Post Parachute Post

Parachute 05 rocked!!!
Apart from catching up with Alabaster Box and friends from all over the country, the music was pretty good. Tenting with the Knox crowd was awesome, I’ve never been so well looked after and there was always company for whatever was on, from seminars to slouching around. Any number of “deep” conversations, plenty of laughs, great fellowship and communion with chocolate and sparkling grape juice – thanks guys, personally the best Parachute ever, and not just because I was child free.

Trev, the sound man dropped me off at the air-port – thanks mate, saved me a long hot walk! And I picked up some stuff from Chris’ parents, overweight by 3kg but the nice Air NZ lady let us through. And then I slept on a plane for the first time in 17 years…nice.

Couldn’t believe the temperature when I got off the plane –it’s HOT!!! Like, mid twenties hot. The TV temperature is out by 6 degrees! Must be on an exposed point somewhere but it feels like being back in the Waikato only drier!

I am home now, absolutely shattered and just starting to catch up on a week’s worth of hugs and kisses. The children were all buzzing from their first day at school, the house looks much more organised – well done Chris! I’d write more but I’m going to bed.

The last post in Auckland

Just finishing off my last evening in Auckland, have had a brilliant catch up with Brett and Kristen, plus Richard and Jane who very kindly made room in their schedule to come over and have tea.

Lots of exciting conversations and learning spots today from Bruggermann, most of which are too convoluted to explain in less than 500 words. We’ve been dealing with Jeremiah today, and one of the theses is that Jeremiah does a fair amount of pastoral care. There is some debate as to what extent his “confessions” are personal prayers or whether they function as a metaphor for post exilic Judaism.

Then there is the way Jeremiah is quoted from less extensively in the book until by the end we hear more from the scribes eg Baruch. Prof calls this the development of scribalism and it is this scribalism that enables the development of Judaism.

There are lots of ironies. For example, it is the elite, the leadership that are criticised. Yet they are the ones that are dragged off to Babylon and it is the Babylon exiles who maintain the texts and the possibility of the development of a post exilic Judaism. The scribes keep the text, preach from it and interpret it. This is a highly educated, academic elite. Perhaps they ought to have kept the people from sinning. Instead, their failure is redeemed in exile and so we have Ezra, a scribe, leading the worship and the return to Jerusalem.

I am off to Parachute tomorrow, or at least to Hamilton and I suspect I might succumb to the temptation of a nice comfy bed with Bill and Annie rather than making it out to Parachute Friday night. But I am looking forward to a chance of direction with lots of music and even more catching up. Yay.

Monday in Auckland

Monday

I’ve abandoned poor Chris and the children and survived the first half day of “Voices of Prophetic Imagination.” It is very disconcerting – Walter Bruggermann sounds in voice and cadence very much like Robert de Niro. He gave us homework!! Eek. He is very hot on this method of looking at the prophetic texts called “Rhetorical Criticism”, which seems to be a three stage process as far as I can work out. The first step is looking at who says what, the second step is identifying the “key” words which keep coming up and the third step is to figure out what the angle is i.e. why is that bit there and not somewhere else.
It all rests on the assumption that the prophets weren’t lone rangers but must have had a supportive community who at least listened to their poetry in the first instance and kept it and passed it on. Did they keep all of it? Probably not. But they had a reason for keeping the bits we’ve got.

Lots of my BCNZ studies are coming back, particularly my Old Testament lecturer (I have heard again many of the words and phrases he used to intone regularly) and even my miserable attempts at Hebrew are finally paying off. Not feeling too lost although I suspect some of the others are struggling with all the new information. Walter says a historical critical approach isn’t necessary but then keeps referring to it. Typical lecturer!

Keith Nisbet reckons one of the lecturers at SOM uses this approach so it is useful to have the chance to get some practise in now. There are lots of familiar faces in the class, some from Knox, Lower Hutt, lots of Prezzies from around the country, even someone from my old youth group and someone I used to go to Bible College lectures with.

