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2024 has been an intense, beautiful, and challenging year for us. We’ve never been more acutely aware of our need for support and encouragement from our friends. Thank you for journeying with us. We appreciate you so deeply.

2025 is clearly going to be a “jump off the cliff” sort of year for our family as we’re likely going to spend most, if not all of the year in planes, trains and automobiles across the USA and Europe. As much as we love the comfort of our rhythms here at home in Aotearoa, New Zealand, we know it’s time to move out of our comfort zone once again and serve people in other places.

Read on for Extended Version

2024 has been an intense, beautiful, and challenging year for us. We’ve never been more acutely aware of our need for support and encouragement from our friends. Thank you for journeying with us. We appreciate you so deeply. 

2025 is clearly going to be a “jump off the cliff” sort of year for our family as we’re likely going to spend most, if not all of the year in planes, trains and automobiles across the USA and Europe. As much as we love the comfort of our rhythms here at home in Aotearoa, New Zealand, we know it’s time to move out of our comfort zone once again and serve people in other places. Perhaps we’ll get a chance to see you in your neck of the woods, friend! I’ll unpack this more in the “Family Rhythms” section below.   

As I write this, tomorrow is the first day of Spring here in Aotearoa, New Zealand, and we can feel it in the air and in our bones. Our family and our team need ‘Springtime” in every way. We’ve all been reminded lately why the ministry of peacemaking between people is so challenging, so personally risky and so important. 

“The instrument that removed human flesh from our teeth.”
We recently learned from a friend that’s how the gospel of Jesus was described by his ancestors in the late 1700s in their native language. Profound. That continues to be what we need the power of the gospel to do today, isn’t it? We need the love of God to transform the way we see ourselves, and the way we see each other. No more bad guys and good guys. “Us” and “Them.” Just family, recovering from brokenness, bringing Heaven to earth. Shalom. Salaam. Rangimārie. 

Here’s a little window into our day-to-day rhythms. Cora and I spent this morning helping to detangle a relationship breakdown between senior leaders within an international organisation. The tone of the conversation shifted dramatically when a group member humbled himself and acknowledged his own personal need for help. As his pride was absolutely barbecued, it was like his suffocating spirit was coming up for air. Oh yes, I know that feeling well, been there! A few days ago, this turn of events would have seemed impossible to everyone involved. Breakthrough.

This afternoon, we helped resolve a situation in a different community organisation involving the well-meaning but unwise mishandling of thousands of dollars of dedicated funds and a potential legal battle between those involved. Once again, due to a sudden turn towards humility, we’re now heading towards a peaceful resolution. It’s not enough to just resolve the current issue; it’s the learning and growing together that really brings healing.  

Honestly, I’m a little exhausted. Today couldn’t have gone any better, really, but the magnitude of the work to be done is overwhelming at times. I need to be reminded that it’s wonderful to be an absolutely minuscule part of what our extraordinary Heavenly Father is up to on Earth and across the universe. It’s so good to be tiny, isn’t it, friend? I trust that stories like these are happening worldwide all the time, sparked and guided by Holy Spirit. They might not make it to the news, but they’ll be on letters between Jesus-following friends, like this one. Our focus in this season is to train as many others as we can in the arts of peace-making. 

I still find Loren Cunningham’s vision and faith so inspiring. Young people being released into servanthood in every country on the planet. These days, sending young people on a mission trip is completely normal, no big deal. Back in the 1960s, it was revolutionary. Mission work was for the professionals with suits and ties and a decade of seminary behind them. It took guts for those early YWAM leaders to believe in what young people could be capable of, touched by the love of God and trained well. As I write this there are 4,500 YWAM’ers gathered in Manilla, worshipping Jesus together and encouraging each other. Extraordinary.

Our dream is an extension of the dream God put in Loren and Darlene’s hearts and is perhaps just as ridiculous. Can young people be trained and released into the ministry of reconciliation? Healing marriages & families? Healing communities? Ending legal battles? Brokering peace between nations? Isn’t that for the professionals? 

Jesus loves to do extraordinary things through ordinary people. 

Matthew 5:9
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God.

Being a part of this beautiful community of people continues to be one of the greatest joys and privileges of our lives. My goodness, how much we have learned about God, creation, life and love as we’ve journeyed together! My fellow trustees at the marae have become some of my closest friends. 

