We went into Wairau school last Wednesday to speak in their assembly first thing in the morning. Some of them already knew me, because of the camp, but most of the kids had no idea who I was. So to introduce myself, I got up and asked "can anyone work out where I'm from?" and then I gave them some clues. The first clue I gave was "we have the best rugby team in the world" at which point the whole school exploded in uproar. Its easy to make Kiwi enemies over here, you just have to say the right things.

Too Many Kids?

At our first meeting that day, we had 46 Kids come along. They were queuing right out the door to get in, and with just two leaders, we did well to keep things going. It was so exciting. We told them the story of Zacchaeus, and at the end of the session, we gave out paper leaves, asking the kids to write on the back something about their lives that they would like God's help to change, in the same way that Jesus changed Zacchaeus', and in the end, Zacchaeus was paying back more than he took (which was something that the kids were fixated on, that he would pay that much!!)

The Jump!!!Some of the kids did write silly things, but some wrote quite serious things as well. "I would like to be nicer to my brothers" "I would like to stop telling my friends to shut up" It was great to see them engaging so readily in everything we were doing, and how excited they were about everything we did. Playing a game at the start, one of the girls exclaimed "this is just the best thing ever!!!"

I've just returned from our second meeting. This week there was just over 20 kids, which was understandable, but the exciting part was the amount of permission slips we got back. In order to protect the Scripture Union, they can't come without permission slips from their parents, and all the kids today had remembered theirs, plus were taking more for their friends. This session was the parable of the Good Samaritan. We played a video of a lego good samaritan story, which they loved, and at the end, we had them thinking about the people in their lives they should be kinder to. Luzette (the SU worker) had the idea of photocopying monopoly money, and they were to write on the back of the 100 dollar bills the names of the people they wanted to be nicer to, as a prayer to get God's help to be more caring people. Afterwards I over heard kids bragging to their friends that they were paid 100 dollars just to go to Surge. Exiting times. 

At the weekend we went down to visit Phil, the other intern, and took a trip down to Lake Taupo, stopping at various places along the way, Huka falls, craters of the moon, Aratiatia dam. Absolutely stunning scenery. Oh...and I bungy jumped. A full 47 meters finishing with a water dunk in the Waikato river. 

Struggling to think of what I'll do next week.

On the road to Taupo

Hi everyone

Ok so the word has maybe circulated round about my big news. For those of you that don't know, no, I didn't find a new career, no, I am not coming home early and no, I am definitely not getting married. 11000FTOn Saturday me and a friend took a plane to 13000ft and then jumped out. Sorry to dissappoint. 

No explanation needed. It was easily the scariest thing I have done in my life. We fell from 13000ft to 5000ft in 60 seconds, traveling at 120mph, with a group of guys that looked like they were straight from the extreme school of dangerous things to do with your life. I've got a whole bunch of mid action photos, and a video recording of the whole thing, which I am currently putting up on my facebook. There's a great moment when we are just getting out of the plane. I was told to keep my arms crossed on my chest at all times, which was a lot easier said than done!!!

But apart from this it was still a very exciting week. I spent the whole week with a group of 42 kids from Wairau intermediate. On the first day we went to Tree Adventures and Mountain Biking, the Mountain Biking being incredibly difficult in the heat. I was also going over a jump near the end and my handle bars came loose. So I had to make my way down the mountain with no steering. Not as scary as the parachute though. 

On Tuesday we went to Motihe island, near Rangitoto, which is now a nature reserve where they are trying to recreate what New Zealand looked like before European settlers. The children went and collected seeds and then planted them, being told that in 80 or 100 years the entire island would be covered with the trees they were planting today. 

On Wednesday to Friday we went to Whatipu, a camp ground on the West coast. Here I spent two days walking through the Waitakere hills and talking rubbish with the kids. All in all the week was great, a really fantastic opportunity to get to know the kids. I had so much fun with them over the 5 days. We would play games, sing songs or have races. I even got a chance to tell a few really, really good ghost stories in the dark round a campfire. I've never in my life seen someone jump as high as their teacher.The girls thought it would be really funny to put fake tan on my leg. It doesn't wash off.