I am staying with John and Judy Parr who have been fabulous, picked me up from the airport, fed me lunch and picked me up at the end of the day. Fantastic. Great flight too, awesome views of the Southern Alps, Aorangi, lakes galore, what a fantastic country we live in!

So I’ve done my homework and once this is posted I think I’ll head off to bed…it’s a big week.

Prophetic imagining

Wednesday

A long day today which culminated with a public lecture in the chapel at St Kentigens. Prof Bruggermann does a great lecture and I think we are all finding his approach accessible, somewhat surprising for an Old Testament specialist.

We are, of course, running behind time, only beginning Jeremiah towards the end of the day when we should have started this morning with the weeping prophet. However, we are enjoying spirited discussions and there are a variety of practical applications which will impact on the way I think about ministry. One of the many interesting things he said today was that he felt it was too dangerous to be a prophet in the US today. His portrayal of the prophetic task was to articulate the huge gap between what is publicly accepted as political and economic reality and God’s reality. For example, many Americans seem to assume that God is on their side. But what if he isn’t? Try saying that in an American context and watch the sparks fly! But Prof Bruggerman said one of the inspirations he gained from Jeremiah was that the task of scribe was also important and he felt he could manage that. So the challenge for us could be to just spend more time in the text. Doesn’t matter if we don’t understand bits, it’s poetry, you’re not supposed to get it the first time through. But the images are important.

So, when was the last time you read through Jeremiah? Or Isaiah? Or Ezekiel for that matter? Big hint – don’t try to do it all in one go, Jeremiah’s the longest book in the Bible!

So I’m off to do my homework now, having had a swim, a shower and dinner. It’s all good.

Sunday at Kaikorai

Went church shopping today.
Not really but we did check out the place at the top of our list, (Kaikorai) on Jo Ryan's recomendation of course!!!)
We were asked home for lunch - very strategic, good move Ian and spent a very pleasant afternoon getting the inside goss from two lovely people.
Who we happened to meet at the airport the next morning as I was heading off to Auckland.

Zak had managed to lose a toy while we were there and Amanda, wonderful lady, remembered to bring it with her. I am very impressed!!!

Turns out I am saying all the local place names wrong so will have to go back and look at my Maori pronunciation again. Old habits die hard...

Southern hospitality

Friday

Boy they are friendly down here!

We were buying some screws for the new bunk beds – didn’t quite have enough cash as Chris left his wallet at home. “Don’t worry about it. Drop it in the next time you are passing, no worries” says the guy.

A passer by stopped to say hi. We were soon so engrossed in conversation that he missed his bus – so I dropped him down the hill. Does that make us locals already?

There are busloads of mountain bikers being ferried up Signal Hill Road, some on tours, others driven by girl friends or mates. The turnaround time is about 15 minutes, so it must be a steep little downhill run. Our wee road is quite busy after work…

We are not quite ready to have visitors yet but the bedrooms are nearly sorted and the kitchen is fully operational. The chef, unfortunately for everyone else, is off on Monday for a course in Auckland – I’m still trying to get the reading done, might have to finish it on the plane.

And we are quite glad to be here in the solid south where stuff stays on shelves, unlike Wellington which seems to be on quite shaky ground ever since we left.

The Sound of Silence

Thursday

Fuelled by coffee, the kitchen is back in action and we are getting on with the job of fitting everything into less rooms. Of course, the rooms are larger but that just means it will cost more to heat next winter. Not as many cupboard either. We might have to (shock! Horror!) get rid of some stuff…

I was lying in bed last night listening. It was very quiet. Very. The big difference between here and Hay Street is that there are no dogs barking. There is a bus service, although that stops at night and only goes up and back again rather than in both directions every 15 minutes. But I have yet to see a dog. Perhaps they are all inside dogs, because it is too cold outside in the winter. Perhaps it is too steep to walk dogs up this way. Perhaps this just isn’t a doggy suburb.

