I can't believe how fast the days are passing here. Suddenly it seems as if time is speeding up - I expect this always happens when one is approaching the end of travels that have been as fantastic as this time has been for me.
I am currently staying with a family with children (aged 8 and 11) who used to live in Oxford. Living with children is fun! Of course it is -- all the hard work of raising them has been done for me, and I can enjoy them, and give them back when they are naughty! It has slowed me down though ... getting them out of the door for any activity takes time. But this is a good thing for me I think, as I am only just realizing that I need some 'down' time to recover from the frantic activity of the past weeks.
On Saturday I decided that I need at least one day out of the sun, less I absorb too many chemicals from sunscreen or turn my skin into leather. So I went to the Auckland museum. They have a terrific display of Maori artifacts, and also a cultural performace which I attended. Fascinating!! The carving is amazing, the history sad. Promised the Queen's protection in 1840, this didn't happen, and war broke out between them and the settlers who were taking over their land. Now there have been both apologies and financial settlements, but I wonder how much resentment still lingers. More Maori youth are becoming quite proud of their heritage, and traditional tattoos are much more common as a sign of their identity. You can see the kinds of tattoos on the photos of carvings I include below.
The other day I was thinking that I had not yet sung a Christmas carol, and that I wasn't feeling as if Christmas was approaching. That all changed as I accompanied my friends to a Christmas drive-through at their church to sing in a small choir of carollers. I got to sing 12 carols over and over again -- three and a half times to be exact! Every Christmas I am overwhelmed by amazing words in some of the carols, and I wonder what people who don't believe what they are singing are thinking as they sing such things:
Hail the heav'n-born Prince of Peace!
Hail the Son of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings
Ris'n with healing in His wings
Mild He lays His glory by
Born that man no more may die
Born to raise the sons of earth
Born to give them second birth
Hark! The herald angels sing"
Glory to the newborn King!"
The drive-through nativity was great, with lots of kids from the church participating as angels, shepherds and so on. The church has a long curved driveway, and the Christmas story was told in word and actions as cars drove slowly along - angels proclaiming to shepherds, centurions taking a census, an inn-keeper with his "No Vacancy" sign, and...real sheep, calves, donkey, and a llama doing an excellent imitation of a camel! Over 2,000 cars drove through in 4 days, giving people from the community a chance to learn something about the Christ of Christmas. Great idea - in a warm, dry climate!
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