Farewell Sir Edmund Hillary! A true kiwi.



Today the whole of New Zealand will stop to remember a truely great man. Sir Edmund Hillary died at the age of 88 on the 11th January 2008 and this morning will be his state funeral here in Auckland. It is a massive event. State funerals are held for governing Prime Ministers and Governors general but this is such a great man that it is only fitting for him to be farewelled as a nation. His family have been gracious enough to allow a whole country to mourn his passing and celebrate his life.




He is most famous for his historic climb of Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world in 1953. He and Tenzing Norgay were the first people to reach the summit. It was a massive undertaking for a humble New Zealand bee keeper. He has then spent his life helping improve the educational and medical opportunites of the Sherpa people in Nepal. This is how he wants to be remembered. He was just a kiwi bloke. extremely humble, very loving and very gentle.



He is forever immortalised on our $5 note, the only living person to ever feature on our bank notes. It is our most used note and millions of New Zeaand people now hold that very dearly. There has been talk of renaming our tallest mountain to recognise him, or to have national holiday in honour of him. However we decide to celebrate his life and achievements he will not be quickly forgotten.

We are proud to be New Zealanders today. This is an historic day that will live on in my memory and my children's memories for many, many years.

Ka kite ano Sir Ed!

He Reigns!

When I think about why I am involved in missions I always come back to this video and song from the Newsboys. "He Reigns" would have to be my heartbeat for missions. Every time I hear it I get goose bumps and a little tear in my eye. So here it is for you to share and enjoy.



Can't you see it? Every nation, tribe and tongue singing praises to God, all at the same time. What a thrill!!!! I so want to be a part of that moment in time when all fall on their knees and worship Him. Can't wait!!

Happy New Year and welcome to 2008!

It's hard to believe that 2007 has finished although if I have to be honest I'm not sad to see the back of it. It was a pretty sucky year.....crappy could be a better word. My hopes for 2008 are that it will be a more settled year for everyone in my family and that we will continue to learn how to live in NZ and what it means to be a "kiwi". Hopefully that whole learning and growing process will be less painful than last year's one :-) I feel so much more positive about all that this year holds. I'm sure it is going to be full of challenges and surprises but that sounds like fun!

Christmas and New Year were great. It was nice to be able to spend it with family and be able to host them in our own home. I cooked a wonderful turkey (if I do say so myself) and ate far too much, but that's to be expected I guess. We closed the office down from the 22nd December until the 7th Jan so we have had a good break and managed to have lots of fun with the boys who are on their summer break. We're only back in the office for a couple of weeks and then we are having our official holiday which I am looking forward to. It will be so nice to hang out with the boys and do some more fun things. We have it all planned including boat trips to islands to climb, beach visits, junk food and of course some shopping thrown in for the lady of the house!

I hope that your 2008 looks like a good one and that you will know God's richest blessings in it.