Think about this...
1 John 3:17 says, "If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but also has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?"
For John there's no mention of a sinless brother or sister in need. His teaching is far more blunt - their need defines our obligation. It's a matter of God's love, not human evaluation or judgement.
I reach out to people because God has loved me and has asked me to love others in return, not because the people I am loving are "worthy" of love or because they'll thank me for it in the end. It's not for me to make judgements about their "worthiness". I don't know how I could do that anyway. It's for me to love God by loving others.
God is always worthy of being obeyed and served, so when I act out of obedience to him, the person who receives my service doesn't have to be deserving - they're benefitting from what I owe God.
From 'Sacred Marriage' by Gary Thomas.
Just do it. Just love. Just serve. Don't put conditions on it. Be generous with your time and what you have.
13.3.09
Jesse Boy Turned One!!
Building with Grandpa
Playing with the dump truck from me!
Teddy from Gran and Grandpa
1st Birthday Cake
Yum! Cake!5.3.09
I love surprises!
Sarah and Amanda came to town tonight! They did the Tongariro Crossing today and so they stopped in on the way home! I was pretty excited to see them! They stayed for dinner and ended up here for a couple hours. It was so cool to see them! I got one token photo of them...
Today
Had some visitors today! I was very excited to hear the Carters would be stopping by. They came by the flat and then we went down and had lunch and a wander around the Hamilton Gardens. They're a wonderful couple and have the sweetest little girl, Emma. I really appreciate their friendship and support. Matt plays the part of big bro pretty well too.
3.3.09
Update # 1
I wrote this update on 20th Feb and sent it out via email. Thought I'd throw it up here too...
Here I am sitting on my bed on a Friday night. The end of my third week in Hamilton.
It has been a whirl wind of sorts. Some days it seems that there aren't enough hours in the day, while I wish that I could chop parts of other days out to speed things along.
I was thrown into the deep end, with last Saturday being our first big event for the year. Each year Word of Life hosts a Youth Leaders training day for youth leaders of all ages from around the North Island. It is always a fantastic day, I remember coming to one myself a few years back. The day ran really well and it was a good chance for me to meet people that WOL works closely with as well as catch up with old friends.
We had a staff retreat this week. We drove off to a farm in the middle of nowhere. It was peaceful and quite pretty. We spent the evening boxing and bowling against each other on a Nintendo Wii. Nothing like good 'ole competition to build team spirit!! On the serious side of things, we spent some great time praying together and encouraging one another. We also spent time going over goals for the ministry for the year and making plans to achieve them. Pathways prepared me for this!!!
I feel like I am beginning to get a handle on things around the office. There are times when the phone is ringing and I'm silently praying I'll know the answer to whatever question they may have.
One of the extra ministry things that I'll be involved with this year is Bible in Schools! This is something totally new to me. What isn't new is the cheeky class of Year 6 and 7's at the school we work in. I think it'll be a fun new challenge for me. Tom has worked hard to build a good relationship with the staff and students at this school. I'm excited about this and have put the idea of going on a camp or two in the back of my mind. Also might see about going and doing some extra volunteering there.
As I'm still raising support so that I can work full time, Tom and I are trying to work out how my hours are going to work. He's suggested working 5 days on busy weeks and banking up the days off to use in quieter weeks. Sounds good at first but I really need a full-time income now and the unpredictable hours at WOL will make it tricky to find a part time job. This is a definite pray point for me!
Flatting life is beginning to settle down a bit now. All four of us are now here. 3 of us were up too late last night talking and laughing together. I really needed that. I have a quiet weekend ahead. I had a surprise visit from Andrew and Lorne on their way home from block course today. Their half serious offer to jump in the van and come to Auckland for the weekend was very tempting.
Jono made some cute prayer cards for me (not sure if prayer cards are meant to be 'cute' - but mine are).
There are a stack at Lincoln Road and I also have some with me here. Grab one and put it on your fridge! If you haven't got one let me know and we'll soon fix that!
I guess it's late and I should attempt sleep.
Please pray for ...
Support raising/part time job in the meantime
Settling into my flatNew friends (I'd really like some) - this would help with the slight lonely feeling that's nagging at me too.
