Greetings in Christ Jesus,
The Updates have been quite frequent lately, but communication at a time like this vital. It also is important that copies of these Updates can be made available to members who are not on email. One of the best ways is to make a few copies available at church or reproduce some of the information in your Sunday bulletin. Also, all Updates are archived on www.LCNZ.blogspot.com
Pastor Trevor Jurgens (see photo) spent several days in Christchurch immediately following the earthquake. I caught up with him by phone to thank him and find out what happened. Trevor is the Pastor of the Hawkes Bay Lutheran congregation and is a Specific Ministry Pastor who functions throughout our church by helping where he can. Trevor said that he was able to get rapid transportation to Christchurch and soon found a pushbike. He was first assigned the job of going around neighbourhoods giving out contact information and emergency phone numbers. He also visited members of St. Paul’s that he could reach and helped them clear some damage. He helped on maintenance tasks at the church and made a few nursing home visits. He joined in digging silt from schools with a Federated Farmers. We can imagine that Rev Trev did a lot more, but he is a humble Kiwi and I wasn’t going to get any more out of him!
My trip to Christchurch: I have changed my booking to Christchurch to arrive at 10am on Friday March 18th instead of Saturday so I can get to North Hagley Park by 12:45 and join with the thousands who will be attending the National Memorial Service. (Maybe Trev left his pushbike at the airport?) On Sunday March 20th I plan to deliver a personal greeting to members of St Paul’s on your behalf and let them know how proud we are of them.
PPTs for June Synod: Congregations are invited to provide PowerPoint’s of their local ministry again this Synod in June. We ask that none exceed 5 minutes. I am working on the Synod agenda and will send a draft out to Council of Synod and the Pastors for initial comment.
Calls: I have received a Letter of Call from the Lutheran Church of Australia’s General Church Council to be LCA Interim Pastor and Interim Ministry Coordinator. This position would commence following our Synod in June with a reasonable hand-over period for the new President. I will be responding to the Call Letter very soon and would appreciate your prayers.
God Bless you this Ash Wednesday as we begin the observance of Lent,
President Robert Erickson