I had found, up to now, that it wasn't so easy to work with young people here. The key principle with sharing God's Love to young people is that I care for them and about them myself. 1 Corinthians 14:13 says "Three things will last forever-Faith, hope and Love-and the greatest of these is love" Ultimately it is not the program we prepare or anything else that is going to change their lives, but even if I can do nothing else, I can love them. This is the way to show God's love in our own lives. That means the people we minister to should matter more to us than anything else. But that kind of relationship does not come straight away, and so to have those few days spent just with the kids in that school was a real blessing. 

At that age, moving from primary school to 'big school' they are just on the edge of growing up. It was funny seeing them interact, talking about boyfriends and girlfriends or using language and swear words that didn't really make sense to them. At times some of them would almost remind me of people I knew from school or outside, and it struck me how easy it was for them to get so lost, and how urgent the need is. 

There are a few stories I would like to tell you about. One of the children has just moved from South Korea to start at Wairau, by herself. She is 11 years old and is staying with an English speaking family here, not related to her at all. I could never imagine doing that, at that age. I know the intention is for her to have a better education, but I could never see how that was worth it. She loved to have me sit beside her, at lunch or on the bus and would just talk away about places she knew in Europe. There was another 2 boys, twins, whose father died when they were 3, after having a heart attack while they were playing video games. They always made sure to find me if we were going on a walk through the hills, and made sure to keep up. And finally there was a group of boys that were talking, secretively, away from the teachers, about some of the gangs in their area. They were completely aware of these gangs, and there was some childish bravado about being part of them. But I couldn't help but think is this actually going to be a reality for some of these boys. 

We have our first Surge group starting in Wairau on Wednesday, please remember us in your prayers, and keep these young people in your hearts. 

James

This has certainly been a busy week so far. It is Wednesday afternoon, and I'm sitting in a very, very hot office, trying to drink coffee to keep me awake. 

Piha beach!!!I am getting on very well with the family. In fact the mother spoils me rotten. She insists she does my washing and ironing, and will not let me walk out the door without a pack lunch. I've learnt not to argue. The father is Captain Phil Clark, the national director of the Church Army in New Zealand, and he and his family moved out here from Liverpool in September of last year. The mother, Monika is German and they have a 16 year old daughter, Emily and a 22 year-old son who is at University in Hull. At the weekend they took me to One Tree Hill, Fairy Falls and Piha beach, which were all absolutely spectacular. Thank you all for your prayers, God has provided a good home for me and I feel much more relaxed now that I have unpacked my bag

On Sunday I went to an Anglican church called Church of the Saviour. It was a good service, with a nice atmosphere. There is a children's group, called the J-team, and a youth group that both need volunteers, so there's plenty for me to be involved in. The speaker was a children's ministry worker, and was also very, very Welsh. And having worked with children a lot, he was very into his arm and leg movements, and was dancing about all over the stage. It was like watching a cartoon character. But he spoke very well, Waitakere rainforest with the family and Rachel (left)about perseverance and achieving our goals. After receiving communion at the service, we were each given a piece of paper and a pen, and we had to write down what we wanted prayer for, make paper airplanes and throw them about the church. Some of the paper planes were pretty lethal, so I kept my head down. There was also a baptism service at 3 where 7 young people were welcomed to the church. 

On Tuesday I had my first Surge group. As I mentioned before Surge is the lunchtime club for children aged 11-13. It went well, with 11 children there on the first day. I found out before the program, that one of the boys grows his own Chilies for fun, so I told him if 25 kids ever came to Surge, I would eat one of his Chilies. Not thinking much would come of this, I was relaxed going along to the school. But he has told everyone he knows, and they are all going to tell al their friends they know. He plans to get up in front of his class, to tell his teachers to come and now it has moved up to 40 kids and a live worm. All for a good cause I guess. 

If anyone would like to see photos of the trip, this is a public link to my facebook.

God bless, 

James

P.S. I only just found out some very exciting news, but i will wait until after the weekend to tell you all. 

I spent the first part of this week on Ponui Island, which is just off the coast of Kawakawa bay. Its a small privately owned island, but it is used by Scripture Union for all different camps that they run through the year, taking young people or families out for a week, to do sailing, canoeing, exploring or even camping out under the stars. A group called Mobile Mission Maintenance were there doing restoration work to the buildings used by SU, and some of us went over to help them out. 

