Hey guys sorry it’s been a long time since I’ve blogged but thanks so much for lee and Steven for filling in for me while I’ve been out at camp
last week I was there at homeless but my team met one person drawing closer to the end of the night so it wasn’t so eventful for my group hence why lee blogged
This week we started off with a leaders meeting. It was to talk about what we wanted to do for Christmas. The only common theme we had through the ideas was to share a common meal with the homeless.
our now Christmas idea is to have a pre packed picnic at Albert part starting about 6:30-7 on Thursday the 17th.
So if you want to have some one on one time with some homeless people and keen for kai to feed your pukus then come along. Anyone and everyone’s welcome!
this week we met outside maca’s and had a fairly large crew turn up. It was great to see so many people support and wanting to reach out to the homeless people and brake down societal barriers with us! Two boys named Trent and Eddie who attended for their first time last week attended this week again and loved it. They immediately noticed the homeless person relaxing at the bus stop across the road. Before we were even ready there were well on their way just chatting to him and really getting to know him. It was super encouraging for me to see these boys do what they do. They have such a heart for people it’s awesome. The guy they were talking to they had met last week and his name was Noel. Noel wasn’t originally from Auckland but was born and raised in the Hastings areas. As sad as it was he looked to be a fairly old man in his 40’s possibly heading towards his 50’s and his left arm had been amputated as all there is, is a stub from his elbow if I can recall correctly. Please pray that we are able to get to know Noel better over the summer periods.
We then all met up again and realising we had a group of about 15 of us we decided to split up into 2 groups and go separate ways. I wanted to head towards st Mathew’s church this week as I didn’t get to last week and took a bunch of people with me including Trent and Eddie. The other group was lead by Steven and they headed towards bottom of Queen Street with new comer Hasini.
As my group approached the sky tower we Trent noticed someone sitting at the bus stop with a massive travel bag. Immediately he led our group there and sat down and started talking to him. I found it encouraging that he is comfortable to sit with these people so easily and that it also helps break down barriers when talking to them so they may not feel that there is a “superiority” between us and them. Its very encouraging! This guy we met called himself “holder”. He is of Maori decent and had just gotten into Auckland that day. He was from Whangarei and had come down to look into some entitlement that Maori people are supposed to have. He was looking into a specific set of money set aside for Maori people that was meant to be used for housing only. He had said that the laws have changed and made it more and more complicated and harder to access this money that was entitled to the Maori people. He was very knowledgeable about Maori history and the treaty of Waitangi. When we spoke to him about what we were doing he said that he believes that the rich gets richer and the poor gets poorer. He also believes a lot of the rich love money hence why they strive more for it but yet where the poor love people more and give and share their money with other people as a community, Yet this is why they are poor. It was a very interesting conversation that we had with him and pray that he is still around so we may get to know him more and learn from him if there is wisdom from him that he would like to pass on.
As we headed to the church we met carbon once again. However it was a quick conversation as he was ready for bed. He has been doing well so pray that he continues to do well living on the streets and that we can continue to get to know him.
Heading towards the city mission I spotted a person by the car park however the rest of my group continued towards the mission. Pearl followed with me as I sat next to this person and tried to get to know him. His name was Wiri John Paul and he had been drinking all day he had said. He had been raised in south Auckland and went to Aorere College. (in case those of you are reading this and don’t know Aorere is one of the schools in south Auckland that has a lot of crime and fights amongst the students there) he finished at 6th form and left in 2002. Once he left he managed to get some work from allied work forced as a labourer. He did that for about 3 years. From there he was living on the streets and it has been an on and off occasion for about 8 years since. Recently for him he was sentenced to jail for 4 weeks for fines I think it was yet because jail had been too full over the periods he had been released after a few days in which he was really thankful for. That Thursday night I met him was the day he was released and had wanted to go to Glen Innes to drink with his brother Norman who use to live on the streets as well as it was his birthday. He had mentioned from living on the streets he had his own crowd of friends and he was also friends of Fat boy. He also felt comfortable with us to tell us that he was in pain as he had ulcers on his leg. His leg was really swollen and he said he really wanted it to get better so he could go back to try find some work. Meeting Wiri was really heart breaking and encouraging for me as it was a really great conversation and I could see where god may have played a role in his life like the recent get out of jail situation. It was also heart breaking about him living on the streets for so long and about his leg with ulcers on it. I then proceeded to ask him if he would be comfortable if we prayed for him and his leg and situation which he accepted. After we had prayed for him he shook our hands as we went of and managed to say god bless you too. I know it’s a common saying but to me I felt he really appreciated it that someone took the time out to hear his story and care about him. Please pray for Wiri John Paul for his leg to get better and so that he is able to find work. Also pray he stays out of trouble and that he is able to reunite with his brother again and celebrate that he does no longer have to serve the sentence of 4 weeks in jail.
After that we reunited with our group and headed towards the bus stop behind Aotea square. There was one sleeping and one looking out for the one sleeping. We offered them juice and food and went on their way. They seemed a bit side tracked but also seemed very tired hence why we left fairly quickly so they could rest. From there we met up with the other group and called it a night.
Please continue to pray for our mission and vision to reach these people on the streets. Pray for continued support and that we rely on the lord for our strength and that we are not doing things out of our own will. Pray for guidance for organisation preparation and servant hood for our Christmas picnic thing for the homeless. Pray that trough our actions and words spoken that we are true representatives of Christ!
Thank you guys for reading and thank you for those who managed to turn up and attend every week. It is really appreciated. Thank you for all your prayers and for all your support. God bless you all.
