Rick Astley would never.......

Much laughter over this diagram. If you're under 25 or over 35 I guess it won't be funny at all, as it won't make any sense at all, but if you get it you'll think it's hilarious and will be humming along, much to your annoyance, all day long.
Enjoy.

Winter's coming

Mothy got sent this lovely jumper knitted by my (Lizzy's) very clever mum for his birthday this year. As it felt like winter had well and truly arrived this weekend he's appreciated it, and worn it a lot.

On Friday night a big southerly storm came through, and the rain and hail kept me awake quite a lot of the night. However I must have slept a bit because I got woken with Mothy at 5.30am by the loudest crack of lightening I've ever heard. It was terrifying! Our neighbours on the corner said they thought a truck had hit their house, as the whole place shook. It was followed by more loud thunder and lightening, but nothing like the first bolt had been.

The power went off, so after we'd investigated with a torch, and found there wasn't a hole in our roof after all, and reassured the cat, we went back to bed. We woke later to find the garden looking truly wintery.


Later when the power did come back we discovered that our desk-top PC has apparently been fried by the lightening, along with the router and modem. Bummer! All the neighbours we've spoken to along the street have very similar problems, and none of the street lights are working. The lightening apparently hit the rugby club, close by our house, which explains why it was so loud!

It's given me a new respect for when you read things about God having a voice like thunder!

UCCF books

A few days ago we posted about books and resources. This morning, this caught my eye - a short video about books recommended and sold to students at a UCCF conference. UCCF is the UK sister movement to us in TSCF in NZ. Some of the books we too recommend and sell/give to students, some I didn't recognise.



But I don't know what I think about the video. Some of it made me laugh (love the orange one!), but some of it passed me by, and sometimes I thought 'NO!! Don't destroy that book!'
And as for the accents.......! I guess I sound like that, but in my head I don't sound quite like that.

What do you make of that video?

House selling

We posted previously about attempting to sell our home and move around the corner. We decided not to use the agents who charge 3-5% plus GST plus advertising costs, and did it ourselves with a TradeMe advert, a For Sale sign outside made by a signwriter and ads in The Press property section.
All good it seems, for our home is now conditionally sold, to a lovely older couple downsizing from Horarata to be closer to children and grandchildren. Turns out they're Christians too - when they first looked round Allison said to me 'Are you a Christian?' to which I answered 'I certainly am; what made you ask?' 'We saw the Bible by the bed'. Cool. It's all conditional in them selling their place and thus the chain begins. But they've had a good clear out (with several boxes ending up at both their daughter's place and our place!) and we remain optimistic. It certainly seems as if God's hand is on the whole process from start to finish and for that we're very thankful.

Jesse back in the news

Regular readers may recall Jesse Kappmeyer from two posts a year ago. Jesse was an American exchange student at Lincoln University, a Christian and key member of the TSCF group. He and two American friends went climbing Mt Aspiring and sadly had an accident in which one climber died, one was close to death at the foot of the glacier where they fell, and Jesse broke his back. Jesse tramped out through the night, with a broken back, to alert the authorities.
Lizzy & I went to visit Jesse and Mike in Dunedin hospital as they began to heal. Jesse's faith in God was amazing, and continues to this day, as The Press yesterday picked up when they wrote an article a year on. The article clearly points to Jesse and his rejoicing in God in, through and after the accident.

Clint, one of the leaders of TSCF Lincoln this year, was in America in his summer holidays (northern winter), and saw Jesse and Mike. Both doing well; bodies are coming good. Even for Mike who lost part of his leg, he's back rock climbing and kayaking. But for Jesse there is a deeper significance to what happened on Mt Aspiring a year ago, and one he continues to pray through back in his local church in Moscow, Idaho, USA.

I'm surprised but pleased that The Press decided to return to the story one year on. We continue to pray that Jesse speaks of Jesus when remembering the horrors of that climb.