New Wheels

The Mat Van failed it's pink slip so we can't get it's rego until it's had some work done (English Translation: The Mat Van failed it's MOT so we can't get a tax disc until it's had some work done). As a result we've borrowed a ute belonging to a guy called Wayne. It means that I get to do the Mat Run in style now. Look at this V8 baby that I've been using to cruise through the mean streets of Dubbo.

Technically today is the first day of Spring, so we're a little surprised by the mid-20s temperatures we've been having in the last week of Winter. It's nice to be wearing shorts again, even though I wandered into a batch of stinging nettles on Thursday. The pain was worth it just to be sunning my legs again. Now I know what you're thinking - 'You've been driving that ute through Dubbo in shorts? You must have been fighting off the honeyz with a stick!'. To this train of thought I am forced to reply 'Of course not - how ridiculous!'. After all, why would I be fighting them off with a stick when I've got a stack of 6x4 mats in the back of the ute. They function quite well as a defensive device.

I'm slowly losing touch with what's going on in the world of football (and by football I mean, of course, soccer). Although it's the fastest growing sport here and almost every child in Dubbo seems to be playing it on a Saturday morning it's never on the TV. They showed thr FA Cup final, but that - for obvious reasons - didn't start until midnight. They also show random European matches at random times, but unless you have cable you're not really going to see any footy (not even Australian teams) on TV. I've lost track of what's going on for any team in the UK other than QPR - I check the QPR website regularly. It's been a terribly eventful week for QPR with the death of young striker Ray Jones last weekend and the following purchase of the club by Flavio and Bernie.

Tomorrow is Father's Day here in Oz. That's just another thing that's different about life Down Under. I get to enjoy Father's Day a few months later. That's not the only thing that runs a little later. We got the film Amazing Grace a month or so ago, which I know came out in the UK around Easter time. I thought it was a very good film and made me want to go out and change the world, but it also challenged me about the potential there is in every person to really make a difference to the way that the world functions. We get so overwhelmed with worldwide problems that just seem so big that it's easy for us to doubt our ability to change anything. It just all seems too gigantic for us to do anything about, so we do nothing. However, I think that some of the responsibility for that part of the Lord's Prayer that goes 'Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven' falls on us. I don't think it's sufficient to pray that as though it's letting us off the hook. I believe that what God requires of His people is for them to, at the very least, have a go at changing things. Even if it's a small change, a small obstacle being attacked. Even the smallest victory is a part of this huge prayer because even the tiniest victory for mercy, justice and righteousness is part of bringing the Kingdom of God to earth. We're following in Jesus' footsteps, so let's aim for that and see what happens. Have a good week.