Farewell Benson and Derek!

Today was a sad day, as Benson one of the church deacons who has been with us for many years, and Derek, one of the guys at church who always brings us laughs, were both to be farewelled. Benson is going back to Hong Kong to study to become a pastor, while Derek is going to Hong Kong to work.

During the service, Benson was invited to come up on stage and sing a song with the pastor which was really nice! A few words were said and a powerpoint show with photos of Benson and his family were played.

The Siloam Fellowship, the fellowship that Benson has been helping lead then got up on stage and sang a song for him. It was really moving, and I could see quite a few of them getting a bit teary-eyed!

We had Sunday School as usual, but for lunch we had a special combined potluck lunch. There was a variety of food that everyone had brought. We all got our food before it was time for Oddfellows to perform a little song we had been practising for him!

We all got up and I had to say a few words before we got Benson, his family and Derek up front to sing a hymn to them. We were all in our nice Oddfellows t-shirts too! Well...most of us anyway! We got those who didn't have one or forgot to wear it to just stick Oddfellows written on a piece of paper on their shirts! REPRESENT

Once we finished, we all rushed to them for a group hug, and unfortunately upset poor Eliza who started crying! At least she'll have something to remember us by!

Other people came up one at a time to say a few words about Benson. There was also a video of Sherman who is currently over in Australia, who had a few words to say as well!

We will miss you Benson and Derek!

A Good Friday

It was Good Friday today, the day we commemorate the death of Jesus Christ!

The day started off with a service in the morning. Our church choir was to perform, so we had to meet up earlier at church for a final rehearsal. When I walked in, I thought I saw Stephanie (a youth group friend) at the water cooler, and called out

"Good morning Steph.."

As she turned around, I realised it was her mum! Woops...

After we got into our gowns, we rehearsed a few parts of the song 'No Greater Love' before the bell rang and the service started.

The service started with a hymn, and the choir sang the first part of 'No Greater Love'. After, the pastor gave a sermon.

The choir sang the second part of the song, followed by the communion, and then the last part of the song.

We finished the service with some prayer. I was quite surprised at how there was quite a bit of English translation at the service today, and attendance seemed to be up on past years!

There were quite a few photographers taking photos around the place today. I think it's a sign the photography group at church are onto it!

I hope the choir sounded good though! I have to commend Ruth for playing the piano very well! The song is quite long and there's a lot to play! The soloists and Yangzi, the narrator were quite good too!

After the service, we all went to the hall for some hot cross buns. Our fellowship and a few members of the Jeshuan fellowship stayed behind for shared lunch before fellowship. Quite a few people forgot to bring food though, so those people who didn't bring anything contributed money to some extra food that Tim bought.

Aonghas, Grace and I (aka OFB) left early to do a quick practice with Joylynn and Gabrielle, who were leading worship for the combined fellowship. Aonghas was on piano, Grace on acoustic guitar and me on bass. I used over six plasters just to protect my fingers this time!

We did two songs, 'In Christ Alone' and 'Because He Lives', and we didn't actually sound too bad! Well...I hope we didn't. It did sound like everyone was singing though!

We then watched this documentary called Mama Heidi, about a lady called Heidi who had been doing missionary work in Mozambique. It was quite touching, seeing the difference she was making over there. It kinda inspires me to do something like that, but I sometimes wonder if I'd be strong enough!

Andrew, one of the guys at our church who spent three years in Taiwan and two months in Cambodia, then shared his experience with us, showing some pictures of his time in Cambodia. It was quite fascinating! He taught English there along with doing missionary work.

We finished the afternoon by sharing what we thought was the thing that caught our attention the most, and then writing a letter to Jesus/God and laying it by the large cross on stage.

This evening we've just been chilling out in front of the TV. For the first time in a long time, the whole family sat down and watched Police Academy together! Usually our dad hardly ever watches movies! It was quite nice just to do something together, as simple as that (even though my mum fell asleep halfway through it!).

