Firstly, the story. Last Wednesday afternoon, my Mum’s dad, known to parts of our family as “Bamma,” died at 94. There is limitless rhetoric available about “having a good innings” etc, but that doesn’t mean much to those who wish he were “still in the game.”

Anyway, I don’t really feel like the internet is the appropriate place for me to wax lyrical about Bamma. Some things really are better discussed in relationship, so instead I thought I would blog about a bunch of “Old” things that I have been enjoying recently, in honour of the old man whom I miss muchly….

1: Get the “Old Crew” together….

All of the family came up for the Funeral on Monday. On Sunday, however, we played. This included one of the “old classic” pastimes of cruising down to the beach, having a walk (and a shoulder ride, and a jump) on the beach, followed by an icecream! You have to love Australia. Still within the bounds of Winter (I think… or are we just out of it by now? I get confused!) yet it is still nice icecream weather!!

2: Read some “Old” Books…

OK, so they are both new books that I bought, but the Calvin book is (loosely) about Calvinism, which is an old theology. When my friend Bruce pointed this book out to me, I had to have it. The second book is a collection of 145 short stories, compiled (and some written by) Dave Eggers, author of one of my favourite books, “You shall know our velocity”. Anyway, I got into short stories because of some Hemmingway and Poe that I’ve read, and they are both old, so it counts too.

3: Old foods. I had Bible study over at my house this evening, and I enjoy cooking something nice for them. Again, they are new to me, but they are an “old classic” of the cafe scene, the humble Friand. These ones were Raspberry & White Chocolate, and went down a treat!

4: The Consumption of Old Drinks Actually, it’s not Ardbeg I am drinking, it is “Highland Park,” and it isn’t 10 years old, it is 12, but this was the only photo that I could find in my archives of Whisky. I could have taken a picture of my Highland Park bottle, but you see, the drinking is something that I am about to do, not something I have done, so I didn’t want to waste time.

Whenever I write something like “the drinking” it makes it sound like I plan on knocking back a bottle. Truth be told, I’m just going to enjoy one simple dram as I sit back & enjoy one of my old books.

Sitting, reading & enjoying a nice Whisky fits my “ode to the old man” quite nicely…

Maybe this is good training if the G-dawg wants to drop some kilos?

Of course, I am not saying that the famine was a walk in the park. The big killer, however, was the sleepover. It’s a sad reality in my life that I don’t have the sleep-deprivation stamina that I once exhibited. Come 3am, I was really starting to tire. Actually, I don’t know if it’s the stamina, as much as it is a realisation of other responsibilities & worry about my ability to carry them out.

I needed to work on my sermon on Saturday, then on Sunday I had a kids talk in the morning, followed by sitting in on a baptism class, then off to a reunion lunch, followed by a meeting for the evening church, followed by church itself, followed by dinner with a lovely couple from church. Lots of stuff to have to do back to back, when you’re tired & you don’t get to eat till 9:45 on Sunday morning.

Mother other slight miscalculation was that I thought if I finished my famine at 9:45am, that would be just in time for my kids talk. Unfortunately, I miscalculated it & had 7 minutes to go when my kids talk started. However, the kids thought it was twice as funny that I had brought in all this stuff for my little meal, and then had to sit there staring at it…

Anyway, the one down side to Sundays being a work day is that you get home, feeling like you have survived the week, but there is no weekend buffer before you start the next one. My day off, Saturday, kind of got swallowed up this week, so it’s monday morning & it’s back into the fray!

I guess that is the good thing about working for the church. It’s tiring, but it is nice to really believe in what your doing & not begrudge the little sacrifices that one might have to make to keep things going.

As a brief aside, here’s a pic that I kind of like. It’s a thin slice of kiwifruit held up against the sun.

Not because I don’t have anything to do. In fact, I am pretty darn busy the whole time, but this weekend is 40 Hour Famine weekend at church, and it just wouldn’t be right for me to be a youth leader & not partake in the famine myself. I thought about giving up technology or something like that for the 40, but that would be a bit soft on my part.

