Maybe see you around on one side of the globe or another.

Holidays

Well. Just got back from my final trip to the the UK for a while. Anna and I spent a week with each others families and caught up with a couple of friends that we didn't get a chance to see on the last trip.

We had a really nice time. We had an early Christmas with my family on the 25th November (at least the date was right). We had a lovely day; all my family could be there which was a joy. All my nephews and nieces took a real shine to Anna with the girls prefering her over me at points! My mum had done all her Christmas baking so that it was ready for when I was there. We put up the Christmas tree and had Christmas dinner. My mum made all my favourite food (she pretty much did that for every meal we were there) for Christmas. We exchanged gifts from Anna and I to everyone else and everyone else to us. It really was like the real day and that meant so much to me. I miss my family a great deal but they made it a wonderful day and I really can't thank them enough or explain how much I enjoyed it. It was a joy, Thank you!

From there we headed on to Milton Keynes. Family are very important to both us so it was great to be able to get to know Anna's family better. We had a great time with them all and they made me feel really welcome. It was lovely to be around for Anna's nieces dedication and Anna's commissioning service. For the commissioning part of the servcie the church leaders gave a really helpful explanation of how Anna was remaining part of their church family and they were sending Anna out from them to serve in New Zealand not packing her off and forgetting about her. That was combined with one of the best explanations of the importance of behind the scenes type service in Christian work that I have heard in a long time.

Sadly the trip was over all too quickly and it was time for me to head back to NZ and for Anna to get on with final preparations for moving out to NZ and Christmas with her family.

The picture is of my youngest niece. The only Christmassy picture I have as I spent most of my time playing with a video camera rather than taking pictures. I'll play with the movie footage soon!

We're all in this together

I am sure than none us have missed the phenomenon known as High School Musical (and lately High School Musical 2). One of the songs I enjoy the most is that "We're all in this together".

Of late I have become more and more aware of the fact that we are all in this together. Due to recent changes at the TSCF office (those who know me please don't laugh) I have been appointed acting finance administrator. I have had a lot to learn fairly quickly. I am very thankful for the way that people in the office have been patient with me and have picked up things that haven't been able to get to.

Because of picking up more responsibilities in the office I have not been as actively involved on campus as I would like. But because there is a team of us working in Wellington the other members of the team picked up all the things that I could no longer deliver on. I am very thankful for their understanding and patience too.

It has also helped me learn a little more about my control freak tendencies. Normally I would freak out about other people doing my jobs. But reaching the point where I couldn't do all that I wanted to forced me to let go. I am rebuked by how it has taken me getting to the point that I would let go of things. Seems obvious with hindsight.

I've since heard a friend preaching on Ephesians 4 and unity in the body in Christ. I think I now grasp that better than I did before. We are all in this together and we are most glorifying to God when we work together as a team. Being a control freak and needing to do things myself is sinful. I feel I have more to learn in this area.

But to end on a lighter note...

Sounds

Well this evening some friends work and I went to see Crowded House in concert.

They were amazing! They played for over two hours. They played a mixture of new stuff (some of much I have to admit was a bit weird) and a bunch of thier old hits. They were great!.

But my discovery for the evening was a Kiwi band called Supergroove. They were a seven piece band (including saxophone trumpet and harmonica). Apperently they split up about 6 or 7 years ago but have reformed for this tour with Crowded House. Supergroove were just so much fun to watch. You could tell that they were having fun too. Crowded House showed themselves to be a band who no what they are about and now how to perform and were great. But Supergroove were just more fund. From to rap to rock to rhythm and blues. They were great.

Click here to listen to an extract of one of my favourite tracks on iTunes (you made need to switch to the NZ site) called "Can't get enough".

There and back again... again

Well, this month I went back again to the UK for a whirl wind visit. It was planned before I even moved to New Zealand because this year is my parents ruby wedding anniversary. They invited the whole family and wanted me too. They had a renewal of their wedding vows ceremony with all their grandchildren as brides maids and page boys. All in all a lovely day.

I also did the usual run around the country thing catching up with friends and supporters which was great fun if a little tiring (I fear I am getting old! It didn't used to be as tiring travelling).

Anna and I also did the whole meeting each others family and friends thing. Anna did amazingly as she met literally my entire family (which is not small) at the ruby wedding and wasn't fazed by the experience. It was great for me to finally meet Anna's family and I am looking forward to getting to spend some more time with them.

The only downside was that I forgot again (I seem to forget every time really, see previous posts) that I find it difficult spending a small amount of time with people I care about deeply and then having to leave again. Everyone was doing well but the reality of life as we all now is that it is not always straight forward. And I still find it hard not being there any more and not being able to help. Anna reminded me that I can pray and that is more than doing something. I know that is true and that God is in control but I don't always live as if I believe this. I feel a little rebuked that I am being so slow to learn this lesson.

