Truck progress #6

$7450 after today's mail. What was really pleasing was to receive three donations from people who have heard about it from others! Great! Thanks!

Truck progress #1

Today's mail contained the first cheques for the Vanuatu Truck - $1100 - we are on the way!

A Truck for Vanuatu

THE EBULE TRAINING CENTRE IN PORT VILA, VANUATU
NEEDS A TRUCK

A photo I took of Rob Meier & trainees at the Ebule Urban Training Centre

And Anne and I are trying to raise $25,000 in three weeks so that it can be purchased. We have sent out 108 letters to people we know with the following options:

#1 Tell us where to go
#2 Say ‘Oh I wish I could but I have no spare cash.’
#3 Ask for more info – email or phone Mart the Rev
#4 Be bold and make a commitment, post it to us asap

Cheques made out to 'Global Mission office' can be sent to Martin & Anne Stewart, 5a Truman Rd, Bryndwr Christchurch. Receipts will be issued for tax purposes.

Can you help?

We will post a running total each week!

A lot of music at the moment

Anne and I have just had an influx of new cds and dvds that we are loving after a few months of the decemberists, crowded house and the cowboy junkies new album

Here is what has pushed the buttons for us...

Bruce Springsteen's Magic (some of the old magic that got us hooked with his The Rising album) Liam Finn's I'll be lightening, (which has some startling rhythms - the title track stands out so far and has Neil Finn demonstrating his genius on bass), David Gilmour's Live at the Royal Albert Hall DVD is a classic - especially enhanced by having Crosby and Nash singing, and the Cowboy Junkies Trinity Revisited - it is a CD and DVD where they go back to the Holy Trinity Church in downtown Toronto and do the same tracks as the original The Trinity Sessions album of 20 years ago with a few other musicians in tow. We watched the DVD for the first time last night and it was quite brilliant. The cinematography is fantastic and adds to the wonderful sound. It was recorded in a day just like the original. Ryan Adams, Vic Chesnutt and especially Natalie Merchant, add ouitstanding vocals to Margo Timmins' (pictured) uncomplicated sonic genius.

If people are new to the Junkies then I have suggested they start with The Trinity Sessions, but now, they need to start with Revisited.

We are also in the process of purchasing tickets to the Split Enz concert in Christchurch next March - yeah!

Crowded House Concert

Well, it was great!

Pluto had the hard graft of being first up - they had a few good sounds in their set but the mix was wrong and we worried that this would be the problem of the venue...

But Supergroove settled that with their Blues Brothers style and sound - they were wonderfully energetic and the sound was great. Che Fu was stunning. I hadn't seen them live before and I was most impressed.

But the night belonged to Neil Finn and his team. The lift professionally was amazing from band to band, and with Crowded House, we entered the stratosphere. I was pleasantly surprised with the choice of songs - many from Together Alone and a few of the more obscure songs from their debut album and only three from Woodface (Fall at your Feet, Weather With You & Four Seasons).

The new songs came across really well although I found Transit Lounge didn't come across as well as I hoped ('though the reviewer in The Press seemed to like it the most - actually it was a poor review - he seemed to be trying to provide an intellectual analysis of the three bands aside from the reality of it being a live concert - and his claim that half of the House set was from the new album was quite a stretch given that in the two hours there were only five or six songs off Time on Earth - actually I was amazed how little of the new album they used and wished they had done my favourites Pour Le Monde & English Trees).

What that reviewer also missed was mentioning the brilliant set. The unusual images, the light and the blend of effects was very artistic and kind of theatrical - after U2 and all their stunning computer-generated effects I couldn't imagine that there cound be a visual equivalent offered by another band - but there was here.

The three encores was much-appreciated as well... a great night thanks!

Crowded House Day

Tonight Anne and I are off to see Crowded House play in Christchurch with Supergroove & Pluto! Yay!

Remembering Parihaka

A colleague, John Hunt, reminded me this week that the 5th November is the anniversary of the invasion of the peaceful settlement of Parihaka in 1881 and the subsequent arrest of Te Whiti, Tohu and many others, and their incarceration in the South Island without trial, so that their land could be given to settlers.
John reckoned that it was of more significance in a NZ context to remember this than Guy Fawkes… I am planning to do this on Sunday with the whole focus on what happened at Parihaka. In light of recent events in NZ it kind of fits that we think about things from another angle… and Te Whiti’s non-violent passive resistance stands out as model for us all as to the way we might live the gospel… apparently Ghandi knew of Te Whiti and his way.

[the painting is by Seraphine Pick of Dunedin]

Here’s a poem…

THERE WAS A MAN

There was a man
preached peace
to warrior chiefs.

He built a pa
at Parihaka.
Soldiers burned it down

robbed the people
of their land
and livelihood.

He preached
to them as well.
They would not listen.

Our history
would be different
if they had.

How much longer
must we reap
their bitter harvest?

J C Sturm
[thought to be the first Maori woman to receive a university degree in 1949]