Me... almost

Look another Mike Jolly

We both have a surprisingly similar taste in music and enjoy Clive Clusser books (it was a while back for me though). He’s 21 but not as tall as me... anyway you can view his blog for yourself. It's a bit boring though...

Mike battles the atrium of death

It's a seven o’clock start. JH and I begin with a few shops including Retro café (one of my favorite hang outs).

It’s twelve when we arrive at atrium of death. “Can you just do the roof as well?” she asks looking at the atrium roof about five meters above us. “inside and out?”
Every part of my body is screaming “No!” in a very strong language that isn’t suitable to publish.

Over four hours later we leave with just 170 bucks. That’s really bad money. As a window cleaner you want to earn about 40 plus dollars/hour. We’ve walked away with about half that. I really wanted to charge more (and I reckon I could have gotten away with it) but I'm too nice.

“The bloke across the road was after a quote,” says the nice old lady handing me the cheque. I trudge wearily over to his house I’m in no mood for cheap quotes. a quick walk-around reveals a big job. I’ve run out of patience and I quote the highest price I’m able to based on our formula, $460 to do inside and out. If we get this job at least we’ll be making money. We head home it’s just hit five and I haven’t had lunch. Just another day at the office.

It's a small blog world

I have a good mate Seumas from Sydney. He posted a link to a friend of his. A nice girl named Karen who I've never met in my life and until tonight hadn't read her blog either. So I got reading... and found a review of a conference that she'd been to. Who should pop up in the comments section but Bron.

Me => Seumas => Karen => Bron => Me

I'm off to bed

Regurgitator, Regurgitator, Regurgitator

If you like good quality Christian writing check out Regurgitator
There are still some minor bits and pieces to fix but it's all operational. *ALL* previous issues of Gurge are available right now for FREE download. I also wrote out an index of articles. The final ever issue is due for release very soon. Get downloading and enjoy. :)

supportMIKE

Today has been a busy day. For the eagle eyed I have changed the name of my blog. I have decided to brand myself to some degree as "supportMIKE". I find that it’s an effective way to help people to remember you and what you're about. It's kind of fun too. I can up with a nice little picture of myself which I'll put on all my letters and correspondence for the duration of the apprenticeship. Let me know what you think.. (try not to be too harsh). I also completed my "supportMIKE" letter which I'll use to ask people to support me finacially for MTS.

In other news I have been a little stronger mentally speaking since earlier in the week. This is good and encouraging. However I’m sick with a bit of a cold which has made life frustrating. I'm particularly grateful to friends for taking the time to chat to me over the week and post comments on my blog.

I have decided to undertake my biggest project yet, a three talk series for an evangelistic camp for teenagers later in the year. This is a big challenge and I'll have lots of work to do. I also have been working on a evangelistic talk on Hebrews for a Christian group at Hobart College. I also spent a great deal of time this weekend also getting the Regurgitator Magazine section of the Crossroads website up and going see separate post.

It has been a productive weekend.

God’s Sovereignty and Human responsibility. A conversation with Don

“You can’t have it both ways” jokes my Arminian boss “You can’t hold them in tension it just doesn’t make sense.”

I’ve been reading through Don Carson’s book A Call to A Spiritual Reformation with JK. Chapter 9 was particularly helpful. Carson writes…

Firstly God is absolutely sovereign, but his sovereignty never functions in scripture to reduce human responsibility. Secondly human beings are responsible creatures-that is they choose, they believe, they disobey, they respond, and there is moral significance in their choices; but human responsibility never functions in scripture to diminish God’s sovereignty or make God absolutely contingent.

“But it’s like taking a bet each way.” My bosses cheeky words echo.
“Aarrh yes” says Don moving into the seat beside me, in the window cleaning Corolla. “I think you can hold the two concepts in mystery.”
“But it doesn’t make sense,” says my Boss unperturbed by the fact Don Carson has just appeared in his rust ridden bomb.
“Well,” says Don “I think the mysteriousness is tied to God’s nature. There are a number of Christian mysteries. Take for example the trinity. It’s a difficult concept. How can God be both one and three at the same time surely that’s a mystery? Yet we see God’s Trinitarian nature is clearly portrayed in Scripture.”

