Fleener Ministry Update - Vol. 1 No. 10 - 1 Year in New Zealand!

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Joe Fleener

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Aug 25, 2007, 4:02:22 AM8/25/07

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The Fleeners

Joe, Mandy, Mekaela, Gavin, & Tabitha

Serving the Lord in Hastings, New Zealand

Text Box: Home Church:
Church@Riverbend
PO BOX 8229
Havelock North
New Zealand August 25, 2007 (Vol. 1 No. 11)

Dear Friends,

September 5^th will mark one year here in New Zealand! Has it been that long? Has it only been one year? In some ways it really feels like the year has flown by, much has been accomplished, much has happened in our lives. On the other hand it is hard to believe it has only been one year – this is especially true regarding the relationships the Lord has blessed us with here. God has granted us some very dear and sweet relationships with folks in just one year – we are very much at home.

Bulleted update:

We are near the end of our third term at The Shepherd's Bible College. Joe taught two full terms of Church History on Wednesday nights. He is half way through the third of four terms for Old Testament Survey. In this, the Lord has allowed Joe to minister to as many as 17 students in one class.
Joe is also into his third term of New Testament Greek at Hastings Christian School where he has been teaching seven 13 and 14 year olds.
Joe has had the privilege of preaching many, if not most, Sundays this year. The Lord has provided many opportunities to minister the Word here at our home church – church@riverbend, but also at a number of other churches on the North Island.
We were all apart of this year’s Impact Bible Conference in June – Joe teaching a couple of seminars, Mandy singing and helping with the food, etc. The Lord brought over 400 people from all over New Zealand and Australia to this year’s conference.
Mandy and the children have played a huge part in our ministry in other churches as well as here at church@riverbend as Mandy has used her gift of singing to support and minister along side of Joe, while the children have been able to learn and grow as we are involved in other ministries.
In March, Joe was able to travel to Queenstown, on the South Island, with the Dean of The Shepherd's Bible College to participate in a Pastor Training Seminar – Joe taught on Pastoral Theology and Shepherding God’s Flock in Love.
church@riverbend and Hastings Bible Church (the two churches which oversee The Shepherd's Bible College) are formally amalgamating and forming a new church by the end of November. The Lord has allowed Joe to be involved a small bit in this process.
Mandy has been involved, attending and supporting a weekly ladies’ Bible Study. Joe will be teaching this Bible Study later this year through a 10 week study in Ruth – Mandy and Joe will be working together to develop the material for the study over the next 10 weeks.
Our home has been a wonderful place to serve others. The Lord has allowed us to have a number of folks in our home for meals, etc. Hardly a week goes by without someone coming by or popping in for a meal or a “cuppa”! We are so thrilled to see God allowing us to serve in this way.
Joe coordinated our church’s first Men’s Breakfast – Mandy took care of the food, the kids helps setup the dinning hall. We had nearly 50 men and plan to make this a regular activity for the men.
Joe continues to work through the administrative and technological process of setting up the Distance Education component of The Shepherd’s Bible College. This has involved a very steep learning curve and significant time on governmental regulations, etc.
Joe continues to oversee the policy development and acquisitions to The Shepherd’s Bible College’s ever expanding library.
Mandy and the children are just more than half way through their first year of homeschooling. This has certainly been time consuming and brought many challenges. At the same time, we are thankful for the opportunities to directly work in the children’s lives throughout the day (mostly Mum here) along with the flexibility – although at times challenging, flexibility nonetheless.
Mandy continues to have many wonderful opportunities to minister to other ladies in the church by getting together for a cuppa, or a “ring” on the phone or a chat after church.
We have endeavored to make Fridays our “day off” - Mandy and kids from school and me from the office. This seems to happen most Fridays. Some of those Fridays we are traveling, but most we spend doing something around the house or close to home together.
We had a friend, Mark Edwards, come to visit us for four weeks from mid-May to mid-June. Mark is a recent high school graduate from Pennsylvania. He was a tremendous help to the ministry here assisting us with all the preparation for our Impact Bible Conference.
Joe’s Mom and cousin visited us for two weeks in June. It was great to have them. The children really enjoyed Grandma!
In June Mandy traveled back to the US for her brother’s funeral. She was only gone for a week, but this is something that will be a part of our lives for many, many years to come.
We have all had New Zealand birthdays – Mekaela turned 6 on 16-August, Gavin turned 4 on 3-March, Tabitha turned 2 last 2-November, Mandy turned ?? on 15-August, and Joe turned ?? last 3-November. (Check out our family photos website here.)
In July our family received our official New Zealand residency. We are now official residents of our new home – New Zealand. This is a great blessing and answer to prayer. We are looking forward to many years of service to our Lord here in New Zealand.
In the past couple of months through the generosity of our church here and several individuals in our church, along with some friends back in the States we have been overwhelmed to realize:

The entire cost of our residency has been fully paid.
All of our remaining debt from our move from the US to New Zealand has been paid.
All of our “out of budget expenses” since we have arrived in New Zealand have been paid.
Wow! The kindness and generosity of God’s servants toward us is humbling and simply spurs us on toward more faithfulness as we seek to serve Him.

Prayer requests:

Home School. We are very thankful for this opportunity, but as you all know it comes at a cost – financial, time, energy, etc. Please pray for Mandy for physical strength and wisdom along with general teaching skill to instruct the children. Please pray for the children that they would work diligently and be “a joy to their mother.”
Also, please pray with us that the finances will become available for the purchase of next year’s Home School materials. Due to the time it takes to ship the materials here, we will need to order everything a bit sooner than usual.
Please pray for The Shepherd's Bible College’s needs in the area of administration and Distance Learning and Joe’s part in that. This is a very complicated part of the work which requires a lot of time and energy. Please pray that all the accreditation approvals are in and the technology is in place before the 2008 school year which begins in February 2008.
Please pray for our continued ministry to our home church, soon to be new amalgamated church.
Please pray for our continued opportunities to minister in other churches and the input we are having into their leadership.
Please pray Joe would safeguard his time with Mandy and the children as a priority. That Joe would make time to be with Mandy and the kids. That we would grow together as a family closer to God and more dependant on Him. Please pray that we would truly “enjoy God.” That our joy would be full and find its fullness in Him.

I am sure the half has not been told, but that is probably more than you need!

God has been so very good to us – we count it a privilege to serve Him, to call this place home, and to see these folks as our family.

Please do not hesitate to email us with any questions you might have about our ministry. We would love to hear from you. You can also keep current with our ministry updates by registering for our Ministry Update Email List.

In Christ’s service,

The Fleeners (Joe, Mandy, Mekaela, Gavin, & Tabitha)

Family Page - Joe’s Blog – Ministry Update Email List

Joe Fleener

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