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.

2009 O week at Lincoln University

O week stands for Orientation Week. The first week of lectures of a new academic year - and it's now all over.


LUSA (Lincoln University Students Association) did a great job at welcoming new students, and arranging O week and Freshies week too, (the week the halls students move in). During both Freshies week & O week LUCF (Lincoln University Christian Fellowship) worked hard at welcoming students and getting LUCF known, and getting into conversations about Jesus.

Many aspects went really well:

• It was good that LUCF events were included in the main LUSA publicity
• It was good for LUCF to staff the 'time out' area at each evening LUSA gig, handing out ice blocks / toasties (depending on the weather!) under the huge LUCF orange banner
• It was good to have the huge support from staff at Lincoln Hospitality Limited - meaning the LUCF O week budget went much, much further.
• It was good to have a higher profile than in previous years
• It was good to do door knocking in the halls and introduce ourselves
• It was good to see the relaunching of Lincoln International Christian Fellowship - international students reaching other international students for Jesus

• It wasn't so good that it was a really wet February and outdoor plans had to be rapidly rearranged.
• It wasn't so good that LUCF wasn't fully organised for after O week for the larger lunchtime meetings, cell groups and the like
• It wasn't so good that it was just a core of returning CFers working hard rather than the whole of LUCF.
• It wasn't so good that the big bright LUCF orange banner was stolen half way through the week!
  

But I'm really happy about the above - much more good than not so good! For this, I praise and thank God. It's been exciting meeting new students from so many places both within NZ and internationally.

Here's a photo of Paul & Kongchay from ICF and Nathan from LUCF staffing the stall at Clubs Day - it's a real shame the large banner was stolen......

Please pray for both LUCF & LUICF as they seek to introduce Jesus to their peers through word and deed in days, weeks and months ahead.

I think my wife's a Calvinist

2009 is the 500th anniversary of John Calvin's birth. Calvin was used by God during the reformation - a French theologian changing the world from Switzerland. His influence continues into the 21st century church, as the following video testifies.



Well done Brandon Milan. My wife loves this, especially the mandolin. Good times.
What's your choice of best line? Mine is 'you made me burn my NIV Study Bible....'!!

Gideon meets the Fullers

My (Lizzy writing by the way) family have just spent 3 weeks with us here, and we had a great time together, and took Gideon for his first holidays around NZ.

Here we all are at the top of Conical Hill in Hanmer.


We also went to Nelson and the lovely Milo took everyone out on his boat, (though Gideon and I watched that particular outing from dry land!)


Lucky Gideon got taken for lots of walks in his front pack - which seems to have an amazingly soporific effect on him. Almost without fail he'll fall instantly sound asleep. Here he is after a walk on Uncle Ben

I loved spending time with my brother and sister. Unbeknownst to me, in the past 4 years my brother has turned into a real foodie - and they're both coffee connosseurs now too.

Here we are together in the botanic gardens (between coffees).


All the Fullers were suitably enamoured with Gideon I'm pleased to report, and did a wonderful job of helping us look after him - it's a good thing the other grandparents arrive in a week's time though - I think he got very used to all the cuddles!

Here's a six week old Gideon enjoying all the attention from his Nanny Lorraine.


And because this is actually supposed to be Mothy's blog really, here he is having some tummy time with his son!

2009 Minty1 - Raumati, Kapiti

It's Feb 1st. We're already 1/12 of the way through 2009. And today is the start of 2009 TSCF Minty - the Ministry INTernship Year. From Feb to Nov Minterns, who are recent graduates, are trained and enthused about the grace of Jesus. This year is all about grace - giving things a go and growing in the knowledge and love of Jesus; all within the student context.


The aim is based on Psalm 92:12-15 - that each man and woman may grow gospel convictions that last a lifetime.
Here's a fuller explaination of what we're trying to achieve with Minty.