“Secondly and more closely tied to God’s nature is the mystery of how he can be both transcendent and immanent at the same time?”
“You mean” I interject “The fact that God can be distant in that he is the king of the world and creator of the universe and yet can also be interested in hairs on my head and sparrows falling to the ground.” I finish cutting though Don’s scholarly jargon.
“Exactly” he says. “It’s another mystery clearly portrayed in scripture.”

“Despite all the mysteries bound up with the nature of God, I perceive, on the basis of scripture that he is simultaneously personal and transcendent. He is utterly sovereign over his created order yet he is nothing more than personal as he deals with me. Sometimes it more important to worship such a God than to understand him”.

“Wow Don” I say “Thanks for the help.”
“No worries Mike”
“Um Don… how’d you get here by the way?” I ask.
“It’s a mystery Mike.”

DaVinci Code Christian response

This film is so obviously a work of fiction it doesn't warrant my time for a proper response. I found little substance and credibility in the truthfulness of any of the claims in this film. If you really believe that this work of fiction is actually fact, you should get your head read.

The DaVinci Code

I have to say I found this film a little disappointing and predictable. Firstly though the positive. The acting was generally well done. I especially liked Sophie Neveu's character played by Audrey Tautou... although maybe that is because I like attractive brunettes.... In any case I digress. The dialogue was also mostly good although there were a couple of lines that seemed a little cheesy. The sets and scenery special effects were really well done. I especially liked the fading/dissolve between ancient world and the present. Locations were cool as well. Generally the plot was pretty good and I thought the whole conspiracy theory thing was kinda a cool idea for a film (very much “fiction”) but still kinda cool.

Interestingly came away from this film wanting to read the book. I’ll try and explain. I think many of the plot devices which the movie portrayed would have come through much better in the book. It had heaps of complex plot lines and twists and turns. Too many in my book. These ideas are for the world of the novel where the reader can read and re-read the ideas. But in the movie there were too many plot twists in the movie.

Each time you thought you’d reached the climax of the movie it would start building again. It felt like it had four or five climaxes rather than one. . It felt like the end of The Return of the King where the ending dragged on and on. Which climax was I supposed to get most excited about? In the end I couldn’t be bothered any more and was hanging out for the end. Don’t get me wrong I like plot twists eg. Fight Club and Seven. It just didn’t work for the Da Vinci Code.

All in all I give it 2.5 chickens out of five. Not worth seeing at the cinema but something wait and rent on dvd. Maybe I'll post a more Christian response later.

Crisis... well sort of

I had a minor crisis today. I was lying on bed thinking and praying about people and stuff more generally. Suddenly I realised that by the time I've finished MTS I'll be 28. Twenty freaking Eight! Sheesh it sounds old. While it's not really that old, I think it seems old cause there are a number of things that I had planned to have done by then. Not so much things on paper more ideas in my head. Firstly be married to some nice Christian girl. Secondly have a sustainable permanent fulltime job to support said nice Christian girl. I had also aimed to generally have sorted out my life.

The problem is that these things (certainly the first two) aren't likely to work themselves out over my time doing MTS. My thinking at the moment (taking into account my mental state) is that MTS plus relationship equals total disaster. I'd hate to spend a year down the crapper trying to get over another broken relationship leaving me with little time for anything else.

So that makes me 28 when I meet this nice single Christian chick. Allowing two years for us to go out and get engaged (too fast by my standards). That gets me to 30... and makes me around 35 when I have kids. Too old in my book. I had older parents all my life and it definitely makes things difficult. I always pictured my self as a young Dad with heaps of energy... anyway I digress.

The latter (job issue) is simply not practical. Compounding this problem is that I'm not sure what mental condition I'll be in post MTS. I'm also not sure what type of job I'm going to go for either. At the moment stress and depression is close to ruling out fulltime teaching. So what on earth else can I do that’s low stress and high pay?

Don't get me wrong I'm still pumped for doing MTS next year, it's just maybe I'm realising what a sacrifice it really will be. Maybe I hadn't thought about the implications enough.

Discipleship 101 the new way…

Some of these ideas I have flogged from a Crossroads launch paper on discipleship most are my own thoughts.

• Valuing the experience that discipling provides.


• Caring for the whole person not just their Bible reading and prayer.


