Encouragements

It's hard this blogging lark - everything blogged is so public. So to blog about work isn't always appropriate. If you receive our quarterly Canterbury Tales you'll have more of an idea (if you don't get this you should! - send me an email to sign up) of the joys and trials of TSCF work. I do wonder if I err towards the pessimistic side because I've been very surprised over the last couple of weeks.


Two things that have been great:

1. My new support leaflet.
My TSCF field colleagues and I are all redoing our support leaflets (with lots of help from wonderful TSCF office colleagues!) Few of us are 100% funded, and now undergrad lectures are coming to an end (next week is the last week unbelievably) it frees time for support raising. We'd love more people to be part of the team financing this work, so again, send me an email if you're interested. Anyway, as part of this new 'introducing Tim Hodge as a TSCF staffworker' leaflet some people have written short references. I wonder if they've got the right person as their reports are so glowing! See if you agree with them:

Tim has a heart for mission, and a real ability to work with tertiary students in that arena. He is a gifted communicator, and is grounded well in the Word. Tim is a strategic thinker, able to plan ahead and also implement in the present. He gathers good people around him in ministry, and is definitively a team player. He has gained the respect and friendship of all who work with him. I believe supporting him in prayer and finance in this most valuable work he spearheads is an investment well worth making.

Mothy is enthusiastic about his job and takes a general interest into how our studies and walk with the Lord is going. He helps us to ask questions to develop our knowledge of the Bible and too bring us closer to Jesus. Every week he helps us to broaden our sights on ways to make Jesus known on our Lincoln campus. He keeps us on track when we go on a tangent, and makes sure we ensure all we do as a wider LUCF relates back to fulfilling the LUCF goals.

God has a way of bringing the right people into the right job and nowhere is this more true than with Tim and Lizzy at Lincoln. Tim has an obvious and infectious love of the Word of God and is really gifted at helping students relate the Bible to life. Tim and Lizzy are committed to the Lincoln community but also have a commitment to help students in the wider Canterbury region to reach other students for Christ, whatever university they attend. Tim and Lizzy clearly love God and love students and I invite you to support them as they help more students grow in their love of God and his word.

I'm waiting on a couple more, but these three have encouraged me no end!

2. Second thing happened 10 mins ago - a graduating student from mid year has just swung by on his way north from a farm down south and brought Lizzy and I two carrier bags full of sausages and chops. 'Just 'cos you're you Mothy'. Really nice of him. Means more to me than he probably realises. A great way to start the weekend! Here it is all wrapped up into TimnLizzy size portions. Yum.

Huge thanks for the encouragements of so many that contribute, from all over the world, to TSCF in NZ!

The Barnabas Fund

This article - from the Times - shows why we're keen supporters of the Barnabas Fund. Great work for the persecuted church worldwide, be that the Middle East, Africa or the UK.
We commend them to you. More info here - www.barnabasfund.org

Moana

We've just spent a lovely relaxing and fun weekend in Moana, which is a very small town on the shores of Lake Brunner, on the West Coast. We stayed in a couple of baches with views over the lake.



We went with some friends from church, just cos! (5 couples and a baby). It was great to get to know people a bit more, and we're liking how there's gradually getting to be more people our age (ish, we're still the old farts really) at Lincoln Baptist (and living in Lincoln). For a while we felt like we were the only people between the teenagers and the parents of the teenagers who went to our church, which was fine, but it's fun to be able to have some peers around too!

On Saturday seven of us borrowed some Kayaks from the baches and headed out across the Lake. I got to go in a double with the other Lizzy cos I threatened that I'd hold them all up by going in needless circles otherwise (based on previous experiences in the Lake District many years ago).

(Er... Lizzy writing by the way - I should have said that earlier, Mothy doesn't have weak left paddling arm issues).

It was quite magical gliding through the peaceful water together, and taking in the majestic scenery, (no photos though, as the camera wasn't handy, sorry). And, even better, after a couple of hours, just as shoulders were getting very sore we met the other 4 of our party on a handy beach which they'd driven to with the picnic.


This is (L- R) young Lizzy, Mothy, Kerri, Dennis, Derek, Vicki, Shayna (on the shoulders), Dave, and Rachel. (Stuart's missing for some reason)

But he's made it into this one.

On the way back to Lincoln we stopped off at Castle Hill, to have a walk around the strange limestone rocks, you can almost see in the background above. It was an area that was used to film the recent Narnia film.

And here's some more Middle Earth views from the drive home today.

Fatal car crash in Lincoln

This article - http://stuff.co.nz/4197246a11.html - tells of the pain of car accident deaths. On Saturday night a car with four 15 year old Lincoln High School students crashed on the open road just near the university dairy farm. The driver had her NZ restricted licence and, according to the article, was good at never carrying passengers, as per the restrictions on her licence. Yet on this one occasion this wasn't the case. Two girls died that night and one the next morning. One walked away.
The school and Lincoln township are in a state of shock. After several years of falling death rates on the roads 2007 has, so far, been awful. There are renewed calls in parliament to raise the driving age from 15 to 16 in an effort to reduce the poor road safety record in NZ.
Our friends Luke Bridge and Junita Douglass work as 24/7 Christian youth workers in the school and knew these girls. Liz's colleague Lyn knew them too, through her teenage daughter. Lincoln is a small community, despite having one of the biggest schools in the South Island.

What's a Christian response to this? We continue to pray for Luke and Junita as they grapple with the issues; and take the Christian message to the 15 year olds in Lincoln High, many of whom will never have had to face death before.

Some might say Revelation 4:10 - He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away - is a bit trite here, but I think not. This is true hope for those that know and love Jesus. None of us know when we will die, but for the Christian, the joy of knowing the old order of things will pass away is comfort.
It is a hard, hard time for these girl's families.

Spring time in Lincoln

1st September is the official start of Spring, and we've been loving some Spring time weather. As have the plants in our garden.


This week at Lincoln there's been some follow up to the recent Jesus Week, aided by Pete, the Palmerston North Mintern, and 3 Palmy students. This is Hannah and Pete.


They've been enjoying the sun too, helping at Sifters, doing some follow-up Jesus questions, and generally hanging out with Lincoln CF. (From L to R below: Jono from Lincoln, Aaron from Palmy, Pete from Lincoln, Courtney from Palmy).


Today after church we had a student lunch at our place. Our wonderful home group provided a huge student size pot of soup, and dozens of delicious home-made choc-chip cookies. There was some disbelief voiced, however, that we would be able to host 20 students in our wee house. So for Robyn - this is how it's done! Easy!


And the best bit - there's so many people able to do dishes afterwards!