On Friday August 20 a donation jar for the Aria MacDonald Trust, containing around $100, was stolen from the front desk of Drury Tires, Auckland.

Anthony Wright, owner of Drury Tires and member of Christian Motorcycle Ministries said, “It always just sat on the desk and it was there on Friday morning. We didn’t notice until a woman said she wanted to donate $20. We just told her slip it into the tin and that’s when she said ‘what tin?’”

Aria MacDonald, a three-and-half-year old girl from Manurewa, Auckland, is currently recovering in Omaha, United States, after undergoing a multiple organ transplant in February this year.

Prominent American Bible teacher Chuck Missler aims to develop a property he recently bought in New Zealand into an internationally acclaimed base for teaching Christian courses.

Missler told Challenge Weekly that River Lodge, a 40-acre property near Reporoa, bounded on three sides by the Waikato River, had a “good reputation”.

“It has been acquired to serve as headquarters for the South Pacific arm of my ministry, known as Koinonia ministry,” he explained. “The concept is to have the property continue operating as a lodge with conferences, weddings, holiday-accommodation, and to have it as a discipleship centre. If we accomplish what we expect to, River Lodge will become well-known world-wide as a place to come for study, informed and invigorating discussion and discipleship training.”

Well known US pastor and evangelist Greg Laurie told crowds at two Auckland pre-Crusade launch meetings that he was “excited” and “amazed” at how many people had responded to his invitation to accept Christ.

The first meeting in the Aotea Centre on August 13 drew 1200 people; 160 responded that night, according to Laurie’s team. The next night’s South Auckland meeting had 1500 people, with 175 people coming forward.

The event was an official invitation from Auckland Church leaders to Laurie to run large-scale crusades next June in Auckland’s 12,000-seat Vector Arena.

Laurie had just conducted a crusade in Anaheim, Los Angeles, at which 10,051 people officially registered decisions to follow Christ.

A singer/songwriter who began life as the child of missionary parents and had lived in three countries by the age of nine has continued his international wandering as a singer and teacher on worship.

David Lyle Morris released his 12th album around three months ago. Morris called his latest album Lifestory, because the songs recorded on it chart the journey of his life over the last 22 years, “through grief and to a new birth”. Tracks on the album were recorded with different backing bands and in different countries, so a range of musical styles is heard on the album.