answers to prayers

Well, it has been an interesting week full of ups and downs but what a difference one day can make. Thank you for all the prayers and this blog is about how they are being answered. First, the visa stuff is all off and we had only one call back...so far... and the processing has begun for that. Keep praying that we find favour with the NZ government and they accept our visas.
Second, after several calls both from myself and my District Superintendent we finally got the E.I. office to lift the "not approved" status from my E.I. claim. I found out this morning that all the issues had been settled and that we should be receiving some financial assistance very soon... I hope that means tonight! But anyway, thanks again for praying for God has reversed the original decision and now we qualify for E.I.
Third, we heard back from the founder of the society I had applied to join with and he was in favour of the idea pending we find out and settle any legal issues that may arise and also have a workable plan in place that tax Canada would approve of. So a couple more hurtles there but very doable and we are anticipating that by the end of this week we will hear final word from this group. Once that is in place we can begin the HUGE task of raising funds to cover our living expenses, traveling expenses, setting up a new home expenses and ministry expenses for the next two years. We think we need in the ball park of about $100,000.00 in order to do all this. PRAY PRAY PRAY.
Finally, we listed our house this past weekend with a realtor friend. Please pray that we sell it soon as that would be a real blessing to get the sale out of the way. Once that happens then Cheryl will begin the process of winding down her work, training her replacement and then go full time into packing and preparing our family for our new lives.
Hope all is going well for everyone out there.
God is Good All the Time

please pray

I must have made an error in my initial application for E.I. because we just received word that for two reasons we are not eligible to receive E.I.
The first reason was that I had put on my application that I was not available for work. So because I was not available to work they didn’t bother to follow the rest of the information I had given them regarding contacting my District Superintendent for more information. Not only that but I guess I am very frustrated that since I sent my initial application I have filed 3 times over the last 6 weeks stating clearly that I was ready and willing to work. So, no one called me, no one spoke to my DS as to why I had filed for a claim if I was not "ready and willing to work"! AARRGG, you wait for six weeks squeaking by on the little you have and then wham, they leave you high and dry!
The second reason they gave was that I had "left my former employment without just cause" so I don’t qualify. But my DS had assured me that this was going to be looked after if I made sure to inform them to contact him directly. However, they obviously did not do as I had instructed them to do so now I have two separate decisions that need to go through an appeal process and then another 6 week wait to receive the necessary financial help! This is all just very frustrating to me today.
Anyway, I hope and pray that my DS and I can get all this cleared up tomorrow and therefore I am asking you to pray that the Lord grants me favour with the insurance agent and that I can hold my temper so as not to make the situation worse than it already is.
Thanks for praying.
God Is Good All the Time!

Are you a non-conformist?

I am not working much these days. I am preaching a few sermons, doing some running around for our next season of ministry in New Zealand and I do have one more wedding to perform in a couple of weeks, but the pressure is most definitely off. I was trying to think of a time when I have not been working...and couldn’t come up with one. I suppose you could say going to school but even that was work and prep work for future employment, so if you don’t include that I have basically had a steady job since I started helping dad on the farm picking rocks and working farm equipment. I'm not sure when that started but I think it was around 14 or 15 years old.
Anyway, since I have the most amount of time I get to do the odd jobs like groceries and other errands. While picking up some fresh peaches the other day on a local farm I found myself in the middle of a very curious exchange of words with the farmer’s son.
As I arrived he was stacking a box of peaches on top of some other boxes but it was the wrong size of box and did not conform to the other boxes and he mentioned this out loud as I approached. For some strange reason I blurted out, " Non - conformist eh? Well you better sell me that box!" I still am not sure why I said that. He responded straight back with the question that buzzed around in side my head for a good portion of the day. He asked, "So, are you a non-conformist then? To which I responded with a solid "sometimes" without any hesitation!
It started me down a road of wondering why I answered - sometimes. As a Christian I am not to conform to the pattern of this world but I am to conform to the image and likeness of the Son of God. So my answer was correct. I do seek after the conformist way of life when it comes to my faith but I also strive to be a non-conformist when it comes to the ideas, philosophies, and attitudes of this present darkness.
I have also noticed that within the society of saints there are those who I deem as sub-cultured Christians. I try and stay away from their pattern of thinking as much as possible so in that sense I would tend to see myself as non-conformists within the faith. This tends to get me into some trouble whenever our ideologies collide within the context of the church. Then I wonder how much of that is just pride sometimes and not healthy? I like to think of myself as someone who would conform to being a non-conformist within the Kingdom of God and the society of saints. If that makes any sense!
It is funny how a simple exchange of words that happens in a split second of time can open up a world of thought within us. In this exchange of words the depths of what is in one's heart is exposed. I was blessed by that little exchange.
God is good all the time!

