Getting Crafty

If you want to - download the prayer cube, print it on card or stiff paper: cut it out, past it up, fold along the black lines and put it somewhere to remind you to pray for us. OR just print it out and stick it to your fridge/wall to remind you to pray for us...

I'm in Wanaka again. 3 Months ago I was here toward the end of the trip here for conferences... Then it was all before me - the move and the goodbyes, the settling in... now, we've been here six weeks today.

It seems amazing - it feels like we've been here forever, we LOVE New Zealand, are becoming blase about amazing scenery and are having lots of fun. We know that this is a precious time and are grateful for it.

Yesterday was an eventful day, as Ines and I parked the caravan on arriving here, Ruben fell off a seesaw and fractured his wrist (our first brush with the medical services here): its not a bad fracture and will be healed in just two weeks. I just got back from the medical centre with him and our younger two ran across the street without looking. I leaned out of the caravan to chastise them for foolhardiness. I was in the middle of saying 'DO I have to take you two to the medical centre too?' when the wind caught the caravan door and closed it quick and hard against my head, knocking me to the floor and nearly knocking me out. I'm OK - just left with a bit of a headache!

Pray for our safety - we're climbing glaciers in the next few days as we head north - hitting North Island on Nov 7th!

See you later...

New Zealand’s Bottom…

Beautiful Curio Bay

I’m writing from Curio Bay, just a few kilometers short of the bottom of South Island. It is an amazing place: there is a fossilized Jurassic forest on one side of the bay which is home to a colony of very rare yellow eyed penguins and the other side of the bay is home to a pod of Hectors dolphins, also very rare and this is the only place in the world where they come so close to shore, so regularly. On arriving here we went for a walk on the stunning beach (at least a couple of miles long) only to be met by another of the rare marine life, a New Zealand sea lion, which know no fear of people and let us know that we were visitors to her beach and that she was the one who was in charge: she was friendly and good tempered though; which was a relief to us all.

We’ve finished our tour of university cities (barring Auckland, which we’ll get acquainted with once we live there) and have moved on to the rural south of South Island. Its been great meeting more students and supporters in and around Christchurch, Lincoln and Dunedin. The visit to the different student groups has been a great help in getting the understanding of studentdom in NZ and how TSCF functions in each of these places.

The last couple of weeks has not been without its attacks of homesickness and I’m told that it is better to celebrate differences rather than to dwell on them negatively: so here are some differences that have made me smile:

MANCHESTER: not the name of a northern city but the common designation of bed linen here in NZ – so it the isles in ‘The Warehouse’ (see previous blogs) read ‘Electrical Goods’ ‘Housewares’ ‘Manchester’.

‘Igs’: the kiwi accent place emphasis and vowel sounds in some of the most unlikely places (to the English ear). A recent piece of research has asserted that kiwi women speak with a more pronounced accent than kiwi men: anecdotal evidence would seem to back this up. ‘igs’ are ‘eggs’ and that’s where the fun begins…

Road rules: [warning – if you are from the UK this might hurt your brain thinking about this] here in NZ, if you are turning left off a road and someone is wanting to turn from oncoming traffic into the same road/exit they have right of way: this means you stop to let them turn in HOWEVER if you are behind someone who is indicating left and see someone indicating to turn in right and you are wanting to continue straight ahead, you have right of way. So the person turning left has to stop, wait for the driver behind him/her to overtake and continue straight ahead only for the person who was indicating right to then pull into the road ahead of them. As yet I have only one near miss to report from confusion in my head arising from this situation.

Strangers: when someone you don’t know says hello, they do not want something from you, they are not trying to sell anything, canvas your opinion or get you to sign a petition; they are simply saying hello – this might blossom into a meaningful conversation or stop at the simple greeting. Either way – they are being friendly, genuinely nice and wanting to say hello. It is amazing!

Class: There is no class system here, at least not one that is based on your accent, style of dress, sense of fashion, level of education, employment status or career: people judge you by who you are, rather than where you were born or which accent you speak with. This is a revolution as the class system is so ingrained into British society that it is only getting out of the system that makes you aware of it’s strength! Maybe more on this in another blog…

Life in the Freezer

R and D enjoying every last minute of our time in Christchurch!