Why is is that when you plan something like this, a time where you would hope to spend lots of it asleep, you end up having youth sleepovers? It just makes you hungrier! Still, it should be good fun, so that will be OK.

The following is just a little fun I had with Caleb after Bible Study on Wednesday. It’s been fun & encouraging to work through the book of Acts with him, and it is also good fun to see what bicarb soda does with vinegar!

Still, I do mean to get back into the swing of things here on timgoldsmith.com. I know that when I am in full-swing, it is a great avenue to encourage me to be creative. I need to think outside the box!

Of course, I get to do that lots with work! We're making some changes at the morning service at church, which means I get to do kids talks every week (I really love doing kids talks. It just feels natural) I will be preaching once a month in the morning (to supplement my preaching every second week in the evening) and I will be trying out some "Culture Spots" once a month too. Just an idea pilfered from my days at SMBC.

Creativity is a funny thing, when you're using that side of the brain, things just start coming more naturally. When you ignore it, it ignores you! I've been using certain parts of my creative brain, but other parts I have been ignoring & they've slowly moved toward an atrophic state. Time to stretch those muscles.

Anyway, photography is another of those muscles I need to continue to stretch. Here's a couple of pictures of new, and a couple of old...

"The Look"
Fliss & Andy got married a couple of weeks ago. I think she may have been joking with this look, but I think it's a classic!

The bridal Waltz? Not the way I remember it!

J-Moff has used the "Wordle" thing before, so I thought I would "Wordle" the sermon I did the other week on "Our Father" the beginning of the Lord's Prayer...

Finally, it has been a long time since I posted a shot of beer. It used to be a regular occurrence. This is taking things back to 2004. A fine beer to enjoy in Edinburgh at the "Monster Mash" Restaurant. Itself a fine establishment!

Who'd have thunk that time can move so fast? I've been working hard with normal work stuff, CPE (Clinical Pastoral Education) stuff, and "Kids Games" (Everybody jump up!) running for the whole of last week!

Man, it has been a lot of work, but it has also been a lot of fun. We had upward of 140 kids come to Kids Games (no more than 120 on any on day though), about 75 of which were unchurched. It really is a great point of contact with the kids of surrounding area. It also proves to be a great ecumenical exercise. It was awesome to have the Anglicans, Presbyterians, Churches of Christ, and the"Liberty Church" (pentecostal) together!

Of course, the joys of child safety mean that I can't really show you any of the pictures (and there are lots)

Anyway...

I thought I would do a bit of a J-Moff & pose a question for those Christian readers out there (though you don't need to be Christian to reply).
I'm thinking of doing a series with my Youth Group entitled "Ten things you need to know about Christianity." What would you put on the list?

Dang it, that's gone fast!

Boy things have changed in the intervening time. Different jobs for both of us, different suburb, and even different city to live in. I'm done with my study (or at least the Bible College study) and we're in a whole new world of experience on the coast.

With this in mind. It's great when you have a chance to spend time with the 'old crew.' I haven't had a chance to catch up with some of my crew recently. Matt, Cate & Kirt, being big examples, but a couple of weeks ago we did get to catch up with some of Shona's nearest & dearest.

It was great to spend some time with Felis and Andy, who are moving, daily, closer to their big day of transformation (i.e. their wedding) as well as Dave & Sim. Andy added another life-changing experience to my list, when I ENJOYED a vegetarian lunch! I know, I'm shocked too! (Mum, don't have a heart attack)

(The vege meal in question... Haloumi is nice!)

Of course, the day was much sweeter, being able to link up with some serious cupcake action from some mini-cupcake store in the city. Cute & tasty!

OK, so there is nothing serious to this post. I had an idea about a week ago for something big I wanted to write about, and now I am trying to remember what it is! That sucks!

There ended up being an impressive amount of claret on the the floor, in a lovely pattern heading toward the bathroom. The drain in the bathroom was handy, to wash away the small pool of blood that collected there.

In the end, only three stitches were needed. head wounds are always a killer because they bleed like nobodies business! Fortunately Mr & Mrs J have a bunch of kids, so they were very cool about the whole thing. It just happens...

