Lift Issue 11 - Winter 2013

ISSUE 11: WINTER 2013 PLEASE MAKE A GOLD COIN DONATION

born aGain bodies Gary Syme

all in the family Jonathan and Rachel Turner

God hears Claire Horwood

i shouldn’t be aliVe! Cushla Clynes

from the senior pastor

One of the things I’ve retained from the years we lived in Taranaki is my involvement as a writer for a small section of the Taranaki Daily News; and it literally is a small section! Each day a verse from the Bible is listed and I’m part of a team that writes a reflection or devotion related to that verse. The challenge is not so much the reflection or devotion; the challenge is that we’re only allowed 90 words to explain the context of the verse and its relevance to our lives today, along with some practical application.

To give you some comparison, an average script of one of my Sunday messages contains around 2,500 words; and this editorial has about 500 words, so you can see how small 90 words is!

In fact it’s exactly the size of this paragraph.

I’ve remained part of this writing team because I enjoy the challenge of communicating something significant in few words; it makes you think about what’s really important – something every one of us has to do. We all receive dozens of different messages daily – and sometimes dozens hourly!

In a media-savvy image-rich and highly sensory environment, marketers ply their trade in increasingly dynamic ways in an effort to persuade us that their product/ service/idea is worth our attention and worth the investment of our lives, financially and emotionally. It’s well known that because of the speed of our communication channels our attention spans are dramatically less than they were a generation ago. Believe me, try communicating to teenagers today. The challenge is to keep them engaged for more than a few minutes.

In many ways, producing a magazine such as LIFT is not media-savvy. It’s more expensive than most modern communication methods and we all know printed media is on the decline with the rise of digital media. But we

do this on purpose. It’s our little rebellion against the speed wobbles. Our hope is that you will take time to read slowly the stories that are printed in its pages. We hope you will recognise that all the people we interview for LIFT are the sorts of people you sit next to in church on a Sunday. Like you, they are navigating life with similar pressures to the ones you face. LIFT is not a story about Windsor Park Baptist Church. It is Windsor Park Baptist Church. LIFT is our story, because in the few words that are allocated to each article, we try to find out the ways in which God has been working in that person’s life.

We take this view because we believe God is the most important person to hold on. Indeed, he is the only one who remains constant in a world of continual change. Try writing your story in 90 words or fewer. Then send it to me. It might even get published, because your story is our story.

Peace.

Grant Harris Senior Pastor

contents

20

14

14

8

2

11

4

12

Paul Askin Putting the Pieces Back Together at Kaiapoi

20

Editor Julie Belding editor@liftmagazine.org

Advertising Bert Holl Design & Production advertise.lift@gmail.com Lewis Hurst lewis@hcreative.co.nz

ISSN 2230-2646

18

6

Snippets What’s happening at Windsor?

Rob Harley The Story behind the Story-Teller Senior Pastor Grant Harris

12

Contents

Editorial Pastor Grant Harris

Sam Burrows I Want a New New Zealand

6

24

Claire Horwood God Hears

14

Theosart Tim Edmonds

Photographers Pam Bedwell, Belinda Bradley, Dani Mackay

8

18

Cushla Clynes I Shouldn’t be Alive!

26

Your Questions Answered Pastor Grant Harris

Writers Pam Bedwell, Grant Harris, David Knell, Iain Litterick, Sophie Reiss, Lisa Michelle, Darrell Curtis

Pam Bedwell

Gary Syme Born Again Bodies

17

Barbara Haw In the Footsteps of Jesus

Cover photo by

Jonathan and Rachel Turner All in the Family

28

Realationships Four poems

Lift (“Life Integrating Faith Together”) is the quarterly magazine of Windsor Park Baptist Church, PO Box 65385, Mairangi Bay, Auckland Lift is a member of the Australasian Religious Press Association.

0654. Its aim and vision is to reveal members of the church serving God in all their diversity.

Ideas and articles for future issues are welcome.

Contact the editor at editor@liftmagazine.org LIFT MAGAZINE 3

feature

buildinG up Seventeen years ago a church bought an old tavern complex and starting renovating it.

Seventeen years on, the process continues as budget allows. Each year we seem to be able to complete various little projects that improve the way in which we use our physical assets. While we’re still planning some alterations to the auditorium and Kauri Room, we’ve also been building some extensive decking around the youth shacks out back. The existing steps had been identified as an OSH hazard and were generally unsafe. The new decking will include plenty of steps that will enable the area to be utilised more effectively, even for outside services in summer. If you haven’t been “out the back,” check it out sometime.

Just follow the hallway that leads from the left hand side of the auditorium foyer. We love it when people go exploring and get to know all the different things that happen in our facilities every day of the week.

They are well used by heaps of community groups as well. The vision to buy this site is bearing much fruit for God’s purposes.

2014 IS COMING Have you ever heard the phrase – “Where has this year gone?” That’s why at Windsor Park we’re already planning for 2014. This will be a significant year for the Church in New Zealand because it’s the bicentenary of the first known preaching of the gospel by Samuel Marsden, at Oihi, Bay of Islands, on Christmas Day 1814. After preaching that first message, Marsden wrote, “In this manner the Gospel has been introduced to New Zealand, and I fervently pray that the glory of it may never depart from its inhabitants, till time shall be no more!” Whichever way you look at it, Christianity has dramatically affected our nation in many ways. In 2014 we will participate in the ”Jesus – all about hope” project that will create an opportunity to engage New Zealanders in every home in a conversation about the Christian faith. We encourage you to think about this now. Check out the details at www.hopeproject. co.nz and read some of the links to the fascinating history of Samuel Marsden and the arrival of the gospel in New Zealand.

folloW Windsor park

Our communication strategy at Windsor Park is simple: communicate in as many ways as possible, to as many people as possible, as often as possible. These days we do this in several electronic ways but we also use paper and letters, and everything that is electronic is also available at the information desk on Sundays.

As social media change we try to keep up so we can keep telling the stories of what God is doing at Windsor Park. Facebook has been popular in recent years, but now Instagram is gaining ground, particularly for younger people. Instagram is simply life in pictures. A single picture is posted (and often creatively edited) and people “like” it or talk about it in conversational ways. Effectively it’s “life in pictures.” Windsor Park recently joined Instagram with the username wpbaptist. If you’ve got a smart device you can load up Instagram and start following us!

Remember the church also has an interesting website (www.windsorpark.org.nz) and Pressing On gives extra resources to expand our Sunday services (www.pressingon.org.nz).

4 LIFT MAGAZINE

feature

monday school Recently Matt Burrows and Grant Harris had the opportunity to spend an hour with all the 2013 Year 9 students of Kristin School when they visited Windsor Park over the course of a week. This has been an annual visit for the last few years, on a day when the students are exposed to several different religious systems and are encouraged to ask questions that help with their religious education. While at Windsor Park they had a tour of the buildings and were exposed to all the different parts of our operation. Matt and Grant also had the opportunity to openly explain the foundations of Christianity and how this works out in our lives, as well as talk about what a community-oriented evangelical church does. There was plenty of opportunity for questions, and as expected some challenging ones were asked: What was the evidence for God’s existence? What difference did Christianity make in our lives? Why did bad things happen to good people? It was an unparalleled opportunity to explain Christianity and we believe the students had a positive experience of Windsor Park. Any other schools want to come in?

Visiting Time We recently enjoyed a visit from the leadership team of Spreydon Baptist Church in Christchurch. Spreydon is similar to Windsor Park in its size and operations. It’s different demographically, but the ways in which we work are comparable. This visit followed a visit by Windsor Park’s leaders to Spreydon last November. At Windsor Park we enjoy growing relationships with other churches. We recently welcomed Albany Baptist into the “SYNC” fold, meaning there are now four local Baptist churches working together – Windsor Park, Northgate, Belmont and Albany. We also actively promote the range of courses that St Pauls (in the city) put together as part of their programme. As well we’re supporting Kaiapoi Baptist in Canterbury as they continue to grapple with the effects of the earthquake down there. Our pastors regularly meet with staff and volunteers of other churches to learn from one another, and to offer support in many ways to churches around the country. You may not see these relationships publicly, but they are productive and worthwhile.

