TSCF Lincoln Jesus Week

Jesus Week 2008 for Lincoln Uni has come and gone. There is much to encourage, and also much that needs to be worked on to help the students be clearer in proclaiming Jesus to their campus.

The week was arranged around the theme of 'slavery'. To raise awareness of physical slavery throughout the world today, especially in SE Asia, and to highlight that we are all slaves to sin and in need of Jesus the Saviour.

LUCF did well in the first part of that - watching the movie Amazing Grace; sausage sizzles and petitions against slavery (in conjunction with Stop The Traffik). Here is petition gathering in full swing:

It was interesting to chat with students from round the world. It quickly became apparent that the vast majority were surprised to learn slavery is still a 21st century issue (even those students from countries with the biggest problems such as Cambodia, India, Thailand) and very happy to sign the Stop The Traffik petition. In addition, Kiwis generally took a lolly and no booklet about Jesus; internationals took both. Another observation was that of the two tracts we had, international students went straight for the one with 'Jesus' in the title.

Last year, the highlight was txt 4 toasties - late night free toasties for halls students in exchange for a question about Jesus. This is something the CF does from time to time and is very good at. Sadly, there's been uni management 'discussions' about the weekly toastie town all year and no established venue yet. Join us in praying for this - this is the time of the week during an 'average' LUCF week that Jesus is most clearly corporately proclaimed.

Instead, the students put on a sit down meal with after dinner speaker. Encouragingly, half of the 70 people who gathered I didn't recognise. A local church home group did wonders with food, and the speaker, Robert, had a captivating story of working for IJM going round the world gathering evidence of child slavery as prostitutes and giving said evidence to the local authorities. He was clear his motivation for that work was rooted in the character of God.

There was a slave auction too - retiring LUCF leaders sold off publicly as 'slaves' (eg 'bake for me for a month'); raising about $2000 for Cambodian Hope

Many Lincoln degrees have practical fieldtrips and practical work placements (anything from 1 day to 35 weeks). Unfortunately, Jesus Week crossed one of these undergrad 'field trip days'. Many undergrads were off and about on fieldtrips. For those that weren't, a few of us headed to the mountains for a wonderful day skiing/boarding. I had the pleasure of meeting Arporn, new to NZ just two weeks previously, from Thailand. She had never seen snow before, nor it transpired, heard about Jesus. It was great to introduce her to both!

It was extremely helpful to have my colleague Ben Carswell with us for the week. He found it helpful to see a new campus (he'd not been to Lincoln before) and I found it helpful to have 'fresh eyes' on evaluating the impact of Jesus Week both on LUCF and the wider campus. His report will be helpful as Sarah & I work with the new LUCF leaders at their vision weekend in a few days time.
Ben even blogged about me (a world first!) - Ben's blog

Ben emphasised that the relational aspect of LUCF was amazing. Justin & Micky set up the sausage sizzle under the 'Lincoln University Christian Fellowship' banner and happily talked about CF when mates came up for a sausage. Relationships is a key strength of LUCF. Yet the jump from talking about physical slavery to spiritual slavery wasn't as forthcoming as it should be - there was not as much actual talking about Jesus as there needs to be. This is where TSCF staff will work to encourage for the future - this week, next week and throughout the year. A big thanks to those who've prayed, supplied food, and asked students & staff of the uni, and TSCF staff too, about how Jesus Week went.

14 steps

Liz works as an administrator for AgResearch, looking after about 70 scientists in her team. There must be something in the water down the road, because about 10% of her team are shortly to become a mum or a dad. Rather helpfully, some colleagues have been helping her with the below:

14 Steps Before Parenthood:

Test 1 - Preparation

Women: To prepare for pregnancy:-

1. Put on a dressing gown and stick a beanbag down the front.
2. Leave it there.
3. After 9 months remove 5% of the beans.

