In a week, we'll be heading off to New Zealand to spend Christmas with Ruth's sister and her family. They've very kindly offered us their air miles so that we can be with them over the holiday season. We're looking forward to that. When we get back in the New Year it will be back to watermelon season. Yay!
It's been a good first year for us in Canowindra. It's strange to think that there will be a new batch of students here in a month or so, and the course and relationships will be starting over again. I understand that it can be tough to spend a year discipling and sharing your life with a group of people, only for you to have to start again from scratch every January but I'm still new to this so haven't yet felt that dread at having to begin from the beginning once more. It would be nice to have longer than a year with the students, as it's only just now that some of the guys are starting to 'get it' and others who could probably benefit from a longer time with us. We do have a few students who are staying on next year as they were looking to do the course over two years.
I was doing a bit of reflecting this morning. I was out listening to the birds singing, and there was a farmer harvesting hay in the field next to me. His machinery was extremely noisy, and it was a harsh ugly noise which contrasted sharply with the sounds of nature. I thought about how God had managed to create a functional and beautiful world and yet when we create we struggle to combine beauty and functionality. The things we make tend to be either one or the other, and yet the expert Maker can blend the two together seamlessly. When it comes to creating, we're just amateurs really.
Monday, December 7, 2009
Friday, November 20, 2009
Still still alive...
Another update because I have to register my disgust at the run of incredibly hot days we've been having recently. The past three days haven't dropped below 40 degrees and I've had enough. We went to the swimming pool this morning, which was nice I suppose but it shouldn't be 41 degrees before MIDDAY.
Good news is that the air conditioning in my study is working in tip top condition.
Good news is that the air conditioning in my study is working in tip top condition.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Friday, October 2, 2009
Holiday Update
I've been feeling guilty about my lack of updates - so much for "little and often". We're heading off for a week-long holiday on Sunday so I thought I'd get something up before we vanish. We'll have limited internet connection while we're away which, these days, is pretty much the equivalent of doing a Lord Lucan. "I haven't had an e-mail from James in two days! CALL THE POLICE!!!!" Yes mum, I'm looking at you.
Actually, I wonder about the role of guilt in the life of the Christian sometimes. I knew a guy who said that guilt is a '...wasted emotion..." I think that he was trying to say that it served no purpose - it made you feel bad without changing anything. You might feel guilty for robbing a bank, but your pockets are still jingling with everyone else's loose change so why bother with guilt? Guilt as a "wasted emotion" is at least a fairly honest and reasonable assessment of what guilt actually is - at least it is if you have no intention of acting on it. I suppose that anthropologists might think that guilt is an emotional response to the breaking a social norm or participating in something that's considered taboo. In this case, guilt becomes about conformity rather than truth or falsehood.
So where does this leave the Christian? I currently think that guilt in itself is not an inherently Christian emotion. I would probably agree with the anthropologists in this case. As such, the role of guilt in my life is to force me to a state of theological reflection where I consider why I feel guilty and what the Christian response should be. For example, I feel a little bit guilty about poking fun at my mother above and on reflection I think that I shouldn't have done it - sorry mother (but I'm not going to delete it because it serves to illustrate my point). The Christian response to guilt is always action, even if the action is to dismiss false guilt.
What about when we do something that [u]is[/u] socially acceptable but we still feel bad about it? Well, one of two things is going on there, I reckon. Either it's guilt that finds its source in some other cultural context (e.g. there might be many things that are socially acceptable but your family disapprove of - hence the guilt) or it's the Holy Spirit. However, my experience is that the Holy Spirit doesn't make me feel guilty so much as just really uncomfortable. Is there any difference? Maybe not in practice, but I think that one comes from the breaking of an internal moral code and the other comes from the breaking of a relationship. I think that if I were able to clearly distinguish one from the other I'd be doing pretty well in terms of my relationship with the Father.
Where did all that come from? That was more like a vomit than a blog post, but still it stays. I don't feel guilty about leaving it up, you see?
Actually, I wonder about the role of guilt in the life of the Christian sometimes. I knew a guy who said that guilt is a '...wasted emotion..." I think that he was trying to say that it served no purpose - it made you feel bad without changing anything. You might feel guilty for robbing a bank, but your pockets are still jingling with everyone else's loose change so why bother with guilt? Guilt as a "wasted emotion" is at least a fairly honest and reasonable assessment of what guilt actually is - at least it is if you have no intention of acting on it. I suppose that anthropologists might think that guilt is an emotional response to the breaking a social norm or participating in something that's considered taboo. In this case, guilt becomes about conformity rather than truth or falsehood.
So where does this leave the Christian? I currently think that guilt in itself is not an inherently Christian emotion. I would probably agree with the anthropologists in this case. As such, the role of guilt in my life is to force me to a state of theological reflection where I consider why I feel guilty and what the Christian response should be. For example, I feel a little bit guilty about poking fun at my mother above and on reflection I think that I shouldn't have done it - sorry mother (but I'm not going to delete it because it serves to illustrate my point). The Christian response to guilt is always action, even if the action is to dismiss false guilt.
What about when we do something that [u]is[/u] socially acceptable but we still feel bad about it? Well, one of two things is going on there, I reckon. Either it's guilt that finds its source in some other cultural context (e.g. there might be many things that are socially acceptable but your family disapprove of - hence the guilt) or it's the Holy Spirit. However, my experience is that the Holy Spirit doesn't make me feel guilty so much as just really uncomfortable. Is there any difference? Maybe not in practice, but I think that one comes from the breaking of an internal moral code and the other comes from the breaking of a relationship. I think that if I were able to clearly distinguish one from the other I'd be doing pretty well in terms of my relationship with the Father.
Where did all that come from? That was more like a vomit than a blog post, but still it stays. I don't feel guilty about leaving it up, you see?
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Update
This is just a quick update to let you know that Ruth and I recently acquired New South Wales driving licenses. We can no longer hide behind our UK licenses when it comes to traffic crimes.
It's been a very hectic past few weeks here, but the students have gone on holidays and a mission trip for a couple of weeks so I'm hoping to catch up on lesson preparation and marking. Maybe I'll get a chance to write a decent update for this blog as well.
It's been a very hectic past few weeks here, but the students have gone on holidays and a mission trip for a couple of weeks so I'm hoping to catch up on lesson preparation and marking. Maybe I'll get a chance to write a decent update for this blog as well.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Resident Good
Just a little update to let you know that we have been granted a Permanent Residence visa from the Australian Department of Immigration and Citizenship. We may now stay in the country for as long as we want - or rather, as long as God wants.
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Something to Think About
Continuing my current blog theme of random musings, I was reminded this morning of something that I read about in The Shaping of Things To Come that sparked my interest.
Having experienced the highs and lows of leadership in both a church and the monastic/mission order hybrid that is Cornerstone, I have formulated a few opinions on the structures of authority that we Christians tend to regard as normative. It goes without saying, of course, that my opinions have been shaped by my experiences as much as my theological reflection. In fact, my theological reflection will no doubt have been a response to my experiences. Anyway...
In The Shaping of Things to Come you'll come across a chapter entitled "The Genius of APEPT". In this chapter, a leadership structure is suggested that builds on the Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Pastor, Teacher gifts that Paul refers to in Ephesians 4. The suggestion is, putting it simply, that a church be led by a team consisting of individuals who are each gifted in one of these areas. In other words, a leadership team consists of one Apostle, one Prophet, one Evangelist, one Pastor and one Teacher.
