Storytelling through pictures

Some of our Contagious fellowship as we sent one of students off
to China where he will study pre-med.

I've shared before about our Contagious Student group at Grace City Church! It's been an amazing year. We are thankful that God has brought together such a great group of young people, jr. high, high school, uni and even a post grad or two. A major highlight has been our first 'prayer' retreat as a group. For many, they had never set aside time or space for time alone with God or focussed prayer. On of our students commented, "three hours straight in prayer is really INTENSE". We set up areas all over the church, 'stations' for specific prayer... a space to do business with God, an area for "waiting" upon the Lord, an area to pray for friends and loved ones who do not know the Lord (and lighting a candle for each), praying the word of God, praying for the leaders and congregation of the church and its mission, prayer for Palmerston North, China and the world. It was beautiful. Then, we did prayer walks on the street our church is located and at two of the high schools.

We recently farewelled one of the students who has gone to China to study. It was a fun night of FOOD and lots of rediculous games... including my old favourite TWISTER!

Some of the Contagious guys... nations 'twisted' together in Christ (Singapore, NZ, Brunei, Malaysia)

Sue Joe migrated to NZ as a child from China... she is one of the FIRST fruits of the original mission (China Mission) that eventually became Grace City Church. Our church founder began an outreach to the children of Chinese migrants and Sue was one of those kids. All three of her daughters have been a part of Contagious at some time. She and I have served together for a couple of years as deacons on our church council.

Hola Chica! Girl power at Camp Chica

A few weeks ago one of the Massey University students in our church asked me if I could lead a session at their upcoming women's camp. I was so blessed and humbled by the request and definitely keen to participate. There are two Christian groups on campus under the IFES (aka Intervarsity in USA) umbrella. One that is primarily "Kiwi" students and the other that is made up of international students. They wanted to have a girls camp to build better connections and fellowship between the two ministries.

The result was an amazing blessing. A core of 23 girls (14 international, 9 Kiwi) with a few extra who came for parts of it, participated in a weekend of food, crafts, reading, fun including Bible study, messages on love, relationships, how God created and treasures women, and wonderful messages on the cross. I shared at two sessions, and a wonderul woman, Mercy David, shared at the other two. We drove out of town to the Mudford Dairy Farm and lived together at the farmstay house. Yes, over 25 women and one toilet - and no long queue's (miracles follow God's children).

GETTING CONNECTED!

(l-r) John (ISM Nat'l Operations Mgr) & Reena Wallis, Jenny McGrath (my boss' wonderful wife); and Dianne Stock (part time Massey chaplain & wife to our internship director)

One Saturday per month, the local ISMNZ family gathers for what we call "connect". Because our ministries are so diverse, we don't see each other often even though we live in a small town. So, as part of the staff training and development introduced this year, we've been going through a Bible study on the ISM philosophy of ministry. It is a good time of sharing our experiences, ideas and growing in unity around the vision and purpose of our mission.

On 4th of July we met at the Cardiff Chateau (my home) for the study and a BBQ extravaganza. Jenny even brought out the fireworks!

Dennis & Olive Pimental with my boss Terry (ISM Nat'l Director). Dennis has a real passion to minister to post-grads and their families. Olive works for Massey in the International Student Office and takes great care of those students!

Paul and Dianne along with their daughter Charlotte and friend - enjoying a good feed of burgers, chilli con carne, hot dogs, and of course for dessert brownies and PAVLOVA (yummy NZ dessert).

Terry, along with Natalia and DJ who recently moved to NZ. They are originally from Indonesia but have lived in several nations, including a number of years in the USA. We connected with them through one of the USA Navigator ISM leaders. Also pictured are Neil and Jean Crawford. They were my first Kiwi family - I lived with them for several weeks when I first moved to NZ after having broken my ankle. They adopted me and cared for me and helped me become acculurated in New Zealand.