Aotearoa

 

The mountains. The rivers. The ocean. The land. The people. This place.

WE ARE NEW ZEALAND. IT’S YOU AND I!

Minuit have produced this song and video: a composite snapshot of this New Zealand/Aotearoa.  I saw it for the first time and it stirred in me a fresh love for this place that God has called me and my family to live in; a fresh commitment to the peoples of this land – a new and deeper commitment.

Back in the UK recently I was talking to a group of students about New Zealand and TSCF. I spoke of ‘we’. One of the students interrupted, “Excuse me,” he said. “You said ‘New Zealand, we”. I hadn’t done it purposefully it had just slipped out. “Yes, I said, it’s where I live, it’s where I pay tax, it’s where I vote, it’s… it’s my home”. “BUT SURELY.” he said with real incredulity. “BUT SURELY IF ENGLAND WERE PLAYING NEW ZEALAND IN RUGBY YOU’D SUPPORT ENGLAND?”

“To be honest it would be a close call” was my reply. “BUT… BUT… YOU’VE GONE NATIVE” his incredulity turned a little toward disgust!

Maybe I have.  I long to spend time with friends and family back in the UK, LOVED the time I spent with them recently: spent at church back in Leicester, spent travelling on the road.  I loved it all but with each day away from NZ my heart grew sore with missing family and friends here, missing church here, missing TSCF ministry.

Watching the Minuit video on Monday night reminded me that God has called me here because my home is not in the UK or NZ but rather in Heaven.  He has called me here with wife and kids to become a part of the communities of this land for the sake of the good news about Jesus Christ.

If I’ve ‘gone native’ it’s following a good example and is a good historical missionary reality: Jesus was the Word who became flesh – he went native – and elsewhere the apostle Paul speaks of becoming for the sake of proclaiming.  I hope to become more ‘native’ to make the reality of the call to follow Jesus all the more clear and plain.

Are you ‘native’ enough where you are?

¹⁹Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. ²⁰To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. ²¹To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God's law but am under Christ's law), so as to win those not having the law. ²²To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. ²³I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.

1 Corinthians 9:19-23