Christmas Cheer

The Hibiscus

Whangaparaoa is in 'The Hibiscus Coast' area and we have these amazing flowers just outside the front windows of the house were renting.

Ines has kept us laughing this week – it’s not that she has discovered a new source of jokes but has found herself in several situations that have great comic potential.

Last Sunday, our second here, walking to church there was a sudden and severe downpour of rain. Taking her completely by surprise she sheltered with the kids under a tree and then in the entrance of a local resident’s house (by invitation, of course). The shower passed but she and the kids were soaked. It was warm and so she pressed on to church. On arriving they swept in sodden and a little late. She rushed into the ladies to check her appearance and discovered the purple tee-shirt she was wearing had become completely see through. Normally she would have left straight away but it was the kids Christmas party so she felt obliged to stay for their sake. So she sat in church, feeling very self conscious that she was the only woman showing her underwear in the service!

Three days ago she was driving to a friend’s house to drop Ruben off to play with their children. She passed their drive and did a quick 3 point turn into a drive just down the hill. All of the drives in that area are really steep and we (both Ines and I) are still getting used to driving an automatic: Ines put her foot down on the accelerator just a bit too hard, she did a wheel spin, leaving an impressive amount of tyre on this stranger's driveway and causing a very elderly lady walking down the road to scream in fear of her life. Needless to say, we will try to keep a VERY low profile next time we visit.

Two days ago – exploring the rock pools on the beach with our kids – she and the kids discovered a large metal grate with some water-filled space underneath it. They were all curious as to its depth. Ines put her arm in and couldn’t touch the bottom, so she (and I almost can’t believe this) inserted her leg into the grate to see if she could touch the bottom, discovering that it was only just deeper than her arm could reach and also discovering that her leg is a little broader than her arm! She began to fill with panic as her leg showed some resistance to being removed from the metal grate she had plunged it into (oh, yes and the tide was beginning to turn). After a moment of gathering her thoughts and composure she was also able to gain her freedom.

We can hardly wait to see how this recent run of comedy events resolves itself, or comes to a head in the next few days. Pray for our safety!!!

My life has been much more mundane: putting together the study programme for the MINTY programme, reviewing the TSCF staff supervision structures and sorting out the details of the house purchase here and transferring money from the UK.

We’ve begun to relax into life at Whangaparaoa, we’re attending the local Baptist Church (we’ve decided to continue going, even after last Sunday) and have made good friends with our neighbour Lasse (he’s Danish, his name is pronounce ‘Laas-eh’ the locals here call him ‘Lassie’) and he will spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with us.

We are rejoicing in the gift of Jesus – how amazing it is to know God was made flesh and not only knows the frailties of our frame, but has brought us to know Himself and promises us the glories of eternal life with Him through faith.

Have a great Christmas; thanks for standing with us as friends, brothers and sisters in Christ, or even just accidental browsers.

Rejoice! Rejoice! The Saviour is here and now is the day of salvation.

Joy to the world
The Lord has come
Let earth receive her King
Let ev'ry heart prepare him room,
And heav'n and nature sing!

Joy to the world
The Saviour reigns
Your sweetest songs employ
While fields and streams
And hills and plains
Repeat the sounding joy

He rules the world
With truth and grace
And makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness;
The wonders of His love.

Deny Yourself!

Here's the quote that I mentioned in the last blog and a couple of Biblical quotes which have been feeding my thought processes over the last couple of weeks.

‘The courage to die for their beliefs is given only to those who have had the courage to live for them. The final victory over their terror of pain and physical death is the last of a thousand victories and defeats in the war which is fought daily and hourly in the human mind and soul: the way in the overcoming of self. Dissected and examined in detail, this is a most unglamorous battle and to the outsider seems absurd; but it is the constant denying of the natural human urge to stay in bed longer than necessary, to eat or drink more than is justifiable, to be intolerant of the stupid, and to accumulate more than a fair share of this world’s goods that makes possible the gradual freeing of the human spirit’ Sheila Cassidy, Audacity to Believe

Matthew 16:21-27
From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. "Never, Lord!" he said. "This shall never happen to you!" Jesus turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling-block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men."

Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father's glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done.

Romans 2.6-8
God "will give to each person according to what he has done". To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honour and immortality, he will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger.

Eyes Wide Open

The view from the place we are staying!

We arrived in Auckland on Fri 25th November, on Saturday we looked at 10 properties, on Sunday we looked at a further 10. We were completely downhearted – we had not seen a single house that we liked and of the houses that we could afford, the areas where not those that we would have chosen to bring kids up. It was a real knock to our fragile hearts and we were left wondering what God was up to.

We decided that I would view properties before Ines and the kids would see them. I saw between 10-12 properties each day, slowly a few possibilities arose: one or two houses, one or other of us liked but none had both of us convinced. Some days we despaired: I was surprised by how powerfully effected we were by looking for a house, under some pressure.

Through Val Goold (Hurray for Val!) we arranged a rental property out in Whangaparaoa (for the uninitiated in Maori pronunciation ‘wh’=’ph’ so we’re in ‘Phong-a-pa-ra-o-a’) which took the pressure off a bit. On Friday we decided that we would do one more full day of house hunting and then make a decision.

Saturday we looked at 7 houses, the first 6 were less than ideal; then the 7th came as a clear answer to prayer. It is a 4 bedroom house, with a large living area, room for guests, a large garden that has a back fence (with a gate in it) bordering on a park and sports field complex. Schools, shops and maybe even church are all walkable (a near miracle in Auckland) and it is near enough to city centre universities as well as the airport. We’ve offered below their asking price and had the offer accepted and the sale of the house in the UK has just completed.

What has God been up to? I have often said, and honestly believe, that God provides for His people in ways that increase our dependence on him. Living it out is a harder reality than is indicated in the saying of it. I’m convinced that had the house in the UK sold earlier in the summer and for a greater amount, we would have found it too easy and too tempting to look to the lump sum of cash for our financial security. As it is now, the money from the house in the UK will cover an almost like for like cost of house here in Auckland. Our financial situation is the tightest it has been in five years and we are totally reliant on God to provide for our day to day finances.

At the recent TSCF conference one of the speakers spoke about the reality of living by faith and used a quote from the book ‘audacity to believe’. The quote spoke about great faithfulness not starting being worked out in grand gestures of obedience or martyrdom, but rather in the minor decisions of each day: decisions about integrity, about how we spend money, how we speak to strangers, about obedience in the little and unseen things of life. This is a major challenge, rebuke and encouragement to us.

“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” Heb 1.1

We’re now in Whangaparaoa in a lovely house with great sea views and we’ll be here till we move into our own place. We have a ‘settlement’ date of Jan 16th for the house in Auckland. Now that we can see where we are and know where we are going, pray that we will continue to live not by faith rather than by sight.