Firsts

This year begins with a brand new experience for us - being at the OTHER side of sending kids into the wild and woolly places of the world, where the needs of the poor are desperate and immediate. Jason, our eldest, left today to spend 6 weeks in Kolkata, (Calcutta) India working amongst street children. We are delighted, proud, nervous and above all grateful to Jesus for planting this desire in his heart. We know he will be a changed young man when he returns, just in time to go back to Uni in February.

After a busy 2011 with all the sports activities, academic challenges, and youth groups activities Chelsea and Daniel have enjoyed down time over the summer holidays. The absolutely rotten weather has given them a bunch of time to blob out, but with highlights of friends and family visiting from Australia. Chelsea begins her finial year at high school in January, loves playing guitar, and hopes to play again with the girls First XI soccer team. Daniel begins his first national exams (NCEA1) - do they have an X Box subject? He's loving playing both his drums and tennis.

This less than delightful weather over Christmas did mean that Graeme and I were very happy to get on with our DYI house projects, and achieved another first - painting the interior of our very own house. It may seem like a small thing to be so excited about, but it was a delightful first for us. It even turned out OK!

We have some  exciting events coming up this year in our work in New Zealand with Mercy Ships, the most immediate being a PR event at the end of the month at Parachute - Down Under's biggest Christian music festival. With 27,000 expected attendees the exposure for people with a heart to serve the poor is tremendous.We are trusting God for people to sign up to volunteer onbaord as wellas to support this work with Africa's poor finacially.Either way, they become part of something life-changing for people with little hope.

Our lives have been radically impacted by God's heart for the poor, and one of the most incredible things we have experienced is now seeing our children also stepping out determined to make a difference in this arena. Go God!

Reflections

Our ministry focus and attention in 2011 was on the visit of the Africa Mercy to Sierra Leone for 10 months of the year. It was Mercy Ships 5th visit to this West African nation still struggling to recover from a decade-long civil war. The atrocities committed and the scars on the bodies and emotions of the local people are ten years later still a weight and a burden for many. Even before the war it was one of the poorest nations on earth, and our determination is to be a part of God's answer in bringing both hope and healing.

All previous visits have been made by the former flagship Anastasis, and this was the first visit for the new hospital ship Africa Mercy. It was a hugely impacting time. The exact statistics of the field service in terms of surgeries performed and how people were reached are to be released in a month or so, but we do know that the increased capapsity of the newer ship means we can help twice as many people as we could with all the other previous Mercy Ships put together!

Our family sat around the meal table the other day reflecting on the year past on a personal level - the highs and lows, and most significant moments. It's been a hard one on some of our family who live in the Christchurch area where, since September 2010 they have experienced close to 10,000 earthquakes and aftershocks. Graeme's elderly parents are in a rest home and while they are safe and cared for, it is very stressful for them and all the other folk living in the region. We that God that neither they nor my brother, who lives on a farm in the region but works in the city, have been physically affected by the major quakes.