New Building is Ready

During the past few weeks the finishing touches have been put on the new extension to our building. It will be ready for use on 25th May. When we merged our two churches together we started out with five main goals and the building project was number 2 on the list. From the past six months we are well ahead of our set goals.

Goal 1: was to make a successful transition between the two churches and combine the unique talents and spiritual abilities of each man on the leadership team. This goal was accomplished and our leaders in the congregation have successfully blended together as one. Deacon appointments were made in April as leaders from both churches now serve together. They have set a new budget for the church and implemented several new policies with clear goals of bringing more people to Christ.

Goal 2: was to build the new extension to our existing church building and do this debt free. Wow... we are talking about $350,000! This past Sunday we had a special "Offering Sunday" in which we have been preparing the congregation to give in hope to pay-off the new building. For the past four weeks we have gathered every Saturday morning to pray about this special offering and what the Lord would have each of us to give. Finally the day had come to receive this special offering. One by one on Sunday morning the people filed past the large box prepared just for this event and each person dropped into the box the offering they had been praying about. We handled this as a special worship time with soft music playing in the background. The congregation was silent and some spontaniously came to the alter to pray while others gave hugs to various people in the congregation. We didn't plan it this way... it just happened as the Spirit of God moved people in an unusual way. Spontanious singing broke out while more and more people left their seats to place their offering in the box. The box was decorated by several ladies in bright gold colored paper with the words "I trust God" written upon it. What an amazing testimony to the planning, sacrifice and heart of the congregation. When everyone that wanted to give had come forward we simply sat wondering... what did God just do! Amazingly on this day the special building offering on Sunday exceeded $100,000! In fact it was $108,000 plus a few notes of intension to give more next week! Which means that we can pay off the new building as well as some small existing debt. The church will be debt free in less than six months with a new building capable of meeting our needs. The leadership team set this standard and believed by faith that God would honor a well thoughtout plan subjected to much prayer. We have four godly men on our leadership team with great spiritual and business skills in addition to myself and Ken. The new building extension provides class rooms, fellowship hall, kitchen and new office space.

Goal 3: was to grow the congregation to the 300 people. This goal was not supposed to happen until the building was completed and we could start an evangelistic thrust with the congregation. But we have been having over 300 people in the worship service for the past six weeks. The congregation is so excited they can hardly contain themselves and the growth is taking place naturally....no evangelistic program can outmatch a good dose of the Holy Spirit filling of God's people.

Goal 4: is to begin two morning worship services. I know this not always the best situation but our building cannot legally seat more than 300 people at one time. We have been exceeding this most weeks but the city counsel is understanding and they know we have a plan in action to accommodate the congregations growth. We plan to start two worship services within the next two months. The only other option was to buy land and build another building but that is nearly impossible with all the city regulation which would cause us to have to move locations into a business industrial park. Our leadership team decided against that which is why we built the new extension.

Goal 5: is to grow our congregation to 500 and begin a new church plant next year near the University area of the city. This is the area that I am currently putting much of my time into. My role at International Baptist Church right now is to follow-up on new believers with discipleship and prepare believers for useful service within the congregation. I spend most of my days in a discipleship role with men's ministry and small groups. Some of these men and women will be used to start the new church. We already have one man prepared to lead this new church... he was saved at IBC many years ago and now has completed his training. He is working here with Ken and myself and plans to do this until next year when he goes to lead the new congregation. We will be sending him some of our best men and women that are prepared to serve in support roles such as music, teachers, and deacons for the new church.

Wow... so much happening so fast. We also have seen a new aspect of ministry started up recently at IBC called Christian Business Men's Committee. We have the only such group in Auckland and host this out of our church. I am leading this group for now but plan to turn this group over to "Doctor Theuns" in the near future. Our area is loaded with business professionals so we are planning to have several seminars about leadership from a Christian perspective and invite our local business professionals.

In the past four weeks eight people have trusted the Lord so we are planning a Baptismal service next week. Just keep praying with us, as we seem to be experiencing so many positive things happening right now.

Ciao,
Michael

A Tough Two Weeks

Yes, it's been a difficult couple of weeks with a mixture of emotions... from peace and comfort to sadness and grief. Two weeks ago late on Tuesday night our normal routine of "Life Groups" was completely shattered. Joshua and Faith had come home from the teen life group among rumors that some students from a local Christian school were missing. Some of these students were also from our church teen group or known of our church teen group so the news was met with a mixture of fear yet at the same time complacency that all would be well. The twelve honor role students from this Christian school were on a "Leadership Building" camp in a National Park Forest about four hours South of Auckland. This National Park is a rugged area with rocky mountainous terrain framed by the ever present Mt. Ruapehu volcanic cone. The twelve students and two teachers were accompanied by a guide from the Sir Edmund Hilary Outdoor Center where they were to hike into a canyon and then follow the river through the mountains for the day. It's a popular camp with professional staff and many groups do this same trek every year.

Late Tuesday evening the call had come in that the students, teachers and guide were all missing followed by another call after midnight that seven had been found and seven were still missing. During the hiking expedition an unpredicted weather system had quickly moved in and produced a torrential rain storm. The six students and one teacher that was found described getting separated from the other teacher and six students during the rain storm. They told of how the knee high river they were to follow turned into a raging river over 10 feet high in just a matter of seconds. They had no idea what had become of the others in the group.

Later, just before daybreak, tragic news came from the camp that seven bodies had been recovered from the river. Now reality was setting in, seven lived, seven perished. As the day progressed the names of the students slowly were confirmed. One of the students was Tom. Tom was a close friend of Joshua and Faith and had attended our teen group for almost three years. He spent many days and evenings at our house and his family had become close personal friends to us and also attended our church. Faith was especially devastated with Tom's death... Tom had cerebral palsy and walked with a noticeable limp and his right hand stayed close to his body and did not function well. Tom also had a speech impairment due to his condition. Faith took it upon herself to help Tom in many ways... she loved to assist Tom and Tom loved the special attention. He was a real character with an outgoing personality and enjoyed making people laugh. His favorite introduction line in our teen group for the new members was to say "Hi, my name is Tom, but don't confuse me with Tom Cruise, because I'm better looking". Everyone would roar with laughter when Tom said this. Tom also was a practical joker that could turn a bad day into a fun filled evening. His physical disability in no way kept him from excelling in academics as he was chosen from a large group of capable students for this canyoning expedition.

