Winter Blast

Summer was a blast and winter is all set to be too!! Join us for our Resonate Winter Blast - 2 days in the amazing Queenstown filled with snow, God, coffee, mates and hanging out!!


Important Info

Dates 13-14 August 2011 (its a Sat/Sun)
Location Lakeland Park, Kelvin Heights Queenstown
Cost $60 (includes transport, accommodation etc)

What to Bring: We are staying in the GORGEOUS chalets at Lakeland but you still need to bring a sleeping bag, pillow and stuff to keep you warm.
Clothes (always a good start!), Bible, pen & paper, water bottle, toiletries, money for lunch on Sunday, coffee and snacks during travel & anything else that you may think you need:) Leave behind the drugs & alcohol. Also bring pizza toppings for our Pizza Fest on Sat night!!

Leaving Invercargill Christian Centre nine AM on the Sat (meeting at 8.30AM)
Returning Sun night (time dependent on coffee stops -but in time for the evening service)

Quick lowdown on events:
Sat - Leave for QTown where a meriad of fun and chilling out ensues
Sat Evening - Pizza making fest (bring pizza toppings!!) Resonate bonding, God time and craziness!!
Sun- Hang out in Qtown - go out for lunch (bring money for this!!) more fun and chilling!!
Travel home with plenty of coffee


Registrations and payment need to be into the Church office by Thursday 11 August. See Shan more for more info to register. Email to shannon@christiancentre.org.nz

Its gonna be a BLAST!!

Pearls & Sundae Lovin'

We are relaunching Resonate Girls connect on a new night at Jess's sweet new pad and its gona be awesome! If you are between the ages of 18-30 years in Invercargill and are looking for an amazing young adults ministry then you should check us out! Resonate Girls is an awesome place to come and meet other like-minded crazy cats who are on fire for God and discovering what it means to walk out their journey as the incredible and beautiful woman God has created them to be!

Pearls and Summer lovin' is going to be a fun night of ice-cream madness and girlie goodness, so bring along your friends and some ice-cream toppings! We have the gorgeous Carol Chin Poy sharing some pearls of wisdom - she has an incredible testimony and has a heart to see women empowered and embracing who God created them to be. She runs the Eve-olution Womens Ministry at the Invercargill Christian Centre and is not to be missed!!

For more info about Pearls & Sundae Lovin' or Resonate Girls feel free to email me @ shannon@christiancentre.org.nz

Revival Weekend

Wow what an amazing weekend we just had with the amazing Roy andMelanie Fields. If you ever doubted Revival was in the air then those doubts should be well and truely gone now!!!

For those of you who aren't aware, Roy and Melanie led the worship at the Lakeland Outpouring and are a phenomenal couple who carry an incredible passion to see God move in miraculous ways transforming lives and seeing Revival break out across the globe. These are just a couple of pics from the weekend and we will have testimonies and stuff coming soone:)

Shan

Just do it

Today I am the queen of procrastination.

I have a mountain (unfortunately not really an exaggeration!) of work that I should be doing, papers, figures and text books all over my office, assignments due in, and goodness knows what else but it is all very important & I am avoiding it all like the plaque.

I fell asleep on top of my desk before and considered as I awoke in my pool of drool that I lock the door, turn off the light and curl up under my desk (out of site in case anyone walks past cos oh my gosh how embarrassing!) and go to sleep.

But I didn't. I kinda wish I had. Maybe I wouldn't be so tired now. or maybe I would have be busted and looked like an idiot!

It has been 3 hours since I was last productive in my work today. In that time I have checked my facebook and bebo, looked at the comments on my photography website, had lunch and then something else to eat, said hi to Phil in the tech cafe, pondered over the new bilboard outside SIT (which featured Phil in make up- ok so it was for Cats) checked my facebook (cos a lot can change in 20 minutes) paced in my office, peeled an orange, drank 3 bottles of water and subsequently visited the loo a lot more than I would have liked (and probably more than the people whose offices I have to continuously walk past to get there.)

So. yeah I got a lot done today.

So you're reading this and going well if you have work to do and its important then why don't you just do it? Why are you on the blog?

Good point......

But no, I have a reason for being here (ok so to begin with I was reading a friends blog and then I thought I should see whats been happening here and well ,you get the picture..) This has got me thinking though - along with reading another awesome blog post yesterday Be strong and courageous (http://www.mnssams.blogspot.co.nz/) Why do we always put off the things we know that we should be doing? Likes of our homework or doing the dishes or changing opur undies (hey I don't have a problem with it! Its good to be clean). Think about it. how many times this week have you procrastinated? How about today? was it worth it?

