I can’t help myself. I saw my name get tagged & I had to do it.
1. One book that changed your life:
Compelling Reason by C.S. Lewis. It really pushed me to look “along the beam” rather than just “at the beam”.
2. One book that you’ve read more than once:
At the risk of starting a bit of a theme here, I would have to say “Poems” by C.S. Lewis. I read this bad boy perpetually.
3. One book you’d want on a desert island:
You sound trite saying the Bible, so if I had to pick something else I would possibly go for Karl Barth’s “Church Dogmatics”. I think there would be a lot to consider & a little to disagree with.
4. One book that made you laugh:
“Last Chance to See” by Douglas Adams. It’s the writer of “Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy”, spending a year travelling to different World Wildlife Foundation spots. Thoughful, but very funny!
5. One book that made you cry:
“Lonesome Dove” by Larry McMurtry. OK, that is woeful to admit, but I teared up in both the book AND the movie!
6. One book that you wish had been written:
Right now I would settle for “Who the Servant is really supposed to be in Isaiah 40-55 & whether or not I was an 8th Century Prophet, or a 6th Century Prophet” by Isaiah (or possibly Deutero Isaiah*)
7. One book that you wish had never been written:
I don’t know if I could pick one. Crap literature exists to point out to people how important good stuff is. It makes me sad to think of people who are mislead by Davinci kind of stuff.
8. One book you’re currently reading:
“Resurrection: Myth or Reality” by John Shelby Spong (for an assignment),
9. One book you’ve been meaning to read:
“The Epistle to the Romans” commentary by Douglas Moo is one I wouldn’t mind knocking off.
10. Now tag five people:
OK. I can’t be bothered adding people’s links here. I’ll go for Kristin , Ads, Josh T, Coqui & Justin Moffatt.
* So what do you think? Isaiah, or Deutero? Any Trito fans here?

It was photo day at college. You know, those painful ones when everyone gets up on a scaffolding wearing a suit (one of two days a year when we see each other in them). Next, everyone tries to suppress the look of fear (coming from being 4 meters up on a big chunk of aluminium that shakes like nothing else, and threatens to topple at any time) long enough to smile wanly at the camera & then clamber down as quickly as possible.
It’s a funny afternoon, seeing so many of the guys itching and fidgeting in ties before realising that the ladies love a man in a suit. It’s also a good chance to get some happy snaps.
Here’s just one or two.

Trying a self-take from a different angle, while I chat to Nai.

Actually I took this pic the morning after, but I like it & I wanted to break up the two portraits!

Sheldon continues to be a preferred subject because he gives so much expression to everything he does. Here a Chuppa Chup stick comes as close to being a cigarette as is ever likely to be seen at SMBC…

