An observation from my experience with the COVID restrictions is that that some of us may not be as well connected with others as we could be. With new found freedoms, as we moved down alert levels, I have noticed in some circles that I move in, that people have become more proactive in making Read More
I love it when my daily Bible readings reveal things that I may not have considered before. It is as though the scripture is opened up to reveal a new nuance on truth. I was reading Matthew 4 and the last verse in the chapter reads, “Large crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and Read More
I was reflecting on our recent Father’s Day and wondered how it originally came about. Apparently the first event that explicitly honoured fathers was a Sunday sermon that honoured 362 men who died in a mining accident in 1908 in Virginia. The first officially recognised Father’s Day was in Spokane Washington in 1910 initiated by Read More
While much of this year hasn’t happened as we expected, it has given us an opportunity to be creative. From the beginning of our New Zealand interactions with the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, God has been telling me this is an opportunity to do things differently. This is an opportunity to be creative. We serve a Read More
You may have heard the saying “it’s all in your head”. People sometimes make this comment when you are not doing so well but others think you are okay. In these tough times some of us feel that we aren’t coping or doing well. It is a stressful time. So is it true that it’s Read More
The other day I was reading Psalm 40 in my morning devotional time. As I was reading the words of a song we used to sing, with the students at chapel in my days as a Christian school principal, came to mind. The locally written original song, Out of the Clay*, was an exact quote Read More
A lot of people have a habit of living in either their past or their future. The simple fact is neither is a very constructive way of dealing with the present. When we live in the past it can be for a number of reasons; it can be with regret for what we did or Read More
I was reading a book recently called “Bourne to Rally” the autobiography of the late Possum Bourne. In the book there are many photos of Peggy Bourne his wife. Possum Bourne died in a tragic accident in April 2003 during the “Race to the Sky” at Cardrona in Otago. Now 17 years later Peggy Bourne Read More
Recently some friends of ours moved from our home town of Snells Beach North of Auckland to Christchurch. We spent nearly a full weekend saying farewell to them at different events. They had been in our lives for 16-years and it was fascinating listening to speeches and hearing different people’s perspectives. One of the events Read More
by Mick Duncan – My favourite movie of all time is without doubt, Reign Over Me. In it Charlie Fineman (Adam Sandler) has shut himself off from the outside world. The reason being, he lost his wife, their three children and the family dog in a plane crash on that terrible day of September 11. Read More