Archive for April, 2010
As most of you know, I (Noah) work as an illustrator for a large company that makes tourist apparel. This part-time job is the main way in which we attempt to sustain ourselves here in New Zealand as we are prohibited from having employment of any kind INSIDE the country (our missionary visas do not allow “in-country income”). As I’m illustrating during my work day, I often have the privilege of listening to a wide variety of teachings and sermons from all sorts of different people. Most of them are good – sometimes they’re inspiring – but occasionally I’ll come across something that I just find PERFECT for the season of life that I’m in.
Today I came across one of THOSE and I wanted to share it with you.
This is from an Australian guy called Dave Lawton who is living the gospel in a way that most of us have given up on. We’ve decided that our western culture has no interest in the gospel and so we’ve stopped trying. Reaching the “lost” is something we talk about often and yet we don’t do it… almost at all. Dave is seeing otherwise, but I’ll let the audio do the talking (uh, terrible unintentional pun).
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• DAVE LAWTON – Church Planting For Everyone
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Another bit of audio I found VERY inspiring in the same stream of thought: An American guy doing ministry in Sydney, Australia and seeing an openness to the gospel that most would have said was not possible in the West.
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• STEVE ADDISON w/ TIM SCHEUER – People of Peace
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If you listen to these, I would love to hear your thoughts and what stood out to you… and what you feel you can do to change the way you live your faith.
Christchurch Downtown Recap from Kate Cremisino on Vimeo.
ALSO:
Last night, a group of the YWAM students felt God leading them to “pay for a prostitute.” (Prostitution is legal here!) They had met a specific girl previously and last night felt to pay for her time, since she is out “working”. A few girls took her out for coffee, while a bunch of other guys and girls hung back and diligently prayed for the girl in the meantime. My friend Joanna updated me afterwards that they got really deep wtih the girl, and that she is joining them for a movie tonight. So it went well. If I hear anything else, I will let you know!
What have we been doing with our time?
We regularly have YWAM gatherings/meetings on Mondays. Noah does overseas design work Tuesday-Fridays. I have started volunteering Tuesdays/Fridays with a local English as a Second Language program at a local church. I will also start up my etsy.com store soon + work on crafts throughout the week. Friday’s are dedicated to doing outreaches in the city square with YWAM… and all the time in between we are meeting with pastors, house church folk, and also working on the house and yard. We have our house open as a hospitality house throughout the week.
It’s nice to start to have a schedule in our lives!
hello from our home in the suburb of linwood, where graffiti donees each fence and signpost, but where the sun shines beautifully as the summer slowly turns to fall. our yard is slowly building up with crumpled leaves, but several bushes are still very much boasting their beautiful flowers. our doors and windows still remain very open during the days. the fresh breeze is delightful. our little windchime that was left behind tings quietly as cars whiz past on the other side of our tall, white brick wall.
we have survived one month in our new country. it’s been kind to us, compared to what some missionaries/volunteers face… such as was described in the book “near the far bamboo”, which i just finished reading yesterday—life and service through the eyes of missionaries 30 years ago in nepal (thanks for the book, mosely’s). however culture shock is still quite alive for anyone residing in a new country different from their own. i need not go into all the gory details… but yes, it’s out of our comfort zone…. each week brings it’s new challenges, ups and downs, prayers, guidance from the lord, good conversations, laughs, travels, revelations, and tears. but the reassurance of god bringing us here is the anchor that keeps us moving forward in anticipation and faith. we know a day will come when all the new things will be quite normal, and going to the states will seem less familiar (it’s also hard to imagine having children who call new zealand home… where the usa will be that far off land mom and dad always refer to as “back in the states”).
our post box has been quite empty, though we have received mail from a few (thanks!). i guess the internet causes one to forget about pen and paper. … with the internet generation rapidly using email less and facebook more, even a short email or card has so much meaning for us.
i have taken a break from facebook/twitter recently and found myself more centered, more productive at home. less connected with everyone, but talking to god more… and writing deeper, longer emails to friends. the posting of a short message on the facebook wall just aint sufficing. i need depth. i also sent out 10 postcards recently… hoping they arrive safely to their destinations sooner than later! mail delivery time to + from here seems quite inconsistent.
we’ve enjoyed some things around the area, including a rugby game, a drive to timaru, reading in hagley park, prayer walking around the neighborhood, meeting with pastors/house church folk, visiting different churches, spending time at the ywam oxford base, attending an easter service at the christchurch cathedral, running along the avon river…
we are slowly moving forward with cleaning up and furnishing the house. our crate is in new zealand but no word on when it gets shipped to christchurch. customs tends to take awhile, but it gives us an opportunity to focus on other needs here before we start unpacking more things… (but we are so excited to unpack our crate. it will be like a a huge birthday present!)
we have hosted 6 people in our house thus far, most of whom are either current ywam staff or ywam postgrads. some staff from the YWAM DTS Around the World in 80 Days came over for dinner Sat. before Easter. two slept over and went to an easter service with us at a local church. last night we had 4 more students over, who participated in the YWAM Oxford AW80D DTS last year. They are back in NZ to travel—two Americans, one Canadian, one German. Fun!
last monday 8 ywam students came to our house to help clean up the yard + wash all the windows in the house. a part of ywam is daily duties of some kind. this house is a ywam property, but i still felt strange to have them come and help clean up our area. it was a huge, huge blessing. there were americans, an irish girl, a danish guy, a kiwi, an australian and a brit. it was lovely to spend time with them and get to know them!
Please keep us in your prayers in regards to health, both physically + mentally… please pray for safety … for our marriage.. for protection from the ugly, lying cohorts of that tiny bug called satan… please also pray for continued direction + provision as we listen + hear our Father!
thanks for reading + praying. love you.
view from our garage rooftop
beach north of timaru
canterbury crusaders vs. australian team
the colorado store here is not really about colorado… just a name of a clothing company.
but cool none the less.
speaker at ywam, frank naea, former president of ywam and i think he currently oversees the oceania region of ywam .
he is samoan + maori. really neat guy. awesome story teller.
Greetings Friends!!
Soooo… we are finally back online! It’s been awhile, but we’re here. AND, because we haven’t really had proper internet access up until recently, we really fell behind on updates… so, in order to catch up, we decided to do another audio update. This one is a bit longer (sorry!) because we seem to have had lots of things to cover from the moving/assimilation process of the last 3 weeks.
One method for listening to this might be downloading the audio and putting it on your iPod (if you have one) and then, just before you go to bed, pop your headphones on and have a listen. In the future we’ll be keeping any audio updates we do much shorter so that you can listen right here online. (which is option number 2, and quite viable as well)
We’re missing everyone VERY MUCH!!
*** HEADPHONES RECOMMENDED! ***