Men: To prepare for children:-

1. Go to a local chemist, tip the contents of your wallet onto the counter and tell the pharmacist to help himself
2. Go to the supermarket. Arrange to have your salary paid directly to their head office.
3. Go home. Pick up the newspaper and read it for the last time.


Test 2 - Knowledge

Find a couple who are already parents and berate them about their methods of discipline, lack of patience, appallingly low tolerance levels and how they have allowed their children to run wild. Suggest ways in which they might improve their child's sleeping habits, toilet training, table manners and overall behavior.

Enjoy it. It will be the last time in your life that you will have all the answers.


Test 3 - Nights

To discover how the nights will feel:

1. Walk around the living room from 5pm to 10pm carrying a wet bag weighing approximately 4 - 6kg, with a radio turned to static (or some other obnoxious sound) playing loudly.
2. At 10pm, put the bag down, set the alarm for midnight and go to sleep.
3. Get up at 11pm and walk the bag around the living room until 1am.
4. Set the alarm for 3am.
5. As you can't get back to sleep, get up at 2am and make a cup of tea.
6. Go to bed at 2.45am.
7. Get up again at 3am when the alarm goes off.
8. Sing songs in the dark until 4am.
9. Put the alarm on for 5am. Get up when it goes off.
10. Make breakfast.

Keep this up for 5 years. LOOK CHEERFUL.


Test 4 - Dressing Small Children

1. Buy a live octopus and a string bag.
2. Attempt to put the octopus into the string bag so that no arms hang out.

Time Allowed: 5 minutes.

Test 5 - Cars

1. Forget the BMW. Buy a practical 5-door wagon.
2. Buy a chocolate ice cream cone and put it in the glove compartment. Leave it there.
3. Get a coin. Insert it into the CD player.
4. Take a box of chocolate biscuits; mash them into the back seat.
5. Run a garden rake along both sides of the car.


Test 6 - Going For a Walk

Wait
Go out the front door
Come back in again
Go out
Come back in again
Go out again
Walk down the front path
Walk back up it
Walk down it again
Walk very slowly down the road for five minutes.
Stop, inspect minutely and ask at least 6 questions about every piece of used chewing gum, dirty tissue and dead insect along the way.
Retrace your steps
Scream that you have had as much as you can stand until the neighbours come out and stare at you.
Give up and go back into the house.

You are now just about ready to try taking a small child for a walk.


Test 7

Repeat everything you say at least 5 times.


Test 8 - Grocery Shopping

1. Go to the local supermarket. Take with you the nearest thing you can find to a pre-school child - a fully grown goat is excellent. If you intend to have more than one child, take more than one goat.
2. Buy your weekly groceries without letting the goat(s) out of your sight.
3. Pay for everything the goat eats or destroys.

Until you can easily accomplish this, do not even contemplate having children.


Test 9 - Feeding a 1 year-old

1. Hollow out a melon
2. Make a small hole in the side
3. Suspend the melon from the ceiling and swing it side to side
4. Now get a bowl of soggy cornflakes and attempt to spoon them into the swaying melon while pretending to be an aeroplane.
5. Continue until half the cornflakes are gone.
6. Tip the rest into your lap, making sure that a lot of it falls on the floor.


Test 10 - TV

1. Learn the names of every character from the Wiggles, Barney, Teletubbies and Disney.
2. Watch nothing else on television for at least 5 years.


Test 11 - Mess

Can you stand the mess children make? To find out:

1. Smear peanut butter onto the sofa and jam onto the curtains
2. Hide a fish behind the stereo and leave it there all summer.
3. Stick your fingers in the flowerbeds and then rub them on clean walls. Cover the stains with crayon. How does that look?
4. Empty every drawer/cupboard/storage box in your house onto the floor & leave it there.


Test 12 - Long Trips with Toddlers

1. Make a recording of someone shouting 'Mummy' repeatedly. Important Notes: No more than a 4 second delay between each Mummy. Include occasional crescendo to the level of a supersonic jet.
2. Play this tape in your car, everywhere you go for the next 4 years.

