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Kia Ora friends,
What a great week it has been for the Lord's church in Palmerston North.

Firstly we welcomed our new sister in Christ, Emily Tawhata (Maori) to our fellowship. Emily was contacted on the second day of our campaign effort, and was baptised on the third. She has six children ranging in ages from 6 months to 13 years of age and they were all present for her first worship service with the church last Sunday. In connection with worship, last Sunday we set a record high attendance of 81 people. That eclipsed the previous record of 74, which was set only a couple of weeks ago. As you can see the figures are looking good for this year. Lord willing we will continue to grow at this rate.

In regard to our door knocking effort, here are our final figures:
Days Worked: 10
Total Doors Knocked: 1658
Total spoken to: 799
Studies set: 10
Call backs: 24
Baptisms: 1

In addition to the campaign effort during the day, we conducted a four night Bible & Science seminar with Dr. Brad Harrub. Brad and his family arrived last Thursday and have settled in nicely. Believe it or not, both he and Melinda are so comfortable here they are even driving our vehicle around the country side during their stay. We wanted this seminar to appeal to the academics, atheists and skeptics and university students. We promoted this in our door knocking, in the newspapers, flyers and on the radio. Over the four nights we had a total of 111 visitors (including some atheists) and an overall total of 265 people over the four nights. All the visitors spoke very highly of the lessons and are keen to see Brad return in the future. To date we have two bible studies as a result of the seminar. There have also been many other positive spin offs from this effort. For instance, Brad was interviewed by our local paper and also had an hour long interview on radio. He also has a pannel discussion on TV next week. The biggest news though is that the National Radio network has invited Brad on to its program with Kim Hill (agnostic), our foremost media person. If you have not yet hosted Brad at your congregation, may I encourage you to do so. He is absolutely brilliant!
Well next week I have ten studies and 24 call backs to tend to, so if you don't hear from me for a couple of weeks you know what I'll be busy doing.

Thank you so much believing in and supporting the work in Palmerston North. I look forward to relating to you all the good news that will come in the months ahead.

In His Service,
Nathan Paki

History of how we became involved:

In 2000, the Hillsboro church began its relationship with Nathan Paki by supporting him while he attended the East Tennessee School of Preaching. Nathan is from New Zealand and of the Mouri tribe, a Polynesian people native to New Zealand.

While in school, Nathan came to Hillsboro on many occasions and we watched his talents grow and became well acquainted with him and his wife, Rachel. After graduating with honors, Nathan returned in August 2002 to Palmerston North, New Zealand to begin his work. He is devoted to and uniquely qualified for teaching the Bible to his native people as well as all New Zealanders who are mostly of English descent.

Nathan works under the oversight of the elders here at Hillsboro. He and Rachel have four children.