Talofa lava, Kia ora, greetings. The weather has improved immensely finally my rubbish got collected this morning after being too windy last Friday for pick up. As I mentioned on Sunday I attended the Glamaphones concert on Saturday. I left home in Wainuiomata at 3.45pm thinking I will arrive nice and early and do some work before the concert starts at 6pm. Unfortunately, I sat on the motorway for 2 ½ hours and arrived at the concert at 6.15pm. There was a sewage spillage around Ngauranga and the motorway was down to one lane. I realised that I need to have a sweet drink and snacks/lollies in my car at all times. Being diabetic 2 ½ hours is a long time wait and you don’t know if your blood sugars are going to take a dive during this time. Lesson learnt. The concert was fabulous and it was a soldout performance.
Staffing: As already mentioned, we are rather short staffed in the office at present as we have one staff member (Sara) in hospital, having had surgery last week, and one new staff member (Hannah) who has generously agreed to work double her hours to cover for Sara’s absence. Sara is keen to start working from home but she and we need to be sure that she is well enough to do so. We expect that will be at least 2-3 weeks away and possibly longer. Hannah is pretty new to St Andrew’s so is learning her way around the Parish Administrator role which has many, many moving parts. She is being ably assisted by Adelina, Sue and Lynne. Please be kind to her and to Adelina who is doing everything else and do not expect Hannah to know everything at once. Please also remember that we are a voluntary organisation and we have to work within the resources we have. Our staff and volunteers work hard, much of their work is unseen but there is a lot of it. We all do our best to meet everyone’s needs.
Parish Council was deferred last night and so we will be needing to make another date or just wait until our usual time next month to meet.
Next Sunday we will be commemorating Matariki. The following Sunday we will be commemorating 40 years since Homosexual Law Reform Bill was implemented. Rev Ross Scott and friends will be leading our service and the Glamaphones will be singing. My friend Fuimaono Dr Karl Pulotu Endemann hopes to be able to join us on the day too.
This Sunday is our farewell service with David and Laura Gehrenbeck who will be returning to the USA on Monday 6th July, the next day. David and Laura will be doing the reflection and have also chosen our hymns to sing on Sunday. They have also graciously catered for our luncheon afterwards. Please do come along on Sunday so we can bless them on their way.
Enjoy the weather outside, I’ve got lawns to mow and laundry to do over this weekend and a dog to walk. Take care and God bless. Ka kite ano. Fei
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