Dewans around the World

A few final words - well for a little while!

2005-06-10T16:03:00.000+01:00

I need to say that I will be probably unable to keep this online diary updated for a little while mainly because I won't have easy access to the internet.

Our outreach to Wellington has come to an end but the friendships we made have not.

Our next steps......
Auckland for one week until 18th June
Hawaii for three weeks returning to the UK on 14th July

Prayer: I would really appreciate prayer for Jill and me....in the next four weeks we will listen to God and hear what he wants us to do next.

Leaving Playgroup. When it hurts.

2005-06-10T14:05:00.000+01:00

I REALLY do not like goodbyes!

Today Jill and I and Joanne went to Playgroup.

One if the single mums who we had got to know came after being away for the last week.
I was really pleased to see her. However, it was really hard to say goodbye to her.

But it was a very hard time as well to say goodbye. This is the hardest part of outreach.

I did not like saying goodbye to the orphans in the Philippines and it was the same here at Naenae.

Our Cross Roads DTS school leader warned us that on outreach we would find that we would get close to people and our hearts would hurt when we had to leave - there will always be a very special place in my heart for the people we met in Naenae.

Job Application, Play Group - "Filling Your Love Tank as a Parent"

2005-06-07T13:33:00.000+01:00

I was turning my mind to returning to the UK and thinking perhaps it'd be a good
idea to look at jobs.

A few months ago I talked to Jill about doing a PGCE to become a teacher. Jill and I talked about it for a few weeks and thinking about it it didn't seem such a great idea. I still entertain thoughts about it and even about doing some sort of TEFL course...

Anyhow I found a great job in my area (Training and Development) working for an organisation (Tearfund) that I'd find really interesting. Unfortunately I only saw the job three days before the deadline! So I had to track down a copy of my CV which my brother was able to email across - thanks Mahesh!

Jill and I led the team worship at St. Columba's as Joanne was leading the Parenting sessions this week on "As a Parent, How to Fill Your Own Love Tank".
In the worship we as a team blessed Joanne and the Udvardis.

Last church service, girls birthday

2005-06-05T12:51:00.000+01:00

Today we ahd the last church service we would be attending before returning on 11th June.

I really do not like goodbyes! Each of the families spoke for a few minutes about what we had learnt or wanted to share with the church.

Jill and I thought we would share after the rest of the team but Doug (the Pastor) asked us to
come and share first!

We talked about how God had provided for every need of the team in terms of cars, finances, accomodation. How we would miss people and particularly the parents we got to know at the Playgroup. I shared about how one of the single mums let me have the privilege of holding here baby boy. It was great just to pray for him and his mum and sister. I really believe that God hears these prayers and he will honour them.

Straight after the service we had a late lunch and held the girls birthday party.

Finally we had a cake evening at St. Columba's.

So it was a very full day!

Car sold and a Godincidence

2005-06-04T14:13:00.000+01:00

In the morning the couple who were interested in the car on Thursday turned up!

We went off to the Post Shop and sorted out the change of ownership documents.
They were very interested in what I was doing here in NZ. So I talked to them about YWAM, the parenting classes we were running.
They were a psychology and business studies students - just about to graduate.

Jill and I went off to Te Papa where we met Andreas and Sara!

Warm and Cold Climate Cultures

2005-06-03T14:04:00.000+01:00

Jill went to the Playgroup while I stayed at home with Sam.
The Parenting session again went really well.

We were expecting a family from our Family Ministries School to come to visit us at the Playgroup.

It was interesting how Jill and I viewed the situation. Jill very practically said that we did not have space to have them come for lunch at our house. I found this hard as I thought it very rude to just let them go without evening offering them any lunch.

This highlights one of the differences between Jill and me. I don't see the problem, my motto's are "we'll find a way through", "it will work out". I also like to include people.
Jill is a lot more pragmatic and sees the problem as it is.

Sometimes this is called the difference between warm and cold climate cultures - I'll leave you to guess which is which!

Sam still coughing, Car sold – well almost!

2005-06-02T13:43:00.000+01:00

Tried calling my brother, as it was his 41st birthday.

Had a few phone calls for the car (the advert went into the paper today). A couple came to look at the car. It was 5:30 pm when they came and dark!

