Billy Graham? Who he?

Last Sunday I preached at a small Baptist church in the nearby town of Narromine. It's a small, warm gathering of local Christians and they made us feel very welcome. It's the first time that I've preached on foreign soil so that now means that I can put 'International Preaching Ministry' on my CV. I have increased my fee accordingly, from nothing to 50 cents (about 20p). I think you'll agree that I'm worth every penny.

I'm preaching again this Sunday at The Gathering, which is the monthly Cornerstone service that I wrote about in an earlier post. I thought that, knowing Australian history, I would preach on "Thou Shalt Not Steal".

The Mat Exchange means that I spend a little time with local business owners every day. You begin to get a little bit of a feel for the situations that they face and the things that are important to them. I think that contact was something that I lacked when I was in the ministry. In a town like Narromine, where the main industry seems to be agricultural (such as cotton farming), you soon learn that the drought really impacts people. Dubbo has a greater industrial base so perhaps struggles a little less. However, I'm not sure how true that is when a lot of your industrial business seems to be aimed at supporting and providing resources for the local farmers. Even I have begun to appreciate the need for rain and how blessed we are in the UK. This unselfish awakening didn't last though. It's been raining solidly for the past two days and I'm all out of sympathy - especially when I read about "Record Breaking Temperatures" in the UK. Stupid Brits.


At the end of June we will be going up to Queensland (the state north of NSW) to a Scripture Union camp for young people involved in leadership in school Christian unions and so on. Ian, one of my fellow students who used to be an SU chaplain in Queensland, invited me to help him with the teaching sessions. The camp is in a place called Mapleton and will last for a week. Soon I'll be able to add "International Youth Ministry" to my CV and then NO-ONE WILL BE ABLE TO STOP ME. We're hoping, as a family, to take the week after that off as well so that we can have a bit of a holiday up on the Sunshine Coast. Apparently we'll only be about twenty minutes from Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo. Crikey!

Calvin has become something of an artist recently. Here is a picture that he drew. According to the artist himself it is a picture of him and Reid dressed as octopuses and swimming under water. Something of a surrealist in the making I think.


Ruth has just bought a breadmaking machine so that we can live as we used to in Haywards Heath with tailor-made bread rolls and pizza bases every day. Since our stuff arrived it's really beginning to feel a lot more like home here. The last couple of months have been an absolutely mammoth change, but God has been very good to us. I'm very excited about what the future holds. I'm glad that you're interested enough to keep reading too. Thanks!

We have a stranger in our midst...

The big news today is that Xanthe has spent more time in Australia than in the UK. She was in the UK for a paltry nine weeks, and as of today she's been in Ozland for nine weeks and three days. That means that she is officially more Australian than English. This has been reflected in both her accent and request that we call her Kylie from now on.

While we're on the subject of the Webb ladies, this is probably a good time to mention one of the things that Ruth gets up to while here. As well as doing all the mum related stuff that she did back in the UK she's making the time to get to know the people we now live with here at Cornerstone. She's usually either going out with or having someone round to our house every day. Yesterday I found that my home had been invaded by a bunch of women (to be fair, one of them had a beard and was called Matt so might not have been a woman) and they were talking about make up and clothes and stuff. Even Matt. I think he may have been wearing lipstick. I was glad that I had to go to work and clean mats. Anyway, the point of that paragraph was to let you know that Ruth is doing a really good job of getting to know people here. She's always been good at the hospitality thing. In our relationship it helps because it balances out my utter contempt for the rest of the human race.

I'm not posting any photos this week. Ruth will tell me off for that, as she thinks that the photos are the most interesting part of the blog. She is, of course, wrong. It's my scintillating wit and mastery of the English language. Me am the best!!!!

We've recently bought a new rug for our front room. It's in preparation for the alleged 'cold weather' that everyone keeps warning us about. It's a lie. I'm still in my shorts.

Next Wednesday is Anzac day. It's a public holiday in remembrance of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corp. There seems to be more pride in the sacrifices of past generations here in Oz. I think that we Brits are sometimes more cautious about making too much of such things, as we're a country with a very long (and certainly not always glorious) military history. It's a shame in a way. There's something nice about the fact that the whole country stops for such a united reflection. There will be a parade in Dubbo that we might try to go and see.