Praise for... A pretty good start
A great house The financial support that has been pledged so far
The few good friends that I do have here
Here I am sitting on my bed on a Friday night. The end of my third week in Hamilton.
It has been a whirl wind of sorts. Some days it seems that there aren't enough hours in the day, while I wish that I could chop parts of other days out to speed things along.
I was thrown into the deep end, with last Saturday being our first big event for the year. Each year Word of Life hosts a Youth Leaders training day for youth leaders of all ages from around the North Island. It is always a fantastic day, I remember coming to one myself a few years back. The day ran really well and it was a good chance for me to meet people that WOL works closely with as well as catch up with old friends.
We had a staff retreat this week. We drove off to a farm in the middle of nowhere. It was peaceful and quite pretty. We spent the evening boxing and bowling against each other on a Nintendo Wii. Nothing like good 'ole competition to build team spirit!! On the serious side of things, we spent some great time praying together and encouraging one another. We also spent time going over goals for the ministry for the year and making plans to achieve them. Pathways prepared me for this!!!
I feel like I am beginning to get a handle on things around the office. There are times when the phone is ringing and I'm silently praying I'll know the answer to whatever question they may have.
One of the extra ministry things that I'll be involved with this year is Bible in Schools! This is something totally new to me. What isn't new is the cheeky class of Year 6 and 7's at the school we work in. I think it'll be a fun new challenge for me. Tom has worked hard to build a good relationship with the staff and students at this school. I'm excited about this and have put the idea of going on a camp or two in the back of my mind. Also might see about going and doing some extra volunteering there.
As I'm still raising support so that I can work full time, Tom and I are trying to work out how my hours are going to work. He's suggested working 5 days on busy weeks and banking up the days off to use in quieter weeks. Sounds good at first but I really need a full-time income now and the unpredictable hours at WOL will make it tricky to find a part time job. This is a definite pray point for me!
Flatting life is beginning to settle down a bit now. All four of us are now here. 3 of us were up too late last night talking and laughing together. I really needed that. I have a quiet weekend ahead. I had a surprise visit from Andrew and Lorne on their way home from block course today. Their half serious offer to jump in the van and come to Auckland for the weekend was very tempting.
Jono made some cute prayer cards for me (not sure if prayer cards are meant to be 'cute' - but mine are).
There are a stack at Lincoln Road and I also have some with me here. Grab one and put it on your fridge! If you haven't got one let me know and we'll soon fix that!
I guess it's late and I should attempt sleep.
Please pray for ...
Support raising/part time job in the meantime
Settling into my flatNew friends (I'd really like some) - this would help with the slight lonely feeling that's nagging at me too.
Praise for... A pretty good start
A great house The financial support that has been pledged so far
The few good friends that I do have here
1.3.09
Enderley Ave
Moving was a drama to say the least. The night before my room was still a pig-sty (when isn't it!?) Still had no truck/van to get all my stuff to Hamilton and Dad was frantic about mum and I being able to move all the stuff, even though my brother was going to help. Enter new friend from Canada with muscles (very important) and not a whole lot to do for the week! Lorne = lifesaver. We also got a truck sorted too at about as last minute as you can get! Mum and Ash rode in the truck and Lorne rode with me. From the time the truck pulled up outside home in Auckland to the time Mum and Ash drove off it was about 4 hours. Super short amount of time to move your whole life.
I know this is a terrible photo but it's the only one of us from the night! Beautiful friends!
Lorne hung out with me for a couple of days and totally eased the tension of meeting new flatmates. Who by the way are great!
It was cool getting to know him as well. It's crazy how things work out. I was more than a little bit curious about the best friend of the new youth pastor, who also came around the world to be the Intern at church. I wanted to know the guy who was taking my job! End result of almost 3 days spent entirely with this guy was that I like him. We ended the trip as friends and I was glad for the chance to get to that point. He'll be an asset to LRBC over the year and will also learn and be built into and encouraged while he's here.
It was cool getting to know him as well. It's crazy how things work out. I was more than a little bit curious about the best friend of the new youth pastor, who also came around the world to be the Intern at church. I wanted to know the guy who was taking my job! End result of almost 3 days spent entirely with this guy was that I like him. We ended the trip as friends and I was glad for the chance to get to that point. He'll be an asset to LRBC over the year and will also learn and be built into and encouraged while he's here.