If we can so easily put off the little everyday things, the ordinary things, then how do we react when God gives us something big and extraordinary to do? Will we recognise the significance, the priviledge , how amazing it is that He trusts us - you and me- with something lifechanging for us and others!

But how would we treat it? Will we have to tell God sorry we are unavailable because we are behind in our homework, the house is dirty and we have yet to change our undies - can He call back later at a more convenient time? What if there is no convenient time because we put off so much of the small things that we don't get time for the big stuff? What if its only a split second of a window of opportunity? What it we miis out? What if we aren't prepared?

And if we can't be trusted to do the small things, is our character ready for the larger ones?

hmmmm... interesting thoughts.

I think its time I did some work:)

[RT: edited so spaces were littler... love you honey...]

Team Hoyt

My cousin sent this to me - it is a moving story of a father's love for his son. As far as I know, my cousin isn't a Christian. I shared the Gospel with him when he was a teenager and am praying for him to this day. I don't know why he sent this video to me out of the blue, but I believe that he too has been touched by its message.

I am both humbled and grateful that God our Father loves us enough to fight our battles and win our races every day, however big or small. It is something that I haven't reflected on quite enough from day to day - I hope that that will change.

May you be moved by His love today.

For more information about this father and son, visit www.teamhoyt.com.

Bourke - a few thoughts & a broken heart.....

My heart has broken. Well and truly gut wrenchingly, utterly shattered, and broken so much that the usual cure of sticky tape and super glue will not do. My eyes have laid witness to a dispair, a hurt, a brokeness that run so deep it was bred into the very blood of generation. It was a sight I never would have believed in a nation so beautiful and similar and "civilised" as ours, but my eyes did not deceive me, what I saw was true.

But no matter how deep my grief, God's is deeper. No matter how badly my heart breaks, God's breaks more. In the places and people I see brokeness, despair and pain, God sees HOPE.

Four of us from Invercargill joined with the guys from Highway Christian Church in Ulladulla (Australia) to help at REACH 08 - a conference with a complete missions focus and a desire to see God to move in a new way. We were equipped as the army of God to go into the community and show love as Chirst loved us in a real and practical way.

Bourke, NSW Australia is a beautiful outback town and to look at it I really wondered if what I had been told was as bad as what I had been led to believe. But closer inspection showed me a deep level of dysfunction and hurt. Almost every house in town was surrounded by high metal fences, with an almost as big dog, the main street at night looked like an industrial area with big garage doors and windows barred and then in the Aboriginal "missions" the houses were nice and normal but then you saw the smashed glass and boarded up windows.

And the kids. The beautiful children who knew no different from what they lived in everyday. 3, 4, and 5 year old children who are on the streets at all times of the night, abused and taking drugs and alcohol like they were lollies, whose idea of a good time was stealing cars and then burning them.

But despite it all, God is in that place.

You could see Him in the smiles of the children, in the fresh greening of the ground that had been drought-stricken for years, in the passion and perserverence and faith of the Christians in Bourke who had been faithfully praying for and serving in their community.

God was seen on the lives of young children, as small as 4,5 and 6 years old, as they stood silent and still in His presence. He was there in the midst as 200+ young people from throughout New South Wales, wider Australia and New Zealand stood and worshiped Him freely, separated not by race or circumstances but united in love as the whanau of God.

God was in the riverbed as the drunked, just released from prison, wandered aimlessly with his bottle of booze. He was there when he was struck by the power of the Holy Spirit and set free from his sin and pain, and came into the Kingsom of Heaven.

My time in Bourke has shown me a fraction of the heartbeat of God. Jesus died for these people, each and everyone of them, of us, saved or unsaved, black or white, male or female, old or young. We are not different. We are all seen the same through the eyes of God - His children.

I am still processing what I saw, what God has done and is doing in Bourke, and in me. It is beyond our comprehension to know how deeply God mourns over the blood shed there in the name of "civilised people" and government policy. How His heart aches for the children of Bourke, many who have never known a fathers love, a tender touch or a kind word.

But God IS in that place. And He is moving. Heaven linked with earth during the time Reach 08 was in Bourke, and even though we have left there, God hasn't.

Heaven hasn't.

Hope hasn't.

God is in that place, and He is moving. It begins with HOPE........

For the Weekend Warriors...

Here's a few links just to tide you over for the weekend - I'm preparing my first Sunday message - working title is "What does your door look like?" or "Doorkeepers". Prayer would be greatly appreciated.

Anyway, here's the links (some of the things I considered blogging about, but just ran out of time).

Personal DNA quiz - A fantastic and intriguing take on a personality quiz which gives you a visual summary to post on your blogs, sigs, social networks and so on. A great concept, with the link sourced from The Hourglass Blog (Michaela you are doing a fantastic job by the way). Have a look at my personal dna at the bottom of the page (no comment on my high femininity rating...).