When I told Ruth that I wasn't going to put any photos on the blog she nearly cried, so I've decided to give in a put a couple at the end here. We've got a photo of our new rug and our very odd boys. We've also got a photo of Xanthe, who is starting to roll over at will now. I'll write again soon, so you'll have to make do with these two piccies until then.

O Happy Day!

The big news here is that our stuff has finally arrived, three months after we shipped it. In January we entrusted ten boxes to the care of a very British White Van Man, and yesterday it arrived on the back of a very Australian Green Ute. It was almost symbolic. Reid has been really looking forward to the arrival of his Thomas the Tank Engine wooden trains, particularly (for some reason) the engine known as Neville - who is merely one of the periphery characters created to extort more money from parents. When our boxes arrived he tore around the centre loudly announcing that "Neville is here!", causing most people to think that the delivery man's name was Neville. It's been really nice to unpack all of the things that we had given up hope of ever seeing again. I have some CDs, books and - of course - my PlayStation 2 now. I shall never be unhappy again. I promise.

Earlier this week it was decided that the third year students should spend some time building up our relationships with one another. This may have been prompted by a recent Wednesday evening where I had too much Splashe Cola and called everyone 'Losers' whilst running around the community in some Union Jack boxer shorts. Ali decided we should go on a camping trip at Whylandra Crossing, a local beauty spot. Because we have kids Ruth and I were allowed to opt out of staying the night. It's one of the few occasions where having children has been a good thing. We had a great time though and we even found the time to awaken an ancient evil, as tends to happen whenever students go on a camping trip in a forsaken forest. It's a shame that all my peers were brutally slaughtered during the night, but that's the price you pay for awakening an ancient evil. I bet they wished that they had kids.


Ruth and the boys (and the girl) took a trip to the Western Plains Zoo in the week. It's more like a safari park - an amazing place. They saw some truly amazing animals from around the world, but the only thing that Reid could get excited about was the peacock. A peacock. And it didn't even show it's colours at him. He's easily pleased, except by his mum and dad.

As part of our new bonding agreement the girls spent an evening smearing green leaf tea and banana on their face in the name of beauty. The lads went to the cinema to see 300. I can't in all honesty recommend it, but I got to use my new student card and had a big bag of M&Ms so the evening wasn't a total waste of time. Spiderman 3 is on the way though, so I really, really will never be unhappy again. I really do promise.

I mentioned the beautiful nights in my last post and I've really continued to be struck by them. I don't know if it's just the fact that it's so different to the UK but I really think Australia is so beautiful. I guess it's a case of familiarity breeding contempt, because when Laurie showed photos of random Sussex fields the Aussies gasped like they were peering through the gates of heaven. It's made me appreciate Paul's words at the beginning of Romans as to how God hasn't left Himself without a witness, but that the whole of creation bears His fingerprints. I'd lost sight of that, but an encounter with a differently beautiful aspect of creation has renewed my conviction that God can be seen out there, and you don't even have to look that hard - it's a bit like trying to find an elephant that's hiding in plain sight.

Passion Under the Stars

Welcome to The Blog. Hold tight. It's going to be a long one...

After undue bullying and intense family pressure I've decided of my own free will to call Eddie's companion 'Dorothy'. My dad suggested it and was quite taken with his puntastic play on 'The Lizard of Oz'. That's the good news. The bad news is that neither Eddie not Dorothy have been seen at all for the past couple of weeks so I'm guessing that they've either eloped or been eaten by something sinister that isn't my wife. So that whole exercise turned out to be a bit pointless, didn't it?