The house has lovely old leadlight windows everywhere, including our bedroom. The leadlight window has no curtain so while the sun doesn’t exactly stream through in the morning, it is definitely, well, morning. It is all rather odd.

Tuesday morning

Tuesday morning

We’ve seen the house; nice blue kitchen.

Phone is on: 03 473 9419 is the number.

Power will be on this morning, once we meet the power guys there and get the key thingy removed; you put the key into the fixture on the power board and, providing you’ve loaded it with money down at the power company, you can use some of the power you’ve already paid for.

The school of ministry could learn a lot from Mo Mansill about presbytality.

All our stuff is still en route. The street outside is too steep for containers so they have to transfer it all to a truck and then bring it up. Should be there by lunchtime. We came back to Oamaru last night, only an hour and a half and much nicer than bunking down on the floor.

We’ve talked to schools, got Hannah enrolled at a lovely Montessori preschool close to the school of ministry...

Karen Nelson (one of the second year students) has been fantastic, took a day off work to welcome us. Much easier to organise phone and power with a phone. And power.

Weather looks better today, there were several cloudbursts yesterday so I was thankful we weren't shifting furniture.
Hopefully we will make more progress in setting up the house today. Lawns need mowing. At least there are roses. And a compost bin... and space for some broccoli plants...

Hot stuff!

All last year I’ve been preparing for the cooler temperatures down south. I’ve been stocking up on blankets and duvets, Katmandu jackets for the kids, thermals and poly prop underwear. People have invariably warned us of how cold Dunedin is and shivered.

You will appreciate the irony then, our first day in the South Island and it reached 35 degrees. THIRTY FIVE! In Christchurch! Whew! Thank goodness for sprinklers and paddling pools!

We had a lovely time on the Christchurch gondola in the morning, fortunately before it became too unbearably hot. Because it was so clear, we had lovely views of the Southern Alps, the coastline up to the Kaikouras, Banks Peninsula and of course, the whole city.

Duncan and Tracy came over in the afternoon so we’ve met their new baby, Abby at last. Katarina spent all afternoon “bonding” with her cousin, much to Tracey’s delight and they are now quite keen for KJ to come and live at their place! The other cousins are all getting on like a house on fire and were up to all hours last night playing dodge ball and piggy back soccer and piggy in the middle with assorted dads and uncles. Even the aunties got in on the act when it cooled down enough.

As it is still very clear, the temperature dropped nicely once the sun went down so we’ve all slept well, despite the hot day. The forecast for today is ten degrees cooler, just as well as we are heading down to Oamaru today. But we will spend this morning with the cousins. We are all looking forward to seeing more of them this year.

Ferry Tales

Why is it that people always share the worst possible experiences when it comes to ferry crossings and childbirth?

Well, it’s time to change the tradition. What a brilliant crossing. Strong northwest winds, 1 metre swell – in a big boat, it may as well have been flat calm. In fact, we are all a bit wind burnt and I am certainly browner today than yesterday. The kids watched 2 movies, bought a very expensive pottle of chips, and came out to watch with me when we cleared the heads at one end of the journey and came into Picton at the other end. As long as we were heading south, it wasn’t windy at all at the front of the boat.

We stopped for Subway in Kaikoura – yum. Zach nearly drove us made asking “Are we there yet?”, “How far is it?” and “Whose house are we staying at?” With Aunty Sue.

Yes, but whose house?

Aunty Sue’s.

Whose house are we staying at tonight?

Finally, we figured it out. We’re staying at your cousin Bridget’s.

Oh.

Bridget, yep, he knows who that is. Couldn’t remember who Aunty Sue was and that was the problem.

So we arrived around ten at night, the children were all still awake, having had naps on the way. Didn’t take too long to settle either.

This morning they are enjoying getting to know their Christchurch cousins and generally are coping with all the changes very well.

