New Kids on the Block

Ever since Nigel Pollock took over as the National Director of TSCF, the desire has been to grow the TSCF team and particularly to develop an increasing number of Kiwi staff. Over 3 years ago, when we moved to NZ, we became part of that vision and have had in mind that we want to see Kiwis raised up to reach Kiwis with the gospel, as well as having a larger staff team to enable us to potentially do more.

In the past few months, we have been thrilled to see both those things happen. We thank God for that & rejoice in it, but also want to see the work continue to grow further.

The end of January saw the TSCF team gather just outside of Nelson (at the North of the South Island) for our annual Staff & Families Retreat. There felt like there had been a significant growth in the "family" as over 70 of us joined together for an extended weekend of fun, family, friendship & fellowship. The whole concept of "whanau" (pronounced farn-oh & meaning "extended family") has been an enjoyable learning for us since we arrived in NZ. Here, the wider family is as important as what we term "close family", and the inclusive attitude towards whanau has been something we have enjoyed and benefited from.

With the presence of 4 pregnant women at Staff & Families, we are anticipating further growth in future years!

A few weeks later, it was great to join with a number of new staff & Minterns at our New Staff Orientation. Particularly thrilling was to see 4 Kiwis joining staff, with Simon Rabbidge in Lincoln, Erin Robinson in Christchurch, Richard Deeble in Wellington (Erin & Richard have both previously done MIntY) & Robyn Drake in Auckland. We thank God for each of them. We also have 3 new Team Leaders, including Gina Wong, who has taken over the leadership of the Wellington team from me.

I led the new staff in thinking about evangelism being at the core of who we are and what we do. I asked each staff member to write what they saw their role entailing, but made sure that it reflected the priority that outreach is to us. Below is my "job description". We had some fun with "outtakes" of the pictures, as well as the "serious" ones.

We are deliberately emphasising the priority of evangelism as a movement, both as individuals within the work, as well as in our student groups. We are convinced that this is at the heart of who we are and what we do, and it's been great to see and hear stories and examples of people taking this on board.

Since I've called this post "New Kids on the Block" & Carswell number 2 is on its way in the next week or so, I thought a few pictures of Sam may be in order. He continues to bring us much joy and mischief. "Rascal" is a word that was invented for Sam. In recent weeks, he's joined a local group called "Little Dribblers" which allows youngsters to get used to football skills - he loves it and has been a good activity for dad & Sam to enjoy together.

Thank you for your prayers for us as a family. Of course, we would appreciate your prayers for Jen & the baby in particular, as she is due to go in to hospital on Tues 29th.

Until tomorrow, when I will post on the Christchurch earthquake, Ka kite ano - until I see you again...