The day after the tragedy the news media was everywhere in our community looking for a human angle to the story. Someone had given Faith's name as close friend of Tom so she was interviewed by the news organizations.... and proudly she was able to be strong and proclaim that Tom had placed his trust in Jesus so we know where Tom is. The news reporters continually commented on how this Christian school and church community seemed to face death in a different way than most people. The story was played on the nightly news for most of the week, another interview with another student, yet the same story... Jesus is good and we will be reunited with the students and teacher who perished. I think the news media heard this story so many times that they began to beleive.

The teacher that lost his life was found with Tom strapped to his body. Because of Tom's cerebral palsy it is surmised that the teacher must have somehow reached Tom before being swept away. Tom didn't stand a chance of escape to outrun the raising water.... the teacher must have strapped Tom to his own body to try to save Tom. The teacher was also a local youth pastor and his father was the pastor of our neighboring church. Perhaps all the students who died did so to stay with the one who could not get away from the flood. I guess we will never know until Jesus tells us. But if they did give up the chance to escape and stay behind with the one who could not run it would not be surprising since they were all leaders among their peers and they were all believers in Christ. I guess the thought of sacrificing one's life for another and trusting God all the way was not a strange idea to them.

Our entire church family and especially our teen group has changed since this event. Life in Christ seems to have an even more significant meaning than before. Our teens are determined more than ever to live for Jesus and share the "Good News". Joshua's new friend came to church with him on Sunday. After the message Joshua accompanied his friend to the altar where this young man placed his trust in Jesus. Life is funny...strange! Someone dies, someone lives. I'm glad that God is in control.
Ciao

Ordination Service

Hi Everyone,

It's been quite hectic over the past few weeks, but in a good way! Two weeks ago our church hosted the ordination of a New Zealand pastor. Myself along with three other pastors was on the ordination committee for Steve who was ordained out of our church and has since started another church. It was a great day as we met with Steve and then later his congregation. The new church has now been released into Pastor Steve's care and they are a growing church.

Our building project at International baptist Church is nearly completed with the first phase... should be finished by the end of April. Next we are doing some upgrade on the current building to make a larger kitchen and nursery for the babies. Have have so many young families that our baby section in the church is growing fast... we usually have 10 - 15 babies under two years old each Sunday. Faith works in the nursery along with Nicky, she loves helping the babies.

Last week a man came into the church on Tuesday in a desperate situation... he has occasionally attended the church services but is not very regular in attendance. But his situation was evident that he needed a change in his life. He needed to have salvation but was not ready, so he is going to come back later in the week and continue our discussion about his real need in his life.

Joshua is preparing for his trip to Australia next week. He was selected to play on the New Zealand international team for a tournament in Australia. Joshua is a pitcher, and a pretty good one, but the teams that he will be facing in Australia are men teams so not too sure how he will do against the men. Did I mention before that we are now the parents of a teen driver? Anyway, a few weeks ago Joshua got his driving permit which is the first step before getting a full drivers license. He has to have the permit for six months then can apply for a driving test to get the full license. In NZ a learner driver has to display a yellow sign on the front and back of the car with a big "L" which indicates to all other drivers that you are a learner. Since Joshua and I share the same car, our old 1992 Chariot, I get a lot of strange looks driving around with a big "L" displayed.

Big news in NZ about a major economic deal signed with China. NZ signed a "Free Trade" agreement with China last week becoming the first westernized country to do so. Most countries like the USA will not sign a Free Trade deal with China due to their history of sub-standard human rights treatment. So, NZ has broken the mold and forged new ground. Most economist in NZ are skeptical that this will do any thing except create more overseas immigration into NZ. certain our local companies are complaining because it makes them less competitive in the market against the cheaper Chinese goods. So it will be interesting to see if our NZ companies move their operations over-seas as they are threatening to do or if they ride out the policy and get used to the more competitive market. Maybe this will bring prices down in NZ.... speaking of which the housing market here is in the beginning of a real downward spiral. Most houses have lost 10% of their value in the past three months and experts predict that the downward spiral could cause a further 20%-30% drop in the value of the average house. Get this, and average size house in our neighborhood with four bedrooms and two baths is currently selling for $600,000. And most houses are built on less than 1/5 of an acre of land! No point to try to buy a house here the prices are simply too expensive.... that is why the average income family rents a house to live in but they may own two or more houses in less expensive places in the country and rent these houses out.... by owning two houses that are low budget houses and renting them out they can afford to rent a house for their family in a nicer neighborhood. It's not the ideal situation but most "kiwis" are quite inventive in their investing.

Ciao

Lord's Supper at IBC

The Thursday before Easter was a special time of Communion for us... we did a live re-enactment of the Lord's Supper. The auditorium was set with tables for about 150 people with all the tables decorated to represent what a traditional Passover table and meal may have looked like in Bible days. Our deacons an life group leaders dressed like Jesus and the 12 disciples kind of like the famous painting of the "Last Supper". All the lights in the church we turned low and candles on each table set a somber but somewhat cozy mood. I read a narrative describing what may have happened in the events of that day intermingled with the verses of scripture that gives us more detail. Genia, Erwin and Amy sang special songs at various points through the narrative reading. Then Pastor Ken had a short message and challenge before leading the congregation of about 160 people through the remembrance of the Lord's Supper. Our goal was to give the congregation a sense of what it may have been like to be present with the Lord on that day before He went to the cross. Our disciples left the table where they were sitting and served the tables for the congregation. Everyone seemed to enjoy the evening and the special event had a delightful atmosphere.

I haven't written in the past few weeks simply because of a lack of time. We have been full on from the holidays and church activities as well as helping to host a few visitors from the USA that came to help with the Bible distribution... speaking of which I met a Korean man and Chinese man while I was waiting on Mt. Eden. Our Bible distribution team was finishing up their day of handing out Bibles when I came back to the car to wait for them. These two men curiously approached me to ask what we were doing as they noticed we were giving packets out to people. When I told them we were handing out the Bible they eagerly wanted to know more... eventually the Chinese man wanted me to pray for him. And I did after I explained the gospel. I'm not sure how much he understood since his English was only about 50%, but he does have a lot of information in his language to read.

Last week at the church office I was working late with a counseling session when a strange somewhat deranged man came into the office and demanded money. Pastor Ken and the Church secretary had already left for the day and it was just me and my counselee in the church. I didn't think the stranger was actually trying to rob us although he did demand that we go to an ATM machine and take out money for him to have gas to put in his car. I offered the man $10 to help him in his situation but he wanted more. I refused to go with him to an AMT and asked him to leave the building to which he made several threats but did leave. Come to find out that this man was wanted by the police in our area for several robberies. My counselee was going through a bad situation to which this only added new stress but the Lord seemed to work in his heart on that day and used the stranger to help break the heart of my counselee... talk about God working in strange ways!!