Church has been an interesting set of experiences. We've made it to three church services here so far and we've not heard a sermon that has sought to teach Scripture. One service we were berated for needing to be saved, the other we were exhorted to love well and especially as parents to discipline our children in a loving manner and most recently we were told that the Trinity is like a Relay race: the Father taking the leg from creation to the incarnation, Jesus covering the 33 years of his life, death and resurrection and that since Pentecost we are now in the home straight of the Holy Spirit who was created by God for us and we were created for the Holy Spirit (none of those things are true, just in case you were wondering). We could shrug our shoulders, put it down to bad experience and hope for better sometime soon. No doubt we could have had equally disheartening experiences in any part of the western world; but many here are telling us that this is typical of the church in New Zealand.

At the same time this poor teaching is in a context of loving church communities, where people are genuinely warm toward each other as well as welcoming of strangers. I doubt I have ever been included and loved more in a British church on a first visit. The one thing that I know is that I don't think I have ever extended that sort of a welcome to strangers in a congregation. The New Zealand church is giving me lots to think about, pray for and repent of in all sorts of ways.

We're currently in Christchurch, the snow did not appear (except on mountain tops) and we have largely seen the back of the rain that was with us for most of our first fortnight here. The crossing from North to South Island on the ferry accross the Cook Strait was exhilirating, sickening and awe inspiring (in that order). We spent one night in Picton and then went on to Kaikoura half way down to Christchurch.

Our time in Kaikoura was idyllic, we chose not to whale watch (too expensive and too prone to the whim of the whales - one woman had been out three days in a row and saw nothing of the whales: costly in time, money and sea sickness!) but rather enjoy walking along the cliffs, watching seals (from just a few feet away) and just hanging out together as a family. We loved it there.

Sunday evening we travelled just south of Christchurch and are staying with other ex-pats working with TSCF Tim and Lizzie Hodge in a place called Lincoln. We've moved out of the caravan for a few days (advancing our war against the ants who have been resident in there a lot longer than we have!) and are enjoying sharing their home. We've done some touristy stuff (the photo above is from the Antarctic Experience in Christchurch rather than Christchurch itself) and I've met with more students (in Lincoln, meeting Christchurch students on Wednesday).

As we travel and meet people, go to church and spend time with staff and students I become more and more convinced that the work here is important and urgent, vital but fragile and still exciting and rewarding. There are many days ahead of hard work, I give thanks to God that he has given us a part to play in building His people here in New Zealand.

Greetings from Isengard

"Hey did you here the Shudalls have arrived in Isengard"

That's right! We're in Isengard, just down the road from Rivendell on the Anduin river. Well, OK - we're staying at the Harcourt Holiday Park, which was the film set for Gandalf arriving in Isengard as well as the walk around the gardens and just down the road from where they filmed Rivendell and the bit where Arwen washes the black riders away. OK - so I'm a geek, but that's not headline news is it?

We're staying about 20km outside of Wellington and move on to the South Island tomorrow. The last week or so has been hard work family wise, the kids have struggled and that means we have struggled. But we have seen some answers to prayer and that has helped us deal with the difficult times.

Last night we went to dinner with a couple who we met at church on Sunday, they were thoughtful enough to invite another British couple who have been here for 20 years. It was a break from caravan life, a reminder of the gift of hospitality and a real encouragement to us. People here have been friendly, positive and warm toward us in a way that is hard to find a comparison within British culture: Kiwis take hospitality seriously, Christians here take it to another level. The invite to dinner came three sentences after shaking hands with Murray at church last Sunday - they went out of their way to be encouragement to us and we praise God for them.

Wellington is a lovely city but it deserves its reputation for the stiff wind that whistles around its hilly streets: everything you hear is true - and because of that it is breathtaking in every sense of the word. The weather forecast as we travel south is for snow! Please pray that if/when it comes we'll be safely esconsed in a sheltered campsite. Next stop is Picton on the north of South Island, then down to Kaikoura and the on arriving into Christchurch on Saturday/Sunday.