The last two weeks

The past few weeks has been a bit of a blur - "normal life" in Auckland for me is fairly fast paced, and (perhaps cos I got to escape my normal for 3 weeks) seems to be flying past quicker than ever.

Its been two weeks since I wrote my last update, so here are a couple of highlights of the past two weeks.

Lonestar

It had been a busy three weeks with me being away in the Philippines, and then going to the Wairarapa, so I wanted to go out for dinner with Christine and Nathan to close out the three weeks with a dinner, which would give us a chance to sit together at a table and chat. So we went to Lone Star in Albany. We had some garlic bread shared as an entree and then had our own mains/deserts. We had plenty of left overs which we took home and gave to Christine's parents.

Philippines Trip catchup

Those of us who were able gathered together at Pastor Grants house to have a chat about the trip... The others joined via zoom. We talked about how we were feeling (it was just about a week after we'd come back), and also provide some feedback around what we think worked well, what we think could have been done better etc.

After chatting we prayed for each other - someone suggested that we could pray for the person our your left. I quite liked that concept, as with a group of 10 people there can be a lot to try remember. It was nice to be prayed for and to have the opportunity to pray for someone else.

One thing I have learnt coming out of the trip is that praying out loud in front of others isn't that scary, although I still struggle with it I now feel more confident doing this, and hope that I will continue to use the opportunities I get given.

ANZAC Day

On Thursday the 25th of April every year is ANZAC day where we remember those who have fought in wars. Around NZ, Australia and the world, there are lots of services and other activities that you can go and participate in. We did not go to any of these (maybe next year?) however this day is also a public holiday in New Zealand so we had that day off. It was nice to break up the work week with an extra day off.

Work (not sure if this qualifies as a highlight 😂)

On Monday 20th April I went back to work, which was a bit weird. It was nice that Nathan was still on school holidays so that I had a little extra breathing room in the morning before needing to leave for work (although I only worked in the office two days this week, and the other two from home).

I had already caught up on my emails on the weekend so that I didn't need to do that in the office. When I got to the office people were interested in hearing about my time away which was great - I am always keen to share about my time away in the Philippines and talk about the work that Tearfund is doing with child sponsorship over there. (If you're lucky I might tell you about the Wairarapa trip too!)

I had decided to use the first week back to try catchup on the past 3 weeks, so there were plenty of meetings, and lots of reading of tickets that had been raised, but I felt like by the end of the week I had a fairly good grasp of what had gone on. Of course once people realized I was back they also started coming to me with things that needed to be done/questions etc.

The second week was a bit more like my normal weeks, where I spent time on the various things that needed my attention, flicking from one thing to another, doing my best to prioritise what was most important and make some progress in those areas.

Sharing about my trip at work

On Friday 3rd May I had the opportunity to share a small part of my experiences in the Philippines with people at work. I had about 3-5 mins (pretty sure I went overtime), and even though I had written out what I was going to say I went off script, so I am not sure that I got all my points across that I was hoping to. Some reflections and the original text of my speech can be found here.

Nephew's 21st Family Birthday Gathering

On Sunday 28th April we had a 21st birthday gathering at home with the family to celebrate my nephew Oliver who was turning 21 on the 30th. We had some roast chickens, along with garlic bread, potatoes, kumaras, pumpkins, and other vege. Along with that some Gravy - made for a very tasty meal.

Sunday 29th April

Last Sunday morning was quite busy! I went to the 10.45am Service at church, and after the service I did a video recording of my thoughts/impacts since the Philippines trip. This was my first time being recorded in a professional manner.

I had a wireless mic attached to my shirt, and there was a teleprompter involved. I (think) I look forward to seeing how that turns out!

This weekend

Its now the weekend which is great - this morning I got a decent sleep in, and there isn't too much planned during the day other than house chores etc.

Tomorrow at church I hope to share the same story as I recorded on Sunday, (but this time in the flesh) of the Philippines, and ways that has impacted me, and hopefully will continue to impact me in the future. I'm also rostered on projection as well, so that will keep me fairly busy through the morning.

It is still my intent to post weekly, but as is obvious from this post, it didn't happen this time. In the next blog post I intend to include what I shared at work (well the original script anyhow), and also what I hope to share at church tomorrow.