IFES World Assembly

I'm presently in the UK, enroute to Poland for the IFES World Assembly. IFES is the international student mission movement that TSCF helped found. At the World Assembly I'm part of the NZ delegation which is exciting and nervous in equal measure.

It's strange being back in the northern hemisphere where it's summer. I Skyped Lizzy last night and at home there's the biggest snowfalls for 15 years. Great fun building snowmen for all!

I miss them, but I'm also pleased to be part of the quadrennial World Assembly and expect to be encouraged and challenged by what God is doing in universities all over the world.

Some more details are here: http://www.ifesworld.org/worldassembly

The Dave Brubeck Quartet - Take Five (1961)

Simply a brilliant piece of music, well performed.

Enjoy - especially the drum solo in the middle.

Seven ways to be a missionary in college

Here's an interesting piece from The Resurgence.

Yes. All yes. This is my work. This is why I work with students, to get students to see the possibilities of mission right where they are.

Read the article and get student friends to read it.

(And if you can explain point 3 I'd be grateful - I've no idea what he's talking about!).

Long time no see

Where does the time go? June already! Her Royal Majesty's 80somethingth birthday (it's a bank holiday Monday here in NZ) and several people have given us a gentle reminder that we've been a bit slack on the blogging front.

Lizzy here, by the way.

So, as I kept waiting until we had time to write a blog, and now I've realised that having a baby means we'll never have time for anything ever again in our lives, I thought I'd just write a speed catch up blog, and anyone reading will have to fill in the glaring omission of details for the past 2 months!

Here goes

April - Easter time - the CF give away Easter Cold Cross Buns on campus. Good on them!


And the Hodge family is faced with the awesome responsibility of keeping Nathan Paton's chooks alive while he is at Easter camp.

We got off to a bit of a faltering start as Mothy was convinced there ought to be three hens in here, but the first time we went and looked there were only two! (One had died before Nathan left though! Phew!)

And Easter Monday we had a wander round Halswell Quarry. Nice spot.


April 21 and 22 Mothy went with the International Christian Fellowship to Hanmer for a couple of days. Here they are stopping off for a leg stretch on their way up the coast.


April 24 Marc and Lydia tied the knot at Tai Tapu church. Yay!


It's the 2nd wedding Gideon has attended, though we still couldn't convince him to wear a tie. Just his tank top knitted by Nan.


1st May is the Christian Fellowship weekend away at Mt Hutt Retreat Centre. Mothy did 4 talks, and Lizzy and Gideon enjoyed listening in. Evidently this book is important or something.


A major highlight of the past couple of months was Mothy's 100th pint of Goldings Bitter at the Twisted Hop in Christchurch. Brewed on site, it's a top drop apparently, and he had the honour of being able to pull his 100th pint himself - under the watchful eye of the professional, of course.


As he's reached the ripe old age of four months Gideon has been introduced to the joy of the jolly jumper. It's the best thing ever ever EVER he reckons.


Another reason I never get to blog these days: our lovely garden - although very lovely indeed - could keep us occupied all day every day if we let it! Sometimes I just have a go at tidying the bits I can see from the lounge.


May 16th, and Rob & Jenna got married in Chch - I don't have a nice picture of them unfortunately but here's some of the dodgy looking guests.

Gosh - I'm nearly up to date - anyone still reading this???

For the long weekend the Hodge family went on one of Mothy's famous mystery weekends. We ended up in Greymouth on the West Coast.

A beautiful place - and we got all the nice weather while Christchurch had sleet. Heh heh heh. Gideon doesn't own any sunnies yet, so had to borrow Dad's for this picture.


The drive home was stunning too.


And I think that's it for now. The rest of our days have been filled in with eating, lots more sleeping than the previous 2 months, changing nappies, attending mum's coffee mornings, and for Mothy an inordinate amount of book stuff organising for Catalyst. Here he is hard at work.


The reason you can't see him is cos he'll be curled up in the foetal position whimpering over some credit notes and packing lists that bear no relation to the books he's actually ordered or received in these boxes. It's a sadly all-too-common occurrence. But slowly but surely, against all the odds, he's building up the stock to create NZ's first graduate Christian on-line resource centre. Yay-hay!

Gideon meets the Hodges

Fortunately Gideon was only grandparent-less for one week after the departure of the Fullers before Tim's parents arrived in NZ!

Here he is with his Grandma.
And here are three generations of Hodge men (all with a middle name of Richard) studying hard.


We got to go on another holiday - this time to Tekapo. The hot pools were most enjoyable, though Gideon and Grandma just spectated on this occasion.
Grandpa loves swimming so we also got to hang out on various beaches around Christchurch.


But now they've left again, and we're all a bit sad. Lizzy and Gideon have to go visiting friends in Lincoln everyday so Gideon can keep up the cuddle quotient.

..and wisdom....

Tim Chester at The Resurgence is on the money once again:

The great Reformer Martin Luther spoke of theologies of glory and a theology of the cross. Theologies of glory look for the revelation of God in his mighty works: creation, miracles, spiritual experiences. But this kind of knowledge, said Luther, only puffs people up. Instead God has chosen to reveal himself supremely in the cross. And that means revelation is only discernible by faith. Only by faith do we see in the weakness, foolishness, and shame of the cross the power, wisdom, and victory of God. Theologies of glory lead to pride. The theology of the cross leads to humility—or, in Luther’s language, humiliation.

Now apply the same idea to our churches. Churches of glory will put their confidence in mighty works: stage performances, big budgets, large numbers, powerful arguments, charismatic preachers. A church of the cross will be characterized by power in weakness, wisdom in foolishness, victory in shame. Its confidence will be in the sovereignty of God, the presence of his Spirit, and the power of his Word. Jesus said the kingdom of God has been given to “my little flock.” Most of the time it will be under the radar. But, like yeast in dough, it will grow unseen to fill the earth.

Wise words indeed.

As both Lincoln University Christian Fellowship and Lincoln University International Christian Fellowship approach Easter they are praying about using the opportunity to proclaim Jesus. Lectures go right up to Good Friday so Easter, or maybe more properly Easter holidays, will be in the minds of many in that last week of term.
Ideas abound:
- Hot cross bun with a verse giveaway
- Last supper meal, reclining at tables, with a 10 minute evangelistic talk and open questions
- Easter egg hunt

Please do join me in praying that these two small groups at Lincoln Uni will, in the words of Chester, have confidence '...in the sovereignty of God, the presence of his Spirit, and the power of his Word.' They may well be 'under the radar' but God has chosen to use the foolish things of this world to show his glory.

I've been asked to preach at our home church here in Lincoln on Easter Sunday! What an opportunity, but what a responsibility! So if you'd like to pray that I too have that same confidence I'd appreciate that.

Silliness....

Two silliness things today:

1. Yesterday I went to pick up the new Lincoln University Christian Fellowship large, bright orange banner. A new one was being made because the old one got stolen a couple of weeks back. The signwriter sent through some good proofs, but on actual pickup it turns out they'd misspelled 'Christian'. When I pointed out that 'Christian' has two I's they didn't even notice that they'd printed 'Christan'. Grrrrrr.

2. Thanks to my mate Mike in France for highlighting this silliness:


Best line? '...to be my bride but you cut off too much from the side....' Nice. I liked Plain White T's 2007 original, but I prefer this parody!

Two silliness things, two funny things.