Cam's New BBQ

Hey little brother, I couldn't help but think of you when I saw this picture... Put another shrimp on the bawbie will ya... haha!

A moment to ponder...

This little picture I borrowed from another blog site. I kind of feel like this guy... my new dream, our new adventure is out there across this enourmous body of water! To bad he spoiled the pic with the writing but you get the idea I am sure. I've taken a few moments to ponder and boy does it seem like ZOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM and the summer has blasted by! Ireland and New Zealand took two big chunks of my summer time so it seems like it just plain old fashioned disappeared on me.
I have been busy preparing a series of 4 sermons that I will preach on Sunday evenings in a park around Peachland. I preached my first one last night and I had a nice crowd of about 10 folks who heard about it and came to be a crowd for me so I didn't have to preach to a camera lens. I will be doing this for the next 3 Sunday evenings so I can get them all done in the nice weather and put onto a DVD to send to International Christian Center in Howick. They suggested I do this as a way to keep in touch with them through this 4 month transition period.
Each message builds upon the new purpose statement that I suggested for this Church while I was with them. It reads this way... "The purpose of ICC is to be a group that together with Jesus gathers the nations. To love them, make disciples of them, baptizing them and teaching them in the power of the Holy Spirit and to the glory of God the Father."
I am really enjoying the process of creating these messages as they are in a way solidifying the call of God to go to Howick and join this fellowship in this task.
God is good all the time!

Last Day Journey into New Zealand

Today we left mid morning and headed out to visit John's sister and brother in law. The drive was spectacular and it seemed as though around each corner it grew even more so. This is quite the diverse little country. It is green like Ireland but the hills are more "hiller" and the Coastal mountains rise up in the back drop and are beautiful. The rich volcanic soil makes pretty much everything grow. There are lots of different coloured birds and many dairy cattle and sheep farms dotting the country side. There was too much scenery to catch while driving in a car so I didn't snap a lot of pictures. However, I did get to pick a fresh orange off of a tree and eat it. Now that was a real treat. This evening I plan on relaxing, packing up my things and getting ready for the long trip home tomorrow morning at 7:00 AM. I leave Tuesday morning at 7:00 and I arrive in Vancouver at 7:00 Tuesday morning. I have had a wonderful experience here but I am looking forward to getting home to be with the family. Thanks for reading along and catching up on all that I have been up to here and for your prayers that the Lord would show us the way and he has been doing just that. Good on ya mate!

WE'RE COMING TO NZ!

We informed the International Christian Center of the Christian and Missionary Alliance of NZ that we are officially going to accept their invitation to come and be their pastor. The news was recieved with vibrant applause and cheers. So now comes the very hard work of getting here. Please pray with us that all the many details that must come together for us to get here by January 2007 do indeed come together.
After church I was invited out to lunch at Kathleen's home with Mark & Rowena, Rachelle (Matt is taking picture) plus kids and Mary. We had a great feast of Thi steak stew and great fellowship. Very excellent.
Tonight I will be meeting with the ICC Executive and anyone else who may come. We will be exploring options for how to handle the distance between us coming here in January and the distance from NZ to Canada over the next 4.5 months. Should be an interesting meeting.

Prayer, Lunch, Shop, Dinner, and Drop into Bed!

Yesterday was a full day of activity. It started out with an early morning prayer time with some of the church members. New to the group was Franks wife Mary-lace. Afterwards Frank, Mary-lace and Jerad took me out for breakfast to Denny's! It was pretty good as far as Denny's goes but the fellowship was second to none.

After lunch I was dropped off at the Pakaranga Shopping center where I hunted high and low for some gifts and some special items for the family back in Canada. Then I was home for a few minutes and whisked off to supper with Eli & Nitz plus their friend Rose and their teenage children.

Errands and eating

Spent much of today taking care of the finishing details of visa applications and running a few errands related to banking. Then we hurried back to be home in time for Pastor Eddy and his wife and his co-pastor Mariam of the Chinese Alliance Church to take me out for a traditional Chinese lunch. It was absolutely delicious! We took a tour of his church building they had converted from an old soup factory. It was pretty cool.





This evening Carolyn and I had supper with Dandy and his wife Fran. It was a traditional Filipino meal and again, it was very yummy. This church is full of such wonderfully friendly people. Maybe it is partly because they are all from other countries and they have learned the importance of reaching out and building vital relationships. It is the main weapon against loneliness in a strange land.

