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Creek Mennonite Church |
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Meghan
Meghan Reha is in New Zealand
with YWAM (Youth With A Mission) for mission
training and work. Here are her reports:
September 18: Subject:
kia ora means "life in your direction"
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Date: Thu, 12 Sep 2002 22:45:19 -0500
Subject: Kia Ora!
so here i am, sitting in
an internet cafe for $8(NZ) an hour writing you all about how i'm doing. besides
the jet lag, i'm great- everything here is very open- the people the countryside
and everything are amazing. i arrived safely in aukland (one
of the major cities) at about 6:00 AM new zealand time... at which point
tim's gift of a drum caused some disruption at customs... they are very strict
about keeping animal products out of new zealand for fear of hoof and mouth
disease, so after a little money and sending it off for fumigation, i met
vania, my school leader and we waited around for 2 other students- callah
and aaron- both americans, one from PA and one from Hawaii... we drove about
2 hours to Tauranga where we met the rest of the 16 total students at the
"marea" where we will be spending the next 8 weeks... we were welcomed there
with a traditional welcome ceremony involving a dancing warrior and many
speaches from old and revered members of the tribe. there are 2 main building
on the tribal property- the marea- one is the meetinghouse, which is our
sleeping quarters, and it is very decorative- the beams and eaves and supports
of the house are carved and painted in designs depicting the history of the
tribe- each pillar is a particular ancestor and has stories regarding it.
there are also many photographs of more modern ancestors that line the walls.
we sleep all 16 of us in one large room on matresses on the floor- it is
crowded with about 2 feet on either side of your bed and a wider space in
the center of the room. instead of going right to bed, which is what i should
have done, we had a worship time and got some history lessons and drank lots
and lots of tea. although this is a temperate climate, it is cold here right
now- about 50-60 degrees, so everyone was piling on their sweatshirts and
huddling under their covers... today, i was wide awake at 5:00 AM because
i am still working on illinois time... where it would be about 10 or 11
AM... breakfast at 7:00, and then we have been orienting all morniKia Ora!.ems
ng... i think i'm going
to go crazy with the lecturing- working at camp has gotten me used to DOING
things, and to be sitting down for several hours is difficult... then this
afternoon we are checking out town- tauranga, which is where i am now- lots
of shops and people and this lovely internet cafe... prayer requests are
for warmer weather, good fellowship between me and the other members of my
team and for a space of my own. (it has been difficult to find a little quiet
space for ME.) well, that's about it... i'd love to hear from you all, but
i can't write back personally... let me know what's going on over there in
the states...
love
and misses, meghan
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Date: Wed, 18 Sep 2002 22:32:56 -0500
Subject: kia ora means
"life in your direction"
hey again guys! yes, it's
meghan, still alive. it's hard to believe it's only been a week and 2 days.
i feel like i've been here a month. we had our first set of lectures this
week. a man by the name of bob scrogins, from the us orginally, has been
speaking about mission and reaching the nations for God. it's all rather fascinating,
if a little overwhelming. it's easy to feel guilty or responsible when you
hear those sorts of things. he actually traced the plan of salvation for
the world back to Genesis 3:16, where it speaks about the offspring of woman
crushing the serpent's head. fascinating. and it's only the first week of
lectures. yesterday after lectures we went to a place that is AWESOME- it's
a piece of land that has been set up as a prayer walk and a place of peace
and reconciliation for the world- called Gideons Fields, it is a peice of
landscaped/naturally grown land that has a prayer walk set up in it- 10 spots
for different parts of the world, and it is amazing. anyway, it's a bit affiliated
with YWAM because some of the trustees of it are YWAM people. it is where
we are going to be doing some of our service- planting bulbs is what i did
yesterday afternoon for a few hours. it felt so good to do WORK. (yeah, i
guess i have some kind of a complex about it because i was raised to work
hard at Plow Creek....;^) anyway, the other outreach we are engaged in that
i haven't experienced yet is called touch new zealand and it is a door to
door kind of thing where we simply offer to help people in their work- cleaning,
gardening, etc... so that what half the group did. that could use lots of
prayer- that God would lead us to people who are receptive and who could
use a helping hand. it has been awesome to be here in the beauty of this
place. yesterday morning sonni, a man from the church we attended on sunday
invited some of us to go walking up mount manganui (the local mountain) for
exercise at 5:45 in the morning. a few of us went and it was gorgeous to
look down on the ocean from the top. let see- well it'skia ora means life
in your dir.ems
thursday here and we have