Chris and I are starting to relax, nothing like 3 and a half hours of enforced idleness to slow the brain down. Which we needed as it was a bit tight getting away, as Jewel Fyfe can testify, we were dropping off the car to Rosie at 11:45. But we made it to the ferry OK, only ten minutes late which is a bit of a miracle. Thanks to all those people who’ve been praying for us!

Of course, we have a list of bits and pieces we’ve taken with us that we meant to leave behind and I have lost the invoice for the tree guy so I still don’t know how I am going to pay him…but that can wait until next week.

Sister Sue is keen to take us on the gondolas, something about locals going free if they bring out of towners with them… and it is a fabulous day here, clear and hot.

Where's Hannah?

At Alastair Lane’s farewell, Hannah, then two, became engrossed in a game of “Where did it go?” with another guest. Hannah was hiding a small ball down the front of her dress and holding it in place with her hands. Her “mature” friend asked “Where did it go?” Hannah shrugged her shoulders, holding her hands out and replied “I don’t know” at which point the ball dropped to the ground and everyone cried “there it is!” in great excitement. And then Hannah would pick up the ball and round the game would go.

While we don’t play the game anymore, it has become a bit of a family joke when we ask Hannah where something is. She often replies, with a twinkle, a shrug of her shoulders and her hands outstretched – “I don’t know!”

Thursday night we stayed at Lee’s house in Normandale, the children all bedded down in the family room together, one on a mattress, the others on couches and large chairs. Hannah had some trouble settling, coming upstairs once as she woke to find herself in a strange place. This, despite bringing her pillow and her clown sleeping bag which she loves and her buzzy bee and…well, you know what three year olds are like!

Anyway, Chris popped down to check on the kids later and came back asking “where is Hannah?” She’d disappeared. Not in her bed. Hadn’t fallen off the couch and rolled underneath. Rushed around upstairs, couldn’t see her. We hadn’t heard anything but there were noisy dogs outside making a bit of a racket.

She’s done this disappearing act before of course, when we were staying at Chris’s brother’s place. She was much younger and we’d put her to sleep on our nephew’s bed. When I went to check on her, she’d gone! She was only just one at that stage, so she could’ve got up and walked off but then where was her blanket? On closer inspection, she’d dropped into a gap between the bed and the wall, still on the duvet so she couldn’t be seen by looking under the bed but not visible from the top either unless you climbed onto the bed! But, sure enough, there she was, snuggled in with a smile on her face.

Isn’t it funny how things you’ve lost are always in the last place you look!

So we went back down and had a closer look, trying not to wake the other children who were all fast asleep. Yes, the other three were there. Checked the toilet downstairs and the bed in the other room. Where’s Hannah?

Then something made me check the other children again. And – there she is! Fast asleep beside her sister, snuggled in with a smile on her face.

Allery alert

We’ve found the coffee – so things must be getting better.

Lots to do still, but we are starting to feel like we could live here. The sun is shining and with some of the boxes out of the way I have discovered we have a view. No idea which suburbs I am looking at.

Had an allergy skin test this morning and apparently I am allergic to trees and cockroaches amongst other things. They reckon there aren’t any cockroaches down here – wonder why!

The children stayed another night in Oamaru. The older two have been riding horses, which was high on Janine’s list of desirable activities in the South Island and the younger two have been charming the socks off my mum and dad. Long may that continue!

Ooh! Ooh! The garden people have turned up and are turning the hay paddock into a lawn. Yay! Now we just need to find the curtain lady…

Mulch Madness

Tuesday night Chris and I went to dinner with the Knox youth leaders. The baby sitter rang half way through.

“A big pile of mulch has mysteriously appeared in the driveway.”

Oh.

I’d ordered this between Christmas and New Years. I’d actually given up on the guy or I would have shifted the car off the car pad where I wanted the wood chips to be dumped. I was expecting a phone call or something.