Happy Birthday in NZ

I started out the day with a trip to the War Museum of NZ. It was very interesting to read about the history of the Moury People. I took in a show where they did the Huka and it was electric.
I also saw some of the unique wildlife that lives on this island. There are no natural preditors that live in all of NZ except of course man. Many of the birds dont even fly. The largest of birds likes like a Osterage on steriods. It stands about 15 feet high.


Then it was off to a birthday party sponsored by one of the ICC ladies cell groups. It was delicious and they sang happy birthday to me, gave me a cake that was very warm with all the candles and a NZ ball cap made of leather. Very nice.
Suejet,mary,Stephenie(?), kevin, Fran, Me, Pastor Jessie, shelly,Rowinea, Carolyn, Jill taking picture.

Me and my new NZ ball cap. Super!

prayer meeting and then dinner with Kevin, Abbot and Art

Carolyn, Abbot, Sheta(Unsure of spelling)

Mary, Jared, Mark, Frank and little shelly with her back to us ( marks girl)

Art, Abbot, Kevin. Art just moved here and Abbot and kevin are married just 7 months

A Sign?

John and I went to do some more sight seeing this afternoon after all the business of the morning was finished. We ended up on top of a couple of old volcanos that are dotted across the city of Auckland. When we got to the top of "öne tree hill" and looked down into the volcano crater we bust out into laugher because what did we see spelled out in the center of this giant hole in the ground 11,786 Kilometers from home...now is that a sign or what????? I think if it was a sign it would have spelled out Peachland...haha





One Tree Hill from the top of Mt. Eden













This is the view of Mt. Eden from One tree Hill.












View from on top of Mt. Eden over looking the city center and harbour.

C&MA NZ

The C&MA NZ National Office. They have a small office on the 3rd floor shared with about 15 other NZ christian ministries. John is about to go on in...





































Chris, Eddie, Andrew, Aaron, Russ, Judy and John make up the NLT (National Leadership Team) We worked hard and discussed much to make the opportunity to minister in NZ a reality. They are really convinced this is of God. I am also thinking that the signs are pretty strong that this is a God Thing not just a Man Thing!

Just a few more sights

The wind was unbelievable during these pictures. But at least you can get an idea of some of the coastal sights and Island views. It clouded over after these pictures as you can see with the one of the ship heading to harbour.

downtown pics continued

Both John and Carolyn prayed the the wind would come up and blow the clouds away and the rain would stop and it did long enough for me to see some really nice sights. The rainbow is supposed to be a sign...maybe it was for us and this city?

Finally the rain stopped for a few minutes

The rain has caused flooding and mud slides in the region over the past few days. It has been pouring. We managed to catch a few miniutes of sunshine appearing over the downtown core as we drove past. These few pics say it all... what a beautiful place this is. I was having problems uploading these images so I will try and put the next couple of pictures in the sequence on another blogg

Going to Church on Sunday

The worship team did a great job



John leading the communion time


In the evening we went to Matt and Sherilyn's Installation service. It was great to see them again and to see their joy. We are having lunch tomorrow to get caught up.

MISSION: KEEP KEVIN AWAKE!

THE BOYS! Tikki,Jared,Frank,Art,Mont (me) and Dandy (Tikki missing as he took the picture)

The misson: Keep me awake as long as possible. TO start with a HUGE Vietnamese Dinner - so big I could only eat half!

Then it was on to the 10 pin bowling ally! What a blast until about the 7th frame and I started to drop quickly. What a great time I had!

NEW ZEALAND 06

I am writing this from the home of John and Carolyn Gummer who are the directors of C&MA in New Zealand. I am here over the next two weeks, preaching, attending meetings, meeting with church families of International Christian Center and hopefully get some sight seeing done while I am at it. I will endeavor to keep you posted of my adventures here and maybe even a photograph or two as well. This is crunch time. We are praying and ask you to pray with us as well that this will either be "closure time" or "clincher time". That God will close the door and we look elsewhere or it is a clincher in our hearts and we move to NZ.
Blessings all,
God is Good all the time!

YAHOO IRELAND 2006

We made it home! We are happy beyond words, tired but a good kind of tired, totally overwhelmed by our awesome experience, blessed beyond measure, the whole thing was a thing of grandeur from start to finish. Any of you relatives reading this must begin plans immediately to go and visit our Irish cousins. YOU WILL NOT REGRET IT!
More will follow I am sure as I get my internet connection back up and running. Right now we're on dial-up so I will be brief.
Thanks for praying for us if you did, your prayers were most definitely answered.