Above All, Christ.

Just a quick update, haven't had regular access to the internet so this will be brief. The summer overall has been amazing and truly formational for me spiritually. There have been some very hard “dark nights of the soul,” as preacher Matt Chandler calls them as I have worked through some deep theological issues only to come through it with a deeper love of Christ. (EDIT: To unpack this a bit more, I made knowledge of God my god and that god failed me... through prayer and mental anguish God made me aware of this in His mercy.) This year has been huge for me in so many ways. Thank you all for journeying with me and for prayer. Lauren took me to 'The Summer Vineyard Tour' in Queenstown for a early 26^th Birthday present and it was a beautiful experience. I have remained healthy since getting over the 6+ weeks of Fiji diseases (goodness!) and have even been able to work the last 8 days in a row and will continue to press on. This coming Friday night, Lauren and I's Jewish friends have invited us to a Chabad Meeting (Synagogue) to my overwhelming delight and I plan to spend at least a few minutes brushing up on my Hebrew and covenant promises in the Torah and beyond. The next day the 4 of us along with our Queenstown friend Dan, will drive out to Milford then take a 3 hour boat cruise into the sound. You need to Google that. Seriously. Milford Sound is one of the top rated tourist destinations in NZ and if I wasn't so exhausted right now I wouldn't be able to sleep at night due to building anticipation. I think the boss is giving everyone a 3 day weekend to cope with doing 10+ in a row during the crunch part of the season and that should be a good time for much needed r+r. On Feb 23^rd, Lauren and I will fly back to Auckland then proceed to have a proper 5 day vacation at Laidlaws Piha beach house after putting in the long and hard hours in the field. Please be in prayer as I begin to pray and plan over the direction I feel God is leading the youth and wider church at Avondale Baptist. Exciting times indeed.

His,

Piper

You gotta smile if you want to get picked up... Thanks Lauren for the pic.

Mmm, tree

Waitangi Day Reggae Festival in Queenstown

Lauren in Queenstown

Above: The artist Aloe Blacc who performed for my "Birthday Party," with Lauren. Love this soul, funk, brother.

Summer Update.

Above: Sebastian, Myself and Gabrielle at Zebra Vineyard.

Nothing like the harsh weather conditions in the middle of Summer and everything that comes with it. Stinky sweaty palms, feet and underarms- bugs, spiderwebs and dust up to your ears+ sunburn..... and the occasional snowfall. All of which are just apart of Central Otago Summer. What??!!

On Monday and Tuesday it hovered around 90 degrees, then on Thursday evening a cold front (most likely from the Antarctic) moved up into Cromwell and it Snowed that night on the mountains and hills of the surrounding area. When we started work that day it was around 40 degrees, which is a tremendous shock to the system. I bundled up like a Eskimo from the loaner pile of clothes at work as I wobbled around the vineyard. Shortly thereafter, I couldn't feel my fingers as I mentally willed them into the grape canopies covered in what felt like nearly freezing rain water. The clouds effectively blocked out all of the suns radiant warmth until 2pm when the day was nearly finished. We all asked ourselves if that really had just happened. Crazy.

 Above: Thursday. Noah Pendreigh and I mini golfing for his 14th Birthday.

Above: Friday Morning

Today Lauren and I will move out of the Pendreighs guest house as we make room for their friends from up north visiting. We will be shifted into a (massive) beautiful house on the lake that is closer to work (woohoo, we get to sleep in to 5:40am now!) being hosted by David and Francis Stewart from Cromwell Presbyterian. Lauren and I are both extremely grateful for the hospitality shown us over the last two months by the Pendreighs as well as the excellent dinners cooked! We are now looking forward to our own rooms in this new house as spending almost literally every moment of the last weeks together can be a lot. The time though has been very special and will probably never happen again, so we are doing our best to enjoy it.