We love Volunteers At the heart of every church and most nonprofit organisations are people stepping into volunteer roles. Windsor Park is no exception.

It would be fair to say that over the last sixtytwo years of our history, thousands of people have contributed thousands of voluntary hours to make Windsor Park what it is today.

And the hours that are being volunteered in 2013 would easily run to hundreds per week.

Because of some current staff vacancies, we recently put out a volunteer call to fill a few gaps for a while. We called it “stepping up.”

It’s on record (because it’s in LIFT) that many people responded to this call and the gaps were filled. It takes all of us to contribute our own little bit to make a difference. Some people can contribute lots, others only a little, and that is fine. It takes many people to complete the Windsor Park puzzle, and so we’re so grateful that volunteerism is alive and well at Windsor!

LIFT MAGAZINE 5

feature

God Hears Pam Bedwell talks to Claire Horwood

For every person interviewed for LIFT magazine there is a sense of strangeness that they have been chose at all. Case in point is Claire Horwood who is “just doing it for the group” – the committee heading up Mainly Mums; the group taking part in the programme, and mums everywhere who just need to be encouraged. Claire exudes a passion for them all.

“I can’t get over that God loves us so much, he cares for the little details,” Claire says. “I used to have low self-esteem as a teenager – wondering how I’d ever hear from God. As a young person you have these ideas and plans on what your life will be like. But sometimes things don’t turn out that way. How do people go through these times without God? Crikey!

He’s our everything!”

Before she had children Claire had helped a bit with MOPS [Mothers Of Pre Schoolers].

After Elijah was born seven and a half years

6 LIFT MAGAZINE

ago she had mild post-natal depression, and it took time for her to get used to being a Mum. Now she cheers others on.

Abby

Life was going along smoothly when two-anda-half year old Elijah got a baby sister. Abby was a snuffly baby but it was that time of the year when children generally got the snuffles, and they thought little of it. Then one day, at just four months old, Abby was whisked off to the hospital with breathing difficulties. She was in the hospital for ten days, being treated for bronchialitis – a condition that affects the smaller breathing tubes in children.

“We had people all over the country praying for us through this difficult time. But there came a point where we realized we might lose her.”

From the start, however, Scott and Claire sensed things weren’t quite right. And so it began. Abby came home, only to have to return to hospital three days later. Being solely breastfed, she with Claire spent the next three months at Starship and Waitakere hospitals.

They came home at one point with oxygen bottles and tubes but quickly returned, as even with this assistance Abby was not getting enough air. Claire’s biggest regret during this time was missing Elijah’s third birthday. This was also a hard time for Scott as he tried to balance the needs of his wife, his toddler son and his job. Claire thinks he and her family were amazing.

“We had people all over the country praying for us through this difficult time,” Claire said.

“But there came a point where we realized we might lose her.”

Abby had a serious, rare and often fatal condition called child interstitial lung disease.

She had been in steady decline for several months. Then one day, when Claire was all alone in the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit with Abby, a doctor who was not at all related to their case told Claire the disease was “not necessarily compatible with life.”

These devastating words crushed her. But God was still at work.

“God healed Abby so amazingly,” she says.

“We know without a shred of a doubt she’s our miracle baby. She suddenly started to improve. Even the doctors were astounded.

They couldn’t believe what was going on, and in a week she was released home, with no oxygen!”

Because of Abby’s weakened immune system and damage to her lungs, however, the family went into voluntary isolation for two years.

That meant no visit from anyone who had a cold or who had even come into contact with someone who had a cold. Unfortunately for Elijah, it meant he could not play with his friends, as children are always germ carriers and they couldn’t risk exposing Abby to germs. Those two years were focused solely on keeping their daughter healthy.

“It sounds funny but it was wonderful for our faith,” says Claire. “When there was nothing else but God we really had to rely on him.”

Continued on page 23

feature

Photo: Pam Bedwell

LIFT MAGAZINE 7

feature

“Born Again Bodies”

Gary Syme discusses how his exercise program, combined with a healthy diet, can help older people stay fit and healthy

Fred Astaire, the American dancer, singer and actor, once said, “Old age is like everything else. To make a success of it, you’ve got to start young.” So, according to Fred, now – whether you’re 35 or 95 – has to be a good time to start.

I am amazed at how little the average person values their body. We pay more attention to our cars. When I asked my doctor and my physiotherapist why this was so, the doctor said: “Gary, people would rather die, than exercise.” And she was not smiling.

The physio did smile, but then said: “People tell me they go for a walk, but when I see them out and about, it’s a gentle, recreational look-at-the-neighbour’s-roses kind of walking at best.”

And as one desperate health researcher in the US once said: “Recreational walking is better than nothing, but nothing comes a very close second.”

How “Born Again Bodies” began

I arrived late at a church service when the congregation was rising to sing. Although they 8 LIFT MAGAZINE

were finally standing, few of the congregation actually stood in the way that nature intended, by leg strength alone. Some of those present pulled themselves to their feet with the help of the seat in front, or they helped their depleted thigh muscles by bringing their arms into play and pushing down on their knees; some were even helped to their feet by those who had already made the ascent. That was the moment which started me on the path to founding the Born Again Bodies exercise programme.

The programme

Born Again Bodies is for anyone who wants to keep their independence as they age. All you need are a pair of dumbbells and a chair and they’re available onsite.

The programme consists of a selection of resistance exercises with light dumbbells, plus an optional 10-minute session at the end of the programme when you do selected Tai-Chi-like exercises for balance, co-ordination and flexibility.

The exercises with dumbbells were selected to provide the best and safest way to maintain or increase muscle and bone mass and strength. The weight used by each participant varies according to their ability. And don’t worry-- much of the session is carried out in the well-loved seated position.

Isn’t walking enough?

When asked about exercise, most people will tell you they go for a walk. Unfortunately, that’s not enough. There are plenty of marathon runners who struggle to get out of a chair, and certainly struggle to squat down on the floor and get up again. This is because a certain amount of muscle is needed to get out of a chair. You are lifting 80 percent of your bodyweight.

In a marathon, or when walking, you need aerobic fitness. Strength becomes irrelevant beyond a certain point. Your muscles adapt to your requirements. The bend in your knee when you walk is minimal (take a look at it), but when you get up from a chair it is a full 90 degrees. When we are down to a shuffle there is no bend at all, and therefore not much work being done by those once powerful thigh

feature

“People tell me they go for a walk, but when I see them out and about, it’s a gentle, recreational look-at-theneighbour’s-roses kind of walking at best.” muscles. From there, it is a downhill slide to immobility.

Having said that, there is no doubt that, apart from its cardiovascular value, walking is also a weight-bearing exercise, and as such, it will help to maintain bone density in the legs.

For this reason alone, it is better than doing nothing. But people would not be struggling

to get up from their seats, beds and toilets if it were that simple.

It’s evident that cardiovascular fitness (or “huff and puff” fitness as I like to call it) will help you to live longer, but it’s also true that weight training or the “push and pull” stuff will help you get to your feet and enable you to put the groceries on the top shelf.

Doing both ‘huff and puff’ and ‘push and pull’ exercises, along with exercises to improve balance and co-ordination, will help you to live a longer and more active life.

