AWA June 2012

This prayer letter is a little different. Why? Scripture Union New Zealand is currently looking at re-branding with the aim of streamlining what people know about us and what we do. So, in preparation for the changes that lie ahead, this letter is in the form of a staff conference diary and I have co-opted three guest writers too. They are the boys’ three cousins who have been staying with us for a week while their parents have been overseas.

Monday

The theme of the conference was “By Faith.” In the first session Wayne Fraser, our National Director, reminded us of God’s goodness over past year as we have had faith to trust Him for providing what we have need ed. He also reminded us of the the aims of Scripture Union and the values that we strive to uphold in reaching those aims with God’s help. The five values are: Biblical; Relational; Collaborative; Relevant; and Quality. It was encouraging to be reminded of all of this as we began our 4 days together. After dinner it was wisely decided to have a time of worship and prayer before we embarked on the “don’t break the egg” challenge.
The values of being Biblical and relevant were not applied as in small groups we were given the challenge of creating a device that would enable us to drop an egg from the first floor with out it breaking. The box on the left was the device belonging to the group I was in. Our egg survived! The other box has the official judge revealing a broken egg.

In this issue...

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Prayer

Events
NOT TO BE MISSED

Sport

Laughing

Prayer

SU NZ links

PDF version

Tuesday

   This day began very nervously for me as I was the first staff member to be sharing on a character from the faith chapter Hebrews 11 around our theme, “By Faith.” I started by reminding us that Moses was a murderer and yet he was greatly used by God. I left us all with the thought of how much faith are we exercising as we move in to the next year of ministry. On the wall around us Annette had created a silhouette of each of the characters that we would be hearing about. Moses is above.
    The rest of the day went very quickly starting with staff sharing the stories of what God has been doing in the lives of children, young people and families that they work with. It was greatly encouraging. A few tears were shed as some of the stories were really just amazing.
    Then as we were having morning tea it was announced that the arrangement of flowers (pictured above) was from the board of Scripture Union to remind us of their prayers and in appreciation for what we do to make the ministry happen. It was a reminder to me of all the people who support me in prayer and financially.
   The rest of the day was taken up with a session by Rex Booth from Caleb Leadership Ministries on leading by faith, a time after lunch for us to reflect and a session on working with volunteers. Then a session on Bible reading and our Bible guides. This was a difficult one as the place of the Bible in the life of many churches and individuals has changed from being very important to being just an add on. This makes our role as a Bible engagement organisation even more difficult. By Faith, we are up for the challenge.

Wednesday

We began the day with Nigel Winder, Regional Director for the South Island, reminding us that “My faith is only as good as the object I put my faith in.” The God we serve has proved himself over and over, in fact because of who He is He doesn’t have to prove Himself but has. The next sessions included the following: Living the Word ‘by Faith’ which was based on chapter 9 of the book I referred to in my last prayer letter “The Seed and the Soil.” This was a great challenge in light of the challenge the previous day about Bible reading.
Vision for ministry with secondary students. Neville Bartley, our National Youth Director, outlined some of the encouraging work and strategies which are being pioneered in work with young people and the people who work with them. This was a delight to hear as the culture of work with young people has changed and so are we.

logo_brand (24K)

Refreshing the SU look. Above is the brand logo, one of eight, presented to us as potentials for the new look. This is the one that the majority of the staff chose, however there is still a lot of consultation that will happen before the process is completed. I really struggle with “refreshing” things when I think they are good, but having had time to reflect I think it will enhance what we already do.
We ended the day with “Organised Recreation” which was really just a time for lots of energetic fun which was enjoyed by staff, old and young.

Thursday

As Nigel and I sat having our quite time we heard the lovely sound of singing coming from the showers. What a lovely way to start the day.
We then reflected as a staff on what we had heard in the previous three days and then had a time of commission and prayer through communion together. I left conference with a great sense of God challenging us to have faith in what He will do through churches as we work with them to achieve the aims of that Scripture Union movements around the world seek to reach.

Please Pray

Every Friday 9:10-9:40 am – I teach a Bible in Schools year 2 class at Glendowie Primary. Pray for the team I am part of as we open God's Word in our local community each week.

17 June – Sylvia Coulter and I are sharing at St Chad’s Anglican as part of their missions month. Please pray as Sylvia shares the message and I share about Scripture union and tell the story of the Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch to all ages.

23 June – Prayer breakfast also at St Chad’s. We will be praying especially for the Winter activities. Join us or if you are not able to join us please join us in prayer. See details in events section below.

camp web page

SUPAkidz Camps

Three in July

Auckland - Auckland - Wellington

29 June to 1 July – Auckland leaders Training and preparation weekend for 2 teams

2 to 6 July – Auckland SUPAkidz camp

6 to 8 July – Wellington Leaders training and preparation

Breakaway camps are run for the children of prisoners in partnership with Prison Fellowship

6 to 10 July – Auckland
Breakaway SUPAkidz camp

9 to 13 July – Wellington
Breakaway SUPAkidz Camp

Please pray for the following people over the next few week as they have various tasks: Recruiting leaders and getting campers registered
Wellington
Pip Wells, Raewyn Rowney
Auckland
Andrew Ramsbottom, Paul Dadd, Roger Mittens

We still need leaders, particularly male, and have places for campers

Please pray for the three camp team leaders Ruth Elliott, Andrew Ramsbottom and Annette Osborne as we finalise camp programmes and then run the camps in July.

PRAY DAY is coming 3rd August.

This is a day co-ordinated by Scripture Union specifically to pray for schools across New Zealand. We ask as many other organisations and churches to be a part of the day as possible.
Can you:

Keep the date free and think about whether you can do something in your area – we will send out ideas and resources for you to think about over the next few weeks.
Start encouraging people to set the day aside. The website will have pages for people to look at from the 18th June on. If you are talking to a church we suggest they choose the nearest Sunday.
We want to have a 30 day count down to PRAY DAY starting on the 5th July. We will provide a booklet with daily prayer ideas for people to download and also use Facebook and Twitter.

A cool quote from Alfred Lord Tennyson –
"More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of."

Sport

I thought I was mad about sport, but my cousin James is even more mad than I am. I enjoyed sharing his room as he has a miniature basketball hoop on the cupboard. So most nights we shot hoops before bed. James was also very glad to beat me once at table tennis. James’ dad is pretty good at shooting hoops too.

Jason 15

Laughing

My cousin Chris loves to laugh, but while I was there he laughed a lot more, especially around bed time. This was a lot of fun, until my aunt or uncle came in and asked us to go to sleep. It wasn’t easy as is really was fun, but we did eventually go to sleep.

Daniel 9

Prayer

I think my cousin Thomas is very cute. I love playing with him. Each night when we went to bed he said the Lord’s Prayer which his Dad taught his Bible in schools class. I enjoyed it so much that I wrote it out on a card for myself and for Thomas to put up next to his bed. It’s a girl thing, but he liked it.

Lauren 11