The Webbs at Canowindra

Just Before Christmas

2011-12-21T14:43:00.001-08:00

Well, it's been a long time since my last update. My 2011 postings have been sporadic, but at least it's not been quite as bad as the Great Blog Drought of 2008.

It's been a somewhat hectic couple of months. There are going to be some changes here at Canowindra for 2012. On a personal level, the biggest of those changes is that I have been asked to become the dean of the centre. I have already suffered a few 'James Dean' jokes, and expect this to be a theme for the year. Still, at least it's branching out from jokes about the English and bald people.

A year ago I was preparing for my trip to the UK, which turned out to be a excellent experience. 2011 has been a signficant year for me in terms of my personal spiritual development. David Benner says that "[t]he essence of Christian Spirituality is following Christ on a journey of personal transformation" and for me 2011 has been a rich year. I have come to value spiritual disciplines as powerful tools for affecting real change in lives - for me they have been the foundation of a growing daily awareness of the presence of God and the reality of an experience of Him.

2012 will be different again, I am sure, but I am confident that it will be another good year.

Lord Jesus,
May the sweet burning ardour of your love
Absorb my soul entirely,
And make me a stranger to all
That is not You or for You.

St. Francis of Assisi

2011-10-09T17:35:00.000-07:00

We're back from a great holiday down in Victoria. We spent a week in Bendigo and then a week in Apollo Bay, which is on the Great Ocean Road.

I finished Story and found it to be an excellent book and well-worth reading for anyone who is interested in the art of telling a good story. I recommend it.

Off, Back and Off Again

2011-09-19T22:08:00.000-07:00

I've just come back from a week in South Australia with some of our students. It was an excellent week, full of excellent good things and excellent bad things. What a wonderful perspective, that even the bad things that afflict us can be excellent.

It's something of a natural extension of the pondering that I did on the sacramental nature of suffering for my MTh dissertation. That there's a different between things that hurt us and things that harm us. The former is inevitable, but the latter only happens if our perspective on life (and our acceptance or non-acceptance of the promises that God makes) allow it.

Anyway, we're off on holiday this weekend. We've got some time in Victoria, which should be superb. I shall look to update the blog when we get back. I might share some thoughts from the book I've started reading - Story by Robert McKee.

I already like the quote at the beginning of the introduction:

"Stories are equipment for living."
Kenneth Burke.

Good one, Kenneth.

The Nine Sounds of Life

2011-08-21T17:37:00.000-07:00

Ages ago, Pete developed a unique resource for creating opportunities to talk about Jesus. It's a set of nine cards, which you can use in a variety of ways. A YouTube video has been posted, demonstrating how they can be used in coversation. Take a look by following the link below.

Pete Volkofsky Doing His Thing.

What I am Reading...

2011-08-16T21:29:00.001-07:00

I'm currently reading a book by Larry Crabb called Connecting. I've read a little bit of Crabb's work in the past and always found it worthwhile, but Connecting is a quite brilliant book. It's the first book I've read in a while where I disagree somewhat strongly with some of the details, whilst also being absolutely convinced and enthralled by both the premise of the book and also by huge chunks of the text that he writes.

His central argument is that we tend to respond to brokeness in ourselves and others by one of two methods - either by moralising; a 'try harder' mentality or by delegating to a professional counselling class who believe that a cure can be found by exploring and understanding the darkest recesses of our soul. Instead he suggests that the real problem is being disconnected from one another and, ultimately, from God. The solution, therefore, lies in a process of re-connecting rather than anything else. People are made whole, not by trying harder or by undergoing counselling, but rather by, essentially, having someone love them into unleashing the potential for good that exists in every redeemed heart.

It's an interesting book, not least because Crabb himself is a counsellor and is thus qualified to comment on the value of his profession. It's also intriguing for me, as I have had what I would term a life-changing, beneficial experience of counselling. However, on reflecting on that experience, I now believe that the immense value of my counselling relationship was not in the counselling, but rather in the relationship. For me, my counseller was someone through whom I experienced healing because he connected with me much like the way that Crabb describes. Indeed, after I had finally finished my sessions (and had 'SANE' stamped on my record), I remained in touch with him as a friend and a brother. The relationship transcended the professional, and I believe that is consistent with what Crabb is writing.

In conclusion, I'll copy out one of the aforementioned chunks of text that struck me. I love Crabb's passion, imagery and forceful writing here. Plus, I agree wholeheartedly with what he is arguing. In this passage he is talking about our struggle with the flesh, our old nature, and it gives a good feel for how the whole book reads:

The flesh, the enemy within, dons a friendly uniform, one that a Christian might wear, and suggests reasonable directions. We welcome him into our ranks. When he causes trouble, we try to whip him into shape, get him to cooperate with the program, and stop interfering with our efforts to do things right. Or we work hard to figure him out. What makes him tick? Why does he demand gratification that way? Maybe a journey into the past will uncover the source of these crazy tendencies and enable us to reason more effectively with him.

What we need to do, of course, is shoot him. Naive Christians, the kind who want to freely release the goodness within them and trust their hearts to lead them aright, do not want to enter the battle raging in their souls. They have no appetite for identifying and destroying the enemy. Spiritual warfare, they hope, will involve only light skirmishes, never a fight-till-someone-dies conflict.

Obsessive Christians on the other hand, spend more time studying the enemy than fighting him. Specialists in understanding sin can describe how every hurtful experience from your childhood has impacted you, how you've dissociated, self-hated and idolized false gods, all in the service of running from God. Obsessives listen carefully and take notes.

For them, understanding their insides becomes a never-ending pursuit, energized by the hope that gaining insight into the dynamics of the flesh will somehow weaken its power, or give them better control over it.

Thoughtfully aware Christians, however, neither naive or obsessed, know that the enemy must be identified and identified carefully. The disguise must be ripped away, the horror of the enemy's ugliness and the pain he creates must be seen, not to understand the ugliness, not to endlessly study the pain, but to shoot the enemy.

And if he doesn't stay dead, we must shoot him again, then beat him, then tie him down in the sand under a hot desert sun, turn loose an army of red ants on his body and walk away without sympathy. And then we must do it again and again and again, till we're home. An overdone metaphor? Not when we see the enemy for who he is, for what he wants to do. We are at war, the enemy within is the flesh, and he wants to ruin our relationships and thwart God's plan.

If we don't hate the enemy, we'll hate something or someone else. The mother will hate her disrespectful son or herself or her divorced husband or God - until she identifies the real enemy.

Continuing the Theme...

2011-07-21T15:22:00.000-07:00

...of reposting here things that I have already written, here's a short piece of mine that was recently published over at Microhorror.

It's called 'For Sale'.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Come…on…MOVE…you…son…of…a…

Muscles bulged but the jar lid remained unrepentant. This was getting embarrassing. It had seemed like such a good idea at the time; such a simple idea. Offer to open the new jar for the girl in the kitchen. Impress the girl of his dreams. She didn’t look impressed right now. She looked bored.

I…can’t…believe…this…is…happening…

Still no movement. Not even a fraction of a fraction. The girl had stopped looking bored and was now beginning to look faintly amused. He didn’t know which was worse.

She’s…laughing… at…me…please…open…please…I’ll…do…anything…

Suddenly a hissing, slithering voice whispered in the silence, in the deepest backdrop of his mind.

“Anything?”

- - - -

In the darkness of the under realm, the two demons put the finishing touches to the contract.

“…for the ability to open a jar of sun-dried tomatoes? Really?”

The first demon sounded shocked and a little disgusted. The second demon nodded dolefully.

“There’s no challenge these days. It’s just not fun any more,” he moaned. The first demon finished the document with a flourish of his pen, and slowly shook his head.

“You know what I reckon? I reckon those humans have stopped taking their souls seriously.”

Filler Post

2011-07-17T23:43:00.000-07:00

I've not posted for too long, so I'm throwing this up. That might sound like I'm vomiting, but I'm not.

Ruth was away for a week at the end of June, and when she got back I nearly died of flu. Following that we've had about thirty university students here for two weeks. My time has been flittered away on strange and ultimately fruitless pursuits.

Reid will be seven on Saturday. I can't quite believe that he'll be such a big boy. I enjoy all of my children, and they are all so different. It's strange to see little creatures that are a combination of Ruth and myself in personality as well as features. It's also hard to see my own flaws reproduced in my offspring, especially as I know that overcoming some of those flaws will involve walking a difficult path. I suppose that's better than being oblivious to my flaws and therefore unable to help my children grow.

Flower

2011-06-18T21:43:00.000-07:00

I've been trying to write a bit more recently. I thought I'd put something up on my blog, because I've not updated in a while.

So here's something I wrote a couple of weeks ago:

The boy found a seed. He didn’t know what kind of a seed it was. He was just a boy. But even the boy knew that seeds were made to be planted, so that is what he did. He buried it in the earth and attended to it. He watered it every day, each time looking and praying and hoping to see a shoot pushing its way out of its earthy coffin. Just a boy, and he loved that seed and that flower-to-be as only a boy could.

One day, to his delight, a green shoot, peeping out at him. The boy learned a lesson that day. Faith and love were always rewarded. He nurtured that young plant like a mother until it blossomed into a beautiful yellow flower. It was not the biggest flower, nor the prettiest, but to that boy it was wondrous and – more importantly – it was his.

Then his parents took him to one side to educate him. The flower was a dandelion. A dandelion was a weed. The boy had grown a weed. The boy was heart-broken. He walked away from his flower and never looked back. He had showered his affection on something that was a flower in disguise. It was no longer beautiful. A useless, dirty weed. He was ashamed of its ugliness and of his stupidity. The boy learned another lesson, but this one tasted bitter.

The Lesson: There is nothing more foul-tasting than to be disappointed; to find that the flower you had invested yourself in was actually a weed. It is better not to care. It is better not to love unless you are absolutely certain, one-hundred-percent convinced that the seed is that of a rose. Beware, lest you pour yourself into something or someone useless. Beware, weeds masquerading as flowers.

The boy walked away that day. Do not judge him too harshly. He was only a boy, after all. I hope that when he becomes a man he may see things differently. That he may see things the same way as the wrinkled, wizened Albanian nun who saw the face of Christ in the poorest, ugliest beggars. Who saw a flower in every weed.

I pray that when he becomes a man he may see things differently. That he may see things the same way as the wandering, preaching carpenter who said “Whatever you do for the least of these weeds, you do for Me.”

I am sure that when he becomes a man he will see things differently. He will be taken by the hand, led into the garden and spoken to: “You see all these faces, all these spectacular flowers? They were weeds that somebody loved.”

Photos

2011-05-31T17:22:00.000-07:00

I realised that I haven't updated for a while, and Ruth has been telling me that I need to put more photos up and that people aren't interested in my 'introspective navel-gazing egotistical dribblings' so here are some photos.

The first few are of children, just so you can see what they have become. The next few are chronicle our rodent problems. We've had a minor mouse plague here (in this part of New South Wales actually) with a major one predicted for later in the year. Also, our neighbour released some guinea pigs into the wild (i.e. our garden) and they had some babies. We caught the babies because they are slow and stupid. We were going to give them away, but 'unfortunately' they all died in our care. Ruth felt bad. I didn't, seeing as it was her fault that they died. But that's a story for another time.

So, children and then horrible rodents.

Church and Mission

2011-05-14T21:25:00.000-07:00

Just a question. In the book of Acts, where was the most common place to call people to leave their old life and follow Christ? I don't know the technically-correct answer, but what I can tell you is that it wasn't at church.

The vibe of the New Testament seems to be that church is for believers to worship and be discipled, and mission is something that happens outside of the church. I can't help but feel like something has gone wrong if church is where our mission happens. The call to new life in Christ should be happening in the marketplace, the Temple Courtyard and the Lecture Hall of Tyrannus. The call to growth; to learn how to use our time and money; to understand better the consequences of God's reality - these things should be happening in the gathering of believers.

When the two are mixed-up, then it is less than ideal. Disciples are repeatedly fed milk rather than meat and, just as bad, there is less encouragement to take the call of discipleship to those foreign places. Instead, mission becomes about inviting people to church, where we have paid professionals to do all the hard work. "Hey, it's my job to get them here - the rest is up to you."

No. The local church exists to feed disciples so that they are equipped and empowered to take the Gospel into the world in which they live and work. A church is not missional because it has seeker-sensitive services. A church is missional if the body are encouraged and enabled to live, pray, proclaim and take risks as followers of Jesus from Monday to Saturday.

Simplicity and Greed

2011-04-26T19:00:00.000-07:00

So, now I am an Australian resident 'for tax purposes' I need to fill out a tax return. The Australian financial year runs from July to June, so I'm a bit late with my 2009-2010 return. Actually, I was oblivious to the need to complete one until I received a letter from Centrelink about our Family Assistance benefits last week.

When you have the kind of financial arrangements that we have, filling out a tax return is pretty straightforward. However, I was a bit confused about what we do with gifts that we receive into our UK bank account. Did I have to declare those or not? I finally managed to talk to the Australian Tax Office this morning and they answered my questions very helpfully. They also gave the 'right' answer in that I'm no longer being threatened with a bill for unpaid taxes, instead we may be entitled to a refund. This may have some pleasant repercussions for other payments we receive as well.

