The Zoom Zoom Affect of Living Busy

I would have to say that of all the months since we have arrived here in NZ the month of July has ZOOMED by. A simple breakdown of the month will reveal that two weeks of School, a major 6000 word paper for my leadership class, John and Carolyne taking the month off, prison ministry, a two day retreat, 3 planning and strategic church meetings,
and of course Kelly and Jen and Jason and Chelsey all going back to Canada in the middle of the month lead to some extra party type stuff going on, has kept us very busy!
The class I took was called interpreting the parables with Dr. Craig Blomberg and it was very enjoyable. I was a late addition to the class so it caught me off guard especially since there was a pretty hefty book that needed to be read prior to class beginning and with a written review. But it was great timing as I am preaching through the parables in ICC right now so it greatly enhanced my understanding of the stories of Jesus. (If you want to hear them online you can just go to twango.com and type in kevin nichol and it will take you to my message site) My paper was due in on the 20th but i had to get a weeks extension to finish it so I handed it in today. The focus of my paper was the metaphors that both Jesus and Paul used to describe leaders and leadership. I even had my sister give me a hand with some of the sentence structure and English stuff. Thanks sis! We had some good friends offer me there batch out on the cormandel peninsula so I could have 3 days of solid paper writing. It was just what I needed to get this monster off my back. I am so thankful. Here is a shot of the mountain that the cabin is located on. We are in the middle of making some massive decisions about ICC. Currently it needs some serious work especially financially if we are going to stay open for business. Could use your prayers regarding this as I think some tough decisions are looming ahead if our current plans do not encourage growth both numerically and financially.
John and Carolyne both came back expressing that they had a fantastic time away and are feeling much better. They will be retiring from the church leadership in February O8 and our leadership decided to let do whatever they have a passion for in the fellowship over the next 7-8 months. Our objective is to believe God that they will finish well here and that God will provide wisdom for the next steps in his journey for them.
Well this is getting kinda long so I will shut it down and throw on a few pictures of my month.
God is Good All the Time!

So long, far well, to our Canadain friends...

The Lord did us a HUGE favour by bringing out some really terrific folks to help kick start our Kiwi journey. Kelly and Jen (& Mateo) and Jason and Chelsey have been a wonderful source of encouragement to us these past 6 months. Did I just say 6 months… wow time is going fast!
Over the course of the next two days these friends will be boarding planes and heading back to Canada. The Nichol 5 will all greatly miss them. Their presence here has often lifted our hearts, their encouraging words have blown wind in our sails, their fun loving ways have kept things light hearted, their shoulders have helped in making the load lighter and their prayers and support are ongoing and sweet as honey to us. Like I said, God has shown us favour in allowing us to get started with such a great team of people around us.
Thanks brothers and sisters for being here, connecting with all of us and just generally being FANTASTIC!
I already miss you and the next couple of days of good byes are going to be sad ones. Thanks for the memories and the many blessings you have brought to our New Zealand world. I look forward to reconnecting with you some day in the hopefully near future!
God is Good All the Time.

Well, this week went by so fast. John and Carolyne are off on a much deserved 1 month break. This will work well for both of us. Having them away has forced me to get into the guts of this church, ask a few tough questions, seek a better understanding of how thing run around here. I also got a last minute invitation to attend my second Master Class on Preaching the Parables with Dr. Craig Blomberg. It has been quite informative and such good timing as i am preaching through the parables in the Sunday morning service at ICC. (If you are interested you can follow this link to it) http://www.twango.com/media/kevinnichol.public/kevinnichol.10006 I also took two days and three nights to attend a much needed retreat with a couple of my Canadian buds at Capernwray bible school conference lodge. It was so worth going, we were well feed in every sense of the word and we had great times of conversation centred mostly about how the speaker personally affected us. Today we went to MOTAT (Museum Of Transportation And Technology)with the girls and Chels and Jas. We sure are going to miss all these wonderful Canadians who have been sooooooooo supportive of our ministry here. We thank God often for them and we will miss then greatly when they had back to Canada July 15th. Tomorrow, I will be going to jail. I have been invited by the local prison chaplain to come with some fellows from our church and lead the prison service. I have no idea what to expect and thankfully the two guys I am taking with me have gone several times in the past. I will depend on their wisdom and experience. And finally we spoke with Niki today on Skype. We are all excited that in 3 weeks we will be spending 3 weeks together. We are all keyed up for it.
God and Good All the Time!