• Getting involved in other people’s lives. Getting to know/visiting their friends and family. Remembering their names.


• Working on projects together eg. Gardening or Building together.


• Having an open home being hospitable and inviting people round to your house for a meal.


• Inviting people out for coffee and footing the bill.


• Valuing hang out time. Time spent just chatting is valuable. Time spent watching TV, DVDs, Going to the beach etc together is also time spent well.


• Meeting regularly rather than weekly. Not being a Nazi about it.


• Increasing time spent in prayer together.


• Sharing each others struggles and difficulties and bearing each others burdens and faults.


• Sharing in each others joy and happy times.


• Concentrating on fewer people relationships with a deeper level of commitment.


• Spending time being more strategic about what things to do and learn together.


• Not seeing full time paid ministry as an end goal for every discipling relationship.


• Listening to people and learning to shut up.


• Being relaxed if people don’t want to meet up or can’t or don’t have the time.


• Being honest caring and open.


• Show people how you “do” ministry. Passing on the baton.


• Spending time praying for your people and asking God to help you to do discipleship better.


• Not being a tight arse and taking the time to message and call people where appropriate.


• Excel in the gift of random acts of kindness and thoughtfulness.


• Being humble approaching every meeting as a mutual learning experience regardless of Christian maturity.

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Notice I'm getting the hang of html programing :P

Discipleship 101 old school way

As I cleaned the umpteenth window for the day I was reflecting on some of the old style Crossroads discipleship back when I first joined. Back in the day... the discipleship program was pretty full on.

Think of long lists of people. People paired up with little regard to personality and friendship (Unity in the gospel was all we needed). The task was simple, meet up with another person (same sex only) for one hour. Try to get through prayer, reading the Bible and asking the hard questions (How are you going with lust?). You might have guessed but there wasn't much time for chit chat (idle ungodly stuff). Lot's of time for correcting and rebuking (not a whole heap for encouraging). There wasn't much time for problems either it was more about straightening things out. The relationship was of "giver" to the "receiver" OR "helper" and the "helped".

I don't want to make it all sound bad as many good things came out of this. People grew and matured as Christians. People read their Bibles and prayed and the church grew. However there were many people who go lost along the way. Some found the systems difficult to handle or just fell away and stopped being Christian. Some burned out, others were disrespected and damaged. There was too much "tough love" and not enough "love, love". When objections were raised they were quickly quashed.

I was just as guilty for all this as anyone else out there. By God's grace we moved on from this shocker and sought forgiveness from God and asked for forgiveness from the people we'd hurt.

My head hurts

My mind had a major explosion over the weekend. It wasn't directly caused by anything which made it quite concerning. Usually I can pick a direct cause but this time I couldn't.

This wasn't helped today when as cleaning a window in town I saw my ex no 2. She just caught my eye and there was no doubt she'd noticed me but she very obviously ignored me so convincingly I watched her walk all the way down the road. She didn't flinch. Now it's been nearly two years since she broke up with me and still she's not prepared to talk. What is more frustrating is that she's talked to just about everyone else. I was pretty angry.

This afternoon things didn't get a heap better. We were working at the Nursing Home. This work is bloody tough. Try cleaning a heavy window with the smell of poo causing you to gag while resident groans and moans their shriveled face grabbing at their catheter bag. I usually turn my ipod up loud to block out all the muckiness of it all. While this might sound harsh I find dealing with the sound and smells distressing. I nearly found myself crying a couple of times.

On a more encouraging note Bernie did a great talk at Church on Sunday. We looked at Hebrews 4 and 5. It was great to hear that because Jesus became a man, he experienced the life pain and sufferings that we do. For this reason he is sympathetic and able to help us in our suffering. I felt comforted which was nice. I still have questions about Hebrews but that’s for later.

I attempt to be intellectual 2.0... AND positive

Ken Morgan spoke in the final session of the Conference and had a number of helpful thoughts. He spoke of a “Gap” between the "Source" (ie the Bible/biblical culture) and what he called the “Receptor culture” or (what we call normal everyday Australian society and culture). He mentioned that traditionally we have relied too much on “Language” as the model for communicating across this “Gap” (eg. classical walk up evangelism).

He added two different methods for the communication of the “Source” across the “Gap”. The first of these was through "Behavior". In other words looking at the way be behave and act as Christians personally as "Missional" and a way of communicating the “Source” to the non Christian.

