Weekly musings (Page 3)

I hope that you’re enjoying the school holidays and have had some time to rest and relax a bit! Keeping an eye on our health and well-being is important – especially when there’s a global pandemic at large! This weekend there will be 15 or more of the men up at Hanmer for the annual Men’s Retreat. We are fortunate to be able to hold this retreat under the Alert Level 2 guidelines – please be praying with us for…

Kia ora e te whānau. I’m wondering how people are getting on with reading through the Book of Daniel week by week in our services. It is a real anomaly of a book, isn’t it? And yet the stories are really absorbing – although in some ways intensely irritating, too, in their glibness. I’m convinced that they were intended to be read with a sense of drama, as they are filled with so much exaggeration and repetition, and they are almost…

Kia ora e te whanau Another week of learning to live at Alert Level 2 has passed! I don’t know how you’re finding things – for me, the 2 “in between” levels (2 and 3) always seem to be the hardest – we’re “almost there”, but not quite. To mask, or not to mask – that is the question! Last Sunday we met as Ilam in Groups – in the end around 110 of us across 9 groups, which was…

We’re past mid-September already! Unbelievable! Ski season is fast coming to an end – I’m sure there will be many Ilamites scuttling backwards and forwards to the mountains just now, as time (and lingering snow) permit! For the non-skiers among us, we still get to appreciate the glimpses of snow-covered mountains across the plains (or for those of you who live in the more elevated suburbs, the expansive vistas of snow-capped mountains which backdrop your living room views). This Sunday…

Well…we have made it safely into Delta Alert Level 2; so far so good. Although it feels to me a bit like playing an online game in which we’ve made it to a new level! What challenges are we going to discover in this new reality? (Hopefully the game isn’t snakes and ladders, or we might find ourselves slithering back down to where we started!) It will have been a busy week for many of you, changing work rhythms and…

Kia ora e te Whānau We have undergone two significant transitions this week – from COVID Alert Level 4 to Alert Level 3, and (more excitingly, maybe) from winter to what they call “meteorological spring”! In respect of the first of those transitions, I’m guessing that most of us are all still pretty much glued to the media broadcasts around 1.00 pm every day … a necessity of daily existence for us as we try to reassess the likely journey…

Kia ora e te whanau Lockdown week 2 – and what fantastic weather we’ve had, haven’t we? I hope you’ve managed to get outside and enjoy some time in the open air – even if you haven’t been able to head off  to the mountains to ski, or to the beach to surf. I’ve realised how much I love August, with its hints of spring just coming. Working at home means I have appreciated our garden a whole lot more than…

Pandemics, recessions and Ilam I’m hugely indebted to Malcolm McKellar for his Facebook post a couple of weeks back mentioning Tom Wright’s book “God and the Pandemic” – which I had read about, but not obtained and read. It is a thoroughly worthwhile short book, and puts many things in perspective around our response to the current pandemic! (If you haven’t read anything from Tom Wright before, this is a good one to get a feel for how he makes…

Hi Ilamites I guess that, this week, we’re probably all holding our breath to see whether the government relaxes restrictions next week, and we return to Alert Level 1 once again. It’s a nice thought for life in general – especially with the school holidays coming up at the end of next week. From a church point of view, it would mean that we can return to meeting together on Sundays and services at Ilam School can re-commence. In the…

Hi Ilamites It’s the season of retreats again – this weekend the Women’s Retreat (the men’s turn is coming up at election weekend in mid-October). It’s so encouraging that these annual events have become very much part of our annual planning – and really great that (for the women, at least) COVID-19 has not got in the way! Let’s be praying for the women this weekend as they head up to Hanmer Springs. It seems from feedback we’ve had so…

Hi Everyone I hope that life –  school, work, study, along with everything else –  is feeling in balance for you, despite the stresses of this pandemic season! We miss catching up with everyone, of course, but are continuing to pray for you – the words of the Ilam Benediction feel very appropriate for us all right now, so feel free to claim them for yourself today! How was “Ilam in Groups” for you last Sunday? Feedback has been very…