You are now ready to take a long trip with a toddler.


Test 13 - Conversations

1. Start talking to an adult of your choice.
2. Have someone else continually tug on your shirt hem or shirt sleeve while playing the Mummy tape listed above.

You are now ready to have a conversation with an adult while there is a child in the room.


Test 14 - Getting ready for work

1. Pick a day on which you have an important meeting.
2. Put on your finest work attire.
3. Take a cup of cream and put 1 cup of lemon juice in it
4. Stir
5. Dump half of it on your nice silk shirt
6. Saturate a towel with the other half of the mixture
7. Attempt to clean your shirt with the same saturated towel
8. Do not change (you have no time).
9. Go directly to work

You are now ready to have children.

Nice! I'm sure there's some truth in that. Much more truth in Psalm 127:3-5, which I've been singing a lot lately. Have a look for yourself - go on, grab a Bible or head to www.BibleGateway.com and check it out for yourself!

Terry/Terri

So when I mentioned Phocas and his Rwandan blessing on us wishing us twins I should have been clearer - twins are great, so our friends with baby twins tell us. And we'd be happy with twins. But one is good enough! Liz is pregnant and Terry/Terri (you'll have to ask us why that's the name of bump) should make a summer entrance in the early New Year. But maybe it'll be Terry and Terri.
Watch this space!

TSCF Conference: Mission from McDonalds to Mongolia

Auckland. The big smoke. And the location of this year's annual TSCF winter conference, this year on the theme of Mission from McDonalds to Mongolia.

A fantastic way to arrive was via ferry. Liz's maiden surname is Fuller so I couldn't really turn it down!

It was great to be with so many students from around NZ, including several from Lincoln & Nelson (above is the Lincoln & Nelson crew, minus Sarah & the other Tim, but with a giant Barry Cleal at the airport, so that's nice), to learn from God’s word from Acts 1-4, and take part in Destination World and a day trip.

'Destination World' was a collaboration of several missions agencies giving an interactive experience to overseas mission in the 21st century. We all assumed different identities as we progressed through the various rooms - from passport control through to a translation centre, a medical centre, an Islamic country, and several others. I loved seeing the mission agencies engaging in a way that the postmodern Generation Y could get excited about.

It was wonderful to have Bushby & KJ join the conference for one evening too. They were both undergrads at Lincoln when we arrived here, and have now graduated and live in Auckland. Although Bushby, working as a hot-shot property manager for a large commercial firm, is gradually owning the title 'Aucklander', KJ, as a true Southland girl, is more reticent.

I alsso enjoyed catching up with Michael. (No photo sorry!) He's a student at Auckland University, with parents from Laos. He met some OCF (Overseas Christian Fellowship, one of the TSCF groups on that campus) students and wanted to find out more about Jesus. The OCFers said 'we don't meet during exams, but do come to our conference.' So Michael did. It was great to meet him, and 4 others who were very openly saying they weren't Christians but wanted to explore Jesus more. Do please pray for Auckland OCF as they continue to run Bible studies with Michael.

One day we spent out and about - at a Buddhist Temple, an Islamic Centre and a local mall, learning and observing the ideologies of each (photos are of the Buddhist Temple and this odd idol - seems to be iPod Buddha with a little snowman......)

Several students were nervous about the Buddhist and Islamic places, thinking their faith in Jesus might be shaken (although, interestingly there were no such fears about the mall). Instead, in the debrief time, it was obvious that the truth of the gospel became clearer in the face of the lack of assurance of salvation offered in the answers of the Buddhist and Islamic teachers we met.
It was cold in the main hall for some - especially Australian colleagues! Nick - I salute your ingenuity to get a hottie to go with your Bible while sitting right in front of the heater!