Secondly through having a Christian "Counter Culture" where Christians seek to engage actively with the community and culture. Bringing the implications of the gospel to bear on a wide variety of topics, not in a moralistic and often unhelpful way (eg. Fred Nile on abortion and homosexuality) but in an intelligent articulate and holistic way. The end point being the non Christian understanding a holistic Christian world view rather than bunch of dos and don'ts coupled with self righteous piety.

I think at Crossroads early on we over emphasized the “Language” approach, not seeing other ways of communicating as valuable rather as weak and lacking. This was something that we corrected over time and was addressed in one form or another in the Hullabaloo.

I wholeheartedly agree that “Behavior” and “Christian Counter Culture” are vitally important in the communication of the “Source”. However I affirm the importance of the traditional “Language” approach as well. I think for evangelism and “Mission” to work you need all three working together. (I felt this was implicit in what Ken was saying rather than explicit). One book I found personally helpful in doing this was John Dickson’s Promoting the Gospel. He advocates a holistic approach to evangelism which I found a useful corrective to my thinking.

Ken Morgan also advocated a new missionary method which I also found helpful. He stated we need to
Listen to out culture first before seeking to engage it.
Look for opportunities to serve our culture eg. help people out etc
Celebrate or show our community the reasons we have for hope we have.

I attempt to be intellectual

I attended the Perspectives on Mission Conference down at Bay West for most of Friday. It was an interesting time. I learned a lot and was able to do a great deal of thinking and chewing over. I didn’t agree with all that was said and firmly disagreed with some of the ideas put forward. That's not to say there weren't many useful and valuable thing I learned.

We looked at several different models of church structure and looked at the advantages and disadvantages of each. Theses were; Classical Attractional model, Seeker model and the Incarnational model. I'll outline each as they were presented and comment on each.

The Classical Attractional eg. Rick Warren and Bill Hybels This model was heavily criticized for failing to actually “attract” non Christians to the church. I would agree with this to a certain extent. Many of the theologically reformed churches I have attended simply don't "attract" non Christians.

Seeker Church model. This is more of a Crossroads style church. The church seeks to be Attractional but cater to the needs of outsiders. For example not having music, removing theological jargon, explaining what prayer is etc. The end point of all this is to allow the non Christian to feel as comfortable as possible. The problem with this view was that it sees church leadership as "vendors", and "seekers" as consumers. This in turn breeds Christians who expect to be served by the church rather than serve themselves. Furthermore this can lead to leadership burnout. I don't think this was so much a problem with Crossroads in it's old form.

A second criticism of the Seeker Church model is that Non Biblical issues are over emphasized in order to cater to outside needs. I'm inclined to agree here. The music issue at Crossroads would be a classical example. Was it worth having no music at Crossroads for so long when we put a number of valuable Christian members of our community offside? Did having no music actually achieve what we wanted it too?

The final Church model and by far the one most heavily put forward was the Incarnational model. This model draws it's inspiration from the incarnation (the Jesus become man and dwelling among us stuff). It involves bringing Christian values to the world. Or in another way aiming to bring church into the surrounding community rather than attract the community into a meeting. For example going into a pub and chatting with people, sort of coffee church type things. This was the model I had most problem with. The biggest of these is that I just don’t see the incarnation as a model for how to do church in the New Testament. Rather I think that it is primarily Jesus death and resurrection are what drive our sense of Church and community.

One thing I found more concerning was in the wording of what Christ’s death actually achieved. In an attempt to broaden the implications for salvation beyond the individual (“extending to the social and political sphere”), Jesus’ Penal Substitutionary Atonement was presented as of “secondary importance” (their words not mine) to his triumph and victory over principalities and worldly institutions. Here I strongly disagree. 1 Corinthians 15 springs to mind.

Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.
For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.

So where do I sit? Well with the Seeker model. As I said before it was this model that was heavily criticized even bagged out at the conference. Many of the arguments put forward as to why this model fails were full of straw man arguments and false dichotomies. I found this very frustrating. Apologies if this post comes across as overly negative as I did learn much and really value the experience.

tweaks

I've also made some minor adjustments to the html template. I have included a couple of sites I frequent. I also added a list of friends blogs that are generally a good read. As my skills in programing grow hopefully so too the changes will keep coming and get more exciting.

little bits and pieces...

