Post No.4 B - A break in Wales & New Wine UK style

Last Sunday we traveled to the west coast of Wales to spend 2 nights at a cottage in the little village of Moylegrove. It's a few minutes walk from the Pembrokeshire coastal path that traverses about 180 miles of the Welsh coast. We were quite pleased with ourselves as we found our way there without a map or navman (GPS). My brother, Allan, and his wife and daughter, met us there; they had come up from Cardiff. On Monday we walked a section of the coastal path to a place called Poppit Sands, where we had the briefest

Looking at grey seals

Great views...

Welcome to Moylegrove

of swims in the Irish Sea(brrrr). The scenery was great; it is the section where the cliffs are at their highest  of any part of the coastal walk(over 135 m). There were lots of signs warning us that a fall from the cliffs would be fatal, but a number of times we crept up to the edge to have a closer look (in doing so we saw a few grey seals). The weather was gorgeous; the best it had been all summer. We were very fortunate as the weather in this part of the world can be extremely windy and very bleak for long periods of time. In the afternoon we walked back to the cottage via the lanes; the sign said it was 4 miles, but by the time we arrived hot and tired we were sure Welsh miles were quite a bit longer than English ones. Later when we talked with the owner of the cottage he assured us this was true, and that they stretch in the sun. We always knew the Welsh were a bit different! Certainly their language is! The next day we did a short walk along the path going south, then with some regret, because we would have loved to have stayed longer, headed for Cardiff via the charming town of Carmarthen and following my brother along back-country roads and lanes (he had a navman); it was fun! In Cardiff we had a beer on the water front (all the locals were wilting in the heat-wave - we felt most at home), saw the Millennium Stadium where the ABs always beat the Welsh, and the very impressive Cardiff Castle.The next day Allan & Barbara drove to London to begin their journey home, and we, using their navman, made our way to Shepton Mallet in Somerset via the quaint and ancient town of Bath, to spend 2 days at New Wine.

Worship in Venue One

The Leaders Lounge

Francis Chan in the flesh

New Wine UK was quiet an experience! Camping-wise, it looks a bit like Parachute Music Festival; there are 1000s of people camping everywhere (about 10,000 people on site for 6 days), and logistically, a huge operation to set up and manage. Very impressive indeed! We met Francis Chan (see photo) and thoroughly enjoyed the 3 sessions he spoke at. Venue One held 5,000 people (not bad for a portable marquee-type building) and the worship and atmosphere was wonderful. Venue Two was smaller catering for 2,500, but equally impressive to be in. The other venues, and there were about 15 of them, were smaller, but continuously used for seminars, prayer, worship or para-church promotions. There was even a sporting cafe to watch the Olympics. What was impressive for us was that there was no central venue as such, and you chose the speaker or event that interested you; they were on a first come, first seated basis. For example, the main morning and evening speaking and worship events were held simultaneously in Venues One and Two. The leadership of New Wine hosted us extremely well (Mark Melluish) and we felt very blessed to have free access to the Leadership Venue and the benefit that went with it. On Friday afternoon we said farewell and made our way back to Birmingham via the M5 and the ancient town of Glastonbury. This is the so-called cradle of Christianity in the UK and the legendary burial place of King Arthur; the ruins of the abbey are over a 1000 years old! But what was eye-opening about Glastonbury was that it has become a centre of paganism. We have never seen so many weird little shops offering every type of spirituality imaginable; everywhere we turned there were witches, goddesses, charms, crystals, buddhas, things indian and things from India; if you could imagine it, it was there.... As we walked around I had this overwhelming sense of Jesus lamenting over the place like he had with Jerusalem... "Oh Glastonbury, Glastonbury, how far you have fallen...!" It was a very sobering experience! It made the drive home along a very busy and congested M5 a bit of a dawdle. Until next time.... Ian & Lenda

Post No.4 A - Working on the street

On Saturday morning we spent time with a group from St John's praying for people. They have permission from the local Council to use an area of the public footpath in the main street of Harborne (see photo). It is difficult to use the space outside shops as they own the footpath and are reluctant to give permission for this sort of activity, so they are fortunate that the local Council support what they are doing and have allocated them a space. The team meet at the church at 10.00 am to pray for about 30 min and then go set up the space. They stand around as people pass by, handing out a little pamphlet about healing and offering to pray for people. The people prayed for also receive an envelope containing information about St John's. Lenda got involved with this, and even had some prayer (see photo). They prayed for about 6-7 people for a variety of things, but had a number of good conversations with others. I used the time to engage with people about Jesus and handed out Biblein11 cards. I shared the gospel with one man as his friend watched on (see photo). The friend didn't watch it as he had to go. It was a fun morning! I think we could easily do something like this in Waipukurau! Where we are staying fronts onto a busy road; lots of people walk passed day and night!. I reckon that I could set up a couple of chairs on the drive and share the gospel with whoever wanted to stop. I'm going to try it when we return from Wales and New Wine. Cheers...

Post No.3 - Impressions

Lenda outside the Bull Ring malls

One of the markets

We've been in Birmingham a few days now and started to gain some impressions of the place and its people.We've spent a few days orientating ourselves with the bus routes, and generally how to get places like supermarkets etc. It appears that the centre of Birmingham is the main shopping/retail hub. It has a series of multi-story malls in an area called the Bull Ring (see photo of the bull) and open and covered markets that sell everything from fish/meat/poultry to trinkets/jewellery and and everything that sparkles to every style and type of clothing to pretty much everything you could want. It was almost obscene! It was just so full of "stuff". And the place was swarming with people from every ethnicity imaginable. And there was even an evangelist working the street handing out tracts (see photo). He appeared to be from the old school as when I took the photo he was arguing with the two men. I felt like taking him aside and suggesting that arguing was not helpful (note the sign taped to the back of his jacket)... It doesn't look like Birmingham has the big urban malls and shopping areas that a place like Auckland has. Everyone goes to the city, and all the buses head that way...