On a more positive note the Easter Festival I referred to in my last post went very well. Apparently the turn-out wasn't quite as good this year (it was estimated at about 1500 people throughout the day) but I still think it was pretty good as a way of reaching out to the community and presenting a united message. I was very taken with the billing of it as a 'gift to the community'. I think that's an excellent attitude to take with a project like this. I hinted in my last blog that everything was free and that wasn't quite true. You had to pay for any food that you wanted but it was extremely cheap and very tasty. One of the things that I was also impressed with was the way that the central stage was used. There were chairs arranged for people to sit on while there were musicians playing, people presenting a drama and that kind of thing happening on the stage. This went on in the background all day - regardless of how many people were watching - meaning that the gospel was being presented in some kind of way throughout the whole event. At the end of the day a group of local Aboriginal Christians led those who were around in some songs and Laurie (from Cornerstone) was invited to preach. I thought this seemed to be an excellent way of genuinely giving something to the community without a hidden agenda, while at the same time creatively sharing the story of Jesus with those who might be interested (without any of the 'do we/don't we' awkwardness that we Evangelicals sometimes get when deciding exactly how evangelistic to make an event). A good day!

Here's something that's taken a little while to get used to. Because of the flat, bare land the nights get pretty cold here. Recently we had two nights where the temperature was getting towards UK winter levels. What's even worse is that it's cold when you wake up (now that the clocks have gone back), so a few times we woke up and did what we would normally do in the UK - which was say "Brrrr...it's cold" and dress for a cold day. However, then the sun comes out and it's reaching 30 degrees by noon and you're feeling pretty stupid (not to mention hot) because you're dressed for winter. We've had to get used to ignoring the temperature when we wake up and looking out of the window to try and tell what kind of weather we're in for. The answer is usually "It's going to be hot, hot, hot!". It's autumn here (apparently) but the temperature has definitely been about 30 degrees this week. I've worn shorts every day since we arrived (except for the days when I've dressed in jeans because I thought it was going to be cold and it turned out to be hot).


In other news, we've finally seen our first kangaroos. I was beginning to think that they didn't exist, a myth perpetuated by Aussie jokers. They are quite something to see in the flesh and can't half move when they feel threatened (the sight of Reid blundering over the horizon has that effect on most creatures). Ruth took a couple of photos. Bonus points if you can actually spot the kangaroo in the photo above (click on it to enlarge the photo - if you didn't already know you can do this with any of the photos on the blog). Here's a few more photos for you to enjoy.


Dubbo airport. It's nowhere near as busy as Heathrow, but it's got a great cafe inside.


Me eating an ice cream. Double scoop! The flavours were - if I remember correctly - 'Stairway to Heaven' (white chocolate flavoured ice cream with caramel swirls and chunks of Oreo cookies) and 'Rainbow' (tasted a bit like toffee and banana but who knows what it was supposed to be). I was a lot happier than I look.


Ruth found this skull under our house. She thinks it used to belong to a dog. I say a werewolf. Let's hope that she's right...



Two photos of Xanthe, who is adorable.



As it's Easter we let the boys go on an Easter egg hunt. See if you can spot the gold wrapped chocolate rabbit in the first photo. The second photo is Calvin gloating over his haul. This was before he found out that the 'eggs' were just stones wrapped in foil. "Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?". Me, that's who.


Finally, an action shot! This is a game of volleyball in full swing. Who's that bronzed athlete leaping at the net like a salmon upstream? Me, that's who (whoa, deja vu). It may appear that I'm jumping like a goon at a ball nowhere near my hand but that's just the camera angle. In reality the supreme spike that followed won the game for my team who then proceeded to carry me from the court and shower me with expensive gifts.


We're currently babysitting a bird that belongs to another family. His name is Sid and here he is. Calvin is not in the cage with him, though I can see how you might jump to that conclusion following some of the other comments on this blog. He's just on the other side of the cage. That's all. No, really, he is. I promise.

Finally to the title of this blog. Although it seems like the title of a romantic drama starring Harrison Ford, it actually refers to my Maundy Thursday evening. One of the families put a big screen up outside their house and showed The Passion of the Christ. I'd not seen The Passion before and I thought it was a great film and watching it on a big screen underneath the Aussie night sky takes some beating. Being out in the country where the horizon seems endless and there's no light pollution makes for the best star lit nights I have ever seen. For the first time in my life I've been able to make out constellations (including the legendary Southern Cross that appears on the Aussie flag) and other galaxies. It's incredible. It's just a shame that the moon is upside down in this part of the world.

Have a great Easter weekend. He is risen!