There are various other things to consider, such as where does the buck really stop (every team needs a leader within it); what about individuals who are gifted in more than one area; what about churches where an individual with one of the giftings seems to be lacking; what is an Apostle anyway and so on. These are details that would need to be worked out, but as a principle I think it is sound - even more so if we understand the giftings (as Paul surely does in Ephesians 4) to be about equipping and enabling the congregation in these areas as well as 'doing' them. I think that a church or Christian group that had a leadership structure like this would be in a healthy place.
Many evangelical churches tend towards a structure that has one (or two or three) 'full-time elders' with a supporting cast of 'tent-maker elders'. It would be a rare church that could afford to support five 'full-time elders', each with one of the APEPT giftings. Of course, this presumes that church leadership should be done as a full-time profession. This need not be the case. at least not as we understand full-time ministry. I would not be surprised, for example, if an individual with the gifting of Evangelist or Pastor actually wanted to support themselves in the workplace as an expression of and opportunity for the outworking of their giftings.
In essence, all the APEPT method is is a recognition of the superiority of team-based leadership when each part of the team brings a different ability to the table. In reality, what makes this interesting is the use of Ephesians 4 to define what aspects a healthy leadership structure should contain.
Having experienced the highs and lows of leadership in both a church and the monastic/mission order hybrid that is Cornerstone, I have formulated a few opinions on the structures of authority that we Christians tend to regard as normative. It goes without saying, of course, that my opinions have been shaped by my experiences as much as my theological reflection. In fact, my theological reflection will no doubt have been a response to my experiences. Anyway...
In The Shaping of Things to Come you'll come across a chapter entitled "The Genius of APEPT". In this chapter, a leadership structure is suggested that builds on the Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Pastor, Teacher gifts that Paul refers to in Ephesians 4. The suggestion is, putting it simply, that a church be led by a team consisting of individuals who are each gifted in one of these areas. In other words, a leadership team consists of one Apostle, one Prophet, one Evangelist, one Pastor and one Teacher.
There are various other things to consider, such as where does the buck really stop (every team needs a leader within it); what about individuals who are gifted in more than one area; what about churches where an individual with one of the giftings seems to be lacking; what is an Apostle anyway and so on. These are details that would need to be worked out, but as a principle I think it is sound - even more so if we understand the giftings (as Paul surely does in Ephesians 4) to be about equipping and enabling the congregation in these areas as well as 'doing' them. I think that a church or Christian group that had a leadership structure like this would be in a healthy place.
Many evangelical churches tend towards a structure that has one (or two or three) 'full-time elders' with a supporting cast of 'tent-maker elders'. It would be a rare church that could afford to support five 'full-time elders', each with one of the APEPT giftings. Of course, this presumes that church leadership should be done as a full-time profession. This need not be the case. at least not as we understand full-time ministry. I would not be surprised, for example, if an individual with the gifting of Evangelist or Pastor actually wanted to support themselves in the workplace as an expression of and opportunity for the outworking of their giftings.
In essence, all the APEPT method is is a recognition of the superiority of team-based leadership when each part of the team brings a different ability to the table. In reality, what makes this interesting is the use of Ephesians 4 to define what aspects a healthy leadership structure should contain.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
More Thoughts...
At the moment I'm thinking a lot about listening to God. I'm of the opinion that a key part of walking in the Spirit, and therefore living the Christian adventure as God wants, is about being able to recognise the voice of God in the day-to-day moments of life. This also ties in with my thoughts about mission below. Getting a sense of what God is doing in someone else's life revolves around being able to hear God when He's at work.
I've been reading Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster, which is helping me to think through the value of meditation in terms of shaping a Christ-like character and learning to hear God. I've taken to spending some time in silence every day to just give God the opportunity to speak to me, with the grand aim of becoming better at hearing the still, small voice amongst the trash and white noise of my life. I didn't realise until I started doing this how hard it is to really stop and be still. Maybe it's just me, but my mind is extremely active and jumps around like a gibbon on an electrified floor. I don't think that I can tame it by sheer force of will at this stage, so I'm just concentrating on being with God. I think that's enough for the moment, as I certainly come away from those times with a greater sense of peace than I entered with. I think that maybe by being silent and waiting on God I am simply allowing the Holy Spirit to attune Himself to my spirit and as a consequence I have more faith in my faith as the day goes on.
The grand goal is, of course, to become more confident in recognising what God is saying to me (and to others through me) both in the mundane and in those krisis moments in life. I am convinced that, for me, this will be crucial in helping me to grow in both discipling and mission. Maybe it will also give me that otherworldly aura and glowing halo that I've been after.
I've been reading Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster, which is helping me to think through the value of meditation in terms of shaping a Christ-like character and learning to hear God. I've taken to spending some time in silence every day to just give God the opportunity to speak to me, with the grand aim of becoming better at hearing the still, small voice amongst the trash and white noise of my life. I didn't realise until I started doing this how hard it is to really stop and be still. Maybe it's just me, but my mind is extremely active and jumps around like a gibbon on an electrified floor. I don't think that I can tame it by sheer force of will at this stage, so I'm just concentrating on being with God. I think that's enough for the moment, as I certainly come away from those times with a greater sense of peace than I entered with. I think that maybe by being silent and waiting on God I am simply allowing the Holy Spirit to attune Himself to my spirit and as a consequence I have more faith in my faith as the day goes on.
The grand goal is, of course, to become more confident in recognising what God is saying to me (and to others through me) both in the mundane and in those krisis moments in life. I am convinced that, for me, this will be crucial in helping me to grow in both discipling and mission. Maybe it will also give me that otherworldly aura and glowing halo that I've been after.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Post-Holiday Update
Hello one and all, just a quick stop-by to let you know that we're all still well here in Webbtopia.
We've been in Dubbo for the past week, and I didn't have internet access so have been out of touch with the rest of the world. I felt like I'd lost a limb. It's funny how dependent you become on technology.
Anyway, here are a few photos for you to look at.
and that's it for now. Put it down to "Getting Back From Holiday" syndrome.
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Some Thoughts on Personal Mission
In the past six months or so, I've been challenged to grow in sharing something of Jesus with the people that I meet and speak with. I mean, of course, sharing using my words. Sharing with my actions isn't really the point - it's been the silence that accompanied them that I'm not happy with. In the past I've justified my lack of willingness in this area with the phrase "evangelism isn't my gifting" but I've come to see that this isn't the issue. For me it's simply about the fact that I am really, really good at hiding the most important thing in my life. I was first challenged just by watching Laurie. Laurie is not someone who would describe himself as a natural evangelist. As a side note here, I don't think that the gifting of 'evangelist' as Paul describes it refers to an ability to share the gospel so much as an ability to equip others to share the gospel - so maybe Laurie is an evangelist in that regard. For ease of communication, I'm using the term 'evangelist' in its more commonly used and understood context.
Anyway, as I was saying. Laurie isn't an evangelist. He's just really passionate about Jesus and good at moving the conversation beyond sport and weather in a very natural way. I wanted to be like that. It wasn't about gifting. It was about my willingness to take a risk and overcome fear. It wasn't that I was looking to become a street evangelist (though at least you can tell that - to those guys - Jesus really matters) but rather that when I kept silent I wanted it to be because it was the right thing to do in that situation rather than because I was afraid. I was suffering from 'Spectatorism'. I was willing to sit back and criticise those who did it badly, but at least they were playing the game. I wasn't even on the field.
