NEWS FROM FIRST CHURCH

By Pam Colenso

May these be the gifts your Christmas brings –

Peace, Gladness, Good Health and Love

This last year has been memorable in many ways, we still had and have the lasting impacts of Covid-19 and the effects this has had on us, and the community, these have been long and varied.  

We at First Church have been able to hold several events over the last year, these have included the Autumn Mini Market, Mini Book Fair, Preloved High Fashion and High Tea evening and the Annual Kirk Fair.  All the funds raised from these events have gone to the work of the church.  It is fantastic to see the whole church family and friends working together to enable these to happen. Thanks to all who donated goods, and to the customers so necessary to the successful result.

We are already in the planning stages for next year and ask if you are having your annual decluttering or downsizing over the holiday period, and have items you no longer use, then we would love to have these for our fairs next year. Please contact Ronnie on 06 3069277 to arrange for collection.

First Church is holding a Community Christmas Day Lunch from 12 – 2pm in our church hall.

• Do not be on your own – if you are an individual, or a couple, come and join us for lunch, great food, and joyful company.
• All faith traditions are encouraged and welcome
• Fabulous food – 3 course meal, plus tea and coffee.

Only a certain number can fit into our hall, so phone Carol 0210712049 or Shari 0276364579 if you would like to come along, love to see you there. … Continue Reading

Martinborough Golf Report

2022 Shoot out winners Biddy McLeod and Trevor Peterson.

By Kris Chamberlain

It has been an extremely busy time at the Club over the last month with a number of events happening.

Grumpies have been well attended with recent winners being Bob Schofield, Tony Taylor (twice), Malcolm Wood, Mariana McDermott and Seamus O’Sullivan.  Twos have been had by Andy Morison, Seamus O’Sullivan, Wayne Phelps (3), Tony Taylor, Ed Brown, Malcolm Wood (4), Paul Harris (4), Martin Napier (2), 

Thursday Club winners have been Arthur Warren, Vern Anton, Shane Hislop and Ju Allen.  Twos have gone to Troy Shaw, John Warner (2), Rick Thompson, Arthur Warren, Jason Shaw, Rob Lopez, Malcolm Bridge, Wayne Phelps and Rob Smith.

At the end of October we hosted Eketahuna Golf Club to compete for the Baarbraa Trophy which we have failed to win for the last couple of years.  It was a very close call with Eketahuna averaging 31.55 points and Martinborough 31.61 so the sheep has a new home for the year!

At the beginning of November we held our Club Championship Finals.  The winners were:  Mens Senior Troy Shaw, runner up Tony Russo, Mens Intermediate Seamus O’Sullivan, runner up George Kirk, Mens Junior Dayle Scrimshaw, runner up Trevor Petersen, Mens Vets Brian Russo, runner up Andy Morison.  Womens Silver Sandra Petersen, runner up Debbie Donaldson, Womens Bronze A Julie Weber, runner up Marie Scrimshaw, Womens Bronze B Karen Stephens, runner up Alison Tipler. … Continue Reading

Maree’s musings – Happy days!

By Maree Roy

As the end of the year approaches, it seems we need to find excuses to celebrate. Like just last week [as I write this] when Monday turned up and Black Friday was still on the go! Traditionally, Black Friday marks the start of shopping madness, but it looks like consumers needed more time this year. Of course it may be a plot hatched by retail outlets to take over Cyber Monday, invented in 2005 to persuade people to shop online.

I’m not one for shopping, I confess, but I do enjoy the occasional shindig. This delightful word possibly stemmed from the Gaelic sinteag [to leap about] and is very apt for this month’s column. Rest assured, I don’t make a habit of leaping about, by the way, but Dunedin’s annual ‘Edinburgh Festival’ was worth a visit. Harking back to Dunedin’s extensive Scottish heritage, it’s traditionally celebrated around St Andrew’s Day, and the bigwigs in charge were fine with borrowing it.

So I took myself off to the Octagon where the impressive bronzed (though not from sunburn) statue of Robbie Burns, the traditional landing stage for the city’s screeching seagulls, watched benignly over the festivities. Tartan kilts abounded despite the ten degrees temperature. Yep, summer’s coming! Various contests included a race to finish a bowl of cold porridge, chucking the caber and hefting huge concrete balls onto barrels. There were bagpipes; an Ode to the Haggis. And singing and dancing, naturally. All good fun. … Continue Reading

Inner Wheel South Wairarapa

By Maureen Mortensen

Hi everyone

November already, how the year has flown.

Last month’s Members Dinner Meeting at the Offering  we had an interesting guest speaker.Dave Stephenson a Sales Consultant from Greytown who is also a volunteer Fireman.

Dave gave a very interesting talk about being a volunteer fireman. 85% of New Zealand’s firefighters are volunteers.

In the Wairarapa there are 13 Brigades, five of which are Urban and eight are Rural. They are all staffed by volunteers with one exception. That is Masterton which is career and volunteers.

The volunteers respond to an array of non-fire incidents, including medical events, car accidents, hazardous material emergencies,severe weather episodes and a range of rescues.

Dave said it is all about the communities and serving our people.

Dave was an interesting and informative speaker. We thank our many Fire volunteers for their superb work in protecting our communities.

New members very welcome you are welcome to come along to ourmonthly dinner nights at the Offering from 6pm. For further information ph. 0226533510