Greetings from the ARM! In my spare time my wife Pip and I have been developing our garden at West Melton but the soil is very stoney and we like carrots! Now everyone knows that carrots need deep, excellent soil otherwise they fork and don't turn out so well. So we made the decision to put the entire vegetable garden through a 10 mm sieve - now that's hard work! For every ten shovel loads of soil, we removed one shovel of stones! But we hope this will make a tremendous difference to our carrots!

Church life is a bit like going through a sieve! It can be very tough at times, but God is always at work refining and leading us all to a better place. Part of our role as leaders is to believe that in spite of the struggles, God is leading us purposefully toward that brighter future. We're called to trust that God is with us and to articulate that confidence and trust to others.

Currently I'm undertaking some long-term planning for this year's 'Leading your Church into Growth' conference from the 12th - 14th of October (Thursday night, Friday and Saturday). Speakers Ven. Rhiannon King and Rev Harry Steele will be sharing with us again and then running the same format conference in Wellington the following week. We'll be able to share the cost of the speaker's international air fares ;-). Please put this date in your parish calendar now - I'm encouraging every parish in our Diocese to send a team of 6 this time round. If you attended last year's conference, I invite you to be a LyCiG champion and encourage others to sign up this year!