The day began rather badly when I woke with a splitting headache. This was soon remedied with a couple of Nurofen Plus. Mike came round to visit and we were able to have a great chat about things at Crossroads as well as some changes to make to my draft MTS letter. In any case I was greatly encouraged and felt better than I have all week.

I spent the rest of the afternoon doing some bits and bobs in town. Most notably I bought another wireless computer keyboard and mouse. When I say another I really mean that I took the other one back cause it wasn't allowing my computer to show the screen saver and other frustrating things. In any case this one is lush.

The evening I spent doing some little bits and pieces jobs for Crossroads before attending a mountain bike premiere at the state cinema. Even if you don’t like bikes and stuff the cinematography was breathtaking.

Wrinkles

It’s early morning I’m feeling those early morning blues you get from getting up at 5:30am. We’re at the old peoples home again. As I said before I don’t mind this work.

She’s old with a friendly crinkled face and aged lines that makeup tries to hide. I decide this is going to be a good conversation. The room has a slight old musty smell, a combination of mothballs, old woolen jumpers and potpourri. The room has pictures of grandkids graduating and little trinkets and ornaments.

“Had a busy morning?” I start.
“Not really” Wrinkles says her crinkles lifting into a smile. I shift the window to where I’m about to clean it.

“Been here long?” I continue, soaping up the window pane.
“Since my second husband died” she says, with a slightly emotional tone. I sense she wants to talk more about this so the journalist in me kicks into gear.
“That’s horrible. What happened?”
“Well my first husband was working for the Hydro and got electrocuted out on a job. We had just had our third child. I think she was eight months old.”

I’m not looking at her as she speaks but I sense tenseness in her voice that speaks of the hurt and pain of the event must have caused. This is just awful I think I’ve bitten off more than I can chew. I move clean the next window. Time ticks by.

“So when did you remarry?” I ask bravely.
“Well a few years later I met this lovely man he got along really well with our kids. So I married him. It was important that they had a good father figure to bring them up. After that we adopted three more.”

“Yeah I agree with you. Fathers are pretty important in families.”

“My father was a really great man” She continues “He and my mother had been married for just 3 months and when lost both his arms in an accident. I never heard him complain not even once.”

I move into Wrinkles' bedroom to clean the last window. I start to think of how difficult this must have been, for them. The bread winner with a horrible disability. No arms! That would have really sucked. He couldn’t have cleaned windows. Heath care and wouldn’t have been anywhere near as good as it is now.

“I never heard my mother complain once either. She just accepted it and brought us up as best she could. Back in those days people really stuck by each other. It really was death till you part.”

I ponder this as I look at the faded photographs of days gone by. There is one of when she got married. The smiles of the bride and groom are vibrant. They look happy. So happy they jump out of the photo frame and warm the corners of my mouth into a smile.

“Are you married?” Wrinkles says, suddenly turning the conversation back to me.
“No” I say with a firm matter of factness that comes from two broken relationships.
“Well if you do, really look for someone who will stick by you even when the going gets tough.”

“Thanks for the advice,” I reply, rising to leave the small unit that has been home to our conversation. “Oh and thanks for the chat too.”

“Thanks for cleaning the windows” She says, the warm smile from the photo creeping over her face.

Interesting aged persons

Started cleaning the windows at Mt Saint Canice (read: Old Peoples village) this afternoon. Now this is a particularly interesting task. They have really annoying fly screens so we have to enter each house, removing the window and clean the outside and then replace it. That’s not that interesting I hear you say.

Well don’t be so freakin impatient.

What makes it interesting is that I get to chat to the old people while I work. They are always pumped for a chat. Topics include “Family… You’d love my granddaughter. That’s her in the photo…” “The Weather… It’s too cold…” “Young people today… I mean look at the clothes they wear…”

I usually try to drop in conversation that I’ve been to Uni this usually stops them in their tracks and I can get a nice conversation dropping in the fact that I’m a Christian. Then it's time to make an escape. Here are some highlights from today.

