Yes...I am living in a really neat community here. The Chapman family has revived the traditional Maori value of living in extended family communities and they've done it in an urban, poor community area. What they've managed to do has inspired me and I really, honestly haven't heard the half of it yet.
On the Sunday after I arrived we had a potluck dinner/bb-q here and I sat with Sam Chapman and asked him a few questions about this community and he told me about reading books like "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" and "Quadrant economics" (something like that). He told me how it changed his thinking in regards to finances. He asked me what the first thing paid out of my pay is. TAX. He asked me what the first thing paid out of the revenues a business makes....expenses(bills) and then tax. So in essence you pay less tax and he says that through little things like that (and beleive me...lots in this community is business related...their whole life is ministry business so even the cost of having dogs (security expense) and cats(pest control) is paid for before taxes are. They bought one home and eventually leased it to a Family Trust (not sure how this all works, I am just going from memory and this information is not pieced together very well) and they don't pay the mortgage...the Trust/business does because their home is their ministry...to the poor, to gang members, to people who need to live in a family and remember what it's like to be loved, to laugh with people you can trust and to hold small children in your lap (there are lots of those here). They also have started a pre-school type place that really loves children and does good stuff. There is something else that I have heard whisperings of but i haven't yet figured out what it is.
Anyhow...after a number of years and owning some really small business ventures on top of the big ones, they have managed to buy about 6-8 homes(I haven't quite figured out exactly how many) right beside each other and they've knocked down fences and they literally live with open doors. I really want to figure it out...it will come. I will go and sit with Sam and pick his brain and take notes.
In the meantime..I thought I would share 
with you some of the faces of my new community. These 3 are the children of Leon (who calls me sis)and Hannah who live next door. Their names are (from oldest to youngest), Canaan, Josiah and Psalm. Psalm came over and she kept chatting to me but I could not understand a word she said...it was all in Maori. Then she kept grabbing fruit and eating bites out
of them and then grabbing new ones. I found Josiah after the memorial service, sitting on our back steps in his togs (swim shorts), pouting. When I asked him what was the matter, he said something about everyone else next door having lollies (candy). Obviously he didn't get any. I asked him if he wanted to be big and strong when he grew up and he nodded. I told him that lollies don't make him big and strong. You could see him thinking about that. With a really serious face he looked at me and asked, "Do lollies make you strong?" Nope I told him that meat and veggies and fruit would make him strong. He considered an answer for a moment and then it looked like he was okay with being strong when he grows up and not eating lollies at the moment and he ran back to swim with his cousins. yep.This weekend I am off with Tania my flatmate to head off somewhere on the island to go to a Discipleship training thing that is designed specifically for Maori. I will get to experience some culture and learn and make new friends! YAY. And someday I will start teaching.
Someday.