MMM is a group set up to assist ministry by providing the buildings and facilities for Christian groups to use. It is an international organization and skilled men and women from all around the world volunteer as trained builders, electricians, plumbers and so on. I am trained in none of these, nor am I skilled in working hard. But with a hammer in one hand and a pencil behind my ear I got to work.

hard at work

There was about 20 volunteers at Ponui who worked all day in the heat, restoring the main hall and also adding an extension and seating area for group meals. After the 2 days we all agreed that the work these guys did was beyond us. Most of the work we did was lifting old bits of wood and roofing from one pile to another, which kept us busy and also kept us out of their way. But soon we were moved on to mixing cement and by the end I was hammering in the very nails that would support the patio seating arThe work teamea. I could barely keep up the effort for 2 days, but when these guys start a project and would work every day, from early in the morning, until it was finished. It was inspiring to see these men, working together, helping each other but also keeping that vision that they were furthering the Kingdom of God. Each day started with a devotion and prayer, and these men had such a strong faith and good hearts that they almost enjoyed the work they were doing. They certainly made the effort to include us and make us feel welcome, and were patient when we were slow. If any of you would like to support MMM in what they do, the website is http://www.mmminternational.org/

Ponui Island was great as well, you could see why it was such a good place for camps. Completely removed from the city, there was plenty to see and do. After work we would go for a swim or a paddle in the canoes, because it was so hot during the day. To Kiwis the idea of swimming in a wetsuit is such an unnatural idea, which is something I could get used to. Ponui island also the has the highest concentration of Kiwi birds in New Zealand. The national bird of New Zealand is now so endangered that most people have never seen one outside of a zoo. So naturally we went on a late night kiwi hunt, hoping to spot one in the wild. Of course we didn't, and came home slightly dejected. There is also a Ponui tradition to cook things called 'Damper' over a camp fire. Its almost like scone mix, which you wrap around a stick and stick it in the fire, so that when its cooked you leave a big hole down the middle which you fill with chocolate and marshmallows and golden syrup, and anything else sweet we found in the kitchen. 

On Wednesday we visited Wairau intermediate school, with the hope that I could get involved there, and set up an SU lunch group. There was such a positive reception there that I am now going on the school week away at the end of February. This is such a great opportunity to get to know the kids that go to this school, so please be praying that this goes well, and that I can start to build some good foundations in the school, and that God will move in Wairau school.

Thank you to those who were praying that God would provide a family. Today I move in with Phil Clark, a captain in the church army, and his family.

So I am just coming to the end of my first week in work. At the moment we are just getting ready for the schools that are starting next week. We have a few programs to write, which teachers in those schools can use to set up their own SU clubs. We have one program for the intermediate years (11-13) called Surge, which there seems to be a good amount of interest in, and Surge Sports. On Thursday we met with a intermediate school Chaplain (a kind of voluntary, christian school counsellor) who would like us to set up a Surge group in her school. She has asked that I come in next Wednesday to speak to the principal and 'pitch' this idea, and also offer to help school life in any way I can. Please pray for this school and the young people that go there, and for the right words to say, so that we can have this opportunity. Today we visited an intermediate school, called Henderson intermediate,  where Luzette (my boss) runs a Surge group, just to see the school assembly. It was incredible. Henderson High was a very diverse school, with a lot of Maori and Pacific Island children. The teachers had somehow found a way to make 11-13's sing out as loud as they can. They sang the national anthem, the school song, Stand by me and Hey Baby (oh ah), and I was almost deafened by the volume and the enthusiasm. It was great. 

There has also been a change of plans with my host family. The grandmother is moving in with the family, and so I've been made homeless for a while. The people in my office and friends of Scripture Union are looking for another family, but if you would also pray for God's help and guidance in finding the right family. There's probably not too many people who want to take in a Northern Irish lad for 6 months, but once they get to know me I'm sure it will be ok...

We are visiting Ponoi island on Monday and Tuesday. This is an island off Kawakawa Bay that Scripture Union would use for some of its camps (the interns missed an SU summer camp at Ponoi that everyone is still talking about, so it must be good) It needs some maintenance work, and so we're taking a barge over to help with that. I've been told to bring swim shorts, so looks like it will be hard work. 

I've heard a lot of good things about the youth service. Glad it went well, and I look forward to seeing the DVD