Last Sunday Pastor Ken brought a great salvation message in the morning service... then later, in the evening time after my Hot Topics class I was approached by a girl that introduced herself as Lily. Lily was born in Taiwan and is 16 years old. The Sunday morning service was the first time that she and her family had come to church... apparently the morning message had been working in her heart all day and she came back in the evening wanting to know more. My daughter Faith and I took Lily into the church office where we explained the gospel in more detail... Lily was ready and eager to trust Jesus. What a blessing to see this beautiful young lady humbled and professing in Christ.

The church building is coming along well... but a few snags with city council may delay things a bit. The city council made us put in an emergency fire exit at the back of the building which was not in the original plans. Now that same council has received complaints by the neighbors about the door. So what does city council do? They inform us we are in violation of our resource consent to build now because the emergency door was not in the original plans! In NZ the government red tape is outrageous. We have been trying to work out with the council about the conflict but now each branch of the city council is in disagreement with each other... one says we can continue the building because the fire exit is being put in by the council and the other branch is saying we cannot continue until we work out a possible solution with the complaining neighbors. We're not sure how it's going to work out but for now the contractors say to keep going forward, so I guess this is not too surprising for them since they deal with city council regularly.

Have a Happy Easter.

300 and growing

It finally happened... we broke the 300 number in our worship service attendance. While we all know that numbers are not the most important thing, it is a goal that Ken and I set to get the congregation to 300 before we start looking at the possibility of having two morning worship services. We had 310 in the worship service last week and several new families that will be joining our fellowship. The new building is coming along at a fast pace and may be ready for use in late April or early May... so we definitely will need the extra space. We'll soon start the planning of reaching out into other areas of the city as our current building cannot seat more than 300. Maybe some of our current congregation can be used to start the new church plant.

The bible studies are still being well attended with an average of 20 people in each of the men's groups and ladies groups that Genia and I lead. Plus our Tuesday night life group has 12 people. This week Genia and I visited several families with spiritual needs and we also have two serious counseling cases that are in progress. On Friday afternoons we are having a blast doing pre-marriage counseling with a young couple from the congregation... they are a lot of fun and committed to the Lord. We can hardly wait for the wedding to take place at the end of May.

Genia and I went to the city last weekend for our 22nd anniversary. We spent the night and had a great dinner... got up Saturday morning and had breakfast together before going back home. And as expected we were gone only 24hrs. but had an emergency call from a church member whose close friend had taken a lot pills to end their life. The friend didn't accomplish the suicide and was admitted to the hospital over the weekend and now seems to be doing better but will need lots of spiritual help to get their life back on track.

We are helping Mark this weekend with a group from the USA to distribute more bibles to the Chinese people. A team of ten people from Texas will arrive tomorrow and one of the men will be staying at our house. Over the weekend and Monday/Tuesday we will be helping them distribute bibles and driving them around Auckland.

The weather here is beginning to show signs of turning to Autumn.... we have had a great summer with warm days and less rain than normal. Not too good for the farmers I guess but great otherwise. This morning I went out for my morning walk/run (less run than walk nowadays) and had to put on a light jacket. It was good and refreshing but the day usually still gets warm with about 70 degrees.

Joshua, Faith and Catherine are all doing well and busy with school, church activities and Life Groups. Faith is planning to attend a Baptism service over the weekend for a close friend in Hamilton about an hour drive out of Auckland... she is still trying to work out transportation as the weekend is not convenient to do a lot of driving. Her friend is a missionary daughter to our colleague that is pastor at the church in Hamilton. I'm glad the children can build strong spiritual friendships, sure helps to keep things right!

Genia has been slightly under the weather with a cold... so has most of the congregation. Tonight is one of our rare free nights to stay home. I started a weight lifting routine with our neighbor a few weeks ago so we'll continue with that tonight... it's something that I enjoy and used to do regularly but my mid-life body don't respond quite so well. But I'm now past most of the soreness and feel pretty good. I also use this time as a time to disciple him as he is a newer believer... we usually get a good conversation going about spiritual things. He is quite an athlete and played a lot of NZ pro sports and is about ten years younger than me. So, the deal is he mentors me through the weight training sessions and in turn I mentor him through spiritual issues. We've built a good friendship and can push each other to the limits in the right direction both physical and spiritually... do you know how many illustrations work well between the physical work-out and the spiritual work-out? More than I could have ever thought of...Man, we find almost every new exercise leads into a spiritual application! So, I guess its all good... the pain and the gain, right!
Ciao

Rugby 101

Rugby season is in full swing. It's a great game to watch and all the professional games in New Zealand are televised on the local t.v. channels. Each major city in Nz has a professional home team that plays in a league called Super 14. Super 14 includes 14 rugby teams from the countries of Nz. Australia and South Africa. Our local team pro team in Auckland is called the Auckland Blues (in the picture, thanks espn).

It's relatively inexpensive to attend a pro rugby game at about $1o per person. A rugby field, called a pitch in Nz, is about the same size as an NFL field. Most of the stadiums are outdoor stadiums and seat between 30,000 to 60,000 people. It's best played in winter which is just around the corner. Each team puts 15 men on the field and no pads are needed except some of the linemen will wear a leather head-gear that looks like a throw-back to the NFL in the 1920's. The rules are simple... get the ball to the other end of the field. The catch... you can only pass the ball backwards unless you kick it. Any player can advance the ball and any player should be prepared to switch from offence to defense in the blink of an eye. If the ball crosses the end-zone line and is touched down to the ground while a players hand is on the ball it is called a TRY and scores 5 points. The proceeding kick through the upright post will gain an additional 2 points, like and extra point attempt in the NFL. We enjoy watching rugby and cheering for the Blues... later in the year the best Nz players will be selected for the International team called the "All Blacks". Now that's a big deal when the All Blacks play... it's like the entire country stands still to watch the All Blacks.

Speaking of the price of things in Nz... petrol or gas here is at 1.74 per liter. That's about $7 NZ per gallon and with the exchange rate over .80 right now that equals nearly $6 US per gallon. WoW! Housing prices in our area now average in the mid $500,000 for a four bedroom house. Dairy prices are sky-rocketing upward with one pound of butter now costing $5 and a one pound block of cheese at $10. Yeaow!

Church services went well this past Sunday.... I brought the morning message and then taught the discipleship class afterward. We were in the midst of a storm Saturday night and Sunday morning so our attendance was way down. The building project is getting done in record time. I can't believe how fast the construction is moving.

Genia and I will celebrate 22 years of marriage this weekend.... yes, we are getting away just the two of us. We have reservations at a nice hotel in the city with a romantic meal on the water way.