Encounter two happened when we played my new favourite game "Pass of Play." Basically it involves giving someone a giant dice & asking them to "Pass or Play." If they pass, then they don't have to roll the dice & they can just sit & watch. If they play, they have to roll the dice & then eat the food that corresponds with the number they rolled. Some foods are good. Chocolate, Starbursts, etc. Some, not so good. On friday it was the Artichoke heart that got the vomit response, though the pickled ginger also seemed to come close.

Girl: Hello

Me: Good afternoon.

Girl: Do you want to come and play at my house?

Me: No, but thank you for asking. You look like you have a nice swing there.

Girl: Yeah I am good at swings.

(five seconds later)

Girl: Bye Bye

Me: Bye bye, have a nice afternoon.

Girl: I love you.

It was one of those golden little moments in life. She was a lovely little kid & was just looking for someone who might play an assisting role in her afternoon swinging plans. She wasn't too concerned that I was a stranger, but was happy for some conversation and company. For one brief second I couldn't help but be filled with happiness. You can see why Jesus said that the Kingdom belonged to people such as this. Simple, innocent, friendly & completely trusting. Coming from a family who remind her how much they love her, she wanted to share the love around.

It breaks my heart that the moment following this revolved around my fears for a kid like this. Had I actually come down & joined her for a push of a swing, the chances are that an enraged parent would have barged out forthwith. What was I doing in their yard? Why was I hanging around with their young kid.
Far worse than that scenario is the idea that a more nefarious character might have happened upon such a sweet little child. That maybe the parents didn't come out fast enough & maybe she could have disappeared...

Moments like this surely have to make someone long for heaven. Oh for a day when golden moments aren't framed by the black clouds of fear. For the day when love can be given with the knowledge that there need not be loss to come in the future.

Maranatha

Should we go up to visit my parents over the ANZAC weekend? Well, they are on a nice vineyard in the Hunter, I do enjoy spending time with them, it is a chance to get out of the house and relax... They are all good reasons, but the clincher is when mum says "How about I make you Eggs Benedict for breakfast?"

We weren't able to stay for the whole weekend, because I was preaching twice on Sunday morning (which went well, thank you for asking... I was preaching on the second half of Acts 17. Apparently, according to a reader at one of the services, Paul spoke at the Asparagus!), but we were able to head up on Thursday evening & stay till Saturday afternoon.

Rain was the name of the game, like most of the coast around Sydney, but with a warm fire going, a couple of scrabble games, and a cheeky red wine or two, the rain just added to the ambience.

Follow that up with a lovely misty morning on the Saturday & you have a recipe for success. The only downside to all the precipitation was that when we attempted to leave, the bridge at the end of road was under a metre of water! We had to drive 15km around to get off on another bridge. Again, all part of the fun.

Well, I have some other thoughts in my noodle that I would love to share, but they might have to wait for another post, which will hopefully only be in a day or so.

Instead, enjoy a couple of pics..

The foggy morning was lovely. There are a million little spiders webs on the vines!

Once the mist lifted, Saturday was magic. Not that that would make this a magic mushroom...

The road "should" continue down to a lovely wooden bridge.

A testimony to Shona's patience that she still looks happy having driven 15kms to get around to the this side of the bridge...

It will never be green like this photo in Australia.

But over the last week it has certainly had all the rain. To be honest, I had forgotten that it could rain like this in OZ. Deep, driving, constant rain. I think it's been going for about a week.

Days like today are fairly good for doing work. It's just the right kind of weather to camp out in front of your computer & bang out a bunch of Bible studies for youth group & spiff up your sermon for Sunday.

That said, it would be an even better day to be snuggled up in bed, a good book (for me the picture in my head will always be Lord of the Rings... a product of my childhood) some chocolate (again, my formative years declare that they must be "chocolate bullets", preferably the now defunct pascalls brand) with a Teddy bear (and now the option of my wife!) by your side.

Well, unfortunately, my day is more of the work & less of the vegging. Still, there's always a spare moment to remember lush green walks & rainy days with my niece's bear in bonny Scotland.