Posts from September 2024

Deconstruction and Reconstruction Many of us, during our life time will go through periods of deconstruction and reconstruction around areas of our faith. For some this can be caused by a time of suffering when it seems that the God is absent or not acting in the way we have expected; for some our childhood faith and family were pretty dysfunctional and we need to explore faith without the toxicity; for some faith or faith rules don’t fit how we…

On a recent children’s ministry zoom call, the discussion turned to ‘signs of Spring’- in other words, areas where we are seeing God’s Spirit at work, bringing life and growth. I recently attended a children’s ministry block course in Auckland, on the topic of faith formation in children.  We stayed at the Friary, a Franciscan monastery in Hillsborough.  One morning I took a walk through the garden and enjoyed discovering some ‘signs of Spring’ and slowing down to watch some…

Weaving Memories and Building Ties  I sat with two of my brothers recently and went through some boxes of old photos from my parents’ estate. My Mum and Dad both passed away some years ago and we are getting ready to create a digital library of snaps and stories for the coming generations. Camera tech was pretty naf back in the day and a lot of the old black and white and colour images are blurry and faded. We found some ‘goodies’ however…

Expect the Unexpected I spent multiple hours earlier this week navigating random glitches on Indian Immigrations online e-visa application form.  After several fails it finally accepted my details and payment.  I breathed a sigh of relief and went off for a stress-relieving walk around Halswell Quarry. The grazing ewes and newborn lambs looked pretty calm and content and the wind on my face was soothing. A few hours later I received an email telling me I had 24hrs to send…