Easter Conference

Timaru 2021!

June 13, 2021 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

We were very happy to be able to go to Easter Conference in Timaru this year, after it had to be canceled last year due to the Covid lockdown. This first set of pictures shows what the young people did on Saturday morning. Gayle went along, and they all walked to a lighthouse. I stayed behind to help prepare lunch and tidy the house for the evening’s gathering.

Of course, skipping stones was part of the fun. Having waves rolling in from two directions made it harder than in a river, though!

They found an outboard motor washed up on the beach. Our boys carried it back to the vehicle, strapped it on the roof racks, and brought it home!

Sunday evening we had a sing to wrap up the weekend. One of the men there took these pictures of Miss Joy joining in the singing and sent this to me. She had turned the wooden box in which the songbooks are stored upside down, and used it as a seat. Little Miss is in front of her, on the left of the picture; to the right is a little girl her age; the two girls spent a lot of time playing together over the weekend.We thoroughly enjoyed our weekend in Timaru—two years is a long time between conferences! Thank you, friends from Timaru, for putting the conference on again.

Timaru Trip

May 4, 2019 by NZ Filbruns 2 Comments

We went to Timaru over Easter weekend, as we have since 2014. As always, it was a wonderful time of worshipping and hearing the Word preached, and spending time with many friends, both people we have known for a long time and those we just met for the first time. I took a few pictures of the spectacular scenery on the way and on the way home—but never took the time to pull my camera out of my purse while we were down there!

The sun rose while we were going through the mountains; here we are starting to head up toward Arthur’s Pass from the west.

After we went over Arthur’s Pass, as we approached Porter’s Pass, we noticed a thin line of snow just along the tops of the mountains.

Awhile later, once we were down on the plains, we looked back, and could see the other side of those same mountains!

We took a route we haven’t taken before, and got to enjoy the gorgeous Rakaia Gorge.

On our way home, we enjoyed the spectacular scenery again. This is between Porter’s and Arthur’s Passes, again.

Timaru

May 1, 2016 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

I started this post over a week ago. All I had to do was add a little more text with the pictures. I didn’t have time to finish that night, so saved it in the program I like to write blog posts in. The next evening, my computer…crashed. Esther spent most of the next day trying to fix it and finally gave up. Thankfully, I paid for an extended warranty when I bought the computer, so it was picked up here at home and taken to Auckland, where, hopefully, it will be repaired and sent back! And I’m also thankful that I had done a complete backup in February. Hopefully, I remembered all the things I had added since then that I needed! Esther was able to start the computer in safe mode long enough to save some essential folders that I use every week. However, the draft I started for this post got lost.

You may be wondering how I’m able to still be online? Well, God provided long ago already. Back in October, Mr. Inventor, whose favorite place to go is the dump at the end of the road, brought an old laptop home from there. It wouldn’t start up, but Esther figured out how to reset it to factory settings and it worked! He mostly uses it for listening to audiobooks, but when my computer crashed I asked if I can borrow it for a little while. He was willing to loan it to me, so I’m still able to write. It took me a couple of days to install the programs I really needed (most were built for Windows 7, 8, or 10 and not for Vista!), but I’m back in business for now.

So, here are pictures from our trip to Timaru about five weeks ago. We thoroughly enjoyed the Easter conference again. I didn’t get a lot out of the messages, because I was constantly dealing with a wiggly little girl who does not like church AT ALL, but came away feeling very refreshed from being with God’s people for an entire weekend. Thank you to those who made the weekend possible, if you read this!

The outside of Andrew Street Chapel, where the conference was held.

On Saturday, there was only one meeting, at 3:30 in the afternoon, so in the morning we went to a nearby beach and walked to a lighthouse. What a beautiful walk!

I was intrigued by the waves coming from both directions and swirling together at this point.

On our way home on Easter Monday after the conference, we stopped to visit a friend in Geraldine. He raises carnivorous plants in two greenhouses in his backyard. I was not prepared for the sight that met us when we stepped inside! I had never imagined such a variety in pitcher plants–these photos don’t do justice to his collection.

Here are some Venus Fly Traps and Sundews.

These are just a few of the many varieties of pitcher plants he has.

We spent an hour looking at and learning about the plants–absolutely fascinating!

And now, I’ve spent over half an hour writing this post, including figuring out how to set up Picassa to resize pictures. I had it set up on my computer, but of course had to reset it on this one! And, when mine comes back I get to start all over again. The joys of technology.

Oh, and in between, I’ve rescued two kittens multiple times when a little girl brought them over to me, dangling them by a leg, or a bit of their back, or…. She adores them, but they haven’t yet learned to run from her.

Timaru, Part 2

April 21, 2015 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Saturday night tea was a barbeque at the house we stayed at. The people we stayed with last year, the parents of the man of the house where we stayed this year, were there. He is a baby-lover, and I was amused when he shouldered me aside to take my baby from his wife when my baby was crying! She liked him and settled down on his shoulder several times, like she doesn’t do for very many people.

Sunday morning was a normal church service, then lunch at the parent’s house, followed by an afternoon service, tea at church, a gospel service in the evening, and then a singing at the parent’s house again. What a day! It was wonderful. These pictures are all of the singing in the evening.

Our hosts for the weekend:

Grandpa saves the evening again! I was so thankful for the help with our baby.

I think this one missed out on hearing what the point of the evening was! He had fun with the toys while we sang.

Monday we headed home! First, we got a picture of the family we stayed with. Their hospitality was amazing!We stopped several times, and the last stop was a long one. We needed to pick up a rooster someone was giving us, and when that man and Gayle get together, they will talk a long time. We got home in time to unload and eat before bedtime, though. Mr. Sweetie got hold of my camera and used it to amuse himself all the way home. I deleted most of the pictures he took, but here are a few, including a selfie:

This little girl slept most of the way home, to everyone’s relief.