The benefits of exercise for older people Consider this: from our mid-thirties, if we are not doing resistance exercises we’re losing about 150 grams of muscle a year. In terms of muscle mass, we are wasting away! So we no

longer have the strength to lift objects from the floor or hop out of bed in the morning like we once did. As we get older, we consider all this loss of muscle and associated strength to be inevitable. But it isn’t. Nor is the associated loss of bone, balance, and flexibility. With age we gradually do lose these things, but not at the rate most of us are losing them right now – through lack of knowledge, lack of action and lack of self-belief.

The exercises with dumbbells provide the safest way to maintain or increase muscle mass and strength. Because exercises with weights also help us maintain or increase our bone density, we get two health advantages for the price of one, plus some other benefits.

So, once your doctor knows about the programme and supports your doing it, don’t be afraid to get started.

LIFT MAGAZINE 9

feature Eating well

Exercise and diet go hand in hand. We tend to eat less as we get older, and (although this may sound like a good thing in a time of increasing obesity) less food often means less of the right kinds of food.

Your body needs more of certain materials than others. You need protein for your muscles, calcium for your bones, and carbohydrates and oils (preferably the good ones) as fuel and to maintain important areas of your body chemistry. You also need fibre to move things along the supply chain.

And, then, of course, you need water to keep it all afloat.

Because protein is plentifully available in fish, lean meat, eggs and milk products as well in nuts and vegetable sources such as beans and tofu, it should be easy to get a reasonable quantity, but everyone needs to examine their diets to ensure theirs is adequate.

For calcium, milk products are great because they supply both protein and calcium. So, low fat milk, yoghurt and low fat cheeses are good, and cottage cheese is particularly good.

If you avoid most of these products, then calcium-enriched fruit juices, and tinned sardines and salmon (which include bones) – will provide calcium, as will broccoli, spinach and other leafy greens – and nuts, particularly almonds.

When it comes to carbohydrates or oils, most of us may in fact be overdoing it. Complex carbohydrates are the best for prolonged energy, and we can get enough of these from a healthy diet of fruit and vegetables. Most of us include bread or potatoes in our daily food intake as well. The best oils (fats) are derived from a few nuts and good cooking oils such as wheat germ, olive, canola, and grapeseed.

Omega-3 fish oils are also good for us.

Vitamin C is important too, but it shouldn’t be a problem if we eat plenty of fruit and vegetables daily. Citrus fruits and juices are good sources.

A word on Vitamin D

We need Vitamin D to facilitate the use of calcium in bone building, and to maintain the strength of our muscles, particularly fast twitch muscles which help us stop ourselves from falling. We get this vitamin from the action of the sun on our skin, so, we need to spend at least some time outdoors each day, preferably in the morning or evening when the sun is less intense. Thus in our pursuit of healthier bodies, our outside activities, including our catch-up walking, can serve more than one purpose.

Water

Then there is all-important water, which maintains a normal blood flow to the machinery of our body. Water also acts as 10 LIFT MAGAZINE

How do I sign up?

Exercise and diet go The “Born Again Bodies” exercise session at hand in hand. We tend to Windsor Park Baptist Church takes place on eat less as we get older, Thursdays between 10:30 and 11:30am in the Kauri Room behind the cafeteria. There are and less food often four other venues if that time is unsuitable. means less of the right The charge is $5 per session. kinds of food. – Gary Syme, the creator of B.A.B., is a 76-year-old

a shock absorber around vulnerable areas, including our joints. A lack of water causes confusion and fatigue. Urine becomes abnormally concentrated, and insufficient water causes problems with digestion, normal bowel motions, and much more.

As we get older, the fat content of our bodies will increase, and – if we let it - the muscle content will decrease, so that in old age the body may contain only 50 per cent or less water, as against the 60–70 per cent of earlier days. So if we maintain or increase our muscle mass, we also store more water, maintain a more functional body, and burn up more fat.

pharmacist who worked for 23 years in the Public Health Directorate of the Ministry of Health. He has had an interest in health and fitness all his life. (He is also Rachel Turner’s father and Opa to the eight Turner children – see page 18.) He has been a personal fitness instructor, a weight lifter, a runner-up light heavyweight wrestling champion and has a black belt in Shotokan Karate. Gary is also a cancer survivor and a man with bilateral knee replacements – so he knows about some of the drawbacks that come with age. Other coaches of the Born Again Bodies classes are also trained to help people reach their goals safely and efficiently.

column life With sam burroWs

i Want a neW neW Zealand Often I am made aware that in many ways I am failure as a New Zealander. I grew up playing soccer rather than rugby, I don’t know how to count to ten in Maori, I don’t own a pair of gumboots, and to add to the blasphemy, I find the beloved Lord of the Rings movie franchise incredibly dull. I realised as I grew into adulthood that I didn’t fit the “Southern Man” myth that governs our national identity. I don’t fix cars too well. I’ve never put up a fence. I don’t drink Tui. And you’ll never hear me say “She’ll be right mate.” I feel like an imposter with the right accent.

The reality, however, is that our national is nothing beyond the morbid predictability of identity is nothing like this anyway. New the good life. In a country that has it as good Zealand, while still kidding ourselves that as ours we still have a suicide rate much higher we are ‘people of the land’, are far more than our road deaths and the highest youth cosmopolitan, far more hip and far more suicide rate of the OECD countries. Something commercially steered than we would like to is wrong with the story of reality that we are admit. If our media consumption is anything to telling ourselves. go by, we would rather switch on TV to learn ideas from a danish from a kitchen guru about sea salt quantities philosopher and seasoning, how many times you can fold your muffin mix before its “overdone,” or how Writing near the beginning of the 19th century, Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard much mushroom to put in a perfect omelette found himself in a similar culture in his own than we would like to discuss social injustice. land. Frustrated by what Not many of us would he perceived as lack feel at home in a swanny could the church’s of conviction by the or camping without a Christians around him to powered fridge or being job be to rustle take the gospel seriously, in any location outside of the feathers of he began writing in an a hundred metre proximity kiwi culture? to effort to point people to to coffee. the radical message of In the words of journalist wake people again Jesus. In a letter to a friend Gordon McLauchlan, we to the miracle of he writes “What matters Kiwis are a “passionless people,” we are life? to lead people is to find my purpose, to see what it really is that “frowning zombies” who beyond the trivial?

God wills that I should do; “have lapsed into a lack the crucial thing is to find of passion bordering on a truth that is true for me, to find the idea for inertness.” We just don’t care. In the last which I am willing to live or die.” general election there were about a million I think Kierkegaard’s thinking still sticks a of us who chose not to vote. Our “She’ll be sharp knife into 21st century New Zealand. right” attitude has helped to mould us into Could the church’s job be to rustle the feathers apathetic consumers downplaying passion, of Kiwi culture? To wake people again to the ignoring what we see as annoying, disruptive miracle of life? To lead people beyond the rhetoric, and marching on to serve the gods of trivial? To lift the gaze beyond comfortable lifestyle – chai lattes in hand. living? To suggest that perhaps some ideas are This ‘zombification’ has not developed worth fighting for? Could this be what being a without its consequences. When meaning has prophetic people means? been sucked out of life, and people follow What is the message of the gospel, and are the consumer script, there arises a certain we willing to live and die for it? helplessness and despair. It can appear there

If the church is to take its identity seriously then we need to examine what shapes us and take notice of our history. We stand in a long line of people who have taken a look at the cross of Jesus, understood that he is Lord and decided there are things that don’t belong in a world that belongs to him. This line of people includes the early church subverting the greatest superpower the world had ever seen by undermining its class system. It includes William Wilberforce and his friends changing the face of Britain by creative engagement in social action, abolishing slavery and standing up for those who couldn’t stand up for themselves. It includes story upon story of compassion and charity inspired by the love of God, always pointing to something bigger than the ideals we have conjured ourselves.

a Good kick in the pants

So perhaps our real mission isn’t simply name dropping Jesus. Perhaps what New Zealand needs is a good kick in the pants. Perhaps what Christians need to be doing is embodying a story that represents life in all its weightiness.