Joshua, Faith and Catherine are full-blown back to school now... Catherine received an honor to work in the office as a student staff. She's excited about helping and likes the attention that it brings. Joshua and Faith are still doing home-school years 11 and 9.

Ciao

Progress on the Building

This past week I didn't post anything on the blog.... no other reason than just too busy to think about it. Last week I had four teaching classes to prepare for: (1) Tuesday night Life Group where we are going through a study from the book "Changed Into His Image" by Jim Berg. (2) Saturday morning Men's Prayer Breakfast where I did a study on "The Danger of Deflecting Responsibility". We had 23 men for the morning breakfast and accountability meeting. (3) I am teaching a series called "Divorce Proof Your Marriage" (not from the book of the same title). This teaching series is held after our morning worship and kind of like doing a group marriage counselling session. We had 35 people attend the first session on Sunday. (4) My Sunday evening study called "Hot Topics" for young adults was on "Integrity". I usually have about 30 for this class. So I was pretty busy last week trying to get all the preparation done.... plus I had three counselling appointments last week that required quite a bit of time through the week.

Our worship services have been well attended for the past two weeks with 288 and 293 people in attendance... 300 people would be a new attendance record for a regular worship service. We've had 300 people to attend when something special is happening but our new norm for regular attendance is near 300.

The building project is moving quickly now that the foundation has been poured and the roof on the old building is completed. We can hardly wait until the building is finished and we definitely need the extra space. One possibility to put the new space to work through the week is to allow a Christian school to use the facilities.... at this point we don't have any definite plans for that but it might be a good idea for the future.

Genia and the kids are all well. Joshua and Faith reached a milestone with their help to the Chinese Bible distribution.... the team led by Mark has given out 1500 Bibles this month. Joshua, Faith, Joy and Gretchen have a song planned for this weeks worship service. It's the first time they have sang together as a group in front of the congregation. Catherine will be trying her hand at teaching tonight. We are having our Life Group at our house tonight and Joshau and faith will be away at their own Life Group so Catherine will be in charge of the little kids that come tonight with their parents. Genia had her first Ladies Bible Study of the year on Thursday afternoon. She had 17 ladies that came to the study and they all met in the church fellowship hall.

We have a man from IBC that went to the USA several years ago and now has returned to New Zealand and offered a two year work visa through International Baptist Church. We are hoping he can make an impact in the teen ministry for a time... so far he has shown interest to work with the teens. But ultimately he wants to plant new churches and we hope that if things works out well he will be able to help led one of the new churches we hope to plant through IBC. He is a great guy with a wife and three young daughters. They just arrived in NZ last week and originally he is from Indonesia while his wife is from Wisconsin. He was saved at IBC in 1995 soon after arriving in NZ and a few years later went to the USA on a student visa for Bible school where he met his wife. So, it looks like one of the church plants we have planned may be planted by a man originally saved at IBC and now ready to lead a church plant himself.

Ciao

Chinese New Year Worship

Sunday worship was a bit different today, sometimes different is good as it was in this case. In celebration of the Chinese New Year our Chinese choir sang most of the songs and shared testimonies. They spoke both Chinese and English so everyone pretty much knew what was being said. K.C. (in photo below) brought the message on this morning.... K.C. has been a member of IBC for about five years. He and his wife, Christina, are from Singapore and speak the Chinese language very fluently. K.C. is well respected in the Chinese community and was a practicing lawyer in Singapore but he sold his law practice and moved to NZ where he now devotes his full time to ministry. K.C. is not a staff pastor, although we would like for him to be, but he does the ministry and work just as if he was a paid staff pastor to the Chinese. His message was about how the Chinese written language was developed with the Bible. He mainly kept to the passages in Genesis and did a great job bringing his case before the congregation of the fact that Chinese language was written with Biblical influence. Many of the Chinese guests had to search their souls and examine the facts to determine if they believe or not.

In the evening service we took a break from our normal schedule and showed the movie "Facing The Giants".... I know, you've all seen it a hundred times but most people here had never seen the movie. We had a number of guests for the evening movie time. Hopefully they will have been impacted by the testimony in the movie. I guess it worked to some extent as I scheduled two meetings through the week to speak with several families that had questions about God.

Catherine and a few of her Chinese best friends enjoyed the day dressing up in Chinese clothes. They all had loads of fun trying to speak Chinese.
Ciao

Birthday Weekend

Friday was Joshua's 17th birthday! Hard to believe that Genia and I could be parents of a 17 year old.... but I guess reality is sometimes hard to swallow. It was a great day! I spent the first half of Friday at the office finishing my discipleship class-notes and in a counseling session while Genia and Faith did the birthday shopping and baked the cake. Earlier in the week Faith came up with a really cool idea for a cake, a guitar cake! We try to make a special cake each year for the kid's birthday and that has become half of the fun of the celebration to see what kind of cake we can make. Faith did most of the work on the cake which quickly became a piece of art as she made a life size replica of Joshua's Ibanez guitar. It took nearly two days to complete the cake. Then Friday night Joshua invited most of his Life Group to the party, I think it was about 15 people. They really were impressed with the cake and I think Faith got a few more offers to make cakes for future parties. Everybody told Joshua how fortunate he was to have a little sister who would devote so much time to make big brother a cake... I think Joshua really appreciated the cake and party.

Saturday was mainly yard work intermingled with a few things we had to do at the church like music practice in the morning time and a building project meeting later in the afternoon. Then Saturday evening Genia and I attended the Chinese Life Group dinner to help them celebrate Chinese New Year. The food was excellent and as usual we stuffed ourselves with Chinese dumplings and noodle. After the meal Ken and myself each shared a short testimony and devotion for encouragement to the Chinese group. One of the main purposes for the evening was for the Chinese group to practice for the program they had prepared for Sunday morning. The Chinese choir, with about 25 people, practiced songs while others rehearsed how to share their testimony. They really wanted to do a good job since we expected a few Chinese visitors.

Ciao

Chinese New Year

Holidays are so much fun... yesterday started with an early morning pre-marriage counselling session that Genia and I are doing with a young couple from our church. They have a lot going for them and have a heart for the Lord. Both the future husband and wife are actively involved in roles at IBC. After the session we met with Theuns and Tania at Eastern Beach for lunch and a South African Brai... it was soooo good with sausages, steak and some little bread thingy with syrup called a Twisted Sister, I guess it's called this because of the way the bread is made with two long peices interwined together. When they first told me the name was Twisted Sister it reminded me of the old heavy metal band from the 80's with the same name. It's amazing how the brain stores such useless information and things I'd rather forget. From that point onward I had the song "We're not gonna take it" by Twisted Sister stuck in my head all day.... it was driving me crazy to keep thinking about something i didn't want to think about. But finally after a while the battle of the mind was won over by the battle in the stomach and other great food... nothing like a good steak to get me thinking right. The weather was sunny and about 75 degrees but a cool Southerly wind kept us huddled between the beach and the grassy bank for shelter. Way too cold for swimming. The water temp here is always too cold for me. So we only stayed at the beach until about 3pm before coming home.