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago a few of us men were talking about what it means to live a life of 'simplicity', which is one of the things that we aim for as a Christian community. Benedictine monks tooks vows of obedience, chastity and poverty. In Cornerstone we try and emulate these with the principles of obedience, purity and simplicity. Simplicity is a tricky concept to grasp. How does one live simply in a society where material needs are easily met? Is my DVD collection too big? Do I have too many clothes? What does it mean to live in simplicity where advertising gurus - knowing full well that our basic needs are met - generate a whole load of new needs by bombarding us with constant messages that we are incomplete unless we have this latest car, holiday, game, house, modern convenience or whatever?

So when I found out that we might be entitled to a refund, I suddenly became anxious about making sure I chased up everybody that I needed to chase up to ensure that we got all the money that we were 'entitled' to. On almost immediate reflection, I realised that I was violating Jesus' command to not worry. But instead of worrying about whether or not I would have enough to eat, I was suddenly worrying about making sure that I would get all that I was owed. It didn't seem a particularly pleasant place to be.

Sure, if I can claim money that the government has decided that I am entitled to, then I am certainly going to do that. But there was that thread of anxiety which troubled me a bit. It seemed more like greed. Paul, of course, knew what it was to be content in all circumstances - whether hungry or full; clothed or naked; tax-billed or tax-refunded. To me, and this came out in the discussion that we had, simplicity has at its heart the idea of contentment; that my tax status was not to intrude in any measure on the peace of my heart. There was to be no anxiety over a tax bill or a tax refund, because simplicity has at its heart the unshakeable conviction that it is God who provides, and that life does not live in what we possess.

If my DVD collection reflects a lack of contentment with what I possess, then I am not living simply. If the next computer purchase is made with the aim of meeting some sense of spiritual need that I think that I have, then I am not living simply.

Because of the environment of plenty in which we live, it's sometimes hard to discern where the law of simplicity has been broken, but I find the idea of living simply highly appealing. This is because I find the idea of contentment highly appealing. This is because I find the idea of freedom highly appealing. It is not because I find the idea of tax refunds appealing.

The Cost of Success

2011-04-16T15:27:00.000-07:00

When I was studying in London I was an infrequent attendee of Westminster Chapel. This was back when RT Kendall was the minister. Dr K had an uncommon gift for preaching and I benefited from my time at the WC. One thing that he said that has stuck with me was something he quoted from his predecessor, Martin Lloyd-Jones. He said "The worst thing that can happen to a man is for him to succeed before he is ready."

I have taken this to heart because I see the truth in it. In one sense it's obvious, because we see young rock, film and sports stars put in the spotlight of success and see them ruined by it. They can't handle the fame or money, and it ultimately destroys them. Of course, it's usually a delayed reaction. The destructive success of their twenties may not be felt until they are much older.

We often worry about and put a lot of effort into mitigating the effects of failure, but in a way the damage that success can do is just as bad and it comes in more attractive packaging. It's potential harm disguised as something good. We will even applaud people who find themselves successful before they are ready for it.

Success in the hands of someone who is ready for it; mature enough to shape it rather than let it shape them, is a good thing. But many of us lust after success without asking ourselves if we are ready for it.

The Worst of All Sins...?

2011-04-10T16:11:00.000-07:00

Many years ago I listened to a quite excellent teaching tape by R.C. Sproul on the topic of whether or not God counted all sins the same. His conclusion was "No", but I'm not going to go through his arguments here because this is just a nifty introduction rather than the point of the post. Plus, it's been a while since I listened to it and I am not sure I could do it justice were I to try and replicate it here.

Anyway, at times I have pondered exactly what sins are worse than others - especially in light of an insert in an old Lust Control or One Bad Pig tape (I can't recall which it was) offering me the chance to send off for a pamphlet explaining "Why Sexual Sins are Worse".

I've had a sneaking suspicion that God might judge sin based not on the act itself - sexual or otherwise - but rather on the impact that it has on relationships with God and others. It's just a sneaking suspicion, and I don't have any hard evidence to back it up, but one of the things that made me wonder about this is the story in 2 Samuel 11 & 12 of David's adulterous relationship with Bathsheba. When Nathan pronounces judgement on David he makes the remark that the baby will die because by his actions "...you have made the enemies of the LORD show utter contempt...". It seems that the issue here is how David's behaviour reflects on God. Now, rather than getting upset about whether or not this means God cares more about His honour than the murder of innocents and the ruining of families - which is not the suggestion that I am making - I would rather put it to you that the sin of a Christian is automatically a bigger deal than the sin of a non-Christian, because we drag God's name though the mud when we fall short. It should be a sobering thought.

Anyway, I've been thinking about this again because I've been re-reading What's So Amazing About Grace? by Philip Yancey. It's been about ten years since I read it last, so I thought it was time for a re-read, especially in light of the fact that a couple of my friends of have been reading it recently and it's come up in conversation.

I've just finished reading the chapter called 'Grace-Healed Eyes' which is about Yancey's relationship with Mel White, an evangelical Christian who came out as a homosexual. The chapter is mostly about how the Church relates to homosexuality, and the strong feelings of ungrace that the topic produces in Christians. Yancey makes the point, quite correctly, that the Christian stance to homosexuals is typically full of ungrace and that this is wrong. Yet at the same time, he's asking how you deal with and show grace in a situation where there is clear sin at work. It's a good chapter in a good book.

However, I found myself wondering about something that Yancey doesn't write about. You see, Mel White went on to be ordained and continues to be active as a Christian. As a result, what he does he does in God's name. I couldn't help but feel that both White and his condemners were actually guilty of the same sin - misrepresenting God. Those who hated him defined him by his sexuality and related to him that way - with ungrace and condemnation. His sexuality put him beyond the pale, but in reality he is no less loved by God than any of us, and in just as much need of God's grace. Those who hate homosexuals because they are homosexual, and do this in the name of God, are in great danger of finding themselves accused by Nathan just as David was. But likewise, Mel White seems to be guilty of re-interpreting his faith in light of his sexuality; of deciding to shape The Reality in light of his personal reality, and as such could also be charged with misrepresenting God. I felt that the hot potato issue of homosexuality was something of a red herring here. The real issue was that both sides of the argument were doing what they did in God's name, and as such were both in danger of making God's enemies show contempt. That is not something to be taken lightly.

Of course, in thinking about this I find myself wondering about how to avoid falling into the same trap. The temptation to define God in light of my personal revulsions or attractions is ever present. "I will love and hate what God loves and hates" very easily becomes "God loves and hates what I love and hate". I guess the only way to limit it is to recognise it as a possibility, and come before God with humility, allowing Him to shape me rather than vice versa. It cannot be impossible to walk the right path, but I acknowledge that it's very hard to do.

Being Taken Advantage Of

2011-04-03T02:19:00.000-07:00

When thinking about being a servant of others, I've often wondered about being taken advantage of. How far do you go without becoming a door mat? I know I'm not the only one who's wondered about this, and I've read some discussion about this in the past. Sometimes this question revolves about being a 'man' and how much rubbish you have to take from someone. A couple of years ago I read Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster and he writes this;

"...[W]e must see the difference between choosing to serve and choosing to be a servant. When we choose to serve we are still in charge. We decide whom we will serve and when we will serve. And if we are in charge we will worry a great deal about anyone's stepping on us, i.e., taking charge over us. But when we choose to be a servant we give up the right to be in charge."

So to Foster if you are asking the question "How far do I go in serving without being walked all over?" you are not truly serving. You are still thinking about protecting yourself rather than serving others.

It's hard to think like this, but I have to say that Foster's understanding fits the tone of the gospels far better than the "Serve others...but don't be taken advantage of" motif that I find seems more acceptable to us. I just can't imagine Jesus, carrying the cross to Golgotha, thinking to himself "Gee, I hope these guys don't take advantage of my servant nature."

As Foster goes on to say...

"There is great freedom in this. If we voluntarily choose to be taken advantage of, then we cannot be manipulated...the fear that we will be taken advantage of and stepped on is justified. That is exactly what may happen. But who can hurt someone who has freely chosen to be stepped on?"

Once again, the truth of Christianity is found in its paradoxical nature. We fulfil the self by denying the self. We find freedom in slavery. We find life in dying to self, for what fear does life hold for someone who is already dead?

Utopian Dreams

2011-03-18T22:12:00.000-07:00

I would like to take this opportunity to recommend a book to you. It's called Utopian Dreams and it's by Tobias Jones.

Jones is an Oxford-educated journalist who lives in Parma, and his book is about his experience spending a year travelling and visiting five different communities. It's a book about community, and whether or not anything founded on Idealism can be of value.

What makes this book of interest to me is the direction that Jones takes it. Firstly, he admits that his interest in communities and idealism is driven by his dissatisfaction with the bankrupt existence of postmodernity. As he puts it '[t]he promise of happiness has created an epidemic of depression. It's us who are being consumed, not the objects".

Secondly, despite not being religious himself, Jones comes to the conclusion that the communities that are most successful at challenging the malaise of postmodernity are those which have religion as a foundation. Yet, not just any religion, for Jones is also unimpressed with expressions of New Age religion which are focussed almost exclusively on the self and mirror many of postmodernity's worst traits.

It's a good read, and well worth it for those of you who are interested in culture, community and what the Gospel might have to offer to our society of well-fed and free-time rich drones.

Also, the book taught me that the word 'idiocy' has its roots in the Greek word 'idiotes' which originally meant 'a private person'. The logical conclusion here is that wisdom is found not with the individual but within a community.

Reflecting on Anger

2011-03-08T14:13:00.000-08:00

I've been thinking a bit about anger over the past few days. Mainly, when is anger a legitimate reaction, or as I have been asked several times over the past few years, "When does anger become 'righteous' anger"?

I agree very much with what Neil Anderson says in the Freedom in Christ course that anger is generally a response that we have to a blocked goal. For example, when our goal is to get to a meeting on time, if we find ourselves in a traffic jam then anger is the typical reaction. Anderson follows up, rightly I believe, by suggesting that we should only have goals that are within our control. Getting to a meeting on time is not always in our control (such as with the traffic jam example), so we are asking for trouble if we make that our goal. Anderson suggests that if our goals are things that are within our power to make happen then anger will be a decreasing influence in our life, because we'll find ourselves facing fewer blocked goals. This makes good sense and I've found it very helpful.

However, what I've then been forced to consider is whether anger is always a result of a blocked goal. If it is, then surely anger is always wrong, and doesn't it therefore become 'sin'? In Ephesians 4:26 Paul draws a distinction between anger and sin by quoting Psalm 4 and writing "In your anger do not sin". Following this, sin is not anger, but something that might be born our of anger. This distinction makes me unable to accept the suggestion that anger is always wrong.

But if anger isn't always wrong, then under what circumstances is it right? I'm not happy with the manufactured distinction between 'regular anger' and 'righteous anger', but it does acknowledge this tricky question.

Some people point at the cleansing of the Temple as a time when Jesus exercised anger, but I've been reading the Gospels on this matter and I'm not convinced this was something that Jesus did in anger. John's account makes specific reference to an Old Testament verse - "Zeal for my father's house will consume me" - and zeal is a different thing to anger. Jesus's passion for the honour of God's name does not necessarily equate to anger. A bouncer can throw someone out of a nightclub without having to be angry. Instead I wonder if our attribution of anger to Jesus here is because he's acting in an 'angry' way and so we make the necessary assumption, perhaps because we're used to flamboyant actions being an expression of emotion rather than being a considered choice. But equally, it's hard to read Matthew 23 and not imagine Jesus being at least a tiny bit annoyed.

Perhaps it's as simple as asking what is causing our anger? Anger over a missed meeting is a different thing, surely, to anger over an injustice done to a friend. Perhaps it comes down to whether or not we're angry in our own defence, or whether or not we're angry in defence of others or God? Or perhaps anger is just the emotional response to a situation, and then we have a choice to make about how to respond: "Self-control" or "Lack of Self-Control"? The latter leads to sin, and the former may lead to the cleansing of a Temple and the restoration of God's honour.

Just some thoughts, which I'm still processing.

Journaling the Journey

2011-03-01T16:02:00.000-08:00

When I was a young and impressionable Christian (as opposed to being the old and impressionable Christian that I am now) I was encouraged to keep a 'prayer journal'. Even now I am still unsure what a 'prayer journal' is, but I've been writing stuff down for a while now. Actually, I've been writing stuff down since 28th February 1996. At least, that's the date on the first page of my first journal.

It's gone up and down. Sometimes there have been periods of months where I wrote nothing (I'm sure there's a silent period of at least a year somewhere in my history) and then others times it's been a daily habit. Generally, I've recorded my feelings and thoughts about how I am on a given day, and what God might be up to. Other things make an appearance every now and then, such as lists of people to pray for and quotes that I thought were so good that I should record them somewhere, but on the whole it's a collection of where my soul has been over the past fifteen years.

