Most New Zealanders speak English, with a modified British accent to American ears, although Maori is also enjoying a revival among the growing indigenous population. One-third of the nation lives in Auckland -- NZ's counterpart to New York City -- and one of them in five came there from some other part of Asia or the Pacific. By far the country's largest and most cosmopolitan city, Auckland's 1.3 million residents sprawl from Waitemata Harbor on the Pacific Ocean to Manukau Harbor on the Tasman Sea. Auckland appropriately calls itself "The City of Sails" -- its harbors' dancing waters sparkle … [Read more...]
Archives for 2000
KEEN ON KIWI-LAND (2)
This was a working vacation to New Zealand, in which I averaged almost one presentation per day. On successive Sunday mornings I preached at Titirangi Baptist Church (pastor Jonathon Weir) and at Owairaka Baptist Church (pastors Bruce Hilder and Carl Josephson), sharing three points from John 3:13-17 -- that God desires to save people, not to condemn them; that he saves believers through the merits and for the sake of Jesus Christ; and that the alternative to eternal life is, indeed, to perish. Sunday evenings saw advertised public meetings at Remuera Baptist Church (pastor Warren Prestidge) … [Read more...]
KEEN ON KIWI-LAND (1)
We arrived home safely about 9 p.m. last night (Thursday, August 24, 2000 Houston time), 28 hours after waking on the same date in the distinctly "Scottish" town of Dunedin on the South Island of predominately "British" New Zealand. New Zealand is an extraordinarily beautiful Pacific country composed of two major islands, situated 1200 miles southeast of Australia. Explorers launch out from NZ to Antarctica and the South Pole. If you imagine England and Scotland 125% larger, inverted in the South Pacific, you won't be far wrong. Or think of California, reduced by 25%, then stretched thinner to … [Read more...]
FAMILY MATTERS
July 2000 -- This past Thursday through Sunday, Sara Faye and I attended a reunion of the extended family of my maternal grandparents, Will and Delia (O'Neal) Short, who themselves went to Africa in 1921 as missionaries and served Christ there for more than 60 years. About 100 Shorts, O'Neals, Fudges, Ewings, Mansurs and decendants came from across the United States, England, Holland and (recently) Africa to the beautiful Roman Nose State Park Resort in northern Oklahoma. There we variously made new acquaintances and renewed old ones, golfed, swam, picnicked, played, rode horseback, and … [Read more...]
PRAISE ON THE HIGH PLAINS
February 2000 -- Joyful praises ascended to God in songs and prayers from the Texas plains this weekend as some 90-100 men from Broadway and Vandelia Churches of Christ, St. Luke's and Aldersgate Methodist Churches, a Bible church, an Hispanic Baptist church and a Worldwide Church of God -- all in Lubbock, Texas -- joined in a spiritual feast of worship, fellowship and ministry of the Word. I was privileged to deliver four messages from the Bible at the multi-church men's retreat, conducted at Plains Baptist Center, in a sequestered canyon on the Caprock (high plains) of West Texas. God not … [Read more...]