SMOKING

Me: You lived here long?
Grandpa: Nah just moved here mate. My wife is the nursing home. She’s very sick.
Me: That’s no good what’s she sick with?
Grandpa: Emphysema
Me: That’s not good.
Grandpa: No they have given her heaps of morphine and other drugs to ease the pain. The Doctor says she could die anytime.
Me: Man that sucks. How come she got emphysema? I mean was there a cause?
Grandpa: Yeah she smoked for 20 years… I smoked for 42 years.
Me: So gave up a bit too late?
Grandpa: Yeah. *sighs*
Me: So do you still smoke?
Grandpa: No I gave up just like that.
Me: Really I’ve heard it’s hard.
Grandpa: That’s all bullshit… 42 Years smoking and I gave it up just like that. It’s all about willpower. If you want to give up you just do it. Don’t listen to the bullshit they tell you.

WORK

Me: Wow we just caught you in time…
Grandma: Yeah I just finished work. (What the heck working at her age you got to be kidding me).
Me: Wow!
Grandma: Yeah I started at 10 (It’s about 4:30)
Me: Where was that?
Grandma: Red Cross Centre. I do it 3 days a week. (Freak me sideways that’s a lot of work for a Grandma. I wonder how old she is…)
Me: If you don’t mind me asking how old are you?
Grandma: 93

Work was nicely book-ended with this (taken with my phone as I knocked off).

Brain, Mush, Context

Once again my brain has turned to mush. Getting over and dealing with things after this latest breakup have been much more difficult that I had anticipated. Once agin I feel like crying but I just can't. For the visual learners above is my mood described in picture form.

I was also told that I should do longer posts and while I'm not personally a fan I did write some thoughts this morning before my brain exploded. Enjoy.

Context, context, context.
I remember hearing John Sfaran talk about a movie critics quote “could have been a comic triumph” shortened to “comic triumph” for a ‘shout line’ on the publicity poster. You get the point context is important.

One of the verses in the Bible I have mis-quoted the most would have to be this one
“I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.” (Philippians 4:13)

I’ve seen this verse treated like a magic cure all, unfailingly, and miraculously healing Christians from sickness and disease. It’s like we’re converted into unbreakable Christian super heroes able to jump buildings in a single bound cause everything is possible.

Before I go on I must make one disclaimer. There is a sense in which with God’s strength all things are possible but here we must ask the question is this actually what the verse is saying. I think the answer is no.

So lets look at the context of Philippians. We can see as he writes Paul is clearly experiencing trouble and persecution eg. 1:12 and 1:20-30. He is in chains, people have slagged him off and yet he is able to rejoice. What incredible strength. This brings us to 4:12. We see that Paul has learned the secret in any and every situation. That is whether in good circumstances or bad whether free or in chains, persecuted or praised, ship wreaked, betrayed, slagged off or suffering he is content.

But what is the secret to being content in such difficult times? The secret is that what ever circumstances arise he can deal with them, and be content because it is Christ who gives him the strength to cope and persevere with what is thrown his way.

I think this view has better implications. God doesn’t just give us an unrealistic freedom or escapism from the pressures of this life rather he gives us Christ’s strength to cope with what ever comes or way. I know that when things in my life have turned to crap God has always been right there giving me the strength to cope. May Paul’s secret be my and your secret to contentment in times of difficulty.

Men’s Conference

Andy Stirrup from Anglican Youth works in Sydney ran a Conference for the Crossroads boys. We looked at the book of Isaiah. It was great to really feel inspired to read what is a difficult book to feel... well inspired to read. He concentrated on Chapters 40- 50. There are a number of theories as to when it was written pre-exile, post-exile, or pre and during the exile to Babylon... interesting. There was also a passing reference to on of my favorite Pslams. Being a men’s conference there had to be a physical challenge. I'll let the pictures do the talking.



I'm not sure my Dad would approve of such an activity in "church".

Pictures and sunset music...

There was a beautiful sunset this evening. I was walking home from my interview for working with FOCUS next year when I saw it. I knew I had to get a pic. The funny thing was that all the worker bee people walking home with ipods hanging out their pockets were totally oblivious to it. The top one is from my kitchen window when I got home. This second one is one that got from the Rosebay webcam located across the river.



In honour of the good coffee I had yesterday, I went and drank another great coffee from Retro Cafe and got a picture this time. I also had a brief chat with Shiloh a friend from church who is a waitress there. She also runs a particularly good blog.