I told them all the faults with the car and they still wanted it!
The owneres of the house were here at the time and when I went into the kitchen and told the rest of the team that the car was sold they let out a yipeee! I had to quiten them because the buyers were next door in the lounge!!!

As the Post Shop wasn't open the buyers agreed to come back on Saturday.

After they left I thought I'd been a bit daft and should have just sorted out the paperwork later.

Playgroup, New Zealand – Flu epidemic!

2005-06-01T13:41:00.000+01:00

Vlado and Renate had one mum come for the parenting session.

Jill stayed at home and I helped out at the Playgroup. There were about half the number of parents and children.

Jill told me yesterday that there were not many parents on Tuesday because apparently there is a flu virus epidemic sweeping the country. Many schools have closed or have been closed so the virus doesn’t spread.

Vlado and Renates First Parenting session

2005-05-31T05:05:00.000+01:00

Today was Vlado and Renates first parenting session.

Over breakfast I felt I needed to pray for Vlado and Renate so did this

They were stressed by all this mainly because of their childrens illnesses over the last two weeks. Vlado went ahead to St. Columba's with Filip and came back at 10:45 for Renate and Petra, while I sayed home with their other two children Daniela and Jakub.

The session went really well.

Leaders need to be anointed

2005-05-30T04:56:00.000+01:00

The team is really tired and most of us are ill.

Three of Vlado and Renate's four children are ill, Renate is not terriffic herself, Sam is coughing away.

Jill and I went to meet with Frank and Rosemary - it was a really good time.
When we left Matamata we were asked to be the "team coordinators" because we were the only native English speakers. At the time I remember thinking "thank goodness I wasn't asked to lead because of my leadership qualities" (this is meant to be ironic!)

Anyhow, I should have realised that this was setting us up for problems later. The main one being about the team and our expectations of our "leadership/co-ordination" of the team.

Frank and Roasemary wisely recognised that we had not received a "leadership anointing" so they prayed this over Jill and I.

I didn't feel any different but did think this is what we needed.

As a leader you're supposed to be perfect!

2005-05-29T04:42:00.000+01:00

Yesterday at the Men's Breakfast I checked with one of the guys in our team whether it was OK for him and his family to have lunch with a couple from church - he said he would check with his wife. Due to illness in the team we had to change who in the team was going to lunch.

This morning I rang them to check they were OK to go and got the wife on the phone, it was obvious the conversation with her husband had not taken place - very awkward!

Also I forgot to ask another team member whether it was OK for them to go until this morning at breakfast - again a little awkward! I asked them and apologegised for not asking them sooner.

I felt a little annoyed as outreach is all about change and being flexible and it was not as though they were being asked to go and collect driftwood for 2 hours (one of our jobs here!).

Anyhow, as a leader you're not given much room for getting it wrong! Or even if you don't get it wrong you need to be prepared for peoples reactions.

Sam High Tempreture, Jill not well

2005-05-26T03:53:00.000+01:00

Sam woke this morning early at 6:00am coughing and with a tempreture of 40C. Later in the day he was sick. Fortunately this time I was changing Sam in the downstairs loo so he was sick in the loo. Not nice but better than in the bed!

Jill was not well either but she still went to the womens Small Group.

I made lunch and dinner. Dinner was potatoe wedges, fish fingers, carrots Sweetcorn and fried eggs) .

While Jill was out I watched Ice-Age with the kids.

We are all feeling tired - mainly because the parents are often up at night looking after their children.

The Team Meeting

2005-05-25T03:36:00.000+01:00

Last night while Jill and I were mulling over the coming weeks we realised that we really needed to talk to the team. The reason was that Vlado and Renate were going to help at the YWAM Conference and so we would not be able to hold a full team worship and prayer session on Monday 6th June and we would be down on numbers to set-up the church.

So we called a team meeting after lunch.

The meeting initially did not go well at all. Team members asked why we hadn't brought this up before (we were head down preparing for the Sunday teaching and our first parenting session!). there was an atmosphere in the room of being let down and disappointment.
We had no intention of blaming anyone but felt we needed to sort out how we were as a team going to deliver on our ministry obligations.
Eventually as a team we were able to get the team to agree to having a worship and prayer time on Friday 3rd June.
That night when we went to the Men's Group I asked Vlado how he was feeling and he told me how he really felt. At the Men's Group we were paired up to pray and I felt a real sense of REALLY praying for each other - beyond our differences.
When we got home that night Jill and I had our first open and honest conversation in the team with Vlado and Renate. We got to a place of moving towards understanding each other, crying, and realising that we actually had similar goals particularly with worship and prayer.

