So France has a new president! It has been interesting observing the reactions in the media here in New Zealand. Friends in France are often surprised to hear that French (and European) current affairs are followed with interest down here at the bottom of the world. Reactions appear to have been fairly positive thus far :
Mr Sarkozy, son of a Hungarian immigrant, is not a product of the public service academy that has put its stamp on most of France’s leading figures. He sounds like a man of change rather than of tradition, and France sorely needs that. The 12-year presidency of Jacques Chirac has left the economy flat and overdue for drastic repairs. Mr Chirac was a classic conservative, content to accept the long-established line that market liberalism is somehow Anglo-Saxon and foreign to the social and moral foundations of the French republic. Mr Sarkozy is not nearly so sniffy.
New Zealand Herald
(speaking of M. Sarkozy’s break with the past) His emphasis on dignity, opportunity, respect and nationhood appeal to an older moral ethic, and a conception of France which, at least in theory, recognises the common good. The change he is promising rejects the pieties, policies and attitudes of rigid socialism…which have perplexed and paralysed France since they began their rise in the 1960s.
Maxim Institute
There have also been comments about Sarkozy being a “union-basher”, and predictions that he will come down hard on immigrants so as to be seen to be taking action. Nevertheless, much is made of his Hungarian background, and his selection of an immigrant cabinet minister.
It was France’s largest voter turnout in two decades. What does this say about how the French view their future? We are watching with interest.
Having been a parent for 13 years (we have just become parents of a teenager!), I should have learned a thing or two about prayer for and with my children. Sadly, one of the biggest lessons is that I don’t do it often enough.
You’d think it would just come naturally - I pray on my own, so why not with my kids. But it actually takes practice, perseverance, and a bit of training (for the parent as much as the child). I find it kind of hard to pray with a kid who has been bouncing off the walls only seconds earlier, but I must acknowledge that the problem is mostly in my head. I think of prayer too much as a sober, spiritual activity, and not enough as a natural conversation with the One who knows me more intimately than anyone. I don’t think that Jesus is at all phased by the exuberance of children, so why should I be?
Last night with some friends we prayed for my 6 year old son who has a persistent stutter for which speech therapy has been ineffective. We’ve tried lots of different approaches to help him get over it, but looking back, the times when there has been improvement have been directly linked with times of specific prayer for the problem.
It was really amazing to see how my son responded. Continue reading ‘How to pray for your kids.’
Along Buffalo Beach, Whitianga
Originally uploaded by Bournagain.I have uploaded a few new photos which I hope you will enjoy. Click on the photo to be redirected. This beach features in the article entitled Kupe’s Crossing mentioned in yesterday’s post. For us it’s one of the special places that no visit to New Zealand would be complete without.
I’m experimenting with different ways of sharing files with you, and providing a simple way of accessing them. From time time I write stuff that is a bit long to put in a blog post, like a short prose piece entitled Kupe’s Crossing inspired by 3 glorious days at my favourite beach recently. I also want to make our latest family newsletters available, and the May edition is hot off the press. Click here 
for a place where you can download them easily if the mood takes you. Anything you find in there is copyright though, so I would appreciate hearing from you if you would like to make other than personal use of the material (simon.bourn at free.fr).
Really enjoying Aussies Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch’s book, The Shaping of Things to Come: Innovation and Mission for the 21 Century Church. It’s one of those books that I think fits in the “must read” category. Here’s a short excerpt…
“Clearly the missional church that claims the deed as sacrament will be fully involved in life, evangelism, work among the poor, community groups and causes, and pubs and cafes. This is because the missional church realizes that it is finding God (or is God finding us?) in those places previously perceived as “outside” of God because they were outside of the local faith community’s mission program. Actually there is no such thing as seeking God, for there is nothing in which he cannot be found. It’s all in the “seeing” and the perceiving. Having broadened our concept of God’s involvement in the world and our part in it, Christians can then be free to engage missionally in any and every place. The whole world becomes an arena for the inbreaking of God’s kingdom.”
If you’re not familiar with the phrase “deed as sacrament”, it’s a means of expressing a view of Christian spirituality where God’s grace is made apparent in our actions, and where there is no dichotomy between so-called “spiritual” activities like proclaiming the gospel, and practical deeds of service. God redeems the whole of life, not just the religious part. It’s not a new idea, but in practice we still tend to act as if somehow the things we do that are related to church are more valuable to God than, say, being friendly to our neighbours, serving on the local school committee or spending time at the local pub to get to know the locals. God can be in all of these things, not just the church bit (or should I say, “even the church part” ;-))
Does this strike a chord with you? Click on the comment link above, and tell me what you think.
A practical point about blogging: do you know about feeds? Feeds are an easy way of keeping track of what people are writing in your favourite blogs, without actually having to visit their site. Blog posts are “syndicated” in rather the same way as international press agencies like Reuters syndicate their reports to newspapers all over the world.