Over the last year, we have continued to see the restoration of precious things that had been lost in the aftermath of injustice and betrayal over many generations. Last weekend, a kaumatua I hadn’t met before turned up at a family gathering. He hadn’t been to his home marae in a few years and was astounded to see the number of young people present learning and growing together. “It’s so wonderful to see our young people gathered back within the safety of their own homelands, covered by the dignity of their ancestors,” he said. Wow. 

Levi and I sat there drinking in his words, sticking out like a sore thumb of course, the two of us as white as can be! LOL! We’re not Maori, and we’re not trying to be Maori because no one down home at the marae needs us to be Maori. They know who they are, and because of that, they embrace us for who we are. That’s the thing about people who walk confidently and humbly in their unique cultural identity; being near them makes you want to do the same.  

The particular hapū [subtribe] we’ve been grafted into has a rich history in the Ringatū faith, an Old Testament-based Maori tradition born in the late 19th Century. This hapū exists uniquely because, at a particular moment in time, many other religions were making their way into the tribe, and a small group felt that they were to remain staunchly, solely faithful to the Ringatū tradition. That small group of men and women branched off and became Ngati Ruahine hapū of Waimapu Marae.

Fast-forward to early 2024, many generations later, and the richness of those foundations had almost been lost. Fortunately for all of us, Io Matua Kore [Supreme, parent-less God] loves to resurrect precious things.

Over the last few months, we’ve been gathering together on the weekends to be instructed by a particular kaumatua, who had the treasures of this tradition instilled into him as a child. He’s been teaching us the karakia [prayers], the waiata [hymns], and the rhythms of the ancient faith the ancestors held dear. These are the traditions that got them through incredibly difficult times, and it looks like the current young people of Ngati Ruahine will now also have the opportunity to draw strength from them as well. This stuff gives me chills, big time.

The ministry of Restoring Connections is just a vehicle. A tool. Like any good framework, it will serve a greater purpose for a while and then go into the ground like fertiliser for new initiatives. For now, it’s absolutely pumping, which is of course incredibly exciting. It started out as a response to people in our own network of relationships needing discipleship and great tools for healing and strengthening their relationships. Now, increasingly our focus is helping people to grow in their own ability to be a source of healing to others. 

The training framework of Restoring Connections is how we fast-track people all over the world into being effective in the ministry of reconciliation within their own communities. We train people to be effective in Personal Mentoring, Team Mentoring, and facilitating mediations in any kind of context. The amazing thing is that it works. The gospel calls each of us to humble ourselves before each other, actively care for each other, and be reconciled to each other. We have the incredible joy of seeing relationships healed on a weekly, if not daily basis. My goodness, what a privilege! We are determined to give away what we’ve learned to as many others as possible.

Here are some headlines from 2024 so far:

Personal Mentoring
Once again, the Personal Mentoring programme was at max capacity this year with a wonderful group of people from France, Aotearoa, NZ, Norway, Australia, USA, and Canada. It’s been such a joy and a privilege to support them as they do the hard work to deepen and strengthen their most important relationships. This just NEVER gets old!

New Online Platform
We launched the new online Personal Mentoring application that we partnered with Creative Q to develop. It’s been so awesome having this tool as it streamlines so much and helps the mentors and mentees spend far less time sorting through papers and emails and far more time actually being actively mentored. Naturally, we already have lots of upgrades that we’d like to roll out and are trusting God for the funds to be able to do so.

Mediation Programme Launch
For the last couple years we have been developing a framework for helping people who are in an acute crisis and in need of mediation. We officially launched this programme this year, and the results have been incredibly positive. We’re really excited about training others to be able to run this mediation programme for people in need within their own networks.

Restructuring the team for growth
As we now expand the vision of Restoring Connections to being focused primarily on training Mentors to run the programmes we’ve developed, we’ve needed to restructure and grow the team. Fortunately, God has surrounded us with who we consider to basically be the most awesome and wonderful people on the planet, so it couldn’t be more exciting to see team members stepping up into greater levels of responsibility and leadership.

Restoring Connections Foundations Course
Restoring Connections Podcast

You’re probably aware that Temps d’M is the French branch of Restoring Connections, which we’ve been pioneering with friends in France over the last few years. We’ve had lots of French-speaking people come through the English version of the programmes because they speak English well enough for that to be possible. Needless to say, we’re deeply excited about having structure in place for all of the programmes to be run by French-speaking people for French-speaking people.

