Wilderness Sunday | Te Wiki o te Reo Māori

 

Te Wiki o te Reo Māori

Kia ora! This week is Te Wiki o te Reo Māori | Maori Language Week. I had hoped to get out and about and record some of you singing a waiata for our Digital Awesome Time, however have not been able to manage that this week. Perhaps some of you might like to email or message me with your own recording?

You can check out a recording with lyrics to Tutira Mai Nga Iwi at this link. Give it a go!

How about learning and practicing your Maori alphabet and pronunciation? Check out this link for more.

This is a great website for learning some new words... there are 365 listed here - you could try a new one each day of the year! Click HERE for 365 Maori words.

Wilderness Sunday

It is Wilderness Sunday in our series of creation. In today's bible reading, Paul remembers the walk across the hot, sandy desert wilderness. He remembered going to places where people wanted to hear about God's love. The wilderness is a wild place, but it's a special place too. The animals and plants in the wilderness don't need people. Unfortunately, people can disturb the natural environment, the life cycle. This week we can remember that God is with us in every place in the world - in quiet places, busy places, wild places and beautiful places. God needs us to respect and show kindness to the awesome world God has created. 

We thank God for the wild places in the world. We remember that we are part of God's giant web of creation. May we remember that God's hope is in us and all around us.

Children Like You

We can work with God to bring signs of God's hope to a hurting world. All around the world, children like YOU are working in and with their communities to do amazing things.

On the news this week there was a great story about a young man who saw an elderly lady mowing her lawn. He stopped, took the lawnmower from her and insisted on finishing mowing her lawn for her. When he was done, he got in his car and drove off. He did not expect to be paid or rewarded for his act of kindness. I thought this was a pretty cool story to make national TV. I hope it has inspired many others to look for ways they can show kindness in their community.

Where do you see a need? What can you do to help?

A Story of Hope

Monica was part of a Lockdown Voices | Speak Out project, through the Write On / School for Young Writers. Students were asked to write a response to the pandemic and their experience of Lockdown. Monica's piece has been published and recorded as a podcast, aired on Plains FM 96.9FM radio this morning. You can read and listen to her story here:

Lockdown Voices | Monica | Standing at Dawn