Instead, we arrive home to find 5 cubic metres of mulch blocking the driveway! Disaster! Not impressed. Didn’t think the packers would be too impressed either. It all has to be moved before Thursday morning when the 2 twenty foot containers get dropped off outside the house for ‘the loading’. It’s not as if I have nothing else to do at the moment…

So I was outside at 6:30am shifting barrow loads of stuff. Janine joined me after breakfast- she’s worked really hard, even after being attacked by rose thorns. I’m really impressed by the way she stuck with it; somehow Katarina has managed to find some other jobs… Chris did most of the hard stuff, shifting the mulch up to the top of the section, bless him.

When the packers arrived, turned up we had a different crew to yesterday, 3 lovely Samoan boys, very impressed with the fact we are going to train to be ministers. The boys are funny, slower than yesterday’s team, smoko breaks were a bit longer, but they are heading off now, apparently they’ve run out of packing tape!

We’ve just arrived back from a rather nice farewell lunch at the Galleria with the Knox staff. The house is pretty much packed, apart from our beds. I think we might find somewhere else to sleep tomorrow night; dinner at the Smith’s is sorted.

Jenny and the kids have done heaps of mulch shifting – in the heat of the day too, madness!!! The mulch looks great – can’t think why we didn’t do this years ago. Apart from the fact that we didn’t have the garden beds then. Anyway, will cut down on the maintenance for the tenants and the smell is great.

We are at the point of doing a trial pack of the van, the cordless phone has just gone in the box and next Chris is going to pack down the computers. Hopefully we can get online with the laptop so we can keep you updated.

We are planning on staying in Christchurch on Friday, then Oamaru by Sunday, then meet the movers in Dunedin on Monday. The children will stay with Grandma and Poppa – Yay for families!!!

The children are coping reasonably well with all the upheaval. Hannah didn’t want her bed packed up until I explained that she would see it again in Dunedin. And we’ve explained to Zach that just because Mum or Dad disappear for an hour or two, it doesn’t mean that we’ve gone to Dunedin without them.

I’m quite glad we’ve decided to take a daytime ferry sailing, so they’ll “know” that Dunedin is such a distance.

There is a piece in the Bible quoted by my Old Testament lecturer at Bible College that goes… “My father was a wandering Aramean”. Journeys like this become part of a family’s history and the challenge as always is to make life fun rather than stressful. There is a security in knowing that God is in charge, that things will work out and we feel very blessed that at least our upheaval is planned and orderly rather than the devastating loss suffered by so many others.

The Last Post (from Lower Hutt)

The packers have done an awesome job. Most of our possessions are neatly boxed up, just the gargage and kitchen to go on Wednesday.
The plan is to load Thursday and of course we will be on the ferry by Friday lunchtime.
The younger children have all gone to friends house's to play - just as well as they were hugely over excited early this morning. Some friends are coming on Thursday, very Good Friends, to help clean.They are about to arrive home and I am wondering what we will do, just quietly as all their toys and books are packed as is the TV. And couch. And...
As for all the house jobs - well, it's too late now! The windows still need painting, there's a drainage ditch to fill in - but we might have to leave one or two things for the property manager.
Blessings

I’ve been working on some assignments for my block course, getting lost around 579 BCE, which will have significance only to OT scholars. Apologies to everyone else.

Hannah and I scooted to school today which is a much quicker option than walking which is taking longer and longer. Don’t panic - Hannah runs down the really steep bits! Lotsa fun. She went on a trip to a farm yesterday, rode on ponies and was thoroughly soaked after walking through puddles – what a great time!

Yesterday Chris and I wandered around campus so I feel like a real student. Please ignore the weather forecasts for Dunedin, they are hopelessly inaccurate. Rain? We enjoyed brilliant sunshine. 19 degrees? More like 24! We’ve paid our fees (SOM picks up most of it but we’ve elected to do these extra block courses so there was a little extra…) picked up our student ID’s and I’ve borrowed books from the library. Nice.

Chris and I are off this Saturday to Hamilton, flying direct to Auckland and back on Monday via Christchurch so we will see mum and dad who are looking after the whanau for us. Chris’s niece is getting married on Sunday, hence the trip.

Right, time to get back to Ezekial…