To end our Good Friday, we made a late dash to Wendy's for dinner! Now that is a good Friday.

(Some photos courtesy of Anni Zhou)

Warm Fuzzies

Tonight for youth group, Andrew, Wei and Rebecca were organising activities for us!

Andrew started off the night playing a game in the hall where we had to pass a small ball to each other. If we were passed the ball, we would have to name one person from another fellowship we met last week, and two facts about them. I got passed the ball first, and named Dannie, my pharmacist friend (that was pretty easy!)

The next game was organised by Wei. We were split into three groups. We had to complete these random tasks, such as hug 10 people, find several objects that were pink, or blue, or plastic, declare to several people that we love them, act out a way to declare your love for another without using the word 'love'...(you can get the overall theme!) For each task completed, we were given a clue to the code, which was a Bible verse. In our group, Jenny was was tasked with cracking that code!

The final activity organised by Rebecca was quite cool. We were each given a piece of paper, asked to write our name on top of it, then pass it around the circle for each person to write a nice message on, in the spirit of Valentine's Day. Some wrote ...interesting messages on others' pieces of paper, while I started to cause a backlog as I tried writing something meaningful!

Eventually we each got our pieces of paper back. They were really nice comments! 

Thanks guys, I really appreciate it! It's nice to hear once in a while (or just to get that reassurance) that people appreciate you!

Chinese New Year Get-Together

Tonight was the first official fellowship night for our Oddfellows youth group, and possibly the two other fellowships at our church. One is a Mandarin speaking high school/uni group, while the other is a Mandarin speaking group for working people.

Since Chinese New Year is coming, we had a combined pot luck dinner together before having a combined fellowship evening so we would be able to get to know people from other fellowships a bit better. Some people also brought some friends along which was cool too!

Our mum cooked chicken nuggets and some noodles for the dinner for us, but I accidentally dropped a few in the car park as I got out of the car! Woops...

There was quite a lot of food for dinner! As usual, we let the women eat first before us guys swarmed in.

I noticed that once again people were sitting with people from their own fellowship, instead of mixing with others! I guess it's just a habit, and you tend to stick to people you're most comfortable with. I admit I was guilty of that too. That's something we'll have to change!

After dinner we went into the auditorium for a bit of worship singing. Each fellowship was in charge of leading one song. Aonghas, Grace and I led 'Lord, I Lift Your Name on High' in between the two other fellowships' songs. We went over to Grace's house the night before to practise, just so we could get it right! We sung it once in Chinese, and then in English. Unfortunately the other fellowships only chose to sing in Chinese, so we had a little trouble singing along, but that's OK, we could hum!

After worship, each of our fellowships got into a line, numbered off into eight mixed groups and then went into the gym for the activity for the night. Each group was given a few random objects, a random setting, a couple random verbs and nouns and given about half an hour to plan a little skit incorporating all of those things.

Our group's setting was an earthquake, with our props being a badminton racquet, a hoola hoop, a teapot and a helmet, and our nouns and verbs being hat, blender, itch (is that a verb?) and punch.

We were quite stumped for a while! We were thinking of incorporating zombies, and then started thinking of doing a Twilight spoof, before settling on our final skit which was a bit random and didn't make much sense! All the other groups were practising hard out while we just sat there thinking!

It was eventually time for each group to present their skit in front of everyone. We had a skit on plane crash survivors stuck on a deserted island in search of toilet paper, a prince who wanted to buy chocolate for his princess, some girls who got chased by haunted trees, some school kids who were riding in a bus dying in a bus crash, and some queen having someone play a piano for her (I think that's what happened?).

As for our skit, it went something like this - we were all in a cooking class learning how to blend from our teacher (Dannie), when an earthquake hit. As we got up, checking that everyone else was OK, we started to get itchy. We all then started feeling like punching each other and we all died. Lemuel, the engineer (with his hat on) then came in to check on our house, found us all dead, and moved on.