And I'm thankful for it. It's been immensely helpful for me to have documented evidence that I have grown in my faith over the past fifteen years. It's encouraging to have records of what God has done, both in my life and the lives of others. It's amazing to see how the things that I feared the most never actually came to pass, and that God has kept His promises. It's great to see how my theology has developed and my thinking has changed. It's humbling to see the context of my journey, to see the patterns and plans come together leading me not necessarily to a certain role or location, but rather towards Christ-likeness.

I am very glad that I made the decision to keep a journal and very glad that I still have them to look back on. It's easy to forget things. It's the natural state actually. It's remembering things that takes work, and every footstep on my journey with God is worth remembering.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

2011-02-14T19:42:00.000-08:00

I've thought a lot over the past couple of years about the role that fear plays in my life, and the lives of others. I think of it as the most powerful motivator that human beings have. Back in the day I used to play a lot of video games, and there's a quote from a game called Max Payne: "I don't know about angels, but it's fear that gives men wings". I learnt a lot from video games.

What I think about is how different my life seems to Jesus' life. I think about how many things I do or don't do out of fear, and try and get a sense from the Gospels about what role fear played in Jesus' life and ministry. I find it impossible to read the Gospels and come to the conclusion that Jesus was ever motivated by fear. I don't mean that he was never afraid, I'm sure that's not the case, but rather that when he was afraid he never allowed it to be the fear that made his choice for him. I think of Gethsemene where the Biblical witness gives the impression that he was most certainly afraid, yet what motivated him; what did he choose? "Not my will, but Yours".

I have no doubt that Jesus was never once motivated by fear. Think about your own life. Think about the things you do or don't do because you are afraid. Think about what you say or don't say because you are afraid. Think about the prison you find yourself in because you are afraid of what people are thinking, or rather, afraid of what you think people are thinking.

Now imagine living in freedom. Not free from fear, but free from the power of fear. Free from having your choices dictated to you by that gnawing rat in your soul. Think about that kind of freedom. That's how Christ lived.

Did you know that the first emotion expressed by Adam in the Bible is fear? "I heard you coming and I hid because I was afraid". Letting fear control your decisions is a Fruit of the Fall, certainly not a Fruit of the Spirit. Rather, Galatians 5 tells us that walking in the Spirit leads to self-control. In other words, you chooose. You are not dictated to by your fear, loathing or envy. You choose. Sure, you can still choose to let those Fruits of the Fall have the final say - or you can choose something different. You can choose the path that Christ walked.

How would your life look if it was the Holy Spirit rather than fear that gave you wings?

Home Again

2011-01-20T09:57:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm home again. Back in Australia, suffering from jet lag. It's five o'clock in the morning here and I've been awake for a few hours. I'm hoping to push through the tiredness and force myself to follow normal hours. I was very tired yesterday, my first day back.

My journey home wasn't too thrilling. By the end I was willing it to be over.

So, how was my trip to the UK? Great. I had a really good time and it was very special to catch up with family and friends. It was also an excellent time of reflection. Having the opportunity to revisit places that have been signficant for me on my journey with God was hugely beneficial. I simply spent a bit of time at each place reminding myself what I learnt while I was there. It gave me a profound sense of perspective and awareness of the fact that I have been moving in a good direction over the past fifteen years. It was helpful to see how the things that I experienced ten or more years ago have shaped me in such a way that I am able to do well what I do today. There is great power in pilgrimage.

I have no regrets about the past, and no conviction other than that Australia is our home now. We are in the right place doing the right thing. For this I am extremely thankful to God.

Back in the UKKR

2011-01-14T07:41:00.000-08:00

My time in the UK is coming to an end. Just this weekend to go and then I'll be bundled onto a metal bird and face a potentially unthrilling twenty hour flight (plus five hours by surface once I land) before I get home.

I say 'potentially' because it might turn out to be thrilling. I'm not talking about hijackings or anything like that, though if movies have taught us anything it's that there's always a retired Marine somewhere on the flight and he just needs to be coaxed gently back into action so that he can come to terms with the death of his buddy on that disastrous black ops mission from five years back. I'm not even talking about the opportunity I'll have to watch seven six-month-old films in a row (plus an episode of The Simpsons). No, rather the potential thrills come from the fact that there will be people there, and wherever people are there is the potential for thrillage. It's a big thing for a misanthropic introvert like me to say that, but I mean it. I wouldn't have really thought like that once, but this is one of the ways that Cornerstone has changed me. God is always at work, and He works in people, so consequently wherever there are people, there are potential thrills.

I've had a really good time while over here, and I've fulfilled my objective of reflection and pilgrimage. I feel like I've found some solid footing again, but uncertain ground is not really going to stop me from moving forward anyway. It's written into my contract with God.

It's hard to be here and see the flooding in Brisbane on the news. I don't know anyone who lives in Brisbane, at least not directly, but Australia is my home now and I feel sensitive to her struggles and hardships. After so many years of drought, I wonder how much more her spirit can take. I tell you something, Australians are a wonderful and resilient people.

Thank you to all the wonderful UKites who have accommodated me (literally and otherwise) while I've been here. It's been great to see you all again. The next time I blog I'll be back Down Under, and will probably offer a review of my time here.

Christmas and UK Trip

2010-12-10T15:24:00.000-08:00

It's been a crazy few days. We've had absolutely terrible weather here. Officially it's summer, but we've had days and days of torrential rain. It looks like the drought (which has been going on for 10+ years) is finally broken. The manner of its breaking is not good news for farmers. It was going to be a bumper harvest, but the rain will have destroyed a lot of crops.

One of our students, Janet, was in a bad car crash on Wednesday. Thankfully, she's OK but she's broken her elbow and her leg and it will take her a while to recover.

Weeks like this remind me of how vulnerable we really are. There are so many things that are outside our control. If you think about it too much, it might make you a little crazy - or terrified. Thankfully, needing to be in control is not compatible with a Christian worldview.

Christmas is on its way, but the lack of Christmasy weather coupled with the intensity of the past week has meant that it's going to sneak up on me again. In two weeks I'll be getting on a plane and coming over to the UK for a few weeks. That will probably consume my thoughts for the next fourteen days, meaning that I won't be in a Chritsmasy mood until I arrive in the UK on the 27th.

I'm looking forward to being back home for a while, and reminding myself why we came over here. To me, it's a pilgrimage.

More Random Musings

2010-11-23T15:00:00.000-08:00

While taking a walk this morning I was struck once again by how beautiful the scenery around Canowindra is. It helps that we're entering summer, and the early morning is one of the most glorious times of this season (i.e. before it hits 30 degrees).

The landscape is, of course, just a random collection of trees, grass and dirt so why do I use words like 'beautiful' and 'glorious'?

It's an old argument, but it still carries weight with me. If there is no God, why does such non-sense resonate with our souls? Why does an arbitrary collection of earth and grass please us?

The Difference Between Being a Christian and Being 'In Christ'

2010-10-30T20:26:00.000-07:00

I'm currently reading 'I Believe in the Holy Spirit' by Michael Green, and he makes an interesting (though only passing) point that in the New Testament the term 'Christian' is only found on the lips of pagans. The New Testament's favourite term - at least, Paul's favourite term - to describe followers of Jesus is to speak of us as being 'In Christ'.

What's the difference between understanding yourself as a 'Christian' and understanding yourself as being 'In Christ'. The former is a label which identifies an allegiance to a particular school of thought. It means as much as 'pacifist', 'conservative' or 'racist'. The latter instead refers to an actual state of being; an identity. Being a follower of Christ is not simply a matter of subscribing to a specific philosophy, but rather it's a matter of becoming a new creation. It's a matter of having a totally changed identity. It's a matter of a genuine and real transformation. If I am just a Christian then I can remove that label when I no longer believe what I used to believe, but if the real me has been changed in some way - if I am now 'In Christ' - then this leaves scars that can't simply be dropped and forgotten when I wake up in a bad mood.

Do not see yourself as being a 'Christian' - that's how the Pagans see you. Instead, see yourself as being 'In Christ'. It makes all the difference in the world.

Moving and Waiting

2010-09-27T22:51:00.000-07:00

We've just moved to a different property in the community. At the moment Ruth is buzzing around doing a lot of little jobs to get everything the way that it should be in time for my parents' arrival next week.

We're looking forward to them coming, and so are the children.

Spring is here and summer is coming. I'm in shorts and T-shirt again (yay!), something I couldn't imagine happening after a very cold and wet couple of months. It's funny (or not) how my sense of spiritual well-being is also tied into the weather. When it's warm and I can go walking, sit in the countryside and spend time with God there I feel better about life, the universe and everything. This means, of course, that I'm generally much happier in Australia than I was in the UK, but it's strange.

Of course, the weather doesn't actually change anything for me spiritually - it just changes how I feel and my perspective. There is a related effect though, as I'm less likely to get quality time spent with God if I'm trapped inside. I suppose that, for me, I need to develop that discipline of not letting the weather control my spiritual priorities.

Accountability and Hypocrisy

2010-09-15T22:29:00.000-07:00

The title of this post seems a little high falutin bearing in mind that I just want to acknowledge the difficulty of being in a position of responsibility (especially being involved in teaching) having having to live a blameless life for the sake of those we have responsibility for.

In an hour I'll be teaching a session on 'Self-Control' and I know that it's an area where I am weak. I've been struggling with self-discipline recently, as my usually-quite-structed time with God has been all over the place in the last week. I'm feeling that, let me tell you.

So, I can throw in the towel or get up there and teach. Actually, there's a third option. I can teach the stuff I know to be true, whilst prefacing it with an acknowledgement of my own hypocrisy in this area. That's the option for me, and it's really the only option for any of us.

"Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, for we know that we who teach will be judged more severly" - James 3:1

Podcasts

2010-08-30T18:22:00.000-07:00

I'd like to take this opportunity to recommend Pete Volkofsky's podcasts on the Cornerstone website - http://www.cornerstone.edu.au/podcast-ecd

They're really very good and the podcasts on sex and romance are a great resource for anyone who will, at some point, have to talk to teenagers about the opposite sex.

Election Update

2010-08-22T16:30:00.000-07:00

There was an Australian General Election on Saturday. In a shocking repeat of what happened in the UK, it's going to be a hung parliament. I consider it a blessing that I don't have to vote, as I find neither Julia Gillard or Tony Abbott particularly inspiring.

Anyway, that's about as exciting as elections can get. I thought I should update with a few photos, as I haven't posted any recently.

Also, I'm planning to take a trip to the UK in the New Year. I should be back in Blighty from the 27th December to the 17th January. I look forward to the blistering chill of the deathly winter winds of Northern Europe.

Without further ado, here are the photos.

First up - it's been a while since you saw photos of the children, so here are a couple of the boys who had birthdays recently. Reid is now six, and Parker was one in May. See if you can spot who is who...

And we've had a lot of rain here. Lots and lots of rain. It's been the biggest rainfall for about seven years, or something like that. The creek in the paddock at the bottom of the garden has been dry since we arrived here one and a half years ago, but the recent rainfall filled it up.

But not content with being full, it actually kept taking on water and flooded, which made it a tourist attraction for sheep from all around NSW.

And finally, here's Calvin deep in theologically conversation with Johnson, a student from Papua New Guinea. Community is a good thing for our children (sponsored by Coca-Cola).

Chicken and Egg

2010-08-11T18:51:00.000-07:00

What comes first - faith or reason?

I was talking with one of the students here yesterday, and he got me thinking about this. What happens? Do we first reason ourselves into accepting the Lordship of Christ, and then faith follows, or do we take the step of faith first and then the logic comes after?

I can see arguments for both sides.

One of the best definitions of faith (as expressed Biblically) I have come across is the simple formula "Faith = belief + trust + action". If this is true then surely reason comes first, because we only trust and act on something if we have - taking the evidence into account - made the conscious decision that it can be trusted and should be acted upon. In other words, faith is expression of something that we have reasoned to be true.

On the other hand, I'm struck by the resurrection narratives making it clear that Jesus only bothered appearing to those who were already committed to Him. He didn't turn up in Pilate's chamber saying "Nyah, Nyah, Nyah, I told you so", instead he appeared only to those who were already His own. Yet they were demoralised and doubting - and as Matthew reminds us, even after the resurrection appearances some still doubted. It's as if here Jesus was providing confirmation after the act of faith. The reason to believe is given after the act of belief itself.

I suppose that I find myself concluding that faith and reason are actually too dependent on one another to decide which came first. Where you will find one, you will - by necessity - find the other. Even so-called 'blind faith' is the fruit of an individual's choice - which, in turn, is the result of some internal logical process, no matter how illogical it may seem to those around him.

"Changes..." continued

2010-07-26T20:24:00.000-07:00

I thought it might be good to unpack my previous post with a concrete example of what I mean.

Let's take the common, everyday situation of conflict. Conflict stalks us every day, especially if we're honest about our interactions with our nearest and dearest. It might be as common as conflicting emotions or agendas, but maybe it's something like a thankfully-not-too-common-in-our-house argument.

When we get into this type of conflict with someone all sorts of goals push to the fore. It might be the goal of proving that you are in the right, and as a result your opponent is in the wrong. It might be the goal of resolving the conflict as peacefully as possible (this kind of response can sometimes be a jackel in bishop's clothing - presenting the aura of Christianity while actually masking what is really just fear). We allow these goals to control the way that we relate in the argument. If our goal is to prove our point, we may find ourselves reduced to bullying tactics. If our goal is peaceful resolution, we may find ourselves willingly taking the blame for something we didn't do or say, not because of noble intent but because of insecurity.

