I’ve been overseas for the last couple of months, working as well as collecting some great stories that you’ll be seeing the pages of the magazine. Here’s the full update on what we’re looking at.

Soul Purpose has been working on a partnership with the ANZTCA – a group of chaplains that work throughout universities, polytechnics and tertiary organisations. I’m personally really excited about distributing the magazine through this network as well as existing groups and subscribers.

When we shut down the forums for safety reasons, our hope was to make some changes to the website and the way we hosted discussion on the site. These plans are still underway – please pray for us and email your thoughts about the forums/discussion models to tash@soulpurpose.co.nz. I want to hear from you guys directly.

We are going to publish the “inaugural” edition of the magazine under this new phase of life to be available for orientation weeks on campuses around the country. We have a print date, copy in the bag and are closing out a couple more pieces. We’ll close out at the beginning of February and copies will be arriving for the start of March.

I’ve also been piecing together a really important part of the background story at Soul Purpose, the Board that helps give guidance and direction to where we are going! We’ll introduce them to you shortly, as they’ll be some of the voices you hear from regularly.

Features include a guest editorial from Stephen Christian of Anberlin, a photo essay and journal from a young couple’s trip to Ecuador, an interview with Dave Tomlinson, author and leader as well as some great O-week content for those moving into a new phase of life or getting back into the swing of it after a great summer break.

So – that’s the update. Look for a new email newsletter coming to your inbox with the same info and goss about the new look and feel of the magazine. You can stay in touch with us online with Twitter.. check out @SPMAgNZ.

Once again – I apologize sincerely for the delay in transmission – but you can always contact me directly tash@soulpurpose.co.nz.

Wishing you all the best for a merry, safe and well Christmas season.

Tash

The disease, which the World Health Organisation (WHO) says, despite the name has nothing to do with pigs, was originally found in Mexico. International travel and isolation issues have seen the disease spread throughout the world, with now 17 confirmed cases in New Zealand.

The epidemic is said to reach pandemic level. Schools are being forced to create contingency plans in case they have to shut, and all international travellers are being asked to stay in isolation when they have returned home.

The government has now declared Swine Flu a ‘notifiable’ disease, meaning those who have come in contact with someone who has swine flu, or symptoms of swine flu, can be fined if they do not let their boss or colleagues know.

The re-trial lasted three months and has become one of New Zealand’s greatest news stories. It all came to an end on Friday 5th June, when the jury of 13 deliberated for 6 hours and concluded that David Bain was not guilty.

6 hours is believed to be a short time of deliberation, considering the jury had to go through hundreds of pieces of evidence and recount stories from many witnesses in order to make their much anticipated decision. They could only prove Bain not guilty if they believed it was “beyond reasonable doubt” that Bain was responsible for the deaths.

To find out more info, check out the NZ Herald website: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10576364

It’s update time again, so for anyone who is interested, here are the highlights, lowlights and important things to know about what is happening with The Ember Days on tour.

Its been an interesting 2 weeks.

First of all I want to talk about the house-show at Keith and Darla Collins’ house.

It was really special to us. You see, on tour you have a few places that very quickly become homes away from home. We have a few, and the Collins’ is one of them.

We met the Collins last year on the Showbread tour and were blown away by their hospitality, and their love and support of us as a band and as friends.

Seeing them again this year was awesome and the night of worship we had in their living room was so, so cool. Darla, thanks so much for loving us the way you do, and for always making us feel so comfortable. Your house feels like home to us when we are on the road, and that is more special to us than you can know. We love you guys so much! bless :)

From May 16th to May 25th was the last part of the tour with Bradley Hathaway and friends. We finished the tour with 3 memorable shows. First off, the Porch in Tampa Florida. It was a a really intimate show and Jase and I (Matt) were blessed to be able to minister with 3 awesome guys after we played.

Also, we were hosted by some amazing new friends of ours, Joel, Seth, and Gabe from Ascend the Hill, a worship band on our label Come and Live!
They have a dope house haha and a very generous family and we loved staying with them. It was fun sitting in the Jacuzzi outside and talking about how hard it is being a touring worship band hahaha.

The second to last show with Bradley and the boys was at Murray Hill theatre, one of our favourite venues in Jacksonville Florida. This was a great show. A lot of kids turned out and the worship we had was amazing. We made a couple of new friends and one of them said he heard angels singing during the set. Thank you Jesus for doing that!

After that show, we had a long drive of about 10 hours all the way to Nashville, Tennessee.

We were all really excited about this as Nashville has become our home in America. We have a few places which our home actually, but as far as cities go Nashville is very special to us.

We played at The Anchor (our home church here) with We are Creation, and Bradley Hathaway. It was an incredible night of Worship. God showed up in really special way and all of us were really blessed. We are Creation have a really special gift of worship too so it was so cool to be able to minister with them.