I was pleased to surpass, by nearly $1000, my target of selling $6000 (retail $8000) worth of good quality Christian books. We don't just want to sell books, but generate a culture of book reading to enable faithful witness to transform NZ and the Pacific.

All in all, conference was a wonderfully encouraging, exciting, fun, stimulating, and tiring time!

Winter in NZ

We've blogged about early summer in Europe, so here's some photos from winter in NZ....

Our car on Saturday afternoon. Nice.

Liz inside said car, with snow on the outside (until she opened the window to clear away the snow to see that is - then all the snow came inside the car, onto Liz's lap. He he.)

Our garden Saturday morning.

This is all excellent news for the ski-fields, but not so nice for Sarah, new TSCF Staffworker in Lincoln who's arrived in NZ from an European summer. She was last in NZ in June-July 2005 so thinks that NZ is always cold and that summer is a distant dream, never to arrive. In fact, she thinks it's like Narnia under the White Witch 'always winter and never Christmas'! She's got about 6 layers of clothing on and is getting very good at lighting our log burner!

Some of the church youth group on a progressive winter dinner - our stop was dessert. As it feels so Christmassy to Liz she forced us to listen to Christmas music and eat mince pies. All very nice, but very confusing for the Kiwis who all said 'but Christmas is in the summer'.

Europe in early summer; part 3 - IFES colleagues

This is the third and final in a series of posts about our all-too-short-is-this-really-summer 3 weeks in Europe.

It was a joy to meet friends and colleagues in IFES. IFES is the international TSCF. TSCF was a founder movement of IFES in 1947; and we continue to be involved with IFES in 2008 assisting in new movements, training staffworkers across the South Pacific, financing Indian staffworkers' theological education, and supporting my colleagues Ruth and Josue in Ecuador.

It's fair to say we in TSCF love IFES. 140 countried have an IFES movement and IFES students and graduates are salt and light all over the world. Recently retired IFES General Secretary Lindsay Brown has written an excellent book filled with recent stories of how God is working in universities world wide. I highly commend Shining Like Stars to you - indeed, I've been giving away many copies to supporters and it was one of our best sellers at our recent TSCF Conference.


So it was a real joy to meet Phocas Ngendahayo (second from the right above), who's on the cover of Shining Like Stars and is mentioned in Lindsay's chapter on the growth of the gospel and IFES in Rwanda after the 1994 genocide in that nation. Phocas is studying at Redcliffe College, a Christian missions college in the UK. The Rwandan IFES movement is such a work of the grace of God. You'll have to read Shining Like Stars for details, but it involves the slaughter of many Christians in the genocide through to an explosion in an acceptance of the gospel message post genocide to such a point that now the Rwandan IFES movement has the largest on campus meeting of any IFES movement worldwide - about 3000 students week by week in Kigali.

Phocas is a humble, gracious, wise and godly man. I'd happily work with and under him. He's missing his family back in Rwanda. He has twins and as we were leaving, he wished us a typical Rwanda blessing 'I wish you double happiness with twins'. Liz tried, in a culturally sensitive way, to say she didn't really want twins, but Phocas was having none of it!


As well as Phocas, we met Armani & Esther (above, left, all looking ridiculously smart compared to my bestest polo shirt that I thought was smart), who work for IFES in Tanzania. They too are studying at Redcliffe. A very warm and lovely couple, and we greatly appreciated hearing tales of God's work on the campuses of Tanzania. Tom Broughton was taking part in TSCF Minty (discpleship training) last year, and in the next few weeks is heading to Tanzania. Armani & Esther are heading back to Tanzania very soon and I'm hopeful that either they, or other IFES Tanzania colleagues, can get Tom involved in his local university/college and continue to train him up in gospel student work during his two VSA years in Tanzania. They're in email contact about that. That'd be well cool.

Also on our trip we managed to meet Tim, who's a Brit who worked with IFES in Siberia for two years and it was great to hear his reflections on that. Sadly, we just missed Giovanni and Hannah who work with IFES in Italy.