To remind people that they are only alive once.

That their relationships are important. That life is a great opportunity designed for much more than new furniture, lifestyle blocks, company cars and road trips. Perhaps before we introduce people to the one that brings us into true, full humanity, we need to dismantle the ideas that so easily steal the attention first.

Perhaps what Christians need to do for New Zealand is to take life seriously. To love well while we still can. To not just settle for a good night out and a few brews with the boys.

Maybe we could fight for a new cultural identity, beyond the stoic Southern Man myth that we still hold on to so tightly despite its odd fit.

Or not. Whatever.

Sam Burrows is an ex-Middle School teacher (he made it out alive) who is currently working in young adults ministry while completing a Graduate Diploma in Theology at Laidlaw College. In his spare time he likes to pretend to be a rock star and writes for enjoyment and in order to impress a potential wife.

LIFT MAGAZINE 11

feature

puttinG the pieces back toGether Iain Litterick talks with Pastor Paul Askin of Kaiapoi Baptist Church

“You’ll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew, rebuild the foundations from out of your past.

You’ll be known as those who can fix anything, restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate, making the community livable again.” (Isaiah 58:12) Arranging a time for a Skype call is a little tricky, since Baptist pastors seem to be busy people. In fact the church at Kaiapoi has been – since the quake of 4 September 2010 – very busy. But I’m finally talking to Paul Askin, pastor of Kaiapoi Baptist Church and apparently a bestselling author of The New Zealand Pig Hunter’s Handbook and Another Day in Paradise: pig hunting yarns from the back country. (At least I now know what he does in what little spare time he has.)

What happened at kaiapoi

Kaiapoi was hit badly in that first quake.

The local riverbed fractured with huge gashes several metres deep. Liquefaction, broken roads, sewerage spills, damaged schools and houses.

“Communities were devastated,” says Paul.

“Where there were once thriving communities, they are now empty, or just gone.”

Like many other churches, Kaiapoi Baptist swung into action almost immediately.

Foodbanks, teams shovelling liquefaction, clearing debris, childcare services, counselling, emergency accommodation, were just some of those actions. The church has been in a constant state of response to the needs in their community, providing meals, accommodation, heating, counselling, childcare and so on.

As in the rest of Christchurch, the emergency response has given way to recovery mode. But that doesn’t mean “back to normal” – it just means getting used to “the new normal.”

The Baptist Union was quick to identify the need for extra resourcing and coordination.

On 11 March they created a funded role for a Regional Earthquake Response Coordinator. Originally this role was filled

by William and Suzanne Drury-Turnbull.

Suzanne was also a supervisor at the Kaiapoi Baptist Childcare Centre.

interdependence

In June 2012 the Baptist Union created a new role for a Strategic Recovery Coordinator. That 12 LIFT MAGAZINE

person was Kelvyn Fairhall, the Union’s former administrator. Three months later he stated: “I sense that somehow the independence and isolation that many of our churches have drifted into, over recent decades, needs to be ploughed up and a different path laid out that we can tread alongside one another... There is opportunity to forge a new modus operandi of interdependence, collaboration and partnering that uses all our resources as efficiently and strategically as possible, without unnecessary duplication and competition, for the greatest impact of the Kingdom of God.” Pastor Paul agrees. “The priority has changed No longer are we in emergency response mode. Now we need co-ordination and a strategy for going forward. To be effective, we need to pool our resources. Instead of having 30 churches, doing their own thing independently (albeit good things!) we need to work together.”

“Where there were once thriving communities, they are now empty, or just gone.”

The liquefaction may have gone, and the streets are being repaired. Visitors may see a semblance of normality, but the pain and suffering and trauma are still there. In some ways it is getting worse – simmering just below the surface of “barely functioning.”

“International evidence,” Paul says, “shows that recovery from such a disaster takes three to five years, before normalcy returns.”

Thirty months after September 4th, there is no escaping the relentless needs. Communities continue to unravel as people decide to leave, or it becomes impossible to sustain businesses and livelihoods. Mental health statistics show a rapid rise in the use of anti-depressants, suicide and abuse.

Yet, the Church (in the whole sense) continues its work, as does Kaiapoi.

“The city council is much more aware of what the churches can offer,” says Paul. “We can mobilise a large number of people faster than some of the support services can.”

neW normal

In some ways, the “new normal” has been a positive change for the church in general. Its members have demonstrated a love for their community that has translated into practical help and concern for their neighbours’ welfare, physically, mentally and spiritually. The church has “got its hands dirty,” as it were.

Churches like Oxford Terrace, who lost their buildings, have had to go out to their local community. Instead of people having to cross the threshold into a church, the church has gone to them. This is not a bad thing. The church has had a shake-up – in more ways than one.

Paul concedes, however, that there is the danger of looking outward too much, and not taking stock of the needs of the local congregation who have struggles of their own.

“We know there is no quick fix. We all feel it when a family makes the decision to move away. We need to be as sensitive to each other as we are to strangers.”

Our own Pastor Grant has highlighted the opportunity for Windsor Park to be involved in supporting Kaiapoi, encouraging them in whatever way we can and allowing them to recharge their batteries.

“Our church will send some ministry teams down there to run a few services and generally encourage the congregation and give some of their team a break,” Grant says. “We put Kaiapoi in our monthly prayer notes – and hold them close to our hearts. WindsorCreative is also doing some design work for them – some creative things they just haven’t had time to do, and is designing a new website for them – another useful project they haven’t had the time or resources to tackle.”

The people of Christchurch are in for the long haul, and we should be too.

feature

LIFT MAGAZINE 13

feature

14 LIFT MAGAZINE

feature

Barbara Haw: In the Footsteps of Jesus by

Barbara Haw is a Yorkshire lass. Born in 1932 at Redcar near Middlesbrough, she was placed in a home for unwanted children. At age five, at the insistence of her paternal grandmother, Barbara was reunited with the rest of the family in London. Her grandmother became her best friend.

Barbara remembers the outbreak of war. Her father was a tall thin man, and when he stood in the recruitment line at the Cenotaph in Whitehall, with hundreds of others, he was singled out for the Grenadier Guards. He was stationed in the Wellington Barracks at Westminster, and went on to serve in North Africa and Italy. Barbara, her mother, a brother and a sister moved up to Lincolnshire for the duration of the war, where another brother was born.

Barbara remembers the school holidays.

“Every holiday I went out into the fields to pick up potatoes for sixpence a week. Sixpence was a lot of money in those days. Lincoln potatoes are the best, you know.”

After the war, Barbara’s father stayed on in the Guards, and was accommodated in a small flat at the top of an apartment block in Westminster. So it was back to London again.

“I never needed a clock,” Barbara says. “I just looked out of my bedroom window at Big Ben.” However, her father did not get on very well with one of the neighbours, a fellow by the name of Montgomery. “He sent me out to North Africa,” he said with some feeling.

Growing up

Barbara’s first church was Baptist and she had been in Sunday School for long as she can remember. She loved being with the children, and this was to become a great influence in her life. When she left school at the age of fourteen (her father said it was time she

David Knell photo by Belinda Bradley

got a job) she joined St John which led to her becoming a cadet nurse with the British Red Cross. Barbara completed her training at Goldie Leigh Children’s Hospital, which specialised in skin diseases.

A posting to Germany for four and a half years took her father away again, during which time Barbara never saw him. Afterwards the family moved to Harold Wood in Essex.

They were happy there, the family all being together. Barbara was working in London as a junior children’s nurse. She helped with remedial reading, and even wrote some short stories for sick children.

