We left The Bracken at 1:30pm and met up with more people at the Beach Haven shops. It was about 2:15pm
when we set off, walking up Rangatira Rd then down Lysander Crescent into Rangatira Reserve, a patch
of native bush in the main gully of Beach Haven.
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We followed a well-formed track going through the bush upstream to come out on Kia Ora Rd.
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Further down Kia Ora Rd we re-entered the reserve, and found the track much overgrown and a bit of
a challenge to get through.
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Eventually the route come out onto a formed track once more and we crossed the stream and climbed
up to the grounds of Birkenhead College. We crossed the fields and came out on Birkdale Rd, then roadbashed
via Tiri Tiri Rd and Lancaster Rd to Beach Haven Rd then on via Paragon Ave to Shepherds Park.
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A bush track along the edge of Shepherds park gave lovely views up Hellyers Creek at full tide. Eileen
joined us at this point.
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It was 4:15pm by the time we stopped at a shelter and picnic table in the park. Sonia shared challenging
thoughts from a book she had been reading, Driven by Eternity by John Bevere. This focuses on the importance
of sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ with the unsaved, that the heavenly rewards we will get at the
Judgement Seat of Christ depend on how we live our lives as Christians on earth, and how we preach and
present the gospel to others. Sonia cited the story of Ian McCormack who 25 years ago was stung by 5
fatally-poisonous box jellyfish while diving in the Mauritius Islands. In the ambulance on the way to
hospital he accepted Christ into his heart, thinking he was about to die. He clinically died for 15 minutes
in the hospital, was shown hell then taken to heaven. He did not want to go back to earth, but did so
when he saw a vision of his mother, and dedicated the rest of his life here to preaching the gospel.
(You can read the full story at
http://www.aglimpseofeternity.org/content.php?folder_id=1)
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