RAISING THE BAR ON LEADERSHIP
I hope that you are doing well and that daylight saving time has given you more outdoor time in the evening to do activities that relax you. When I sit out and watch the sun setting it keeps reminding me what a glorious creator our Lord God is. In the beauty and expansiveness of the sunset it gives me a little insight into the beauty and expansiveness of the love of our Lord Jesus.
We are working on getting the advertising out for the Caleb leadership course. Currently we have one person fully registered and two others who have said they will come this year having missed out last year.
My Chairwoman and I are doing a re-working of the communication workshops for the Leadership course. It is an interesting process which hopefully we can get through relatively quickly.
I am working with a young woman (Rhiannon), from our church who is completing a digital marketing degree. She has agreed to do a thorough appraisal or our website and come to us with a plan to revamp and upgrade it. She is also going to give us a plan for how to us other media to promote Caleb and especially our leadership course. She is doing this voluntarily and I am exceedingly grateful for that.
The Australian Caleb Course prep is going well with a brochure now having been produced. There is a meeting coming up with a group of Brisbane pastors in which Brad (our guy) speaking about the course. Please pray that he gets a very good response.
We have a Bridge Builders course booked for next year down in Te Anau. I know, someone has to do it!
I continue to do 16 supervisions and a couple of mentoring sessions. Most are monthly. I have had another pastor sign up for supervision starting next year.
I am preaching this weekend at a Presbyterian church.
PTL we have now shifted back into our home. It is so good to be home and we are very grateful for all the prayer that you have put in to supporting us in this long hard process. Hannah seems to have settled back very well into living back in the home. We have pretty much completed all the unpacking and have got rid of so many cardboard boxes. The shift with all the packing and lifting and unpacking his re tweaked my neck and I am struggling a bit with nerve pain around my body. Yvonne’s wrist is healing really well. She is out of a permanent brace and now is using her hand more freely and also receiving physiotherapy. What delights me a lot is that she has now starting to play the piano again. She does have to be careful that she doesn’t overdo it and slow the healing.
I mentioned last time about a growing relationship with our project manager Mike. Now the house repair is finished the relationship may be difficult. However, I am meeting with him for coffee today which he seems keen to do. He is not a Christian. Please pray that the relationship can grow and that I will have both the wisdom and courage to share gospel when the time is right. We have begun talking about God at a very ‘entry’ level.
You may remember that our granddaughter Ada has two displaced hips. Today she is in Christchurch Hospital undergoing double hip surgery. She will spend 7 days in hospital before going home. She will not be allowed to put weight on her legs for a further six weeks and so she will be in a wheelchair. If things progress well she will then get physio and have a walker for a further six weeks before she’ll be able to walk normally. We covert your prayers for here today and in the ongoing weeks ahead which will be quite difficult, I think. Yvonne Hannah and I will be going down to Ashburton for different periods of time to support Rachel and the family in whatever way we can.
The rest of the family are doing ok although Aimee has injured her back. It is healing well. Both Aimee and Tim are preparing for a five-week holiday in Europe later next month.
We are ever appreciative of your faithful support and prayer. May the Lord pour His love and blessings on you and give you strength in your life.
Nga Manaaki
Rex, Yvonne, Rachel, Jonny, Caleb & Ada, Jeremy, Sakura, Kayla & Chloe, Tim & Aimee & Hannah.