Three students in accident on Mt Aspiring

It was all over the national news yesterday: three American exchange students had been in a bad accident on Mt Aspiring. Liz and I thought it was bad news, but within a couple of hours we learnt that the headline had become much more meaningful for the three were Lincoln students. Not only that, but one of them, Jesse, we know quite well as he is part of the TSCF group here - Lincoln University Christian Fellowship.

It seems that the three were descending Bonar Glacier on Mt Aspiring near Wanaka when they slipped, and, as roped, all fell. And they fell a long way - 400m onto an ice shelf. Austin died on impact, Mike broke main bones and Jesse broke a few bones. It was a miracle Mike and Jesse didn't die too. Even more amazing is that Jesse walked through the night to raise the alarm. His actions saved the life of Mike.

The original press reporting on the accident is here: http://stuff.co.nz/4052834a10.html
And a later story with a photo of Jesse and several comments about him being a Christian is here: http://www.stuff.co.nz/4054063a11.html
TV3 news with footage and comment is here:
http://www.tv3.co.nz/News/NewsDisplay/tabid/209/articleID/26720/Default.aspx
Campbell Live interviewing Mallory and Megan about the three climbers. Mallory is also part of LUCF - http://www.tv3.co.nz/Programmes/NewsandCurrentAffairs/CampbellLive/StoryArchive/tabid/239/articleID/26730/Default.aspx

Yesterday at LUCF large group meeting at lunchtime we prayed for Austin's family, for Mike and for Jesse. Many students are in shock. All three lived on campus and so were well known in the university community.

Where is God in this? Do we marvel at the miracle of life for Jesse and Mike, or rant at God for taking Austin? As far as we know, Austin wasn't a Christian, nor is Mike.
One helpful thought expressed in LUCF is that all of us, every day, live in the light of God's mercy - it's only by God's mercy that we continue to live and breathe. Rather than expressing anger at God for Austin's death, we're thankful to God that he allows Mike, Jesse, you and I to live. The challenge for us in LUCF is to sensitively take opportunities this tragic accident affords to speak of God's mercy.

Please do pray for Jesse and Mike and the medical staff in Dunedin; for Jonno & Mallory from LUCF as they head south to visit Jesse and Mike; and for LUCF to speak of God's mercy when questions are naturally asked around the Lincoln Uni community.

Big thanks to many from church who have offered practical support to Jesse and Mike.

LUCF beard growing competition

This guy has a great beard, doesn't he? I'm not sure what chemicals he's using on his beard, but it seems to work on his smile too! He's one of the winners in the annual world beard growing championships.

At Lincoln Uni Christian Fellowship we can't make those sorts of standards, but each year we give it a go. This year, anyone was welcome to spend April growing beards, before their efforts were judged by the whole LUCF. The owner of the best beard gets the trophy and the honour of carving his (or her, we're not gender exclusive!) name into the plinth.

Seven took up the challenge this year, including me for the first time. The field was quickly narrowed down to three - Phil, Clint and myself. It was a close run thing, but Phil was judged the winner. See if you agree - here's Phil, Clint and me:




Tom and Jonno are two fine bearded members of LUCF (who didn't want to be clean shaven on Good Friday to join the competition), who, sadly, couldn't convince Phil, Clint or me to keep growing our beards to their lofty heights.

Here's Tom (and me):

And here's Jonno:


As can be seen - i've no hope of competing with Tom or Jonno.

The beard growing competition this year was a laugh. It's a great community thing and works well for Lincoln - various flatmates of those in CF kept asking why Christians were growing beards which led to some interesting conversations about Jesus (and sometimes conversations discussing what sort of beard Jesus would have had). So that's good. And Phil is a worthy winner and gets to keep the trophy - a razor stuck on a bit of wood - for a whole year.

Should I enter next year, despite me not liking the itchiness? Answers welcome....

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Mothy's got sore arms from cycling

It was beautiful weather today, so instead of painting we went for a bike ride on the Motukarara to Little River Rail Trail.


It was lots of fun, with beautiful scenery, and we stopped an had a picnic on the beach at Birdlings Flat.


