The next St Paul's golf Day is nearly upon us. Dust off your clubs and join us at Maxwell's Retreat in Ramarama for lunch and 9 holes of golf on Saturday 26th May at 1pm. Perfect for golfers of all abilities. Everyone is welcome. $32 for lunch and golf - extra for club hire. Drop Vicki an email to book your place.

I am currently in the process of working towards completing my PhD and I need willing participants! My research is focused on:

Employee-focused Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR);
Employer Branding (EB); and 
Human Resource Management (HRM),

within the New Zealand and Australian financial sector.

I'm looking for the following participants from banks or accountancy firm (anywhere in NZ & AUS):

Line managers
HR practitioners
Marketers
Corporate Responsibility managers

Research details:

Includes 1 x questionnaire and 1 x followup discussion (in person or over the phone).
Nothing considered sensitive or financial included.
Looking for personal opinions and experiences.
Total confidentiality of the names of participant and organisations.

I ideally need to have as much done by the end of June 2012 as possible. If you know anyone or you yourself would be interested I would love to hear from you!

Please contact me on: irstyraubenehimer@aut.ac.nz

Thanks

Kirsty :)

Bill Johnson said "If you live cautiously, your friends will call you wise. You just won't move many mountains."

and

"The 'renewed' mind is the canvas on which the Spirit of God can paint."


So go on, join us every Thursday morning - SPPRAY 6:45am in the church and be invigorated!

Look forward to seeing you there.

Paul Ashman

We had a lovely Mother's Day moment during our Sunday morning services last weekend and one of our lovely mums asked me to post it so here it is! As you can see it is a 'responsive prayer' :)
Jennie

MOTHER’S DAY PRAYER

Father we thank you that you gently lead those that have young and that you carry the lambs close to your heart.

Please watch over those who don’t have enough food to feed their children this winter both in Kaitaia and in West Africa. Lord we pray for your provision and plenty.
LORD HEAR OUR PRAYER

LORD WE GIVE YOU OUR THANKS AND PRAISE

Father you say in the Psalms “Make thankfulness your sacrifice to God." Father, we thank you for those mothers who are valiantly ‘doing life by themselves’ and we ask that they will know afresh your deep love for them, your wisdom, guidance and that you are their Father in heaven. Help us do community well for these mothers.

LORD HEAR OUR PRAYER

LORD WE GIVE YOU OUR THANKS AND PRAISE

Lord we pray for those women who are longing to be mothers, women who like Hannah in the Old Testament, cry out in their deep anguish for a child. And Lord, just as you granted Hannah her son, Samuel, we pray that you will place your miraculous healing hand on these beautiful women. May they know your healing and lifegiving touch.
LORD HEAR OUR PRAYER

LORD WE GIVE YOU OUR THANKS AND PRAISE

Lord, we pray today for those who mourn the loss of their mothers be it through death, separation, divorce or an illness that changes the very essence of who they are. We pray also for those mothers who mourn the loss of a child through death, separation or a debilitating illness and for those mothers who are ill themselves. We pray that each one will know the reach and strength of your healing presence and  your comforting arms around them this day.
LORD HEAR OUR PRAYER

LORD WE GIVE YOU OUR THANKS AND PRAISE

Lord we pray for those whose memories of their mothers brings pain and sorrow. We pray also for those mothers whose hearts break for their children whatever circumstance they may be in. We thank you that your word tells us that you have collected all our tears in your bottle and recorded each one in your book. We pray that today you will pour in your healing, forgiveness and lifegiving spirit afresh into all these situations.
LORD HEAR OUR PRAYER

LORD WE GIVE YOU OUR THANKS AND PRAISE

Father we thank you for all of our precious mothers in our community who hold so much in their hearts and hands, who pray and long for your compassion, life, justice and goodness to be restored to this earth and who hold the future of the next generation in their hands. Thank you for the gift and privilege of motherhood and thank you for those who are pregnant and about to bring forth life. Pour out your oil of grace, joy and abundance afresh on our mothers and grandmothers today.
LORD HEAR OUR PRAYER

LORD WE GIVE YOU OUR THANKS AND PRAISE

AMEN

If you are a parent or just generally interested in what is going on in our children and families area at St Paul's, make sure that you are signed up for IGNITION, our weekly eNews from the families department. In IGNITION, you will hear from each of our team members about what your children are learning with hot tips and ideas on how to reinforce this at home. Any new family-oriented initiatives and events are also advertised this way. Click here to sign up or for more info, contact Jennie.