Our time in Cromwell is slowly winding down. On my physical birthday in the United States (February 23^rd here as NZ is a day ahead) we will be flying back home to Auckland from Queenstown to celebrate with friends and church family etc before school starts on March 5^th. Big plans have been made for my 1+ week holiday in Auckland showing Lauren around the area. The tour will include, snorkeling at Goat Island, 4 nights at Laidlaws Piha beach guest house, go carting and more; a perfect way to end the summer. I thank God for the blessing of 'normal' health, sickness free. I don't take that for granted. I'm currently in the best shape of my life, and feel as strong as ever. I recently dropped a huge chunk of change on a iphone that I have been waiting to buy for around a year. When I first arrived to NZ two years ago, I slowly sold off my items of value to make ends meet. It's a great place to have paid off school and future school and have the ability to buy “extras.” It's currently loaded with all of my Hebrew flash cards and soon to be Greek cards to help me learn the language. I've also discovered that I'm capable of listening to sermons while keeping a solid work pace. What a blessing that was to have been able to listen to 12 sermons in the last 4 days while still having the ability to respond to the bosses text messages and calls out in the field. If anything, hearing teaching from Habakkuk gets my heart pumping and blood a flowin' and I work even faster. I just need to remind myself not to cry in front of my coworkers when Matt Chandler retells the story of how Josiah found the Torah after years of perverse kings ruling and the subsequent revival the Law brought. So good.

-His

Above: Nothing runs like a Deere.

Jews + Gentiles, Mustangs and Rocks.

Above: Firwood 2003. This photo has nothing to do with this post, but brings so much joy to my heart at its recent unearthing by a fellow staff member that summer that I had to post it. Guess which one I am.

Above: One of my favorites at the show.

It's that time of the season where life explodes, as if a switch was flipped and the vines can hardly be contained. The days of work are longer and hotter as the previously soft vineyard workers bodies become hardened by the daily 85+ degree heat, 6 days a week. The boss man decided that we had been working really hard and decided to give all 18 of us the weekend off so that we could get some rest. It's funny to me how this 6 day weekend coincided with Cromwells largest Ford car show, boasting over 700 vehicles-1 of them being the bosses Mustang.

Above: Batmans weekend transport?

Above: Part of the Zebra Crew with the boss in shorts and glasses next to me. I think there is suppose to be a Mustang in this picture. 

We now have a work crew at Zebra that represents: Mexico, United States, Canada, Israel, New Zealand, Czech, Germany, France and Chile, and they're all fantastic to work with. The people that showed they weren't interested in really working have been pruned, leaving the best. This Saturday nearly the entire crew met at the car show, viewing some classic North American muscle cars and enjoying one anothers company around Craigs stang'. Before the show Lauren and I met up with two of our favorite Jews, Omri and Adva, a precious couple that we walked around town with. After the car show the group decided that we would go out dancing in Queenstown while Lauren and I hosted the group at our house, providing some food and water. As the group was to large, we broke off from one another leaving Lauren and I with Omri and Adva. I had been praying the week to get a chance to show them Jesus through the Torah, Nev'im and the Ket'ivim (TANAKH) and then into the New Testament, but that would come later. The four of us decided to pursue my favorite mode of transportation, hitch hiking towards our Queenstown destination. I thought that the 4 of us might have difficulty getting picked up but that was proved very wrong when Dan with the van, pick us up. Lauren sat in the front (the only available seat belt) and myself and the Jews sat in the back. Dan discovered that Omri and Adva where from Israel and he lit up. Dan is a 26 year old Maori guy that just so happens to love Israel after visiting and accepting Christ into his heart a year ago. As the three of us were sitting in the back we couldn't really hear the people in the front, so conversation was divided between the front (Lauren and Dan) and the back (myself and the Israelis). This gave me a chance to share about my near death experience and where God had lead me in life, providing a foundation for future conversation.

 Above: The view from Dan's condo deck.