So this is something I've been thinking about and praying about recently. Something I've been trying to develop in myself. It's strange. This year marks the "I've officially been a Christian for half my life" stage, and God has done some amazing things over the years. I've grown in so many areas, but in the realm of sharing my faith I feel like I'm still very new to it. Sometime I wonder if I've actually gone backwards. As a new Christian I was full of zeal and willing to share things with my friends and teachers. I cringe a bit now at some of the things I used to say and do, but at least I was having a go. Nowadays I don't even try.
One of the things that I've thought about it is why I find it so hard; so frightening to share something that's so important to me and of significance to everyone who's ever lived. There are a lot of reasons for this, but I've come to realise that one of them is because I'm not sure that I really believed I had something worth sharing. I felt a bit like a traveling salesman who didn't really believe in his product.
One of the reasons for this is because, as a good Evangelical, although I called the gospel 'Good News', I didn't really feel like it was good news. Like a doctor who has to break the bad news before he can begin discussing treatments, I felt like genuinely sharing my faith couldn't really go in any direction other than convincing the recipient of my verbage that they were Sinners in need of a Saviour. Until we got to that point, there was nothing that could be done. That's even before we got on to the ramifications of seriously acknowledging Jesus as Lord (though that's the bit I could get excited about). However, my time in Cornerstone has introduced me to a different way of thinking about this.
When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, "You are not far from the Kingdom of God." And from then on no-one dared ask him any more questions.
Mark 12:34
Peter and Paul, in Acts, take an interesting approach to sharing the gospel. They simply tell the history of the people that they're talking to, and show them where Jesus fits into their story. To the Jews, Jesus is the promised Messiah. To the Greeks, Jesus makes known what their own stories hint at. It's not a tall order to then have this approach with the people that we meet in our lives. Listen to and learn their personal stories and then show them where Jesus is at work in their lives. It's not easy. It requires real discernment and sensitivity to the Holy Spirit, but if you can do it then mission simply becomes a case of making clear what God is already saying to someone.
So far, so good. But how can we do this? Well, that's why we need to listen to the Spirit. However, what it does mean is that sometimes "all our righteousness is like filthy rags" is not the right place to start. Maybe that's not what God is saying to that individual or group of individuals. Maybe, sometimes, you get to share some real, bona-fide good news. Rather than "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God," you get to say "Well done. You're not far from the Kingdom of God".
In other words, sometimes the right thing to do is to encourage or congratulate someone on the good things that are happening in their life. But I'm not just talking about "Hey, that sounds good." or "Well done." I'm talking about "You're not far from the Kingdom of God." I'm talking about listening hard to the Spirit, and then sticking your neck out and not just offering your opinion on a situation, but God's. I'm talking about phrases like "I think that God would be really pleased with what you're doing." Neither Peter nor Paul seemed to embarrassed to interpret the stories of others in the context of Jesus, so why should I be? I had paid lip service to the notion that God was at work in the lives of myself and others, but I didn't believe it enough to attempt to try and voice that belief in my dealings with people. Whatever would people think of me if it became apparent that Christ was the focal point for all of my dealings with the world? Oh, the horror!
Sarcasm aside, I've tried this 'positive evangelism' a few times. I've suggested to non-Christians that God might respond positively to an action or a career choice. I've offered to pray there and then when something bad has been shared. It's not been easy, but it's been worthwhile. Not every response has been encouraging, but it's been real. Sometimes I wonder if I could have done it differently, but I've never regretted doing it.I know that I've missed opportunities to do this because I've been afraid at the moment of crisis, but I also know that when I've done it I've felt like I was living adventurously, as God intended me to live. In other words, I don't regret taking those risks and I don't believe that God would hold those stumbling errors against me. I'm absolutely convinced that He prefers people to have a go rather than keep quiet for fear of getting it wrong. After all, in the Parable of the Talents the guy who does nothing for fear of getting it wrong is given short shrift.
So those are my thoughts. I've still got a long way to go before I think that I'm competent or even obedient in this area, but I'm also excited about where I could end up. For me, it's a way of letting God know that I'm expecting Him to work. A kind of "OK God, if You claim to be at work in the hearts of men, then I'm going to hold you to that..." challenge. It's also a way of making my faith an adventure to be lived rather than an opinion to be protected. As I said, I'm still an infant in this field but everyone's got to start somewhere.
Maybe I'll share some more thoughts on this later in the year, but for now I'd be interested in any feedback. It'll help me in my reflections on how to improve in this area.
Anyway, as I was saying. Laurie isn't an evangelist. He's just really passionate about Jesus and good at moving the conversation beyond sport and weather in a very natural way. I wanted to be like that. It wasn't about gifting. It was about my willingness to take a risk and overcome fear. It wasn't that I was looking to become a street evangelist (though at least you can tell that - to those guys - Jesus really matters) but rather that when I kept silent I wanted it to be because it was the right thing to do in that situation rather than because I was afraid. I was suffering from 'Spectatorism'. I was willing to sit back and criticise those who did it badly, but at least they were playing the game. I wasn't even on the field.
So this is something I've been thinking about and praying about recently. Something I've been trying to develop in myself. It's strange. This year marks the "I've officially been a Christian for half my life" stage, and God has done some amazing things over the years. I've grown in so many areas, but in the realm of sharing my faith I feel like I'm still very new to it. Sometime I wonder if I've actually gone backwards. As a new Christian I was full of zeal and willing to share things with my friends and teachers. I cringe a bit now at some of the things I used to say and do, but at least I was having a go. Nowadays I don't even try.
One of the things that I've thought about it is why I find it so hard; so frightening to share something that's so important to me and of significance to everyone who's ever lived. There are a lot of reasons for this, but I've come to realise that one of them is because I'm not sure that I really believed I had something worth sharing. I felt a bit like a traveling salesman who didn't really believe in his product.
One of the reasons for this is because, as a good Evangelical, although I called the gospel 'Good News', I didn't really feel like it was good news. Like a doctor who has to break the bad news before he can begin discussing treatments, I felt like genuinely sharing my faith couldn't really go in any direction other than convincing the recipient of my verbage that they were Sinners in need of a Saviour. Until we got to that point, there was nothing that could be done. That's even before we got on to the ramifications of seriously acknowledging Jesus as Lord (though that's the bit I could get excited about). However, my time in Cornerstone has introduced me to a different way of thinking about this.
When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, "You are not far from the Kingdom of God." And from then on no-one dared ask him any more questions.
Mark 12:34
Peter and Paul, in Acts, take an interesting approach to sharing the gospel. They simply tell the history of the people that they're talking to, and show them where Jesus fits into their story. To the Jews, Jesus is the promised Messiah. To the Greeks, Jesus makes known what their own stories hint at. It's not a tall order to then have this approach with the people that we meet in our lives. Listen to and learn their personal stories and then show them where Jesus is at work in their lives. It's not easy. It requires real discernment and sensitivity to the Holy Spirit, but if you can do it then mission simply becomes a case of making clear what God is already saying to someone.
So far, so good. But how can we do this? Well, that's why we need to listen to the Spirit. However, what it does mean is that sometimes "all our righteousness is like filthy rags" is not the right place to start. Maybe that's not what God is saying to that individual or group of individuals. Maybe, sometimes, you get to share some real, bona-fide good news. Rather than "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God," you get to say "Well done. You're not far from the Kingdom of God".
