Sunday 31 July 2005

The weekend

Well this weekend has been really fantastic - I'll start at the beginning with Friday; we are so loving having Fridays off, but of course this last Friday was special because it was my 25th Birthday - so in celebration, Laura took me out for a fantastic brunch in Mission Bay; It was such a gorgeous day on Friday that we sat up on the balcony of De Fontaine and ate our breakfast whilst basking in the very hot sun, watching the boats out on the water - what could be a better way to start the day.

From there, we made our way over to a fantastic crazy golf course right next to the airport - i feel a great deal of shame in saying that I lost to Laura by 7 shots - my only solice was that we followed crazy golf with 100 balls at the driving range and boy did i perform!!! It was great to hit some balls, although the hire clubs were just totally shocking!!!

So you'd be fooled to think that our day ended here - we went on from the driving range to have a cup of tea and piece of chocolate in Parnell which is another really nice part of town. We popped in on our friend Brent who has a fantastic little Jewellery store - he makes his own stuff and is seriously one of the most talented jewellers in New Zealand, and probably beyond - check him out. Him and his wife Anna have been really fantastic, and we're loving hanging out and getting to know them. Brent is also about to buy a Bow and we're gonna get into a bit of Archery - very excited by that!!!

So the evening started with a burger fuel which i believe i wrote about just a few days ago - i was really dissapointed that i couldn't finish the bastard; it completey defeated me!! We moved on from there to a pool bar where we played several rounds of killer pool. We ended up in a very trendy bar in Parnell, only ruined by the disproportionate volume of the music - it was a massive bar with probably anout 25 peeps in it, but a pumping sound system with a DJ - very surreal. The night had all but ended at midnight when everyone had left - the party got started again though when Brent arrived, shortly followed by Paul Trevor of Chorleywood - we've been having lots of fun with Paul, and love having him around over here.

So then, in recovery we slepped in on Saturday until 1:30 which was blissfull - the last 7 weeks have been utterly exhausting, and non stop. We chilled out for most of the day before heading over to Brent & Anna's for an Indian and DVD - all i can say is, there is nothing like an English Currry; certainly something that the Kiwis haven't mastered!!! Was nice though, just not English!!

So today we had SOAK which went to an absolute storm - we clad the church with coloured mood lighting and set up prayer stations all around the place - a slight logistical task as we still have pews here that don't move - we got it looking pretty good though.
The evening started with a talk by me on the evening, we then had a great time of worship led by me, and then guys went off and did the prayer stations with the band playing in the background - the whole evening went down so well; the response to the evening was actually fairly overwhelming.

A lot of the congregation have come from large pentecostal churches in Auckland where there often isn't space to SOAK in worship - it can tend to be quite prescriptive from what i've worked out, so tonight was really refreshing for people to have 45 minutes to just really get into God and have no songs or hype; people were just so hungry. The potential in the church is so huge, and the temperature is certainly rising. We're so excited to see what God does here - we really are here at the start of somethign quite incredible...

We are really anticipated the arrival of Rich & Kath next weekend - they are going to be such an asset to the team and we can't wait to hang out with them.

So its getting pretty late, so I'll love ya and leave ya

Thursday 28 July 2005

It's My Birthday!!!

Well today, Friday 29th July is my 25th birthday - it feels a little bit like I've cheated and am celebrating early, but that is the joy of being on the other side of the world!!!

This week has been pretty manic. At church we have SOAK on sunday evening which is a service of extended worship - I'm really looking forward to it, but as worship is my bag it's been down to me to organise it!!! It is looking like it should be a really great night though - we're going to do prayer stations which is a whole new concept to people over here as well as some good old fassioned guitar led worship - what i do best!!! Enough of that though, more on my birthday!

We are on our way out in a minute to go and get a brunch down by the waterfront - i expect a full fried breakfast with french toast and maple syrup will be in order. We'll be following that with a game of crazy gold - i'm fairly sure I'll be able to win that but i'll let you know.

