Newsletter No.23 Friday 10th August 2012 Dear Parents The Bible forms the basis for all that we do and teach in our school and that is why it features so prominently in our school logo (above). Recently the Bible has been criticised in the New Zealand Herald by some writers defending same sex marriage as being inaccurate, out-of-date and irrelevant to modern living. But amazingly, the following article appeared soon after in the very same New Zealand Herald upholding the historic accuracy of the Bible:

Sceptics have often accused the Bible of depicting unbelievable and even fictitious people and events. Modern day archaeology has regularly consistently proved the Bible to be completely trustworthy and historically correct. I shared some of the more notable archaeological finds that have upheld the Bible with the secondary students at this week’s assembly. Examples included:

• Dead Sea Scrolls – Discovered by a Bedouin boy in a remote cave in the 1970s, the ancient scrolls dating back to 408BC – 318BC, were copies and part copies of whole books of the Bible and verified the accuracy & authenticity of modern day translations eg. Book of Isaiah

• Ebla tablets - The discovery of the Ebla tablet in Northern Syria in the 1970s has shown the Biblical writings concerning the Patriarchs to be true. Documents written on clay tablets rom around 2300 B.C. demonstrate that personal and place names recorded in the Bible are genuine. The name “Canaan” was in use in Ebla, a name critics once said was not used at that time and was used incorrectly in the early chapters of the Bible. The word tehom (“the deep”) in Genesis 1:2 was said to be a late word demonstrating the late writing of the creation story. “Tehom” was part of the vocabulary at Ebla, in use some 800 years before Moses. Ancient customs reflected in the stories of the Patriarchs have also been found in clay tablets from Nuzi and Mari.

• Hittites rediscovered? The Hittites were once thought to be a Biblical legend, until their capital and records were discovered at Bogazkoy, Turkey.

• Sargon a Myth? It was once claimed there was no Assyrian king named Sargon as recorded in Isaiah 20:1, because this name was not known in any other record. …then, Sargon's palace was discovered in Khorsabad, Iraq. The very event mentioned in Isaiah 20, his capture of Ashdod, was recorded on the palace walls. What is more, fragments of a stela (upright stone) memorializing the victory were found at Ashdod itself.

• Nebuchadnezzar: Daniel knew that Nebuchadnezzar was responsible for the splendour of Babylon (Daniel 4;30). This was unknown to modern historians until it was confirmed by the German professor Koldewey, who excavated Babylon approximately 100 years ago.

We can all take great comfort knowing God’s word is reliable, accurate and trustworthy and is can be used for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness (2 Tim 3:16) in this modern age.

Hebron Happenings

Resigned Ms Tina Butler, our art teacher, has gained a full-time position as women’s clothes designer and has submitted her resignation. Tina has been with us since 2004, teaching art to our Year 7 – 13 students. Her senior secondary students’ NCEA art results have been outstanding and her students generally gain maximum credits for the art boards. The position has been advertised nationally and we hope to appoint a teacher to the position by the end of next week. In the meantime, Tina has committed herself to seeing the current senior students complete their NCEA requirements while the junior classes are being taught

by a reliever. We wish Tina all the best in her new career. Namiki Secondary School Visit The 20 students from Namiki Secondary School have come and gone. It was a real joy to have them in our school and homes. All the Hebron homestay families I talked to thoroughly enjoyed their stay in their homes and all said they were polite, respectful and well-behaved young people. Their accompanying teacher, Mr Hitisi Iida, spoke highly of our school and greatly appreciated the welcome their group received and the lovely hospitality display to them. I passed a letter onto Mr Iida to give to the principal of Namiki Secondary school commending the behaviour and involvement of her students in our school. I also thank all the Hebron families and teachers who homestayed a Namiki student – you were wonderful parents to this overseas visitors and you made a huge impact on them.

Namiki students performing a Japanese dance Sayuri Takatsuka biking in the weekend

Students with their Hebron “Sayonara” farewell certificates

Coming Up

Year 9 Students host Church Leaders Year 9 Food Technology class is learning about “Christian Hospitality”. Part of this unit involved inviting special guests, (a key member of their church), to an afternoon tea, where the students had to practise making introductions and hosting skills. The students worked through their lunchtime to make savouries, wraps, sushi, meringues, brownie, citrus muffins and chocolate fondue, which had to then be presented attractively by 1:45pm. It was a huge rush but they did it, and the food all turned out well! The guests were suitably impressed, and the students, who were rather nervous about the whole thing enjoyed it as well, especially eating the leftovers. In the words of Isaiah Chin, “It wasn’t as scary as I thought!” A big “Thank you” to the guests who acted as “guinea pigs” for the students. Geography Quiz On Wednesday night, four Hebron Year 12 students (Cara Allen, Ben Taylor, Grace Bennett and Emilee Gillies) competed in the annual Year 12 and 13 Auckland Geography Quiz. The students thought that it was tough but fun. The experience will set them up well for when they return to compete again as Year 13s next year.

Musical News – Star of Persia We have under three weeks to go to the musical, and all the students are working hard. We will start morning rehearsals next week, from 8.30am till 9.00am, as well as the Monday afternoon and Tuesday during school rehearsals. Here is the schedule for Monday: Monday 8.30am – 9.00am all the Courtiers, Maidens, Ladies, plus Xerxes, Vashti and Haman. Monday 3.30pm – 5.00pm Haman, Zeresh, Xerxes, Esther We have also given out costume information to many of the students. The only students still waiting for costume information are the townspeople and the Jews. Townspeople: long trousers or skirt (any colour), long sleeved t-shirt (any colour), short sleeved t-shirt to go over the top. (any colour, plain) Jews: as above, but without the short sleeved t-shirt. A number of characters have also been requested to bring a brightly colour long-sleeved shirt. This is for a turban (see photo), and is additional to the clothing which will be worn. Remember, the musical will be at Liberty Christian Church on 31st August and 1st September.

