Tayla, Our Olympic Envoy

What a surprise for Tayla Young, a student at Christian Renewal School until last term, to be chosen to be the young New Zealand flag envoy. She won an ANZ Bank competition from among 16,000 applicants. Tayla had the exciting privilege of handing over the NZ flag to Nick Willis, thereby revealing who would be the 2012 New Zealand Olympic flagbearer.

Tayla’s prize was announced at her school assembly at Rangitoto College on 28 June. “One minute I was sitting there listening to Hamish Carter talk about winning an Olympic Gold and the next minute I was up on the stage with him. I’m going to take my Mum and my Nana and Poppa. None of us have been to further than Australia. It’s so exciting,” she said.

Not only was it a huge blessing for Tayla, but also for Mr and Mrs Lloyd who got to go with her. It is clearly the favour of God upon this family, as they are able to also catch up with loved ones in the UK. Tayla will get to meet cousins for the first time and Mr and Mrs Lloyd, their grandchildren. Mr Lloyd, Associate Principal of C.R.S. High School, is originally from England and has not been back to the U.K. for at least 20 years.

It just goes to show that you never know how or when God is going to pour out His blessings on you! God does not have any favourites, He loves you just as much as He loves Tayla!

Please click here for more. Or to see a tvnz video interview click here.

Olympic Torchbearer Extraordinaire!

Julia's grandad, (who by the way, is 87 years old), was chosen from among thousands of applicants to be an Olympic Torchbearer on the 14 July, to run the torch from Boscombe to Southampton.
View a local newspaper photo by clicking here and video footage by clicking here.

...Swanmore resident Sydney Dean, who was nominated by two city councillors, Thérèse Evans and Deputy Mayor Frank Pearson.

Mr Dean, 86, of Hill Pound, has lived in the area for 50 years and was nominated for his years of charity work including the Mayor of Winchester’s charities.

He said: “I’m like a child waiting for Christmas, it cannot come soon enough. I could not believe it when I found out.”

Mr Dean will carry the torch through Boscombe on July 14 and said nothing would stop him completing the route.

He added: “I’m going to get pushed around the route in my coffin if I don’t make it to the big day so I have made back-up plans!”

Mr Dean spent 40 years in the navy rising to Lieutenant Commander and has worked with national charities such as Mission to Seafarers and the St George Foundation, which helps children in Sierra Leone.

Cllr Evans, ward member for Wickham, said: “Sydney is ‘Mr Swanmore’ and has raised thousands of pounds for local and national charities, and I cannot think of a more deserving person to carry the Olympic flame.”

The Key of David

Scores of Christian artists around the world have had a part to play in a breath-taking visual display that will be on tour around London during the Olympic Games. The finished masterpiece can be viewed in its composite detail by clicking here.



Our very own Mrs. Cameron (3rd from the left) created a piece which has been packed and shipped off to London with the Pacific's contribution. Mrs. Betty Mayne (Grace's grandma, 2nd from the left) was also invited to paint one of these panels. Below is the nearly finished masterpiece - see if you can spot Mrs. Cameron's panel amongst it. (Click on the picture below to make it bigger).