watch this space....

We have been dreaming and scheming and have some pretty exciting things in the works!!! So watch this space!

(ok so I'll be nice and give you a quick heads up on some of the exciting things. Get you pens ready and mark these dates in your diary now!

18- 21 July - Get Smart Conference Christchurch
13-14 August - Winter Blast, Queenstown
3 September - Sex, Lies & Resonate
18-29 November - Red Frogs Schoolies Mission Trip, Gold Coast Australia

More info and other exciting stuff coming soon!!

Revival Pics

OK guys so as promised here are a few shots from when we had Roy and Melanie Fields here the other week. It was a phenomenal time of worship and God really switched something in the Spirit. It was like taking a 60 watt light bulb and then shoving 2000 volts of electricity through it to see what would happen - things will never be the same again!!!!

SUNDAY MORNING SERVICE

Singers Band in Worship
Worship led by Roy Fields. You can't really see but Church

was PACKED out.

Pastor Ian (with Dayle in background) deep in worship

SUNDAY EVENING SERVICE

Love this shot!!!! Resonator Lulu and members of the ministry team during the evening service.

Southern River pastor Danny Steel (centre) responding to a call for healing while Melanie Fields (right) prays.

Melanie Fields praying for people during an altar call.

Associate pastor Grant hanging with his kids after the evening service. (It was 11.5pm and they just got their second wind!!)

Let us feed u!!!!!

Hey Guys,

Yep its here again! The Resonate $2 Student feed. If you haven't worked it out by now it gonna be a regular occurance - like real regular, like every 2 weeks, fornightly or bi-monthly (however you want to look at it!)

So get involved!! Tell your class mates, your workmates, your neighbour, your nana, WHOEVER!! Bring them along and enjoy our scrumptious, yummy (and may I add healthy - who would a thought it was possible to taste good and not make you rot?)

Just make sure you let us know you are coming - we would hate for you to miss out!!

O Week Highlight

Well so Orientation Week is over and now it's into the everyday grind of study, work and of course plenty of play. We have had an awesome, if not crazy, hectic, random, and most all fun time hanging with you guys. Big thanks to everyone who has helped out over the last few days.

We have some pics to give you a bit of a taste of some of the fun - this is the first time I have tried to upload multiple images so just bear with me if it looks a bit rough!!!


- The 3rd Annual Ninja Parade was a HIT!!!! Ninjas turned out in droves to celebrate their heritage while a small crowd eagerly awaited their appearance. Video footage still to be uploaded complete with exclusive interview with someone who has actually seen a ninja - once.





Apparently they spotted a ninja. Turns out was a false alarm - someone shot a seagull.....





Jai hanging on campus........

Resonate freshers Richard, Tiwa and Josh ->

mmmmm coffee........






So there are some of the highlights from O Week. But don't fear thats not the end of it for the year. We have heaps of stuff in the pipeline for 2009, plus of course connect groups are up and running. Come along and join us for a coffee.

Oh and if you see any of us around campus, come say hi:)

Shan

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........

O Week 2008

Hey guys,

If you are new here (in Southland or on the blog), click to find out what we're all about! We've got some exciting activities planned for OWeek 2008 in Southland. Hopefully you saw us around @ the lifestyles expo (when you weren't busy watching guys and girls change clothes - seriously though, who does that???). On Thursday we'll be at the Otepuni cheering on the river runners, and providing a barbecue for potentially hypothermic people...

Also we've got some cool stuff happening soon... the first exciting thing is the Op Shop Ball! Here's a flyer:

Pretty cool eh? Contact me if you need any more info.

We also run some other pretty cool regular events, like cell groups, youth services, and some great outreach activities like games cafes:

as well as XBox and Lan parties, Student meals, and a whole heap of other awesome activities. If you're at SIT, TColl, or Community College down here, you'll see us around... we'll be the ones wearing badges with this on it:

We're Christian, almost 100% pureblood geeks, and unashamed.

Raydog.

Reach out!

Missionary.

For me this used to conjur up images of little old people with grey hair, dressed in brown wrinkly stockings with brown knitted cardies giving a really long and incredibly boring slide show. (Crazy but in fact none of the missionaries I have ever met fitted this description - they are all awesome funky people with a fire in their belly and a passion for Jesus and the people they serve)

But lately my perspective is a little different. As you leave our church there is a sign above the door that has got my attention and started me thinking.

"You are now entering your missionfield."