Help Needed to Paint Musical Backdrop Mrs Scott is seeking help from parents to help paint the musical backdrop in the school hall this coming Saturday 11th August 11am to 3pm. Please contact her if able to help, even if you are able to come for a short time. Email: ruths@hebron.ac.nz or just turn up tomorrow morning. Thanks. Also, coat hangers are urgently needed to hang costumes on. Please send to school foyer or office.

Fundraising

Careers Advice

New Website Our new website is about to go live this weekend so check it out. The new website company we are using (Zeald) is the biggest website design and hosting company in New Zealand and features a lot more facilities than our old website hosting company. Editing the website is hugely easier as the old website require knowledge of html computer language. The Parent Login facility is not available at the moment but will be activated at a later date.

ESITO Electrical Supply Taster Course, 8-11 October To apply for a place on a taster course, students need to:

• be at least 16 years of age at the start of the course • have completed at least NCEA Level 1 • have a good standard of English and maths, and an interest in science and technology • be a New Zealand citizen or permanent resident • have a strong interest in careers in the electricity supply industry.

Applications close on 20 August for these courses and the application form is on our web page and attached: http://www.esito.org.nz/career_centre/industry/taster_courses.aspx University of Auckland Faculty of Education Open Evening Tuesday 14 August 4.00-7.30pm. Content of evening, map etc included in a pamphlet available in the University of Auckland display pouches outside the Bursars office.

SCHOOL GALA Carolyn Welch is in the process of ringing parents who helped with stalls in 2010 to see if they can look after the same stall again. But also we will be trying to get each class and its parents and students behind a stall and activity this year. So please, parents and children, put the date of the gala (27th Oct) in your diary to help out. We hope this will be a way you can get to know the parents in your kids classes better too. PLANTS Angela Garner is taking charge of the plant stall at the gala this year. Please ring her now if you want to pot plants, cuttings from your own garden and sow seedlings, be it annuals /perennials or summer vegetables for sale. This is a great way we can make a high profit margin at the gala. We will grow some heritage seeds up too as a special aspect of the plant stall. This need to happen now so the new plants will be a good size by October 27. Donations of potting mix and empty plastic pots and seedling trays and yoghurt containers suitable for small seedlings can be bought to the school foyer from next week, every week and this will be passed onto Angela. We will get some classes involved at school growing seedlings and Angela will come in to work with students to do this. If you want to work on the plant stall then ring Angela (ph 520 1935) to give her your name. SECOND HAND CLOTHING Sarah Heeringa is in charge of second hand clothing and is pulling a team together for this purpose. If you have second hand clothing, shoes, bags, jewellery and accessories, please put them in bags or boxes in the school foyer or in the room on the second floor of Rahiri house marked for this purpose for Sarah and her team to sort. Just keep it rolling in everyone, ask friends if they have good quality items to donate and bring theirs as well. TRADE ME AUCTION-CAN YOU HELP We need someone who is Trade Me savvy to volunteer time to putting quality items on auction around the time of the gala and afterwards. There is flexibility with this. Last gala we had some nice new items donated for the auction and they sold well under the price expected because we didn't have the volume of bidders to put the price up. So this Gala we thought we would sell items like this online to get closer to their real worth.

Miscellaneous

TOY STALL-CAN YOU HELP We need a Mum to manage the toy stall and gather helpers from parents in your child's class to share this. HOT BBQ BREAKFAST-BRUNCH-CAN YOU HELP We need a Mum or Dad to gather a team of about 8-10 men and women to cook on BBQ's cooked breakfast brunch, sausages, bacon, egg, baked beans etc to be eaten at school picnic tables from 9.30-1.30 on the day of the gala. If you can help manage the toy stall, trade me auction or BBQ Breakfast/Brunch, please email Carolyn Welch urgently at swishprojects@gmail.com or H 09 8455316 or 021 2980587. TUPPERWARE PARTY FUNDRAISER COMING UP There will be a Tupperware party at the school for Mums and their friends to come and the profits from hosting this will go tot he school. The date and time is Friday 21st September from about 7 pm to 10 pm. Circle this on the calendar and endeavour to come along.

CHILDREN’S ATHLETICS STARTS AUGUST ** Owairaka Athletics welcomes athletes of all ages and levels, whether you are a beginner, an elite competitor, or like the rest of us somewhere in between. Our club was founded in 1943 and since then many of our members have achieved substantial success at local, national and international levels. If you run, walk, throw or jump or would like to come along and give it a go, we invite you to come along and try us out. Weekly Wednesday Club Night

• Lights are on at the Lovelock Track during winter 6pm to 7pm. • Children’s Athletic Winter training starts in August. Indoors in the centre Gymnasium.

All WELCOME AT OWAI - Come join us at the LOVELOCK TRACK, SANDRINGHAM ROAD EXTN, MT ROSKILL

**New clubrooms in the New Roskill Youth Zone open every Wednesday night** Or contact: Syd Morrow 827 3680 or Pat Munro 629 5932 Evenings

Geoff Matthews Principal