Tonight we're off to a burger bar called 'Burger Fuel'; they serve gourmet burgers which are absolutely delicious, and you can actually buy a burger called the bastard - i love it! It happens to be my favorite - there is something quite cool about going up to the counter and demanding a bastard!!!

Anyhow, one of the good things is, that If you have forgotten about my birthday you can blame it on the time difference. There is still time to send that birthday email or drop the $100000 cheque in the post!!! Thanks to those of you who sent birthday cards - much appreciated!!

Love to you all

Tuesday 26 July 2005

Google Earth

Well, for all of you who have broadband and a bit of time to spare I thoroughly recommend you download this piece of software - Google Earth is the most incredible FREE mapping software that allows you to navigate the globe and zoom in to photographic detail of major cities such as New York & London. I particularly like taking a trip to the Grand Canyon!!! You do have to be patient with it when you are loading areas, but it is so worth playing around with it - you'll love it.

Friday 22 July 2005

Tour Our House

Click HERE to take a tour of our house and Mission Bay. If you right click on the link and select the SAVE TARGET AS option, you will be able to save it to your computer. Depending on your internet connection it may be easier to do this...

Athlete Play Auckland


Well last night Athlete played their first ever gig here in Auckland New Zealand - the band headlined at The Studio on Kangarahape Road, and were supported by a band called Opshop. Athlete as ever were absolutely awesome - I think this is the 4th time we've seen them, and once again got the VIP treatment from Tim which meant we could watch the Gig from a very trendy balcony which gave a fantastic viewpoint to take some pretty decent photos. I've put them up on the site so click here to go and have a look.

This morning we took Tim for a good old kiwi brunch on our home turf Mission Bay and then took him up Mount Eden to see the breathtaking views across the city before delivering him back to town for him to fly off to Australia to play there. We've also put photos from Mount Eden on the site.

Sunday 17 July 2005

Good eh?!!

Well this weekend has been pretty action packed. Friday we stayed in which was such a treat!! We pretty much did nothing at all which felt so good - amongst all the business of new jobs etc it was really great just to kick back and relax.

Yesterday (saturday) we had such a blast - we went out to some beaches on the west coast with a friend Rich and his son Bradley (who is very cute). We went to a beach called Piha and one called kerikare (spelling?!!). The latter of the two beaches can be seen if you watch the film 'the piano' - its the really rough beach that they land on. Both beaches were absolutley breath taking, so we thought we'd get some photos for your pleasure. Check out the photo section to have a little look at them.

We also took a little stroll through the Waitakere range, where the views again are absolutley incredible - they are also bundled in there, along with some maori things with incredibly big willies!!

Today was a pretty exciting day for us both, I led worship this morning and preached for the first time ever - I spoke on worship and we then had an extended time of worship as response, which went really well; God is really on the move at St Paul's and it is really exciting to see it growing each week.

This evening, Laura did the prayers and was awesome - she is such a natural up the front, and it will be no time before the preaching / worship Kingsley-Smith combo is unleashed on the world. I may just add, that laura did all of this whilst arranging the collection, communion, and welcome.

I manned the cafe, which wasn't such a good idea - Auckland has a reputation for awesome coffee; I managed to make my coffee some sort of mix between treacle and tar!!!!

So we've just come home from the pub this evening - wetting baby Harry Cobleys head who was born today our time weighing 6lb 14oz we believe. Please correct us if were wrong.

So, we're absolutley loving it here - New Zealand is just the most incredible place; so much culture and heritage packed into such a small place. We'll be glad of visitors, so please do come and say 'hi'

Lots of Love to you all xxxxx

Wednesday 13 July 2005

New Photos

Things here are going amazingly. For a taste of what has been happening over our first month take a look at our photo section - we have just added some new photos from the past couple of weeks. We haven't taken many photos so please bear with us - we will!!!