Saturday, February 12, 2011

Exciting News!


Dear family and friends,


We write to you at this time, asking you to pray with us as we seek to determine our next step in life, trusting that whatever the outcome will be God’s best for us, and He will be glorified.

Reuben’s year of full-time study at TSBC (Hastings, NZ) has been a huge encouragement to us in many ways. We are very blessed by the fellowship of believers at Riverbend Bible Church, and equally blessed by the material that Reuben has been studying. We knew that this course would give Reuben a taste of more intensive Biblical studies, and he has thoroughly enjoyed it. We have sensed God leading us in the direction of pastoral ministry – studying and preaching God’s Word, and using it alone as the tool for ministering to people’s lives. This year has definitely confirmed our desire for pastoral ministry, gifting in it, and commitment to it. While we have been equipped from this course, we believe that we would be more effective by taking a further step in our training for a lifetime of ministry.


We have just met with the elders of our home church (RBC), to see if they would endorse us in going to The Master’s Seminary in Los Angeles to study full-time. We have considered training there for quite some time and recently, with the encouragement and affirmation of many folk, we applied for the Bachelor of Theology programme (three years), and were accepted. Even so, we wanted to fully submit our decision to our elders, trusting in their wisdom and God-given authority. The elders at RBC have given their full support in committing to pray, encourage, and give pastoral oversight while we are over in LA, away from home. We see this as both an imperative and a blessing as we look ahead and try to picture our time at TMS.

This is a great encouragement to us, but we recognize that the journey to seminary is still a lengthy process. School commences mid-August 2011, but we have significant financial and visa hurdles to overcome before we can go.

Our end goal is to return to NZ and serve in churches here. Please write to us if you have any questions (reubenandverity@gmail.com), we would love to talk with you more.

Love and God bless,

Reuben and Verity

Thursday, February 10, 2011

What are the Pickerings doing?

Our vehicle back to NZ (thanks to Verity's family)
Since returning from Christmas with Verity’s side of the family in Canada on January 21st, Reuben has had an opportunity to preach at Auckland Bible Church where he grew up. It was a special time for him as he was able to share what he loves with many familiar faces. We thank the Lord for this blessed time.


"Welcome Home Picks!"

Then it was back to Havelock North where we were greeted by dear friends at the Napier airport. It was great to be welcomed home with a big sign in the window (see picture). Verity got back into her jobs right away (church office, linen shop, piano students), while Reuben went job hunting Monday morning. He put his name down at a few places and then bought a couple of groceries at New World, Hastings. On his way out, he just wondered if they had any full-time jobs available...next minute he had a full-time job at the checkout and started within the week! Wow, God is good. We’re so thankful that he didn’t have to search for long, and that they arranged his shifts around his upcoming class schedule.

So, we are both working full-time and will be taking three evening classes at The Shepherd’s Bible College finishing in July, 2011. Reuben is taking Beginning Greek, Cults & False Religions, Introduction to Missions. Verity it taking English Grammar & Sentence Diagramming, Hermeneutics, and Introduction to Missions.

Last Sunday we began teaching a Sunday School class (5-7 year olds) at church. We’re teaching through a curriculum, ‘Jesus, What a Saviour’ with two other teachers – so we only teach every third week. We really enjoyed the first one and are excited to get to know all 30 kids, starting with remembering their names!