And that was it for the night! We then had supper where I had some interesting discussions and a cup of water poured over my head. Good times.

Build that Bridge!

Tonight's activity for Oddfellows was simple: build the strongest bridge that can hold up the most number of hymn books, and then you win! I put all the engineers/engineering students together, then split everyone up in school groups (Massey, Rutherford, Avondale+St Dominics, Westlake+Rangitoto, Sunderland+Birkenhead).

I gave each group several Chinese newspapers (I went to several Chinese grocery stores earlier in the day with my mum and Aonghas and grabbed a few for free..thanks guys!) and 100m of cellotape and gave them the whole night.

It was interesting to see the different ideas people had! Initially I wasn't sure the activity was going to work, because I got it off Youtube, and just made up the rules. People kept asking me questions to clarify the rules, so I had to consult the engineering students/engineers to see what they thought (but trying not to give them an advantage!).

Some groups pretty much created one big, fat, sturdy log, while another group made a platform, while another did a criss cross style. The engineering students/engineers created this elaborate bridge with support structures!

The test was yet to come...

Massey were up first, and surprised us all! There were only three in their group while every other group had four people. They managed to hold up nine hymn books!

The other groups followed.

Finally, it was up to the engineering students/engineers. They had designed their bridge to put hymn books on either side of the centre, but that went against the rules and what everyone else did, which was to place the book in the middle of the bridge! They had to make some slight adjustments to their bridge.

Their bridge came close to beating Massey, but they were one hymn book short, and Massey won! We then tested their bridge by the way they wanted it to be, and it could hold ten hymn books!

We ended the night with ice cream and whacking each other with newspaper bridges.

Congratulations Massey High guys!

Massey

Westlake/Rangitoto

Rutherford

Avondale/St Dominics

Birkenhead/Sunderland

Engineers/Engineering Students

(http://youtu.be/DsioZuieVeU)

A New Start

Today was a very special day - four members of our youth group were getting baptised today!

Because it was a special baptism service, all four of the churches combined for this service this morning. We only have a few of these each year. I wanted to arrive at church early as I needed people to sign some baptism cards we had prepared for them, but of course with us Andersons it's always hard to get anywhere on time! Fortunately I was able to call Joylynn at church and ask her if she could pass the cards around.

When I got to church, the service just started, and so I got the remaining people who were yet to sign the cards to come into a side room to do so. The plan was that I would get some people to present the gifts to the four people as they went up on stage after their baptism to receive their certificate. Well...that was the original plan...

After the sermon was over, it was time for the baptisms! Aonghas was out all morning filming the make-up of someone's wedding, so I was anxiously waiting for him to return. He didn't make it in time though, so it was up to me to film the baptisms! Tim had his camera, so at least there was someone to take photos!

One by one, Andrew, Wei, Angie and Grace went into the pool (which is on the stage) where our youth pastor Karvin asked them a few questions, to which they said 'I do'. After that, they were submerged in the water and officially baptised!

They went into the toilets to dry up while others from the other churches got baptised, and a choir from one of the other churches performed.

As they performed, I was frantically discussing with some of the others whether we were meant to present the gifts as they came on stage to receive their certificates, or if we should just give them their gifts after the service. In the end we decided to give the gifts to them after the service. PHEW!

The guys came on stage to receive their certificates and were each given a bouquet of flowers.

At the end of the service, we got all the youth group together ready to take photos with the newly-baptised guys! The only problem - everyone else was hogging the stage! We decided to storm the stage and hold our ground! After managing to round everyone up, we got our photos taken, and then it was off for lunch!

It was pie time for lunch - beef or chicken! When I went to get beef, the guy told me there were only chicken left, so I took a chicken pie. That kind soul Rebecca offered to swap her beef pie with mine. When we went outside to sit with everyone else, I bit into my pie only to discover it was a chicken pie, while she bit into a beef pie!

