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Just Thinking…My youngest was this week required to create a travel brochure on the Cook Islands for homework – on the account of it being Cook Island language week (I know … I hadn’t realised that either!). In the process of his research into the various attractions on offer in the Cooks, he came across…

Just Thinking…This coming Sunday, we begin a three-week journey which, in the past, has been called ‘Prayer and Self-Denial’. This event has been re-imagined buy the NZ Baptist Missionary Society which promotes it, and it is now called ‘Renew Together’, but its purpose remains the same – to promote the work, the successes, the challenges and the needs…

Just Thinking…Paul Windsor, who spoke at our last Grow Camp writes a regular blog at https://paulwindsor.blogspot.com, and I’ve pasted below his thoughts after reading a biography of Ernest Shackleton, called ‘Endurance’. My first brush with Ernest Shackleton did not end happily. I was on one of those long, lonely trips — and feeling so inadequate as…

Just Thinking…If you have a green thumb (which I definitely do not!) you may have come across words starting with ‘rhyzo’ before. Rhyzo-words have to do with roots of plants, and it comes from the Greek word ‘rhyzoō’, which … funnily enough … means ‘root’! Roots are the unseen life-source of any plant; the life…

Just Thinking…Kia ora, While I was a QB (a youth leaders training weekend organised by the Baptist Union) a few weeks ago, I went to a breakout seminar by Lindy Jacomb. Her presentation was on grief and lament in the church. A topic which we should cover, but is never fun to talk about. I really…

Just Thinking…Andrew Picard, one of the lecturers at Carey College wrote this a few days ago, entitling it a ‘Prayer for a Spacious Place’: Yesterday, at our management retreat, [we had] a reflection on Psalm 118. Verse five stood out to me as particularly pertinent at this time: “When hard pressed, I cried out to the…

Just Thinking…Earlier today, while I was working in the church office, I decided to go for a walk and get a coffee (don’t tell Ell, as I’ve already spent too much this week on coffee). All was well, I had my keep cup, mask, wallet, and a few minutes later, an oat milk flat white….

Just Thinking…One of the things I encourage is book reviews! Stan Yee has recently read a book which has some pretty intriguing thoughts on the early knowledge of God in Chinese history. Here is his review: Genesis and the Mystery Confucius Couldn’t Solve Ethel R Nelson / Richard E Broadberry Book Review by Stan Yee…

Just Thinking…I was listening last week to an English commentator speaking about the Queen’s Jubilee, and more specifically about the qualities that has made Queen Elizabeth such an effective leader. Firstly, he noted her dependability; the last few months notwithstanding, she has been a monarch who always ‘showed up’. She lived up to the responsibilities…

Just Thinking…In a few weeks, as a church family we’ll be having an AGM. This will be a chance for us to have a stock take, a look at what we have been doing over the last year, programmes, events and ministries. Yet, the main thing we will be discussing in this AGM is the…