Let’s say that I am a little on struggle street at the moment. The last 10 hours have involved a good deal of eating. Actually, the last 3 days have been pretty good for that.
Amy should post all about the amazing dinner on thursday night (all I have to say about it is that I got to eat Haggis, a Scottish dessert called Cranachan, Pork Belly & a fantastic singlemalt Whisky from Glenkinchie), so I thought I would tell you about today. Actually, I remembered to bring along my Camera (unlike on thursday night) so I can SHOW you about today.
Here goes…
When Shona & I arrived at 9am (planned, so that we could a) catch up with Amy & b) score some free breakfast) we could think of no better picture to arrive to than two of my lovely nieces sitting down to breakfast. They are as cute as buttons & lots of fun!!
Cutie #1 (in no specific order)
Cutie #2. (aided by the static electricity of two balloons!)
Of course, hanging out at breakfast was only the beginning. After helping Amy book her accommodation for her may trip to Edinburgh (yay for her!) She & Bethy headed home & the rest of us headed into a great place called “Tatler” for some fantastic tapas, a dash of wine & some celebration for mum making the big “Six Ohhh”.
(The following food photography section is dedicated to Amy, whose food pictures inspired me, and Tricia & Jessica, who in turn inspired Amy! This has to be worth a comment from each of you?)
A fantastic menu & a nice Rose was a good way to start.
We can’t do anything before remembering the person whom we are celebrating.
The squid is a family favourite (so were the garlic prawns that I forgot to photo)
Kristin picked the field mushrooms & they were a hit!
Is Lamb Souvlaki ever a bad thing?
After our “Mains” Kristin, Charlotte & I went outside to feed the ducks. They were pretty from a distance, but gosh they were ugly to look at close up!
Ugly Ducks
The highlight of the day, however, had to be the desserts. I had a chance to have a shot at all of them!
Bavarian chocolate pudding with vanilla bean icecream.
Almond semifreddo with raspberry coulis & biscotti
Chocolate cookie sandwich with vanilla bean icecream filling.
Having gorged ourselves for a couple of hours, P&K headed back to stay at Mum & Dad’s house, while Shona & I headed home, because of church commitments tomorrow…
Now the only question that remains is “What will we try & do for dinner?”
I have skype & it works properly even with video! Three cheers for broadband!
Feel free to drop me a line!
I was really struck by a couple of words in the second half of Philippians 1 while I was preparing for last night’s sermon. I realised the true sincerity of Paul because of hte following.
Yes, and I will continue to rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and the help given by the Spirit of Jesus Christ, what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance. I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.
(underling, quite obviously, mine…)
Here is a man who is gaol. We don’t know if he’s in Rome, Ephesus or Caesarea, but what we do know is that he isn’t in a good situation. In verse 13 he says “I am in chains for Christ”. Like all gaoled people you expect him to talk about his deliverance, but his heavenly perspective comes into stark contrast when he follows it up with his wish that “Christ be exalted whether by life or by death.”
Paul has grabbed on to the promise of a resurrection with both hands. There is no “foot in both camps”, but a wholehearted longing for those things which are promised in Christ Jesus. I long for, and admit that I most often fail to attain, that kind of sincerity. I eagerly await the time when the Lord calls me home, but at the same time I want to suck the marrow out of this world just in case….
Well full-time gospel ministry is proving to be a good wakeup call in some regards. Not enough hours in the day. So many opportunities to be opening up & sharing with people. Making a difference in lives, or just trying to make connections. I can see that the very thing that makes this dangerous (that tiredness point where you see the work you do as a job, rather than a gracious gift from God) is also the thing that can make the work so helpful (setting aside your own interests to serve others.)
Of course, I don’t want to come across smelling like a saint here (like chocolate and rosehip in my imagination). I am still as lazy as I have been throughout most of my life. I am sure I will look back at this time in a decade & wonder how I managed to fill so many hours with so little work! In the mean time, I’ll continue to work & continue to pray that God would mold my heart, that I would be a person who serves in sincerity & looks forward to that day when I leave this earth & am called to serve in heaven.
Gloria in excelsis Deo!
It can be difficult moving to a new church, particularly when that new church is in a new city & this new city is where you will be practising your new job!
How do you really become part of the family? How do you make connections with people? How do you know if they have connected with you?
I’d posit that you know you are part of a church when, on your doorstep, on a Saturday afternoon, arrives
a) A Banana in Pajamas/Housewife/Santa
b)Strawberry Shortcake/Ballerina/Swimmer
c) A Kangaroo (that looks like a bear)
d) A pretty princess with goggles.
e) One slightly embaressed father.