We cycled about 24kms! That's LOTS for me, and now my thighs ache. But Mothy's arms ache apparently. He's a strange lad in some respects.


The highlight of the day though, was coming across a crazy old grumpy guy who'd spent the morning duck shooting (first day of the season today), but then couldn't get back on his motorbike (not allowed on the rail trail, but he's been riding it since 1952, so I guess it's OK) with all his dead ducks and guns and paraphernalia. He'd got very hot and bothered with all the effort as he seemed to be wearing a balaclava, hard hat, safety goggles, gummies, very thick waders and at least a couple of jerseys in the 20 degree heat. After he'd got Mothy to try and help him push the bike up the bank back on to the trail for about 5 minutes, he remembered that he'd chained the back wheel to a handy tree. So after undoing the chain Mothy then received instructions on how to grab the guys leg and yank it up across the bike so he could get back on the seat. But it (the leg) kept getting stuck on the pile of dead ducks bungeed to the back of the bike. There was much pain and swearing and contradictory instructions issued, and eventually he got on, and pootled off along the rail trail again, back to his house.


We passed by about 20 minutes later and were hailed for a history lesson on the region, as a thank you for our trouble. It's not like it used to be. Mainly due to the Poms coming in and taking over.

Liz and Hooge

Hooge. That's how you pronounce 'Hugo' if you come from Norfolk, east UK.
Liz comes from Norfolk so I also have now got into the habit of calling our cat Hooge instead of Hugo.

This photo shows where Hooge likes to sleep sometimes.
Why does it seem that it's always me to chuck the cat out of our bedroom?!

The great swap over has occurred - photographic evidence!

In a previous post I mentioned that it's now consistently colder here than in the Motherland. The other morning it was colder than it has been- 1 degree apparently. (As an aside - why is the coldest part of the day (7.18am on this occasion) always just when I'm getting up, and getting out of the warm shower into our unheated bathroom. Still, at least I get dressed quickly.....)

Anyway - here's some photos to show it's well and truly autumn now. I didn't take any photos for the previous blog as it's been raining a lot in the last few days. Finally, the sun was out today, so I obviously want you to think it's always sunny in Lincoln!!

This one is at the end of our road:

The next few are all on Lincoln University campus, which has great grounds. Like my bike?!


And this one is just to prove that Lincoln, like most unis, does have hideous 70s buildings too! Funnily enough, it's only the old 1920s buildings like Ivey Hall that make it only the prospectus!

VUWCU camp

Acronyms are great, aren't they?!
Here's one - VUWCU camp. Translated, that's Victoria University Wellington Christian Union Camp. Yep, not so long ago I headed to Camp Elsdon, Porirua to teach at this year's Vic CU camp.

I was surprised to be asked - I mean, me? - but real pleased to join them for their camp. They'd asked for some Bible teaching on evangelism, and they liked the idea of going through a whole book, so we looked at Haggai over three sessions over the weekend. Haggai is great - have a read of both it's short chapters here - it's all about evangelism as God's people had been brought from exile to Jerusalem, to build God's house. But, according to 1v2, they had better things to do that concern themselves with building God's house. So too today! Instead of building God's house (by which I mean helping others get to know Jesus and so build his kingdom), I, like many Christians, have other priorities. But over the VUWCU camp weekend God's Holy Spirit did His work through God's Word - convicting and encouraging at least me, and maybe even a few students, to be concerned for building God's house - to be at God's work of evangelism.

So Haggai was great. We also looked in a seminar about God's guidance - always a popular topic for students. We looked at Biblical teaching, and applied it with the case study of marriage, which really stopped any drowsiness! Some thought this verse from Proverbs 5 - here - a bit risqué. But it started some good discussion on how God guides is not the same as how the world guides. Good times.

The venue itself wasn't what I was expecting. Here in the South Island, camps are usually at the end of a gravel road in a dark valley, in the middle of nowhere (or so it seems). Here, we were elevated, looking over the harbour......but in the middle of an industrial estate!

But, just like down south, the buildings seem to be be standard 1950s design, so that made me feel at home!

A big thank you to the Wellington students for inviting me. Great to be there, but great to be back in Lincoln too.