Te Haerenga 06 comes to a close Date

It was so good to see everyone as we gathered for our final time of evaluations, reporting back from our time in Hawaii and having lunch together.

Tim Dack (Pastor of those from Tirau) and his family were there, our kaumatua Brian and Janice Kawe, Sonny & Christine our faithful volunteers and proud parents of their newly wedded son & daughter inlaw Nathaniel & Lorell and also Lorell's parents Mark & Janice.

We had a huge lunch! watched a DVD of our time in Hawaii and phase 1 of Te Haerenga, had a few testimonies, kids did a few songs and also had time to watch a DVD of Nathaniel & Lorell's wedding.

As we look back over the past few months we are encouraged to see Gods hand upon our very first Te Haerenga.

Participants: Not knowing what He would do or who He would bring, we were so blessed to see over 30 participants and and over 20 kids! God brought families, solo parents, grand mothers, couples and those who have found the journey difficult etc from a diverse background.

Guest speakers: The speakers were of top quality and totally related their story to where people were at and we are very grateful for their availability to share with us all. Everyone was totally impacted! To our kaumatua Brian Kawe, Sam Chapman, Frank Naea, Pane Kawhia, Chris Wiremu, Monte Ohia (via video) and the Island Breeze NZ leaders. Ka mau te wehi!

Volunteers: You may remember our first update on Te Haerenga where we were in need of volunteers to work with the children and without them, truely we would have struggled. They were all amazing and the parents of each child were blessed to get the maximum out of the guest speakers as their children were learning things from the volunteers! So we thank you Sonny & Christine Walker, Vania & Kaareen, Kate, Katie and the team from House of prayer and Richard Betts from IWT.

Financial support: God's provision was amazing. Over $13,000 came in on the last week which enabled those still believing God to go, to go!

Phase two (Hawaii): We were embarrassed by the love, honor and generosity of the Hawaiian people, the organization of it was awesome which gave room for a variety of things from sharing in church, youth group, feeding the hungry, hearing from key speakers, recreation time, preparing a wedding, practical service etc we certainly were blessed big time! Many thanks to Eruera & Liz Kawe for setting up our time there in Hawaii.

What next?

Well, we get ready for the next Te Haerenga in 2007. Everyone is keen to be a part and help run the next one so we now have multiplied quite a bit! The dates of the next one is June 2007. The first noho marae begins the 15th June and rolls over every 3rd weekend from then on for 5 noho marae. Phase 2 of Te Haerenga is during the September school holidays for two weeks. The location for phase 2 is TBC but we are thinking of Hawaii again or Alaska.

Before the next Te Haerenga, Rongo te Ao plan to run a couple of Noho Marae, getting Sam Chapman back again and running other specific gatherings.

We certainly covet your prayers as we prepare for the next one. Things to pray for are

Finances to operate Te haerenga
A continued release of Maori

Until next time.

Noho ora mai!

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