the afternoon off so the first thing i did, or am doing is to rush down to
town and use the internet cafes... after this i intend to go buy some food
(they say there's a great fish and chips place down by the harbor) and then,
maybe to the library. or perhaps i'll just wander downtown. at any rate,
that's kind of the recap... the weather has improved- today we had an amazing
rain storm all morning but then when i stepped outside afterwards, it was
warm as could be! (about 70F) i have also found a beautiful spot on a hillside
across the road that looks out onto the bay just below the HUGEST lilies
i have ever seem. it is a perfect spot away from it all. so thank you for
all your prayers. Requests are for health- several of our leaders have been
ill- and for discernment as i seek God's voice in this time. thank you for
your love and care. oh yes, and my new address is as follows:
Pacific Quest DTS NZ
ATTN: Meghan Reha
PO Box 15036
Tauranga, New Zealand
and if you didn't catch
it, my email has changed - so just be aware.
love and misses,
meghan
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Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2002 00:27:10 -0500
Subject: how do you spell
hallelujah?
hello everyone!
life here is crazy crazy
crazy! school this week has really been a breakthrough week in terms of a
lot of things. all of the students this week have really felt GOd moving
in them. well first, i guess i should say that our lectures this week have
been on hearing the voice of God. (did i tell you that last time?) anyway,
i have learned SO MUCH that i probably already knew but just never cared to
pay much attention to. God is speaking to me all the time, as long as i care
to listen to him. and i have also learned that it's not the hearing of GOd's
voice that i had struggled with in the past- i was just pretending it so
that i didn't have to understand and be convicted by what his voice was
saying. yes, that is a Hard Hard thing, i've discovered. but it is so free
and amazing the ways he is wanting to move me. ah, life is wonderful. the
woman who spoke to us this week also had times of worship in which she prayed
and prophesied over each student individually. God said so much to me through
her, i can hardly tell you! He said some powerful things about music and
worship in my life as well as healing for the nations. anyway, i am so excited
and hopeful for the ways GOd wants to work in my life each day is brimming
with promises. thank you to everyone who has been praying for me during this
time. your prayers have been answered! for those of you who are asking- hobbiton
is on the south island, where i haven't been yet. although a place we have
done some gardening work called gideons fields was a place where they asked
to film the movie.... so... hmm... we are moving to another marae for a weekend
of power prayer, and then we will be coming back. the weather is beautiful,
although they get these crazy rains here that come for 2 or 3 minutes and
then dissappear right away- you can see the clouds come up over the mountain...
anyway... i have wasted enough time here. thank you all for your prayer and
thoughts. till next time, meghan
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Date: Sat, 26 Oct 2002 06:49:41
-0500
Subject: me!
hey guys! i know it's been a while, but i'm STILL alive and kicking.
after 2 weeks in the northland, i'm on my way "home" to tauranga... we went
up north to a very isolated community called rawhiti (said rahfahtee) which
is smaller than tiskilwa- it doesn't even have a STORE. the nearest store
is about 1 hour away in a tourist town called russell that has hotels and
a 4 square (a convenience store). anyway, in all this time away, i learned
the lesson that doing outreach is really not very different than trying
to deepen my relationship with God. it requires pressing into God... and
pressing into GOd.. hearing and obeying. the actual serving that we did
was a smattering of all kinds of things- we went to a school, a couple youth
group events, an old folks home, some churches, and a funeral. so where
do i start? well, we spent a couple days getting adjusted to our surroundings
and what beautiful surroundings they were. the marae we lived on was small,
and not as ornate as our marae back in hairini, but simple and it was situated
across the road from the ocean. on the day we arrived there was a pod of
dolphins swimming in the bay right there in front of us! we met the "local
church" of 5 people- they meet in a tiny little shed of a building, but
they are a funny bunch. their "organist" is uncle roby, who plays big band
music and hymns from the 40s on his clarinet of all things, and one of their
preachers is Uncle jim, an irishman who relocated there 3 years ago when
he married aunty alice, a maori from the area. we went to some youth group
events in the closest "real" town, russell, where their youth group had a
core of 5 christians reaching out to 10 or 15 young teens... it was hard
to only be there one night because we could only do so much to relate to
them. we also did some door to door service, where me and my team member
Sam met Amir, the israeli nanny with a palestinian dad, a jewish mom , living
in new zealand watching maori/kiwi children! he was awesome and friendly
and we helped him decorate for his employer's birthday party. it was crazy!