In other words, sometimes the right thing to do is to encourage or congratulate someone on the good things that are happening in their life. But I'm not just talking about "Hey, that sounds good." or "Well done." I'm talking about "You're not far from the Kingdom of God." I'm talking about listening hard to the Spirit, and then sticking your neck out and not just offering your opinion on a situation, but God's. I'm talking about phrases like "I think that God would be really pleased with what you're doing." Neither Peter nor Paul seemed to embarrassed to interpret the stories of others in the context of Jesus, so why should I be? I had paid lip service to the notion that God was at work in the lives of myself and others, but I didn't believe it enough to attempt to try and voice that belief in my dealings with people. Whatever would people think of me if it became apparent that Christ was the focal point for all of my dealings with the world? Oh, the horror!
Sarcasm aside, I've tried this 'positive evangelism' a few times. I've suggested to non-Christians that God might respond positively to an action or a career choice. I've offered to pray there and then when something bad has been shared. It's not been easy, but it's been worthwhile. Not every response has been encouraging, but it's been real. Sometimes I wonder if I could have done it differently, but I've never regretted doing it.I know that I've missed opportunities to do this because I've been afraid at the moment of crisis, but I also know that when I've done it I've felt like I was living adventurously, as God intended me to live. In other words, I don't regret taking those risks and I don't believe that God would hold those stumbling errors against me. I'm absolutely convinced that He prefers people to have a go rather than keep quiet for fear of getting it wrong. After all, in the Parable of the Talents the guy who does nothing for fear of getting it wrong is given short shrift.
So those are my thoughts. I've still got a long way to go before I think that I'm competent or even obedient in this area, but I'm also excited about where I could end up. For me, it's a way of letting God know that I'm expecting Him to work. A kind of "OK God, if You claim to be at work in the hearts of men, then I'm going to hold you to that..." challenge. It's also a way of making my faith an adventure to be lived rather than an opinion to be protected. As I said, I'm still an infant in this field but everyone's got to start somewhere.
Maybe I'll share some more thoughts on this later in the year, but for now I'd be interested in any feedback. It'll help me in my reflections on how to improve in this area.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
What I Am Currently Reading.
How are you all going then? Of course, I can't hear your answer but feel free to e-mail me with your comments. I really am interested in how people outside of the old family unit are going. No really.
At the moment I'm reading a booked called 'The Shaping of Things to Come' by Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch. The subtitle is "Innovation and Mission for the 21st-Century Church" which should tell you what it's about. I've read chapters here and there over the past couple of years, but this is the first time that I've settled down to read it from cover to cover. Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch are two Australian missiologists, and this book represents their thoughts on mission in their home country and also other countries in the Christianized West - namely the UK and the USA. They're part of a movement known as the 'Emerging Church' which is a group that is attempting to re-imagine how to do church and mission in a post-Christian society. I think that they've got their heads screwed on right and are offering some great Biblical thoughts, but my only fear about the 'Emerging Church' movement is that for every genuine follower of Christ looking to impact their community you also end up with a cynical them-and-us merchant who just wants to gather with a group of like-minded people to moan about how the church is rubbish without actually doing anything about it. I know these things because I am one of these cynical them-and-us merchants.
From what I've read so far, Frost and Hirsch's main point seems to be about for the need for churches to move from an 'attractional' method of mission to an 'incarnational' method. To them, the 'attractional' method is when church mission revolves around 'attracting people to church'. This kind of thing manifests itself in Seeker services and special "bring a friend" mission events. The 'incarnational' method is about people getting out of church and being with people where they are, rather than expecting them to come to our turf. To use an example, if a church wants to reach skydivers, the 'attractional' church will organise a special service for skydivers - maybe with a famous Christian skydiver as a speaker. The 'incarnational' church would have members join the local skydiving club and spend time with skydivers on their own terms. I think Frost and Hirsch make compelling arguments, and although it seems quite obvious (especially when you put it in ridiculous skydiving terms) the reality is that most of us use and reproduce the 'attractional' method. Even Alpha falls under the 'attractional' banner, and although no-one is disputing the way that God uses that, it can contribute to the "We're a mission-centred church because we have seeker sensitive services" guff that betrays a terribly un-Pauline understanding of what it means to take the gospel to those who need to hear it. I'm not even convinced that we should be making any 'mission' efforts in our Sunday services. I think that's become a lazy way of passing the buck and stopping us even thinking about the enormous potential we have to impact the world for the Kingdom of God just when we go out and do our shopping.
I am also currently listening to Rock the Casbah by The Clash. Life was much simpler in the 80s.
At the moment I'm reading a booked called 'The Shaping of Things to Come' by Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch. The subtitle is "Innovation and Mission for the 21st-Century Church" which should tell you what it's about. I've read chapters here and there over the past couple of years, but this is the first time that I've settled down to read it from cover to cover. Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch are two Australian missiologists, and this book represents their thoughts on mission in their home country and also other countries in the Christianized West - namely the UK and the USA. They're part of a movement known as the 'Emerging Church' which is a group that is attempting to re-imagine how to do church and mission in a post-Christian society. I think that they've got their heads screwed on right and are offering some great Biblical thoughts, but my only fear about the 'Emerging Church' movement is that for every genuine follower of Christ looking to impact their community you also end up with a cynical them-and-us merchant who just wants to gather with a group of like-minded people to moan about how the church is rubbish without actually doing anything about it. I know these things because I am one of these cynical them-and-us merchants.
From what I've read so far, Frost and Hirsch's main point seems to be about for the need for churches to move from an 'attractional' method of mission to an 'incarnational' method. To them, the 'attractional' method is when church mission revolves around 'attracting people to church'. This kind of thing manifests itself in Seeker services and special "bring a friend" mission events. The 'incarnational' method is about people getting out of church and being with people where they are, rather than expecting them to come to our turf. To use an example, if a church wants to reach skydivers, the 'attractional' church will organise a special service for skydivers - maybe with a famous Christian skydiver as a speaker. The 'incarnational' church would have members join the local skydiving club and spend time with skydivers on their own terms. I think Frost and Hirsch make compelling arguments, and although it seems quite obvious (especially when you put it in ridiculous skydiving terms) the reality is that most of us use and reproduce the 'attractional' method. Even Alpha falls under the 'attractional' banner, and although no-one is disputing the way that God uses that, it can contribute to the "We're a mission-centred church because we have seeker sensitive services" guff that betrays a terribly un-Pauline understanding of what it means to take the gospel to those who need to hear it. I'm not even convinced that we should be making any 'mission' efforts in our Sunday services. I think that's become a lazy way of passing the buck and stopping us even thinking about the enormous potential we have to impact the world for the Kingdom of God just when we go out and do our shopping.
I am also currently listening to Rock the Casbah by The Clash. Life was much simpler in the 80s.
Monday, June 8, 2009
My Family and Other Vegetables
After a little break, I'm back. Updating the blog fell in my list of priorities following the birth of Parker. It happened to coincide with a couple of busy weeks here at the centre, so I've been waiting for the opportune time to catch up.
Things have been going well with the new arrival. He's very happy and contented, only waking from a deep slumber to feast every now and then. He's a bit like Dracula, but in wrinkled infant form.
Ruth's parents are in Canowindra with us at the moment. They're down in the Southern Hemisphere visiting Ruth's sister in New Zealand and us here in Oz. Hopefully they're having a nice time, but we've had pretty much a week of unbroken rain here and it's giving something of a false impression of Australian weather.
With the change of season we've moved from picking vegetables to pruning grape vines. It's less heavy lifting and more sociable hours so seems to be more popular with the mob here. It is, of course, an occupation that has plenty of Biblical imagery associated with it so there's something to be said for it. What I will say is that there is something deeply satisfying about physical labour, especially something that is providing for basic human needs. I don't think that it's accidental, but rather reflects something of God's original purposes and plans for work in His creation. It's hard work, but it's been great to spend time getting my hands dirty and reflecting on what God has made.
