Welcome - Kia Ora
Welcome to a wide range of information on people, organizations and resources focused on cross-cultural mission in, from and to New Zealand- Aotearoa. You will find details here and links to other websites both in NZ and internationally answering an amazing array of material about mission.
New Zealand's own mission history began in pre-colonial times when Maori leaders invited Christian missionaries here. Missionaries had a vision for partnership between indigenous peoples and settlers that would avoid the exploitative history seen in places such as USA and Australia. They were involved in brokering an agreement between Maori and the British Crown and in translating the treaty of Waitangi signed in 1840. Later Government and settler actions broke the trust established and the number of Christian Maori subsequently declined.
Africa's Women Abused
By J. Lee Grady
It is time for the church in Africa—and throughout the world—to address abuse and injustice against women and girls.
After spending last week in the city of Masindi, Uganda, I traveled to Uganda's capital, Kampala, to address a women's conference. After my first session a woman named Florence grabbed me and began to tell her painful story.
Music as a mission tool
Karen Lafferty talks about her long life serving Jesus through her music
By Michael Ireland
IRVINE, CA (ANS) -- Karen Lafferty seemed set to have a good career in secular music -- until she went to a tent in Costa Mesa, California, and it all changed.
Karen Lafferty today
(Photo: Dan Wooding)
In an interview with author, broadcaster and journalist Dan Wooding, recorded for his Front Page Radio program on Southern California radio station, KWVE 107.9 FM, at an event called "A Look at The Jesus Movement," held at Concordia University, Irvine, CA, and organized by Ron Strand of Upper Room Ministries, Lafferty said she had always been a singer because she didn't know how to do anything else.
Faith Meltdown
Can the world afford a faith-meltdown any less than it can afford a financial meltdown?
The world holds its breath as European leaders attempt to address the financial crises embroiling Greece, Italy and the Euro. For what happens in Europe affects the rest of the world.
That is true in the spiritual sense too. And that makes Europe a most strategic mission field.
Sometimes I hear of missionaries in Europe being cut off from support by home churches so that resources could be redirected to 'more needy' fields, 'more responsive' regions or 'less reached' peoples. It happened to me personally some years ago.
There's a certain logic to such thinking, but it reflects misunderstandings about today's realities. Lesslie Newbigin some years ago referred to post-Christian society as 'the greatest missiological challenge' of our time. Although he had spent most of his mission career in India, he had come to see Europe as an even more challenging mission field. The difference between a pre-Christian pagan and a post-Christian pagan, he explained, was the difference between a virgin and a divorcee.