Barbara found lots more ways to engage with young people. She taught in Sunday school, taught woodcraft to the Girl Guides, and joined the Sea Rangers at Putney Yacht Club. “We were rowing opposite the Putney Rowing Club, where they hold the Oxford

“I went to all the shows. I was always in the front row of the Proms at the Albert Hall with Malcolm Sargent.” and Cambridge boat race,” she recalls with a laugh. “We had this enormously heavy old whaler and we tried to race the boys in a rowing skiff. We didn’t win.”

Barbara and her friends got to know the master of Scott and Shackleton’s research ship Discovery which was moored in the river for use by the Sea Scouts.

“We had some great times together,” she recalls. “Life was worth living, it was good clean fun. Young people just enjoying life. It was a wonderful time.”

Drama, opera, and music were also squeezed into Barbara’s busy days. “I went to all the shows. I was always in the front row of the Proms at the Albert Hall with Malcolm Sargent.”

Marriage and Emigration

George Haw, who Barbara knew from the Westminster flat days, became more than just a friend, and the couple were married in 1955.

They lived next door to the vicar of St Andrews Church, Hornsley Rise “at the end of the Number 14 bus route Putney to Hornsley.” This was to become another of God’s “mysterious ways” because George became great friends with the vicar, and through him became a Christian, eventually working in the church.

Barbara loved the Anglican church, where, as she recalls, “a beautiful lady, Sister Pantine, was a great influence on me in finding God.” George was a communications engineer, working with early computer installations. In 1964, now with a young family, he secured a job in New Zealand, at Mount Wellington.

Cathryn and Peter were under five, and Deborah was born later in New Zealand.

Barbara, a woman of many talents, took on Time and Motion studies, working in industrial and office situations. One big job was trying to sort out the Post Office, which she said was 20 years behind the times.

All this time, Barbara was active in the church, working in Sunday School and with young people, and counselling mums and older women. Bill Millwood, a vicar in Auckland, got Barbara involved with the forerunner of Radio Rhema, where she did the night shift on talkback.

“Some [callers] were just a waste of time,” she recalls. “Some were real humdingers.

All the nutters, but some pretty serious stuff as well. Like the night a man was ready to commit suicide. That was hard, but I always had the phone number of a man to redirect the call to if I had to.”

Passions

Barbara is an avid reader, making good use of the enlarged Auckland Library system. Her reading interests are wide, but she particularly enjoys reading about people, how they think and how they live.

LIFT MAGAZINE 15

WOMENSWEAR

Redhead, George, Boo Radley, Mimosa, Augustine + MENSWEAR

Rembrandt, The Academy Brand, English Laundry, Calvin Klein + SHOES

Introducing Doc Martens JOCOSE, 8 HURSTMERE ROAD, TAKAPUNA

“I spend half the night reading” she confesses, “but mainly that one there.” She points to a large new Bible on the settee.

Barbara’s other passion is Israel. “Come to think about it” she says, “a lot of my mother’s friends were Jewish, and I met a lot of Jews in London too.”

She has been four times to Israel.

“I have walked in the footsteps of Jesus,” she says with a faraway look in her eyes. “I have been all over Israel and seen the places where Jesus has been. It is a very special place with very special people. The Jews may not be the people that God wants them to be, but you get this overwhelming feeling that God is not going to let them go.”

Barbara worked with the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem. ICEJ is well thought of by Israelis because of the support and caring work they do for the new immigrants and for the less fortunate.

“People with exceptional talents go to Israel,” she says.

“People with energy, from all over the world, are working to bring the Word of God with love to a stubborn people. When you apply to work with ICEJ, they ask you what you’ve been involved in so they can make the best use ofyour talents.

Since I had been involved with figures and counselling with Radio Rhema, they put me in accounting. I also did counselling with Jewish and Arab people who could understand English.

The language barrier makes it so difficult. My father, having been posted to Germany, taught me German, and so I could help those from Germany.”

The part she loved the best was being in Israel for the Feast of Tabernacles, when people come from all around the world to sing and dance and praise God. “It is a great time of celebration,” she says.

“People are healed from their psychological problems and their minds are restored. I would go back there every year if I could.”

Barbara warms up to her first love. “We have got to be a whole person, willing and

“i have been all over israel and seen the places where Jesus has been.” eager to work for God. Children hide things in their minds – some hurt, some weep, and some feel rejected or lonely. It carries on into adulthood.

“With the hospital children, healing hands and care enabled them to grow up into what they should be. When I lived in London, there was a hospital in Lambeth, just across the bridge from Westminster, which looked after some of the homeless people and dropouts. We used to go to Trafalgar Square, or Charing Cross Station and bring them back to attend to their sores and their psychological needs, or give them a meal. They were shuffling old men and old women pushing prams.

“Sadly, some of them were well educated – doctors, lawyers, actors – people who had just lost their grip on life. There was one actor who quoted Shakespeare all the time, and a musician who played the piano in the dining room. The last time I was there it had all changed. The old people had gone, but now the people were younger – disillusioned, on drugs, having lost hope in life.

Drugs make you less than you were created to be. God gave us this wonderful gift of life, and we should live it to the full.”

footsteps

Walking in the footsteps of Jesus is not just wandering along the Via Dolorosa or strolling along the shores of the Sea of Galilee.

It is about becoming more and more like Jesus, living how he would live, caring and loving people like he did. Barbara’s love for people, and especially children, is plain to see. From those early Sunday school days she has developed an understanding and maturity that radiates care and warmth. In this, Barbara has truly walked in the footsteps of Jesus.

feature

I shouldn’t be alive!

by Cushla Clynes, as told to Darrell Curtis It all began when I married the man who had been so loving and caring – until we got married. Then his real nature was revealed.

The verbal abuse began on our wedding night, and the physical abuse began soon afterwards.

He was like a Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, charming when he liked, and demonic when under the influence of alcohol. I had married an alcoholic, and when he was affected by alcohol his violent and abusive side took over.

I tried everything to appease him, but nothing worked. I even worked incredibly long hours to try and stay out of his presence, but this also failed.

I very much wanted a child, but every time I became pregnant he would deliberately punch me and kick me in the stomach until I miscarried. Twice I almost died from the haemorrhaging. The local hospital came to know me well.

His abuse took the form of physical beatings with pieces of four-by-two, or whatever he

could lay his hands on. I was thrown against walls, kicked until almost unconscious and raped more times than I care to remember.

After five years of hell I knew I could take no more. But how could I get away from him?

He threatened to kill me if I ever left him, and I had no doubt he would carry out his threat.

I signed a non-molestation order, for all that achieved, and finally tricked him, when he was drunk, into signing divorce papers.

After five years of hell I knew I could take no more. But how could I get away from him?

When he discovered I was finally leaving him, he called in his Black Power friends and six of them raped and beat me until I was barely conscious. I was also four months pregnant, and once again I haemorrhaged – my ninth miscarriage. They thought I was going to bleed to death. In some ways I wish I had.

I was utterly broken. Where could I go? What could I do?

God intervenes

I returned to friends and family in Auckland, but dared not stay more than a few weeks in any one place. If he found me I knew I would be dead.

Then it was that a dear friend from my school days sought me out and offered to nurse me and help me in any way he could.

I began attending Glenfield Baptist church with my sister-in-law, and gradually the healing process began. I heard about the healing love of Jesus and how he had died for me – and for my sins. I mattered to God. He had a purpose for my life and surely he had kept me alive for some reason.

In his love and mercy Jesus gave me three visions. The first was of a pool of water. In the second I was standing by the pool. And in the third Jesus and I were in the pool of water.

From this I understood that Jesus wanted me to be baptised – it would be a new beginning, with all my past buried under the waters, and a new life ahead.