Yesterday was a Bank Holiday (i.e. public holiday) in honour of, of all things, the Queen's birthday. The Aussies can't quite believe it when I tell them that we don't do anything at all to commemorate this occasion. I reckon they'll just take any excuse for a day off work.
Monday, May 18, 2009
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Hooray!
At ten to eleven this morning (May 16th) Ruth managed to squeeze out a 8lb 3oz baby boy who we have decided to call Parker James Webb. Mother and baby are fine. Brothers and sister are fascinated with the new addition to the clan.
When I was younger I couldn't see the attraction in having children. Now I keep wanting to go back for more. It's like the genetic Disney Land.
Pictures to follow...
When I was younger I couldn't see the attraction in having children. Now I keep wanting to go back for more. It's like the genetic Disney Land.
Pictures to follow...
Monday, May 11, 2009
Quick Update
Just to keep people informed, our fourth child is due this week. Hopefully my next blog update will have some more information about this event!
Watch this space...
Watch this space...
Monday, April 27, 2009
As Threatened...
I mentioned in my last blog entry that I'd tell you some of the consequences of the Screen Fast here at Canowindra, but before that I'd like to plug another blog. My pal and bosom buddy Terry Wright has finally joined the digital age of "BY THE SEVEN HELLS, I'M GOING TO RANT AND YOU WILL LISTEN TO ME!" and started blogging. His blog has inspired me a little, and helped me to see how it should be done. You can find his musings here -
http://aardvarkconundrum.blogspot.com/
I've really enjoyed reading his reminiscences and thoughts on stuff, even though he has all the literary panache of a sloth who has somehow got his claws on a box of child's crayons.
Anyway, on with the show. As you may have noted from a previous post, for a month I challenged myself to remove 'unproductive screen time' from my life. Without wishing to argue what counts as 'productive' or not, this meant that I resolved to cease from purposeless Internet surfing, playing video games and watching movies or television. As well as increasing the amount of work that I got through, this left me with some free time to fill. I decided to fill it with things that contributed to something - in other words, I tried to make my free time productive rather than simply amusing. It's a bit like the story that one of the guys here told me recently - two men can be making bricks, but if you ask them what they are doing one will tell you that he's making bricks and the other will tell you that he's building a cathedral. I wanted to make sure that even with my 'free' time I was building a cathedral. Not literally, of course. That would be missing the point of the metaphor. No, what I wanted was to do things that I considered fun/relaxing but would also contribute to the Kingdom of God in some way.
For me, one of my current outlets is board games. I like to play board games. In fact, I made a conscious decision last year to make that my primary hobby rather than video games, simply because it forced me to mix with people and build up relationships. But playing board games depends on having willing victims to play with. So what else could I do with my alone time?
A couple of years ago, one of the Cornerstone guys (Pete Volkofsky - who the spell-checker tells me should be called Pete Volkswagon) was talking about how we can frustrate God through what we do with out time. His point was that maybe we have gifts or opportunities that God has given us, but by not using them we are frustrating what God wants to do through us. Before anyone starts deconstructing the theology behind statements like this, I'll jump in and say that it really challenged me. I knew that there were opportunities that I had that I was not taking full advantage of, and that it was disobedient of me to not do so.
As a result of Pete's challenge I went out and finished a piece of Interactive Fiction that I was writing called A Fine Day for Reaping. It placed fairly respectably in the annual IF Comp, but more importantly it actually won an XYZZY award for 'Best Story'. I've been deliberately vague there, so if you don't have a clue what I'm talking about then Google is your friend.
Anyway, that went off the boil again until the Screen Fast, which I took as another challenge from God to make sure that I was making my time count and using the gifts that He has given me. I've begun exploring my Interactive Fiction projects again, with the aim of trying to tell stories that are worth telling. I'm not sure how well I'll go with that, but we'll see.
The point of this post really is to challenge those of you who are reading to think about how you spend your 'free' time. The temptation we face is to compartmentalise our lives into various sections that don't interact with each other. Our work doesn't touch our home lives which doesn't touch our social lives which doesn't touch our free time which doesn't touch our work lives and so on. The real danger is that those of us who are Christians can divorce God from an aspect of our life. In fact, it would be wrong to even think of God as just a part of our lives - He should be the meta narrative which shapes everything in our lives. So we shouldn't just be looking at how our work and spiritual lives can interact (for example) but rather we should be submitting our work life to our spiritual life. This also goes for our spare time. It's not a part of life that is exempt from God's influence because it's my time. Rather, it's an opportunity to be free to do the things that we enjoy doing for God's glory. Maybe for you that simply means that you stop doing your hobby by yourself, but you actually get out and meet like-minded people with the aim of being the presence of Christ in their lives. Maybe - like me - the thing that you actually enjoy doing is something that you can blatantly subvert for God's purposes. If so, then do it! No-one said that you couldn't seek first the Kingdom and have fun at the same time.
Here's a quote from Frederick Buechner, which - if you let it - could change the way that you think about God's plan for you.
"The place that God calls you to is the place where your deepest gladness and the world's deepest hunger will meet."
So what does that place look like for you? Where do you find joy, but also see a deep need? Answer that question, and then you'll know what you should be doing with your free time.
http://aardvarkconundrum.blogspot.com/
I've really enjoyed reading his reminiscences and thoughts on stuff, even though he has all the literary panache of a sloth who has somehow got his claws on a box of child's crayons.
Anyway, on with the show. As you may have noted from a previous post, for a month I challenged myself to remove 'unproductive screen time' from my life. Without wishing to argue what counts as 'productive' or not, this meant that I resolved to cease from purposeless Internet surfing, playing video games and watching movies or television. As well as increasing the amount of work that I got through, this left me with some free time to fill. I decided to fill it with things that contributed to something - in other words, I tried to make my free time productive rather than simply amusing. It's a bit like the story that one of the guys here told me recently - two men can be making bricks, but if you ask them what they are doing one will tell you that he's making bricks and the other will tell you that he's building a cathedral. I wanted to make sure that even with my 'free' time I was building a cathedral. Not literally, of course. That would be missing the point of the metaphor. No, what I wanted was to do things that I considered fun/relaxing but would also contribute to the Kingdom of God in some way.
For me, one of my current outlets is board games. I like to play board games. In fact, I made a conscious decision last year to make that my primary hobby rather than video games, simply because it forced me to mix with people and build up relationships. But playing board games depends on having willing victims to play with. So what else could I do with my alone time?
A couple of years ago, one of the Cornerstone guys (Pete Volkofsky - who the spell-checker tells me should be called Pete Volkswagon) was talking about how we can frustrate God through what we do with out time. His point was that maybe we have gifts or opportunities that God has given us, but by not using them we are frustrating what God wants to do through us. Before anyone starts deconstructing the theology behind statements like this, I'll jump in and say that it really challenged me. I knew that there were opportunities that I had that I was not taking full advantage of, and that it was disobedient of me to not do so.
As a result of Pete's challenge I went out and finished a piece of Interactive Fiction that I was writing called A Fine Day for Reaping. It placed fairly respectably in the annual IF Comp, but more importantly it actually won an XYZZY award for 'Best Story'. I've been deliberately vague there, so if you don't have a clue what I'm talking about then Google is your friend.
Anyway, that went off the boil again until the Screen Fast, which I took as another challenge from God to make sure that I was making my time count and using the gifts that He has given me. I've begun exploring my Interactive Fiction projects again, with the aim of trying to tell stories that are worth telling. I'm not sure how well I'll go with that, but we'll see.