I went to bed feeling and thinking that we had taken the first step in our team to having open and transparent relationship.

I had learnt much about communicating to and understanding others.

First Parenting session , Dinner with Single Mum

2005-05-24T03:19:00.000+01:00

Jill and I ran our first parenting session at the playgroup.

The topic was "Filling Your Child's Love Tank through.......loving eye contact and touch".

There were two parents who came. It was a good session with lots of discussion. Often it seems as parents we just need to know that we are not the only one who struggle.

In the evening one of the mums from the church invited us to dinner. She has two young daughters and is currently separated from her husband. We got to meet her husband as he came by to pick up their children.

I know that separation and divorce were not in God's plan for marriage and it made me sad to see it here.

We had a good time talking and praying with the mum. I really liked her humour and sense of fun. She has been through much in her life, travelled and lived in England and the States, born in Zimbabwe, grew up in South Africa. So she has lived in four continents - more than most people in the world will ever even see! Although she had been a Christian when she was younger she had moved away from calling herself a Christian. She had come back because of some very difficult spiritual experiences - God doesn't let us go - even if we do.

Our Car is Kaputt, But God was already working on a plan!

2005-05-23T06:26:00.000+01:00

We had booked in our car to a local garage, as worryingly black smoke was coming from the exhaust.

Afte dropping the car off, in the morning we had our usual Monday meeting with Frank. This was to prepare and plan the weeks teaching in the Playgroup. During this Frank said that someone from St. Columba's wanted to lend us their car. When Frank said about the car my heart initially sank as I thought this meant bad news about our car. Later that day we found that the engine in our car was on the way out and the two rear tyres needed changing!

The garage mechanic suggested we advertise it for $500 in the local paper - which we did that night via the internet.

So God did have a plan by providing a car while we are here in Wellington.

Playgroup – being trusted, Mens Small Group – video William Colenso

2005-05-18T01:11:00.000+01:00

In the Playgroup as I was talking to one of the single mums she gave me her 6 week old baby boy to hold.
We had just got talking and she then asked me if I’d like to hold Jerome. I felt very privileged and honoured that she was willing to trust me enough to hold her son. In the end I held him for most of the playgroup! It was lovely walking around the Playgroup and praying for the baby, his mum and his two year old sister. In our Family Minstries School one of the speakers said that most people become Christians because someone prayed for them as a child. There is a power to prayer that we sometimes just don't realise.
I wasn't feeling too well most of the day.
In the evening the guys from the team (Vlado and Dusan and I) went to St. Columba's for the Mens Small Group. The Small Group Leader, Frank, showed a video of William Colenso. An evangelist who travelled through the North Island converting the Maoris to Christianity. Frank told us how the Moaris had had decades of blood fueds and this had escalated with the arrival of the Europeans and the guns they traded with the Moaris. Christianity was for them an honourable way to leave their life of vengence and hate.
Colenso was a fiery orator more than willing to have an argument with anyone. He was stubborn and persistent. These qualities meant it took many years before he was accepted as a minister. When he finally became a Minister and married and had a young family he fell into disgrace. He fathered a child from his Moari housemaid. His wife took their children and left him, he was thrown out of his church. For the next 40 years he was an outcast until he was finally re-accepted as a Minister late in his life.

Rajesh ill, Lunch with Pat and Michael

2005-05-15T06:12:00.000+01:00

I awoke still feeling fairly ill. Jill brought me and Sam breakfast to our room – which was lovely. Just Jill and Sam went to St Columba’s. I eventually rolled out at 11:00, had a shower and was feeling much better when they came back at 11:40.

We were due to have lunch with two of the people from church: Pat and Michael. Jill rushed around and got everything ready for us to go. Intriguingly two weeks ago when Pat invited us she told Jill it was going to be a “hot” lunch. We didn’t know what to make of this statement – perhaps it’s one of those peculiar Kiwi terms.
Anyhow, Pat and Michael were very welcoming. They are both widowed and have three children each from their previous marriages. Pat is one of the “Intercessors” at St. Columba’s. When we went for the first Sunday service at St. Columba’s an older, white woman was asked to come forward to pray for the service. However, when she prayed she did this amazing prayer in a Maori chant. I asked Liz about this and apparently this “prayer warrior” prays in the Maori tongue – but doesn’t speak any Maori! Pat is this “prayer warrior”. Michael is musically very gifted. He played for us his 40 year old Hawaiian Ukulele and he also had a piano accordion. Michael won over Pat’s father by playing “The Blond ??” to him!