The motto of our church is “In Christ, Believe, Belong and Behave”.
It’s a great motto/mission statement & I could go on about the theological unpacking of this in a long blog, but instead I think I’ll tell you all a couple of little stories.
Believe:
I’m sure there are any number of people who have heard kids make professions of faith that appear to have no bearing on their lives. I’m so lucky that I get to see kids faithfully express their belief. Having a sleepover for the “40 hour famine” was going to be tough, cause I am in the middle of a busy period at college, but to see the kids express their belief in God through their concern for others was awesome. Some of the kids collected amazing amounts of sponsorship & basically all of them embraced the weekend with an awesome enthusiasm which reflected thoughts and actions in harmony.
It’s great to see people know and understand what they believe & then see how that affects their priorities in life!
Belong:
I was putting some cups in the sink as a group of people were getting ready for our communion dinner, when Gai swings around & talks to me. She’s the mum of 5 girls, 4 of which I have youth group involvement with (the 5th of which keeps me entertained whenever we chat after church).
“So, I understand you have news to tell me” she says.
“Oh yeah, confirmation classes are going well..” I tell her coyly “anything else you wanted to know?”
“you know what I’m talking about” Gai counters, then goes on to tell me how she feels like she has failed because it was her husband that who told her interesting news & she had never asked me.
“OK, so I have a girlfriend” I tell her “and it’s going really well”.
So I copped questions for another minute or two & then Gai decides that I need her mobile number so that I can call her & let her know how things are progressing. I tell her that if I get engaged or something any time in the future, that I’ll see if the phone list can run “Parents, Siblings, then Gai”.
I thought that this would be suffice, but she tells me that she doesn’t want to wait for info down the road. Instead, I have to fire off a text if I go out on a date & it goes well. She wants the inside track!
The youngest daughter & I then spend the next couple of minutes discussing how once an adult gets married the romance is gone out of their life, so they have to live vicariously through those still in the pool!
Some people might have felt a little uncomfortable about the whole exchange. I love it because people at the church invest in each other, in relationships. I feel like I belong there & that people care. I know there are people who ask about my life in general, but I also know that there are people who are praying for me too! It’s good to belong.
Behave:
Alison is such a great encouragement. She gives with no expectation of reciprocation & is always quick with a smile, or a kind word. She shows her commitment to ministry at St Jude’s, firstly, through the amount of times she drives to church a week so she can drop her two kids off for different stuff. She also expresses her love for her Christian family through the work she puts into things like organising supper rosters & stuff like that.
What a model of Christian behaviour.
Tonight we had the communion meal & Alison did an awesome job of bringing it all together. There must have been about 50 people who enjoyed a great meal! Of course, the people who didn’t enjoy the meal were the individuals outside who were busy smashing windows in a couple of cars & rifling through the contents.
Alison had every reason to be distraught over the whole experience. While she is slogging her guts out to serve others, there are others who are breaking windows to rob her. Through all of this, she was so amazingly gracious to say how happy she was that they hadn’t robbed my car (next to hers) that happened to have basically ALL of my camera gear sitting on the front seat!
It’s such an encouragement to see beautiful behaviour.
In other, completely unconnected news: Even though I have never personally met her, I have it on good authority that Claire has “Mad Skills” and that Nic is also pretty kickin (and now they’ve BOTH made their first mention on my blog! Does this mean I get a comment?)

I’d spent a fair bit of time on Sunday night’s sermon. I had really grappled with this passage & felt like I had a two-handed grip on it. It’s been a great personal challenge to me too. That said, I just didn’t feel like I was in the comfortable position I wanted to be with the sermon itself. It didn’t feel gripping & I had less of that tingly anticipation & more of that nervous apprehension about how it would all pan out.
My lead in to preaching was not ideal that afternoon. I had some rough stuff to do, compounded by the fact that I left a folder with all my sermon notes & confirmation class notes at home (cue the mad drive down to the supermarket to buy some CDs to burn new copies of everything on my laptop so I could print them off at work.)
Bad place. Less than confident with the shape of my sermon but there I was.
Did I mention that Shona came & so did her friends (and my new friends) Sim & Dave, Marty & Jen?
I felt like the sermon itself went fairly average & like I put in a sub-par effort for my visitors.
Sometimes you need a lesson about a sovereign God who works through weak vessels.
One of my parishioners gave me some great feedback, saying that I had really spoken to her that night. Initially I thought she was just being polite, but she repeated the same sentiments a little later. My great visitors also gave me some good feedback (though I was encouraged that they felt comfortable about giving me the honest criticism about my being tied to my notes a bit too).
It was a tough day for me, but as I lay in bed reflecting last night, I realised that God is faithful to me & is seeking to use me even when I feel like crap & don’t feel like I have put a foot right. His strength really is perfected in my weakness!
So thanks to my visitors, thanks to great parishoners & praise be our sovereign God!

It’s been a very long week.
Preparing for the sermon I delivered earlier tonight. Stuff for Youth Group. Getting ready for some essays. Confirmation Classes… It all adds up.
This is why last night’s engagement party was such a cool chance to relax and unwind a bit. Enjoy some pics from the night. My shout!