The point of this post really is to challenge those of you who are reading to think about how you spend your 'free' time. The temptation we face is to compartmentalise our lives into various sections that don't interact with each other. Our work doesn't touch our home lives which doesn't touch our social lives which doesn't touch our free time which doesn't touch our work lives and so on. The real danger is that those of us who are Christians can divorce God from an aspect of our life. In fact, it would be wrong to even think of God as just a part of our lives - He should be the meta narrative which shapes everything in our lives. So we shouldn't just be looking at how our work and spiritual lives can interact (for example) but rather we should be submitting our work life to our spiritual life. This also goes for our spare time. It's not a part of life that is exempt from God's influence because it's my time. Rather, it's an opportunity to be free to do the things that we enjoy doing for God's glory. Maybe for you that simply means that you stop doing your hobby by yourself, but you actually get out and meet like-minded people with the aim of being the presence of Christ in their lives. Maybe - like me - the thing that you actually enjoy doing is something that you can blatantly subvert for God's purposes. If so, then do it! No-one said that you couldn't seek first the Kingdom and have fun at the same time.
Here's a quote from Frederick Buechner, which - if you let it - could change the way that you think about God's plan for you.
"The place that God calls you to is the place where your deepest gladness and the world's deepest hunger will meet."
So what does that place look like for you? Where do you find joy, but also see a deep need? Answer that question, and then you'll know what you should be doing with your free time.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Life after Death
So we're in the post-Easter period now (both in terms of 2009 and human history in general) and I think that we're also entering a difficult period in the life of a community. At least, that's what it seems like to me. The honeymoon period is over and the realities of work, study and life together are really beginning to sink their pointy teeth into the shoulder-region of our collective expectations and experiences.
That was a rather pretentious way of saying that everyone seems to be feeling a bit tired and jaded at the moment.
Ruth and I have our own reasons for feeling this way. Baby number four will be slithering into the world sometime in the next four weeks (God willing) and I'm beginning to get the old "What Are We Doing?" jitters. Having a new child around tends to irrecoverably change your life again, after having just about got used to child number three. What's more, we're still in Bridging Visa limbo - and probably will be until we've had the new baby and managed to get a passport and medical for him/her - and I'm still learning and finding my feet in this whole teaching and discipleship thing. In other words, I feel very much like I'm in a state of flux at the moment and I'm not really very good at handling that kind of thing. In fact, you might say that I'm not a flux capacitor. What I will say, however, is that I'm a whole lot better than I used to be. I think this is a result of actually beginning to learn from the experiences that God has inflicted on us. I have this sneaking suspicion that He might actually be able to be trusted with everything. Not bad, considering that this July/August will mark the 16th anniversary of me starting my serious attempt to follow Jesus. From those months onwards, I will officially be able to claim that I have been a Christian for most of my life. It's about time that I learned something.
I think that next time that I write, I might share with you some of the changes that have resulted from the screen fast that we shared in over Lent. It was a really helpful time for me. Now, I'm off to watch Je Souhaite from The X-Files season seven. Sounds French.
That was a rather pretentious way of saying that everyone seems to be feeling a bit tired and jaded at the moment.
Ruth and I have our own reasons for feeling this way. Baby number four will be slithering into the world sometime in the next four weeks (God willing) and I'm beginning to get the old "What Are We Doing?" jitters. Having a new child around tends to irrecoverably change your life again, after having just about got used to child number three. What's more, we're still in Bridging Visa limbo - and probably will be until we've had the new baby and managed to get a passport and medical for him/her - and I'm still learning and finding my feet in this whole teaching and discipleship thing. In other words, I feel very much like I'm in a state of flux at the moment and I'm not really very good at handling that kind of thing. In fact, you might say that I'm not a flux capacitor. What I will say, however, is that I'm a whole lot better than I used to be. I think this is a result of actually beginning to learn from the experiences that God has inflicted on us. I have this sneaking suspicion that He might actually be able to be trusted with everything. Not bad, considering that this July/August will mark the 16th anniversary of me starting my serious attempt to follow Jesus. From those months onwards, I will officially be able to claim that I have been a Christian for most of my life. It's about time that I learned something.
I think that next time that I write, I might share with you some of the changes that have resulted from the screen fast that we shared in over Lent. It was a really helpful time for me. Now, I'm off to watch Je Souhaite from The X-Files season seven. Sounds French.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Easter is Coming...
Well, we're just about a week away from Good Friday so I suppose that I'd better get my Easter hat on. I believe that it's actually called an Easter bonnet.
It's pretty scary to think that the baby is well on its way now. There will soon be six of us milling around trying to get on with our lives. It's hard enough with five, let alone an extra one. Still, it'll bring some much needed balance to the household as we will be able to form two factions of three each - rather than three versus two. If we have another daughter than there will be the further balance of three blokes and three girls. Otherwise, the battle of the sexes will tip even further in my favour.
Calvin is in a play that's been written and produced by the locals. It's for the children to perform, but it's become something of a big production over the years. It runs four performances from Thursday to Sunday, and they get fair crowds at each show. They had their first production today, and Calvin has a speaking part. He's memorised this very complex poem that he has to recite - he's pretty gifted in that regard. Apparently he was due to go on but was nowhere to be seen so they had to go ahead and miss out his poem. It turns out that he had been struck by an attack of the nerves and had to go to the toilet just before he went on. Consequently he missed it. Poor boy. He was a bit upset, but hopefully he'll feel better tomorrow as he will hopefully get his first performance under his belt.
Things are still going well for us here. We're enjoying things in the Aussie country and the community here at Canowindra are great people to share life with. I'm really enjoying the teaching still and benefiting from the interaction with the guys in the classroom. I think that God has been gracious to me really, and He seems to have spoken through me a few times - despite me being new at this. I suppose I'd better make sure that I don't get 'not new' at this, as that's probably when I'll stop trusting in God to make up for my failings. Still, He wouldn't have put me here if He didn't think I was up to it. I guess it's all possible due to Easter anyway, so I hope that all of you who are reading this have a good one!
It's pretty scary to think that the baby is well on its way now. There will soon be six of us milling around trying to get on with our lives. It's hard enough with five, let alone an extra one. Still, it'll bring some much needed balance to the household as we will be able to form two factions of three each - rather than three versus two. If we have another daughter than there will be the further balance of three blokes and three girls. Otherwise, the battle of the sexes will tip even further in my favour.
Calvin is in a play that's been written and produced by the locals. It's for the children to perform, but it's become something of a big production over the years. It runs four performances from Thursday to Sunday, and they get fair crowds at each show. They had their first production today, and Calvin has a speaking part. He's memorised this very complex poem that he has to recite - he's pretty gifted in that regard. Apparently he was due to go on but was nowhere to be seen so they had to go ahead and miss out his poem. It turns out that he had been struck by an attack of the nerves and had to go to the toilet just before he went on. Consequently he missed it. Poor boy. He was a bit upset, but hopefully he'll feel better tomorrow as he will hopefully get his first performance under his belt.
Things are still going well for us here. We're enjoying things in the Aussie country and the community here at Canowindra are great people to share life with. I'm really enjoying the teaching still and benefiting from the interaction with the guys in the classroom. I think that God has been gracious to me really, and He seems to have spoken through me a few times - despite me being new at this. I suppose I'd better make sure that I don't get 'not new' at this, as that's probably when I'll stop trusting in God to make up for my failings. Still, He wouldn't have put me here if He didn't think I was up to it. I guess it's all possible due to Easter anyway, so I hope that all of you who are reading this have a good one!