But we did get to spend time with the wonderfully hospitable Mike & Amanda in France. Mike's from Seychelles/UK and Amanda's from Canada. Before they met working for IFES in France Amanda had spent time in the IFES movements in Canada and St. Lucia; and Mike time with the UK and French IFES movements.

So all in all, a great reminder to us of the strategic nature of the gospel through the work of IFES worldwide changing individuals and nations for Jesus.

IFES. Students reaching students with the gospel worldwide.

Europe in early summer; part 2 - friends and family

In June we returned from three weeks in Europe. All the buildings seemed old, (maybe we just weren't so aware of all the new ones!)

It was great to meet friends and family - to tell stories of what we're up to here in NZ with TSCF and how God is working through the campuses of Aotearoa, and also to hear friends and families stories too. It was so encouraging meeting those with whom there is much shared history; to laugh over old times and laugh about new things whilst with them!


Hodge clan on Painswick Beacon - my brother Andy's (in the purple coat) favourite spot.

Robin & Sarah live in Solihull and took us to the canal which was beautiful. Thanks for becoming new TSCF supporters! Sarah's hiding, but can be seen on the previous Europe blog.

This is Alan and Joe (and bump too!) outside their place in a village near Aylesbury. Fantastic to stay with them; hear about high school and primary teaching and impending parenthood and to trek across paddocks to a wonderful rural pub.

Lizzy's favourite singer, Tim Van Eyken, holidayed in NZ recently, but wasn't working any gigs. So Liz was excited (far too excited really!) that he was playing Marlborough town hall. She dragged Sis and I along too and it was all good. We turned up before the band was setting up, and stayed for Liz to have a good yarn with Tim at the end. Hope he doesn't think she's a stalker groupie....
Breaking news....Tim Van Eyken is headlining Wellington Folk Festival over Labour Weekend in October...... Liz will be very excited indeed!


Me and Auntie Dee sharing a joke.

I'm glad Barclays Bank call ATMs Hole in the Walls - 'cos I do too.

Some different members of the Hodge clan enjoying the sun, as well as mum, dad and sis, this is Auntie Aileen and Uncle Derek on the right.

Abbey Church in Gloucester doing what we do well - looking at the Bible together and eating food together afterwards. Doubly well fed!

Janice serving the wonderful salmon.

Here we are with Mike & Amanda in France. I struggled with my school-boy French, but it was great food though, even if I wasn't sure what I'd ordered.

Grandpa & I in my home town of Bournemouth - where the sun always shines! Lizzy & I had to stop Grandpa and demand a rest when we were walking up the cliff with him. It's embarrassing when a 85 year old is fitter than you.....

Dave & I spent a year volunteering with TSCF way back last century. He's now on his OE working for the London Ambulance NHS Trust in, unsurprisingly, London. He's had a real bad run with his body giving up in various places, yet a pack of Cookie Time from Christchurch NZ brought many smiles. He enjoyed them so much he even requested this photo on the blog - this one's for you Dave mate!

We wanted to meet more people and felt a real constraint on time. We forgot to take pictures of everyone, so if you're missing out seeing your face then I hope to rectify that next time!

We travelled on too many motorways in the UK/France/Switzerland, so it was nice to get to east Norfolk and stay in one place for a 5 day holiday with Liz's family -

Fullers in the garden

It looks warm, but the North Sea in early June really isn't warm enough for Fuller women. This Hodge man though was very happy paddling in it.

Lots of Liz's family live in Gorleston. This is Auntie Angie and Uncle John on the right.


Although there was much chuntering and cursing, the Fullers did actually enjoy me & Liz making them hire bikes for a nice bike ride and picnic in the Norfolk broads.

All in all, good times. Good to be with friends and family and also good to be back home in Lincoln. We came back just in time for our main TSCF conference which has just finished and we'll be blogging about in due course.