I went to get my outdoor cushions out of the cushion box which sits outside in my patio and all the cushions were wet and mouldy. Sadly underneath the cushions was my last large piece of tapa which was also wet and mouldy. I’m not sure how to salvage it but it is now in my garage and one day when it is sunny I will lay it out to dry in the sun.
I’m slowly finding things of importance for the house. I found my TV chromecasts so now I can use my phone to watch Netflix and TV on demand. I found my pair of scissors today, do you know how hard it has been these last 3 weeks without a pair of scissors? The last thing of importance I need to find is my noise cancelling head phones for my 12 hour flight to Seoul Korea on the 2nd October. I have looked in all the possible places and I dread to think it is at the bottom of one of the boxes in the garage.
We’ve all heard the phrase “seeing is believing” or we sometimes rush in from witnessing something spectacular and begin with a negative, we say, “you won’t believe what I just saw” or if we have seen a blast from the past we say, “you’ll never guess who I just bumped into?” That happens a lot in my family and the response is always “oh wait don’t tell me, and we begin a process of elimination, often with my sister Helen, she will guess straight away. Isn’t it funny though when we say, “oh, you’ll never guess who I bumped into today; we don’t really want them to guess we can’t wait to blurt out their names because we can’t wait to tell them who we saw?” Why do we say, you won’t believe who I saw today. The other extreme is “as God is my judge I tell you that I saw…and I’ve lived to tell the tale” incredible events are often accompanied with sensationalism because there is room for doubt and disbelief.
I remember a Samoan colleague in ministry telling me that when his father died he had recently joined a type of cult and his friends and everyone were happy after his dying because they really believed that he was going to rise again on the third day, they sang and prayed around his body and waited patiently for the third day when he would against all odds come back to life. Wow it happened to Lazarus, it happened to Jesus, and so therefore it can happen to him. After all, isn’t this what eternal life is all about, isn’t this what it means to live forever? Do you want to know what happened? Nothing – he stayed dead.
I know as a child I used to wonder why people still died after I was told that becoming a Christian meant that we would live forever, why then are we burying this person in the ground, how are they going to get out if we put dirt on top of them. Did you use to think this too?
We often assume the answers before we arrive. We know from personal experience that certain things are not going to happen for us, and yet every week some of us still buy that lotto ticket because you just never know. We live and we hope, we pray and we wish for good things for one another, for ourselves and for our families, and especially for our children. We wish that life was not about guessing and hoping, we wish that we could predict and know how our lives and our futures will pan out. We live in hope that all will be good, and we live and trust that whatever life dishes out to us, we will cope, and we will get through it. Romans 8:28 says: “all things work together for good for those who trust in God. And one of my favorite verses is Philippians 4:13. “I can do all things through him who gives me strength.” These famous verses give us hope and strength on a daily basis to get us through the uncertainties and mysteries of life. Even if we doubt and are unsure then our faith helps get us through.
Seasons of Creation 4th September to 2nd October 2022
Our Sundays this year will have guest preachers on various Seasons of Creation.
4th September Andrew and Wendy Matthews on “Water”, liturgy Rosemary Lawrence
11th September Dr Dave Lowe on Indigenous concepts and climate change, liturgy Fei. (Dr Dave Lowe is the author of “The Alarmist Fifty years measuring Climate Change).
18th September Rev Dr Fei Taule’ale’ausumai Pacific Moana theology
25th September Rev Doug Lendrum on Storms
2nd October Rev Ross Scott on St. Francis of Assisi
Hope you are able to join us for Seasons of creation. Fei
You can read the full E-News here: E-News – 26 August 2022
