Overseas at Christmas

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.