Now imagine that your goal in all situations - including the argument - is 'to become more Christ-like'. Suddenly you are presented with a choice. Pursue one of the goals above, or attempt to respond to this as Christ would. If your goal is to win the argument then you become blind to your own incorrect behaviour. If you are trying to be like Christ then you may find that your view of who is right and who is wrong becomes alarmingly clear. If you are trying to win the argument then the primary focus is the other person's failings and unwillingness to be convinced. If you are trying to be like Christ then the primary focus becomes your own actions and motives. The reality is that, for Christians in conflict, who is right and who is wrong is rarely the biggest issue. It is all too easy to win the argument and lose your soul. So, what happens if the other person won't respond as Christ would to you? That's not the issue. The issue is how did you respond, and that's all that God will hold you responsible for. And growth will follow as sure as night follows day.

If, in every and any situation you face each day, the thought at the forefront of your mind is "How can I respond to this as Christ would" then you will find yourself becoming more and more like Him.

As an aside, if you wish to hear the talk that I gave at the Strathalbyn mini-muster then you can find it here - http://www.cornerstone.edu.au/mini-muster-talks. Some of the musings will not be new to regular readers of this blog, as I did some of my thinking outloud on these pages. I also strongly recommend Paul's talk on "Spirit Led Reckless Abandonment". Good stuff.

"Turn and Face the Changes..."

2010-07-18T17:02:00.000-07:00

As David Bowie sang.

One of the things that I reflect on are the changes that happen in my life. By 'changes' I don't just mean the environmental things but rather the changes in my character.

I've found it more and more helpful to think of God's will for my life being as simple as "become more Christ-like" and then taking advantage of the freedom that gives. The result of this is that I tend to review my life not in terms of where I am or what I am doing, but rather in terms of who I am. I think this is utterly consistent with the New Testament, as so much of what Peter, Paul et al call us to in terms of obedience to God is to do with character rather than what specific things we are doing.

This means that I like to take time every now and then to have an out-of-body experience and see how I have changed in the past few months. My hope is that I will have indeed "become more Christ-like" in the way that I relate and act. It's exciting because sometimes we link 'change' to our external circumstances so much that we think it is impossible to grow unless our environment changes. We think (and proclaim) that those wonderfully painful moments of growth come only when really cataclysmic things happen in our life - a lost job, a death in the family, depression etc. But we experience great growth in those moments not because God made things work that way, but simply because we've become so accustomed to stagnation that God has to shake things up to move us along. It doesn't have to be this way. Christ-likeness is to be pursued every moment of every day, so much so that when our circumstances change in a distressing way we should not be looking to them to provide our growth but rather our reaction to them should prove our growth.

Of course, looking for growth out of hard times is a good response, but I would rather that the pursuit of Christ-likeness be my norm rather than an unusual occurance. When it is seen through the lens of 'character' rather than 'achievement' then it can become the norm. There are a billion opportunities each day to grow, refine and shape our characters.

World Cup 2

2010-06-30T03:06:00.000-07:00

I should have just got an early night.

World Cup

2010-06-24T17:31:00.000-07:00

I just want to mention that World Cup. I've not been watching it, due to the fact that even the earliest matches start at midnight. This coupled with the screen fast has meant that I've been limited to gleaning information from news sites and listening to disappointed Australians.

When the groups were announced, I thought an England/Australia second round clash could be on. As it happens, England's usual underperformance in the group stages has set us up for having to sweep aside Germany and (possibly) Argentina before we even get a sniff of the trophy. This depresses me a little.

However, I do squeeze some pleasure from Italy's inability to progress. And if I was the Irish I would be a bit miffed by France's refusal to take the competition seriously after having bent the rules to get there in the first place.

However, I will be watching the game on Sunday. Hope is a thoroughly Christian characteristic.

Post Strath

2010-06-20T19:37:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I returned from a trip to South Australia. The Cornerstone team in Strathalbyn were running one of the annual mini-musters (i.e. a Cornerstone convention run on a smaller scale), and had invited me to be one of the speakers. Following the weekend mini-muster, some of our students stayed down for the whole week to have the experience of being part of a mission team. I remained with them for the week and learnt some interesting things. For example, in Australia people don't seem to have heard of Banoffee pie but they do have banana caramel pie, which is Banoffee pie in everything but name.

It was a busy week, but it was excellent in terms of giving all of us who were there an example of what life was like in a mission team. It was a great experience, and I also had some mighty fine cheesecake. All in all, a great time.

It was hugely encouraging to see what some of the guys who were at Canowindra last year had been getting up to. They had been doing some really great stuff with the young people in the town, and it helped me to realise that I had - in some small way - played a role in that.

I think my mini-muster talk is supposed to go up on the internet at some point, so I'll post a link to it here when it appears. Much of the content will not be new to regular readers of this blog, as I've been thinking through some of the related issues on these very pages.

Screen Fast

2010-06-06T15:41:00.000-07:00

I'm starting the screen fast today (just to recap - updating my blog is PRODUCTIVE screen time, and therefore it's OK). This means no more useless browsing of BoardGameGeek or looking up Transformers stuff on YouTube for a month. Nietzsche was right about several things, and one of them was "That which does not kill you makes you stronger."

Just for those of you who are not into alternative and underground music, my brother's band seem to be making a few waves. Going by the dubious moniker of 'Male Bonding', their first album release (on the prestigious Sub Pop label) seems to be doing very well. It's certainly a lot more listenable than some of his previous musical projects. He's worked hard and I'm proud of what him for it.

Because my blog is officially classified as PRODUCTIVE you might see more updates over the next month. But then again, you might not because I'll actually be away for three of the next five weeks anyway.

2010-05-25T16:18:00.000-07:00

Today the holidays start for our students, which gives me a few days respite to catch up with some work and update the blog.

When they get back we'll be starting our screen fast. This is something that we try to do once a year here. We encourage people to fast from 'screens' for a month. We've discovered that things like movies, video games and Facebook can really be a distraction for people, so we try to introduce a period where we're fasting from those kind of things. It's optional, of course, but I think that most the of the students sign up for it.

I take part too. I don't play video games or watch TV much, and I use a computer for work a lot, so I pledge to fast from 'non-productive' screen time. This means no movies, games and so on - which is not a huge blow because my leisure time involves other things. What it does mean that I stop unconstructive use of the computer, which is fairly common for me. All that meaningless internet surfing I do goes out of the window. I will use the computer for work and for anything else that is productive - such as blog updates.

Wisdom, Patience and Grace

2010-05-09T15:24:00.000-07:00

There's a final comment that I want to make following my last post. You see, because I am hoping to be an inspiration, there is always the challenge of how to respond when someone stubbornly refuses to be inspired. The easy thing to do is to believe that the problem is with them rather than me. That's a natural response pretty much every time anything goes wrong in a relationship with someone. Of course, the opposite defect is to believe that the problem is always with myself. Neither of these are the truth 100% of the time, and to think so goes against the Biblical injunction to think of ourselves with 'sober judgement'.

The reality is that often people will not be inspired by me, and sometimes it will be my fault and sometimes it will be theirs. The challenge is to be wise enough to tell the difference, and to have patience and grace with myself and - primarily, in my case - with others.

I've been helped by something that Neil Anderson mentions in the Freedom in Christ material. He points out that when Isaiah is called by God to be a prophet, his reponse is "Woe is me, for I am a man of unclean lips who lives among a people of unclean lips". Likewise, when Peter is confronted by Christ, his reponse is "Get away from me, for I am a sinful man". The point that is made that when we draw close to God, we cannot ever be conscious of another's sin without also being aware of our own. If we are more aware of the failings of another than we are of our own, then perhaps we are actually pushing away from God rather than being drawn closer to Him.

Education, Training and Inspiration

2010-05-04T16:53:00.000-07:00

Wow, two blog updates in two days. I'm on fire!

(Not literally, of course. That's something that I would Tweet rather than blog).

Yesterday's blog was really me thinking out-loud, and thanks to the wonders of modern technology I can now inflict unedited internal musings on the whole world. In reading it back to myself I do feel that it's a bit 'all-over-the-place', but there's something precious in there that you can do with what you want.

Today I wanted to write about something else; another personal impression.

Although, as far as the Department of Immigration and Citizenship is concerned, I am here as an 'vocational educator', I'm not really an educator. I don't see my role here as 'to educate'. The world is full of Bible colleges that do a good job of 'educating'. I don't think Cornerstone is or should be attempting to add to that number. There are plenty of schools that would do a better job than we do.

Another label that has been applied to what we do is 'equipping' or 'training'. Now we're getting closer to the mark. It's one of the crimes of Western thought to assume that 'educating' is the same as 'training'. There are a lot of Christian places that 'educate', but fewer engage in 'training'. In Cornerstone we attempt to train and equip people to live as a follower of Jesus, regardless of where He sends them. I think we could do a better job at this, but at least we recognise the distinction between 'education' and 'training' and have a go. But I don't really want to be a 'trainer' either.

What I long to do, and what I pray for, and what I believe is the role of any Cornerstone staff member is to 'inspire'. In other words, it's not enough for me to educate someone about what it means to follow Christ. It's not even enough for me to bridge that gap and then go on to show them how to follow Christ. What I cannot afford to fail to do is stir in them a desire to want to follow Christ. There must be something about me that causes restlessness in others. People must sit in one of my lectures or work with me or eat with me or play boardgames with me and come away unable to sleep because they just can't get the stench of the Kingdom of God out of their nostrils. If people do not cross my path and walk away saying "I want to be like him..." then I don't deserve to be in a position of influence. I am unashamed in my desire to be the sort of person who arouses greatness in others.

Does this offend you? Does it jar against some carefully formulated doctrine of humilty that you hold to? It would have done so with me once, but I have come to believe that, when it comes to following Christ, if I can't honestly say "The world would be a better place if there were more people like me" then I'm not doing it properly. I long not just to teach, nor just to equip. I long to inspire.

Purpose and Happiness

2010-05-02T15:32:00.000-07:00

So is the message of the gospel to find happiness by living out your God-given purpose, or to find happiness in denying your God-given purpose?

Or - I believe that God wants us to be happy, but is happiness caused by circumstances or character? When I put the question like that, the answer seems self-evident.

One of the reasons that we moved to Australia was because I believed that what Cornerstone was doing resonated with my God-fuelled desires in a way that church ministry did not. In what seems like an unapologetically selfish statement, we moved to Australia because we believed that it would make us happy. And it has, and I remain convinced that God was steering the whole ship.

However, if we are where God wants us to be, why do I still suffer from angst and discontentment? If I am living out my dream, why do I still occasionally long for something else? The answer is obvious to me - because there is something inside me (let's call it 'the Dead Man' ala Romans 6) that is not content when God is calling the shots. The Dead Man is oblivious to his own state of non-vitality, and needs me to constantly club him over the head with a shovel and drag his carcass back to its burial spot at the foot of the cross. The Dead Man fills my head with phantasms about how things would be better if I were in charge. The Dead Man lies, yet sometimes I'm a willing audience.

In other words, my lack of happiness is a character issue and not a circumstance issue. But, this leads me full-circle to what, for me, is the real question.

When do you stop and say "Enough is enough"? At what point do you step away from a job worth doing because it, ultimately, is making you unhappy and clashes with what you believe God has called you to? If happiness is a character issue then surely I should be able to devote myself to thankless tasks that need doing and remain joyful. Yet within me stirs something that balks at the idea of a lifetime spent pushing paper and ticking boxes. That is not what God made me for. Yet (if you'll forgive the torturous metaphor) if everyone is Indiana Jones then there are no stay-at-home curators who provide the museums for the archaeologist's findings.

If God has placed something within me that longs to be an adventurer, but what the world really needs is a curator, how do I live out the gospel? Do I pursue the adventure for the sake of my happiness and fulfilment, or do I find some kind of topsy-turvey kingdom happiness in rejecting my dreams and becoming what the world needs me to be. What is the real call of God?

Again, when I put it like that, the answer becomes self-evident. The key is to become what the world needs you to be. The world doesn't ask "How can I help you fulfil your dreams?" The world (being populated, as you would expect, by Dead Men and Women) asks "What can you do for me?", and the only answer a follower of Christ can give is "Well, I can die - and I can die well".

This post might be interpreted as rumblings of discontent with what we're doing in Cornerstone. Not at all. This is where we should be, and we're doing what we should be doing. But it is a question about whether or not I am willing to do what needs to be done even if it costs me a dream. There's never a bad time to ask yourself that question.

Let me whinge about how tired I am...

2010-04-20T02:14:00.000-07:00

Last week was a very punishing week. We had two staff members away on holiday which had a knock-on effect for my workload. I already had a full week on, so this was not appreciated. It was such a tough one for me that I've decided to miss this week's Games Night so I can have an evening in. Let me repeat that. I'm choosing to miss an opportunity to play board games. That's how weary I am.

(Was going to say 'shattered' but you don't use it that way in Oz. It means 'distraught' rather than 'blooming tired'.)