Grace and peace with you all!
Duncan
last week I was there at homeless but my team met one person drawing closer to the end of the night so it wasn’t so eventful for my group hence why lee blogged
This week we started off with a leaders meeting. It was to talk about what we wanted to do for Christmas. The only common theme we had through the ideas was to share a common meal with the homeless.
our now Christmas idea is to have a pre packed picnic at Albert part starting about 6:30-7 on Thursday the 17th.
So if you want to have some one on one time with some homeless people and keen for kai to feed your pukus then come along. Anyone and everyone’s welcome!
this week we met outside maca’s and had a fairly large crew turn up. It was great to see so many people support and wanting to reach out to the homeless people and brake down societal barriers with us! Two boys named Trent and Eddie who attended for their first time last week attended this week again and loved it. They immediately noticed the homeless person relaxing at the bus stop across the road. Before we were even ready there were well on their way just chatting to him and really getting to know him. It was super encouraging for me to see these boys do what they do. They have such a heart for people it’s awesome. The guy they were talking to they had met last week and his name was Noel. Noel wasn’t originally from Auckland but was born and raised in the Hastings areas. As sad as it was he looked to be a fairly old man in his 40’s possibly heading towards his 50’s and his left arm had been amputated as all there is, is a stub from his elbow if I can recall correctly. Please pray that we are able to get to know Noel better over the summer periods.
We then all met up again and realising we had a group of about 15 of us we decided to split up into 2 groups and go separate ways. I wanted to head towards st Mathew’s church this week as I didn’t get to last week and took a bunch of people with me including Trent and Eddie. The other group was lead by Steven and they headed towards bottom of Queen Street with new comer Hasini.
As my group approached the sky tower we Trent noticed someone sitting at the bus stop with a massive travel bag. Immediately he led our group there and sat down and started talking to him. I found it encouraging that he is comfortable to sit with these people so easily and that it also helps break down barriers when talking to them so they may not feel that there is a “superiority” between us and them. Its very encouraging! This guy we met called himself “holder”. He is of Maori decent and had just gotten into Auckland that day. He was from Whangarei and had come down to look into some entitlement that Maori people are supposed to have. He was looking into a specific set of money set aside for Maori people that was meant to be used for housing only. He had said that the laws have changed and made it more and more complicated and harder to access this money that was entitled to the Maori people. He was very knowledgeable about Maori history and the treaty of Waitangi. When we spoke to him about what we were doing he said that he believes that the rich gets richer and the poor gets poorer. He also believes a lot of the rich love money hence why they strive more for it but yet where the poor love people more and give and share their money with other people as a community, Yet this is why they are poor. It was a very interesting conversation that we had with him and pray that he is still around so we may get to know him more and learn from him if there is wisdom from him that he would like to pass on.
As we headed to the church we met carbon once again. However it was a quick conversation as he was ready for bed. He has been doing well so pray that he continues to do well living on the streets and that we can continue to get to know him.
Heading towards the city mission I spotted a person by the car park however the rest of my group continued towards the mission. Pearl followed with me as I sat next to this person and tried to get to know him. His name was Wiri John Paul and he had been drinking all day he had said. He had been raised in south Auckland and went to Aorere College. (in case those of you are reading this and don’t know Aorere is one of the schools in south Auckland that has a lot of crime and fights amongst the students there) he finished at 6th form and left in 2002. Once he left he managed to get some work from allied work forced as a labourer. He did that for about 3 years. From there he was living on the streets and it has been an on and off occasion for about 8 years since. Recently for him he was sentenced to jail for 4 weeks for fines I think it was yet because jail had been too full over the periods he had been released after a few days in which he was really thankful for. That Thursday night I met him was the day he was released and had wanted to go to Glen Innes to drink with his brother Norman who use to live on the streets as well as it was his birthday. He had mentioned from living on the streets he had his own crowd of friends and he was also friends of Fat boy. He also felt comfortable with us to tell us that he was in pain as he had ulcers on his leg. His leg was really swollen and he said he really wanted it to get better so he could go back to try find some work. Meeting Wiri was really heart breaking and encouraging for me as it was a really great conversation and I could see where god may have played a role in his life like the recent get out of jail situation. It was also heart breaking about him living on the streets for so long and about his leg with ulcers on it. I then proceeded to ask him if he would be comfortable if we prayed for him and his leg and situation which he accepted. After we had prayed for him he shook our hands as we went of and managed to say god bless you too. I know it’s a common saying but to me I felt he really appreciated it that someone took the time out to hear his story and care about him. Please pray for Wiri John Paul for his leg to get better and so that he is able to find work. Also pray he stays out of trouble and that he is able to reunite with his brother again and celebrate that he does no longer have to serve the sentence of 4 weeks in jail.
After that we reunited with our group and headed towards the bus stop behind Aotea square. There was one sleeping and one looking out for the one sleeping. We offered them juice and food and went on their way. They seemed a bit side tracked but also seemed very tired hence why we left fairly quickly so they could rest. From there we met up with the other group and called it a night.
Please continue to pray for our mission and vision to reach these people on the streets. Pray for continued support and that we rely on the lord for our strength and that we are not doing things out of our own will. Pray for guidance for organisation preparation and servant hood for our Christmas picnic thing for the homeless. Pray that trough our actions and words spoken that we are true representatives of Christ!
Thank you guys for reading and thank you for those who managed to turn up and attend every week. It is really appreciated. Thank you for all your prayers and for all your support. God bless you all.
Grace and peace with you all!
Duncan