An evangelist working the street

We were very encouraged to have a coffee with Nigel di Castiglione (see photo), the senior pastor/vicar of St John's Harborne. Harborne is about 7 kms from down-town Birmingham. It has a small shopping centre comprised of narrow streets and little shops with an assortment of cafes and pubs. Birmingham is comprised of lots of communities that were once little villages that have been linked by urban sprawl. It makes it a bit of a mission to drive around and hard to develop space-wise, possibly the reason central Birmingham is the retail and business hub. Nigel is introducing us to the congregation on Sunday and has encouraged his staff and leadership to talk/meet with us. Nigel has only been with St John's for 20 month. He came as an agent of change, and they are working presently working through that process re vision, goals and strategies. Historically they are strongly evangelical and during the 1970s were profoundly influenced by the charismatic renewal movement, even becoming a centre for it, and today remain evangelically charismatic. But they, like many churches who have traveled this route, appear to have become a little stuck modeling their identity on the past rather than looking to what new things the Holy Spirit is up to. Nigel wants to take them forward from this to develop a new identity, but exactly what this looks like is what they are presently exploring. I'll talk more about this during the next few weeks.

The church sign

Nigel di Castiglione

St John's from High Street

We are looking forward to attending their Sunday service and then we are off to the west coast of Wales (near Moylegrove) for a few days with my brother and his wife (Alan & Barbara). We will go from there to spen 3 days at New Wine in Somerset (Wed, Thur, Fri). On Wednesday Francis Chan is doing a session with leadership and we have been invited to attend. On Friday evening we will return to Birmingham. I'll try to blog during htis time but it will depend on wireless internet access. Until then...

Post No.2 - Departing & Arriving

At Departures, Auckland

Well, we finally left! And we finally arrived! On Saturday 14 we flew out of Auckland (see photo) at 7.15 pm on Air New Zealand for an 11 hour flight to San Francisco. We had a 4 hour stopover there then on to London with Virgin Atlantic (9.5 hours) arriving at Heathrow at about 10.15 Sunday morning. [An aside: The American security searched our bags, when they were in transit, and in doing so damaged the lock on Lenda's bag; the moral of the story - When passing thru the USA don't use locks they can't open with their security key otherwise they will break in and not worry about the damage - the sods!]

Lenda & Cathy Webber outside her house

Lenda outside St Paul's

 We traveled really well; both flights were during the night so we slept or dozed most of the way. Heathrow was a breeze (friendly and well signed) and before we knew it we were on the underground (tube) to Northfields (7 stops) to catch the end of the 11.00 am service at St Paul's (see photos) where Mark Melluish is the senior pastor/vicar; we arrived in time for coffee and the sermon. After the service Mark's PA, Cathy Webber, took us to her place (see photo) where we stayed the night.Cathy hosted us brilliantly well and we felt most welcomed. Staying in her townhouse (3 stories) was an interesting experience to say the least. The rows and rows of houses in narrow and congested streets... it was as if we had been there before re; films and TV, but it was cool and so different from anything in New Zealand! We went to the 6.30 pm service and afterwards spent a couple of hours catching up with Mark. We felt really at home at St Paul's; it was in many ways like being at St Andrew's CHB; the style was similar and most of the songs we knew or use ourselves.It was great!

Martyn & Emma Sargeant's home and the car we cannot use!

The next morning we caught the tube back to Heathrow where we met up with Martyn & Emma Sargeant and their two children Oliver (7) and Amy (5) whose house we were going to be staying in while they are overseas. It was great to meet them but we forgot in the rush to get a photo Blast! Her dad, Mac Rowse then drove us to Birmingham and introduced us to the house (see photo). Emma & Martyn house is really a cool place - she is obviously very creative and their are lots of artistic touches around the house. They had left the place set up for us including an evening meal and food for a couple of days. They had put a lot of thought into it which was very touching/sweet! Mac and Ann Rowse had us around for tea and cake that afternoon and again for dinner that night (we ate the meal Martyn had cooked us the next evening). We were blown away by everyone's hospitality and generosity; we felt so welcomed and so blessed. It had been a great day and we really felt that we were meant to be here. That evening we made plans for the next day - to orientate ourselves with Birmingham by bus, change sim cards, and connect with Nigel di Castiglione, the senior pastor/vicar of St John's Harborne...

The Pimm's taking a break before they fly

Hi All! We are spending a few days near Opotiki staying at my brother's place (refer photos); it's where the honey comes from! By the way, if you didn't stock up before we left talk with Kyla Grant; she is the honey lady while we're away.


I arrived here a lot more tense/stressed than I had realized and it has taken me a few days to relax and start to unwind. But I've managed to read a book and have started another, so all is looking well for the next few months. Lenda has caught up with her mother and it now looks like the plan is to drive her to Auckland on Friday, in her Rav. I'll go with our son, Paul, on Saturday as I don't want to travel with the dog.We have packed of sorts but hear the English weather is poor so are tossing up what winter woollies to take.


We'll keep you posted. Pray for us. Cheers, Ian & Lenda