Minty is very exciting.
It's exciting to see a focus on input into the Minterns rather than a focus on output.
It's exciting to see a focus on grace.
It's exciting to see transformation as Minterns grow in experience of handling the word of God correctly, ala 2 Tim 2:15.
It's exciting to have 3 residential conferences throughout the year, and all in baches by the beach which is a lot of fun.
It's exciting because Minty is discipleship training that is refreshingly different.
It's exciting for me to be part of it. I'm well looking forward to working with and training Nathan here in Lincoln, and all other Minterns nationwide as I care-take Minty throughout NZ whilst my colleague Andy recovers from a cycling accident.

Minty1 conference starts tomorrow, at a bach in Raumati, Kapiti Coast. The Minterns will be nervous, thinking 'just what have I let myself in for?' and I'm nervous in leaving Lizzy & Gideon at home for a week without me. I'm not looking forward to leaving them home alone, nor the 5.30am departure, but I am looking forward to the rest of the week!

Gideon plays air guitar

We've been quite overwhelmed by how interested everyone is in the boy Gideon! Obviously we think he's the most gorgeous baby who ever lived, and spend many hours admiring him, but apparently lots of our friends want to take their turns too!

So as there were one or two comments about Mothy's last blog not having quite enough Gideon focus, here is Lizzy's attempt to rectify the situation.

Gideon and Dad on 8th Jan - who looks more tired?



Gideon on day 3 of his life, about to leave hospital.


Perhaps not impressed by mum's choice of hard-core banjo breast-feeding soundtrack.


Gideon 5 days old - still grooving

Wee Gideon

Liz is fantastic. In the summer heat she lasted until after the end of both the Black Caps vs Windies ODI (a fine Black Caps 7 wicket victory) and the end of the Aussie vs SA test, with Smith batting at 11 with a broken hand in an attempt -that almost worked- to gain the draw....anyway, Liz, not cricket....

Yes, Liz is fantastic - after the cricket she had a 4 hour labour and birthed wee Gideon Richard at 1.34am NZST January 8th. He was 3.98kg (think that's 8lb 12ish in old money) and made some tears in Liz in his eagerness to get out, so it was a 3am ambulance transfer from Lincoln Maternity to Christchurch Women's for some stiches, then back out to Lincoln Maternity until Saturday. Lincoln Maternity looks, and is, lovely:


Three things made it even more interesting:
1. All this was without Mel our midwife as she was still at a really long labour, so we had her backup, Liz, who was marvellous. It just would have been nice to meet Liz before Liz was in such pain!
2. During being stitched up in Chch Liz had gas & air and loved it. This was odd, as she had gas & air at Lincoln and didn't love it as much. Turns out she may not actually have had gas & air at Lincoln - 4 hour labour with nothing but panodol and hot and cold towels.
3. The heat. I know it's summer, but this is ridiculous! As this article highlights, the mercury hit 36degrees in parts of Christchurch - that's very very close the the top January temperature ever and way way higher than the usual 25-28 January temps we'd expect. Lincoln Maternity Hospital is full today, and none of the 6 mums (or 6 babies) are liking this sort of heat. Both Liz and I like it that Canterbury is sure to see 30degrees in January summer and -5 in July winter; that range is lovely. Outside that it's ridiculous. Here's a sign right outside the entrance to Lincoln Maternity - fat chance today! Instead, I burnt the soles of my feet walking on the concrete!! Still, I mustn't moan - the warm nor'wester is swinging cold southerly at the weekend with highs of just 15degrees!!

Like I say, Liz is amazing.

Her she is with our wee Gideon Richard:



I can't really speak for Gideon, but Liz & I am so tired.

It was neat for me to pray with Liz & Gideon and ask God that one day Gideon will get to know and love Jesus. Do join us in that pray if you'd like, and pray for us in the adjustments ahead, especially for Liz. We've no idea about parenthood and the idea that on Saturday wee Gideon will be at home is too far fetched entertain seriously.....

I like the God-incidence that the verse-of-the-day on our 'Gospel Gems' calendar is Ps 92:12 (go on, look it up). In 2009, I'm involved in leading TSCF Minty throughout NZ, a one-year discipleship training programme for graduates. The aim and key Bible verses, are Ps 92:12-15. It's cool to have my son's birth-day on the same day that the calendar happens to highlight the Minty verse.

So. Gideon Richard has left the womb!

Nope, not yet

Hi
Lizzy here.