It drives home again all those considerations and challenges about commitment and choosing to respond well to circumstances. At times like this I'm always reminded of that part in Matthew 13:13-14 where Jesus is trying to take a break and the crowds won't let him. John the Baptist has just been executed and he wants some time alone to grieve, but the people follow him. I'm humbled and broken (perhaps 'shattered') by what Matthew tells us - that Jesus saw them, had compassion on them and attended to their needs at the immediate expense of his own. I'm also reminded of the description of Jesus (by Bonhoeffer if I remember correctly) as 'The Man for Others'.

There's no such thing as 'me time', or at least if there is it's merely time spent selfishly, for which we can expect no honour from God. There's time spent wisely making sure that my ministry is sustainable, and there's time spent feeding my egotistical conviction that "My needs are the most important thing in the world". The problem is that I can rarely tell the difference between the two.

Can I ever be Son of God enough to selflessly respond to the needs of others even when all I want is an evening by myself? I'm sure I'll have plenty of opportunities to put it to the test, and maybe I will prove myself to be a Christian after all.

On a less introspective note, I think it's about time I put some family photos up so that you can see how well we're all looking.

Daylight Savings

2010-04-06T19:31:00.000-07:00

Easter has come and gone again, and I missed the opportunity to post about it on my blog. Thankfully Easter continues to shine throughout the year, so there's no worries there.

I preached on Easter Sunday morning at Cowra Baptist church. This was my first pulpit appearance at the church, and as votes of confidence go, giving over Easter Sunday is a pretty big one. I am due to preach again in July, and as that has yet to be revoked I guess I did OK on Sunday. I spoke about the idea of God doing some of his best work in the darkness. I was taken by John's throwaway line in his ressurection account that when the women go to the tomb it is 'still dark'. The darkness holds all kinds of terrors for us, but God works in the darkness regardless. John throws up all these contrasts in his gospel - light and darkness, life and death, those who believe contrasted with those who don't - and yet by the end of the gospel we are left in no doubt who is Lord over both light and darkness, life and death, and those who believe and those who don't. Easter is God working with the lights out, and those of us who live in the light of the resurrection are called to follow our Lord and Master by serving in those dark places.

Posting Time.

2010-03-22T15:02:00.000-07:00

I've been meaning to throw something up here recently, just for the discipline of keeping the blog alive. This morning seems as good a time as any to vent my spleen.

Things are ticking over nicely here. There's not much to report in terms of activity. We've started pumpkin season, which is something new for the guys here. I think that they prefer watermelons, but they wouldn't have said that a few weeks ago.

I feel like one of the things that I need to be aware of and fight is stagnation. I'm talking spiritually, of course. Once you get over the excitement and stress and change, it's so very easy to settle into routine and habit and begin to get by on autopilot. I need to make sure that I'm challenging myself to keeping growing. I'm still thinking about what that might look like.

Men's Convention

2010-03-06T18:48:00.000-08:00

It's Sunday afternoon and I'm sitting here in my study writing this blog to the backdrop of another torrential rain shower. It seems like we've had a considerable amount of rain this summer, which the farmers appreciate but would prefer in the winter. I've had to move stuff around in my office to prevent losing things to water damage like I did a few weeks ago.

On Friday evening a few of us took the male students to Katoomba to attend the annual men's convention that runs there. It was a good weekend, though - as usual for me - not without its share of angst, frustration and challenges.

On the way down, a few of us were talking about what constituted acceptable humour (oh yes, we live life in the fast lane down here) and a fellow staff member, Phil, shared some thoughts from The Screwtape Letters. He was talking about how Lewis (in the persona of the demonic author of the letters) categorises humour according to how easily it can be used for evil purposes. The worst type, according to what Phil was saying, is the cynicism that turns everything into a joke; the humour that prevents people from sharing anything honest about themself for fear of ridicule and turns a cowardly act into a heroic one by making a joke of it. It was interesting to think about, as I can so easily use humour in such a destructive way.

At the convention they have a Q&A session. As it was a men's convention, there was talk of relationships with the family, women and sex. Many of the questions asked reflected the topics that we had been thinking about. One of the original panel members had to drop out due to ill health, so he was replaced at short notice by the MC of the weekend. Jokes were made about his understandable reluctance to sit in the hot seat at such short notice, and how the hard questions would be given to him. Sure enough, a tricky question came up; a question about a difficult situation concerning sexual relations with a wife. It touched on a variety of challenging and raw issues. Sure enough, the question was handed to the reluctant stand-in, to the greatest amusement of us in the crowd. It got one of the biggest laughs of the weekend.

A part of me died inside. This wasn't a hypothetical situation, this was real-life. Reading between the lines (which wasn't hard to do) this seemed to be a heart-breaking situation for the people involved and we turned it into a joke. I don't doubt that prayer had been said and tears shed in that relationship. If ever there was a cynical, twisted use of humour that illustrated Lewis' point exactly, that was it.

I don't even remember the answer given to the question. What is even the point of men's conventions if we can't bear the burdens of our weakest brothers and weep with them?

Eleven Months to Christmas...

2010-02-12T16:31:00.000-08:00

Well, the end of 2010 is in sight and it's time to think about Christmas presents and what 2011 is going to bring.

Actually, there's plenty to do in 2010 first. We're coming to end of our orientation period, and the year is about to really get under way for us. We've got a great bunch of students this year. What really encourages me is how many of them are just so keen to learn and grow. The kind of training that we offer means that I value hunger for God higher than academic ability in our prospective disciples.

We've had a lot of rain here over the past couple of weeks. It's played a bit of havoc with our work schedule, as harvesting melons doesn't happen so well in the rain. If they get wet then they explode.

An Update.

2010-01-25T20:18:00.000-08:00

I'm not doing too well with the updating of the blog, am I?

We've started the new year, which means that the old students have all said goodbye and gone (except for those that haven't) and some new ones have arrived. It's an interesting time of year because it involves change. Change can be good, but I'm the sort of person who finds it fairly stressful 99% of the time. Maybe that should be 100%? I'm trying to think of a time when I wasn't stressed out by something changing. When I last changed Parker's nappy that wasn't too stressful. Maybe I'll keep it at 99%.

I was talking to Dave (a fellow staff member) last year and he was telling me about a book he'd read by M Scott Peck (I think it was The Road Less Travelled). One of the things that he got from the book was the realisation that change and problems are an inevitable part of life. There is nothing that you can do to escape them. They are going to come your way. If you view change and problems as causes for stress; bad things that should be avoided, then you will spend a fair amount of your life depressed because you are destined to run headlong into them. Now, if you view change and problems as potential areas for growth and benefit then you can totally take the sting out of them, as well as increase your mental health.

Which of these two perspectives (fear vs. potential) best fits the message of the Christian gospel? Which of the two, for the child of God, is what God promises for us?

I'm becoming more and more convinced that most of the things that deny us joy in life are about internal matters - our perspective - rather than actual external modifications to our lifestyle. If this is true, then our biggest problem in life is the fact that we tend to listen to and believe the voices of others, the world, our experiences, the enemy and ourselves more than we listen to and trust the voice of the Holy Spirit whispering the promises of God to our soul.

In theory, that makes transformation a lot easier than we might fear it to be.

Back in Australia

2010-01-05T20:08:00.000-08:00

Ah, back in the Land Down Under - where wind blows and then thunders, or something. I guess that, technically, New Zealand is also the Land Down Under but I don't think anyone has ever written a song about New Zealand. Have they?

Anyway, we're back and gearing up for the start of the new year. Back to watermelons and lots of meeting new people. Happy New Year to everyone out there!

Overseas at Christmas

2009-12-07T14:39:00.000-08:00

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.

Still still alive...

2009-11-20T19:55:00.000-08:00

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.

Still alive...

2009-11-15T01:44:00.000-08:00

Yep, we're still alive. Just busy, spending every waking hour trying to keep cool.

Holiday Update

2009-10-02T02:37:00.000-07:00

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?

Update

2009-09-19T03:21:00.000-07:00

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.

Resident Good

2009-08-29T01:32:00.000-07:00

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.

Something to Think About

2009-08-23T21:38:00.000-07:00

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.

More Thoughts...

2009-08-12T18:37:00.000-07:00

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.

Post-Holiday Update

2009-07-25T23:16:00.000-07:00

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.

Some Thoughts on Personal Mission

2009-07-04T03:34:00.000-07:00

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.

What I Am Currently Reading.

2009-06-24T05:06:00.000-07:00

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.

My Family and Other Vegetables

2009-06-08T20:42:00.000-07:00

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.

Before and After...

2009-05-18T19:21:00.001-07:00

From this...

To this...

How does that work then?

Hooray!

2009-05-16T02:30:00.000-07:00

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...

Quick Update

2009-05-11T17:35:00.001-07:00

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...

As Threatened...

2009-04-27T17:17:00.000-07:00

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.

Life after Death

2009-04-21T05:28:00.000-07:00

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.

Easter is Coming...

2009-04-02T01:41:00.000-07:00

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!

Fast Times at Canowindra High

2009-03-14T22:30:00.001-07:00

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.

Third Time Lucky...

2009-03-08T00:53:00.000-08:00

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!

How's It Going?

2009-02-19T15:40:00.000-08:00

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.

Hottest Place on Earth

2009-02-07T20:09:00.001-08:00

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.

Picking Watermelons

2009-01-21T15:52:00.000-08:00

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.

The Beginning of the Year

2009-01-11T19:56:00.000-08:00

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.

New Year Update

2009-01-02T23:30:00.000-08:00

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.

Merry Christmas from the Webbs

2008-12-25T00:09:00.000-08:00

So, all you people over in the UK will just be waking up to Christmas now (unless you've got kids in which case you've probably been up for hours already) and we've just put our kids to bed for the night.

We had a good Christmas day and hope that you enjoy/ed yours. Here are some photos from us. Now have a great New Year!

Little and Often...

2008-12-19T19:14:00.000-08:00

OK, it's nearly 2009. Ruth and I have just moved to Canowindra to become staff at the Cornerstone centre there. I've nearly finished my Certificate IV in Workplace Training and Assessment and should be ready to apply for a visa in the new year. We've got a baby arriving in May. It's the perfect opportunity for a new start.

As a result I've decided that from henceforth I'm going to follow Ruth's rule of household cleaning - "Little and Often..." My goal is to update the blog a lot more frequently in 2009, but probably with shorter updates. It was too hard to write a long essay every week/fortnight/month/quarter, so maybe it will work if I write a paragraph or two a lot more frequently.

So that's it. More and less coming your way in 2009.

Have a great Christmas and a brilliant New Year everybody.

Tortured Genius...

2008-10-18T20:05:00.000-07:00

I can't really do anything other than apologise profusely to the two people who are still following this blog (And I think that one of them keeps coming here by mistake). I have been very busy recently, but that's not much of an excuse. I just needed to manage my time better and make sure that this thing didn't drop off - but it did. So sorry about that.

I suppose that I could say that I haven't had much to actually write about. Yes, I suppose that would be a better excuse. It's been a combination of being busy and not actually living the exciting playboy lifestyle that I have previously painted of myself. I have, in fact, been living in a storage container on the Newell Highway for the past few months. Ruth came back from England and found a muddy footprint within a twenty metre radius of the house, so she kicked me out. My days have consisted of eating grass and scraping rust from the interior of my new home. I nearly have enough to make me a rust hat. Yessir, then I'll be set for the summer. Anyway, all of that is not really blog-worthy material so I haven't been keeping it updated.

Wouldn't that be the height of postmodernity, or irony or something, to update my blog with a post giving excuses as to why I haven't updated my blog? I am a genius.

Well, coming back to earth, I can let you know some real stuff that's been happening. I've finally finished the course that I've working on - apart from one bit that I'll tell you about in a moment. I've been doing this, on and off, for the past two years and it's nice to finally reach the end. It's been a long struggle, but I finally made it and that's good. Now we have to think about what we're going to do in the next year. Our ideal plan is to stay on at Cornerstone and join the staff at the first year centre in Canowindra. To stay on, however, we need to think about getting ourselves a permanent visa, and it would be easier for me to become a member of Bloc Party than get into Australia. Although you and I know the truth about my tremendous abilities, the Department of Immigration and Citizenship are not so enlightened. Apparently, I need to have a clearly defined purpose and role to come and stay in Australia, and for some reason vague descriptions such as 'brilliant genius' are insufficient.

So I have to do a little more training to acquire a qualification that Australia is actually interested in (unlike my Master's degree). It's no exaggeration to say that if I was a hairdresser, acupuncturist or private art teacher I'd be able to get in to the country a lot easier. Those are just three occupations that are on the Skilled Occupation List. "Tortured Genius", however, is not.

So, we'll be making some decisions over the next few months and I'll be working on more coursework (and filling our forms). And we'll see what happens.