The Queenstown plan was for Lauren and the Israelis to stay in a hostel, with me hitch hiking back to Cromwell after dinner. I wanted Lauren to experience a international night like I have had so many times before that was all her own. That wasn't to be as Dan opened up his house to us to stay at for the night and offered to give me a ride back to Cromwell in the morning. Everything changed, as we walked up to his beautiful lakeside condo that was paid for by his work. Whoa. As the women made us a beautiful pasta, I was able to discuss Israels history with the Israelis in a way they had never heard before. God opened the door for conversation on, covenant, Jewish hopes pre/post exile, Abraham Isaac and Jacob... along with Jesus as defined by a Jew named Paul. They were totally enthralled and I was more than grateful for education and Laidlaw and background in Hebrew language. I was blown away by the response. This is a work in progress... pray for these two. After the history/Bible lesson they asked me to share my testimony which provided fantastic dialogue. Now for a complete change of pace.

The Flying Frenchman showed up. Gabriel, who I have affectionately named, shares almost as much enthusiasm as me for working. He is natural leader based on his personality and charm. With him he brought the rest of the Zebra international work crew in a van to Dans house. Dan was completely ok with this (invited all these strangers to stay the night at his new condo), and both Dan and I took on the roles of designated drivers for the crew. We danced/ road mechanical bulls until 3 in the morning, I haven't had so much fun since New Years with Lauren. At one point Dan and I decided to leave the dance club and talk about Jesus which was a sweet time with a amazing brother. Later that evening the club decided to promote a distasteful competition among volunteering woman, I walked out with Dan and Lauren. Shortly behind us followed the Flying Frenchmen who was confused/impressed 1. with Laurens rejection of his advances as he had never experienced that before (Lauren went for a walk on her own to pray and wasn't there for the following conversation). And 2, my love for God as he respected me/was equally angered by it. For the next 15 minutes he told me why he didn't believe in Jesus but prayed to a god that he identified as his ancestors. For not believing in God, he was certainly angry with him. I smiled while telling Gabriel we would chat about God on Monday when he was sober.

Above: Leaning tower of Wanaka. 

Above: Andrew scoping out a good boulder problem to work on. 

Everyone got home safely that night. The next morning, Dan drove me back to Cromwell where I briefly ate and dressed for a day of rock climbing with another coworker in Wanaka. I hitch hiked to Wanaka with a lovely Kiwi family and then met up with Andrew. We drove out to the stunning rock fields in Wanaka where we climbed all afternoon. All in all, it was a amazing weekend. Some might object to Christians dancing in a club and in part I resonate with that. What happened though was a beautiful opportunity to share with those that previously thought Christians didn't know how to have fun. They saw stone cold sober Christians having just as good time as them for far less money. I think this will open multiple doors in the future for conversation. As for me, I need to go to bed. Pushing 26, I'm to old for this and need my sleep.

-His

Above: Camera betrays massive scale. Those dots are Cows.

Above: Unreal Beauty on a huge scale. 

Above: Least safe thing I have done since my trip to the hospital. 

Above: Me stopping on a free-solo route before the top. Decided it was best to turn back, thanks for that one wisdom.

For Zhong Guo.

Above: View from a place I frequented in Shenzhen, China 2006.

Recently, Blogger put a feature onto it's page that would allow me to see where people are reading my blog from. The results were surprising, especially in recent months. Just for fun I wanted to put some numbers up before getting into the most important thing I can think of. These results represent views since the blog was started in May 2009. Since that date this site has been viewed 8,329 times. The numbers below are views from respective countries. Only the top 10 countries have numbers next to them. The list at the bottom is hugely incomplete but provides some idea of other sources.

United States: 4,312

New Zealand: 1,169

Australia: 410

China: 341

Netherlands: 288

Russia: 175

Germany: 157

Israel: 112

France: 97

Rwanda: 94

Chile, Taiwan, Brazil, South Africa, South Korea, UK, India, Malaysia, Canada and Italy.

