Fantastic first-hand experience account of choosing to engage in discipleship-based missional communities over growing a mega church. Noah saw this, passed it along to me and I wanted to share it for anyone keen to read. It’s something we hope to help encourage here in Christchurch.

http://mikebreen.wordpress.com/2012/02/04/how-i-chose-movement-over-mega-the-story-of-sheffield

We were blown away (and still are) by the generous response from friends and family who have rallied around us and Christchurch at this time. We are SO thankful for your financial backing as Noah stepped away from work at this time of recovery and outreach. Here are some photos from a relief center where locals could basically go grocery shopping for free! We used some funds from your donations to provide milk, bread, canned goods, fruit, etc.

A church in New Brighton set up a relief center and a food/supplies distribution center right after the quake. Volunteers have been working hard to distribute goods to residents. It is so helpful because residents have to now drive very far, on messed-up roads, through heavy traffic to get to far away stores. (Stores on our eastside are shut down). And with job loss, money is tight. This initiative is so great!

Today I put in a couple hours with the YWAM Oxford people who were there most of the day. Tomorrow Noah and I plan to connect with YWAM Oxford again with more local outreach.

At our place, still no water coming through the pipes. We discovered the pipes are actually broken under the house!! So we are sussing what we need to do at this point. For now, we are totally blessed with the natural spring that we have the garden hose connected up to. It’s been soooo handy with providing water for baths, laundry and dishes!

June in the southern hemisphere places us directly in the soggy grip of winter rather than reveling in the familiar shift from spring into summer. As we face back-to-back winters we find ourselves aching for warm, illustrious weather. Though it’s cold we have especially enjoyed one unexpected detail: unlike Colorado winter, here many trees still go bare but the bushes, grass and flowers sit vibrantly unaffected by the cold. We still have a green yard, a fruitful lemon tree and a blooming rose bush despite the regular morning frosts!

Thankfully some friends and family gave us an excuse to break the coat-and-scarf monotony of winter to have a taste of summer. We will be traveling July 18 through August 16 in the States, attending weddings and family gatherings. Our stops will be Colorado, Iowa and California and we can’t wait to celebrate Nathan & Sarah’s wedding (Noah’s brother), Paul & Jaya’s wedding (house church friends), and Kate’s family gathering in Keystone (among other things). We’ve also been craving good ol’ American food like never before: Chipotle, Heidi’s, Panera, Chili’s, Taco Bell—watch out, here we come!

The last month has been filled with God opening doors with new friends and ministry partners while He continues to speak revelations to us about this city and its people. We’ve befriended a couple our age from South Africa which has been a direct answer to prayer as they also moved here with a heart to see house churches planted in the city (this is literally a mind-blowing miracle). We are so encouraged by them and our other contacts here, including a network of home churches we are praying, worshiping, and learning with.

Prayer is a BIG thing on our hearts lately. We feel God has called us into a season of intentional prayer for the city and the people – especially because we’ve seen that before large moves of God He always calls His people to prayer. We have been dreaming of a city-wide 24/7 prayer room here, but are still waiting on the Father for this. Whatever He’s got planned for Christchurch, It’s gonna be huge! The years of apathy and unbelief are coming to an end — we are moving into a season of miracles, repentance and discipleship!

On the practical side of things, we are currently gutting the kitchen, with the help of YWAM, and repainting the lounge (family room). We’ve continued to have new problems at the house, but Noah is apparently pretty handy with the jigsaw (among other things) so he’s been able to get things repaired and working. We are hoping by spring to have this place looking fantastic and functioning like clockwork! (Thanks also to Andrew Rosie for his wall repairs and all-around good humor!)

The new YWAM school, The Skiers + Snowboarders Discipleship Training School, has begun! We will be partnering with them on Friday evenings for outreach in the city – specifically engaging with youth at the skate park, working with internationals at Rice Cube (an English + Bible study focused outreach), ministering to people downtown and spending some hours praying for transformation in Christchurch from the prayer room in our home.

Kate has finished her English Tutoring training and is now tutoring a young mother from Bhutan. We’ve also befriended an Afghani couple through another English program Kate volunteers with. We have thoroughly enjoyed spending time with them and pray earnestly for an opportunity to share with them the story of the humble King who redeems the world!! (prayer request!)

This month we hosted one traveler, a friend from Colorado (hey Kat!) who was in the country for study abroad. Next weekend we are hosting Kate’s YWAM DTS directors who are also flying through on their way north.

As June ends and July begins, we bless you in the name of Jesus and urge you to keep pressing on toward the goal: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength,” and “Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.”

We love you all – full speed no break,

Kate + Noah