A visitor from Cheltenham

It was a lovely surprise a couple of weeks ago to get a message from my friend Beth saying that she would be in NZ and more specifically Wellington for a couple of days!

I used to work with Beth, back in the day of my SHS working life!

We arranged to meet for lunch on Friday. It was so lovely catching up with her! It was quite surreal seeing someone from home though! I got a bit confused about where I was! It was really great to catch up though!

New Staff Training

I decided that it has been a very long time since I blogged about work, so I thought I would tell you about New Staff Traing which we had a couple of weeks ago in a place called Raumati, staying in a house almost on the beach. It was a good chance to get to know people on the team much better and also to learn more about TSCF, the ministry and get some training and input from experienced and wise people. It was good for me as Events manager to get to know possible venues to use and get an idea for catering needs for different amounts of people.

Below is a picture of Andy teaching us a Maori song (with actions):

It was a fantastic week!

Anzac Day

I have just arrived back from the Anzac day dawn parade and I wanted to capture my thoughts and reflections on it before the impact fades.

Anzac day is the New Zealand remembrance day for all who fought in the 2 great wars and other wars since. I have never attended any official remembrance thing before, but with both of my Grandad's passing away this past few months, I decided it would be good to go. I got picked up at 5am this morning to make sure we were there in time for the start. I was amazed at how many people got up at this time to attend the service!

I wasn't prepared for the impact and emotion that this service would have on me. It was extremely moving.

The noise of the canon firing and later the rifles was deafening and was a definite reminder of the horrific scenes faced by our Grandparents generation and service men since.

It was moving to see veterans who played such a huge role ensuring the free society we live in today! It was also striking the amount of effort that goes in every year to make sure we don't forget the sacrifice made for us.

In devotions at work on Wednesday, Raewyn prayed that as we remember the sacrifice made by soldiers for our freedom that we would remember the sacrifice of God's son for the freedom of all mankind. Lest we ever forget that sacrifice - the greatest sacrifice of all!

I don't say this to take away from the memory of people who gave themselves for their nations but to make it all the more poignant by recognising the greatest sacrifice of all!

I think it is very well summed up in the Anzac Statement, particularly the second half:

'At this hour, on this day, Anzac received its baptism of fire and became one of the immortal names in history. We who are gathered here think of the comrades who went out with us to battle but did not return. It is fitting that we should keep this dawn vigil together in remembrance and gratitude. We feel them still near us in spirit. We wish to be worthy of their (/Jesus') great sacrifice. Let us, therefore, once again dedicate ourselves to the service of the ideals for which they (/he) died. As the dawn is even now about to pierce the night, so let their (/his) memory inspire us to work for the coming of the new light in the dark places of the world.'

Lest we forget!

A sailor went to sea sea sea......

...and it turns out, she couldn't see very much at all! I was booked on a whale watching tour from Kaikora in the south Island on Saturday and I was going with Lizzy - my friend who lives in Lincoln which is near Christchurch. So, I decided to fly down and spend the weekend with Lizzy and her husband Tim who are old friends from the UK. I arrived quite late on Friday night due to a pilots strike causing delays. We rang ahead before setting off and we were told that there would be no boat trip out that day due to the severe weather conditions out at sea (summer isn't back anymore). Instead we had a lovely day, out for lunch and then we visited a vineyard, stopped off at a gallery and went for a walk along the beach! I got a bit wetter and colder than anticipated!

Oh dear!!!! I got very wet and very cold - but also laughed a LOT!

This is a picture of Lizzy's favourite road - The southern Alps can be seen.

A Social Weekend

Last weekend was lovely, the summer weather was back (see previous post) and Nyree, James, Viv and I decided to go out for a drink on Saturday night. We went to a really nice bar in town which is a converted boxing gym. There was an open fire with marshmallows to toast, it was a really nice evening.

Then after lunch on the Sunday, Nyree and I went for a great long walk around the coast from where we live. It was a beautiful clear day where we could see the South Island. It was great!

It was one of those moments where I felt very blessed to be living somewhere this beautiful!

Summers Back...............

....Well kind of! It has been a lovely warm super sunny day, but the air did still have a little bit of an autumnal feel as the day went on! It was lovely to be back in a vest top for the day! After a shopping trip with Nyree and Viv to buy a winter coat which I didn't have, I decided to go to the beach to take a few pictures and read my book. It was good fun and was a good opportunity to relax before a busy week next week!