Wellington

2005-05-14T06:09:00.000+01:00

Later in the afternoon Jill, Sam and I drove the twenty minutes into Wellington. The main reason was to meet “Hamish” to get the wireless working. Hamish turned out to be a real whiz kid and in literally 15 minutes he’d diagnosed what the problem was, fixed it and tested to make sure it all worked. We went back to the Information Centre where they had a “Cafenet” to which we were able to connect with no problems. Hooray we wouldn’t need to send the laptop away!!
We had a great time together just the three of us. I realized that this was one of the few times that we have had with just us three in Wellington.
We were tired and as I had a pretty bad cough we went to bed early at 9:45pm. It was really good as Jill and I prayed for the team, the church, family and ourselves. We really should try and do this more often.

Playgroup, Parenting Session

2005-05-13T06:07:00.000+01:00

Liz away in Auckland and Tania with her son at his last day in “Kindy”, so neither in today. Frank and Louise leading the Playgroup.
Frank and Liz decided that it was better just to have one Parenting session at 11:00. I saw a Fijian Indian lady I’d talked to last week so a little hesitantly I asked if she’d like to come to the Parenting Session. Naire was sitting next to her and said she’d look after her daughter. She (very typical for an Indian) didn’t say either yes or no.
Jill and I were in today’s session. There were four people in total who came. We shared the “Joys and Challenges” of being a parent. The chap who I paired up with him and his wife had gone part-time to look after their 3 year old. It was a good group and we all shared about challenges such as feeding, discipline, friends/family having different rules than your own….oh the Fijian Indian lady did come to the session.

Womens Small Group, Wellington

2005-05-12T06:05:00.000+01:00

Jill went off this morning with Renate and Joanne for the Womens Smallgroup. Dagmar was dropped off by Dusan. She described how Liz gave out some small shells and asked them what they thought God was talking to them about their relationship with Him from this shell.
In the afternoon we all went off to Welington. Renate and Vlado to do some shopping and have time with their children. Jill went with Sam to get our tickets from Auckland to Kona re-issued. I went to Dick Smiths from where we’d bought our computer to get the wireless sorted – they weren’t able to help but suggested coming back on Saturday when “Hamish” their technical wizard would be there.
Jill and I worried that if we had to return the computer we wouldn’t have it back until the 3rd June!

Playgroup, Men’s Small Group

2005-05-11T06:02:00.000+01:00

We had another parenting session today with the Playgroup. For some reason only one person came so we could only run one session. I feel we need lots of prayer as a team – Sam was sick last night – Vlado, Renate and Joanne were great in helping us to clean up. He had been coughing most of the day and his breathing was particularly wheezy even after we had given him his ventolin. Jill stayed at home with Sam while I went to the Playgroup. In talking to some of the parents they said how Lower Hutt area was a real problem for asthmatics. I thought when we left Matamata we had left the “world capital for asthma” but it doesn’t seem like it!
The Men's small group has 3 guys apart from us 3 from YWAM that meet up with Frank Eigenraam. They have started studying a book called "The Accountable Man".

Team Poorly, We are tired of Community living

2005-05-09T05:58:00.000+01:00

Today started off with the guys myself, Vlado, and Dusan with the two oldest of Vlado’s children Daniela and Filip zipping off to St Columba’s to help Doug P’au the Pastor to set-up the church for this weeks Playgroup. Frank (YWAM contact here in Wellington) came over to our house and we together talked about planning this weeks parenting sessions.
To be honest the teams energy feels low. Yesterday Renate had a terrible headache that lasted most of the day. Dagmar and Joanne were both ill with food poisoning – probably poorly cooked sausages!
I was very tired and really needed some time away from the team.
We were asked to think of doing something that would make the parents feel special so Renate was a trooper and cooked up a lovely cake and Joanne (in spite of just getting over being ill), Jill and someof the children made some hearts with some words of encouragement.
Dagmar and Dusan left after lunch and then returned about 3:30pm to start cooking supper.

