Dear Friends

Greetings to all recipients of Coffee Break – I trust you have had some refreshment over recent weeks. I have certainly benefited from 4 weeks away from the office. And I did get to go boogey boarding a couple of times with some grandchildren.

After 45 years or so of seldom riding a bicycle Mary and I have taken up this activity with some zeal and gave ourselves new bikes for Christmas. We are fortunate to have very close to Waihi the first portion of the Hauraki Rail Trail to be opened last year with 7km between Waikino and Karangahake including the 1km tunnel that many people have walked through over recent years.

In the next few months there will be many more sections opened joining Thames, Paeroa, Te Aroha, and the current portion, meantime we are enjoying increasing our distances on the roads with plenty of quieter country roads to traverse around our area. So now the exercise regime is walking in Auckland and mostly cycling in Waihi with the latter of course giving much longer distances over the same time frame each morning. It is wonderful to be out catching whiffs of the many country smells, hearing the multitude of bird songs, and having the wind whistle around the ears as we fly down the other side of the hills we have exerted ourselves in getting to the top. We are indeed blessed to have such a wonderful portion of creation to enjoy. We achieved 18km one morning last week and another 12 km that evening so feel we are making good progress.

Looking ahead through 2012 I have some things planned with the calendar filling fast from next week onwards, at least until 25 April when hopefully there will be a bit if a pause as we head south to do the Otago Rail Trail followed by a period of leisurely traversing some parts of the South Island, we have spent little time exploring thus far or not even seen such as Milford Sound.

 Between now and then we have Lent and Easter, great times for church community and personal development through creative worship and reflection.  I note that this year Ash Wednesday is 22 February which is the first anniversary of the big Christchurch earthquake and there will likely be a number of ways you can encourage your people to stand with their brothers and sisters in Christ in commemorating this time.

 Near the end of next week, I will be mailing (snail) out the following:

• 2012 Year Books for those who requested and paid for them
• 2012 Pastors Integration and Orientation course brochure plus accompanying letter
• The Next Step Project (an evangelism mobilisation strategy for your church) brochure
• Lenten Reflection booklets for each Pastoral staff person to use