This seems to be par for the course for Ruth and I. We find ourselves in situations where we've got an uncertain future and we have no idea how it's all going to pan out. I find it a lot more...exciting than I used to. We've been through this before and God has never let us down. I get annoyed that He leaves things so late, or insists on stretching us a little further each time but that's the way that growth happens. It would be nice to live an uncomplicated, safe life but I wouldn't swap our adventure for any amount of security. What Ruth and I have learnt about ourselves and God over the past five years is worth more than anything. The wisdom and experience that comes from finding yourselves unable to do anything other than trust God is priceless. Of course, more than ever we're now seeing the folly of investing yourselves in things that don't last. It's interesting to go through all this against the backdrop of a global economic crisis. Against the backdrop of a global economic crisis? That sounds like a great phrase to put in the trailer of the movie that our lives will become. "A MAN AND A WOMAN FACE AN UNCERTAIN FUTURE...AGAINST THE BACKDROP OF A GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISIS...WITH THE FATE OF THE WORLD RESTING ON THEIR SHOULDERS..." hang on - I've gone a bit wrong there.

I think I've said it before (in so many words), but I'll say it again anyway. If you're a Christian and life is not constantly challenging and stretching you then you're doing it wrong.

Actually, I have got a story for you. I was up on the roof this evening, trying to clean out our air cooler in preparation for the coming harsh, blistering summer. So I did what I though I was supposed to do and because I'm an awesome genius - I think I may have mentioned that earlier - I managed to short all the lights in the house. Oh dear. Apparently I was a little too indiscriminate with the hose. Now we have to wait until tomorrow to get an electrically-minded person to have a look and assess the extent of the damage that I've done. So I'm writing this by candlelight. Isn't that just the perfect mix of current and ancient technology. Blogging by candlelight. I really am a genius.

Home Alone

2008-07-24T23:31:00.000-07:00

Hello all. No photos with this update because Ruth and the children are in the UK and she took the camera with her. She said that she "doesn't trust me with it" and put it in one of the suitcases. How long does a man have to live with the stigma of having once filled an entire memory card with photos of his own foot?

That never happened, by the way, but I needed to make something up to try and explain why my wife would have left me camera-less just so that she can selfishly take photos of friends, family and English grass. Where do her priorities lie? That's what I want to know.

I've spent some time in Canberra recently. I was down for a Warhammer tournament (Don't ask. Please. Don't) at the weekend and I stayed on to spend some time with Cornerstone Assistant National-Dictator Paul Roe. He was speaking at a conference for teachers in some of the Canberra Christian schools and I was there to - in his own words - 'make him look good' by not screwing up the photos and other multi-media things that he wanted. I failed in this task by screwing them up. Still, as we were talking to Christians they weren't allowed to think bad things about me so it all turned out OK in the end.

While in Canberra I got to visit Parliament House (where the Aussie leaders make decisions on big national questions - like "Prawns or Snags?" and "Who's bringing the stubbies?") and the National War Memorial/Museum. Did you know that the Aussies have one of the only four copies of the Magna Carta in the world? It's there at Parliament House. It was fascinating to read the Australian translation on a plaque next to the document. For example, the clause "At her husband's death, a widow may have her marriage portion and inheritance at once and without trouble" has been translated as "Don't come the raw prawn with me, mate. If Bruce carks it, then Sheila will be sorted. Fair Dinkum. She'll be apples."

That was another lie. She what's happening to me without Ruth to offer moral guidance?

The National War Memorial was very interesting. It's a massive museum really. Paul and I only managed to get around World Wars I and II and that was quite enough for one sitting. There's a closing ceremony every day - it included 'The Last Post' while we were there. The Memorial has been designed in such a way that you can see Parliament House across the city centre. The War Memorial is the place where you get a real sense of Australian identity, but it doesn't come across as being an identity that centres around the military. It's more that the Australian involvement in wars had shaped the identity of a very young country. The 'Spirit of the Digger', where you do the job without grumbling and trust your mates to see you through is very much at the heart of what it means to be an Aussie. I actually find it refreshing to be around a people who are proud of their history and acknowledge the way in which it has shaped them. I feel that we Brits are currently going through a stage of nervous embarrassment about our own national heritage and that won't help future generations to understand their own identity.

Canberra is a very deliberately designed city, which doesn't suit everybody. I liked it. It had a city feel, but it's pleasing to the eye and very green - I think it only has a population of about half a million people, which is pretty amazing for a capital city. It was also quite interesting to see all of the different embassies around the centre. They're quite noticeable and all in the same part of the city. The building style that the different nations have chosen really reflects their own cultural thinking. The Chinese embassy was full of stone dragons and Oriental bits and pieces, the Finnish embassy looked suitably Scandinavian and functional, the British High Commission was very understated and plain, while the US Embassy took up about four times the space of any other embassy and was crawling with security check-points. Fascinating.

Well, as there's no-one around to cook my dinner for me I'd better go and see what the mouse-traps have caught today. Thanks for reading, and have a good week.

The Hill is Broken

2008-07-05T16:50:00.000-07:00

Hi everybody! Apologies for the lack of updates recently, but I've been a little distracted. I've spent the past month feverishly preparing a module on Acts to teach to the little sunbeams down at Broken Hill. Broken Hill is a Cornerstone first-year centre and they asked me if I'd like to spend a week teaching a module. Hence, I've been preparing for that.

Broken Hill is way out in the middle of nowhere, and that's saying something for Australia. It's a mining town and it's also notable for the being the area where they filmed the Mad Max films. The nearby village of Silverton is where they filmed the 'town scenes' from the first film. Ruth was able to go and see Silverton, but I wasn't able to because I was teaching. So I missed out on seeing something cool because I had to work. Here's a photo that Ruth took of Silverton Hotel. It was only when she was showing me the photos back here in Dubbo that I was able to point out to her that the car in the photo, parked in front of the hotel, is in fact the V8 Interceptor car from the film. The same one. Or at least one of them, as they used had about three I think. I've put another photo underneath - a better one of the car that I found on the Internet - and eagle-eyed readers will note that this is taken in front of the Silverton Hotel too. Of all the terrible things to happen to me in my life, not being able to go to Silverton and have a photo of me taken with this car is probably the worst. No exceptions.

Broken Hill is an interesting place. The houses contain a significant amount of corrugated iron, simply because it was light and easy to transport when they were building things. It's several hours from anywhere else in New South Wales and has a real outback settlement feel to it. The mining ensures that there are people and money around, but it also means that the local government had to regularly test soil, water and children for things like lead content. Everyone has filters for their tap water, and it's probably no coincidence that all three our of children were ill while we were there. In fact, I'm sure Ruth has been glowing since we got back - and I don't mean that she's pregnant. "What's a little fallout between friends?"

The teaching was a very encouraging experience for me. They had a really good group of first-year students and I hope I managed to fill their heads with some useful stuff about Acts. I enjoyed trying to make the lessons fun, and I also really like the emphasis that Cornerstone has on practical application - so as well as being able to pass on interesting historical trivia about Luke, Paul and Drusilla the Jewess we also talked a lot about how the principles of mission and church we find in Acts could mean something to us today. I wasn't sure about teaching Acts because my area of expertise is not really New Testament studies, and the group kept asking me difficult questions that I could only hazard a guess at - like "Where is the toilet?". They did seem to appreciate the course though, and I really appreciated them. I also got to play Risk 2210, which is like normal Risk but with a suitable Mad Max/Broken Hill/Apocalyptic theme.

For those who are interested, Broken Hill apparently got its name from a hill in the area which dipped at the peak so it looked like to was collapsing in on itself. The hill is now gone, I believe, to be replaced by a pile of dirt.

Here are a few more photos from Broken Hill, including a photo of me surrounded by my adoring students and one of the typical traffic problems in the town...

This'll be the last post before Ruth and the children are off to visit the UK. They're leaving on Thursday, so will be with you all very soon. Look after them for me. I'll write again some time - I won't say 'soon', but I will write again...

Men's Conference 2008

2008-05-16T22:08:00.000-07:00

This weekend has seen Cornerstone's second annual Men's Conference, so I've been spending the past forty-eight hours being all manly and stuff. It's tiring work and as a result I need to go and have a nice lie down and sponge my fevered brow with a cold flannel. I think it was the harsh brutality of the paintball that did it. A few of the other guys went to play paintball. I didn't go, but I got so tired and nervous just thinking about it that I had to come and sit down in a darkened room for three hours. Oh the humanity!

One of the things that we did was based on Joshua chapters 3 & 4. In the story, the Israelites have just crossed the river Jordan and build a stone memorial so that they will remember what God has done. The idea was that when the children of the Israelites said "Dad, what's that pile of stones doing there?" then the story would be told and so it would be that God's goodness would be remembered from generation to generation. Someone thought that it would be good if we did a similar thing, so we built a wall. We were divided into groups depending on which training centre in Cornerstone's history that we represented. Then each group was responsible for laying a couple of bricks (seconds from the brick-makers that used to run on the Cornerstone site - in other words, we used stones that the builders had rejected...) on the site of a wall. The idea was that when the wall was complete we would lay on top some bricks we've had for a while that were marked with one of Cornerstone's 'mottos' ('To Understand, To Live, To Teach'). I thought it was a pretty cool idea, and I assume that the purpose is the same as it was in Old Testament times - we will look at it and others will be told the story of what it represents and God's goodness will be remembered.

After the monument was completed there was an opportunity for us to make a gesture of commitment / re-commitment to the path that God wants for our lives. It was something worth doing. We don't usually do symbols well in the evangelical tradition, which is a shame because we can miss out on good stuff like this.

Enjoy your week, and try and do something that gives you a physical reminder of God's goodness to look back upon.

The Woman from Snowy River

2008-05-07T03:07:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been a long time since I updated this - sorry about that, by the way - but I'm finally ready to let you know what's been going on over here.

The big news is that my parents have been with us for the past two weeks. They'll actually be flying home as I'm writing this. In a plane, of course. We had a great time with them and it was great that they were able to come and see how the other half lives. They claim that they had a great time and particularly enjoyed the Cornerstone lifestyle. If I'm forced to take that back in my next post I won't be happy. Still, at the current rate of updating I won't have to write that apology for a couple of months, leaving plenty of time for "Webb Parents Enjoyed Cornerstone" rumours to make their way around the world.

We did plenty of fun things with my parents, such as visiting Dubbo Zoo (the first time I've actually been, despite living in Dubbo for over a year and having a wife who has actually appeared on TV looking like someone who lives there), riding horses (Well, Xanthe, Ruth and Calvin rode some horses) and more animal related things. We also spent a few days in Sydney together. We visited the Australian Museum where they had a dinosaur display on (because dinosaurs are now Australian, apparently) and went to Sydney Aquarium. Sydney Aquarium is billed as Australia's Number One Tourist Attraction, and I must say it was the best Aquarium that I've ever visited - and I've visited about two others in my life.

Reid liked the dinosaurs and the sharks. Calvin liked the dinosaurs and the sharks. Xanthe liked the stuffed koala. That's probably the difference between boys and girls summed up right there.

I'll put up a few photos now and leave it at that. Hopefully it won't be so long until my next post, but I can't promise anything. Except that I won't try and inhale Lego. I could promise that.

Good Friday

2008-03-20T20:26:00.000-07:00

Today is Good Friday. I always find it helpful to challenge myself at this time of year. One of the big problems I have is that when you know the Easter story quite well and hear it year after year after year it can lose some of its power. I can't remember the first time that I realised the significance of it, and I certainly can't remember the first time that I heard it, so I find it helpful to try and keep it from becoming too familiar to me.

I'm sorry that there haven't been many updates in the past few months. I've been really busy since we moved, as I've been trying to finish the assignments that were outstanding for the course. The long and the short of it is that I need to graduate from the course that I came to do to change our visa. As I'm here as a student I need to finish with that visa before we can apply for a new one. I've completed most of everything that I needed to do so hopefully things will settle down a bit over the next few weeks. Having said that, I'll probably get the opportunity to do some teaching in the next few months so I will then have some lessons to prepare.

One of the things that's 'fun' about having three children is trying to get them ready for bed. It feels a bit like taking part in a challenge on The Crystal Maze. "I CAN'T SEE WHAT I HAVE TO DO!" "Just grab one of the children!" "WHERE IS THE CHILD. I CAN'T SEE THE CHILD!" "Over there! By the desk." "I'VE GOT THE CHILD! I'VE GOT THE CHILD! I CAN'T FIND THE TOOTHBRUSH!" "Look under the desk! Try under the desk!" and so on until all three little cherubs are tucked up safely. We try to have a consistent 'putting to bed' routine, which works very well but ensures for a hectic hour between six and seven. It appeals to the 'J' in our nature. If that makes no sense to you then try this Myers-Briggs Personality test. You can then check what it all means at this page here. Just click on the icons and read up about your personality type. If you have never done the Myers-Briggs test then you should. It's really interesting and helps you to understand yourself (and others) a lot better. I found out, for example, that I'm fine and it's everyone else who's broken. Which was nice.

We've had some family here recently. Ruth's second cousin and his family (Pete, Claire and Ben Aston) were in Sydney so popped up to see us for a few days. It was nice to have people from our previous life come and visit. My parents will be coming in about a month and we're really looking forward to that.

I understand it's a bit chilly over there in the UK. It's been really nice weather here since I last wrote. More summer than Autumn. We've only just dropped below 30 degrees here. Not that I'm gloating or anything... Winter is on its way and that's usually pretty nasty here due to the lack of effective heating in the property. That reminds me, I need to get up on the roof and make sure that our chimney is clear of bird nests etc.

