Te Haerenga:Update two Date: 21st April 2006 >> Click for update one  three  four  five

Since PQDTS graduation we have been refocusing on our new sort term missions for Maori called ‘Te Haerenga-Beyond the shores of Aotearoa’ (the journey beyond the shores of New Zealand)

Meeting with pastors in the region was awesome and has stirred a great interest to see Maori released into mission exposure.

We met with People from Kawerau, Paeroa, Tirau, Te Aroha, Putaruru and with locals here in Tauranga.

We have already completed our 1st gathering and have just finished our 2nd (in total, we meet 5 times then go on outreach for 2 weeks)

Praise report (from last update)

At a service a couple felt God challenge them to be a part of this and are praying about setting up a scholarship to help launch Maori into this short term mission programme and a church has donated $1000.00 to help run the programme! This has been a very encouraging start as we give birth to this vision.

The weekend unfolds

We had our 2nd gathering at Waikari Marae in Matapihi. People arrived car load by car load from 5pm onwards. It was great to see everyone again as well as meet new faces that have come aboard.

The guys from Te Aroha were not able to make it this weekend and some of the children were away on school holidays.

Guest speaker: We were very honoured to have Sam Chapman as our speaker. Sam is director of Houhanga Rongo ministries, serves on the board for World vision, University lecturer and has a huge heart for family and community.

Sam shared his story, highlighting God being very much involved in journey in both great and not so great times. He encouraged us to recognize those times as well.

                                                                                                 

“I need some volunteers to guess what is in this lunch box” Sam had us interact with the teaching by asking volunteers to guess as best as possible what was in the lunch box: One could only guess by shaking the box only, one to feel the contents inside without looking at the items, and the other to see inside the lunch box and describe in detail each object. “Who knows best”? The shakers are those that formulate ideas about you from afar, judging by their own understanding. The feelers are they that have an idea about you but the relationship is still at a distant. The insiders know who you are and can describe fairly accurately the you that’s in you and can understand your journey. There are many applications to this principle as we were encouraged to walk close with others in acceptance endeavouring to understand. Not to be shakers or feelers but insiders in our human relationships.

“Why do we look in the mirror each day”! We talked about some things we celebrate and things we want to see change in our lives and the reality of making those changes are very slim unless we make an exchange with Jesus.

Sam’s teaching certainly was full of gems. The weekend seemed to be sprinkled with hundreds and thousands! He touched on repentance-returning to the high place, Whanau-practical ways of creating a family environment, hope for the future and much more…

“God has touched some tender places in our hearts this weekend”

“I have made a decision to return to the high place for myself and my family”

Mau rakau workshop

Saturday afternoon we had a 3 hour workshop on mau rakau run by Chris Wiremu and his team who travelled down from Auckland.

We split into 3 groups and rotated around 3 stations that taught certain aspects of mau rakau. One being foot work, another on hand-eye coordination and one the use of the rakau. At the end of the workshop we collectively went through everything as well as further demonstrations by the team.

                                                               

The wisdom, skill, revelation and discipline that came through the workshop was amazing as we learnt principles of being alert, having focus, trust & honour, endurance, being ready at all times, discipline and again much more all of these were parallels to our Christian walk.

The workshops were delivered with quality, humour, and respect. We want to thank Chris and the boys for an excellent hands on lecture on life principles.

Chris and the boys will return to the next gathering for part 2 on mau rakau.

 

Kids programme

We were very blessed to have quality people spend time with our children. They too had a great time of learning from all the volunteers.

Sonny & Christine took the Saturday morning shift. They all went to the hot pools for a swim!

Richard from IWT & John took the afternoon and night shift, teaching songs and playing games. That evening they watched a DVD on the big screen.

Kate & Katie from House of prayer along with their team took the Sunday Morning shift teaching songs, bible lessons and playing games

This has been an absolute blessing. We literally got the phone calls the Friday morning we were to start. Up until that point we had only the Saturday morning covered for the children.

                                               

Many thanks to Waikari, Ngati Tapu for the use of the Marae. To all the volunteers for an awesome job with the children and our guest speaker Sam Chapman and also Chris Wiremu, Jackson, Kelly and Mani for the workshop on mau rakau.

Next gathering is 12-14 May at Waikari Marae. Frank Naea is our guest speaker and Chris will do workshop 2 on Mau rakau.

 

Prayer needs

Click here for update one

 

Until next time.           

Ma te Runga rawa koutou hei manaaki!

                                                                                                                                                                                  

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