You can just imagine how close this is to Cora’s heart in particular and how meaningful it is to be building a physical ministry hub for Temps d’M in her hometown in partnership with life-long friends. With very little infrastructure in place, we’ve already seen deep transformation in the lives of many wonderful people in France. We’re filled with hope for what can be as we partner with the community there and build this together.

Here are some headlines from 2024 so far:

Website launch
Check out the new Temps d’M website and the 1st newsletter using the links below. Marie Juge, our operations manager on the ground in France has been doing an excellent job of building a network of ministry partners as we prepare to launch Temps d’M training programmes in French in 2025.

Temps d’M Website
Tempsd’M Newsletter

Building project
We were incredibly blessed to have had a team of professionals from Canada, New Zealand come join us in Coulommiers in July to help us move forward with finishing the Temps d’M ministry hub. Led by the local crew, the team flow was pretty extraordinary this year and we were able to once again accomplish quite a lot more than we had expected. We’re hoping that the building will be ready to furnish in the next couple months.

Picking up from what I wrote in the paragraph above, as a family, we are enjoying our last few months of rhythms at home in Tauranga before we head into what is going to be a very different sort of year for us in 2025. As Cora and I head into our 25th year in full-time ministry, it’s time for a break, and it’s also time for what we’ve cultivated with our team to grow and multiply internationally. We’ve spent most of this year scratching our heads as to how these two things could possibly go together, but we’ve been trusting God to weave the plans together, and a clear picture is now beginning to emerge.

Our core staff team here in Aotearoa NZ are a huge part of our day-to-day lives. Naturally we have all had to wrestle together with what it looks like for each of us as we make this shift towards Cora and I being overseas more to serve what is growing internationally. It’s clear that there’s a huge opportunity now for each member of the team to grow in providing greater leadership and upskilling within their areas of responsibility. Bring it on!

Plans for 2025:

Kona - rest & celebration
Late November this year we will head to Kona, Hawaii as Keana will be graduating from her YWAM Ships DTS in early December. We cannot wait to get over there to celebrate with her, reconnect with our friends and partners in the Hawaiian Islands, and take a few weeks to rest together as a family. No words can say how grateful we are for this!

California - rest & prayer
In early January we will head to California, where we will take time to rest and seek the Lord. As a family, we’ve never spent more than 2 weeks in California together, so it will be rich and wonderful to have a longer unrushed season with my parents, friends, and ministry partners there, including new relationships forming with people from the Chumash tribe.

North America - ministry tour
In February, we plan to make ourselves available to serve various communities around the USA, Canada, and Mexico. This plan is in its formative stages as we are still considering various invitations we’ve received and putting together the itinerary. We want to use Restoring Connections training programmes to be a strength and a blessing to as many people in North America as possible.

France - growing Temps d’M & dwelling in mom’s homeland
In April, we will head to Coulommiers, France for an extended period of time. This will be an important time for us as a family to connect to our French roots while also working with friends and partners to grow the ministry of Temps d’M. The ministry hub building is now in its final stages of development and should be ready to accommodate our family for as long as we need to be there.

Some of our kids get super excited about travelling, and others get quite apprehensive about it. It’s been a huge challenge over the last couple of months to wrestle together as a family with what God is saying to us as a team and what God is saying to each of us individually. Lately, I’ve been tempted to doubt God’s ability to lead us forward in a way in which each member of the family is cared for and nurtured. Yep, after all these years of trusting Him, I still deal with major waves of doubt and fear.

But we’re moving forward because our lives are not our own. We belong to Jesus and are committed to following the Spirit’s lead. We know God is calling us out of our comfort zone and into deeper partnerships with people we haven’t met yet and places we haven’t been to yet. Here we go!

Thank you for your love, encouragement, and friendship.

Invitation to Give

Monthly Financial Support
As a family, our greatest need at the moment is for an increase in month-to-month financial support. We are trusting God to provide for our day to day living and travel costs as we seek to provide leadership for the network of people involved in Restoring Connections internationally.

Would you consider jumping in with the group of friends currently partnering with us each month in this way?

One-off Donations
The building work for the Temps d’M ministry hub in Coulommiers, France is now close to being done. We estimate that another $15,000 USD / $24,000 NZD will be needed for the final building elements, a heating system and furnishing all of the rooms.

Would you consider making a tax-deductible contribution to this project?

“Thanks for standing with us as we serve others in the healing and strengthening of relationships. There's no way that we could do what we do without the encouragement and generous support of our friends”.

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