I'm going to close with a poem that was written by a member of my congregation in Haywards Heath. I used it at the Good Friday service that I led this morning and it was suggested that I put it on the blog. It was written by Denis Carter and it won a small local poetry competition that he entered. He was very proud if it. I read it at his funeral, and I think it's a great reflection for Good Friday. Until next time, God bless.

THOUGHTS

Another cross for Golgotha Hill?

How I hate making crosses;

Cruel, torturing things.

But you can't say "No" to Rome.

And the price they pay

And the time they give -

Can't do a craftsman's job.

Rough hewn timber,

Splinters, lumps of bark!

Ill-fitting joints

And just a couple of nails

And some binding

To fix the beam.

"Only needs to be strong enough to hold a man",

They say,

"And wood soft enough to take the nails".

Punishment or sacrifice, what do they care?

So long as they get their picking!

Aye, aye, aye

In these days, in this town -

Who'd be a

Carpenter?

Denis Carter, March 1985.

Australian Weather

2008-03-02T14:47:00.000-08:00

I'm supposed to talk about the weather so I'll begin by saying that - apparently - it's been the coldest summer since 1970 this year. Everyone is telling us how lucky we are that we've avoided a 40 degree heatwave but it's hard to feel lucky when you're waking up cold every morning. Is it too much to ask for a bit of sunshine? We've travelled half-way round the world to find that it's like being in England but without central heating. Still, it usually warms up a lot in the day and keep warm well into the evening.

Here's a photo of the mouse nest that we discovered under our sink. It's not a great photo, but I'm sure you can appreciate that our camera wasn't really designed for taking photos of vermin infestation while sticking your head under a sink. You can see some of the snail shells and a mouse skeleton in this photo if you know where to look.

I haven't updated this blog in a while, and I'm sorry for that. In fact this will probably be the customary short post. I'm really busy at the moment reeling off assignments like...something that gets reeled off quickly. Congratulations to Terry, anyway, who's just got his PhD. That means that he's officially a doctor, but not the useful sort.

Calvin's getting on well at school. He gets tired and I think he misses playing with Reid, but he's fine. He had his eyes tested a couple of days ago and despite Ruth and I being short-sighted he's actually slightly long-sighted. Apparently this is quite common in children. Or maybe it's just common in Australian children. Reid is doing well at preschool too. Even though he's still an angry loner, he is settling in really well and tells tales of all the things that he's doing with his 'new friends'. One of the things he's not doing, apparently, is asking their names. Still, one step at a time. Xanthe is still acting like she's the queen of Dubbo.

We've got a few guests coming soon. It's Staff Conference this week (look up the blog post from a year ago to get an idea of what that's about) and then we've got some of Ruth's family coming for a couple of days. In about six weeks my parents are coming to visit. We're looking forward to that.

Have a good week everyone. Hopefully I'll write again soon.

Happy Anniversary

2008-02-14T02:30:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the long gap between posts but I've been pretty busy recently. I've been working hard at assignments as I'm trying to finish the third year course as soon as I can. Once I finish that then Ruth and I will be able to think about applying for a more permanent visa and see where God leads us over the next year or so.

It's Valentine's day here, but it's also the anniversary of our arrival in Sydney. We've been in Australia for a year. I can't really decide if it feels like a year or not. In one sense it doesn't, but when I think about all the things that have gone in in the past twelve months some of them seem like a lifetime ago.

It's amazing to think what God has done in the past year, and it's even more amazing to think that the adventure is still going on. It would be easy to, after the journey we've been on and sacrifices that have been made, think that we'd arrived; that we could just settle down and live our lives and assume that God isn't going to ask any more of us. But this is just one step in a lifetime's journey and it's exciting to think about what the future holds.

Speaking as someone who's taken a risk because they believed that God was leading them that way, I say to you 'do it'. It's not that it's been easy or always rewarding. Far from it. It's not that I expect everything to be rosy from this day forward. Again, far from it. It's just that I'm beginning to realise that settling for the mundane and not seeing every day as a potential adventure is not what God has called us to.

If you're deciding between settling down and pushing the boat out then I suggest that you push away. I can't say that you won't regret it, but I can tell you that you can't have an adventure with God without getting out of your depth at some point.

I hope that God has blessed each of you over the past year. May He continue to do so in the coming months.

Fearless Mouse Killers

2008-02-01T20:30:00.001-08:00

Can you believe it? We've had storms pretty much every night for the the past few days. There's been plenty of rain - so much rain, in fact, that our garden is more like a bog than a garden at the moment. It's still summer and it's still really hot but it's also really wet. Dubbo usually 'enjoys' a dry heat, but it's been very humid this year. So I suppose we still haven't really experienced a true Dubbo summer.

Our new garden, water features aside, has some nice aspects to it. It's very big, which everyone in the family (except the designated lawn-mower pusher - i.e. me) loves. We are also growing grapes, lemons, limes, oranges and other edible vegetation. That's quite amazing. The grapes growing on our vine just outside the house are probably the tastiest grapes I've ever had. The only downside being that they are, of course, seeded grapes. Stupid non-genetically modified fruit.

Here's a few photos of our orchards. Admittedly, only the grapes look remotely edible at the moment but it's the thought that counts.

Calvin started school this week. Here he is in his school uniform, looking just a little bit like a tiny witch.

Still, I think that's better than this photo of Reid on the day that he started preschool (also this week). For some reason this photo reminds me of Jimmy Krankie.

They both got on very well with their new adventures. It's been quite a big week in that respect and it's made me feel a little tearful at some times. Mind you, that might have something to do with the mosquitoes that have been running rampant in the house.

Our mousetraps have been quite busy. Yesterday Ruth found a mouse that had gotten its rear end caught in the trap. It was still alive and struggling so Ruth grabbed it and tried to smack its head against the door frame. Unfortunately doing this meant that the mouse fell out of the trap and proceeded to escape, commando-crawl style, dragging its useless rear legs behind it. Ruth then smashed it to death with a newspaper. She's come a long way baby.

My Family and Other Animals

2008-01-23T00:47:00.000-08:00

This is a little post about our animal adventures over the past couple of weeks.

As you know, we've just moved. Our new home is lovely in many ways, especially the new friends that we have made. As it's a bigger house there's plenty more places for spiders and other insects to hide. Ruth has been spraying and I've been swatting and we've all been eaten by mosquitoes. We've also caught two mice in the past week. Not 'caught two mice' as in "Look what I've found, let's keep it as a pet" but as in "What's that jerking shape protruding from the mousetrap?". Ruth and I are getting good at managing the vermin population. We're still newbies compared to some of the people here though. You're not a real mouse hunter until you've wrestled one hand
-to-hand, Mano-a-Mano, glaring into the whites of its eyes. One man and one mouse enters, one man or one mouse leaves. Tis a noble thing.

We did catch a baby lizard (as in "Look what I've found...") in a box. Calvin found it one day when he went outside. It must have climbed in there in the night and then couldn't get out. Calvin named it Lizzy (even though he insisted that it was a 'him') and sobbed his little heart out when we insisted that he had to let Lizzy go at the end of the day. He didn't bat an eyelid when his guinea pig died, but he really loved Lizzy - or so he told us. Well, as Sting once said, 'If you love someone set them free' so he let Lizzy go. It's hard work being a five year old.

It's Australia Day this weekend. It's a national holiday to celebrate being Australian. The advert on TV tells us that Australia Day is our chance to say thank you for "...beaches, lamington drives, Kylie and our democratic right to give dead arms". It's quite a funny advert. Actually there are a lot more 'public service' adverts on Australian TV informing us about everything from skin cancer to saving up for retirement. It might sound a bit 'Nanny State' but it doesn't come across as that. It's quite endearing in a way.

Calvin has decided to make a book. He has decided that he's going to take some photos, put them on the computer and get mummy and daddy to write the words. He's not mentioned it today though so I suspect that he's forgotten about it. Because it's unlikely to see the light of day I'm going to post some of the photos Calvin took for his book, which was to be entitled 'Calvin Shrinks'. Please feel free to make up your own words.

Freaky but with a certain flair of genius, I'm sure you agree.

Post-Birthday Message

2008-01-18T02:00:00.000-08:00

So it was my birthday yesterday. I am now 31 years old. Exciting.

What did I get for my birthday? How about a new house.

We've moved to another house in the community, which is really nice. What wasn't so nice was that we had to move on my birthday. It wasn't too bad or anything but it still isn't what I would choose to do with my 'special day of much celebration'. But - on the plus side - I got a mammoth box of chocolate M&Ms from the boys so that made up for most of the disappointment.

The new academic year is about to start here. It's going to be pretty crazy for a few weeks, so this little blog is another tiny update to let you know that I'm still alive but might be a bit quiet for a while.

Enjoy the peace!

Happy New Year

2007-12-28T21:25:00.001-08:00

Just a short update today. Most people are still away on holiday so there's not much going on yet. It's been a case of business as usual, though Ruth has done a few bits and pieces in preparation for our move. We're going to be moving to a different house in the community sometime in the next couple of weeks. The new term will be starting as well, so there will be plenty to do shortly.

I've read a bit more of Art Gish's book. Parts of it are not as compelling as the opening chapter that had me so enthralled and he's advocating an even more radical manifestation of community that Cornerstone currently practice, but it's still a great read. However, there might be some topics that he doesn't comment on which he probably should. For example, there is a chapter about 'The Discipling Community' which I thought would be worth a read, what with Cornerstone attempting to be just that. It turns out that they made a pretty big proof-reading error and the chapter in question should actually be called 'The Disciplining Community'. Maybe there will be something on discipling in a later chapter. There should be.

However, his comments on authority and communal decision-making are excellent and well worth reading if you're involved in a church that has congregational government. Of course, the chances of you getting a hold of this book are very slim anyway so maybe you should just smile and nod politely as I rant away.

So that'll do for today. Have a great week ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls.

Here's SAAANNTTAAA!

2007-12-28T01:19:00.000-08:00

We hope that you all had a great Christmas. We were in Sydney for the festive season. You may remember that we were in Sydney once before, staying with parents of one of the couples here at Cornerstone. Well, they invited us back for Christmas. Dave manages a Christian conference centre and it was empty in the build up to Christmas so they let us stay there. We had all the facilities to ourselves. It was like being in The Shining except with less snow and more Cornflakes.

Speaking of snow...the weather was incredible. As in 'unbelievable'. As in 'it
rained a lot'. We drove to Sydney and back to Dubbo in torrential rain. It was crazy. There were a couple of very nice days when we in Sydney but it wasn't as warm as we were expecting it to be. Christmas day was very grey, just like back home. The difference was that it was still warm enough to wear shorts - but I wore a long sleeved top for the first time since winter. Apart from that it was all very nice. We're thankful to Dave and Ros for their generosity, and we've been blessed by the generosity of people here in Oz.

We had a BBQ for Christmas lunch. Prawns were included in this event, so I guess we've now had the stereotypical Aussie Christmas lunch. Reid certainly enjoyed his 'frozen prawns' as he called them.

We did quite a few nice things while in Sydney too. We visited a couple of beaches. We didn't get to Bondi, but we did visit Manly beach - which was pretty stunning as you probably won't be able to tell from the photo below.

Reid managed to get totally soaked at Manly Beach - he seems to love splashing in the waves fully dressed. Ruth managed to knock up this little number out of Xanthe's kanga, so Reid wondered around Manly looking like a tiny little Hare Krishna. He enjoyed that too. Basically, every day is a celebration for little Reidy.

We also visited Palm Beach. Now why would we visit that beach, you may ask? What's so special about Palm Beach? Well, listen up. Palm Beach is where they shoot the beach scenes for Home and Away. That's right - we've been to the beach where Alf Stuart lives. If you look at the photo below you can see that piece of land sticking out into the sea. That's Stuart's Point. From Home and Away. Even having to get out of the water because someone spotted a shark couldn't dampen the magic of being at such a hallowed place. Tune in next week to see if I can crowbar another Alf Stuart reference into this blog.

We visited Taronga Zoo which was pretty good too. We had to, seeing as we include Ruth Webb : Zoo Visitor amongst our number. Here are some photos of our day out - including the rather nice view we had while eating our picnic lunch. Bonus points will be awarded for posting "That's a nice photo of you James - no wait, it's a gorilla" comments.

I've actually enjoyed receiving a few annual newsletters and e-mails from Pommie friends this year. I'm always very keen to find out what everyone is up to now that we've left the country. I expect the quality of life in general has gone down.

I'm reading a book called Living in Christian Community : A Personal Manifesto by a fellow called Art Gish. I wasn't really keen to read it at first because the author's photo on the back of the book looked like a medieval woodcutting of a leprechaun, but I'm glad that I did. It's got nothing do with Cornerstone, but it's probably the best effort I've come across of communicating exactly Cornerstone's vision for community. I've only just started it so it might go downhill rapidly but I don't expect it to. If you wonder what's at the heart of our decision to live communally then try and get your hands on this book. If you can get your hands on the author then even better. I think he'll be forced to give you a pot of gold if you do.

