Ano te pai It is a good and beautiful thing
O tenei huihuinga this gathering
o nga teina me nga tuakana of those who are like younger siblings
and those who are like older siblings
I runga i te aroha pumau under the covering of love everlasting

SBJ and I have just got back from adventures! We flew to Auckland yesterday morning to spend two days meeting with other preachers from around the country at a Franciscan Friary. The Daddy stayed home to work, so we headed off on our own.

Well, I say ‘on our own,’ but of course it was only possible, particularly with my depleted resources right now, through the kindness of many friends.

Geri was a sunny and entertaining presence in our youth group when I was a youth leader in my twenties. She’s now a professional Sign Language freelance interpreter, and had a couple of days free. So she offered to look after SBJ for most of the time we were up. Her wonderful sister Laura lives in Wellington and sees a lot of him, so she ended up coming all the way up on her days off to hang out with us all.

Then the lovely Anna and Niki came for an afternoon. SBJ was quite the lucky boy with all these doting aunties! They hung out with the birds in the aviary, walked around the grounds, went for coffee down the road and generally had a good time.

I got to attend almost all the sessions over two days, and my brain coped surprisingly well. SBJ attended a few chunks, too, and was warmly welcomed by the other participants. Andy and Grant drove us to airports, Robyn and Val helped me at each check-in. John walked SBJ around while I snuck away for a shower after breakfast at the Friary: these kinds of adventures are possible with a community of kind people.

Hospitality at the hands of many in a home of Franciscan hospitality. St Francis would be proud.

The lovely Val from TSCF led us in the waiata above at the beginning and end of each session. It reminded me of this blog. Thanks for being teina and tuakana together in this huihuinga.