We figured we should let you know that for the last few months almost everyone in Christchurch has been waiting for tomorrow (Sept 28) to pass by quietly. The reason being that there have been a few predictions/prophecies about an earthquake and subsequent tsunami hammering the northern shores of Christchurch. A various many people (non-Christians and Christians alike) have had dreams about such things as well. Some are choosing to believe, some are refuting it, most are uncertain. It’s been an “interesting” time to say the least.

Have a look at this bit from 3 NEWS (hopefully you can watch it outside of NZ) HERE.

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Two weeks ago we were having dinner with some friends who live by the beach. We got talking about all of the hype around these “predictions” and decided to spend part of the evening praying about it together. During prayer, it turned out that Noah and I received the same impression from the Lord. We basically had the same scripture and picture come to mind – something we’ve never had happen before.

He began by sharing that he felt the Lord lead him to the book of Job. I said, “Me too!”. Then he stated that the Lord specifically pointed out a particular verse in the last few chapters where God reminds Job of who He (God) is ( “were you there when I created this… and this..”), and I said, “Me too!”

Then Noah went on to say that he felt the Lord remind him of where He talks about creating the sea and says, “This far you may come and no farther; where you proud waves halt.?” and again, I was astonished and said, “Me too!!” Then he shared that he felt God say we should go down and speak that over the ocean in prayer. And again, I had the same thing, an image of us praying along the shore. We both felt the Lord was showing us that believers are meant to stand against this plan of destruction rather than sit back and wait for it to happen.

We all walked a block down to the beach, totally giddy that God just showed us that simultaneously. So we stood at the high tide line and prayed, speaking those words of the the ocean (feeling a bit silly yet feeling faithful and secure at the same time)… “you may come this far and no further” we said and prayed for awhile. (Reference: Job 38:8-11)

Then a few days later I was praying for confirmation to write a message to send out to people about praying against the prophecies… As soon as I asked for for confirmation, the Lord reminded me of a passage of scripture He has spoken to us throughout the last two years of our journey to NZ and the 18 months of living here. Jeremiah 29: 4-9. He has used this to parallel what my husband and I are going through as He called us here. Paraphrase: Settle, build a family, seek the peace of the city, pray for it, do not trust prophets/diviners who were not sent by God. He reminded me of the last part in particular. We really feel we must not embrace this negative word as something from the Lord but consider it as something from the enemy that we can intercede against.

So the last month we have been praying and asking God to prevent further earthquakes, tsunamis, or any other form of destruction.

As we try to discern the language and theology used throughout the “prophecies” we have been weighing what we know to be true of God and His plans for this city. We are praying tomorrow passes by beautifully with no drama whatsoever! Please join us in that prayer!

Sometimes we go through a season of open doors and obvious answers. Other times (those much more annoying times) we have to tread water and wait for rescue. And sometimes the wait is long, but we have to call to God for strength in the waiting .

We don’t know if it’s that we both got sick, if it’s hormones or the cold, dreary weather or that we are just sick of all the earthquake drama… (or all of the above!!) but we hit a wall this week and both felt like we were treading water and beginning to sink. We just couldn’t carry all the unknown questions with smiles on our faces and joy in our hearts! Before you worry, we are TOTALLY FINE! It’s just one of those short seasons of struggle. One of those “I can’t be upbeat and positive all the time!” seasons.

We are continually trusting God through each of these things and believing how He promises to carry our burdens if we let him. If we relinquish worries, stress, the unknown to Him, He is faithful to carry us through.

We’d appreciate your prayers as we have a lot on our minds:

—Our two year visa has 6 months left on it and we are starting to look into the renewal process

—We have several ministry ideas on the table and are waiting for direction/timing on each

—Still have a chemical toilet and waiting for sewer pipe repairs (house still not inspected either)

—Feeling a huge burden for the city and we can get discouraged when others are apathetic. But we have to remind ourselves that God told us before we moved here that there is a lot of apathy and that we will be used to ignite change and catalyze things… so we just need endurance in the journey of doing that! We can feel pressure that we should be on a certain timeline or seeing more progress but we have to remind ourselves that God said our time here will be a marathon not a sprint.. and that the first year would be settling in.

—Personally, I (Kate) have been in a season of re-evaluating what projects/volunteering things I plug into and am trying to manage my time according to what God wants.

—There is a prophecy floating around for something bad happening in late September here and it’s brought a heavy cloud over us as we try to discern if it’s accurate or false.

—And a few other personal things are on our minds as well…

—We keep thinking it would be great timing to go away for September but we keep feeling a “no” from God, so we wait it out, asking Him to help us push through this season.

Thank you for praying for us. Please send us any words you get from the Lord for us! MUCH appreciated!

We know this amazing lady named Mel who has her hands in a lot. She basically lives to serve. One of the things she does, when she’s not running her house as a drop-in center, is help people clean out their homes… in particular… people who hoard. I don’t actually know how she gets in contact with these people. I’ll find out sometime soon I’m sure, but yea, last night we got the youth home church to get together and move all the junk out of this house… then had a pizza dinner after. It was great to help out, but it was also quite horrifying that people live this way. I don’t want to go into too many details, but it smelled, was filthy and cobwebs and mold all over. But will a lot of hands we got it done pretty quick.

