Encouraging Bold Faith Within

Te Wiki o te Reo Māori, or Māori Language Week, is a language for all New Zealanders. To celebrate Te Wiki o te Reo I have included snippets at the end of this message from the New Zealand History for your information.

On Saturday Felicity and I attended a family 21^st where we were able to present a bible and pray for the young man a cousin of mine. The boy’s name was Caleb and I shared about the boldness of Caleb and Joshua who were sent in with 10 others to spy out the promised land. Caleb had a different attitude from the other spies.

Verse 30 records, “Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, ‘We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.’” When the people complained that they could not go up to conquer the land, both Caleb and Joshua responded strongly: “Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh… tore their clothes and said to the entire Israelite assembly, ‘The land we passed through and explored is exceedingly good. If the Lord is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and will give it to us. Only do not rebel against the Lord. And do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will devour them. Their protection is gone, but the Lord is with us. Do not be afraid of them’” (Numbers 14:6–9)

So firstly, I pray this week as you encounter opportunities to share about our Lord, you will have Caleb’s boldness and if you are in a decision-making situation know that the Lord is with you and there is no need to be afraid.

Secondly, as we celebrate Maori language week, its important to remember that the language nearly died out.

Efforts to secure the survival of the Māori language stepped up a gear in 1985. In that year the Waitangi Tribunal heard the Te Reo Māori claim, which asserted that te reo was a taonga (treasure) that the Crown (government) was obliged to protect under the Treaty of Waitangi. The Waitangi Tribunal found in favour of the claimants and recommended several legislative and policy remedies. Māori was made an official language of New Zealand under the Maori Language Act 1987.