AWA November 2012

Places	More Places	Another Place	Prayer	Event
VEC OLC	Wellington	Paeroa	Botanical Gardens	SUNZ

When a bystander asked what possible good this [first ever] balloon thing could be, [Ben]Franklin made the memorable retort: “What good is a newborn baby?”

quoted by Robert Fulghum in All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten

The bystander's comment in this quote is reflective of some of the attitude towards children that is resurfacing in some churches. Although most churches say children's ministry is important it is not always shown in their actions. Below is another quote that came through to me on email: “Our current 'TGIF generation' of young people (Twitter, Google, iDevice, FaceBook), which is more connected and more isolated than generations before them, is walking away from church and/or faith in their early adolescent years."This drop out problem is, at its core, a disciple-making problem. The church is not adequately preparing the next generation to follow Christ faithfully in a rapidly changing culture." (David Kinnaman in 'You Lost Me').
As I write SU staff and volunteers from around the world are returningfrom a gathering in Kuala Lumpur from the Living Hope Conference. Both of the issues above will be on the agenda in amongst other challenges that lie ahead for the church and Scripture Union.
The mug on the right was given to me by a camp director over 10 years ago hand printed with my name and the SU lamp. In some ways it represents the current state of the church in the western world. See below for an explanation of what I mean.

Places

   In my busyness in the last while I have been to many places which you will gather from what follows. Has not just been a spot on a map but has been a place where I have connected with people.     At Mangere Bridge Community Church, the Baptist Tabernacle and Forrest Hill Presbyterian as part of the Transformation With Purpose events I met who support me in prayer and financially, some of whom I was meeting in person for the first time. And then there were others who left inspired and encouraged taking back information about SU's ministry to their churches.
    At Auckland University I had a catch up over an orange [another story altogether] with a young man who has lead on our SUPAkidz camps and is trying to make a difference in his own community; at St Heliers Presbyterian, twice, over a cup of coffee being inspired and challenged and dreaming about the future of our ministries, in particular relating to training people in ministry and all age faith; at a café in the city over lunch, catching up with a supporter and encourager who has been there from when I started with SU 17 years ago.
    Starship Children's Church continues to be an exciting ministry. Margaret, who co-ordinates the ministry, was overseas for 6 weeks and left it in the capable hands of the committed and enthusiastic volunteers. I continue to be amazed at how the children respond and participate each week.

More Places

The Side of the road with camp leader Gwen, waiting for a tow truck to arrive. My car had sprung a leak in the cooling system. What a joy and a blessing it was to give her a lift to camp. She had returned to New Zealand, from working on cruise ships to attend her brother's wedding. Even though she was going to be here for a short time she volunteered to anything to help with the SUPAkidz ministry, even if it was just cleaning toilets. Well, I was taking her to camp to be a director. Toilets were cleaned but the exciting way in which Gwen lead camp will have impacted on many children and leaders lives.

Once a month at St Paul's Presbyterian a group of enthusiastic and committed adults gather to give children and adults who are part of the Prison Fellowship Family Care ministry a fun evening and a time to catch up with each other.

It was initially a little disappointing to have only 12 people attend the all age faith workshop at Royal Oak Baptist but their enthusiasm for doing things with all ages together made up for the small number. Jill and Catherine, who helped run the workshop, equipped and inspired us to be creative in how we work with all ages together.

I dropped my mug and sadly here is the result. But what has it got to do with the church? The church from the outside looks whole but when you look at it from a few different points of view it is cracked and maybe even broken. Now that may sound like a sad place to be in but I think that we need to look ahead to what God is calling us to do. Not to try and fix it but to be the example of the family of God that the church is called to be.

Another Place

Other than attending Sunday worship at Greenlane Christian Centre, I have also been there to cook sausages for the pumpkin party our church ran and to attend the Compass conference – The Road. At the conference each of the four speakers challenged us about the future of the church and that we are moving into a time of making a difference because we serve a God who loves humanity. The quote that stood out for me was, “Your religion is not what you believe; your religion is what shapes your behaviour. “

Give Thanks and Pray

For the Invercargill and Auckland SUPAkidz camps that took place during the October school holidays. Pray for the leaders as they stay in touch with campers. Pray for the campers whose lives were transformed in any way at camp. Pray also for those who have got excited about reading the Bible, that they would continue reading and hopefully with adults to encourage them.

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. We are also preparing the children to be part of the Christmas Bible Assembly at the school on Friday 7 December. Please pray that the message of Christmas will be communicated clearly.

Tue 13 Nov – The Summer Adventure Begins. Auckland Region prayer evening for SUNZ summer activities.
Wed 21 Nov – I will be running Bible in Schools Assemblies at Rutherford, Edmonton and Glendene schools.
Thu 22 Nov – I will be running Bible in Schools Assemblies at Western Heights and Henderson North schools.
Tue 11 Dec - Meeting with other children's ministry leaders to catch up with what is happening in our various ministries and plan for doing some events together in 2013.

Preparations for January SUPAkidz camps
We have SUPAkidz camps in Wellington and Auckland in January. Please pray as advertising has gone out, as we recruit leaders and finalise the programme that churches would catch the vision of camps being a place for training, mission and connecting with children and families.

Event

Viaduct Events Centre Onehunga Library Cafe

Gill and I again spent a week at the events centre cleaning at New Zealand Fashion Week. It was good to see familiar faces and up skill my fashion sense. Gill did a lot of juggling to make sure the boys got to where they had to be in amongst cleaning. The pedometer I carried informed me that I had walked over 220km during the week sometimes pulling two bins weighing more than 150kg. Once again I'm glad I had good shoes as I got no blisters at all.

Our niece Jessi celebrated her 21st birthday in style with a come dressed for Cluedo party, thus the venue of the library café. Thomas went as a dice thanks to Gill who did a wonderful job of helping him to make it. Check out our family album here.

Wellington

I travelled to our capital to take part in the underwater hockey national championships. We only managed a bronze medal. Mum and Dad would have loved to have been there but they were cleaning at Fashion Week. I kept them up to date via texting.

James 13

Paeroa

My dad took Thomas and me to race in our first BMX race away from our home club. We had a great time time racing even though we didn't do that well. Yes, Thomas is also doing BMX (photos and video). He loves it. I like being able to talk about pumping, manualling and jumping with him.

Chris 10

Botanical Gardens

My dad went with us on our school trip to the botanical gardens (photos). They even put him in charge of my group. We had so much fun. We got to plant a seed, check out all sorts of flowers and even saw some eels. Dad behaved and was very responsible.

Thomas 7