Today I have two counselling cases scheduled for the afternoon and just finished dealing with a issue where the police had to be involved with a domestic violence case... I got the phone call while Genia and I were having lunch together. I wonder why these kind of situations always seem to happen late at night or right in the middle of a meal?

Today is Chinese New Year.... the year of the RAT! I could think of better animals to have an entire year to celebrate about. While the Chinese New Year is not an official holiday in NZ it is a big deal for our congregation since at least half of them are Chinese or from a Chinese influenced country. In fact our life groups were cancelled tonight because of the celebration... I know, it would be better to have the life groups anyway, right? Well it don't always work that way and rather than try beating our heads against the wall to convince them to have life groups tonight, we will just go with the flow and meet with them when they are ready. Sunday will be a big deal in the worship service as the Chinese choir will be singing and we are all going to be dressed in Chinese clothes. Should be interesting to say the least. We are also going to a Chinese dinner Saturday night for the new year celebration... believe me they take this seriously. I found that out last week at our planning meeting when we were discussing ways we could make the Chinese New Year special and I 'tongue in cheek" suggested that we bring live rats to turn loose in the church auditorium. After a few seconds in which some of the Chinese men seriously were contemplating how we could do that... I said, hey, it's just a joke. But by then it wasn't funny because they kind of thought it might be a good idea. WoW!

Without the life groups tonight we are going to work on making Joshua a birthday cake for tomorrow. Faith and I are putting our artistic talent together to make a guitar cake. Hard to believe Josh will be 17 tomorrow. He has friends coming over tomorrow night for a cook-out and party... should be loads of fun.
Ciao

Another Holiday...

Monday is usually our day off... but the norm is that we seem to be more busy on Monday than other days. Yesterday (Monday) Genia drove Joy to a doctors appointment, kept Johna at our house all day and also watched the neighbor's little boy for several hours why the neighbor attended a doctors appointment. Of course Genia had Faith helping her for most of the day. I had Mark and Ken over to watch the Super Bowl. Mark is the guy that works in the Chinese Bible distribution and attends IBC. He and his wife are from Texas so we all got together to pull for the Giants. Oh yeah, the Super Bowl came on live here but it was Monday at 12noon since we are 18 hours ahead of EST.

Today, Tuesday, was rather quiet at the church office but Ken and I had our usual Tuesday assessment of the weekend. Then I was able to work on my discipleship course and a new class that I will be doing on Sunday afternoon about marriage. Joshua, Faith and Mark had an interesting day in the city giving out Chinese bibles. Faith was approached by a man that she thinks was planning to snatch her purse, but Faith is pretty street wise and spotted his intension before he could get too close. The man stopped and spoke to her briefly as she clutched her purse and backed away... Mark and Joshua was nearby so they came over and the man walked away. Joshua survived the advances of two drunken women that showed him more than he wanted to see. And then, the building where they were handing out the bibles was evacuated because of a bomb threat. So it was a good day and the kid's got kick out of the antics.. Oh yeah, one last thing, Faith was approached by a Chinese man that wanted to know how to become a "member of the Chistian faith". While Faith's Chinese is limited and the man's English was minimal she did try to explain the gospel but the Chinese man's tour bus was leaving and the driver grabbed the man and pulled him away. Faith was heart-broken that she didn't get to finish sharing the gospel but she did give the man a Chinese tract to go along with his Bible.

Tomorrow is Waitangi Day... another holiday. It's kind of like the 4th of July in the USA. Waitangi Day (February 6) is when New Zealand officially became part of the British empire and the Maori people inherited rights as British citizens. The treaty was signed in 1840 which also included a land deal that has become controversial over the years. While England and the NZ government had one version of the treaty, seems like somewhere along the way whether lost in translation or what the Maori people ended up with another version of the treaty. So while Waitangi Day should have been a day for celebration for all NZ it is now a controversial day where the terms of the treaty are questioned and the Maori activist usually make a statement about some land that was stolen from them. It's usually a day where the politicians and Maori activist meet together in Waitangi (the place where the treaty was signed) and try to have a peace summit... but more often than not it makes good news footage of a few fights and scuffles with some threatening behavior and a few threats against the current government. Go figure!

But for most New Zealanders it means the last summer holiday to spend at the beach. Which is precisly where we will be tomorrow as we have been invited to a Brai (South African BBQ) with our close friends from South Africa. Have you noticed that NZ has a lot of holidays? Well, they do. Just about every month has at least one public holiday.

Ciao

Leadership Conference

For some reason or another our internet was down at various times last week... each time I stopped to do the blog, guess what! The internet was not available. We usually have very reliable internet service but I guess this week we just had gimlins in the system.

Most of last week was preparation time for the International Baptist Church leadership conference (photo). We had the conference on Friday evening and most of the day Saturday. Pastor Ken and I challenged the entire IBC leadership team to "Value People" which is our year's focus. Our leadership team includes everyone from pastoral staff and deacons to teachers, music, hospitality and life group leaders.

We had a good turn out with most of our people attending the entire meeting... 30 people in all. We were pleased with the level of commitment and dedication that everyone is displaying to get the job done. Right now there is such a sweet spirit of unity in the leadership team and the church in general. We also saw major steps in the new building this week. For the past month the new roof on the existing building has been under construction... but now the dirt has been cleared away and the actual construction on the new classrooms has begun. If the weather co-operates we should be ready to use the new area of office space, fellowship hall, kitchen and classrooms by late May.

Other than preparation for the Leadership Conference we had a few other things happening. Our Life Group began on Thursday night with 12 young adults. Our group mainly has people that have graduated from University and started their career but have not married. It's a fun group to be around.

Joshua and Faith each went with Mark twice this past week to give away more Chinese Bibles and the Jesus film. Chinese New Year begins next week so we have heaps of Chinese people filtering through New Zealand and most are eager to take a bible and free movie. The bible group usually gives away about 100 of each (bibles and Jesus films)everytime they go out.