Supper was a delicious cauliflower bake.

Sam is finding it a little hard because he does sometimes gets excluded by some of the younger children. This is sometimes because of the language – all the other children are Slovak. So it isn’t surprising. As a parent I still find it hard when it happens – especially if I suspect it’s deliberate.

My Birthday, Jill at St Columba's Womens Group

2005-05-05T05:56:00.000+01:00

Today is my birthday – I’m a magnificent 42!

Jill and Sam gave me a lovely breakfast in bed including a “cooked” breakfast of a toasted ham and cheese sandwich. Lovely!

Jill and the other women in our team went to the women’s meeting this morning. Talking to them afterwards it sounds like a really good group. St Columba’s churchs pastors wife leads the group. She produced a bookmark for each of them with a bible verse

Jill’s was a Philippians 4 v 13.

I'm still learning the art of blogging!!

2005-05-04T05:41:00.000+01:00

Although I was initially excited about the democracy of being able to put an online diary avaialable to any of of family and frineds totrack our journey the reality was a lot more different!
So first apologies that I haven't published for far too long - the lessons for me here are to have easy access to a computer and to the internet.
So where have we been and what have we been doing.....????
The first 6months since leaving the UK we have completed a Cross Roads DTS in Kona, Hawaii. I thinkj for me I discovered I was OK and some people actually were OK about being my friends. The lectures were often eye opening and life changing. I really enjoyed my 10 - 12 hours each week of security duty with my new friend from the States, Jim. He helped me to better understand americains and their strange ways - not to say that the Brits aren't too peculiiar themselves!! We had great discussions about how we were doing and what we thought about the weeks teaching.
I had a great time cycling and getting to know my Norwegian friend Erik.
Hopefully we will be able to see them and their families again.
Sam had a great time and made a special friend in Joakim (Eriks son).
We then had 6 weeks in the Philippines at an orphanage in a small town called Naic. The people running the orphange are amazing and I really admired what they were doing with the 40 or so kids. It was a hard time for us as a family and in terms of ministry.
As a family after the initail "honeymoon" period I think some of the orphanage kids found it understandably hard that we were a family unit. My heart really goes out to the orphanage children as they have been through so much and yet they still have good hearts.
Minstry wise we had one family leave us and that was hard for us both as a team and individually. Fortunately
We have now moved to New Zealand and just completed a 3 month Familiy Ministries School. We are on the practical phase of 7 weeks in Wellington in which we will be helping out in the local church doing parenting classes and in the playgroup.
Jill and I are also leading the small team of 7 adults and 7 children. We have found this to be a lot as we have to organise cooking rotas, time together as family units and couples, prayer and worship times and fun times!
I'll try and be a better blogger - particularly as we now have our own laptop and easy access to the internet from the home we are staying in......so please be patient!

Dewans around the World

2005-05-04T05:38:00.000+01:00

Dewans around the World

test photo

2004-09-15T02:06:00.000+01:00

Sorting and clearing

2004-09-15T01:15:00.000+01:00

Its been a mad day just sorting and claering out the house.

- friends have been great with Andrea having Sam for the afternoon. Sam had a great time playing with Anna ,Daniel and Keren. I really don't know how Andrea managed with four kids most of whom I'd class as boistrous!! We're trying to really limit what we put into storage so we were also really delighted that pleased that a number of friends are able to use some of our furniture items.

Tomorrow Sam is going to spend the whole day with Carolyn and Abby which will give Jill and I plenty of time to run through the our to do list which we recompose every night.

I'm still worried about the visa situation so please pray that we would be able to board the flight and then be admitted to the States.

Goodbyes to Friends and Family

2004-09-09T18:11:00.000+01:00

We invited as many of our frinds and family to say our goodbyes to them before we head off for the YWAM Crossroads DTS on Sunday 19th.

We were certainly suprised by the number who came - I think we were expecting people to arrive in small group but by about 4.00 pm the hous was buzzing and the kids were charging around the garden!

It was strange but I didn't feel particularly emotional saying goodbye to my brother and his family as we wouldn't be seeing them for at least 6 months and probably a year. It really only hit me later that night that who knows what might happen and wheter we would be seeing each other.