Continued on page 23 LIFT MAGAZINE 17

feature

All in the Family Pam Bedwell talks to Jonathan and Rachel Turner

Photo by Pam Bedwell

They met at Murrays Bay Baptist through the youth group, and continued to be good friends as Jonathan headed off for a commerce degree and Rachel to pursue medicine. Then one day Rachel asked Jonathan out on a date. They were the last couple to be married at Murrays Bay before the church moved to an old pub (now Windsor Park Baptist).

And they’ve been best friends ever since.

Both Jonathan and Rachel love adventure.

Before their children arrived they hiked all but two of New Zealand’s great walks, completing those with their sons Zac and Josh. Recently the whole family did a walk through the Karangahake Gorge. Then there was the canoe trip Jonathan did with two sons, his Dad and best mates, the Bradleys, down the Wanganui River – great fun! Not to mention the tour of Europe in a camper van with five children when they went to a friend’s wedding. But I get ahead of myself.

When Jonathan and Rachel were first married, Rachel was just finishing her fourth year of medical school; Jonathan, having completed his degree, was then working as a trainee actuary for Guardian Royal Exchange.

A couple years later Rachel found herself pregnant – and a little disgruntled because this would now affect both their travel plans and her career. However, not long into the pregnancy those initial thoughts were replaced by great love. A few years later, after many post-graduate exams, the young couple finally had that overseas trip together (with Zac and Josh), as they went to London for Jonathan’s graduation.

A growing family

Jonathan and Rachel had talked about family in those early years of marriage, thinking two would be a nice number. Then again, when

they had four children it never really occurred to them that there would be more. But ultimately it is God who is writing the story of our lives. And so Rachel and Jonathan have now welcomed Zac (12), Joshua (11), Michaiah (10), Bethany (7), Rebecca (6), Nathaniel (4), John (2) and Miriam (1) -- with another jewel on the way. Jonathan recently bought a 12-seater van where each child seems to have found a favourite place to sit.

“The kids are all quite different in personalities,” says Jonathan. “It’s interesting, watching them develop.” He also noted how they’ve helped him develop.

By the time they had four children Rachel was doctoring part time. Her self-confidence was wavering a bit so Jonathan encouraged her to work three months full-time, to build it up. She did gain her confidence back but something more besides. She realized she didn’t want to be a doctor anymore but a fulltime Mum. She’s never looked back, although she does admit that her training has made her not quite so sympathetic towards children not feeling well enough to do their homework.

“We live in [an era] that is quite challenging to bring up children. But I’ve grown so much, personally, by having a large family.”

Homeschooling

Now along with wifely and motherly duties Rachel has added homeschooling. There have been ups and downs, but it is a perfect fit for their family. Rachel is the researcher in the family and loves to organise. But essentially, as Rachel notes, “For me the most important thing is for them to develop godly character and learn about the world from a biblical worldview. The ultimate goal is their relationship to God and I still think I’m the best person to guide them in that.”

She loves homeschooling. When I asked Rachel the one thing she was most passionate about, the answer came so fast it was as if I had given her the question to ponder in advance.

“Fulfilling God’s plans for me, where I’m now, right now, is where he wants me to be.”

Rachel believes it is imperative that we, as parents, be role models for our children. I’m thinking, what better testimony to God’s intense interest in the everyday workings of our lives than to show our children our desire to be walking in God’s plan. This is a legacy worthy of passing down.

Jonathan answered in a similar vein.

“Family!” was his answer, pure and simple.

“Trying to impart to my kids how important God is in my life and how important he needs to be in theirs.”

There is so much one can learn from children.

“We live in [an era] that is quite challenging to bring up children,” Jonathan reflects. “But I’ve grown so much, personally, by having a large family.”

Rachel concurs, adding, “Part of that blessing from God is not necessarily the joy of kids but [one’s personal] growth into Christlikeness. The challenge for a parent is to be a model. As a consequence, family has changed how we looked at money. Money’s so unimportant compared to the eternal value of children.”

Indeed! It is partly to this end that Jonathan is also involved with Windsor Park soccer.

His involvement started when Zac entered the game. Soon after Josh began playing, Jonathan began coaching. Rebecca started playing last year. This is a family who wants to be involved in each other’s lives, though it doesn’t stop there as others at Windsor Park will attest.

A Bible verse you’ll find tacked to the refrigerator of the Turner home could very well be the life verse for Jonathan and Rachel – “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your heart.” Ecclesiastes 9:10 Life is not perfect – it never is. But when you focus on Jesus everything else fades away.

LIFT MAGAZINE 19

feature

rob harley: the story behind the story-teller

By Lisa Michelle The roar of the 2010 Streetbob Harley Davidson announces its rider and namesake, Rob Harley, before they ride into view. Windsor Park Café is bustling with mums and bubs – the elderly alongside the very young – and it is no surprise to see this commanding figure disembark and saunter towards them in his solid leather jacket complete with Harley Davidson back-patch. Such is the diversity boasted by Windsor Park Baptist Church, and as I watch the rider approach I know that beneath the layers of tough exterior lie a gentle heart and a story.

Rob is surprised he has been asked for an interview. As one of New Zealand’s leading journalists and documentary-makers, Rob Harley has spent the majority of his life sharing the stories of the people he encounters on his travels – stories of inspiration and heartbreak, heart-warming and true. The tables are turned on him this morning. He shyly sips his coffee and informs me he has just returned from Waco, Texas, where he has been following up on one of his documentary subjects involved in the David Koresh cult. He excitedly tells of his visit with The Shack author Paul Young and proudly reveals his newest tattoo – the eagle he has always wanted – takes another sip of coffee, and wonders again why I’m interested in his story. This man is a walking testimony of humility. It’s a breath of fresh air.

Rob was born in Auckland in the 1950s and experienced a happy childhood with his mum, dad and brother. They didn’t have much but they were looked after well.

“I lived in a very stable home,” he says, “I had a mum and a dad who loved each other.”

He recalls watching the Harbour Bridge being put together “like a big Meccano set.” Rob admits he was a bit precocious and nerdy.

He confesses to liking poetry when he was 20 LIFT MAGAZINE

a child, reading from poets like Thomas Hardy, Dylan Thomas and WB Yates. He was good at sports (“but not overly successful”) and was rather anxious as a youngster, although he covered it up with some bravado.

Rob’s face lights up as he says he was blessed with a real love for music. “Music just defined my early life,” he says, “and now, if you play me any music from [my teenage years] I’ll tear up really quickly.

I found music to be this overwhelming, lifegiving thing.”

the Writer

Rob had always loved to write, however, and felt he was somehow destined to become a journalist.

“I loved words,” he says, “liked the power of well-constructed sentences. I loved the fact you can paint beautiful pictures with words” He remembers the first time he heard Fern Hill

by Dylan Thomas: “I just thought I’d died and gone to heaven.”

Rob tells of his first experience at interviewing people, at the venerable age of five when he was given a real traffic officer’s

hat from a family friend and went door-to-door with his notebook, interrogating the neighbours over some imaginary crime.

After trying his hand at law school, and hating it, Rob became a singer and guitarist in a pub band. There he met a guy who told him about a journalism induction course at AUT. “It’s great,” he was told, “you get paid for being nosey.”

Being the “good old days,” all course participants went on to get a job. Rob began working at radio stations before moving on to television. Back then, the media institution was predominantly male-dominated and contained a lot of black humour. Rob explains that the journalists would contact the emergency services and be told of a “roasting” overnight.

This meant someone had died in a car crash. It was a raw time of grim tales intermingled with reality. The male journos, Rob says, would

feature

“i loved the fact you can paint beautiful pictures with words” spend a lot of time at the pub, but as he had just become a Christian, he had sworn off alcohol to uphold the policy of the church he was in at the time. This was somewhat easy for Rob, as although he had gone through a drinking stint as a teenager (stealing his mum’s sherry and brandy and topping it back up with water), he had not touched a drop since.