Speaking of Chinese New Year.... today after the morning worship service we had a Chinese lunch to peak interest for the Chinese New Year celebration and special activities for next week's worship service. Plus the lunch was a fund-raiser event with-in the congregation sponsored by the Chinese life group. They served traditional Chinese food and it was soooo good. I think they had 180 people stay for lunch at a cost of $15 per plate. The fund-raiser was to benefit the cost of the new building project which is estimated to run about $350,000.00. That's right! Three hundred and fifty thousand smack-a-roos. Nothing is cheap in Auckland - and by the way, this is a small building project which will only include a few offices, fellowship area and classrooms plus a re-modeled kitchen. This "high cost factor" is one of the reasons our two churches merged together so we could both utilized the power of a more people working together for a common goal. And just to let you know - the merger is going beautifully! Our two congregations took the merger just like two old friends visiting with each other on the front porch. They just love being together and have intergrated in every way. Today's worship service was good and Pastor Ken's message was about "Trials of Faith"... I led the closing time and as expected with such a powerful message many people responded. I usually open the service with initial greetings and welcome and then I close the service sometimes with an inviation and sometimes by simply leading in a group prayer with an offer of additional counseling as needed. It fits well with my pastoral care role because I usually have several people each Sunday to come up after the worship service for additional counsel. This opens the door for my weekday visits. Which by the way was very productive last week in getting several families that used to worship the Lord regularly to commit themselves back to the Lord... they came to church today so I guess the Lord is ministering in their heart.

Later today we have a home-stay girl coming to stay at our house for two weeks. This girl is between the age of our two daughters 9-14 and she is from New Caladonia. She speakes French and that's great for Catherine and Faith because they are studing French... this girl is in NZ to study English through the Auckland English Academy. It's a great way for the kids to make new friends from around the world. Plus over the past three years several of our other home-stays have come to know the Lord and our kid's stay in touch with them by e-mail and MSN.

Hope you all have a good week... hopefully I will get to write this week without the internet crashing down.

Ciao

Auckland Anniversary Day

Today is a holiday in Auckland... it's Auckland Anniversary Day which is the last big summer holiday before our school new year officially starts back at the first week of February. Almost every city or town in New Zealand has a day of celebration on the day that the town or city was established. Auckland was officially established in 1842 and celebrates it's anniversary on the last Monday in January. To celebrate, most people in Auckland will go to the beaches near the city to take part in the Regatta held in the Hauraki Gulf that surrounds Auckland and vicinity. From here, thousands of people line the beaches and cliff sides with sausages and BBQ grills in hand to watch the races and parades surrounded by the beautiful blue/green sea. Today is a perfect day for the famed event with outside temperatures in the mid 70's and blue sky all around. Sunscreen is a must on a day like this since the burn time in Auckland today will be less than 10 minutes.

A Regatta is primarily a yacht race but usually includes parades made up of vintage and unusual boats before the race starts. This year a famous old ship from the Mediterranean which was restored in Auckland is the featured ship to lead the parade. It will be followed by many local sail boats with colorful sails flying and various types of tug boats tooting their horns in celebration. It's quite a spectacular event to watch. The race will not happen until near the end of the day and later when night falls fireworks will light up the city night. It is so spectacular to see the bright fireworks exploding above the sea with the city lights in the background.

So, today is a relaxing day for us around the house... we've been to the city enough times that we decided to give it a miss this time... however, Joshua and Faith did go into the city with Mark and a few others to hand out more Bibles and Jesus films in Chinese. They have really developed a love for this kind of ministry and have been going several times each week. They are also learning Chinese from some of the members of our congregation since we have such a large Chinese community around us.

Yesterday was a good day... although many people were missing from our worship service due to the holiday. Since this was the last holiday before school starts next week I guess people are trying to make the most of the long weekend. Our church attendance was only about 245 and I had only 20 in my "Hot Topics" class. My class took on the subject of "entertainment" and what is acceptable and what is not acceptable. We especially focused on how to choose a good movie since most of the class said they watch between 15 - 20 movies each month. When I asked the question of our class if they have a limit or standard by which they would not watch certain movies that may contain nudity or profanity as in movies that are rated R, most said they did not have any personal standard. In other words, most of them said that if the movie is popular they would view it even if it contained much nudity and profanity. The class was very, very quiet as I tried to get them to see how God is with them in the theater or with them when they rent a DVD. We discussed several verse of Scripture that encourages us to glorify God in all that we do. I guess from the culture here most people would consider themselves to be moral people but don't see anything wrong with watching immoral programs as entertainment. Hopefully God's Word will help them to change their viewing habits to conform them to Christ.
Ciao

Life Groups Growing

When our two churches merged together in December, Pastor Ken and myself set a goal to see our Life Groups function as a major role of ministry to the congregation as well as a way to reach out into the city. A Life Group is a small group of people from the congregation meeting together during the week for the purpose of fellowship, prayer and study much like the Acts 2:46,47 model. A Life Group does not supersede the church vision or purpose but rather it enhances our ministry of caring for individuals in a more intimate environment where the group members can stay connected with one another while staying connected to the congregation. Every Life Group has a Leader which has been discipled by another mature Christian for some time. In addition to the leader, every Life Group has an apprentice working under the leader in which the apprentice occasionally teaches under the watchful eye of his leader/mentor. Each life group also has people ministering in other role such as a host, music/worship, prayer leader, ice breaker organizer, activities planner and care ministry. In theory, every person in a life group should be using their spiritual gifts in one way or another. I especially like having a care person in each group who can then keep me (as the Congregational Care Pastor) informed on any areas that I may need to help... our care leaders in the Life Groups keep me informed if a person has been missing from Sunday worship or Life Groups for more than two weeks or if there is any special needs that I should get involved in. Hopefully no one will slip through the cracks when sickness or trial hits there family. But when crisis does happen the Life Group care leader fills out a "care card" that he/she will pass along to me and then I minister the need from that point onward.

Friday morning we revised our list of current Life Groups and added five additional groups to the current ten groups. So now we have a total of 15 life groups functioning in the way I described above. I am teaching in one life group that is mainly with young adults. My apprentice is a Filipino couple that loves the Lord but they have never led in any role in the church. I think they will do a great job and I hope that they may be ready to led this group within one year. Right now I think we have everyone that is a member of the church plugged into a Life Group and we are determined to have 100% participation.

Yesterday Joshua went into the city once again to hand out the Chinese Bibles and Jesus film... he said that he and the four other teens along with Mark the ministry leader gave away 80 sets. Monday is a holiday in Auckland but he and the other teens are going into the city again to give away more Bibles and Jesus films. Faith had a baby setting job so she could not make the trip with the others but she is going on Monday.

We also helped the family that had the emergency yesterday get home from the hospital. Both the mom and baby are doing much better although they did have to go back to the emergency room this morning since the baby began running a high fever once again. Thankfully he didn't have any further seizures... thanks for your prayers.

