Jam-packed!

What a week! And it isn't even over yet! I think I'll start from where I left off last time...

Sunday 15th March - Church in the morning. As we walked towards the entrance of the hall, there was Tim with a cast around his arm. What a shock to hear that he had broken his wrist at Sport on Saturday while playing touch! He told me later that he had taken a couple painkillers so that he could get through preaching to us that morning. We're going through 1 Corinthians at the moment; a letter from Paul to the church in Corinth which was facing many problems.

After church, we had lunch back at 22MA ("the flat") and then Sarah and I were off to Hannah's 21st in Mt Albert. A gorgeous garden party with 300 cupcakes, punch, tea and club sammies! The weather was perfect for the occasion and beautiful Hannah was in a dress that she had fashioned up herself.

Straight after the 21st, there was a newcomers' dessert and coffee evening at the Webster's house at One Tree Hill. It was great to meet people who were new to the church (like myself) and also to hear a bit about the church's history, how it was formed and why it looks the way that it does today. Had some good conversations and great cheesecake! The Webster's are such a lovely couple and SO unbelievably hospitable! After that I went home and got some sleep, ready for...

The first official MILO MONDAY of the year!! Went a bit slow that morning but praying for a better morning next week. After milo monday, I went to get my support leaflets printed out. So exciting to see them printed out and ready to go! Thanks to the couple at Copies Plus for a good price and good service.

Tuesday - went to the AUTCF committee meeting - just a weekly meeting where things are planned, organised, suggested and prayed about for the coming weeks. Then had my supervision time with Jane, and had some good discussions about EU, AUT and my role within these groups. Am still trying to figure out how to balance my time and my roles on Campus but God is making things more clear each day as needs arise and opportunities for me to step up are presented.

Wednesday! Museum day with Keith - that's what is written in my diary, and that's what I did. Duncan, Keith and I went to the Auckland Museum, and even before I had gotten into the car and asked the big question, it seems that the boys had discussed it already - YES we were going to go see A T.Rex named Sue! I hadn't been to the Museum in ages so it was fun making new discoveries and randomly remembering things that I had drawn for art class last time we had a class trip there. I did see a few fashion things - one Rei Kawakubo outfit for Comme des Garcon and a World and a Zambesi dress. But there were many other interesting things there. I will upload photos once I get them off Duncan as I used his camera for most of the day. T-Rex was VERY cool I have to say - amazing how the palaeontologists had worked out how to put together the skeleton in the first place! Oh and mum and dad came down from Orewa for dinner, (YUM! have missed mum's cooking!) they were dropping my sister off cos she was going to stay the night - explained below...

So that brings us to today - Thursday. Thursday started with and early up-getting. Well not really but earlier than was normally neccessary. Got up around 7am, organised and packed some things that I would be taking with me to the Auckland Team Meeting at 10am. But before that I walked my sister down (and her luggage!) to Princes Wharf as she was going on the Spirit of New Zealand today - a 10 day berth on board this ship:

First thing that she did after she had been shown to her cabin was to climb over one of the smaller masts - they don't mess around on this ship! Straight into it! She was a bit nervous this morning but excited. I think it will be a good experience for her - testing and challenging herself personally and it will be a great life-skills-building experience.

After she got on the boat I hung around for a lil while to watch her, and to kill some time as I needed to go to the bank, and they don't open til 9am. As soon as I started walking towards Queen St, it started raining. Calming down a bit as I walked into the bank but when I came back out it was POURING! I tried to keep to the sheltered parts of the pavement but the last stretch to my place is uncovered and so, consequently, I was drenched. Thinking that the rest of the day was going to be similar, I changed warmer clothes, and rushed around my place trying to get ready for my 9:30 pick up for the trip to the office.

Had a good catch up with the rest of the staff at the Team Meeting - warning: Sarah and I have taken over your desk Gill! ...Well almost! :P We spent some time praying for each other then we started a maunscript Bible study in Mark, led by Andy. Spent the rest of the afternoon in the Office, having lunch, chatting and borrowing books from the library. Then headed back to AUT with Jeff for the Bible study this afternoon, picking up Jeff's daughter, Sascha, on the way.

We had 7 people with us for the bible study today and it was so encouraging! There were 3 new people and the way that they embraced the manuscript style of studying the Bible and the observations and interpretations that they were making were amazing. They were really engaging with the text! I had prepared myself to speak up and offer questions etc. in case no one did but straight off the ball there were questions and discussions happening and they were great discussions! This was such an encouraging and prayer-answering study, after yesterday where no new people turned up. And I know it's not always about the new people but after the great turn out at the welcome party (which I have forgotten to write about!!! Will do so below), it was a bit disheartening to see that none of them had turned up to the Bible study on Weds. It would be so sad to have lost contact with those people and to have missed an opportunity for them to study God's Word. I think that a more social, less formal gathering with them being invited might be good as a way of staying in contact and then inviting them again, individually, to Bible study.

So welcome party - happened Tuesday, 4-6pm with Pizza, drinks and bit of AUTCF vision as well as a brief informing about TSCF and IFES and AuSM. There was an awesome turn out and lots of conversations happening. It was a really exciting thing to see and what a great bunch of students!

So we're praying for more of these people to turn up to the Bible studies. Hopefully we'll have a good indication of who's coming and who needs following up after next week. We've also had some interested in sport on saturday - so that's really kewl. Let's hope that there'll be no more serious injuries at sport! EU tomorrow and then it's the weekend again! Time flies!