Full on

We took in three new members today following the morning service - Andreas, Danielle and Dannica (although poor Danielle was sick in bed with nasty flu). Between services we had our monthly fellowship lunch, and then Micah spent the afternoon with us at home. Micah preached at both services today on the pre-eminence of Christ over creation and in redemption, and on the topic of hope, past, present and future. Good to have him in the pulpit and Nick sitting next to me :) Nick did his Fiji missions presentation after the message which went down well and was very informative...and then after an unusually long service and time of fellowship, Graham and Liz brought take-away tea around to our place, spoiling us with much fried food...crispy battered fish, pineapple rings, sausages on sticks, and waaaaaay too many chips (we were reminded of Nick and Brendon's three-scoop faux-pas from earlier in the year, heh heh). Got stuck into a bit of music and it turns out that Liz, who we already know plays the piano and trombone and sings, is also quite a deft hand at violin despite only having played for a year when she was a teenager. It would almost be infuriating that she's so good at all things musical if it hadn't been just so much fun playing duets and blending our squeaking notes together in a round of Kookaburra!

Brrr, sunshine

Soooooooo much blue sky today!! We had Micah with us again today for a large part - he has been very easy company, happy to sit on the couch with a glass of water and his laptop. He ended up being called on to do an extra adult bible class as the scheduled speaker had to pull out at the last minute, so did some prep during the morning, once we'd finished using him to help shift bunk beds :) Chaos happened all around as the boys' room got emptied and cleaned, which took longer than anticipated as there was way more junk in there than expected. Matt, in his Landlordliness, and the boys swung by during the morning as well for some plumbing work which couldn't get finished due to time constraints. After lunch Nick pried me away from the vacuum cleaner for a Caroline Bay outing...wanting to show our guest a bit of our town. The sunny appearance of the outdoors was deceptive as a southerly had sprung up and it didn't get above 10 degrees, but it was still an excellent outing. The boys co-operated just long enough for a photo or two despite sun being in their eyes and Caleb's coughing. After a walk along the boardwalk, we hopped over to Burger King for an ice-cream...poor Nick got tasked with a whole bunch of to-dos after he had dropped Micah back off with Andreas and Danielle, including scrubbing potatoes for tomorrow's pot luck lunch!

all about Fiji

I'd like to introduce a guest blogger this evening...Nick!! We've been wanting to share his Fiji trip (13-27 June) since he got back, but have had little time to do so...so here we are. Handing over to Nick now:

After a shaky start (5.5) I arrived in a very warm and humid Fiji. I preached 16 times in 14 days, with two days spent in travelling there and back. Some of the highlights include a surprise wedding, preaching to Mormons at a Pastor's Fraternal, preaching about the Sovereignty of God to two charismatic churches, praying with a family who've been blessed with a new arrival, and eating lots of curry without implements. First thing that struck me about Fiji was the poverty. I didn't get to see any of the beautiful white beaches and stereotypical tourist scenes. I spent my time predominantly amongst Fijian Indians, even learning a Hindi song and a few Hindi words. The goal of the trip was to encourage both Vijay and Narsamma as well as Sovereign Grace Baptist Church and to scout around and see in what constructive ways we at MRBC can get behind the work there. The 11.4% of Fiji's unreached people groups are all amongst the Hindus and Muslims, the very people who Vijay is seeking to minister amongst. Being there, one becomes painfully aware of the difficulties that Vijay and Narsamma and the church face: the unstable political situation, the church not being able to pay them a stipend, "sheep stealing", some church discipline issues which can rip apart the soul of a pastor, the stifling heat and their failing health. All of these have made me deeply sympathetic to the work there. Here is a short collection of photographs to give you a feel.
Snow-sprinkled mountains - one of many of the beautiful NZ scenes as we were forced to fly at a low altitude to be beneath the ash cloud.
Vijay and Narsamma Chandra
Sovereign Grace Baptist Church on the second Sunday of my stay.
Above: Narsamma sitting with a deaf lady. Narsamma interprets the sermons into sign language. Below: Vijay and Raman, at whose house Vijay is intending to start a brand new bible study in the squatter camp.
Above and below: market scenes. I couldn't tell you what these things are, but I presume they are edible :)
These next three are from the wedding - the pastors with the bridal party, followed by Henna Hands, and cute bridesmaid.
Below are five 'street scenes' - the third one is one of the local Mosques.
This wee girl was born the day I arrived - here she is at 13 days. I was invited to the family home for a meal the Saturday before I left.
And finally, a short clip taken at a bible study - a sample of their singing in Hindi.