It was also the last night of our tour with Bradley Hathaway and band.

We had a great time with all of the guys on the road, and the relationships we built were really important to us. So Aaron, Joel, Phil, Nate, Rick and Bradley, thanks for being so cool, for inviting us on your tour and we hope we can hang heaps in the future. We’ll have to get some more Exclamation Mark tattoos! haha

As a side note, The Ember Days went to Cracker Barrel the next day with all the guys and got $92 worth of food for free. Freakin’ awesome.
Since the tour finished, we have been lucky enough to have a few days to somewhat relax in our hometown of Nashville. We stayed with our best friends Dave and Nichole Lim up until tonight and had an awesome time as usual. They are amazing, and they love fishsticks :)

Throughout the past few days we have been spending a lot of time with our friends from Come and Live. If you didnt already know, Come and Live is the organisation we are with currently, partnering with us as music missionaries to spread the Good News of Jesus to as many people as possible through our music.

Being able to spend time with guys like Chad, Graham and Russ (Come and Live) has been amazing and a huge boost to our faith. They have been helping us deal with the struggles that we find ourselves in at the moment, like spiritual warfare and financial hardship haha. They have been amazing and we are so blessed to be co-labouring with them in what we are doing.

I will close with tonight’s events and prayer requests :)

Tonight, 3 Come and Live bands got together for a night of prayer and ministry. They are The Ember Days, I am Alpha and Omega, and Oh the Blood.

Along with Chad and Graham from Come and Live, we spent the night in prayer, taking communion and just hanging out and it has been incredible. God used this time to knit us together a ministry, to encourage one another, and just to hang out as mates. There were some powerful prayer times too for various band-members and for Come and Live, and I really feel like God has established something tonight and built a foundation that will last. It is a good place to be.

Prayer Requests:
- Pray that God would have His will, in our ministry, band, and as individuals.
- Pray that Come and Live would be ready to launch by June 1st, and that God would bring everything together to make this happen. We are trusting in Him.
- Pray for The Ember Days, that we would be in Unity, that God would provide for us, and that we would be filled with peace, and the joy of our salvation. Also, pray for God to breakthrough financially and help us to be good stewards. We will be providing a report for anyone to read regarding this very soon, which will outline the debt that we are having Faith for God to provide for.
- Pray for the body of Christ as a whole, that Holy Spirit would bring unity so that we can bear tons of fruit!
- Pray for Darla Collins and family, that God would open new doors so that they can continue to bless the youth of their city. They are incredible people.
- Pray for me (Matt) because I am marrying my amazing fiancee Kylie in a few weeks, and I would like wisdom to be a good husband
- Pray for anything else , whatever you feel led.

Thanks so much for reading this, and for your ongoing support. We could not do what we do without all of you who pray for us and sow into what we do in your various ways.

We are truly grateful for all of you.

Please contact us! We love hearing stories :)
Love, The Ember Days

So, what happens now? Well, a few practical issues – the office has moved, so we’ll be updating all our contact details.. and you might have noticed a little less web traffic from us. That’s only because we’ve been working hard behind the scenes working out an exciting plan ahead.

We think we’ve pretty much got it sussed now and look forward to telling you all about it. Soul Purpose has a great history and an awesome future. Stay in touch, and expect to hear from us any day! Meanwhile, enjoy the last few days of daylight savings!

A couple of years back we interviewed Mary, a daredevil sportswoman who holds the Guiness World Record for the largest jump by a woman and has been voted the world’s best female freestyle motocross rider. However, that seems to all be coming to a startling end.

In mid December while training at her private motocross track Mary experienced a hazardous landing, dropping four meters onto flat ground and breaking both legs on impact.

Mary was told she had an 80 percent chance of losing her left leg and, to make things worse (but really, how much worse can they get than losing a leg?), a metal rod in her leg from a previous accident crushed her ankle giving it a small chance of healing.

Luckily, that didn’t eventuate and Perkins was discharged from hospital recently, but faces at least three months of recovery in a wheelchair.

Mary has made no final decision on her return to the sport of Freestyle Motocross but doctors have advised against it. If she were to damage her left leg again it could cause huge complications and possible amputation.

At this time, Perkins will turn her focus to her business, Encounter FMX – a live FMX show that has previously featured her. However, from now on Mary will be watching from the sidelines.

Once again SoulPurpose.co.nz has been ranked in the top 10 websites visited in New Zealand under the Lifestyle – Religion category. For this quarter (Oct-Dec 08) we came in at #6, and to be honest, we’re still wondering who’s taking the first five spots. Any clues?

Needless to say, keep coming back and we’ll climb the ladder.