East meets West (Well Estonia meets Scotland) Me, Jody and Kerridge.
So far this has been a fun week!
Sunday I got to preach. I learned a valuable lesson. I felt like I had prepared well, I was happy with my content & everything, and the morning sermon seemed to go well. 6pm however, was pretty average. I stayed up and watched the Rugby on Saturday night & I think the 5 hours of sleep affected my delivery. That said, it went down OK anyway, and it is always good to get a little more practice in. A good spur to do better next time too!
Tuesday was “International Day” at college. Everyone gets dressed up in either their national dress, or the dress of some country they can think of. It is awesome because you get people just wearing wayout stuff, but you also geet some authentic stuff from people who have lived, or were born in other countries. From Saudi stuff to Korean dresses, to Papua New Guinean gear, it was all on show
Well, I am too busy to write properly about it, so I will let a couple of pictures tell the story. Click on a picture to go to my flickr page where you can see more images!

Steph showing everybody how to juggle fish!

Cameron. A perfect example of inauthentic (but very funny) attire!

You have to marvel don’t you? Sweet symmetry, each petal delicate, exact! It’s art and it is everywhere.
Framing the gardens of well-to-do houses, pushing through cracks in the pavement of run-down apartments. Trees and fields might be the sole domain of the rich, or rural, but sweet (and smellsome) simplicity belongs to anyone with an hours sun & a glass of water to spare.
We sing “ring of rosies” as kids. We obsess about giving, or getting that first rose as a teen, Brides bound down the aisle with them and bodies bear wreaths on their coffins.
They can trigger a million different memories of days gone by, but better than pointing to the past, they point to a perfect creator who can create such an intricate gift, then spread them round in a million different ways, so common that we barely remember to look at them.
There’s your challenge for the day. Stop by a garden. Engage one of your senses, maybe them all. God made it. It’s time to enjoy it!
“Nature is but a name for an effect whose cause if God” — William Cowper.

The best of intentions have come to naught this week. I’ve been all excited at the idea of writing something proper in a blog, but when it comes to sit before the computer, the well has run dry.
GIve me a week or two to get comfortable with college & then I will get back into the swing. Give me a chance to finish this next essay & I am sure I will find the time! Once I have the semester sorted out for Youth Group, then it will all come back together for me. Maybe once I get myself a lady friend? Or visit Cate & Dan’s new baby? Go up to the Hunter for the weekend, take some photos for a competition, prepare for exams….
The myriad of jobs doesn’t end.
That moment of clarity, that ray of light that peeks out from behind the clouds, that clear space on the cluttered desk of your life is never going to appear. Well, at least not free and clear.
I see what I have to do. Understanding always seems to sidle up and shake your hand at quarter to one in the morning. Maybe he is confident that he, like the perfect retort to that afternoons argument, will be lost on the warmth of bed and the haze of sleep. So this is why I commit it to paper (do I call this paper? What is it? Am I commiting to “Pixels” maybe?).
I’ll forget the myth of clear space and settle for the reality of shuffled papers. Where hours fail me, minutes can be my friends. Make the most of those used and abused little blighters! Each set of sixty seconds is insignificant in himself, but like a Chinese water torture, they do the job if you have the patience.
So there you have it. The motto for semester two is offiially “The minute is my friend”!
I wont promise, cause I hate to brake anything. But I’m going to try & send some minutes your way.
After all, you need an answer to “what you lookin’ at?”

Black tie dinners always sound like a great idea when it is just a matter of putting them on paper. The reality of trying to get them organised on the other hand… When all is said and done, however, it was all worthwhile on friday night. 15 or so kids from youth group, 5 excited leaders, a whole lot of decorations & half a dozen helpers under the expert tutelage of Dana, the mother of one of the kids & master of all things edible!
How do you manage to organise something like this for $10 a head? Firstly, have some extra money in reserve. After that, comes a little bit of ingenuity. Shannyn, always a fountain of good ideas, managed to convince the nursing home she works at that they needed helium balloons for their birthday celebration. Of course, they couldn’t be left at the home afterwards, so we had to “look after them” for them. Simone had some left over decorations that she could offer for free. Of course, the kids too excercised their brains, some making the most of op-shops, while others just raided their parents wardrobes for the appropriate clothing.
Good atmosphere, Great food, awesome company!

Tim & Christy. No.1 couple this year to meet here & now be engaged. It’s always nice when two of your favourite people find each other.

Congrats to Dave (fourth from the left) for not dying in the last 35 years!

This is one of my fave all time photos of Toby. I may have to upload one without the writing on it. Poor kid has a case of “pink eye”…

It has to be tempting by now no? Yeah, I know they are three little cuties. Tomorrow I seal the deal with a potential nephew!

Lyndell asked if I was taking applications for the role of Aunt to these gorgeous kids (and therefore wife to this poor soul) Hmmm, not a bad idea. I’d use the old saying “don’t look a gift horse in the mouth”, but that might give an inaccurate implication of the calibre of applicants I would expect to get for this position…..

This is my news series (4 in total). Just think, single ladies, even if you aren’t that interested in me, how could you turn down a chance to be an aunt to such a little treasure!!!