Links to the motherland

It was nice catching up again with Wim De Haan who has just spent a while over in the Uk and who is a member of our church family in Kingston. He appreciated the time he and his wife Julie spent at Hook Evangelical Church. Just chatting with him reminded me of you all and of the peculiar ways in which God joins his people together in networks and contexts that you'd never suspect!

We do think of you all often (friends and family in UK) ... and actually we'll be thinking about you all a bit more as my sister has been getting on very well indeed with an absolutely wonderful guy she met here when she was out here visiting in February! It's going to cause one of those slightly weird clash of context things... the New Year bash that my family has... and that we will miss... will now be attended by one of the elders from the church i pastor here in Margate!

God is good!

Any way, feel free to leave a little comment. It's always nice to know people have connected with us from the motherland.

Footy fever

This coming Saturday afternoon... 27th September... sees the Geelong Cats thrash the Hawthorn Hawks (it's that obvious!) in the AFL Grand Final at the MCG. It will be a pale reflection of the skill, commitment, athleticism, courage and general spectacle of the Tasmanian Reformed Churches 'North vs south' footy game held on that same morning. And yes, I'm putting myself forward to participate in this illustrious contest. Last years fixture produced a badly broken finger, busted knee and a damaged back on our team... (and that was just the half time talk!)

All of this is tonic to someone in their mid thirties who would like to be more active but probably doesn't do enough consistent exercise... and as for me... toned... taut... ultra prepared... it's meat and drink! RRRRR!
Please pray that I am toned... taut... ultra prepared for the sermon I'll need to preach Sunday morning... and that I'll be in a physical state to deliver it!

Ali is looking forward to seeing the last of footy for a while as it takes a big break over the summer.

The Garden of Eden?

We are trying to change our block of land into a garden at the moment... what with summer just round the corner. So we've been through a whole design process with a designer... but she didn't like straight lines ...at all. She also seemed to wield a mystic power over us as things that we started off wanting are not necessarily things that we have ended up with... and are we unhappy with the final plan? Not at all! It's going to be wonderful... well over 100 different species of colourful native plants... with little pathways for the kids to rush around in and even a secret little fairy garden... (including the delightful 'fairy fishing rod' and 'bleeding heart' shrubs) which I'm sure is going to become the girls last sanctury from Nathan in days to come! And hey... I'm putting my foot down about the deck area... straight edges only... (I'm going to have to build the thing after all!)

It will be nice to be able to spread out into our space though! Looking forward to it. I'm sure I'll be posting some photos of the 'works' for you to see. The designer also furnished us with a gnome... bless her!

Still there ...and then some!

Well, regular readers may have picked up a recent sense of slackness on my part... that this blogging thing has got too much and my commitment is starting to waver... but I'm coming straight back at ya!
Not guilty, as you suppose, of less blogging but actually here with news of a new blog I am starting... so actually it's MORE blogging! Can you deal with THAT!?!

It's called FRONTLINE and you can get there by clicking on the link. The idea is to be much more ministry focussed there and much more family and life focussed here. So come on then... hit me!

Conference Junkies

Hi everyone. I've just had back to back conferences. For most of last week Ali, myself and little Nathan were in the lovely spot of Collaroy Beach on the coast north of Sydney (piccy below). The Salvation Army have a lovely conference centre there at which our denomination chose to hold its ministers and wives conference. Very nice too. Lovely surroundings. En-suite 'hotel' rooms and HOT BREAKFASTS! Yeah!
This was the first time we've been 'out and about' in the denomination and we really enjoyed meeting some of our brothers and sisters from around the country. It wasn't all serious... in one activity we actually won a bag of goodies containing a bottle of wine, some chocolate, toiletries and a tiny red thong (!)
The theme was church planting and the thrust very simple and yet very challenging... keep hold of the gospel at the centre... be prepared to let go of the stuff round the edges... and train up your replacement as you go. Good stuff.
The other conference was on the weekend prior to the aforementioned. It was called MTS Challenge and our state coordinator of the Ministry Training Strategy, Mikey Lynch did his best to put people off 'full-time, paid ministry' in his talks. Our other speaker, Dave Thurstan, helped us understand some of the hard realities of ministry and more importantly how to deal with them helpfully, humbly and hopefully... memorably laying out a challenge to us to compose our own psalms - he shared a number that he had written and they were very instructive and helpful. Of course he preached from the ones we have in our Bibles.

So back here again, reunited as a family, in lovely Margate ...and all the kids are sick. Well... it was nice while it lasted.