Have you ever wondered why St Paul’s has not been more involved with the University? We are on their doorstep - it's a no brainer. Well, we are about to go there! We have found an amazing 'open door'. Can you believe 80% of foreign students never get to connect with Kiwis and have a miserable time while studying in NZ? How sad is that? We are after Kiwis who would open their home; join us for a day at the beach or a trip to the park; or add a banger to the bbq once a month to show foreign students a bit of Kiwi culture! Help build a bridge – God will do the rest! Please email Paul if you're interested.

We are looking for an exceptional team player with oodles of creativity, bags of initiative and a passion for helping make church happen. He/she will play a key role in the office, supporting the team push into the next phase of the church’s life. If you have the relevant skills and experience, are organised, efficient, and have a positive and energetic personality, we want to hear from you! This is a full time, paid and permanent role of 40 hours per week, which will include some Sundays and evenings. Interested? Email Peter with your CV and covering note as soon as possible.

Are you finding the Bible hard to read? Are you unsure about how these ancient words can say anything to us today? Taught by the Dean of Laidlaw College’s Christchurch campus, Steve Graham, this introductory five-week course will equip you with some of the skills and knowledge needed to read and understand the Bible and how it speaks to our contemporary context. Runs 1-29 May at St Paul's. More info. Register Now.

You may have noticed our website has been revamped in the last few days - wahoo! Everyone who is officially on our database has been sent a member username and password - if yours didn't arrive in your inbox, please check your junk folder. If it's still missing, just zap us an email and we'll sort you out. If you didn't fill out a census form, then you will need to signup online. Login, update your profile, browse your groups and get ready, get set, get sharing! if there is something you want to see on our website that isn't there, send us your feedback - we'd love to know :)

If you are a member of St Paul's, whether near or far, make sure that you are signed up for HAPPENING, our weekly eNews. In HAPPENING, you will get the latest news and info on life, events and basically everything newsworthy at St Paul's. We send it once a week and you can unsubscribe at anytime.  Well, what are you waiting for? Sign up now.

We are proud to present the very first issue of our new St Paul's bi-monthly magazine, called SPREAD. Designed by the Black Rubric, the magazine aims to encourage and inspire us by sharing real life stories of what God is doing in and through the members of our church. 

Pour a cuppa and have a read. If you've got something good to share (it can be anonymous if you wish), then we would love to hear from you. Just email us or add a  'story' post to the website by logging and clicking the 'add a post' page.

Enjoy x

Money too tight to mention? Ever wanted some advice on budgeting and money matters? Would you like to pick up some skills in order to help others manage their financial situations? If so, please come along to our next Pastoral Care evening to receive some life-giving input from Jill Fowler – an expert in the field - on Monday 21 May at 7:30pm. We’ll be meeting in the church - entry is free. Light nibbles will be provided. Free parking at Wilson’s carpark. Everyone welcome. If you’d like more info, please email pastoral care.

The Life Course is a fun, easy and engaging way to introduce people to Jesus, faith and the church— it’s perfect for anyone asking the big curly questions in life or anyone new to St Paul’s. The course kicks off with an incredible ‘banquet’ and follows on with six more nights of dinner, conversation, stories and discussion… and often life-changing ones at that.

Last November, about 120 people joined us for the Life Course banquet, where the delish chicken cacciatore, choc brownie and great live music provided the perfect backdrop for discussing curly questions like “What was in that dip anyway?”, “If God is good, why is the world so messed up?” and “Why are there so many natural disasters?” It was a brilliant night all round and from there, about 80 people joined us for the remainder of the course.