We seem to have had lots of phone calls and visitors lately, all asking pretty much the same question, so I thought it was time to publish an official press release.
As of 3.40pm on Tuesday 06 Jan I'm still preggers, and just to prove it, here's a photo Mothy took a couple of hours ago, while we were going for a walk on New Brighton beach. He took the picture just as the sea came in over my feet - and it was COLD!
Life is pretty cruisy at the moment, with Mothy waiting on me hand and foot, and I'm just getting to chill out with some good books to read, so it actually feels like everyone else is much keener for me to have this baby than I am! Even the midwife today said she's "looking forward to this one" as she rubbed her hands in apparent glee!

Hmmm... I think that's encouraging.

Happy Kiwi Christmas

For one reason or another we decided not to go away on holiday this Christmas, but instead have enjoyed a Kiwi/British style Christmas holiday with Anna staying with us. I (Lizzy) worked with Anna in Gloucester, and she's now based in the TSCF Wellington office - trying to bring order to staff-worker induced chaos.

It was Anna's first non-UK Christmas, so instead of the much more traditional BBQ she insisted (and we didn't try and deter her too hard!) on cooking us a roast turkey with all the trimmings. Here's the feast she served up on Christmas day.
We've had lots of fun together, catching up, chilling out, reading, doing a jigsaw, watching TV, and enjoying the summer sun, as it's appeared in the past couple of days. Yesterday afternoon was spent at Corsair Bay on Banks Peninsula, which was lovely! Anna and Mothy got to go swimming, and Lizzy got to sit in the sun and read! A perfect summer holiday!

Kolkata - city of contrast

Kolkata is a city of contrasts and a vibrant and joyful place. I've recently returned home after 3 weeks there helping lead a team of 9 people from NZ. Here's the team in the BMS Hostel garden (BMS is the Baptist Missionary Society, where we stayed), wearing their Indian clothes. Thanks for your prayers about team dynamics. Although the first time we were all together was only Singapore airport (!) the team worked together much better than I anticipated, for which I'm so thankful to them and to God.

We were there to visit and participate in 3 business-as-mission companies, and to partner with UESI (TSCF in India). My aim and prayer was that the TSCF students from NZ would begin to think about themselves as potential long-term overseas missionaries, and also that we would be inspired to be more active for Jesus on our campuses on our return to NZ.

Kolkata is India's largest city in terms of population. We were prepared for the issues that go with large population - smog (lots), poverty (lots) and traffic congestion (lots). But we weren't as prepared for the opulence that we also saw. There is plenty of money in Kolkata. The distribution isn't great, which is surprising, as the state government of West Bengal/Kolkata is communist.

An advert for the ubiquitous iPhone.
South City mall spread over four floors - with NZ's own Pumpkim Patch kidswear store one of the many retailers there.
Quite a contrast with this typical pavement near where we were staying - people living and cooking on the street.And this side street in a retail, non-mall, area.

It was a joy to meet Tranzend ex-pat Kiwis running business-as-mission operations - taking women out of prostitution and/or slum living and teaching them to read and write, teaching them about Jesus, and teaching them practical skills.

Business L, making cards for export.
Business S making cotton bags and sari blankets.
Business F making jute bags. This is their green space - the only green space in the district and there are plans to use it for community sports. It was nice to have fresh bananas! Much tastier than any I've eaten before!


One couple we met at these businesses had served for 34 years in South Asia and when they told us that it seemed there was an audible gasp in the room. But this is good - I want TSCF students and graduates consider going overseas for the cause of the gospel for the long term. Nigel, TSCF National Director, has a wise saying 'we tend to overestimate what can be achieved in one year and underestimate what can be achieved in five.' Some of these businesses bear that out -it's taken much hard work and the work of God over many years to transform sections of Kolkata. It's exciting to see. I long for greater numbers of Kiwis heading overseas for the gospel. The NZ church has long punched above its weight in terms of a very high per capita sending rate, the highest in the world until the early 1980s I believe. And many of those were graduates and had been established in their faith in TSCF mission groups. I'd love to see that again so it was exciting to see some of the NZ students in Kolkata start to think about 34 years of overseas service.