The surprise with this trip was that I felt foreign. It felt odd going shopping in Tesco rather than New World. It felt odd being in the UK. That is not a bad thing and I guess I should have expected it sooner or later but I hadn't really thought about it.

I now have a permanent returning residents visa. I can now come and go from New Zealand for the rest of my life (providing I don't break any laws I guess).

I now really live in New Zealand. For how long who knows, but for now I live here.

Wild life

Partly motivated out of a desire to get some exercise I went for a short walk yesterday. It turned into a long walk when I found a sign saying "seals"! So my short walk turned into a medium walk round the coast of Island bay and I literally fell over some seals! They are grey and kind of wet/sea weed like so they blend in with the rocks very well. I saw some from a distance and climbed onto the rocks for a closer look. At which point I realised they were all over the place!

I was less than 5 meters from the above two seals and only realised because they moved when I got closer. My first time seeing seasl in the wild! I then sat down to watch them for a bit. Once again I am reminded how beautiful New Zealand is. Behind me was a hill covered with trees, in front of me, a beach covered with 30 or 40 seals! You would not know it was the edge of the coast of the capital of New Zealand.

It started to get dark so I got up to head back. At which point the seal let out a kind of high pitched bark, and lurched away. It then emptied it's bladder and hopped off towards the sea stopping to bark at various seals along the way. I am not quite sure why it empted it's bladder but I then found a sign saying don't get within 20 meters of seals. Whoops! Wasn't really my fault though as the seals were within 10 metres of the path.

Obvious

A short term mission team from UCCF (the equivalent of TSCF in the UK) departed yesterday for Lincoln University having spent 12 days with us here in Wellington. They did some orientation for the team and helped the Victoria University students with a range of evangelistic activities that the students had planned for the first week of semester.

The team from UCCF's involvement has reminded me of how people from outside a context are able to see things from a different perspective and more importantly spur on and encourage those within the context. It has shown me again how people from within a context are more open to talking to people from outside the context. For us that means that kiwi's can be more open to talking about Jesus with those from outside New Zealand (but this does not excuse kiwi's from talking to kiwi's) which is something I need to think about some more.

The week itself was hugely encouraging! It has been a joy to see and be involved as Christian students at Vic and from UCCF come together and studied the bible everyday and served side by side in the work of spreading the good news about Jesus.

One of the things we did was a survey among students based upon the question "If you could ask God one question what would it be and why would you ask it?". It was a real surprise to me how open and honest people were, even though they were talking to complete strangers.

I have read many articles that say that the people today are different to the people of yesterday. That postmoderns have different questions to those that were previously being asked and that we need to change the way we do evangelism as a result.

Are today's students really all that different? Based upon the survey we did last week they are still asking the same sorts of questions: why does God allow suffering, hasn't science disproved God? Why does God hate people who are homosexual?

But yet I wonder if they are looking for a fuller answer. They want a reasoned answer to their question but might it be helped if connected with experience/story? One of my reflections of the past week (which may seem obvious) is that we need to hear Peter's call to "give a reason for the hope that we have" but we also need to be able to tell stories (or testimonies which is the other word that Christians sometimes use instead of the word "story": when I use the word story I don't mean fiction), particularly our own story, in a way that is firmly connected to illustrating/applying the truth.

The week has also been a rebuke for me. I have to be honest in that I did not think that surveying would work. I thought that no one would be interested. But many of them were. It may sound obvious but is has reminded me that, though it may not always be as visible on the surface (as I would prefer!), God is at work at Victoria university.

I am also thinking through how I can use questions more effectively in evangelism, someone has recommended a book called Questioning Evangelism by Randy Newman which I will try and get hold of a copy of.

I am thankful to God and to the team and for all involved last week for all that was done and for all we have learnt together. One of the joys of being involved in IFES (both TSCF and UCCF are founder members of IFES) is that we can partner in evangelism all over the planet. Long may it continue!

The challenge now is where do we go from here in terms of evangelism on campus? How do we keep last week from being the high point of our evangelism? How do we keeping pressing on? What is the next step for the Christian students and how can we help the those with questions find answers? We have already setup a blog as an online way for people to interact around the questions that they have and are planning lunch time talks on the most popular questions that people have. Please join with us in giving thanks for last week and in praying about the way ahead.

Titles

So I've had a few discussions of late as to what a person should call their girlfriend or boyfriend. I have a friend who thinks that the title "girlfriend" sounds a bit teenagery. I think some of the other titles that were suggested were "significant other", "lady-friend", and "object of my affection". To be honest I am note sure that any of the other suggested titles have any less complications than the first. For that matter I don't have that much of an issue with the titles boyfriend and girlfriend.

Anyway, for those of you who on the other side of the planet, here is a picture of Anna and I.