It was a really nice day, everyone just sitting outside in the kindergarten eating and talking together. There were quite a few pies left over! It was just a shame I had to leave soon to help Aonghas film a wedding!

Congratulations, Andrew, Angie, Grace and Wei on your baptism! May this be a new and exciting chapter in your spiritual life! :D

(Thanks Tim for the photos!)

Group Run!

After music teaching today, Winston and his mum were going to have lunch at McDonald's, and asked if we would like to come along.

I don't know how many times I've had fast food this week now! I really should ban myself from fast food for a while.

I was telling Grace about how Aonghas and I went for a run the day before, and we came up with an idea to go for a run later tonight. I volunteered my brothers, despite them not being home (but they need the exercise anyway!). I then asked around to see if anyone else would be keen.

Eventually, we got a group together and all met up outside Trusts Stadium later that evening! A few of the guys had just had dinner, so they were going to take it easy.

We decided to jog along the track which runs alongside the river, goes up to the motorway, up to Central Park Drive and then back to Trusts Stadium.

Aonghas and I used this app, Endomondo to track our run and compare it to the day before. Surprisingly, tonight's run felt a lot easier! Admittedly, we all took a little break at the halfway mark, but by the end of the run I still had a little bit left in the tank to crank up the speed!

The run was a lot shorter than we had anticipated, as we finished in about 20ish minutes, so we got Wei to teach us some tai chi! That is some hard work!

It was starting to get dark, so we decided to cross the road to church for a drink. Some of our mums were there for a group meeting anyway.

We ended up sitting around talking before they had to close the church!

We might end up making this a more regular thing. Round the Bays, here we come!

(http://youtu.be/X95CEwlRJaM)

Flat Tyre

We had just finished youth group, and all got in our car. As we were travelling down the road, something didn't feel right. Aonghas pulled over at the Trusts Stadium (which is pretty much across the road from our church) and we discovered we had a punctured tyre!

None of us knew how to change a tyre, and everyone had left church by now! It was also past 11pm at night, so most people would be asleep too! It was all up to us!

 Aonghas went on the net and with the help of Andrew jacked up the car, found the spare one and replaced it. 

Forty minutes later...

The culprit turned out to be a screw!

(http://youtu.be/goixqA5FhXQ)

Late Night McMunchies

We had a very interesting discussion at youth group tonight - sex and relationships. The boys and girls were separated and had our own discussions. We discussed things like our views on sex before marriage, how far is too far, whether there is 'the one', and other questions.

I won't write what was actually said here because what is said in the group should stay in the group!

A few of us stopped by McDonald's on the way home for a quick bite though. My brothers, Grace, Ben and I met up with Wei there, and bumped into Eva and James who were just stopping by to get something to eat. We also bumped into Cleo, which was a nice surprise since we haven't seen her in a while!

It was originally meant to be a quick thing, but we ended up staying for almost an hour (half an hour after midnight) continuing the discussion we had at church! It was quite interesting, with the different setting (more relaxed setting) allowing us to talk about all sorts of other things!

It was my week to lead worship at youth group though, and usually I would get someone to play piano to accompany me, but Aonghas has been busy preparing for exams and I felt bad for asking the others. I also had in my mind that the songs would sound better with a guitar. The only problem is that..I can't play guitar! I had a go at one of our guitars at home and quickly gave up when I just couldn't hack it.

The ukulele hasn't been too difficult to play, but it just sounds too high and tinny to be taken seriously! I discovered that there is such a thing as a baritone ukulele which is a bit bigger and sounds lower, almost like a guitar! The best thing about it? It only has four strings, so it's a lot easier to play than the guitar!

I originally was going to get Aonghas to buy one for me yesterday so I could practise last night, but they said they'd have to order it in and it wouldn't arrive till this afternoon! I guess that was OK. I just had to practise the different chord positions on my small ukulele and then transfer it to the baritone ukulele after work.