The reason why I bring this up (other than I find it interesting) is that in the last 3 months the views from China have drastically spiked. I'm not going to speculate to much, but knowing that www.davidandrewpiper.com is blocked in the mainland leads me to think that people from censorship or the government are reading my blog. Maybe that is entirely untrue and it represents views from Hong Kong that has wider internet access, but I find it to coincidental. The 300+ view spike comes directly in the wake of a email I sent to someone about Ye su Ji du, in the mainland.

So if I'm speaking about you, my curious Chinese friend, this is a simplified account of what God is doing in the world and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It's you who I write this for.

Even if there is no church near you, if you seek Jesus, you will find Him. What is amazing about Jesus was that He came to earth, ate and drank, slept, was tired and hungry just like us. God (Jesus) became a man and entered into human history and time. We know from the Bible that Jesus was beaten and abused and even abandoned by his friends when he needed them most. We know that the God who became man (Jesus) suffered just as we suffer today and can relate to our problems. God feels the pain of your family because he has experienced it as a man on earth. In Jesus (the God who became Man, but was still fully God at the same time) we see what is near Gods heart. When we read the chapters in the Bible Matthew/Mark/Luke/John we see how Jesus lived and treated people. Now we know how to live and treat people, Jesus said, "If you have seen the way I live my life, you have seen how God truly is." Ever since the beginning, man has been trying to do life apart from Jesus and God, thinking that they know a better way to live life than Jesus. Every person alive though needs to repent and ask for forgiveness from God for trying to do life on their own, no matter how good a person they are. All people have tried to live apart from what God wants, and all people fall short of being like Jesus. All you need to do to become a Christian is to ask God for forgiveness from trying to do life on your own, and make the teaching and life of Jesus the most important things in your life. As you live like Jesus in faith, God transforms your heart to make it more and more like the heart of Jesus. What's important to Jesus becomes important to you, your life will be forever changed. Being a Christian you don't need to do any ongoing special rituals that all other religions demand, you simply need to place your faith and trust in Jesus. Your faith in Jesus is what saves you. The greatest Christian hope is that one day Jesus will come back to earth to restore all the bad things to good. We are certain of this as Christians. When Jesus returns there will be no more sickness, death, wars, natural disasters. What God calls Christians to (Christians are followers of Christ) is to live like the future is now! We as Christians are to live like Jesus has returned and made everything good. We are to love others without seeking reward, help those who have nothing and to share Jesus with others to free them from the evils of the world. We do this in faith until we die, or Christ returns. Faith, Hope, and Love are the 3 greatest things the Christian must pursue. No Christian is perfect, they still make mistakes.... I make lots of them. But as we seek to become more like Jesus, our faith in Jesus saves us from separation from God and our sins. I rejected Christianity when I was 19. One of my best friends died, and from that I wanted to know what life was about and what was important because I know life is so short. The best life possible is the life that Jesus lived. I want to be more like Jesus everyday. I pray that you will find Jesus as your savior and that your life will be transformed forever. I know in my heart that this might be the start of something special in your life. If you want to know more, click on the comment box below.

Christ's servant,

Da Wei

One down, Two to Go.

Above: Stunning Central Otago sunsets. Unbelievable reds and pinks, photo doesn't approach the justice it's due.

With joy in my heart and a smile on my face, I can say that semester one at Laidlaw is now paid off... again. Last year while attempting to pay for semester 2 at Laidlaw I came down with parvovirus that put me in the hospital, 3 days before the start of the semester. I had paid for half of the semester through some of my own funds but mostly generous donations from DCC family. The Friday night I was in the ER, I received a call from the schools principle, stating that I had received a $4,000 scholarship from Laidlaw. I was all set to attend school that Monday, except my gall bladder wasn't and I was a physical wreck. I used some of the donors money (at their approval) to fly home.

As of today though, I have finally paid off the remainder of my balance (as well as 10% of semester 2) after working this summer in Cromwell and receiving a $1000 donation from NZ out of the blue. Praise God, it's been a long time in the works. I thought this would have been paid off a long time ago, but between the surgery and month and a half battle between camplobacta and then stapholoccacus from the mission trip to Fiji, I was unable to work like I thought I would. I'm now working towards paying off semester 2, and Lord willing I will pay off 1 third to 1 half of semester 2, which has put me in the best financial situation since arrival to NZ.

