Driving in Australia is pretty neat. The journey home from Queensland was surprisingly easy. The journey was relaxed and straight forward and far less stressful than driving in the UK. There's less traffic, the roads are essentially totally straight for hundreds of kilometres and there's plenty of places to stop - not to mention the fact that petrol is about half the price it is in the UK. The police are quite strict on the road rules here. They have a few more devices to enforce them than they do in the UK. As well as speed cameras they have red light cameras which snap you if you run a red light or even stop over the line at a red light. Furthermore, over bank holiday weekends they give you double penalty points. This can result in you losing a clean license in one trip - let's say you visit a friend and are caught on a speed camera (3 points) once on the way there and once on the way back. Two lots of three points become two lots of six points - so you go from zero to twelve points just like that and lose your license. I am immune to this threat however as I have a UK license and can't get Australian points on it. I would still be liable for whatever fines I incur however. The reason I'm so clued up on the driving laws is because I think I might have been snapped by a red light camera (I accidentally ran a red light in the mat van a week ago) so am currently waiting to see if I receive a ticket for my heinous crime. Maybe I'll get deported.
Calvin is at that age where he asks lots of questions about why everything is the way it is. Reid also asks a lot of questions but his are a lot easier to answer. His most recent head-scratchers have been "May I hit your car with this hammer?" and "Dad, may I borrow that knife for a second?". At least he asks I suppose. I wonder if there's a career opening in the 'Evil Genius' field. I think he might have a bright future on that particular career ladder.
Those of you who are of a praying bent may wish to think of us as we consider what we're going to be doing next year. It's still pretty early (by Cornerstone standards) to be thinking of that, but the thing that has us stumped is the sheer volume of options we have with Cornerstone. There are plenty of opportunities for different ministries and things to do and we will really need some help in sorting out what will the best use of our time and gifts.
One of the things that I've really appreciated, benefited from and learnt from is Cornerstone's emphasis on what I will call 'natural evangelism'. The staff team here just seem to make evangelism look so easy. I don't mean 'evangelism' as in running and organising events, I mean 'evangelism' as in good-old-fashioned talking with people about Jesus. You could put some of the staff members here in any social environment and within minutes they'll be talking about the gospel with people in a natural and personable way - and people respond. What's truly beautiful about the whole thing (and, to my mind, a sign of the Holy Spirit working) is that instead of my usual default response to such things ("Why am I so useless? I'm so depressed") it makes me think "Hey. I really think that I can do this too.". I believe that I bought into the half-truth "Evangelism isn't my gift" thing simply as an excuse for my fear. If I have Jesus on one side and Fear on the other, the real god in my life is the one that I obey. In the field of evangelism Fear has been my god for too long a time. Cornerstone makes evangelism look exciting and I'm hoping to hold on to that feeling for as long as I can. I've still got a long way to go, but I feel like the traffic lights have just changed from amber to green.
Hope that you all have a great week. I hope that we do too!
(Image at the top of this post taken from here)
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