2023.
Christmas in NZ was a joy to have time with family.
Christmas 2023 at Jenny & Joe’s Home in Wellington.
Christmas 2023
Jonathan had also come to New Zealand from Hawaii for three weeks at the end of 2023.
We all had Christmas together at Joe and Jenny’s place; see the picture in the top right. This was such a sweet time, with us sleeping all over the house and even in Juliet’s Camper Van.
Their home is also Jennifer’s studio.
End of an Era
Dad passed in January 2022.
Mum passed in October 2023.
Just after Christmas, we got to bury my Mom and Dad.
Living Small
2023 started with us living with friends.
And now, in 2024, we continue to do so.
If you would like to pray, anything for us is that we would have a bigger place to move into.
Where we are currently living is great but tight.
I have my office in our bedroom, and Christine does her sewing from here as well.
We are not sure how to map the future in terms of our living situation as opportunities continue to grow from our time in the Philippines last year.
Thankfully Chris is walking well, and we remain careful not to put stress on her knee.
Philippines
Upon returning home to Kona in January, we were presented with opportunities in the Philippines and Malaysia.
It seems to me that we spent just a short time in the Philippines in the 80s, yet we continue to meet (online) people in the Philippines that we worked with back then, or in some cases, they are children we played with who are now staff and leaders in YWAM.
I have been doing training most weeks to help staff learn the skills of becoming a webmaster.
I can fortunately take all the hard coding work out of a Website project, and they then have to do the mental work of what they want to display, how they will display it, and why.
They get to start this in English and translate it to be more relevant in their language. There are dozens of languages in the Philippines.
Technology is so useful. I get to train people via Google Meet and Google Calendar.
https://tca.ywam.life/one-on-one/
I am even using this back in New Zealand, so if you have any desire to take on some new Technical Skills, hit me up.
Campus Life
We live above the campus, which is just a short walk away.
You can see the Condos, where we are renting a room above in this picture.
The support role we play suits us; we get to help people do what God is calling them to while at the same time not having to run the race at their pace.
We can enjoy watching others, in their youth, run up and down the volcano the campus is built on. We have a Cross Fit School on campus, to get people fit for hiking Bibles in Nepal and other countries of the world.
Technology
As most of you know, I have always been a technology geek.
My main project, which I am roping Christine to help me with, is providing websites to Staff and Bases of YWAM and other groups.
Security is a big concern, and I have purchased software that I can put on all the sites so they remain safe as they develop their sites for their school requirements, staff retention, and ministry development.
I am working between two ideas.
Being cost-effective, they pay what they can afford, and two, the website reduces their work.
Bases and Staff need to communicate with potential Staff, Outreach Teams, Students, Partners, and more. They can end up doing this across many platforms and become quite disconnected. A website lets them have a starting place that they control, which can then be used to reach out to people via email, connect with other social media platforms, provide forms and applications, as well as up-to-date detailed information about what they’re doing, and what schools they are running.
Not least, this is to help Bases and Staff have a coordinated and clean way to raise prayer partners, learn how to pray for the people who are interested in their work, and provide a way forward for funding and partnership.
Chrisitine
In 2023, I (Christine) started reading the Bible chronologically with the help of the Bible Recap.
Up till now, I have read through 12 books of the Bible. During this time, I have learned more about God’s character. I have watched how he drew near to his people in the Old Testament.
Many times I have come to tears seeing the love and kindness of our God, as well as, his power, justice and mercy.
Each morning I wake up and I have the desire to get my cup of tea and sit down with the Lord and dive into his word. I am never disappointed and always learning new details of the past that speak to me for today.
I encourage you to join in the fun of going deeper with Jesus!
Romans 1
19 because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. 20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, that is, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, being understood by what has been made, so that they are without excuse. 21 For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their reasonings, and their senseless hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and they exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible mankind, of birds, four-footed animals, and crawling creatures.