Photos from the weekend

Anton blowing up a hot water bottle

Otara Baptist Church youth

'Go Anton, go Anton'

Rangatahi at the gym

Time with Frank Naea

O.B.C

Rangatahi again

Ngaire & Frank

'The gripper'

'Who told you?'

Kids make Marae

Jay takes his shades off

Little wharenui

Saturday night with Frank

Another Friday night rolls around, but this Friday was no ordinary Friday, it was a “Te Haerenga Friday” and whanau were traveling from around the motu to attend.

Week 4 of Te Haerenga, Kawhia was about to kick off. Not in Kawhia though but in Waiuku, yep, back to Waiuku we go! Anticipation had been building and was bigger than the V8’s in Hamilton. Txt messages had been flying all afternoon.

“We just leaving Tauranga”, “We just leaving Kawhia”, “We not sure when we leaving” (Whoever that was) all except Tirau. “We not left”. Well that’s what the silence said. :) 

More texts from the various groups “We running 30 mins late”.”We in Pukekohe”,”We here” then “We ready”, “Heyyy” followed by “Bub’s go tell those fellas inside that we been here for 15 mins and to hurry up, it’s cold”.

And so it began, the 4^th live-in for the Kawhia stream had kicked off with a quite whakatau by the Kaumautua’s Charlie Takiaho and Ra Brown. They welcomed the whanau back to the marae and handed it over to Te Haerenga again.

The weekend unfolds

After dinner, whakawhanaungatanga was held to meet and greet while a couple of the guys did a bit of running repairs on our little wharemoe's leaking roof.

Ranagatahi had a meeting with the leadership just to go over and reinforce expectations of them and to also encourage them to participate and above all enjoy themselves.

Saturday

The next morning, everything was back to clockwork. Breakfast was handled with precision from the Waiuku whanau, the cleanup by the Rangatahi, the weather cleared to a beautiful day and last but not least, Tirau rolls in.

Everybody was here and it was a great start to the day.

Frank Naea, the main speaker for the weekend had been setting up in Te Arohanui for a session on

Who said so? Who told you?

Both Adults & Ranagatahi attended.

Frank gave a brief overview often intertwined with a lot of humor, challenging us about preconceived ideas and beliefs on who God is and how we got some of those beliefs. This session started lite and comical but also touched on some deep and meaningful personal subjects which were used to illustrate how we get some of our beliefs. He also touched on lies and how they can “empower” and “depower” a person. He challenged us to look at our own beliefs in God and ourselves and where we got them from. Who said so? Was it reputable? Were they lies?

By the end of the first session most of us had started to look at some of our own long held beliefs, who and what we believed God was and how they both were intermingled. We also some very sore cheeks and jaws from laughing so much.

In the afternoon the Rangatahi broke off and went into Waiuku to the Recreation Center run by Marama Hou Ministries. Here they met up with friends, OBC (Otara Baptist Church) and did some team building and general sports then came back and did a session of mau taiaha. Chris again put them through a good session.

The adults had some free time aka sleep and fellowship time.

A dinner of rice and freshly caught mushrooms. (not the magic variety I might add also how do you catch a mushroom?) then the whanau split into 3 groups, Adults, Ranagatahi & the little ones. 

The little ones had an awesome night of DVD’s lined up and a nice early sleep after a long day of learning, singing, playing treasure hunt, making little models of marae etc.

The Ranagatahi went back down to the Rec Centre for a session with guest speakers from Glen Innes. The 3 men gave moving testimonials of before and after God came into their life. Some of the Ranagatahi were really moved. These men were from the same background as them and because of these men’s insight, were determined not to make the same mistakes.

The Adults continued on from the first session with Frank in the morning except this session got a bit deeper but still with a lot of humor.

Where did god come from? Where does he live? How do we honor him?

These are all question asked along the way. We came to learn that God actually lives in each and everyone of us, but we have to let him out, to do his work and that through this others will come to see God not through talk but though actions, OUR actions.

This session really hit home for a lot of people. By the end of the night we were left with a new awareness of God and a new perspective on God and ourselves. 

Sunday

The next morning could only be described as “Super Sunday!!!”

Jason Hotere and Anton from Team Extreme Aotearoa came in to perform their strongman routine to the whanau. During this show, he also related to various people, times and situations during his life that influenced him while growing up.

Breaking bricks, blowing up a hot water bottle, ripping a telephone book in half, bending bars etc made such a visible impact. We cheered, yelled and screamed as these physical things broke in two! Jason, with no compromise, clearly shared how God can break down walls, strongholds in our lives as we surrender to Him.

A team of ladies vrs a team of men had a tug of war with Anton as the lynch pin. The ladies literally blew the men out of the whare. The session concluded with a “laying of hands” to help some of us pray for those that have problems in their life. It was a fitting way to round out the weekend also provided a cleansing.

After that was lunch and an amazing soup, cooked by the cooks, Nanny Bub and Lisa. Maori bread cooked by Ngawai followed by the cleanup.

We all sat out on the mahau of the wharekai and reflected on the weekend. A lot of emotion came out during this time and the whanau as a whole had enjoyed the weekend. Hatana had tried to disrupt things in the week leading up to the livein, but the whanau’s positive resolve soon put paid to that and the result was an awesome weekend.

As we finished up for yet another great weekend, the clouds above formed a clear picture of a huge white bird that sat above us. It looked like it was peacefully air brushed in the heavens.

The weekend has been a baptism of great things, a saturation of His love for us. We rejoice in the decisions made to follow Christ this weekend and our thoughts go back to God who said these words after Jesus was baptized and the Spirit of God descended like a dove on Him, 'this is my son whom I love; with him I am well pleased'

These words are so true for those who gave their lives to follow Christ, to those who needed break throughs and fellowship, the kids and youth who went about their programme, the guest speakers, the workers and friends who visited, the locals and kaumatua's of the marae and Te Haerenga overall '..with him I am well pleased'

Noho ora mai!

Thank you Waiuku, Ngati Te Ata, Reretewhioi Marae.

Well... One live-in to go for Kawhia in Kawhia and two more for Tauranga in Tauranga and then Hawaii. Anticipation is now starting to build and some of the old fire’s have been lit for Hawaii.

Pray for:

• Our next gathering for Kawhia is 2nd - 4th May in Kawhia. Pane Kawhia is the guest speaker. This is our final gathering of Te Haerenga part one.

• The next gathering for Tauranga is the 25th-27th April at Maungatapu Marae, Tauranga. Sam Chapman is the guest speaker as well as Jason & Tatiana Hotere from Team Xtreme NZ.

• Those believing God to provide to go to Hawaii

• Changes be made in our lives

Glossary (learn some Maori language)

• Whanau - Family

• Motu - Island

• Whakatau - Informal welcome

• Kaumatua - The elderly

• Whakawhanaungatanga - Getting to know one another

• Wharemoe - Sleeping house

• Rangatahi - Youth

• Te Arohanui - The name of the wharemoe (great love)

• Marama Hou Ministries - New light, fresh understaning...

• Mau Taiaha - Weponary drills

• Mahau - porch

• Wharekai - Dinning room

• Noho ora mai - Be well, remain in good health ...Wharekai - Dinning hall