Tonight I went along to see some mates playing a gig at a pub in Sandybay Anthony Rochester and the Que Experience. They were both excellent and I recommend that you check them out. A great bunch of guys. And no I don't have a picture of them.

Thankyou

I have been surprised at the number of people who have actually looked at this blog and a few have even been so kind as to leave comments.

Highlights of today were:
*Taking it easy (it was my day off).
*Meeting Mike S for lunch (Somewhere in town).
*Drinking a particularly good cappuccino (Retro Cafe).
*Shopping for shoes (But not actually buying).

Stuff for tomorrow:
*Being interviewed by Sam Green about doing MTS.
*Deciding if I should preach for an evangelistic conference for Kingston Reformed.
*Reading some Don Carson with Joel.
*Going to see a gig or two at the Dr Syntax.

Something funny you should check out:
Beaconsfield the telemovie on Crikey

Cooking

Many people think the reason I eat rather poorly on occasion is that I'm a bad cook. This simply isn't true as the picture attached clearly shows. I can cook fairly well... well I cooked fried rice tonight not exactly rocket science. My big problem is that I find cooking depressing. Whenever I cook by the time the food is done, I just don't feel like eating it. I also I find it very frustrating and annoying to exert so much effort into something so trivial. On the other hand not eating properly contributes to my depression also. It's a no win situation.

Sushi

Thanks to generous Joe for a truckload of free Sushi. His flatmate who works in a Sushi bar in town had a stack (literally a stack) left over ofter the weekend. I reckon I've eaten about 30 bucks worth. Last day of work for the week tomorrow.

A chilly morning baby

An ok day at work all things considered. One of my mates who usually works for us went to hospital for his wife to have their baby. The news came through of a new baby girl named Pierra this evening.
All This meant I got to work with one of the other guys in our business. This also meant an earlier start with 3 degrees showing on the Mercury's clock. He and I had a bit of a chat about Christian stuff which was great. I kinda left things hanging a little so I'll have another opportunity to pick up the conversation again.
I'm going off to pray hard about this stuff before I head to bed.

Business blocks the pain

I realised walking home this evening that the way I deal with painful events in my life is to imerse myself in business and work. This is particualrly so with my most recent broken relationship. The problem comes when you can't sustain the business and the pain all comes rushing back. Broken relationshops really suck. I feel sad but I can't cry.

It's not really my style but...

You Are Midnight

You are more than a little eccentric, and you're apt to keep very unusual habits. Whether you're a nightowl, living in a commune, or taking a vow of silence - you like to experiment with your lifestyle. Expressing your individuality is important to you, and you often lie awake in bed thinking about the world and your place in it. You enjoy staying home, but that doesn't mean you're a hermit. You also appreciate quality time with family and close friends.

What Time Of Day Are You?

Small group alienation

Spent another slab of time working on stuff for the Crossroads website. Writing up a set of instructions on how to actually record, edit and upload the talks for church. The bulk of the arvo I spent watching drift (cars) out at Baskerville Raceway with some mates. It was great just relax and have a good laugh. Dinner out with friends and an old mate visiting from Melbourne. Interestingly I find I always feel awkward in groups of people even smaller groups of people I know well. I have this strange sense of alienation and stress I'm going to make a dick of myself trying to be funny and fit in. I'm concluding that I'm more of a one to one person.

I feel like a nerd

I think I spent way too much time on computers today. I've been working on the Crossroads Website. Learning computer stuff is harder than I thought and more difficult still is teaching it to others. It's worth checking out just to see our great collection of talks.

I also had an interview for a full time tech support job working for some great people . It's a tempting proposal but I think my current plan will be what I'm sticking with. Finishing cleaning windows and moving to MTS early next year.

In the begining

I have finally got round to starting a blog. Much of this stuff is new to me and I reckon it's going to take me a while to figure out how it all works so bear with me.

My idea for this blog at the moment is to use it as a record of what exactly I'll be doing in a day to day sense during my ministry appreticeship which is part of a program called MTS. I'm planning to do this ministry apprenticeship next year (2007) with FOCUS on the University of Tasmania Hobart Campus. In the meantime I need to find generous Christian people who will pay me/sponsor me to do this ministry.