Reminiscing re holidays

Lizzy here
Although we're well in to the new year now, I've been looking at holiday photos and I thought I should share some with the world.

We had a great time with Andy and Louise visiting form the UK. (For those that don't know you'll surely be able to tell, just by looking, who is related to who).


We spent Christmas day in the Catlins. Here's the view, waking up on Christmas day.



And in case you're wondering the rest of the holiday was equally stressful, wandering by lakes, eating lovely food, luging in Queenstown, reading books, and crocheting. (In trees).


The boys also did a beautiful 3 day walk - but Mothy can write about that later. Me and Louise were too busy drinking coffee and shopping so I can't report on that part of the trip.

So then it was quite a shock to the system to have to go back to work, but fortunately it was only for 2 days and then our good friend from the Salford University era, Liz P, came to visit and we had another holiday - this time to the Marlborough Sounds (via Kaikoura).


This was also involving lots of walking through beautiful scenery, dolphin watching, lovely food and wine - and lots of laughs.

Here at Trig K are Lizzy and Liz (modelling the latest in head wear for sunsmart behaviour).



It was good to get back to Lincoln feeling nicely rested and ready for the year ahead.

International lunch

Lizzy here
We had an international lunch at work this week. There was lots and lots of interesting food that people brought. Including
Rye bread and herb butter from Germany
Herring on bread from Russia
Jonny Cake from Canada
Crepes from France
Peruvian potatoes
Dutch Indonesian rice
Curry vegetable puffs from India
Kiwi cheese rolls, hot chips, pavlova, bacon & egg pie and ambroisia
English scones
And my offering was Eccles cakes, which nobody had heard of before, but seemed to go down well, despite being much harder to make than I'd anticipated. They tasted better tan they looked I'd say. Obviously I just need more practice.

Sir Ed

It was Sir Edmund Hillary's funeral yesterday in Auckland. State funeral. Suprisingly, it was a church affair. It's surprising given Sir Ed's vocal agnosticism and Clark's even more ardent anti-Christian sentiments. But then again, many seem to love Christianity at the time of death, as Liz Gordon's fascinating, yet flawed, article in The Weekend Press points out (not yet online).

It's been amazing to see just how loved the man was across New Zealand. No-one has anything but good to say about him, across the generations. Kiwis love of Sir Ed stems from two major points, as far as I can see -
1. Along with Tenzing Norgay, was one of the first two men to climb Everest successfully, in 1953. When back down he said 'Well George, we knocked the bastard off'. That phrase is now immortalised in Kiwi culture and shows that Sir Ed was 'one of us' - a true Kiwi, not building up his own achievements, great though they were.
2. He spent his life building schools and hospitals throughout Nepal, giving his life to the people he got to know in the Himalayas, repaying with thanks the opportunity to climb in their mountains. Kiwis love that too - that he was very philanthropic.

A good example of these two is in the following video, paying tribute to the great yet humble Sir Ed who lives on through our use of the $5 note.

Enjoy!

Angels

Angels - that's what I've been musing, reading in the Bible, and praying about recently. It's summer season and for 3 weeks in January I've been preaching at three different churches whilst the respective pastors have been on holiday. It's been a joy to join with churches in Picton and Beckenham for the last two Sundays, and this coming Sunday at our home church here in Lincoln. And the subject is Angels: Who are they and what do they do? It's been a fascinating time in preparation. Below is the first image supplied to me by Google

That's an interesting, image, isn't it? Is that popular culture or Biblical culture? I would say now, but you'll have to come along to Lincoln Community Centre at 10am this Sunday!
And a second question for you - how many verses in the Bible mention angel/angels/archangels? If you're near Lincoln, do drop in and say hi.
If you're not near Lincoln you'll be missing out!

Crochet queen and Rachael & Emma

Lizzy is a crochet queen. She really is. Thanks to the encouragement of Lynn Irving, Lizzy's been learning to crochet all year after I gave her a book titled 'Stich & Bitch - The Happy Hooker'. Charming title, with great pictures and patterns. One of those patterns is a baby blanket, as below:


The book pattern is the stripy one, and Lizzy designed the square one. Both made of acrylic rather than wool to make washing easier, and both with a seatbelt hole. Rather good eh? She's now moving onto other items (but obviously I can't say what, top secret at the moment!).

It was nice that they were finished on time, ready for the arrival of Rachael & Emma Sturgeon. Their parents, Mike & Helen, had suffered the pain of miscarriages and their son William last year being still born, so to actually see Rachael & Emma breathing was very exciting. Mike and Helen are obviously very, very excited; thankful to God for new life; and daunted about raising twins! We look forward to seeing Rachael & Emma outgrowing their crocheted blankets!

LUSA and the sovereignty of God

God's sovereignty is great. The timing with the way he works things out does make me smile. For example, a couple of days ago I happened to ring Jo at LUSA (Lincoln University Students Association) to enquire about their programme for O-week at the beginning of the 2008 academic year come February. She said it wasn't finalised, but why not come to her office to see the draft?

So I did.

And in that afternoon meeting she mentioned that the LUSA executive had been talking about Jesus Awareness Week. Now in that moment I was concerned - i feared that they didn't like the chalking, the talks, the posters, the questionnaires during Jesus Week in July, and thought they'd not want to have a Jesus Week in 2008. But I was wrong. She said that we had a choice of two weeks for 2008, so as not to clash with Maori Language Week. Fine said I, and chose week of 14th July.

More 'smiling-at-God's-sovereignity-ly' our conversation was just two hours before the 2008 student diary was being sent to the printers, so our conversation about Jesus Week 2008 meant that it could go in the diary for 14.7.08. This diary is something that every student at Lincoln University receives when they enroll. Cool eh?

So not only was there no grounds to my concerns that LUSA didn't like Jesus Week 2007, but Jesus Week 2008 is listed in the diary for every single student!

Just have to sit down with the Christian Fellowship and work out how best to use that time now.....

Movember

We're now into early December and I need to give an update on Movember. Movember (the month formerly known as November) is an excellent idea from the Prostate Cancer Research people. Clean shaven on Nov 1, and grow a mo through the month, raising funds for research and raising awareness. I've been telling everyone that more people in NZ die from prostate cancer than breast cancer.

Anyway, here's my effort, in NZ cricketer mode and more common smiley Mothy mode:



Comments welcome. I reckon it's not bad for me first ever mo. I'm really quite pleased at how ugly it looked. Liz thought it was delightful, of course, in the same vein as a Tui ad I saw recently - 'My missues reckons my Movember mo is a great thing.....yeah right'.
All good fun, but I'm pleased it's now December and it's gone until next Movember - suggestions for next year's style on a postcard please!