Welcome to the New Year! I hope you’ve managed to get a good break and are feeling rested and refreshed – and energised for the year ahead! I’m looking forward to hearing more tales from Kaiteriteri, Te Araroa … or wherever!
The holidays aren’t over yet, of course – we have around 9 of our intermediates and youth heading away this weekend to the Scripture Union summer ‘Wind ‘n Water’ camp out on Banks Peninsula, with Callum, Anna Christensen and Grace Jessop as members of the camp leadership team. We can be praying that it will be a special time!
We have a plan in place for Sunday services for the next few weeks – but, as always these days, the plans are held quite lightly! With Omicron looming large on the horizon, we’re ready to change tack at a moment’s notice. While we can, though, we’re planning to meet for the most part at Ilam School – our priorities being on: taking maximum opportunities to gather together and interact with each other while that’s an option; making maximum use of outdoor spaces (weather permitting) when we do gather; being as prepared as we can be for providing care and support once Omicron is a community reality.
Our “Prophet of the Year” for 2022 is Joel; we’ll meet him this coming Sunday and see what he had to say back in his own times – but see that his voice is also quite relevant for us at the start of this year. We’ve also been dipping into Luke’s Gospel on an off before Advent and at the start of this year – so we’ll read some more of Luke together during February.
Please be ready for Sunday February 13 when we’re planning another church community service day: “The Church Serves Together” (also known as ‘Nerve 2 Serve’ Day). Covid permitting, we are planning for a range of community service projects once again – watch this space.