Tonight Noah was at a house church meeting and Mary (our housemate), Steve (her best friend slash boyfriend? hee hee) and I met and prayed with a girl they have been discipling (“S”). We processed through and prayed through some of her past—about things that were done to her, the pain she has, and issues she faces now (prostitution, addictions, etc)… then ended up going out to the beach for an impromptu “burning the past” ceremony… basically we wrote down some of the main events in her past that scarred her, and tore them up, dug a hole in the sand, set them on fire and watched them burn. Then we stomped on them, danced around, praised God and came home and baptized her in our tub! “S” has been trying to turn her life around this last month and been relying on several friends who have supported her through the process (Mary, Steve and others). “S” has been living here for almost 2 weeks and will be moving out this Saturday.

In the right place at the right time.
That’s how I feel about our meeting Rob M.

Yesterday I had that lovely craft morning with Karen.
Afterward, before leaving that neighborhood,
I thought I’d stop by the relief center to see Mary and “S”.

While there I found out about Rob M. who had called the center,
asking if he could get some food delivered to his house. Mary
had spoken to him, telling him some numbers for some ministries
and churches that deliver food parcels. But it was too late on a
Friday afternoon and he was unable to request anything until
Monday.

Mary relayed all this to me and said that he mentioned he had
an injury, he was taking care of his disabled son, and that he
was unable to afford groceries at this time.

I felt awful and remembered that we have some extra money
from donations people sent to us in February. We plan to do
some food delivery for other families next Wednesday with
that same money.

So I got Rob’s number from Mary and called him, asking
what kinds of things he likes or needs. He was the nicest guy!
He said, “I don’t know what to say!! Thank you!” and then
when I asked what kinds of sweets he wants (after getting the list
of the more nutritious staples he needed) he said, “Ohhh wow,
I don’t know! We haven’t had those in awhile!”

Today we went to PakNSave and bought a bunch of groceries.
It is so amazing to be able to do that for someone. Thank you
to all our donors!!!

So we drove into his neighborhood which is just north of ours.
It was a really messed up area (from earthquake damages). We
showed up and he walked out smiling. I immediately noticed
his right arm was pulled up to his side and I asked about it. He
mentioned having several surgeries (free healthcare here) from
injuries and some benign cancer. The nerves in his arms no
longer work and he hurts it often because of that.

Once inside we noticed what a disaster the home is in.
We found out later that due to flooding (from rencent snow melt
in his broken roof from earthquake) that the house has tons of
water damage. Everything was in disorder.

Then after talking awhile he mentioned that he couldn’t afford
groceries in the last few weeks because money went to the
cleaning up of the house issues.

As we helped him put away groceries I noticed the empty fridge,
bare shelves… I handed him a hunk of cheese and he “ooh’ed and ahh’ed”,
saying, “Cheese!” clearly expressing he hadn’t had any in awhile!

At one point I said, “I don’t know if you’re a believing man,
but we’d love to pray for you if that’s OK,” and he was happy
for us to, so that was great. I prayed and he seemed really touched.
He kept his head bent down after and murmured,
“That was really touching. No one’s done that for me before.”

Wow. It was one of those beautiful moments.

Before we left he shared with us some more
bad news of things that have happened in the past.
Both of his children (now 18, 23) were raped at young ages.
Gut wrenching. The kids’ mum left when they were young.
He’s raised them and cared for them through all this time
and has been there for them emotionally as well.

He has suffered a lot. He has worked different jobs
but cannot do a lot at the moment due to his arm. And
he mentioned they have no family around, and not a lot
of friends. My heart broke.

We all need community.
We need love and hugs and support.
And prayer.

It was a pleasure to meet him. He has such a great attitude.
He is so caring of his kids and his 3 dogs who he rescued.
We hope to be in his life more.

As we left his house he said, “Thanks again for praying for me!”
And I said laughingly, “Anytime you want it, we can pray! Just ask!”

I literally just wanted to go back and pray, pray, pray
that very second. But I didn’t want to overwhelm him!

We hope to invite them all over for dinner soon.
We’ll keep you updated!

If I hadn’t of swung by the center
we never would have had this
interaction. I love being at the right
place at the right time. So many
opportunities are around us to
love people and take care of each
other…

Hello Faithful Friends + Family!

Thanks for checking in on our happenings! Here are few tidbits.

• Sewer is still unfixed from the February quakes, as well as other major repairs. Waiting for assessments and insurance. We had a tree removed that had sunken down (into a sinkhole) and it was falling over into the sidewalk/road.

