My time in NZ ..... a continuation of the Beeston dRylands experiment which began back in 1999.

Wednesday, August 03, 2005

some more news....

Don & Karen - the senior leaders of the church here are currently on a 2 month sabbatical right now ... and have just arrived in the uk for a couple of weeks.
They may even try to fit in half a day in Southampton to visit Central Hall/ Billy/ and Theo if any of you are around (after hearing me singing your praises!!) - think they will ring/ email in advance if they find they have the time (they've got a pretty busy schedule)

.... they may even try to fit in a cuppa with my Mum & Dad in Chippenham (that could freak my folks out a bit ... but would be really cool if it can happen!)
I've done such a good thing in coming out here. I'm so blessed being at the church - I have so much respect for the leadership team. It is such an incredible family - real varieties of personalities/ giftings and yet they all really love one another, support one another and there's a great openness/ honesty.
Its also crazy the respect they're giving me - in terms of wanting to hear my thoughts & listening to my perspective on things & even acting on some of it!
With Don & Karen being away, its meaning we're all having to step upto the mark a bit more!

SO I'm loving getting stuck into church stuff. Buzzing with ideas as usual. Harder focusing on any of them & fleshing them out.
Been really getting involved in 'Gate church' here... that is our mid-week church which is made up of predominantly 16-23 year olds.
Its a cross between a (Southampton) Community Church Sublime & Eve Congregation ... with heaps of passion & potential but sometimes lacking in the maturity & depth.
It has a very post-mod, emerging church generation feel - very raw, rough round the edges & unstructured. The leadership team of gate church is sim to eve cong as well ... but with the average age of the leaders being around the early 20's mark rather than late 20's.
Been great to input in with them & share some of our experiences back in Southampton.
I've just set up a blog for the 'gate' leadership team here to discuss ideas/ thoughts/ issues.

Also been busy on the contemplative side of things. Set up a contemplative group aimed predominantly at the Gate age-group. Spoken a couple of times on the subject, and our group has met twice now (fortnightly meetings) ... with about 15 folk turning up at the last one (really chuffed with that) ... there has been a real buzz to it over here (its a real new thing for them all).

Life in new zealand in general has been a bit strange recently. Even though I've been on the road lots recently - my time out here no longer has the holiday feel to it anymore. I'm really loving living in this new community, in a new culture and feeling pretty much at home (for the short time that I'm here). But at the same time, being winter, weather has been pretty awful - and its constantly raining. So I've not been getting out to explore much.
Hamilton where I'm living is quite bland - but community stuff is very much alive here & I'm starting to feel less like an outsider in it all.... plus there's a few good cafes which we hang out in a lot.... partic after church & mid-week meetings.
Its amazing how much of my life is full up of church.
Wish I had a bit more of my life outside of church... that's prob my only regret as yet.

So far managed 2 afternoons on the slopes ... once boarding with Mieke & once ski-ing by myself. Been spoilt with excellent weather on both occasions ... but the runs are very limited on the north island ... some fun off-pisting in places but you get from top to bottom of the mountain in 5-10mins max, then 30 mins to get back up! All the same I was surprised by the reasonable quality of the runs! Hopefully going to get 5-6 days in on the real slopes on south island in september.

Looking forward to luke & nav coming over. Hope its not too much a logistical nightmare ... as nav arrives in auckland & luke comes following day in wellington - which is over 8 hours drive away from auckland.

I drove down to wellington last friday (6.5 hour drive), to surprise Mieke for her birthday, then drove all the way back sat lunchtime ... as I was hosting both meetings at church on the sunday.
Was definitely worth it though!
Been good catching up with Matt W the last couple of weekends as well.

right probably gone on long enough
love you all heaps,

blessings and stufff
Mat x

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