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.