This is Stevie & Rach. It was their engagement party. 1920s I can TOTALLY dig! & Cocktails are all good!

Mandy & Megan. Just two of the cool chicks I get to hang out with at college.

Is there nothing this man cannot do? The Raj knows so much about so much! He looks as smooth as a gravy sandwich in his tux AND he cooked a lot of the awesome food from that night!

Tim “Brother D” Dallimore & Mick, trying their hardest to look like standover men. I was certainly scared!

Yours truly & Shona. It was a baptism of fire for Shones, as there was only her & one other person that wasn’t from Bible College. Luckiy she has mad-skills at making friends!

These are the hands of “H”.
I think I like this picture because they are the hands of a 1 year old, but the way his hands are posed makes it look like he has some deeper purpose to those sticks, other than the contemplation of whether or not he can eat them!
Yeah….
So I am back in one of those periods (at least this afternoon) where I question my purpose in life. I’d love to know where God would have me, but so far it’s a mystery!
Will I make it to doing a Dip Ed after I finish here?
Will I make it back to Scotland to do schools & youth work?
Will I find a ministry here in Sydney?
Will I end up as a missionary photographer, capturing images for other missionaries around the world to use as support material?
Maybe I can look forward to asking the question “Would you like fries with that” as a future?
What are my gifts?
What is my purpose.
Seeking to Glorify God through contentment and whole-heartedness in whatever situation I find myself in has to be a foundation stone I guess…
That, and diligence… which is why I should stop procrastinating on the net & get back to this darn sermon!

I don’t know where to start, and I suspect I just wont.
Well, not in earnest.
I’ve been far too busy doing things to really devote the time I might like to, to writing about stuff. Uni is plugging along. A lot to do & a lot more organisation required on my part if things are going to work. Church stuff too is time consuming (but enjoyable on the whole). Youth Group is really fun at the moment. I’m running confirmation classes for the next month & I am preaching next week!
On the Social front it has been a matter of catching up with lots of old friends & meeting lots of new ones.
Shout outs should go out to the awesome Zeek who made a guest appearance when I was hanging out with Shona & Bec in Newtown. That was a real highlight of the week! Simone & Dave (or is it Dave & Simone?) certainly deserve big props for an awesome time last night @ their place. Marty & Jen certainly get a mention too, as great company!
Yeah, so it hasn’t let up & it is only getting busier for the next 3 or 4 weeks. I think some time around the end of August should be when I get to breathe a great breath & spend a little more time blogging.
In the mean time, I might just have to get stuck into the doing.

A macro shot I took today for Lynette.

Shona trying her hardest to look happy about getting her photo taken…

Apparently we need to beware the tiny train of Newington!

(If you have a flickr account you should be able to view a much larger (and better) size if you click on the pic)
I always feel like I am cheating when I take a picture of Sydney Harbour. It’s hard to take a bad picture of this place. Nice water, amazing buildings, great light (usually) good weather… What’s not to love!
Of course, maybe I’m more of a cliche than a cheater, but that’s OK.
Over the last couple of weeks, I have been in there almost half a dozen times. Once for my city fun with N8 (not the order…. whinger!) Joel, Andy & Robbie. I’ve been in a couple of times & to a couple of different places with Shona. Two nights ago I was down having a chat with Allison & then last night I was in again, this time with Deb & Lyndell & the always enjoyable Davitch!
I’m trying to think of somewhere better to be able to hang out & just chat. If you managed to organise a bottle of wine, maybe a little cheese & a bit of chocolate (all of which are off limits at the moment. Damn!!) then you have pretty much the perfect venue.
So, if you want to hang out and chat some time, and you don’t mind my getting up every once in a while to fire off a couple of shots on the old Canon, then drop in to the North Shore of the harbour & I’ll be there!

P.S. I apologise for the inane writing I’ve had up over the last little while. The creative monkey escaped the cage & is currently at large in parts unknown!