It was sad to farewell Ellen Ferencz way before her time. Ellen had bravely fought and conquered cancer only to have it return a year later and take her life. Our love and prayers are with the family.
I also attended and participated in Sue Rayner’s funeral service last Friday. Sue was the first woman to be an Elim Pastor in NZ and had special credentials for prison ministry. In her younger years before she found faith in Jesus Christ Sue spent time in and out of prison. She did a marvelous job as a Prison Chaplin. 

It was good to catch up with Clinton and Jan Kelleher on Saturday. Clinton was up to preach in Cambridge and then for some conference planning, and Jan was meeting our team for our women’s conference planning. 

Then on Monday and Tuesday Mike Knott was up from Wellington. We attended the Transform 2010 conference on Monday which was a gathering of leaders brought together by Bruce Patrick of Alpha. Bruce is doing a top job with Alpha after successfully leading the Baptist Tabernacle. His wife Virginia was part of an outreach we ran in our late teens called “Drift Inn”. It seems (and was) ages ago.

Father’s Day is this Sunday with our iPad/iDad special services. All dads who attend the services across the church go into the draw for an iPad. Two will be given away. We have arranged for one of our Policemen to come to the staff meeting on Tuesday for the draw and we will video this so we can play it the following Sunday.

Our new series began on Sunday and we talked about Meeting God in a Cave. It is interesting to find that God does some of his best work in caves. Dark times are not wasted times. I love the encouragement that much of what God does through our life is not in church but outside in our everyday circumstances. The sooner the church moves away from an emphasis on the super pastor and his titles to the Holy Spirit working through all believers, the more dynamic the church will become.

This week we are talking about Meeting God in the Valley, but we are also busy planning for Father’s Day. This year all fathers attending our services will be in the draw to win one of two iPads. The message will be called iPad – iDad.

We had a great regional gathering yesterday in the amazing Equip Church in Whangarei. I am always inspired by what Bruce, Lil and the team have done here. Martin Steel from Habourside Church came and shared some powerful teaching. 

Especially keep us in your prayers over these next few weeks. We are on an amazing journey of faith with our property expansion plans. An unbelievable series of circumstances have come together to bring us to this point. Remember; God is in the circumstances of your life.