Ken and I met with our Life Group leaders this morning to outline the purpose of the groups and how we would like to keep the groups connected to one another through common prayer and goals within the church. It was a great meeting and everyone is so excited about the Life Groups and the potential to branch out. I like when things are working well

After our meetings this morning the rest of our day will be used to wash cars, clean house and do a few Saturday chores out in the gardens.

Ciao

What a Day!

It all started out so peaceful and so pleasant... the morning was coolish almost autumn like weather, very refreshing and the sky was as blue as blue can be. Genia and I awoke earlier than usual after a great nights sleep, had breakfast together and then it was off to the church office for me while Genia tended to her usual chores around the house. Ken and I had our normal Thursday morning meeting with the deacons where we discuss any issues that might be lurking, but thankfully nothing was brewing so the meeting was short and sweet. Great, I should be able to get a lot of work done on the marriage class that I will be teaching and the "Hot Topic" for Sunday night. Around 11:00am Joshua, Faith and Patricia gathered at the church with Mark for a trip into the city to pass-out Chinese bibles, literature and the Jesus movie. Mark is an American with a burden to minister to the Chinese through a Bible distribution ministry so he recently moved to NZ to help get this accomplished. He and his wife have joined IBC and are a wonderful asset to the ministry in this missions role. Mark is always looking for volunteers to help with the Bible distribution and Joshua and Faith really enjoy doing this. So with a time of prayer we ushered them off to the city to give away the Bibles, then we paused for a quick lunch and then back to work. Things were going well... then it happened! The phone call that changes everything. Genia called me in a frantic and frightened voice. She desperately explained that I was needed at the hospital, one of our church member's 18 month old son had a seizure and had stopped breathing - he was revived, only to have a second seizure and stopped breathing once again. He was in a critical condition! Pastor Ken and I along with Genia rushed to the hospital where we met with the parents. It was a desperate situation and the doctors and nurses were still working on the young patient. Genia comforted and prayed with the mother while Ken and I took the father into another room and prayed and made a few phone calls on behalf of the family. It was touch and go for a while... but after about an hour the situation began to improve, the Lord intervened and the young boy's life was spared. We stayed at the hospital until late in the afternoon then I took Ken to the church while Genia and I went to retrieve some personal items for the family to stay at the hospital. We returned to the hospital about 7pm only to find the mother of the young boy not doing too well... she was suffering from a combination of shock/trauma dehydration and exhaustion. So Genia took the mother to the emergency room for adults which was just next door to the children's emergency room where we had been for most of the day. By 10:30pm tonight both mother and baby are doing well and in the same room as patients while dad is sleeping on a sofa in the same room. We left them with a prayer of thanksgiving that God spared the life of their son and that mother was at the hospital when she began to feel ill. Tomorrow we will know the results of why the siezure happened to begin with. If you can pray, pray with us for this sweet Christian family through this time.

We are absolutely exhausted with emotion tonight... but the blessing is that Joshua, Faith and Patricia was able to assist Mark in handing out more than 100 Bible packets with a Jesus film in each packet all in Chinese. They also had the opportunity to witness to many of the Chinese tourist that flood the city in the summer. God is Good - All the Time!

Who's That Guy?

Have you ever been busy minding your own business just doing your thing and then get the feeling that someone is watching you? It's a strange feeling and it happened twice this week... and guess what? Someone was watching! It all started out on Sunday during the evening service. I was busy teaching my "Hot Topics" class while K.C. was teaching about Baptist history. At some point during the service a suspicious looking man walked into the foyer of the church. My class was in a large room next to the foyer but I didn't notice the man walking into the church at first. Then, to my surprise, when I "sensed" that I was being watched by more people than just our class, I looked out the door to see this man peaking into the classroom. When he saw me looking at him, he smiled with a huge grin, turned and left. About 10 minutes later, there he was again. This scenario happened three more times until finally our "Hot Topics" class was dismissed. So I went to check-out the stranger that I did not recognise as anyone from our usual congregation. What I found was a very drunken but humorous Somalian man named George. George was tall, dark skinned, lots of fuzzy hair and was wearing a silky MLB jacket in the middle of a hot summer...sounds suspicious! Anyway, George had a great smile and was about the friendliest person I think I have ever met. I'm not sure what he might be like without all the alcohol, but fully loaded George was a great guy! He reminded me of Eddie Murphy when he used to do the old "Buckwheat" imitations. George said that a friend had just let him out at a nearby shopping center to do some shopping when he noticed our S. African flag flying in front of the church. Since our church name is International Baptist Church we fly many flags of various countries in the front of our church parking area that faces the main road. George thought that he might by chance know someone in the church, after-all we were flying the S. African flag even though Somalia has nothing to do with S. Africa. George kept me humored for about a half hour telling me story after story of his life. I asked George if he knew anything about Jesus, fully expecting him to answer no, but to my surprise he sharply and most seriously said "I've been a Christian for ten years". So now that I started a conversation about Jesus I felt obligated to listen as he declared in his most serious, yet drunken manner how he came to know Jesus. He promised to come back to church on Sunday but I doubt that we will ever see George again since he lives on the other side of the city. So I gave George some gospel literature to read for when he is sober and sent him on his way.

Well, guess what, today at about lunch time another stranger enter into the church building. Only this time I was away at a meeting with my missionary colleagues. Gillian, the church secretary, looked up from her office to see a rather shabbily dressed man looking around the church facilities. This man was a Pacific Islander and seemed to be stoned out of his gourd. He would not, or could not, speak but only went into the church auditorium and sat down. Of course his strange behavior suggested either the man was high on Meth. which is a growing problem around here or he was possibly over-whelmed by some event. Gillian was a bit frightened since usually no one is at the church offices during the day except for her, me and Pastor Ken. Gillian called Pastor Ken to come and investigate. Pastor Ken spoke to the man and asked how he could help... but the man would not speak, he only grunted and seemed to get more agitated with every new question. So, the man sat alone in the church auditorium for about two hours while Gillian and Pastor Ken kept a watchful eye on him. About 2pm the stranger simply walked out and never returned.

I guess since our church is really visible and located at a major intersection we will get a few visits from time to time that seem a bit strange. As for the rest of our day, we had a BMW staff meeting to discuss our up-coming field conference and then later in the afternoon I began work on our discipleship 1,2,3 curriculum that we will be teaching next month. Tonight, nothing...just chillin' out at the house.

