Ministry moments

It occurred to me that most of my posts to date refer to cultural/leisure activities and experiences.  And I thought perhaps it’s time I told you a little bit more about what I have actually been doing in my job!  Fewer photos this time, sorry.

January-February turns out to be a busy time for me in ministry terms.  Michael takes 5 weeks off (mostly paternity leave) straight after Christmas.  So Nyasha and I lead worship together until our  trip down to Totara Springs, just south of  Matamata (where The Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit were filmed ), for New Wine New Zealand.  Nearly 500 of us encamped (or in my case in a motel-style room, sharing with a total stranger) for 4 nights, to share fellowship, teaching and worship at this Christian  event.  Last summer I attended the one in Shepton Mallet, Somerset, along with 12500 other Christians.  This camp is just a tad smaller, but follows a similar pattern.  And it has a thermal pool and lots of play areas for children:

[My motel room is the one in the middle]

[The scenery surrounding our campsite]

[Inside our main venue, preparing for our next worship and teaching session]

[The thermal pool above; young people playing giant chess below]

We explore the role of Moses and his obedience to God, and discuss how he can be a good role model for us all, as we try and live out our Christian faith in the world.  The teaching is excellent, as are the worship bands.  I learn lots more worship songs, make a new friend (from Hamilton), and find myself refreshed and re-invigorated by a real sense of God’s presence.  It is another powerful experience for me, and I feel God has answered my prayer that I would discern the direction my ministry should take this coming year.  Twice the palms of my hands burn for long periods (between 30-90 minutes) during worship.  I’m told it is a sort of ‘anointing’.  As a result I have already offered healing prayer separately to four people back in St Heliers, and am now exploring the introduction of a healing ministry to St Philip’s…

On my return to the parish I find myself at the helm of the parish for a fortnight as Nyasha also goes on holiday.  Traditionally January is a quiet month, so it’s ideal that I make my solo debut when not much is going on.  But it gives me a chance to sit at Michael’s large and roomy desk (mine is narrow, and has no drawers) on his bouncing, swivelling chair (mine is an ordinary chair from the church hall) and see how the vicar lives and works.  I find myself writing pieces for the pew notices and newssheet, as well as preaching, writing weekly prayers and doing pastoral visits, and taking home communion to some too unwell to attend church (tasks I would normally do anyway).  Luckily nothing major happens. It all feels good, and finally I begin to feel more part of the fabric of this community.

I meet with and ‘appoint’ a Supervisor, thus fulfilling another part of my ‘contract’.  She is called Marilyn.  We are to meet every two months.  Her role is as a sounding board, a voice of wisdom and experience, a confidante, an advisor.  Just what I need.

There is some more training: first a residential at the lovely Vaughan Park half an hour up the coast, where us curates gather to learn and to share (and already I feel very much part of this group), with the bishop taking the first session; and then, on my birthday, a day learning how to run a special Marriage course, for those preparing to marry and those wishing to enrich a marriage.  [Pity I can’t marry anyone til after November this year, when I’m finally ordained a priest.] 

And I get to take my first funeral.  For four weeks I visit a dying man in one of our residential homes; I pray with him and take him communion; I watch him seek God’s forgiveness and find it; I see him reconciled to his family.  I visit him for the last time two days before he dies.  ‘How are you feeling?’, I ask.  ‘Peaceful’, he replies.  The family joins us for worship on the Sunday, four hours after he passes away.  They are not churchgoers and it’s a jolly Harvest service where I am delivering the family homily on ‘waste, water and wubbish!’.  Yet they are moved and decide the funeral should be at St Philip’s rather than anywhere else.  And I am invited to preside at his funeral.   It is an amazing experience and a huge privilege.

And finally I follow another prompting that came a while back, to be engaged in some activity with young children within a school environment.  I am now to be a relief teacher for Bible in Schools (also known as Christian Religious Education), filling in where necessary at Glendowie Primary School, doing a 30-minute period on a Friday morning with 7-8 year olds, helping them to learn bible stories and to apply Christian teaching to their lives.  I start next week, shadowing a colleague, learning the ropes.  Gulp! 

It is exactly six months ago today that I arrived in Auckland, and as I look back on these first few months I reflect on God's providence and give thanks for so many blessings in my life.  I feel very much part of this ministry team and of this parish - and indeed of this community.  I know shopkeepers, restaurateurs and waitresses by name, and where the best takeaway coffee and fish and chips are and who makes the best chocolate/caramel slices; I have my favourite bench on which to sit and look at the sea and marvel at the changing light and colours; I pop in and out of the library, chatting to librarians, devouring books once again; I cycle when I can, collared up or otherwise, including to the rest homes with communion kit and NZPB (New Zealand Prayer Book) in my rear basket.  And I marvel that I am here, in New Zealand, somehow, by God's grace.

And I'm also very conscious that I'm so thankful for Roy's full support in all that I do, the interest he shows, his encouragement, his acceptance of the impact my new role has on our lives, his words of wisdom just when I most need them, and his confidence in me when I'm feeling unsure.  Somehow he makes it all 'all right'.

This is still an adventure.  And whilst I do miss family, friends and all things British, I am here for now and who knows what else lies ahead?  So yes, I continue to step out in faith and see where it takes me J