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Fast Times at Canowindra High
In preparation for Easter, the centre at Canowindra is currently going through a 'Screen Fast'. What this means is that we are trying to fast from TV/Computer screens during the Lent period. So why am I updating the blog, you may ask, as doesn't this involve breaking the fast? Well, there are levels of fasting and what I'm doing is not using a 'screen' for 'enjoyment' during Lent. This means no computer, PlayStation or TV for entertainment purposes. As I don't enjoy updating my blog then my fast remains unbroken while I write this...
Actually, the purpose of the fast is to deny these things the level of control in our lives that they seem to have. For some of the students, pulling themselves away from films, video games and Facebook is a really tough thing to ask. It seems to me that we've become somewhat addicted to the screen when it comes to spending our 'free' time. It's also about freeing up some time to do more productive things. So I'll be doing a lot more reading and (hopefully) boardgaming over the next month. I might use the PC for relaxation if it's for something constructive (like writing and the like). I think that this will be a really useful discipline for me, as I lose a fair amount of time each day to browsing the Internet and making my way through the X-Files. I'm currently watching Season 7, so it'll be a month until I can carry on and pick up from episode 9 (Signs and Wonders, X-Philes).
Just to keep you all informed - Ruth and I have finally got our bridging visa, which is good because otherwise we would have had to leave the country today. We're waiting for them to process our application and make a decision, which may well not happen until the baby is born. A decision being made any earlier would require direct intervention from God, so let's pray for that, eh?
Despite having just graduated, my education continues. I spent some time yesterday laying new turf in parts of the garden, all in the name of an easy life. I am looking for a garden that requires minimum care, so Ruth and I decided to increase the grass quotient. It works well, except for the fact that I hate mowing it. We didn't quite have enough turf to do the whole garden, but we did most of it. Some of the fellows came and helped us out - but only for a short while. Most of it was done by myself and Les, one of the staff team who looks after the centre. Well, he did most of it. I was quite happy to watch a 79-year-old lay my turf for me. What are you looking at me like that for? If it makes it any better, at least I wasn't shouting "FASTER! GO FASTER, OLD MAN!" as he did it.
There is a price to pay for a nice garden. If I'm not the one that has to pay it, then all the better.
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Third Time Lucky...
Hey everyone. Well, the big news is that we finally got our visa application off. It will have arrived on Friday, which is good news because our current visa actually runs out in seven days. As always, everything runs to God's timing and not ours. I think we're beginning to learn our lesson about trusting Him to sort everything out in His timing - so hopefully now He'll stop doing this to us.
The other big news is that I graduated yesterday. For the third time. I've already gone through this with King's College and Spurgeon's, so as you can imagine, it was a nice change to go through it again on the other side of the world.
However, I was a little disappointed to find that Aussies do the graduation thing the same way as we do in the UK. I was expecting a bit of local flavour, you know, maybe corks hanging from the bottom of the tassle on the cap or something.
I also wasn't too pleased with the way that the cap made me look. It's not exactly a flattering look, especially for one with such a hairstyle as mine. So I decided to take matters into my own hands...
After all, "When in Rome..." and all that. After two previous graduations it was nice to do things a little differently this time and acknowledge my Aussie hosts by wearing an Akubra hat. CRIKEY!!
Spot the Englishman. It's like Where's Wally? but totally different.
Anyway, I had a really great time at the graduation. I enjoyed it, and felt very pleased that I've cleared this final hurdle. Canowindra is going really well - I feel that this is what I've been working up to for the past two years and that I'm finally doing what I came to Australia to do. I'm excited about what I'm doing and what I hope that God will do through Ruth and I while we're here. As I've said in a previous blog, there's no better place to be than where God wants you. Now that the visa application is off I can focus on the next few months of teaching and discipling, as well as the baby coming in May. We'll see what God does now!
The other big news is that I graduated yesterday. For the third time. I've already gone through this with King's College and Spurgeon's, so as you can imagine, it was a nice change to go through it again on the other side of the world.
However, I was a little disappointed to find that Aussies do the graduation thing the same way as we do in the UK. I was expecting a bit of local flavour, you know, maybe corks hanging from the bottom of the tassle on the cap or something.
I also wasn't too pleased with the way that the cap made me look. It's not exactly a flattering look, especially for one with such a hairstyle as mine. So I decided to take matters into my own hands...
After all, "When in Rome..." and all that. After two previous graduations it was nice to do things a little differently this time and acknowledge my Aussie hosts by wearing an Akubra hat. CRIKEY!!
Spot the Englishman. It's like Where's Wally? but totally different.
Anyway, I had a really great time at the graduation. I enjoyed it, and felt very pleased that I've cleared this final hurdle. Canowindra is going really well - I feel that this is what I've been working up to for the past two years and that I'm finally doing what I came to Australia to do. I'm excited about what I'm doing and what I hope that God will do through Ruth and I while we're here. As I've said in a previous blog, there's no better place to be than where God wants you. Now that the visa application is off I can focus on the next few months of teaching and discipling, as well as the baby coming in May. We'll see what God does now!
Thursday, February 19, 2009
How's It Going?
This is just a quick update - trying to keep to my "little and often" pledge.
Thanks to all of those who expressed concern over the Victorian bushfires. We are nowhere near the affected areas of Victoria or NSW, but we did have a couple of days of light fog which was caused by the smoke from bushfires drifting hundreds of kilometres in our direction. You may have gathered that the public response over here has been quite amazing.
Things are well with us. We're still waiting for the final few things to come together before we can submit our visa application, but these are all things that are in hands other than ours so there's nothing that we can do about it at the moment. That's fine by me, as it allows me to develop my skills in laziness. I'm not getting much chance to do that at the moment.
When I've been disciplined enough to put aside a little time for reflection and reading I've been thinking a bit more about the idea of stories and their role in God's purposes. It's a subject that interests me considerably, and I like to think of the way that our lives unfold as part of God's bigger story. One of the things that I came across that I really enjoyed was a quote by G.K. Chesterton. Apparently, he said "You cannot finish a sum how you like, but you can finish a story how you like." That's pretty good.
Now I just need to make the time to start reading my new book - Ancient Sorceries and Other Weird Stories by Algernon Blackwood.
Thanks to all of those who expressed concern over the Victorian bushfires. We are nowhere near the affected areas of Victoria or NSW, but we did have a couple of days of light fog which was caused by the smoke from bushfires drifting hundreds of kilometres in our direction. You may have gathered that the public response over here has been quite amazing.
Things are well with us. We're still waiting for the final few things to come together before we can submit our visa application, but these are all things that are in hands other than ours so there's nothing that we can do about it at the moment. That's fine by me, as it allows me to develop my skills in laziness. I'm not getting much chance to do that at the moment.
When I've been disciplined enough to put aside a little time for reflection and reading I've been thinking a bit more about the idea of stories and their role in God's purposes. It's a subject that interests me considerably, and I like to think of the way that our lives unfold as part of God's bigger story. One of the things that I came across that I really enjoyed was a quote by G.K. Chesterton. Apparently, he said "You cannot finish a sum how you like, but you can finish a story how you like." That's pretty good.
Now I just need to make the time to start reading my new book - Ancient Sorceries and Other Weird Stories by Algernon Blackwood.