Busy on Tuesday

The storm finally eased up late this morning, but sure was hard to sleep last night with the wind and rain sounding like a freight train storming through the house. Since it was still raining this morning I missed my morning run. I usually get in a couple of miles run before breakfast. I'm not a hard-as runner but I try to at least get in a run on most mornings.

At the church office Pastor Ken and I had our usual Tuesday morning review meeting along with our planning for the next few weeks of bible studies. Looks like we have a full schedule coming where I will be starting a men's prayer breakfast and bible study on Saturday in mid February. Genia will be hosting a weekly ladies study and I will also be teaching a marriage and parenting class after our Sunday morning worship service.

I came home for lunch to find our new neighbor in our house chatting with Genia... her name is Mono and she and her husband Wil just moved in last month from Tonga. I tried to eat my lunch talk to Genia and Mono and catch some of Sir Ed's funeral on TV all at the same time. By the time I left to go back to the office Genia had convinced Mono to come to church on Sunday and attend her ladies bible study.

Back at the office I made a few follow-up phone calls and visits from our visitors from Sunday. Nothing of great opportunity materialized from the visits and calls but who knows... sometimes when I think it was not a good visit God determines differently. After the visits I spoke with a young couple that are preparing for marriage. We went through some preliminary items to get ready for their counseling.

Meanwhile.... back at home, Genia was busy preparing dinner for our family and guest. We invited Eric and Anna to our home for dinner tonight along with their four children. Eric and Anna recently immigrated from the Philippines and are just getting started in NZ. Both are Christians and they have four great children who have a love for the Lord. After dinner Joshua and Faith had their Teen Life Group and Eric and Anna's oldest daughter went along with them. Life group didn't finish until after 9pm so during this time I helped Eric set up an interview with a local businessman about a possible job opportunity. They all just left our house after 9pm so it's been quite a busy day. Hope we all sleep better tonight. It's a warm 75 degrees tonight with high humidity but fortunately the wind and rain gave way to beautiful blue sky late in the afternoon.

Well, it's 10:30pm as I am writing and Joshua, Faith and Patricia (Eric and Anna's oldest daughter) are still here and going strong. They are looking at pictures from our teen camp from two weeks ago. I think they have Patricia convinced that she will go with us to the next teen camp in July. Guess its going to be a late night!

Can't Sleep...

I know it's only been an hour since I posted my last blog, but unfortunately I can't sleep with all the wind blowing outside and the hard rain. We must be in the heart of the storm right now so I though I would use the time to tell you about yesterday's church service.

We had 260 people in attendance which is our average since we merged the two church groups together. We expect the average attendance to be near 300 each week once holiday season is over at the first of February. We also had four visiting families on this Sunday and I will follow-up with them sometime through the week. Part of my responsibility at International Baptist Church is to stay in touch with visiting families and follow-up with visits to their home. Pastor Ken brought a great message tittled "Marching To The Beat Of A Different Drum". The message was all about change, namely change that Christ will bring into the life of someone who will place their faith in Him. But also the constant change that He wants to bring into the life of every believer. I led the invitation time and about 25 people responded in prayer at the alter expressing they needed change in their life. Two teen-aged girls came to the alter expressing their need to know more about Christ. Pastor Ken and one of our deacons ministered to these two girls, but in the end they needed more time. Perhaps the Holy Spirit will continue to minister to their hearts and they will soon trust Him for their salvation. I will be following up with these two girls during the week.

Sunday afternoon/evening is an interesting Bible study time as we usually have about 70 people in the evening service. K.C. is one of our deacons and he has been teaching a series about the history of the Baptist Church. I teach a series on Sunday evening to our young adults called "Hot Topics". We have been going through a series on what the Bible has to say about Homosexuality. I have 30 young adults in this class and they certainly have a lot to say about this subject since most of them attend the Auckland University. Auckland is a city that is known for it's diverse culture and very open to homosexuality. Certainly we hope to be of help as we minister to people in this lifestyle... so sometimes our class can produce very lively discussion in a positive way!

So, all in all we had a great day on Sunday and we believe the church is gaining strength each week. Hopefully we can get the building project with new classrooms completed very soon as we are definitely pushed for space. I guess it's a good problem to have, but sure will be nice when all the construction is completed and we can begin using the new facilities.

Right after our Sunday morning worship service, Joshua had a baseball game. His team is the under 18 year olds and they played against the men's team. Joshua pitched the last three innings but by the time he entered the game the score was already 10 - 4 in favor of the men's team. Joshua held the men to only one additional run while the under 18's scored a few more. I think the final score was 11 - 8 in favor of the men's team.

Saying Good-Bye To An Icon

Today is Monday.... its normally a day that we do family things and generally do not schedule any church events. It was quite an interesting day as we spent much of the time watching on TV the preliminaries of the funeral for Sir Edmund Hilary. "Sir Ed" as he is affectionately know here was an icon of the largest proportion. He was and is the most famous "Kiwi" that ever lived and was beloved by the entire nation. Sir Ed conquered Mt. Everest by successfully climbing the summit in May, 1953. I can still remember reading about him in the history books at Icard Elementary School in N.C. Even then I marveled at the great accomplishment of this humble man from a humble life. Sir Ed lived in Auckland across town from where we live but his name adorns many schools and public facilities throughout Auckland and all of NZ. I never met him face to face but I did attend a few functions in Auckland where he was the honored guest. Sir Ed is the only New Zealander to have his face on the NZ currency. Every five dollar bill has his smiling image proudly displayed on the front. Sir Ed died this past week at the age of 81 years. I wanted to pay my respects where his coffin was publicly laid in state today, but the crowded streets and limited parking changed my mind. Plus, we are suffering through the remains of a Tropical Cyclone that side-swiped NZ and is bringing heaps of rain and wind. I guess it is only fitting that the weather join in with the rest of the country in mourning.... rain and funerals seem to go hand in hand. Tomorrow is the funeral for Sir Ed to be held at St. Mary's Church in Auckland. I might try to catch some of it on TV as all of our NZ TV channels will be broadcasting live. I will be at our International Baptist Church office tomorrow and no TV there but I usually come home around lunch time and I'm sure the funeral will still be in process at that time.

Even though it was my normal day off to spend with the family I did have a meeting in the afternoon with a member of our church. It was a counseling meeting that came up unexpectedly (which is usually the case on Monday) and I was needed to give some Biblical counsel. So all in all it was a nice rainy day to stay indoors... Joshua and I watched the Patriots and Chargers NFL play-off game while changing the channel to Sir Ed's funeral preparations. As expected the Pat's won the game.... unfortunately the game I really wanted to see (Packer's vs. Giants) was not shown over here. But we will get to see the Super Bowl in a few weeks since NZ sports TV shows all the major American sports games.