Walk this Way

Timaru Christian School had a Fun Walk today...I think Janet and the PTA people were using a marketing ploy though because walking nearly 5 kms is tiring. But if one is going to do a fundraising event then organizing a Wearying Walk is not going to fly. And I'm sure there was a lot of fun.

We went out the school and along the road......towards Centennial Park......over some mud......in the winter sun......stopped to examine huge pieces of ice where water had frozen along the path and remained unmelted at 2 pm... ...down a hill and around another bit......avoiding the camera or striking a pose......stopped to tie a shoelace......went up another hill......rested a while in the park......smiled for the camera......got stones out of shoes......and finally ended up back on the road to the school.We arrived back at the school around 2 pm, and instead of coming home I joined a few other walkers in the staffroom for a cup of milo. The boys were allowed out early so we were home by 3.

In the late afternoon and for tea we had the pleasure of Micah Renihan's company. Micah is a theological student from Westminster Theological Seminary in California who is doing an internship with Rob Harrod at Grace Baptist Church in Christchurch. He's in Timaru for the weekend to minister in our church, doing youth tonight and preaching on Sunday. What with rearranging the house in preparation for the Garnetts' arrival on Thursday, tea arrangements were a little sketchy...Micah had to make do with hotdogs and fries!

Happy homecoming!

Tuesday afternoon - Nick's return to Timaru after 14 nights in Fiji and one night in Christchurch. He caught a bus back from Christchurch so I didn't have to drive four hours in the dark, so called us when he was about 10 minutes away. I thought we'd beat him by far so stoked the fire, put on make-up, tidied my hair...and ended up getting to the bus-station several minutes after he'd arrived, leaving him standing out in the cold! We were all pleased to see him again, and presents were not long in coming out the bag - Chinese-style wooden puzzles for us, and a necklace and bracelet for me as well. It's taken me a few days to adjust to having Nick around again, as I've gotten used to my own company and being my own boss :) The rest of the week followed in its usual pattern - school, work, and lots of things needing doing. Nick tucked straight into his bible study prep, and then today started putting together a video presentation of pictures and clips about the ministry in Fiji.

Rounding off a very Kempf weekend

Had an interesting Sunday School lesson this morning as I didn't have access to my material in Luke (ahem Grant), but had a back-up plan of some activity sheets which I had been given a few weeks ago on the topic of alcohol and substance abuse. It led to a good discussion on the biblical view on drinking which I shall not elaborate on here. Grant was preaching in both services today and the messages were good, on discipleship: taking up one's cross, denying oneself and following Christ. For lunch we were invited to Shirley, along with Miriam and the boys so we were a good crowd around the table and tucked into the homegrown potatoes, kumaras, beans, tomatoes, pumpkin (I made the boys have a small piece...turns out they are not allergic like Nick is and there was no gagging and the teeth were not overly long) and pork. Pudding - homegrown raspberries in a hot sauce over ice-cream. Yum! Caleb and Aaron were happy to play with Peter and Harry, but things got even more exciting with the arrival of the Kempfs (that would be the Rene and Bron variety) with Sam and Hannah thrown into the mix. All in all a great afternoon, especially with sunshine streaming in through the windows from an almost cloudless sky. Home long enough for the boys to pick their clothes up off the floor and start writing lines (yes, on a Sunday) before heading back for the afternoon service.After church we came back home - I was knackered and the boys needed to finish their penalty lines. Got the fire going, had a variety tea, watched a few short episodes of the Penguins of Madagascar with the boys, then Nick skyped. He is doing well, has had his last meetings today and all went well. He leaves tomorrow morning for the airport and his flights home (let's hope Air New Zealand can still navigate through the ash cloud). He overnights in Christchurch tomorrow night and buses home on Tuesday. So we're nearly done!