The Sound of a Mighty Wind

This morning four mates went up Sugar Loaf Hill to pray to God to bless our city. We took a position above the tree-line (in the photo), a couple hundred feet below the summit.

At about 7:45am I saw dust rising in small clouds about 20 Km away in the countryside, where our main prison is located. So we prayed for the prisoners and their guards.

About ten minutes later, we heard a "the sound of a mighty wind blowing", though we saw nothing. It was the wind from twenty kilometeres away, reaching the base of the hill and ascending through the trees. We heard it; but we didn't see it. It passed over our heads and surrounded us. And there was a final roar as it went through the communications tower at the top of the hill and was gone.

Such an awe-inspiring event reminded me of the wind at Pentecost, which was "the sound of a mighty wind which filled the whole house." (Acts 2:2) I guess that the effect would not have been the same if we had been hit by the full force of the wind.

Electric Commuting

On the weekend, I arranged to have lunch with a friend this Tuesday. Then I saw a picture of him alongside an article with the heading “Electric Ute for Commuting” on Monday in our local newspaper. It turned out that my friend, John, is a bit of a trailblazer. He is probably the first person to go to work in an electric vehicle in the South Island of New Zealand.

Of course, his economic and environmentally friendly form of transport was a talking point of our lunchtime conversation. And I was quick to get out the camera for a photograph.

It costs about a dollar a day for the electricity. John’s wife, Jennifer, did the sums and said that the savings in petrol costs would pay for the three-wheeled utility vehicle in a couple of years. John makes a 44-kilometer return trip each day.

He gets a laugh from some people and encouragement from his environmentally conscious work mates. And he says that most importantly, it has passed the embarrassment test with their four children; as one of them said, “I think it’s cute.”

For the newspaper article click