Chapman Whanau, Marae Waipapa and Clandon

I wrote this on Feb. 18th...

I am presently sitting in my third unique community setting since having arrived in New Zealand. I've already described the first, so let me move on to the second.

Marae Waipapa is in Kawhia ('wh' is like 'ph' and makes an 'f ' sound). A marae (mah- rye) is the Maori traditional extended family community home. Tania and I went to stay at Marae Waipapa this past weekend for the beginning of Te Haerenga (te hiringa pronounced with a soft 'g' sound), which means "The Journey". Te Haerenga is a discipleship training series of weekends put on by Maori for Maori through the ministry of Island Breeze (a part of ywam). Back a number of years ago they did a world impact tour to evangelize the Maori, but in a Maori way. BUT...to follow up had no way to show them how to be followers of Jesus as Maori, only by stuff them into church culture. So began Te Haerenga.

The weekend began on Friday night as we sat in the parking lot outside the marae waiting. We were waiting for everyone to arrive (it was kind of like Indian time-Pam you know what I mean). Once everyone was there, we would be called onto the marae. That was the only way to come into someone else's marae. And so it began. The women walked in front of the men and a woman sang a song in Maori that called us into their home. A woman in our group responded in song as we entered and made our way to benches across from where the whanau (pronounced fan-oh, meaning family)were seated. The men on the front benches and the women behind. The men each had the opportunity to speak greetings and welcomes and such. Tania said it could last for hours. For us...it lasted about 10 minutes and then we walked to where the whanau were seated and greeted them each by pressing noses together in order to breathe the same breath...which would then make us in a sense family too.

After we had a late dinner we all gathered in the whare nui (fahd-eh new-ee, big house) for korero (koh-dee-doh, speaking, talk, sharing, anytime you talk). It was a time for introductions and EVERYONE was given the floor for really as long as they wanted to introduce themselves and say whatever they wanted to say. Oh...the layout of the whare nui...a HUGE long one room house with mattresses (foamies) lines up around the entire outside wall (with a HUGE stack still left in the corner of the room). There were must have been at least 60-70 mattresses!! And we all slept in the same room; men, women, youth, children, babies...everyone.

Saturday was good...we started learning a song...hard for me because I didn't know how to pronounce everything I was reading. Here's the song and it's based on Psalm 29.

Hoatu ki a Ihowa
E nga tama o te hunga nunui

Hoatu ki a Ihowa
te korokia me t koha
Hoatu ki a Ihowa
te kororia e rite an mo tona ingoa
koropiko ki a Ihowa
I roto i te atahua o te tapu
kei runga te reo o Ihowa i nga wai
e pap ana te whatitiri o te atua
e te kororia
kei runga a Ihowa i nga waimaha
kaha tonu te reo o Ihowa
kororia tonu te reo o Ihowa
whanau ana nga hata i te reo o Ihowa
tihorea ana nga kia tahanga
I tona temepara ko te kupu a te katoa
kororia ka homai e Ihowa
he kaha ki tana Ihowa manaki mo tanga hunga

So...I did my best. Later on we learned raenga (weaving) from harvest to finish for a simple basket that would be used at a meal. It was neat! AND the thing is...that back in the day if your mother, aunty or grandmother were teaching you something like this, you would never JUST be learning to weave, you would learn the lessons of life and spirit woven into the day to day skills you learned. SO we learned that if God was Maori...he would have been a weaver (instead of a potter) and we would have been the flax (that's what we were weaving) and he would weave us into whatever thing, in whatever pattern he wanted to. AND as flax in the hands of God the master weaver, we would be softened and prepared and dyed and...and...(it is apparently a long process to prepare flax to weave). I love God and that He is as much Maori as he is Sto:lo Sitel, and Ojibwe etc. It was a great lesson to remember what God is like while learning how to weave.


On Sunday morning after breakfast we had korero and people had the opportunity to share thoughts on the weekend. I felt like I wanted to say something but I hesitated and let others speak. At the end(ish) Ray picked up his guitar and said, "Anyone else?" and seemed to look right at me. I nodded my head and stood up and could tell that I was going to be fighting tears. So...I joked! I was hoping to get past the urge to cry. Why I felt like crying I don't know. I only knew that God was doing something in me. So...I paused hoping again that the tears would pass, but God apparently wanted me to cry in front of everyone. So I told everyone that I cry when God moves in my spirit and that I have a hard time talking and crying, to which Karen Bishop (one of the marae whanau) said..."You just cry then, we'll wait and then you can talk". Essentially what came out of my mouth was that I felt strongly that God had me here to learn about community and family. He used a teaching practicum to get me here and show me more of His beautiful ways that community is expressed. It was more than just that though...I was in awe and in a way jealous of a culture that seemed so much more intact than mine in many ways. It was fantastic to see Maori's being MAORI Jesus followers, not Maori copying church Christian culture type Christians, but following Jesus within the context of their culture and their way of being which we know glorifies God as He created all cultures in His image and we glorify Him when we are being ourselves.

Instead of coming straight home when the weekend was over, Tania took me with her to go and visit a good friend of hers who was home front Thailand for a bit and staying with mutual friends, living in Clandon Community. Community numero 3. 25 years ago, 6 families from Auckland sold their homes, put the money in a trust, the trust got a loan from the bank, the trust had land donated to them and they built a community. They built in clusters and made 3 of them. In each cluster are 2 attached homes with garages and attached on the other side of each garage are smaller units meant to be used by people who need them; a family hard up on luck, a single trying to go clean, missionaries on furlough...whatever they are needed for. They have a shared laundry room in each cluster and either a games room or a quiet room in the corner of each cluster in between where the two homes meet. They have a swimming pool and they share things like lawn mowers and sporting equipment etc. The whole community, everyone from all 3 clusters of homes get together once every week to eat together potluck style. They pray, worship or


This week as we've talked more about community around the kitchen table here back in Auckland, God reminded me that He is the quintessential community; Father, Son and Holy Spirit. MMmmmmm. Something good to mull over in the mind and spirit. What does that picture pf community hold for us to learn from?


So...community...what is your definition of it?