So there I was, feverishly working away on my sermon. I had to ask Shona a question, so I ran into the bedroom, but before I managed to ask a thing, I saw a flash of colour outside & three giggling youth running to hide.
“I think we need to get dressed out of our PJs” says I.
“Why” says she to me.
“Let’s just say that I think we could get visitors today.” Tim replies.
I walked downstairs, heard a knock, then walked outside to see what the story is. “G”, the father, is standing on the road & encouraging me to look around the corner.
Around said corner was the aforementioned youth. Should I mention that the aforementioned youth were also arme with a spray bottle filled with pineapple juice?
[Note to self: Never tell kids at your church that you hate, vehemently, pineapple...]
On the bright side, we got given some lovely berry muffins as an apology for the ambush.
So there you go. Now you know how to be part of a community. Just make sure you have a decent face towel to get all that pineapple juice off!
Enjoy some pictures of the day!
This is the motley crew. They look like the ambushing type, dont they!
Who could be mad & cute little munchkins like this?
B1-Claus & (musclebound) Ballet-Shortcake
As of approximately 12:55, on the afternoon of Feb 15th, Tim & Shona got the internet at their house!
In 24 hours (phones have to charge) we’ll have a landline & then we officially exist!
Pictures of our new digs & other miscellanea to follow.
You know that it has been a good service when, afterwards, the preacher has to clean his own blood up from the floor…
It sounds so much more melodramatic than it actually was. I would love to concoct some great story about how I got into an argument about Supralapsarianism v. Amyraldism, which lead to a fist fight, but I’d be lying. The real story is so much less dramatic or cool.
At “The New Angle”, the congregation that I now pastor, we have the first half of our service (usually made up of singing, prayer, a special spot of some kind, and sharing time… but not always all of them), then we have some supper & chat for a while. During this time I ended up going outside in the drizzle with a couple of the kids, because they wanted to see how I can spit a grape & then catch it again in my mouth (a must-have trick, in my humble estimation 1 ). Anyway, this then moved on to “how far can we throw a grape that Tim can catch?” and while I was picking up a grape from the ground, a little leech must have grabbed onto me.
It turns out that Shona noticed it just as I was about to start my Sermon2. She didn’t want to interrupt me, just in case I was feeling the flow, so she let the little sucker keep on drinking over the next 20 or so minutes.
the first I found out about it was when Greg, sitting next to me, told me after the sermon, by which time I had bumped it off with my other foot & there was blood all over the hall-floor. Anyway, it did make me worry that any interested look that I received during the sermon could have been because of the extraction that was happening on my person at the time.
In other news… I am not sure what the other news is. Just plugging along.
Dan & Harriet (two good friends from college, who will be working down the road at Kincumber) get back from the Middle East on Friday morning, so I’ll be going down to Sydney to pick them up at 7 something on Friday. Praise God for family. P&K have let me stay at their place, which will make the travel that much easier in the morning.
Oh, yeah, for those who pray…
Praise points
I really enjoyed having a meal with parishioners last night & the Ash Wednesday service this morning. Some aspects of church are quite foreign to me up here, but much of it is very encouraging.
Shona had a conference on Mon/Tuesday, which means I have her home for the rest of the week!
Prayer Points
Continue to pray for Shona as she looks for some part-time work.
Pray for me as I get ready for my first Youth Group on friday night.
Pray that I might be bold in calling people up to meet & stuff. I am a bit shy when it comes to calling people I don’t know well (embarrassing for a 32 year old guy, I know)
*1 The only trick that outdoes that (not true, there are a thousand, but this is my favourite) is Sam Chan’s ability to play two recorders at the same time, using his nose as the wind-source!
*2 Romans 10:9-15. I really focussed on 10:9, looking at the Simplicity of the Christian message. The beautiful simplicity should be a great comfort to the Christian, but all too often it leads us to consternation. I think we all want things to be more complicated. Surely we have something to bring to the table? Surely I am actually earning some of my salvation? No, even the faith that I exercise is a gift from God! (Eph 2:8-9)
Still, as I prepared, I was struck by my/our need to constantly ask myself how I am transferring my belief from being a noun to a verb? How am I acting out my faith. I think Paul certainly had public confession of our faith as a way of living our beliefs, hence the placement of v.14-15 after the 9-13 section.
Anyway, that’s just a couple of my thoughts. I was challenged by Justin & Tubeo posting stuff before. Partly I have felt embarrassed to do so. Surely I’ll just get picked apart.