As for my health, I'm as strong as ever, maybe in the best shape of my life- working 6 days a week in the beautiful Cromwell sun. Drinking plenty of water and eating at least 5+ servings of fruits and vegetables a day to fortify my immune system. I'm thankful for this life and still have more to live. Today marks the 2nd rainy day this summer where work is impossible, allowing me time to respond to emails and update the ole blog.

If you can remember back to my November 13th blog entry, I shared about a friend from China that I got to share Christ with over email. After not receiving an email back from him in 7 weeks, I began to think crazy thoughts. Maybe I had said to much about Jesus? Maybe he was in Government custody, as the Chinese government screens emails. I was frustrated at myself for maybe putting him in possible danger(?). Then... last week I received word back from him thanking me for introducing Jesus to him. I won't share further or mention his name but the next blog entry I write might prove to be a interesting read, a letter to the government. Stay tuned.

-piper

New Year, Endless Possibilities.

Above: My best Julie Andrews impersonation on New Years Eve.

More than 100 new photos have been uploaded to the Cromwell 2012 Link on the right for your enjoyment. They range from Laurens arrival, Christmas on the Farm to New Years Eve in Queenstown.

On Sunday December 31st Lauren and I packed our communal bag and headed to Queenstown, aware that all accommodation was booked in the city. Lauren and I said I quick prayer as we walked to my prized hitch-hiking spot for this and safety among other things. This was her first time ever hitching and I assured her that everything would be good. It took all of 4 minutes to get picked up by a middle age woman in a camper van with 4 'yapper' dogs. Phew. Laurens tension nearly followed her hair out the car window as we enjoyed the sunny ride into Qtown with the windows down. Our host couldn't drop us all the way there but brought us to a good spot some 5 miles outside of town. It just so happened that our next ride was a mid-20's female from Christchurch (that wanted to get away from all the earthquakes) that knew of available camping in the area. We got dropped off on the towns rugby field, paid our money to the man at the gate and then set up my tent with a 1000+ of our closest friends. This was a relief to me as I was responsible for the groups well being could rest knowing that we had secured a place to lay our heads when the night was over.

After a beautiful Fergburger dinner on the waterfront we watched the opening bands play on Queenstowns mainstage. The first band up was the worship team from Freedom Church. I knew Pastor Alister wouldn't be to far away scanning the crowd. We enjoyed the mainstream+ subversive worship music at this public venue and after some minutes I found the Pastor and his wife, introducing my sister to them as we all sat together. We then made our way up at 9:30 to the Gondola which elevated us up to the highest point in Qtown where we walked around the sprawling hills and embraced the sunset. Awe inspiring beauty. Unbelievable. Cruisen' our way into the Gondola Center where the New Years party was heald we were greeted with a assortment of all you can eat cheeses and a fantastic cover band named Mojo. Cheese and music followed by dancing the night into the New Year and the fireworks show took place. Towards 12:30am we took the Gondola back into the city and were assaulted with more drunk folks and personalities then I could point a stick at. We enjoyed some great dubstep/trance/techno drum and bass type music until 1 then called it a night after watching people vomit lost all its appeal.

Rule #484: When camping with 1000+ of your closest friends, be prepared to not get any sleep. I only had a single man tent (my ultra-light travel necessity) so I rigged the rain shield over the tent itself and into some flax bushes to provide me with some level of shelter. We survived the night. 