Jandals in the sand - an iconic Kiwi image. I was playing around with my camera, I have put it on here to educate you all in all things Kiwi and Jandals are very Kiwi!

And then here is a picture of me enjoying the sunshine!

I Baked!

Work collegues and neighbours have finally rubbed off on me! The girls next door bake all the time and I felt lots of shame that I couldn't. They regularly bake bread as well! I don't think I will ever be good enough to bake bread but I did manage to make 2 chocolate tarts - my favorite pudding. One for morning coffee at work and one for my flat!I need to work on the presentation, but it tasted pretty good!

Mike Pilavachi in Wellington

I had a bit of a shock at church a couple of weeks ago when they announced that Mike Pilavachi was going to be speaking there on 6th April! Mike from Watford whom I haven't heard speak since I was about 15!!!! Nobody knew who he was or how to say his name, it was very strange!
So he spoke last night and was excellent and extremely funny. He was speaking about how Jesus went to find the one as opposed to the crowds. How it ws usually the one that was an outcast from society that other people didn't want to know. It was very challenging in how we show people how God loves them and how we reach them with the amazing good news of Jesus! It was quite a strange feeling as the only context I had previously heard him in was a UK one so for a moment I was quite confused about what country I was in!
Following on from the Godcast camp it just finished my weekend off and I now have to work out how all of the stuff that was said applies to me!

Godcast 2008

So this last weekend was Godcast 2008 - a young people's camp for 18-30 year olds that my church ran. Nigel Pollock (my boss) was speaking throughout the weekend from the story of Joseph and was very challenging throughout all that he said, in recognising God's sovereignty, his grace and the hope we have in God for the future and how these things should impact on our lives here and now. It was very challenging, and the times of worship were excellent and it was great to have the opportunity of silence and quiet time with God.

We also had a lot of fun with funky chicken dances galore, an afternoon of challenges, quiz's, singstar and lots of fun together. The food was also fantastic all weekend. I met heaps of new people. The weather on Saturday was pretty miserable and so I took a picture of the low cloud covering the hills.

I'm afraid I wasn't very good at taking more pictures than that. It was a great weekend though and I'm really glad I went.

Photography

I had my last photography class last Thursday and we reviewed the images we had taken on our field trip. I decided that I need a lot of practice in manual mode before i'm going to be any good. My tutor said that his friend says that you are only as good as your next photo, so I figure as long as I don't take any, then I will be great! Slightly flawed thory I think. The tutor is a documentary photographer of faith and religious groups and he showed us some of his shots. It lead into some very interesting conversations after the class. He even said that he might be interested in coming along to my church!
I'm so glad I did the course and now I have the basis to build on and get better and better having met some really lovely people at the same time.

Flat trip out for Dinner

On Saturday night, our two flats of 5 girls and a boy got invited to a flat nearby, by 3 blokes from church. I had a bit of a blonde moment as at the bottom of the email inviting us round it said 'bring a plate'. Now being a fairly new blokes flat, i thought they meant bring a plate as they don't have enough crockery for all of us! What it actually meant was bring some food! Oops!!!!!!! I'm just glad I checked with someone before I turned up on the doorstep carrying my empty plate! So Nyree and I decided to make a quiche (it doesn't carry the same Christian stereotype as it does in the UK!) I say Nyree and I made it but I just grated the cheese and courgette and chopped the onion. Nyree made the mix and put it together so a kind of joint effort but all the skill came from Nyree! Anyway, here is our finished product:It tasted yummy. It nearly ended up all over the road as it was carried to the flat but Nyree managed to catch it (which meant putting her hand in the quiche)! Nobody seemed to notice it too much though! It was a fun evening with lots of yummy food and plenty of plates!

Photography Field Trip

Things are finally starting to get clearer. I had my third class last Thursday and we had a look at some images and how they were taken which gave me some visual illustrations of the theory we had learnt.

On Saturday, we met up in civic square (town) for our field trip where we had a list of photo's we needed to take. I still found it quite confusing and don't ask me to take a picture in manual mode in a rush - it just aint gonna happen!

After we finished taking our shots, we met back up to the sound of some Harry Krishna singers which led into some interesting discussions over coffee afterwards!

It was great to get to know some of the people on the course better and I'm feeling a bit sad about this Thursday being the last class!