The Life Course Banquet · Wednesday 9 May
Get praying, have a think about the neighbours, mates, siblings, workmates you can invite along and let’s give God the best chance to minister to as many as possible. Bex will tell a bit of her story and invite you to submit your curly question. Over the six Wednesday evenings following on from the banquet, we’ll get stuck into the nitty gritty of those questions and ask you to consider some of ours… and of course, all over an amazing meal. Pick up some postcards from the Welcome Area at church.

Finally, for the Life course to go off, we always need a great team of people to run it. We’re nearly sorted for the May course, but are always needing to increase our pool of volunteers—if you can chat and host, cook, serve, wash up, dry up, clean, make things look pretty, create or sew, we would love to hear from you. Please email life@stpauls.org.nz

“I came each week for the food, stayed for the great chats and now I’m coming to church.”

“I loved the life stories as they just grounded everything we were talking about.”

“Awesome team. Fun, friendly and honest about how some questions just don’t have easy answers.”

“I love that St. Paul’s is actually open to hearing some of my questions. It’s such a buzz when your question is chosen.”

“I came with so many questions and now I have even more! But I can see more and more clearly how God can and does answer so many of them.”

“Still searching…”

“I feel like God has opened my eyes to a new reality.”

Published in SPREAD magazine

The Stradwick’s, our missionaries in India are coming home for a visit from the 1st June and leave 5th July. They and their boys need accommodation for this period. It would be fantastic if we could help them out with this. Their preferred option would be a house sitting situation for that time. But they would be open to other forms of accommodation. If you could help in any way please contact Paul.

“I love the questions. This is my life, so many questions and here I can ask them and we’re all doing the same! Amazing!” said a guest on Table 3 at the life course last night. About 100 came along to chew over the whole issue of suffering over Pearl’s yum tarragon chicken with some great thoughts from Matt and Aimee. So many people new to God and church, sO good! It’s still not too late to come along this Wednesday 23 May 7pm for dinner. Bring your mates and don’t miss out! BYO. More info. Register for you and your guest now.

Sunday the 29th April saw around 800 worshippers gather across 3 services as we recorded a series of original worship tunes under the title GOD w/ US. Perhaps the most wonderful thing has been hearing many stories of people meeting intimately and profoundly with the Holy Spirit as He graciously did His thing. A big, big thank you to Jason Williamson, Tom Roberton and Naomi Dixon – your visuals were beautiful, moving and really helped us journey together. Thank you also to those who have contributed finance towards this project. We've felt all along that as we step out, the gap would be filled. The post-production stage is now underway but we still require a further 5k to bring this project to completion. If you'd like to contribute towards making this a reality then please email andy and all going well you can expect to hear the songs in August.

We had a fabulous evening last night at the Life Course Banquet with over 100 joining us for a magnificent dinner. The church was decorated by a fabulous team of working bees under the guidance of Pearl and Kirsty who were the creative minds behind the set up - autumn leaves and candelabras set a warm and beautiful ambiance. Pearl and the kitchen team cooked up a storm with gorgeous platters of olives and cheese, ciabatta bread and caramelised onions with a beautiful fillet of beef with rocket leaves and a brown rice, feta and pumpkin salad finished off with yummy tiramisu. Chloe and Zac serenaded the guests on vocals, keys and guitar. We had a range of guests from Dads, partners, friends and even some who have been receiving invites for many years who finally came along, loved it and are keen to come for the rest of the course! It is not too late to ask your friends to come along to the first night of the course next Wednesday or if you know of anyone who couldn’t make the Banquet, do let them know that they are more than welcome to join in the fun next week. Next week’s topic is suffering - “If God is good, who do bad things happen?”. See ya there!

Super enthusiastic and motivated 38yo female looking for P/T work.  Anything really: cleaning, admin, delivery work, child-minding to dog walking etc.  I am free one full day a week (Tues or Wed) and other odd hours (evenings or weekends).  Please phone me on 0212780229.  Thanks. Marj

My flatmate is moving overseas to get married so I am looking for a christian female to share my cosy flat in Mt Eden.
Please contact me on 0273387787 or
naomi_borlase86@hotmail.com