Breakfast on the 1st was followed by a quick hitching journey home and Laurens views on hiking in this fashion might have changed. So much fun.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

A Theological New Years and Christmas reflection:

Farmer Bob woke up that fine day at the same time he did every other day, 4:45am. He had been feeding Chicken Jim, without fail at 5:30am shortly after the moment Jim broke through his white shell barring him from the wide the world. Day after day, Jim ate his fill at the hand of Bob until he was content and satisfied. All Jim knew was the hand that brought him nourishment, day after day after day. On this particular day as Bob rose and Jim's great expectations were aroused, Farmer Bob did something that Jim had never ever in his existence prior experienced. Farmer Bob unsuspectingly wrung Chicken Jim's neck to make food for his family. Until this moment, the chicken could have never even comprehended that this could have been a possibility. Jims reality was changed (albeit briefly) forever. In the same radical manner, the seemingly closed world that  Jesus entered as a child had only known and comprehended life and it's end in a single way. When you died, you stayed dead. That was the reality that all the world had known, but Christs rising changed all that. Forever.

Of all the Christianese terms that get thrown out there, 'born again' could be one of the least understood. It can sound like a very abstract litmus Christianity test of sorts that is rarely qualified with a clarifying statement... I'm not saying I have the market covered on understanding this beautiful thing, but let's take a look at this in light of God entering into our world as defenseless baby. When I observe babies (at a safe distance), the first thing that I notice is that they bring nothing to the table, they are highly demanding and they can smell unpleasant but that's besides the point. We all know that babies are unable to do anything on their own without the loving care of a parent. They would die without the daily resources provided to them by those with the means to provide. Recent natal psychology has shown how intrinsic external sources are to a babies temperament and awareness of the world. Babies actually can't regulate their emotions without the (for example) help of someone other than themselves (General Theory of Love, 2007). Without love, they will die. When a baby falls down, it will look to her loving mother for a response. If the mother grimaces in pain, rushing to the child the baby will cry, on the other hand if the mother smiles knowing that the fall wasn't harmful the child might giggle. In this way she learns her place in the world.

As Jesus grew he perfectly responded to the external love of his Heavenly Father. He trusted in the Father with a perfect faith and grew strong and healthy. The faith that Jesus exhibited in God the Father was beyond what any of us are capable of as he was God and Man (Check out Jesus prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane!).By faith, we can enter into and participate in this loving relationship between God the son and God the father. Our faith in Jesus as he showed us the perfect faith in God the Father is what changes everything. Before we knew of Christ our earthly births were headed down a trajectory of death and separation. To be born again, is to have a radical transformation of all that we know and hold to be true. There are endless opportunities in the world competing for our collective affections, only one of them leads to life. If we as infants had a negligent mother who didn't understand what was good or bad, our foundation in what was good or healthy would be shaky. If we let the world, which doesn't know the first thing about living, teach us how to live we are doomed (Eph 2:1-6). When we are born again, we are 'reborn' into a new world of limitless love, where nothing is static. Forsaking all others (Mt 5:8) but seeking the face of the Father that perfectly loves us, for guidance is the only start that leads to life. When we come with faith as a child to the Father- a newborn, unable to care for ourselves or determine our own future, let alone the next few days- we are transformed. Infants come with empty slates. Previous failures and disappointments are non existent and hold no bearing over their lives. Everything is new, everything is fresh, we are ready to molded from the bottom up.

Christs life, death and resurrection are the most important things that have ever happened in our world. If someone truly rose from the dead, wouldn't what they said and did be of immeasurable importance? A baby that was born and never died changes everything. If this event is true, we can hold on to the promises this child made. Everything changes. The resurrection shattered (or clarified) all false ideas that humanities previous reality held. Before Christ rose, we couldn't possibly understand this glorious outcome to our lives. We were just like the chicken in the sense that we were fully unaware of what truly lay ahead. Humanity, shaped by gospel reality  (1Cor 13), can now dream dreams, far grander than a static world could allow where the grave was the final destination. Through Christ, humanity has discovered that deaths victory and sting is no more. Christ the King, the infant child, has changed our world forever.

Merry Christmas, blessed day of the Saviors birth to all of those who are born again into this reality- and Happy New Year.

-piper

Merry Christmas!

Above: While you all were opening presents Lauren and I were milking cows : ) Merry Christmas everyone and God bless, from Milton New Zealand.