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Hottest Place on Earth
We hear that the UK is currently covered in snow drifts that have run the country to a standstill. The irony is that New South Wales was, apparently, officially the hottest place on the planet yesterday with temperatures of 47 degrees recorded in some parts of the state. It didn't get quite that hot here in Canowindra, but it was 40 degrees and that's still pretty hot. Hot enough to make picking watermelons a little bit harder than it might be.
The first few weeks with the new students have gone well so far. They're a good bunch and I'm looking forward to seeing how this year pans out. Calvin's been back at school for a couple of weeks now, and he's really enjoying that too. It's going well for us. We're hoping to get the final stages of our visa application sorted out in the next week or so too. I suppose that this is the final calm before the storm really, or at least that's how it feels.
Of course, the baby's birth is getting nearer and nearer and we're still not sure about names. We've polled the children and the depths of our own imaginations and we're currently looking at one of the following names - "England", "Bon Bon", "Action Man", "A Little Boy" and "Will". Obviously the children all think that it's going to be a boy. How interesting.
You might want to get your votes in before it's too late.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Picking Watermelons
The new students have arrived and we've begun Orientation. I've not been around much for the first couple of days, so I haven't really begun to get to know the students. I'm not taking my first lecture until next week, so I've been preparing that and trying to get up to speed with the lectures that will follow after my first one. It's going to be quite an intense time, but I think I already told you that, didn't I?
Ruth and I went to Canberra on Tuesday (oh, and the kids came as well) for our medicals. It went well, but we've got no air conditioning in the car so the journey was...let's just say 'highly uncomfortable'. I was the only one having an X-Ray (the kids don't need one and Ruth is pregnant) so had to face, once again, the indignity of having my body zapped with radiation and then the radiologist coming out a few moments later and saying "Yeah, we need to do another one because your chest is too big for the machine". The same happened to me in the UK. So, I'm being doubly irradiated every time they X-Ray my chest purely because I happen to be a stunning Adonis. Well, or freakishly malformed. One of the two.
Speaking of 'Adonis', I've had a few shifts on the farm. We've been doing watermelon picking. We start our shift at 6:30am, and finish at 12pm - so as to avoid the blistering Australian sun. For that period I am picking watermelons. Watermelons can grow to 20 kilos plus (Calvin was weighed for our medicals and came in at 20.1 kilos) so I'm spending a few hours heaving my children around in the heat. A few more weeks of that and I'll have the bronzed body of a Greek god and arms that could crush a human head like...well, like a ripe watermelon. A perfect set of skills for teaching and discipling in a Christian community, I'm sure you agree.
Anyway, I'd better get on with it. Those lectures won't write themselves.
Ruth and I went to Canberra on Tuesday (oh, and the kids came as well) for our medicals. It went well, but we've got no air conditioning in the car so the journey was...let's just say 'highly uncomfortable'. I was the only one having an X-Ray (the kids don't need one and Ruth is pregnant) so had to face, once again, the indignity of having my body zapped with radiation and then the radiologist coming out a few moments later and saying "Yeah, we need to do another one because your chest is too big for the machine". The same happened to me in the UK. So, I'm being doubly irradiated every time they X-Ray my chest purely because I happen to be a stunning Adonis. Well, or freakishly malformed. One of the two.
Speaking of 'Adonis', I've had a few shifts on the farm. We've been doing watermelon picking. We start our shift at 6:30am, and finish at 12pm - so as to avoid the blistering Australian sun. For that period I am picking watermelons. Watermelons can grow to 20 kilos plus (Calvin was weighed for our medicals and came in at 20.1 kilos) so I'm spending a few hours heaving my children around in the heat. A few more weeks of that and I'll have the bronzed body of a Greek god and arms that could crush a human head like...well, like a ripe watermelon. A perfect set of skills for teaching and discipling in a Christian community, I'm sure you agree.
Anyway, I'd better get on with it. Those lectures won't write themselves.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
The Beginning of the Year
Hello one and all. We're a couple of weeks into 2009 and things are beginning to start happening.
The new students will be turning up in the coming week, and things begin in earnest next Monday. I am still (at the time of writing) unsure of some of the things that I will be doing so I can't, at this stage, predict how busy I'm going to be. I suspect that I'll be very busy in the opening months of the year, as it'll all be new to Ruth and I. I think I'm teaching Old and New Testament, which appear to be the first two teaching modules. This might mean that I'll be packing a lot in before Easter, but I'm looking forward to the challenge. I'd be lying if I wasn't said I was apprehensive about it as well. It's all new and it'll be a steep learning curve - and we're right in the middle of sorting out the visa too. We ended up packing a lot in to the last six months and I think the next six will be even more tiring.
We've been in Sydney for a few days. It was nice to take advantage of the summer weather and visit the beach. We also traveled up the Sydney Tower, which gives a view of the city from high in the sky. I suppose it's a bit like the London Eye, but it doesn't move about. Actually, Sydney from the sky looks like any other city from the sky. The things you'd really like to see (such as the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House) tend to be obscured by high-rise office buildings. A good time was had by all, though we did a lot of walking and we left behind a box in Ikea.
So it'll be an intense couple of weeks, and an interesting few months. I think that one of the key things for me will be to keep trying to work God into the centre of what I'm doing. I can easily see all this becoming a comfortable 'routine' and that's part of what I was trying to avoid by coming to Cornerstone in the first place. I want to make sure that I don't end up wasting my time on projects that appear to be worthy but turn out to be secondary - or worse.
I'll let you know how things are going. God bless.
Friday, January 2, 2009
New Year Update
Hello all, and a Happy New Year.
Just thought I'd write you a quick update since we've finally entered 2009. I finished my Certificate IV course on New Year's Eve, which was a cause for celebration in itself - though I haven't had my work marked yet so it's possible that I'll still need to do a few bits and pieces to satisfy the assessor. This means that Ruth and I can finally begin the visa application process - and with only three months to go before we get kicked out of the country it's about time.
Ruth I have to work our way through medicals and police checks, so we're probably not going to be able to submit the actual visa for another month at least. If you're inclined that way, please pray for us as we negotiate with the bureaucratic Orwellian nightmare that is the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (if anyone from DIAC is reading this then I don't mean it. You're lovely people really).
Thanks to all of you who have kept reading through the dark times of 2008 - yes, that includes you Peter Idris. Hopefully I'll be able to keep you up-to-date with what's happening in Canowindra over this year. Provided that we're still here in a few months, that is.
That reminds me. I'd better change the name of the blog - The Webbs at Burrabadine is so 2008.
Hope that you had a great New Year, and keep watching the skies. Errr, I mean, this space. Keep watching this space.
Just thought I'd write you a quick update since we've finally entered 2009. I finished my Certificate IV course on New Year's Eve, which was a cause for celebration in itself - though I haven't had my work marked yet so it's possible that I'll still need to do a few bits and pieces to satisfy the assessor. This means that Ruth and I can finally begin the visa application process - and with only three months to go before we get kicked out of the country it's about time.
Ruth I have to work our way through medicals and police checks, so we're probably not going to be able to submit the actual visa for another month at least. If you're inclined that way, please pray for us as we negotiate with the bureaucratic Orwellian nightmare that is the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (if anyone from DIAC is reading this then I don't mean it. You're lovely people really).
Thanks to all of you who have kept reading through the dark times of 2008 - yes, that includes you Peter Idris. Hopefully I'll be able to keep you up-to-date with what's happening in Canowindra over this year. Provided that we're still here in a few months, that is.
That reminds me. I'd better change the name of the blog - The Webbs at Burrabadine is so 2008.
Hope that you had a great New Year, and keep watching the skies. Errr, I mean, this space. Keep watching this space.
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