Your missionfield. My missionfield. Does that mean that I am a missionary?

Now for those of you who know me, I would really hope you don't see me as the above desrciption of a missionary. (I don't have brown stockings, haven't worn a cardie since I was 12 and am reluctantly embracing the digital age.) Do you fit that description?

We are all missionaries. We are called to be salt to the world, making people thirsty for Jesus. As christians we carry something that the rest of the world needs whether it knows it or not. We don't have to go to a third world country or a diaster zone to do this. I am in no way discrediting overseas missions, just not all of us are called to serve in this way. But we are called to be missionaies in the place we find ourselves now. This may be our university, workplace, home, town or wherever.

Reaching out to those around us - it may be our family, friends, workmates, classmates, neighbours, or that random chick at the supermarket checkout. They may be broken in need of healing; lonely in need of a friend; hungry in need of a feed or lost in need of a direction. Whatever it is they are looking for, because we have Jesus, we have the answers that can satisfy them.

Matthew 28:18-20 – the great commission. Jesus basically told us to go to all the world and reach out to those around us. If you don't reach out in your world who will?

The ultimate example of a missionary is Jesus. He reached out to the misfits of society – prostitutes, murderers and thieves. (eg Woman at the well, Zaccheus in the tree, etc) Jesus quite literally was a radical – he didn’t conform to the bounds of society or focus on being seen as 'proper'. Instead he was a living example of the love of God. It says in the Bible ‘there is no greater love than to lay down ones life for another.” This doesn’t necessarily mean we have to physically die (although sometimes this can be the case) but to die to our own desires, wants, dreams or fears for the sake of another.

This could mean putting aside your own embarrassment to eat lunch with the school weirdo or instead of buying your usual latte on the way to work, put that money aside for a week and buy groceries for a hungry family.

I just want to challenge your perspective a little. Do you see yourself as a missionary? Are you reaching out to those around you, or is that up to someone else to take care of? Ask God to show you the outreach opportunities that surround and take a leap of faith and act. You never know what will happen!

(And when you do let us know what happens! We would love to hear your experiences!)

Outreach - Community Breakout...

Hey Reson8rs!
Long time, no posting!

It's been a fantastic couple of weeks for us - we've started our focus on outreach, with the Jam Nite last Saturday, and the XBox day a bit before that. Our most successful thing we've done so far is the student meals, which look like they may be becoming a regular thing...

Shannon's going to post on some of the outreach things we've done, as well as go into what it means to outreach to our community.

We'll keep you posted...

Resonate Jam Nite

More than Preserves!!!!!!

Are you musically-minded? Secretly a closet stand-up comedian? Can you bend it like Beckham and crank out groovy moves on the dance floor?
Then we want you!!!!!

This Saturday nite (13 October) Resonate are holding a Jam Nite at the Invercargill Christian Centre starting at 8pm. Incase you haven't quite clicked, it has absolutely nothing to do with preserves, strawberry or otherwise, but is all in the name of hilarity, fun and entertainment.

So if you are keen for your three minutes of fame, or hankering for a good laugh (of course its with you, not at you!) then you should check us out!
There is guaranteed good times or your money back (ahemm its free!). Cafe will also be happening, so bring along your mates for a fun & laxed nite out.

Performer registrations are from 7.30pm on the night or if you want to register super early and avoid the queues then contact Shan or Ray on 214 1344 or leave a message here and we will be in touch!

XBox Afternoon

Hey reson8rs,

Just a reminder, we have this XBox event happening tomorrow - be there or be square (it would great to see some female gamers representing their species as well - I know you're out there...).

Should be a great time. Email me for more details.

Student Meal V2.0

Student Meal @ Friday Night Church

This friday night before church Resonate are running a FREE student meal. We are a student/young workers ministry and really hungry to make an impact in our community. So lets do our best to bless the student community by giving them a free feed to kick off the weekend.

The meal is happening from 5.30 - 7pm. If people want to come they need to contact the youth phone to book their place (we want to make sure we give them a great feed with lots of food!
So pass this onto your mates and invite them along! They are more than welcome to go to the church service after but there is no obligation to do so, and no pressure!! Should be an awesome night!

Okay so in order to make this work we need helpers!! So if you are available to help that would be awesome!! Let me or ray know asap if you are keen. we need people to help set up, cook, serve, clean up, mingle etc!!!

Have a fantastic week and don't forget to make an impact!

Shazz