To read feeds, you need a “feed reader” (you see, it’s not rocket science). They are also called rss readers or aggregators (don’t worry about what rss stands for). There are two kinds. An Internet based rss reader is a website where you set up an account for free, which enables you to group the feeds of all your favourite blogs together, and it updates automatically every time you open your account page. A good example of this is Bloglines which is one that I use and am quite happy with.
The other option is to install a feed reader as a plugin on your Internet browser. Firefox even has its own feed reading feature with “Live bookmarks” (I wouldn’t now about Internet Explorer - I have evolved 
The one I use is an open source thing called Sage - it’s very easy to install and read. Every now and then when I’m working at the computer, I just click on “update feeds”, and can instantly see who has written new material.
I haven’t been writing so much lately - actually I’ve spent more time on the technical side of this blog than writing it. Shame about the lack of photos too, but the Internet here is table-thumpingly slow. I’m trying to get my head around how web sites work as I’m planning to move this thing onto another server. You will notice that the url www.bournagain.com now works - no need for the “Wordpress” bit. I’m making use of this time in New Zealand to learn a few new skills.
Otherwise this visit to New Zealand is all about people! We’ve spent a lot of time on the phone and in and out of people’s homes. It’s another reminder of how rich and diverse this thing we call Church is. In the last few days we have been with friends who are all involved with kingdom stuff, but in such different ways.
After travelling to places as diverse as Ethiopia, Lebanon and Portugal, Keith, Carolyn have teamed up with Richard to establish A Rocha in New Zealand. It’s a Christian conservation organisation. Carolyn put it very succinctly when she said that A Rocha is about “the greening of the church and the churching of the greens”. I used to raise my eyebrows at Christians involved in things environmental. Couldn’t really see the point as my eschatology centred very much around the “new heavens and the new earth” that would replace this tired old earth. But somewhere along the way I realised that the earth always has been and always will be central to God’s purposes, and when we look after it we’re doing what God does. It is actually a “missional” thing in and of itself, not to mention the fact that there are so many greenies out there who have been turned off by Christian’s lack of concern for the environment. We should be leading the charge - go for it, guys!
And then we spent an afternoon with Cor and Ria. Not sure if they’re Dutch kiwis or Kiwi dutchies, but they are very special people. Cor is an expressionist painter and if you want to be blessed you should take a look at his work. Our house would be full of his paintings if we could afford it 
Many of his paintings express the things he’s been learning in his walk with God, although he’s very down to earth about the artistic process. It’s 10 % inspiration and 90 % perspiration. We spent the afternoon talking about our love for the church and our frustration with it. As Queen Victoria put it so beautifully, “If all the people who fall asleep in church were laid end to end, they would be a lot more comfortable.”
Hope for Europe has recently launched a new publication called Hope Magazine. It’s got some excellent articles which give a biblical perspective on Europe’s past, present and future. Sign up and you’ll be sent a .pdf of the Autumn 2006 edition which has an interesting article by Sir Fred Catherwood (former Vice President of the European parliament) on the way 2,000 years of Christian influence has formed the Europe of today. While you’re there take a look at the wider Hope for Europe site.
It’s edited by Jeff Fountain, European director for YWAM – definitely a commentator worth reading. He has a regular email newsletter entitled Weekly Word. I have enjoyed reading a positive perspective on what’s going down in Europe today, and what it means as a Christian to live as a person of hope. He also talks a lot about this in his book Living as People of Hope
.
There are many things we want to achieve while we are here in New Zealand, and one of them is to connect with as many church home groups as we can. It’s much easier to connect with people in a smaller meeting than on a Sunday morning. We had a great time at Kevin & June’s last night. This is one of the groups at St. Davids in Hamilton that takes a particular interest in what we’re doing in France. We gave our usual “missionary presentation”, and we feel we’re getting a bit better at explaining some of the changes we’re going through in our work in France. But not surprisingly, we got out of the meeting much more than we put into it. It seems that God’s purpose in us visiting different groups is not just for us to inform them as to speak to us through them. We were really touched by their understanding and perceptive questions.
Met some interesting people too. We prayed for Barbara who is off to northern Spain in two days to walk part of the camino with her daughter– the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. We feel like we’re on a pilgrimage of sorts while here in NZ so could really identify. Then there was Alejandro, an Argentinian studying English here. We had an interesting chat about how we find God’s mission for our lives. Should we look for it in spiritual retreats and solitude, or out there on the street where people are suffering?
Technorati Tags: mission camino santiago
024_Kiwiana
Originally uploaded by Bournagain.
Yes, those are chocolate fish they are trying to get their teeth into. This was our first Sunday at St. Davids in Hamilton, where Laura & Elise discovered how they do Sunday School in New Zealand.
Latest Comments
RSS