It is difficult for us many times to admit that new beginnings are scary, but let's be honest they are. I felt that way when I first arrived in New Zealand and I feel that way now. We are creating new beginnings at the church in Hamilton and it is scary. I am scared that expectations will not be met, that everything will happen but most of I am afraid of not following God's will in doing these things that we have been planning. The challenges we face are real, we do not have many workers for the harvest, nor do we necessarily have the resources. The one thing we do have is a new, revived sense of hope in The Lord. The Lord of the harvest will provide what we need to bring in the people to His Kingdom. We can see the hope that this church has in the communities that surround it. We can see the hope from the location and the support are getting from the district and we can feel the hope stirring up our souls to fight the challenges. It will not be easy but as the song "Through. The Fire" says "He never promised that the cross would not get heavy or the hill would not be hard to climb" what God does promise though, is that He will provide exactly the help we need when we need it. We are not without a comforter, provider, lover, friend, or most importantly a Savior.
We have been having District Assembly here on the New Zealand district, for all you Nazarenes out there you understand that it is like a big family get together. It has been such an encouragement for us in Hamilton that we are truly doing whatGod wants us to do. All of the support we have been receiving from others all over the district. From Whangerai and Dargaville down to Wainuiamata, the praise that God is receiving for the new hope that God is putting in Hamilton is just so astounding.
I have had an incredible time with a few ladies this weekend being young ladies of God and talking about how we are waiting for a man after God's own heart and how to be Proverbs 31 ladies before we are even in a dating situation. I learn so much from these precious girls about life and love and God. I am so thankful.
For those of you back in the States, you probably can guess that I missed being at home with my family for Thanksgiving and I will also be missing Christmas which has to be the hardest thing I have done yet. God is faithful though and provided me with a family for Thanksgiving. And there are still so many things to be thankful for. I am so thankful for the new beginnings I have see with friends (Bianca and Vanessa, Sam, Karen, and Alison), the ministries (fencing, family events, youth camps), new family, and new changes in me. I am thankful for the new challenges of planning these ministries, fighting the spiritual battles that will surround these events, and keeping the new friendships alive and well. I am mostly so thankful for the renewed hope that God has given me in the ministry in Hamilton and the life I am working to make in Hamilton.
God is in all, through all and above all. I need nothing else.
When you face new challenges and new beginnings look to God for new hope!! He will never disappoint!!!!!!
Saturday, November 24, 2012
Sunday, November 4, 2012
Life Lessons
I know it has been a couple of weeks since my last post and man has life been busy. I have finally been able to restart Kid's Club on Sunday evenings and I have gotten into a nice routine with Mainly Music. Things are looking great. I will be looking in to quite a few things revolving around a family event series that will go in January and February and to me it looks as if God's hand is already working things out. Isn't just great how God works in and through us and in and through others to encourage us. So this past week was crazy. I had to do all of the preparations for Kid's Club, write a sermon (oh, yes I preached on Sunday, too!), read a book for class, prep for Mainly Music (including birthdays), and then go on a two/three day field trip. So I was one busy lady. But through it all I learned how much God provides the energy and the means to accomplish His work.
Our field trip was to the early settlements and mission stations in New Zealand located near the Bay of Islands area (for all of you not in New Zealand if you type that into the Google Maps it will show you where we all were), the knuckle of the finger at the top of the north island as I explained it to my mom. We went to these places because we are learning about New Zealand history but especially because we have been reading the book "The Bible and the Treaty". To understand a little more, the country of New Zealand officially became part of the British colonies/power through the Treaty of Waitangi, a document that was between the British government and the Maori. Now there was and still is a lot of issues surrounding this treaty and its meaning and how it was upheld. Well the book discusses the work of the missionaries before the treaty and then after. The story of the missionaries and the Maori that they shared life with fills the pages of this book and overflows with underlying emotion as you read each word. The reality of their life came to hit me full force as we strolled the streets of those first settlements and looked across the same sights they would have seen each morning. We went to Paihia, where the first printing was, the place where the Bible was translated in segments into Maori and distributed (the full Maori Bible was printed in Australia and Great Britain due to cost). Then we took the ferry across waters that at one time had been teeming with ships, sailors, and wakas (Maori canoes) to Russel that had once been know as the hell hole of the South Pacific. Standing in Russel is the oldest standing church called Christ Church. It is surrounded by a cemetery housing several of the names we read about who had changed the history of New Zealand with their faith. The marks of the struggle to bring the Gospel and to maintain Maori culture with the invasion of European settlement were left in the form of bullet holes in the side of the church building. Left as a reminder of what they have been through and it serves as an encouragement to stay strong through the struggles. We sat in whaling pots used to boil the blubber that whalers took without care from the water of the southern coasts of New Zealand. Back across the bay we went to the historic spot from which the treaty was created and signed. We tread the same grounds that just over 170 years the chiefs of the north and the British representatives trod to create this treaty. The mast that indicates the spot of the signing while flying the New Zealand flag at the top and the flag of the Maori chiefs and the British flag. We saw the recreation of the waka that had arrived during the treaty talks bring forth the chiefs and Maori that we under their protection. We also say the house in which the British representative Busby stayed with his family. Journeying further back in time we drove out to Oihi Bay, the bay in which Samuel Marsden landed that historic Christmas day in which he preached the first sermon in the land of the long white cloud. A solemn land that surrounds that monument to celebrate the arrival of the Gospel in New Zealand. The land was barren of any sign of human life. The view would have been similar to what the missionary families would have seen. A rocky beach leading up a steep inclined hill loomed over by a mighty pa (or Maori settlement). As we walked the beaches and retraced some of the steps those first missionaries took I could almost imagine the emotions that wives of those missionaries felt. The loneliness, the vulnerability, the exposed feelings as well as at times a sense of hopelessness in the face of no conversions. They gave their lives in a fight between two Maori iwi (tribes). They gave all they had even though they had not seen one soul won for Christ. The feeling is so overwhelming that it was hard to speak. Imagining if history had been different and Marsden had never worked towards permission to go to New Zealand... The power of the trip has once again altered my thinking of the missionary plight. I was so naive, but to go back to Oihi Bay where it is not built up as some museum to visit, no gawking, no taking pictures of buildings and remains of the first missionaries' lives; there was nothing more than a whisper in the wind that reached right to the soul to proclaim they had ever been there. Even though their work had not produced fruits for them to see, their witness had caused a scene in the spiritual world. Their legacy has lasted nearly two hundred years next Christmas shouting "Rejoice, I bring you good news of great joy!" Christ has come to save us all from our sins!! Even if you don't believe now God believes in you and loves you so much. These missionaries worked to preserve the language by writing it down, to preserve culture by writing it down, made the Gospel applicable by translating it into a message the people could understand. It makes me ponder...where was I when I first heard the Good News? Where were you?
