Fasting may be a new experience for you or your family. I've found Richard Foster's Celebration of Disciplines book to be exceptionally helpful. In addition, you may want to browse through the links below for more information.
Salvation Army's Fasting Fact Sheet - a good resource for fasting overview and bible passages relating to fasting.
Prayer and Fasting - An article from the Wesleyan Church Department of Communication introducing fasting.
Have you found any fasting resources worth sharing? Please email them to us (dreynolds422@gmail.com) and we may add them.
We've also put together some "recipes" to set up your prayer and fasting time. These help you understand what life and ministry in NZ is like and will help direct your prayer time. Don't feel you need to use every link - use as many as needed to quench your hunger for information. We suggest you pick one recipe a month and visit it the week before your prayer time. As a family, take time to share what stuck out from what you've learned, wrestle with some of the questions, and then pray for the areas you connected with. We will continue to update our prayer list as well so you can both pray for our ministry and the nation at the same time. We'd love to hear back from you if these are working or if you'd like more information on an area we missed (we're willing to cook to order :-)).
The Recipes:
Month 1: Learn about New Zealand
Take some time and acquaint yourself with New Zealand. Where is it? What is it like? What connects with you about New Zealand as you follow the links below? How do you think God wants you to pray for this part of the world?
• Wikepedia's New Zealand Page - focusing on the history, demography, and culture sections
• NZ Tourism Board Website - How does NZ Tourism present itself? What story do they paint of New Zealand?
• Forever Young video – watch as a family and discuss what this ad wants you to believe NZ is. Compare this to headlines found at the NZ Herald website.
Month 2: Faith in New Zealand
This meal helps you understand the ministry reality in New Zealand. Some would say this is the direction faith is taking in North America as well. Wikipedia gives a good overview. The sites on post-Christian culture helps paint a picture of how regular people see the church and faith. How does ministry need to adapt to still connect with people in post-christian cultures?
• Christianity in New Zealand
• Religion in New Zealand
• Post-Christian Culture sites – New Zealand is a post-christian culture (meaning that God and Christian teaching are 2 or 3 generations removed from the current culture). Some would say this is the direction the US is heading (http://content.usatoday.com/communities/religion/post/2009/03/64712677/1). Below are some resources to explore further what this means and help you understand the ministry environment and approach here.
o What Does a Post-Christian Culture Reject (blog entry) - This is a good post but I’m not familiar with this bloggers other posts so I can’t comment on other ones (positively or negatively)
o Exiles Review - An overview of a book by Michael Frost, an Aussie who writes on the state of the church.
Month 3: Maori Culture
This fast meal is to gain a better understanding of the native culture in New Zealand, one that is still a significant voice in helping Kiwi’s understand what it means to be a Kiwi. Take some time this month to learn about their worldview. Engage with some of the terms listed below and talk about how they fit with biblical beliefs. How would you show your faith is relevant in this culture?
• www.maori.org.nz - a site developed by Maori
• Wikepedia's entry on Maori Culture
• A couple Maori Terms and ways of thinking:
o http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whakapapa - a site describing the importance of where one comes from (their geneology)
o http://maaori.com/whakapapa/whakpap2.htm - a more detailed whakapapa site
o http://www2.careers.govt.nz/educators-practitioners/career-practice/career-theory-models/te-whare-tapa-wha/ - Te Whare Tapa Wha is the Maori philosophy toward mental health.