While the journalism industry maintained a hard-core drinking culture, Rob sufficed with the adrenalin rush received when getting a scoop.

redemptiVe Journalism

Around 2001, however, Rob became disheartened with the media. He noticed that people were becoming “trite”, simply looking for a headline that summed up the entire story. Says Rob, “Sometimes in the process of over-simplifying you lose the meaning, the subtlety that’s in the story”.

He decided he wanted to work on stories that were more “redemptive” in nature, informative and not simply for entertainment purposes. He enjoyed being involved in Frontline and Assignment as they allowed time for the full story. It was after a controversial story, covered during his time with Sunday, that he realised the power and influence the media held over people’s lives. After a leak on a story Rob was working on, outside of the

Sunday program, someone in high standing ended up taking his own life.

“I just fell apart on the inside,” says Rob. “It was at that point I began my departure plan…I wanted to be with people who were on the solution side of life.”

By then Rob had been involved in Extreme Close Up and Journeys and was already heading in that direction.

Rob has travelled far and wide in his search for redemptive stories, to places as varied as Kosovo, Sudan, and Cambodia along with parts of the US, Europe and Asia. I wondered how his wife, Alison and children, Ben, 26, and Kate, 21, had found sharing their husband and father with the rest of the world.

“Every family is so vastly different in terms of what you can adapt to and the LIFT MAGAZINE 21

feature accommodations you can make,” says Rob, adding, “It helps having a wife who’s a journalist!”

His daughter is following in his footsteps and studying journalism herself, Rob says proudly.

The story Rob found the most heartbreaking was about a father whose daughter had gone missing in India. After some personal investigation by this elderly gentleman, the culprits were found and he discovered his daughter had been murdered and buried under a house. Despite receiving a phone call from this devastated father in the early hours of the morning, Rob says his faith carried him.

“It seemed like such a beautiful parable of the love of God for his children,” Rob says.

“In effect, there are missing posters of you and me – there were, “[it] has troubled me for anyway – all over the cosmos and God quite some time now. won’t rest till he finds Fundamentalism drives me his kids and can bring them home.” bonkers, because it seems He includes this to be so at odds with Christ.” tragedy in a collection of his ten most After some time in an powerful stories, Brave, Mad and Memorable. energetic Pentecostal church, His most heart-warming stories are found in Rob feels he has “mellowed” his recent book, The High-Voltage Hedgehog over the past two decades. and Other Lessons in Perspective, due out Where there were a lot of this month. In it, Rob recounts the tale of things he used to be sure of, cattle exploding in Dairy Flat after power lines he is less sure of them now. came down. The media reporter, says Rob, Rob says, “I feel like my mentioned not only the number of bovine appreciation and attachment casualties but included the fact a hedgehog to Jesus is the most settled it was also killed. has ever been.”

“Wow,” thought Rob, “what an amazing However he shares his place to live. The news in my local paper is discouragement with fundamentalism: “[It] not about armed personal carriers and people has troubled me for quite some time now. disappearing in the middle of the night, it’s Fundamentalism drives me bonkers, because it about the death of a hedgehog.” seems to be so at odds with Christ.”

Rob goes on to tell of a prisoner in a I ask the documentary-maker himself, if concentration camp in Germany who survived someone were to make a documentary about using his wit. “He was one of the most his life, what would he hope they included remarkable men I’ve ever interviewed,” says and excluded?

Rob. “Never lose hope,” he adds in a strong “I’d hope they would exclude any talk I German accent. ever gave to any church congregation [about life and faith parenting] before I became a father… I would When asked how his faith had developed and similarly hope they would disregard most of evolved over time, Rob said he had always had the incredibly pious and arrogant things I said a fundamental sense of belief. He attributed as a know-it-all young communicator.” most of it to an elderly woman named Mrs What Rob would hope to be included is Hewitson, who used to run the Sunday School etched into his upper right arm. He peels at St Barnabas Anglican Church in Glenfield. back his t-shirt to show me a Maori design While many people can pinpoint their faith and explains: “This manaia in the tattoo is to one radical God-experience, for Rob it was holding his tongue. So he is a communicator simply “sitting in Mrs Hewitson’s house on a but he also understands discretion. I would Tuesday afternoon drinking a raspberry cordial hope they would focus in on the times that and eating an Anzac biscuit and having her I was discreet rather than the times I teach me about God.” betrayed confidences.”

22 LIFT MAGAZINE

“My opinion of myself,” he says, “is lower than a snake’s belly…When people ask, ‘How should I introduce you?’ I tell them, ‘just say Rob is here to speak.’ I’m just a vagabond philosopher from West Auckland.”

He relates how he was once asked if he had been adversely affected by the things he had seen, heard and written about. He describes a horrific crime scene he had attended once and explains the term ‘calluses on the heart,’ which is where one would “build up this internal defence mechanism against acknowledging what you were seeing.”

He is about to finish writing A Safe Place to Cry, which deals with how professionals process pain. It’s just another way Rob’s heart shines through. He shares what he has learned in the hope it will assist, inspire and encourage others.

He confides he is not looking forward to growing old. I hope he realises he has plenty of life left in him yet. He has many more stories to tell. And the most important one? His own.

feature’s continued God Hears

Continued from page 7 Windsor Park supported them throughout it all. One angel even arranged to pay for someone to sit with the children every Tuesday morning so Claire could have time out. But she didn’t covet the time just for herself. Every other Tuesday you’d find her helping out at MOPS. Claire was involved with MOPS when Elijah was little but had to take a break when Abby became ill. Later she was able to return to the committee of what was now renamed Mainly Mums. She helped with publicity, the library, newsletters, pastoral care and leadership, but her heart was – and will always be – on caring for the mothers.

Half of the mums who come are not connected to a church. With little to no family and no community support like that provided by a church, these women are coming and being encouraged. Claire said it was not unusual for a young mum to feel at her wits’ end. Mainly Mums was their safe place. One mum said it was the only thing that got her

I shouldn’t be alive!

Continued from page 17 Oh how I needed that new life – and that sense of hope. The verse from Jeremiah 29:11 is very real to me – “I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

Gradually my health improved and I began to think about my life and my future.

This wonderful man who had so lovingly and patiently cared for me asked me to marry him, and with some hesitation I agreed. Could I be sure he wouldn’t turn out like my first husband once we were married?

We were married in June 1990, and no man other than Jesus could be more loving or more self-sacrificing. Peter is my life and my love!

I still longed for a child, but my insides were in such a mess that doctors informed us this would be impossible. A friend took me to

through. Another said it kept her sane.

Claire knows this all too well, remembering those difficult months after Elijah was born.

“We’re mums,” Claire says, “and we can understand each other. We don’t have all the answers but we have a safe place to talk about stuff.” A tea pot is available where mums put in prayer requests. They also do crafts.

“We talk about God at some point during the session, plus we talk on other topics, encouraging the mums through the ‘white water rafting’ years of having young children,” Claire says. “Often we’ll chat about heart things or even about hard stuff that might be happening at home. We’re trying to show Christ’s love to these mums by supporting them during a vulnerable time of their lives.”

New Path

Claire has been a great organiser for Mainly Mums but she’ll be first to admit it’s not about her. A great team is on hand to bless these young mums with, for example, meals from the freezer and new baby packs. Mothers may

some healing meetings run by Cecily Graham, held at the Ellerslie Race Course each month.

She prayed for me a number of times, and finally, in April 1991, she had a prophetic word that I would become pregnant and bear a child. Nine months later our miracle son was born.

I was in hospital flat on my back for eight and a half months, but it was worth it when our healthy baby Sean arrived. What a joy he was and is to us!

Please pray for me

But all the years of abuse and beatings have taken their toll. I live with almost constant pain. I have had four operations, on my knee, neck, throat and back. I have major problems with my stomach and bowel, and my female organs are a mess. I am in the process of undergoing further tests with an orthopaedic and spinal surgeon, and it looks as if I will have

be directed to the church care team or other services available through Windsor Park such as Toolbox and the children’s clothing swap.