Fortunately it wasn't too hard and didn't take too long to pick it up! Hopefully worship sounded OK!

Well Equipped

Tonight a group of us from our church attended the evening Equippers Church service at the Auckland Town Hall just to see how things are done. We are visiting a different church on the first Sunday of each month.

When we entered there was a band on stage and everyone was up on their feet jumping up and down, singing and dancing to the music! They were mostly young people so that's probably how they had so much energy! I should have brought a drink bottle with me as my mouth was getting so dry after all that singing!

There was a guy (I'm guessing he was the pastor) who came out to talk for a little while but he didn't speak much as I think tonight's focus was on their 'Revolution Tour' and sharing what happened. It looks like they all did a good job at the schools and rest homes and other places they toured!

He also asked us to say 'hello' to people beside, in front and behind us. I said 'hello' to this girl sitting in front of me. She asked me if I used to go to Rutherford College, and if I had a twin called Aonghas! She also asked if I used to be head boy! Wow I didn't think anyone would remember me as head boy after so long!

The service finished with one more upbeat song, and Grace and Rebecca ran up to the front of the hall to join all the people jumping up and down and dancing! Go them!

After the service, we were about to leave the hall when this Brazilian guy called us over! He introduced himself, and gave us all free coffee! He was quite friendly and by the end of the evening he and I exchanged numbers! Ooo la la! (Don't worry I'm just kidding!)


Apparently they all go to Wendy's after for dinner, but we headed off to the same Korean restaurant where we celebrated Winston and Leonie's birthday a few years ago. We got a table right at the back of the restaurant.

After ordering, we discussed our experience tonight and then dug into our food once it arrived! Aonghas scheduled his break so that he could join us.

Quite a few of us had sticky rice powder rice with meat or something like that (I can't exactly remember what we ordered!) but it was quite nice!

It was then time to leave. Lucky we don't have work or school tomorrow!

A Good Friday to Garden

Today was the first day of my five-day Easter weekend! As usual it started with the usual Good Friday service.

In the morning I was preparing a worship video I had recorded of Jireh on Skype for Oddfellows later in the day, but it hadn't finished rendering by the time I had to leave for church! Aonghas was also working on a wedding video for someone and wouldn't be able to attend at all! He didn't sleep at all last night and was on a tight deadline so he was going to have to drive to the airport to deliver the DVD to the people, with my mum in the passenger seat of course!

I ended up bringing my laptop to church and just sat outside waiting for the video to finish rendering while Hamish went in. The service itself wasn't too long. There was a performance by the church choir and an animated short film of Jesus's death was played.

Once the service ended, there were hot cross buns for everyone and fizzy drinks. All of us Oddfellows sat around waiting for our lunch before we'd leave for Tommy and Harris's house, as we would be helping them out with the gardening.

I was originally going to burn the worship video onto a DVD but then realised I didn't have any DVD burning software! I'd just have to put it on my USB stick and hope they had a laptop!

We had KFC and pizza (Pizza Hut or Domino's can't remember!) for lunch, with each of us getting a bit of chicken! I got the last one because no one wanted it, and so I had to eat that really fast as everyone began to leave for Tommy and Harris's house!

Their garden didn't look too bad, but there were some weeds here and there, and a few overgrown trees. Tim got on the blower thingy, Karvin had the lawnmower, Uncle John the chainsaw and the other saw, the girls were picking weeds and Andrew and I were given the clippers to chop off some branches.

 

Unfortunately Uncle John got cut in the hands and Tim had to take him to the A&E, but luckily he only required some stitches.

There was also some screeching and shouting by girls as they were confronted by little insects, but eventually we got the garden done!

We all headed inside to kick off the youth group programme for the day. We had to leave early as we were going to the Easter Show with Winston and his family, so I left them with Jireh's worship video, which they played on a laptop. Hopefully it all went well!

(http://youtu.be/fVMwTRH64b8)