The land of the long white cloud

Lake Tekapo, New Zealand.

I thought I might begin my blog with an introduction. I am, first of all, a Christian. I first came to know Jesus as my Lord when I was 14 at a youth camp (I will post more about that one day soon). Knowing Jesus has changed my life in ways that you can't even begin to imagine...unless he has also changed yours too!
I am a wife, married to Geoff, who also has a blog, here it is. He's a writer so his blog will be much clearer and more cognisant than mine! ha!
We both studied communications at university, back in the day. Geoff trained in journalism at Macquarie in Sydney, I trained in social research at UTS (still not completely sure what my degree actually was - but there you go.)
After studying I spent 3 years working for Christians in the Media, doing their ministry traineeship (MTS) working on campus with students for two years and I became the women and children's pastor in my 3rd year.
In 2004 we studied full time together at Moore Theological College, I completed a diploma of Bible and Missions and Geoff studied the 4 year Bachelor of Divinity. During our second year at Moore we welcomed our lovely miss Johanna Cate into our family. What a treasure! At the beginning of 4th year we were blessed with another gorgeous addition, by the name of Will. He's pretty awesome too :) And then our delightful, pesky, cheeky and fun little Tom arrived a few years after that.

After 2 very eventful years working in Sydney (Geoff was an assistant minister at two different Anglican churches) we moved across the 'ditch' to begin ministry in another Anglican parish in Christchurch, New Zealand. After spending 3 years there, we have changed roles this year and we're now working with the University of Canterbury, Christian Union (part of the national TSCF movement - which is also connected to the worldwide IFES movement.)

We love living here in Aotearoa, the land of the long white cloud. It's a beautiful country, the landscapes are truly spectacular. The people are friendly and laid back and the cold climate suits us perfectly! We love Christchurch immensely, it is our home now. Here are a couple of snaps from recent holidays on the South Island. The first picture is Lake Tekapo and the second is Akaroa and Banks Peninsula. I still have to pinch myself sometimes when I realise that these places are only a few hours drive away from where we live! 

But it hasn't always been beautiful landscapes and blue skies. On February 22nd 2011 (also, our lovely Will's 4th birthday) Christchurch was rocked by a very shallow magnitude 6.3 earthquake right under the city. It doesn't sound massive on the richter scale, but it was one of the fiercest earthquakes ever recorded in terms of the ground-shake velocity. It wrecked our beautiful city (along with the 7.1 that hit the previous year and two subsequent 6.3s in June 2011 and Dec 2011) and caused havoc for thousands of people. 186 people lost their lives. It was a really dark day.

This is a photograph of the city, taken from the hills, minutes after the quake struck. You can see the dust and debris from 100s of collapsed buildings. The reality on the ground was horrendous. It was hours before our family was reunited and before I knew that they were all ok. Cell phone coverage was down and so we weren't able to communicate and it was an agonising wait before they all got home, thankfully, safe. Needless to say, although Christchurch now feels like a ticking time bomb that could go off again at any minute (and indeed it continued to do so for the next two years - constantly! Even two earthquakes of the same magnitude hit us twice again) we felt that we needed - and wanted - to stick around and weather this disaster and help our friends and neighbours to pull through it too.
Countless people asked if we were going to move back to Australia. Here's the article I wrote for our church news sheet, in June 2011, outlining our decision to stay. And we're still here!

We love our new job, working with the students at the University of Canterbury. It's such a privilege to work with this group, they are enthusiastic, motivated, keen to learn and understand God's word - the Bible. We love teaching it and training people for a lifetime of Kingdom service. If you are a person who prays, please do pray for our work here in Christchurch. Our city is starting to heal, after the wounds of the past few years, but there is still a lot of work to do. Pray for us, that we will proclaim His message, clearly and boldly, as we should. Pray that people will come to find their hope and security in Jesus, not in the 'things' of this world which can so be so easily shaken to dust.