RAISING THE BAR ON LEADERSHIP
I hope you had a Happy Christmas. Beyond all the hype of the season our prayer was that your hearts would be filled with the joy of the Lord as you celebrate the birth of Jesus our saviour, who divested himself of his glorious power to come into this world with humility and grace bringing the hope of salvation from sin and death and giving us eternal life with Him.
I have been preaching at various churches and at some have shared the experience I had walking with the Lord during the heart attack event. I was able to give hope and encouragement that as Christians we need not fear death and there is no condemnation for us as Jesus death and reurrection washed our sin away and there is no record of it. Irrespective of our family journeys we can let the Joy of the Lord bubble up in us as we respond again in gratitude and praise to this amazing grace.
I was asked to take a two day retreat in January with the Elders and Pastor of a Northland Baptist church. I then continued to mentor and coach the Pastor for a time. Hopefully it will become a longer term supervision of his leadership journey.
I am preaching four Sundays in January and once so far in February. Any ideas?
I was asked to go and help on a Leadership Matters Course in Nepal in late January but had to turn it down due to work here. I hope to be involved in a course later next year.
I met with a pastor from the Waikato and will be taking him through the management and leadership aspects of the Caleb Leadership Course. He was to have done the course this year however family crisis prevented him attending. I hope this leads to other opportunities to work with his church team.
I had a heart check at the hospital and they are pleased that my heart is getting better. I still have to get my cholesterol level down a little more. I’m really pleased with the healing.
On Labour weekend we suffered a traumatic experience when I discovered my very close cousin dead on the floor of his kitchen. He had been fighting cancer for some time and was on a trial for a new drug which was working. Sadly, he got pneumonia and suffered a fatal heart attack. I was devastated as it was not expected and it was a distressing encounter. For several weeks after I kept waking up at night seeing him staring up at me from the floor. I took his memorial service in which his brothers wanted no Christian content. It made it hard for me however I slipped a couple of references to our Lord and God in and got away with it. I’ve worked with my cousins’ brothers helping them start working through the grief process and the legal stuff. I felt quite emotionally drained as has Yvonne who was with me when I found my cousin. We are doing well now.
Yvonne Hannah and I had a week’s visit with Rachel and her family in Ashburton and then later to Nelson to visit Yvonnes family whom we hadn’t seen for two years. Jonny my son in law had rotator cuff surgery two months ago and is now allowed back to work as of 7 January. Ada’s surgery has been shifted out to late Jan or early Feb. Therefore, Rachel and her lot were able to come up for Christmas and stay for 18 days. We were looking forward to the whole family being together for Christmas.
The rest of the family are doing well. On the 22nd December Tim turned 37 and on the 31st Dec Jeremy turned 41.
May the Lord’s peace have been with you and your family as you celebrated Christmas. May His strength and blessings have filled you this Christmas season.
Every blessing
Rex, Yvonne, Rachel, Jonny, Caleb & Ada, Jeremy, Sakura, Kayla & Chloe, Tim & Aimee & Hannah.