Our field trip was to the early settlements and mission stations in New Zealand located near the Bay of Islands area (for all of you not in New Zealand if you type that into the Google Maps it will show you where we all were), the knuckle of the finger at the top of the north island as I explained it to my mom. We went to these places because we are learning about New Zealand history but especially because we have been reading the book "The Bible and the Treaty". To understand a little more, the country of New Zealand officially became part of the British colonies/power through the Treaty of Waitangi, a document that was between the British government and the Maori. Now there was and still is a lot of issues surrounding this treaty and its meaning and how it was upheld. Well the book discusses the work of the missionaries before the treaty and then after. The story of the missionaries and the Maori that they shared life with fills the pages of this book and overflows with underlying emotion as you read each word. The reality of their life came to hit me full force as we strolled the streets of those first settlements and looked across the same sights they would have seen each morning. We went to Paihia, where the first printing was, the place where the Bible was translated in segments into Maori and distributed (the full Maori Bible was printed in Australia and Great Britain due to cost). Then we took the ferry across waters that at one time had been teeming with ships, sailors, and wakas (Maori canoes) to Russel that had once been know as the hell hole of the South Pacific. Standing in Russel is the oldest standing church called Christ Church. It is surrounded by a cemetery housing several of the names we read about who had changed the history of New Zealand with their faith. The marks of the struggle to bring the Gospel and to maintain Maori culture with the invasion of European settlement were left in the form of bullet holes in the side of the church building. Left as a reminder of what they have been through and it serves as an encouragement to stay strong through the struggles. We sat in whaling pots used to boil the blubber that whalers took without care from the water of the southern coasts of New Zealand. Back across the bay we went to the historic spot from which the treaty was created and signed. We tread the same grounds that just over 170 years the chiefs of the north and the British representatives trod to create this treaty. The mast that indicates the spot of the signing while flying the New Zealand flag at the top and the flag of the Maori chiefs and the British flag. We saw the recreation of the waka that had arrived during the treaty talks bring forth the chiefs and Maori that we under their protection. We also say the house in which the British representative Busby stayed with his family. Journeying further back in time we drove out to Oihi Bay, the bay in which Samuel Marsden landed that historic Christmas day in which he preached the first sermon in the land of the long white cloud. A solemn land that surrounds that monument to celebrate the arrival of the Gospel in New Zealand. The land was barren of any sign of human life. The view would have been similar to what the missionary families would have seen. A rocky beach leading up a steep inclined hill loomed over by a mighty pa (or Maori settlement). As we walked the beaches and retraced some of the steps those first missionaries took I could almost imagine the emotions that wives of those missionaries felt. The loneliness, the vulnerability, the exposed feelings as well as at times a sense of hopelessness in the face of no conversions. They gave their lives in a fight between two Maori iwi (tribes). They gave all they had even though they had not seen one soul won for Christ. The feeling is so overwhelming that it was hard to speak. Imagining if history had been different and Marsden had never worked towards permission to go to New Zealand... The power of the trip has once again altered my thinking of the missionary plight. I was so naive, but to go back to Oihi Bay where it is not built up as some museum to visit, no gawking, no taking pictures of buildings and remains of the first missionaries' lives; there was nothing more than a whisper in the wind that reached right to the soul to proclaim they had ever been there. Even though their work had not produced fruits for them to see, their witness had caused a scene in the spiritual world. Their legacy has lasted nearly two hundred years next Christmas shouting "Rejoice, I bring you good news of great joy!" Christ has come to save us all from our sins!! Even if you don't believe now God believes in you and loves you so much. These missionaries worked to preserve the language by writing it down, to preserve culture by writing it down, made the Gospel applicable by translating it into a message the people could understand. It makes me ponder...where was I when I first heard the Good News? Where were you?
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