One of the added bonuses of staying in the UK Baptist Missionary Hostel during our trip was meeting the other guests and hearing of what God is doing in and through them. In particular, we appreciated meeting four 18-year olds from the UK, in Kolkata for 6 months with various projects, and also Roy & Mary, (below) a retired couple from the UK teaching English & maths with an AoG mission school for 6 months. All six made us laugh and understand Kolkata better than we imagined we could in three short weeks - thank you.


As Kolkata is a huge city we inevitably spent a lot of time travelling in various types of transport. All of which had their own charms!

The auto-rickshaw, the quintessential Indian form of transport.

Cycle-rickshaw.
Ferry across the river.
Taxis (mighty Hindustan Ambassadors, based on the 1948 Morris Oxfords) and buses (no bus-stops, you just hop on & off when moving - on was easier than off, especially with 9 in a group!!).
Train and Metro. The trains were crowded and we enjoyed having no doors.

The Metro underground was great - clean, quick, cheap. It only had one line so was easy to get used to. Kolkata's Metro was India's first underground, and opened in 1984. Other lines are being planned. No photos are allowed on the underground, but we did snap Stefan before we were reminded of the rules by the security guards:

It was a delight to spend time with UESI. We were greatly encouraged by their wonderful hospitality and in particuar three things struck me about UESI:

1. Their dedication to prayer. One day was a national holiday, for the Muslim festival of Eid. UESI invited us to spend the day in fasting prayer with them ('What, all day praying? With no food?' was the cry from our team - me included), which turned out to be such an encouraging day, rounded off with a meal - pork!!

This church building, built 1821, is where we spent a day praying with UESI.

2. Their dedication to evangelism. We all spent time in some of the many hostels around the city. The pattern seemed the same - a few Christians meeting weekly in an evangelistic cell group with loads of their Hindu & Muslim mates and an open Bible. When we arrived we were expected to lead a discussion & Bible study with these groups, despite our insistence that it'd be better for us to participate not lead.

The boys hostel group at Bengal Engineering & Science University.
And girls hostel groups
At Jadapur University we had praise songs outside the library - with some Hindu students joining in.
The photo below is taken at the Christmas evangelistic programme. This was an excellent afternoon with good clear gospel message in the Indian context. About 50% of the students were not Christians and several became Christians that day!
3. Their graduate work. There are 5 'EGF' (Evangelical Graduates Fellowship) groups in Kolkata, organised by geography. They meet weekly after work to encourage one another as Christians in the workplace, and they also pray and financially support the student work. We in NZ have much to learn from our Indian friends here. My colleague Mark Grace and I are starting some work on this with Catalyst, but we're a long way behind UESI.

One of the EGF groups, in Tollygunge. It was great to praise God together in song, both English and Hindi.

One day we went out by train to Serampore, for a church history lesson - William Carey, the 'father of modern missions', along with friends, were early missionaries to Bengal. He was a linguist, he had a preacher friend, and a printer friend. Between them they translated, printed and preached the Bible into dozens of languages. So inspiring! And another great example of following Jesus in teams of mates, something we're trying to do in TSCF.

This is Howrah Station, by the Howrah bridge - the world's busiest bridge and the start of our train journey upstream to Serampore.
Serampore College, founded by Carey -still a university today. This is the very impressive library building.
On the riverside, a monument to an early baptism of a Bengali convert. Over 200 year later, Christians are still only 1 in 80 of the Bengali population. We met many Christians from both south and north-east India (the part east of Bangladesh), but few Bengalis.

Fellow cricket-lovers will associate Kolkata with the world's largest cricket ground: Eden Gardens. And it really is big.
Cricket was played everywhere, which obviously I loved. And India will dominate the world in years to come if Kolkata street cricket is anything to go by - these boys are very good.

As part of our explorations of the city, we visited the Victoria Memorial, one of Kolkata's art galleries. It's a very impressive building.

And the last photo if for Lizzy, who loves to hate unneccessary quotation marks. I saw this at a roadside stall.

I found Kolkata to be a city of diversity. It was great to see how God is working there, yet it's also so nice to be home with Lizzy awaiting the arrival of our boy in days to come.