Parachute rocks

We have survived another Parachute experience, including the historic, first time ever to be rained out debut concernt of Mr Dave Dobbyn. I blame the Nooma video they showed the day before, entitled "Rain", or possibly the Darlene set imploring God to rain down His presence, but either way, the heavens opened and everyone and everything was drenched. Tents were washed away, roadies were worked off their feet covering and shifting sound gear on stage, the roads were running inches deep with runoff! As the man himself said, thank God none of the roadies were fried!
We have done things the easy way, living at Chris' brother's place and going home at night, although last night it took us an hour and a half to get from Mystery Creek to home. We have caught up with family, we've met a whole bunch of old friends, it's all good.
We head back to Wellington on Tuesday and have an early morning sailing on Wednesday.

Parachute rocks

We have survived another Parachute experience, including the historic, first time ever to be rained out debut concernt of Mr Dave Dobbyn. I blame the Nooma video they showed the day before, entitled "Rain", or possibly the Darlene set imploring God to rain down His presence, but either way, the heavens opened and everyone and everything was drenched. Tents were washed away, roadies were worked off their feet covering and shifting sound gear on stage, the roads were running inches deep with runoff! As the man himself said, thank God none of the roadies were fried!
We have done things the easy way, living at Chris' brother's place and going home at night, although last night it took us an hour and a half to get from Mystery Creek to home. We have caught up with family, we've met a whole bunch of old friends, it's all good.
We head back to Wellington on Tuesday and have an early morning sailing on Wednesday.

You can't beat Wellington on a good day

Live from Wellington, we are just getting ready for the licensing service and of course I have nothing else to do but write a blog spot, well, nothing I would rather do anyway! We are having a lovely time catching up with various people, although poor Hannah has had a tummy bug which slowed me down yesterday and the two nights we have spent here have been pretty average.

We have particularly enjoyed catching up with our hosts, Mike and Jo Smith. Chris' parents arrived yesterday and it is all coming together. We had a good crossing on Tuesday after a fabulous time on Queen Charlotte sound near Anakiwa with the Purdies. This was a laid back family time, we tried some fishing and rowing, walked to Davies Bay for a picnic, and lots of laughs.

Tomorrow we head off to Parachute at Mystery Creek, near Hamilton and I suspect I will be too tired to blog on Monday. We head back to Wellington playing all the new CD's we will have bought on Tuesday and have an early crossing on Wednesday 31st.

Sorry, folks

Big apologies to people who missed me last week! There have been one or two changes to the blog hosting service - let's just say I got confused. My bad!
We had a great holiday program last week, average of 22 kids/day and Janine and Katarina in particular stepped up and stepped out. I am very proud of the work they did! Hannah and Zak have really enjoyed the silly songs and learning their memory verses.
I have also preached the last two weeks, and I have been desperately reading and writing before we head away on Tuesday. I have a major project that I want finished by the end of Febuary and I was rather hoping to have a few more words written than I have managed.
We will be heading north for our holidays, lots of travelling, licensing in Wellington and Parachute of course.
Looks like the job is firming up in Mosgiel but nothing in writing yet. I have a cold but everyone else is happy and healthy.
Janine finally saw a specialist today for her fingers and he has recommended night splints to try and straighten out her pinkies.
We are off for an interview tomorrow for a school for Katarina. And Chris has spent the last few days working on - a sound system for Leith (no surprises there!).

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

We were exceedingly boring and stayed home. While we did have a couple of invites, neither of us felt much like hitting the town so we watched a little telly, read a little and saw the New Year in with Katarina and Janine. Quietly. Rather lovely really.
This week we are preparing for a service on Sunday and a holiday program we are running at Leith Valley church, January 8-12th. We saw the movie "Happy Feet" on Boxing Day which will be one of the themes for the program.

We also went on the Taieri Gorge Railway last week with my brother Tim, who is visiting from Sydney. This is a fantastic trip, most of the family spent much of the trip on the viewing platforms outside. The gorge is spectacular and it is hard to imagine they built it mostly with picks and shovels.