but our big adventure started on saturday. we drove 40kms to another town
for a church service. when we arrived after a 1 1/2 hour drive, a car pulled
up behind us... a man got out and said something to vania, our leader. she
called us together and said, ok, get back in the vans, we're going back because
we've got to move out for the tangi. a man from the area has died and they
are going to have the tangi (funeral) at our marae. just like that- no messing
around not a word, but okay back we go. so in an hour we pack all our things,
moved down the road to a tiny old schoolhouse and waited for the tangi to
begin. the elders from the marae invited us to be a part of the home crowd
rather than the visiting crowd, and increadible honor because we had been
in the area for only a few days. so we were able to be there for the entire
3 days of the funeral. it seemed wierd, going to the funeral of a man i had
never even heard of before, but this culture is different about death- it
w--
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Date: Sat, 30 Nov 2002
Subject: still alive!
hey everyone! how's it going there? i bet you all thought i was dead, didn't
you? well, anyway, i'm still alive, now on the big island and we live in the
middle of nowhere so internet access is going to be pretty sketchy from here
on out. (just thought i'd let everybody know that once and for all) yeah-
we moved to the big island where i will be for 6 more weeks in a place called
makapala- a beautiful and fairly cool place. there are coconuts everywhere-
we can just eat them whenever we want (if we have the tools necessary to open
them and if they are ripe) as well as starfruit, avacados, and bananas! it's
wonderful, very laid back and relaxed. been doing a bit of reading-
just finished chasing the dragon about jackie pullinger's work in hong kong
and just started the cross and the switchblade... can you tell what kind of
books i have access to? ;-) hmmm. internet access here is also very expensive,
so i can't talk long. hope everything is well. prayer requests are for our
outreach to kona- we still need a place to stay- and for the team to continue
growing in unity. okay? well, i love you all and can't wait to hear from you!
in Christ, meghan
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Date: Mon, 06 Jan 2003
Subject: See you in 4 weeks!
hello everybody! it's me again- just wrapping up the old year with a final
email before i black out in tahiti. (meaning i probably will not have any
sort of e-mail access during that time) our last 3 weeks here in hawaii have
been very relaxed- we had 3 days off at christmas and 2 at new years. my
christmas was excellent- although there were a few remember when- i miss
you moments i was able to talk to my family on christmas day, so that was
wonderful. we had 4 days of outreach in hilo shortly before new years and
God raised into my mind the fact that i had not taken our tahiti outreach
very seriously- i had kind of treated it like a vacation of sorts- and so
i am trying to be prayerful about it, before we go it. God is continually
astonishing me with his goodness and his faithfulness. today, he made it
possible for me to cash 2 checks at rather hostile banks and also gave me
time yesterday to write a rather long letter to one of my friends... and
tomorrow, well i will get to hang out on an airplane for serveral hours (i
intend to do some more writing then) and then i will chill at LAX for 14
or so hours, before we embark on our adventure to peteete ( i think that's
the name of the place!) i will be sad to leave hawaii, just as i was to leave
new zealand- we have made good friends here from among the churches as well
as the island breeze staff from our base. but isn't it wonderful that Christians
have the joy of KNOWING they will see their friends again, even if it's not
on this earth? that thought comforts me. Well, it's time for me to bow out-
thank you for listening to this broadcast... i'll try to write again in 4
weeks! my next snail mail address is back in new zealand-
Meghan Reha
c/o PQ DTS
PO Box 15036
Tauranga, New Zealand i love you all dearly. be safe in God's care. meghan