Minesweeper - The Movie. Honestly, this is one of the funniest parodies I've seen. Funny on several levels:

• It's an excellent send up of "The Guardian"
• It makes minesweeper cool again.
• The movie website is the file path for minesweeper.

Go and have a look.

Finally, here's a serious article for those of you looking for inspiration or a challenge during the weekend:
Have you fallen for these 7 Negative attitudes?
I'd be interested in seeing a post from one of the reson8rs on this article.

Blessings, and have a great weekend. I'll post a summary of my message after the weekend (if it goes well :) ), hopefully with a podcast to follow.

Christian Ninjas Unite Part Deux

I've been playing with a cool comic creation tool at stripgenerator.com, and have come up with something which I believe is mildly funny :), and hopefully a little inspirational. Let me know what you think.

If anyone thinks they can do better (oh ye of little faith...), then have a crack, and I'd be happy to post it here. It does need to be Christian in content (or at least appropriate... ok semi-appropriate), and have some kind of positive message, or just be really funny. On that note, I know a great pirate joke... mind you everyone knows pirates and ninjas don't go together well. Maybe another time.

Missions Focus: Andrew Buxton

Hey reson8rs,

I just recieved an update from a really great friend of mine named Andrew Buxton. He's been completing missionary work in Ethiopia, and I personally find his story inspirational. I first met Andrew when he was a youth leader in Tapanui (a small town of less than 1000 people in the south of New Zealand), and we attended more than one Easter Camp together at Camp Columba. He's one of the most humble and servant hearted guys I've ever met, bar none, and I'm just blown away by the mighty way God has been able to use him simply by being available and ready to serve. Anyway, here's a copy of the email I recieved.

Hi Friends

Just wanted to let you know the change of direction that my life is taking. Near the end of the time I spent in Ethiopia this year I got talking with the people that are beginning to reestablish the work of SIM in Southern Sudan (SIM is an interdenominational Christian missions organisation, see www.sim.org for more info) and was tentatively offered me a position on the team. I have pursued this and yesterday was officially accepted as a full member of SIM and so will now be heading to the Southern Sudan as soon as I have raised the support I need.

The project is called "Rebuilding Southern Sudan: Church & Nation". A peace accord was signed for Southern Sudan in 2005 which has brought relative peace to most of the region and refugees are starting to return to their homes. SIM is working in some of the camps where the refugees are/have been staying and have been asked to come back to Sudan and help support the Sudanese people rebuild their communities. The main thrust of the work that SIM will be doing is related to health and education being done in partnership with local communities and church. A good overview of this project can be seen at http://www.sim.org/country.asp?fun=11&sid=78&slide=0&cid=62&mid=&pgid= (copy this web address and paste it into the address line in your web browser if the link doesn't work).

There are a few missionaries already in Sudan (from neigbouring African countries as well as the western world) but currently the work is being coordinated and supported from Nairobi, Kenya. SIM wants to have a base in Southern Sudan from which to do this and this is where I fit in. Myself and another guy will go into a city called Malakal to establish the facilities and relationships needed for SIM to make this a reality. This will initially involve renovating 2 houses on a compound that the church SIM partners with has. These houses will be used in the short term while we facilitate and supervise the contruction of a facility for this purpose. At the same time as the renovation and building work I will be learning Sudanese Arabic and have involvement with other ministry opportunities that I can realistically fit into my day.

Hopefully the building work in Malakal will be completed by the end of 2009. I plan on still being part of the work in Sudan after this, in what role that will be determined nearer the time. To do this I need a team of supporters that can support me through prayer, finances and friendship. If this is something that you would like to be a part of or would like to learn more about the Rebuilding Southern Sudan: Church & Nation project please contact me.

Thank you and God bless
Andrew Buxton

Its all in the attitude

Pray without ceasing. Have you ever thought about the implications and impracticalities of this scripture? (1 Thessalonians 5:17) I mean lets be honest - does God really expect us to pray every second of the day? how does that affect our lives ? Can it actually be done?

There is actually more to that scripture than is often looked into - 1 Thessalonians 5: 16 -18 says "Be joyful always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is Gods will for you in Christ Jesus." (NLT)

God is not asking us to spend every moment of our day on our knees in prayer, but He encourages us to have a prayerful attitude. This attitude affects our reactions to the stuff, good and bad, that occurs in our lives. It determines whether we will be atmosphere takers or atmosphere makers. A prayerful attitude recognises and acknowledges our need for God, our dependence on Him, and takes the focus off ourselves. It means that even in the crap times , in the darkness when we think no one cares, we can have an assurance that God is there, He cares and we can turn our focus to Him.