But God’s plans are not always our plans, as the Horwoods have seen. No parents want to see their child suffer, and all want the best for their children. Now Claire feels God has called her to homeschool Elijah and Abby. Two peas in a pod couldn’t be more different but she loves the challenges and the thrill of learning set before them. Claire and Scott did much research before making the decision to home school and they now find it highly satisfying.

“God is working in our lives and I’m excited to see where he leads next,” Claire says.

“Be ever thankful for those things you take for granted. You never know when they will change.”

Now Mainly Mums is in the capable hands of Michelle Spargo (michelle.spargo@windsorpark. org.nz). Claire reiterates how valued the helpers are, as the backbone of this ministry. Without them it cannot continue. Contact Michelle to find out how you can play a role.

to undergo further spinal surgery. I have also experienced three strokes, and these have affected my movement as well as my brain.

And yet I struggle to church. I struggle to keep my home functioning, and I try to keep smiling. Not many people understand the issues I struggle against, but my God strengthens and helps me. And my dear husband seldom leaves my side.

I would appreciate your prayers, as I am not looking forward to yet another operation. Yet I cannot bear the pain I continually experience.

I am standing on the promise of Scripture that “He (Jesus) has borne my sicknesses and carried my pains, and that by (or through) his stripes I am or will be healed.”

Lord, hasten the day!

Cushla and Peter Clynes, who live in Bayview, have been attending Windsor Park Baptist Church for about twelve years.

PHOTOS BY DANI MACKAY

theosart

24 LIFT MAGAZINE

theosart

Tim Edmonds (http://www.timedmonds.com) a travel and landscape photographer, created these works after visiting Italy, Iceland, UK and Christchurch. They were featured in May in Theosart Gallery

Lilie is a group of high school students who formed a small business to raise money for Cystic Fibrosis. This is a genetic disorder affecting most commonly the lungs but also the pancreas, liver and intestines. In New Zealand children, Cystic Fibrosis is the most common life-threatening disorder, with life expectancy being very short. Lilie are raising money to go towards research which will hopefully make these children’s lives better and give them that some hope that they need. They are selling paper bunting – a string of triangular flags – with all profits going to the Cystic Fibrosis Association of New Zealand. The price of the bunting is $10 for 1.5 metres and $15 for 2 metres.

For more details email lilieforcharity@gmail.com LIFT MAGAZINE 25

Q&a

ask Grant!

Here are some good Q’s people have asked recently, and some A’s from Pastor Grant

There are a few staff vacancies at the moment, what are you doing about it?

For various valid reasons, we have a few vacancies at the moment! The elders felt this was a good time to have a think about our overall structures and how our ideas and plans for the future impact our staffing model. So we decided to go slow on replacements as we threw a few things around. At its essence though, Windsor Park is always going to be close to 100% reliant on volunteers to do the things we feel God wants us to do. We’re so grateful for volunteers (for example someone who is on our morning music team would on average put in about ten hours a week – a Thursday night practice plus Sunday from 7am – 1pm; which makes those people legends!) and in this interim period we’re grateful for a bunch of volunteers who have stepped in to cover some bases. A key thing I look for in potential staff, particularly in senior staff, is their ability to build and lead a team, as a key part of our staff roles is the recruiting, equipping, and caring for a volunteer team who undertake the ministry.

Now that Small Fries is going well, what’s the next project?

If you know me, you’ll know that I’m a dreamer. I believe God has created me that way; in fact in a little personality assessment I did last year it said that ‘you have to learn to live with a constant sense of dissatisfaction.’

That resonated with me because I’m the type of person that’s always looking ahead! While we have various significant ‘projects’ that are on the drawing boards (including making some physical changes in our auditorium) the biggest project for this year is working hard at community – effectively we want to make it easier for people to see how they can partner with us at Windsor Park. Towards the end of last year we started using four words to describe how someone does this – Connect, Serve, Give, and Invite, and we’re actively working towards implementing these words in the way we communicate so that pathways are clearer. We recognise that connecting with others is something well up on the list of priorities for people, but that it’s not always an easy process. This works both ways though, sometimes folks have to show some initiative first, and sometimes we need to make it easier. It’s a church ‘culture’ challenge, but one that I’m committed to working hard on.

PORTRAIT AND WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY

How do you come up with the different series you teach?

A couple of years ago when we started thinking about the SYNC concept we imagined what a five-year spiritual journey might look like for person A. If this person were to be in the church for five years, what kinds of things would we want them exposed to that would give them a broad understanding of the big story of the Bible and help them grow in their faith? We ended up with a range of ‘filters’ that we place all our series through as we imagine this five-year time frame, including making sure there’s a good balance between the Old and New Testaments, a balance between looking solidly at books of the Bible (what we call exegesis) and significant themes (thematic preaching), and addressing issues we see as being important in our society (hence our current series, REALationships). Then we look at the series we’ve been through and what we’re planning, and imagine person A and think about the outcomes we consider important. It’s not a particularly sophisticated process, but with the SYNC team doing this together, it becomes a vibrant process we believe God is using effectively.

Got a question for Grant?

Write in (grant.harris@windsorpark.org.nz) and get your question answered in the next issue of LIFT.

CALL DEVIN HART 021 191 9995 II devin@theverticalline.co.nz

Do you have a family member, or a close friend who is struggling with mental health issues?

Are you feeling alone and not sure how to get help for your family member?

Maybe Equip can help.

Equip is Windsor Park Baptist’s mental health service. It was established in the early 1990s as a Christian response to need in the community.

Today we support people who experience major mental health issues to get well again, live in a home of their choice, find work, make friends and live a life which has meaning and purpose for them.

We are very fortunate to have Marina Young working as our Family/ WhÄ nau Facilitator.

She is available to meet with families who support a loved one with a mental health issue.

She is very happy to meet you in your home or somewhere else if that is appropriate. It can be really tough for families and often difficult to know where to go for help and support. Marina would love to connect with you and help.

Please phone the Equip office on 477 0338 or email Marina at Marina.Young@equip.net.nz.

On any given week at Equip we work with over 300 individuals in the

Waitemata and Auckland DHB areas.

We employ around 70 staff. Late last year we opened the Totara Club on site here at Windsor Park. It is one of the first community based Dementia Day Care services that runs all day, five days per week.

Thank you to the many Windsor Park people who have come forward to Volunteer at Equip so that we can add value to the various services we provide. It is very much appreciated.

poetry

Real-ationships Real people Real lives Real grace Real surprise Real cross Real love Real-ationship from above

I see

I learn love, learn grace,

I notice

Learn forgiveness, learn to have hope,

Reach out and give

by

Pam Bedwell

I judge - I withdraw They’re different from me I want to ignore But Jesus calls me “Love as I do. a smile a friendship

Learn acceptance above all else From your voice, from your word.

Holy trinity in unity So much more I can learn.

I am free to be me.

an invite to share

You give me the space to be real;

show them you care”

I know I’m secure in you

You reach out your hand to me,

by

Susie Johnston

Teaching me everything I need to know About relationships, Father, enlighten me.

by

Craig Trent [abridged]

Meet God in the Bible, or over a meal.

Commune in prayer, before him kneel.

Know you’re his, and have his seal.

Hold fast to Christ, your sturdy keel.

Then go to the world, that’s the ideal.

For time is precious, from him, don’t steal.

Meet people in church, or when making a deal.

Speak grace and truth, good words that heal.

Value workmates, or folks down at heel.

Show Christ’s love, dig deep and feel.

Swing into motion, with genuine zeal.

‘Cause life’s got places, for you to get real.

28 LIFT MAGAZINE

by

Sheila Lee