We cruised back to Auckland via the WOL offices and Pokeno for icecream. 
I would've stayed in Hamilton but I had a few very important things left to do in Auckland. Dinner at the Harknesses, farewell BBQ and commissioning/farewell from LRBC.Aims put on a great evening. Was relaxed and low key and not emotional! Izak also wrote me a song! That made me smile a lot!
I know this is a terrible photo but it's the only one of us from the night! Beautiful friends!In between
... coming back from the Philippines and moving to Hamilton I got up to quite a few things.
First off Tracey and I spent a day at Parachute 09. Caught up with peeps from YRO and Pathways and of course heard some great music.
While we were in the Philippines 2 new people arrived from North America. Amanda is Sarah's best friend and Lorne is Mark's. I'd chatted a bit to Lorne before he got here but this was the day I got to meet the both of them. Once we got past that slightly weird we've stalked each other online thing, it was great. It was also here that Mark announced that he and Sarah are engaged! So cool! So we had lunch with the the wonderful Robinsons and then took off to the Wairoa River!! Amazing fun! Girls raft kicked butt!
We spent that night in Papamoa together and celebrated Mark's 25th birthday the next day. That night, after we shared a traditional kiwi meal of fish n chips eaten straight out of the newspaper on the grass, played a game of mini golf, cooked ourselves in the spa and were baffled, oh I mean initiated with the Bernie, some of us went down to the beach. We were there for quite a few hours, late into the night. We lay in awe of the beauty of God's creation. We watched the clouds clear, leaving us the most amazing view of the night sky. It was actually breathtaking. The shooting stars and constellations and satelites, all just hanging out, doing their thing. We lay their talking about life, as you do at times like that. We talked about the Philippines trip, about our fears and expectations for the year ahead. We shared personal things about what God was teaching us and what he was convicting us of. We talked about the excitement of having new faces around and how we were scared about how it would be when they leave. At the end we prayed. We prayed to God, our God. The one who created the universe, hung the stars in the sky. The God who cares so much for us that Jesus, His son died for us. Our God. My God. We prayed and passionately thanked Him for all He's done for us and asked Him to change us to be more loving like him. It was a good night.
First off Tracey and I spent a day at Parachute 09. Caught up with peeps from YRO and Pathways and of course heard some great music.
Kutless
That night we crashed at her parents place and then on Sunday morning we met up with the Youth Leaders from church in Matamata at Mr & Mrs Robinson's house. They put on a beauty lunch for us so that we weren't rafting on empty stomachs.
While we were in the Philippines 2 new people arrived from North America. Amanda is Sarah's best friend and Lorne is Mark's. I'd chatted a bit to Lorne before he got here but this was the day I got to meet the both of them. Once we got past that slightly weird we've stalked each other online thing, it was great. It was also here that Mark announced that he and Sarah are engaged! So cool! So we had lunch with the the wonderful Robinsons and then took off to the Wairoa River!! Amazing fun! Girls raft kicked butt!
We spent that night in Papamoa together and celebrated Mark's 25th birthday the next day. That night, after we shared a traditional kiwi meal of fish n chips eaten straight out of the newspaper on the grass, played a game of mini golf, cooked ourselves in the spa and were baffled, oh I mean initiated with the Bernie, some of us went down to the beach. We were there for quite a few hours, late into the night. We lay in awe of the beauty of God's creation. We watched the clouds clear, leaving us the most amazing view of the night sky. It was actually breathtaking. The shooting stars and constellations and satelites, all just hanging out, doing their thing. We lay their talking about life, as you do at times like that. We talked about the Philippines trip, about our fears and expectations for the year ahead. We shared personal things about what God was teaching us and what he was convicting us of. We talked about the excitement of having new faces around and how we were scared about how it would be when they leave. At the end we prayed. We prayed to God, our God. The one who created the universe, hung the stars in the sky. The God who cares so much for us that Jesus, His son died for us. Our God. My God. We prayed and passionately thanked Him for all He's done for us and asked Him to change us to be more loving like him. It was a good night.
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