Timaru, Part 1

April 20, 2015 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

We went to Timaru over Easter weekend for a conference—a weekend of church meetings. The Assembly in Timaru had invited a number of speakers, and four came, two from Australia and two from the north part of the North Island. It was a wonderful weekend of Scripture teaching and fellowshipping! We went last year, and enjoyed it so much that we had been talking all year of going again. (And now, the boys are talking about NEXT year already! So, if anyone from Timaru reads this, know that some people will be very much disappointed if you don’t hold the Easter Conference again!)

We left here about 8:00 on Good Friday morning, and didn’t have to stop once! We made it to Timaru in time for lunch at noon, and attended both the services in the afternoon. After tea at church, we returned to the house at which we were staying, and got our camp set up. Esther and I and the baby slept in the pop-top camper we borrowed for the trip, that night, and Gayle and all the boys slept in three tents in the yard. After the tents were pitched we visited in the house for awhile, and then just as we were getting ready to send the children out to bed, they found a distraction—stories read by the man of the house!

Saturday, there was only one service, mid afternoon, so everyone who stayed at the house we did went to a park and the beach in the morning. Timaru is beautiful! There was a fire in the late 1800s that wiped out the business district, so everything was rebuilt with stone. The buildings are gorgeous! The boys really enjoyed the park. A man was there with several miniature horses, which you could ride for $5. It was free to sit on them, though, and Mr. Imagination loved that.

The man in the red jersey here was one of the speakers. He had had to leave his wife and six children behind to come, and was missing them. The boys loved the playground equipment, too. Left to right are the man with the horses, Gayle, Mr. Diligence, Mr. Intellectual, Mr. Sweetie, ?, Mr. Handy Man, and Mr. Inventor.

Mr. Sweetie on the swing.

Mr. Diligence and Mr. Imagination, upside down on the swings!

Left to right are Mr. Diligence, Mr. Inventor, ?, ?, and Mr. Handy Man.

One thing that fascinated me about the beach was how it is receding. When the port was built, it changed the currents. Now, sand is deposited in Caroline Bay.

When Europeans first came, the beach was at the base of the cliffs those buildings are on! Our host remembers when it was about halfway between there and where it is now, over a quarter mile out!

The port was at the edge of the park, clearly visible from where we were, so after we left the park, we drove through what we could of the port before we went back for lunch. They were loading a couple of huge freight liners. The four cranes you can see in the middle of this picture are all on one ship!

This is a view of the beach and town from the port.

After leaving the port, we drove past this row of old warehouses.

Timaru

May 2, 2014 by NZ Filbruns 1 Comment

Easter weekend, Gayle had four days off work. Good Friday and Easter Monday are both national holidays here. We made plans to go to Nelson to visit friends, but God had other plans for us. A cyclone hit New Zealand that week, and hit much harder than we expected! We had torrential rains for several days, culminating in a flood Thursday night. Friday morning, we were still trying to decide whether to leave for Nelson or not when we were told that both routes north were blocked by slips (landslides). That made up our minds—it was not time to go! Instead, we decided to go to a conference we had been invited to at a church in Timaru. The first meeting was to begin at 1:30 that afternoon, but there was no way we would make it for that by the time we made contact with someone at the church in Timaru Friday morning! We kept working away at getting ready to go, however, and finally had the pop-top camper we were borrowing packed, the van loaded, and everything ready by noon. We weren’t sure how the roads would be going south, but they turned out to be fine. All the rivers were full to the brim, though!

The Waimakariri, just north of Christchurch. This one actually wasn’t quite as full as some of the others. I just didn’t get pictures of them!

We had a wonderful weekend of good preaching and fellowship with other believers. We had never met any of the people at the conference, except the one family from Hawarden who invited us, but we soon had a lot of new friends! We stayed at the home of one of the families from Timaru; it was funny how that man and his son argued about whose house we should stay at—they both wanted us! We really appreciated the hospitality we were shown. We set up our camper in their driveway, and they offered us a choice of a bedroom in the house or another man’s camper for most of the children. We chose the camper; the man moved into the house for the weekend. Five of the children slept in that camper, and the two youngest slept with us in the pop-top camper. The couple whose house we were at treated us like family; it felt like old times when we would go to meetings away from home! One of the speakers at the conference (they had two visiting speakers, from Australia) stayed there, also, and Gayle really appreciated visiting with him.

There were two meetings Friday afternoon, and then tea (dinner) was served. Saturday afternoon was another meeting, followed by a barbeque tea at the home of our host’s son. Sunday morning was a regular Sunday meeting, focusing on communion, and then everyone came for lunch at the place we stayed—quite a spread! We were the last ones to leave church that time, and shortly came up behind the person Gayle had been talking to, pulled over at the side of the road. He was driving a 1950 Buick, and had run out of gas because of a faulty gauge! It was good we were behind him and could take him to get some. After lunch, we went back to church for another meeting, followed by tea, and then one final meeting. After that, everyone went back to our host’s home for a singing! We sang, accompanied by piano and organ, for an hour and a half. After about an hour, I took our two youngest out to the camper to go to bed. The second-youngest realized he hadn’t had a snack yet, so I offered him bread. Well, there was a table-full of dessert waiting in the house for after the singing, so he wanted dessert. Thankfully, we had a few bananas in the van, so I offered him one and that satisfied the two of them and they went to sleep happy. After the singing, and dessert, we stayed up late visiting. It was so good to be there!

Monday morning we packed up and headed home. What a great weekend!

Easter Conference

Thank you!