Over the past few months I have had an illness that had the potential to take over every part of mine and my family's lives. Everything turned to crap (am I allowed to say crap on the blog? Oops crap I did it again!) and I felt I was in a downward spiral there was no escape from.. Now I don't share this to gain your sympathy or to shock, but out of this experience ( and I still have a long way to go) I have learned a very important God perspective that keeps me going.

John 10:10 "The thief comes to steal, kill and destroy, but I have come that they may have life in abundance." This is a scripture I have heard countless times but whenever I have considered abundant life I have looked at it from a vantage point of Gods provision - paying my bills, meeting my physical needs etc.. What I didn't consider was (and God gave me revelation of this) abundant life is more than this.

Abundance of life includes the experiences we go through and the lessons we learn. This changed me in my situation completely. I know that God is with me in my situation, and while He did not cause it, He is allowing me to go through it because the lessons I learn and the reward I gain on the other side are far greater than if I did not walk this journey.

Even though my situation sucks, knowing God is there and walking with me makes the pain easier to endure, and dare I say it, I am even thankful. Not that I am sick, but thankful that God has a plan greater than I can currently see, thankful that God is bigger than my situation and thankful for this experience because its enriching and strengthening me- as a person, as a wife and mother and as a woman walking a journey with Christ.

By developing a prayerful attitude ( and believe me I'm a work in progress!) when things get tough I can turn to God and take the focus off myself. This a conscious decision, a choice I have to make continually, and some days the choice is far easier than others and sometimes I don't succeed at all. But thats the amazing thing about Grace - God still reaches out His hand to pick us up and set us on our feet time after time, day after day. (and thats a whole new post on its own)

Be joyful always, pray continually and give thanks in all circumstances - I might not succeed in this all the time, but I am going to make a go at it. I want to encourage you - embrace God no matter what your circumstances are and be enriched and amazed by what you learn and the experiences you gain.

Superchristian away!

Hey reson8rs,

Michaela over at The Hourglass Blog has recently posted a great article on being a "Superchristian", after reading Rob Bell's Velvet Elvis, which I think is just fantastic, and has the potential to be really freeing for us. Go Rob Bell, and go Michaela! Go and check it out.

Oh, and just for your entertainment, go and find out what superhero you are. I'm spiderman BTW - I'm intelligent, witty, a bit geeky and have great power and responsibility.

Which superhero are you?

Numbering our days...

Psa 90:12 So teach us to number our days, so that we may bring a heart of wisdom. -MKJV

As I was writing this post, I sat down just for a minute (which turned into and hour), and remembered exactly why I was writing this post in the first place.

A lot of the students at school are starting to get stressed as they prepare for exams (or at least think about it...). One of the main time management strategies they employ is to leave it until the last possible moment, then cram. Similarly, in the school holidays, often I sprint around, furiously trying to cram all the relaxation, coffee, and recreation into a two week space in order to make up for the rest of the term.

I've been thinking about the passage in Psalms which tells us to "number our days". Actually, I'm feeling pretty convicted about it (in the biblical sense of the word). I think about some of the biggest time wasters in my life. At the moment, these seem to be the net (surprise surprise), procrastinating in general (the I'll just have a break for five minutes moments), and indecision (What do I feel like doing? What do I want to do?). Also, there's some low importance, high priority tasks which seem to take up a lot of my time.

Who would I be if I was more organised?

What would God use me for?

Did God wire me this way for a reason?

I actually think that the excuse "I'm too busy" doesn't really apply when it comes to the really important things. Why does it seem sometimes that the important stuff always is put on the backburner in order to complete the everyday, menial tasks which we procrastinate over anyway? Lol, is it just me who has had the thought "I'm too busy to pray today?"

Don't get me wrong. As a society, we are probably busier than any that has come before. My argument though is that if it's self-induced, surely there's something we can do about it.

We're only here for a short time. I think it's time I start reclaiming some of the time in my day, and using it to glorify God.

If you're reading this and going "Ok, I'm with you Ray, but what do I do now?", the answer is "I'm not really sure." Sorry! But I think it's going to be something that God's going to journey me through in the coming months.

Any suggestions?

Anyways, here's a couple of links to get you started :)
How to have a 36 hour day
And on a lighter note (I love the instant shirt removal and egg peel most by the way...):
www.waitless.org
Waitless also has a time management calculator, to see where you are spending your time. It's shocking to think I can add weeks to my life, just by dressing more quickly...

Someone should do this for youth leaders...

http://Random.cellfish.com/multimedia/110451

Someone needs to do this for youth leaders. I've recently heard the statistic that the average ministry life for youth leaders and youth pastors is now around 7-9 months (crazy eh?). That must mean that Grant is an absolute legend. Tell him the next time you see him.