• We have a new housemate, Mary, who works with YWAM/Grace Vineyard Church. She is originally from England. We have been talking and praying about how we can partner together in some ministry ideas we have brewing. We currently also have a young lady (who I shall call “S” on here) staying with us temporarily who is Kiwi. Mary has been discipling her the last month. “S” recently left the streets and gave her life to God. Mary met her through the outreach/support center at her church. Mary’s love, compassion and patience in this situation blows me away and it has been an honor to witness her unselfish commitment to “S’s” well being.

• We have been hosting monthly group dinners with two other couples. We rotate homes and invite friends. It’s been a cool way to meet one another’s friends, grow our community circle and love on people. This week we hosted a “Christmas in July” themed dinner at our house.

• We have been brainstorming with two specific ministry projects and would appreciate your prayer as we also pray through them! One involves city-wide organic church, the other involves city-wide prayer. Pray for people to come along to partner with these and that we’d only do what we feel God leads us into!

• Tutoring is going well, as well as various volunteering efforts.

• Please pray for our HEALTH, SAFETY, PEACE and PERSEVERANCE!

• If you have any design needs please get ahold of Noah or pass on his name to people who may need his skills! And if you need any gift ideas, please check out Kate’s hand-stitched photo cards! Price includes shipping.

LOVE YOU!

I love those times when God arranges something you had nothing to do with.

Today we paid our YWAM fees for living in this house. Several months worth.

A couple hours later a friend donated the exact same amount into our account.

This friend told us he felt God had led him to do it.

He didn’t know about our fees or our needs.

Thank you to GOD and our friend for listening and being generous with your hard-earned money!!!

Our lovely neighbors watched their collapsed house get demolished today. They said that though it’s heartbreaking to see, they are glad they don’t have to look at it anymore. They are living in the backyard, in a caravan and have seeing their eerily crushed home every moment since February 22, with the inability to recover any items. They have been building a temporary shower in the meantime, and have been showering down the street at the tennis court complex. Today they were able to salvage some things a few times, when debris was lifted and moved around. This was truly heartbreaking to watch. With your donations were were able to give them some grocery vouchers (a couple months ago) and we will be giving them some cash next time we go over. Tomorrow we hope to have them over for dinner if they are available!

They look forward to rebuilding their new home. Please pray for them as they work with insurance to get the cost covered for demo + rebuild. They’ve had a really tough time nailing down help. Prayers appreciated.

BEFORE:

It’s been an honor to hang out with a particular group of university-aged kids this year.

Since late January/early February?? we’ve been meeting up with a family who has two kids who are 17 + 19. We were connected to them by a mutual friend on the north island. They were keen to start a house church//youth gathering, so we were asked to help get something going.

We’ve been meeting every two weeks and facilitating gatherings, but last night we launched an idea on them so they could transition into leading themselves. We have a passion to see believers not just attend something run by someone else, but actively participate and step up into leading themselves.

We introduced the loose structure of “Eat. Think. Pray. Love.” which is a rotation schedule of themes for each gathering with the purpose of creating a more holistic experience where everyone can sign up to facilitate the gathering.

Eat nights: a time for getting to know each other better, having fun, eating a meal together, games, events, etc. a good time for friends to come along to a “non-threatening” gathering

Think nights: a time to listen to a message/read scripture/meditate on scripture/discuss a topic/an opportunity for someone to speak/sermonize!

Pray nights: a time to pray for one another, pray for issues in the city, prayer walk, worship, attend a worship event/a time for ministry/healing etc.

Love nights: a time to outreach/volunteer into the community, help neighbors, plan a weekend outreach event, talk about global issues that we can educate ourselves about + support..

So all the kids signed up with a partner to host/facilitate a night.

I’m looking forward to seeing what they do and how it goes!

Here is some audio of them from last night… though you might be interested to hear the accents!

Meet the Uni Group by KateCrem

I have to mention Sally here also! Basically on the first gathering this familiar-looking girl walks in, telling me she already knows me, but I couldn’t place her. It ends up that we actually were digging out liquefaction together last September after the first earthquake. We were a part of a cleanup effort in a particular neighborhood and quietly worked together for a few hours. Then about 5 months later she walks into this youth gathering at the house! Super cool living in Christchurch… always running into people you know/or who look familiar! Small town!

School is back in session so I volunteered there on Thurdsay. A school in Auckland donated gift boxes to the students at our school (sending love due to our trauma with the earthquake!) I was able to help some kids go through the boxes and sort the gifts (girls, guys) so that everyone can get something. There were not enough boxes for each kid.

Afterwards I strolled toward home but popped into the haberdashery where I found Jane. The store was open! It passed the earthquake damage inspection and was able to reopen. They did repairs, got new carpet, reorganized the place and are back in business. Hooray! I stayed for a bit to help restock skeins of yarn!

After that I stopped by the Indian takeaway shop, chatted a bit and was given some free samoas. Scrumptious! Here is a photo of a tutoring session with the cook!

We also ran into our neighbor who’s house flattened. They are now living in the backyard in a camper van. The house will be demolished soon and they will begin rebuilding a new home.

Our nearby mall is still shutdown and undergoing major repairs and rebuilding. This means we have to travel far to get groceries and any other items.