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Just Thinking…Who would want to be Ian Foster at the moment? The airwaves have been full of scathing words against the All Black coach as people questioned his ability, his track-record, his strategy and his choices. The recent series against Ireland, where the visitors scored an historic series win against the AB’s seemed to turn…

Just Thinking…At a previous house, I used to have a flower bush growing beneath my window. I don’t know the name of it. I recall that it looked a bit like a daisy, with white petals and an orange centre, but the thing I most remember about it was that the petals closed at night…

Just Thinking…This coming Sunday is our third and final Sunday in our Renew Together journey. This year, the NZ Baptist Missionary Society (NZBMS) has asked us to focus on three values which underpin the way they will seek to further God’s mission of hope in the world. The first week, we looked at Mutual Humility….

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….