I'll finish with a photo of a St Andrew's Cross spider, so called because it's completed web usually has a clear 'X' structure in the middle of it. This web is not completed and the photo is a bit blurred but Ruth was quite proud of it (bless her) so I'm putting it up for everyone to see.

The Amazing Adventures of Ruth: Zoo Tourist

2007-12-11T22:20:00.000-08:00

First, the photo at the end of last week's blog was Reid. I can't believe that no-one even dared to have a guess, let alone get it right.

It's been another busy week. Xanthe had her first birthday (although, technically, I guess that the day she was born was her first birth-day) this week. She wasn't as interested in her presents as the boys were, but that's par for the course. Ruth worked her cake magic again. It's odd to think that Xanthe has been around for a year now.

It's been raining quite a bit here. Everyone's happy, even the boys.

What with it being Christmas soon Calvin had his end of year concert. It involved the children singing a few songs and doing some silly dances, some of which Calvin excelled at.

We're off to Sydney for Christmas. We've been offered a place to stay over the holiday so we'll head down there next week. Ruth is hoping to get a chance to visit Bondi beach when we're there, just so that she can say that we've been to the beach at Christmas time.

Finally, I managed to get into the Dubbo PhotoNews again. What can I say? The camera loves me. You'll see me in the photo above. What? What do you mean you "can't see me"? There I am. Right there! Click on the picture and look at the bottom right picture. There! Behind that table! Yeah. Yeah, that's my head. That's me. That, of course, means that I've been in the Dubbo PhotoNews twice now. My mission for this year has been well and truly accomplished. Ruth hasn't even been in it once yet. But then again, why does she need to? Watch the video below.

How can I compete with that? Have a good week.

Punishable by Death

2007-12-07T21:09:00.000-08:00

I'm a changed man since moving to Oz. You may remember the old James, who very much adopted a live-and-let-live policy to insects. In fact, I even felt twinges of guilt when I considered taking the life of an innocent spider. I would much rather have chased them out of the house or let them be - neither option was quite good enough for my arachnophobia wife. Since arriving here I've lost all compassion for the
insect race. I now maim, slice and dice with the best of them. The insects in Australia are a different, mutant breed compared to our peace-loving UK versions. As
far as I'm concerned, a spider forfeits its right to life that moment that it grows as big as a man's face. Now you'll see me chasing a beast around the house with murderous intent. Is it in our shoe cupboard (where it's clearly been trying on our footwear)? Is it hiding behind an ornament? Who cares? It's a dead spider walking.

I've decided not to print any further photos of my fingernail. It's not looking great at the moment but soon it will be healed totally. Consider this matter closed. CLOSED, I said.

Back to an Englishman's favourite topic - the weather. We're in summer here so we've got appropriately summerish weather. There's also been plenty of rain so you could say we're having something of an English summer. Dubbo's December record for rainfall has, apparently, already been broken so everyone is pretty happy at the moment. It's working out very nicely too. We generally have very warm days (or days that are a bit too warm) and then some cracking thunderstorms in the evening / night. They're torrential. I've seen the most amazing lightning storms in my life over the past few weeks.

It's also Christmas soon. You may have noticed. It's weird here because it feels all wrong to be so hot. We've done a bit of decorating (that's one of those 'we's that refers to everyone in the family except me) and so on. Our Christmas tree is pretty small and we've loaded it with candy canes, which is something of a risk when you have small candy cane thieves moving around the house unsupervised. Still - none of our children would even be able to get away with such a crime, would they? Would they?

As a little bonus 'something to do this week' here's a photo. See if you can identify which of our three children it shows. It should take you about 0.005 of a second to figure it out. Just call me The Riddler. Answer next week.

Muster Report

2007-12-01T21:10:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone. This'll just be short update to let you know a bit more about what happened this week during Cornerstone's 30th anniversary muster.

There were a many hundred people there (which is my way of saying that there were a few hundred - more than three but less than seven - without having to be exact). I missed the Thursday and Friday sessions because I was working, but they were primarily reunions for ex-students of specific centres. I was involved in the Saturday morning session, interviewing some of the ex-deans of Cornerstone centres through the ages. You can see me on the left with a funky radio mic. I'm so rad.

For those of you have heard of him, Colin Buchanan did a couple of songs. He was very good. The Saturday evening was a concert with various Cornerstoners (including Colin again) taking part. There were some exceptionally good acts. I missed the end because, like every session I have ever attended at any Cornerstone event, it over-ran and I had to go home.

It was a tiring weekend, but it was really good to get to meet some of the people we've heard about.

Despite not getting top billing, the fingernail saga continues. I took matters into my own hand and begin to peel off the last remaining fragment of nail. The photo above was taking during this process. I had managed to detach all of the nail bar one small corner, which was still stuck to my skin. The photo just below was taken shortly after I completed the process of removing the whole nail. It hurt and there was a fair amount of blood, but I was a very brave boy and Ruth said that I could have some ice cream. I'll write again soon. Maybe I'll have to damage another fingernail so that I can continue this section; clearly the most popular part of my blog. Have a good week.

Back by popular demand...

2007-11-25T04:31:00.000-08:00

I've bowed to public opinion and decided to continue to finger update. Here you can see that the lower half of the nail has totally come away now, and the black scab continues to advance. I suspect that it'll all be over by Christmas and we'll be living under the glorious new regime of healed fingernail.

In all seriousness, it's little things like this that remind me how amazing the human body is. The ability to replace wounded and broken parts out of nothing? It's almost as if there were some amazing kind of mind behind it all...

Also back by popular demand - Eddie! This photo was taken by one of our freelance journalists (me) about a week ago. I have no way of knowing if this is the original Eddie or a scaly imposter. There's no real way of knowing at this stage. Or at any stage to be honest. I mean, how do you tell lizards apart anyway?

This weekend will be Cornerstone's thirtieth muster. The muster is an annual gathering for the current Cornerstone students and staff to mark the end of the year and commission people for future events. Because Cornerstone is thirty years old this year it's going to be a massive event with ex-students and ex-staff invited too. It's predicted that there will be around five or six hundred people present, which is only a fraction of the total number of people who have been linked with Cornerstone over the years. It should be good.

I'm writing this on Tuesday 27th November, which is Calvin's fifth birthday. He's been very excited by events. Plenty of presents and a nice birthday party, and Ruth worked her usual birthday cake magic. He did cry when he didn't win musical statues though. I think that when it's your birthday and you're the centre of attention you probably expect only good things to happen. He was fine by the end of the party, of course, but it's always a traumatic thing for a parent to be at a birthday party and your child is the only one crying. Especially if it's his party. Double especially if he's crying because he isn't winning every game that you play. I blame the parents.

Next time I'll write I'll be able to tell you how the muster went. Have a good week.

In Memory of Alf Stewart (Who's not actually dead)

2007-11-16T20:39:00.000-08:00

This is a photo of a Galah, the fabled 'flaming' bird that has nestled itself into our subconscious thanks to Alf Stewart's (of Home and Away) legendary catchphrase. I was unable to take a photo of a 'hoon' but if you look on YouTube you'll find a few. NSW has just introduced legislation which means that dangerous drivers can have their car confiscated, crushed and a video of this event put up on YouTube. That's the kind of proactive policing I'd like to see more of in the UK.

Back to the bird. It was in our garden and showing a marked reluctance to leave, even when a two-legged beast flashed a camera at it. We think it may have fallen out of a nest, or have injured itself. It couldn't fly very well. Don't ask me where it is now. I don't know.

We've finally had some news about our plans for next year. We'll be in Dubbo for at least half the year (but maybe longer) and then heading off to a first-year centre. We originally thought that we'd be at Swan Hill in Victoria, but it's been suggested that we'd head of to Canowindra, which is still in NSW and a couple of hours nearer to Sydney. We're open to things changing in the next six months or so anyway, and this would depend on sorting out course and visa requirements.

We're hoping to have a few visitors next year - both sets of parents, other assorted family and friends. If any of you are looking for an excuse to come out to Oz and see what all this sunshine is about then here we are!

Yep, we're getting closer to Summer here. It's still Spring, but it's lovely weather. We've been taking advantage of the swimming pool here.

I suppose it's time to tell you about Foodbank. Foodbank is a charity set up to support other charities. Foodback collect donations of food and other goods from supermarkets and sell them on at a super-cheap rate (sometimes they give them for free) to charitable organisations like Cornerstone. Admittedly some of the goods are past their sell-by-date (hence how they end up at Foodbank) but a lot of them aren't. We've managed to get our hands on all kinds of things at great prices, such as essential items like cans of Coke and boxes and boxes of Kinder chocolate for a few pounds. It's great for people like us who have no money! Viva la Foodbank.

Finger Update

2007-11-07T03:01:00.000-08:00

This is just a quick update to make sure that all you know that I haven't forgotten you. I'm beginning to think that more frequent small updates might be better than infrequent big updates, so this is a kind of experiment in that direction.

The big news today? I wouldn't call myself a 'traditionalist' as such but they've started putting Splashe cola in plastic bottles instead of glass and it just doesn't feel right.

Well, I know you've all been waiting for the update on my finger so here it is. As you can see from the photo the black scab has moved up my finger, probably signalling its future decay. On the plus side you'll be able to see that the bottom of the nail has come away and revealed underneath brand new shiny fingernail, so I'm hoping that this kind of overlap will occur for the whole nail meaning that I am never without nail protection. Isn't the human body amazing. STAY TUNED FOR THE LATEST UP-TO-DATE COVERAGE.

Calvin had his first day at 'big' school today. In Australia you can decide whether to send your child in the January when they are five or six, so they stay at home longer here than in the UK. Calvin's been ready for a while - he was dressed in 'uniform', hat and shoes by 6:30am. He'll be going for one morning a week for the next month as part of his induction into the school. Here he is in his uniform. He was very excited. The day went very well indeed.

I'll let you all know how my finger is getting on shortly.

"Thank You, Big Oz"

2007-10-26T22:45:00.000-07:00

I'm going to start with a little reflection today. I remember a time back when I was a lad and we had - as a family - gone on one of our infrequent outings to Milton Keynes to wander around the futuristic dystopian shopping mall of Buckinghamshire's favourite new town. My parents bought a tape (this was back in the day when you didn't have CD players in your car unless you were Dr. Who or some other time travelling rascal) tape that purported to contain Colin Blunstone's Greatest Hits or something like that. Except it wasn't. It was Colin Blunstone's Greatest Hits 'tributed' by someone else. I guess mum and dad should have heard the alarm bells when they saw that the cassette declared that it starred "Paul Bean and His Amazing Wurlitzer". I remember dad putting it in the tape player and being extremely disappointed to find out that not only was it purely instrumental but that it had been done by someone on a Casio keyboard for a GCSE music project.

There is a reason why I sharing all this nostalgia with you. This tale came to mind when we were in Target today and I was tempted to be a CD called Synthesizer Greats for $2. I know I should have been warned off by the fact that it said 'Instrumental' down the spine and had the name L'Orchestra Electronique on it, but I went against my better judgement. Actually, it's turned out to be a pretty good purchase. The nature of synthesizer music means that it's not hard for a tribute band to reproduce the exact sound of the original, and the fact that it's 'Instrumental' doesn't matter either because tunes like Chariots of Fire and Oxygene are not renowned for their lyrical excellence. Oh, I also bought a proper CD - Dystopia by the Midnight Juggernauts who are an Australian band that Terry would like.

When I was on the mat run yesterday I held the door open for an endearing aboriginal gentleman who said, I think, "Thank you, big Oz" as he went by. I've never heard that expression before but assume it's a generic greeting for a tall male fella who looks like he might be Australian. Mind you, as I said, there was something inherently endearing about the man so he could have said "Thank you, ugly troll" and I probably would have felt just as pleased. Having things like this happen to you is just one of the minor benefits of having a job like the mat run. The biggest benefit is, of course, that your forearms smell of rubber all the year round.

Xanthe has not been well recently. She's had an ear infection so has been on antibiotics for a week. They've been helping her ear, but no-one warned us about the horrible side effects! Her hand has swollen to the extent that it's now as large as her head!

The clocks go forward tonight, and they go back in the UK so that means we'll go from being 9 hours ahead to being 11 hours ahead. I put that information in for family members who might not be aware of the chronological changes.

I've been doing this for a while now - at least one blog a week for 38 weeks. I'm thinking of cutting back to a fortnightly blog simply so that I can maintain the quality that I know that all of you discerning readers demand. So this is my way of saying that there might not be a blog posted next Saturday (but there might) and if there isn't then one will be along in another week. Have a good week/fortnight!

Happy Birthday to Roo

2007-10-19T22:39:00.000-07:00

On Monday of this week we celebrated Ruth's thirtieth birthday. She had a really nice time and the community went to great lengths to make it a day to remember. We had our fellowship group meeting at the Volkofskys and Penny had created this amazing four course meal that we all really enjoyed. After this we went to the lounge for a party of sorts. We had some more great food and a great time. There was supposed to be an 'English' theme to the party so we had plenty of tea to drink and a few special guests, namely Dr. Who, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and a random Englishman in a peaked cap. We felt very honoured by their presence. Kind of.

You may remember that a few blogs back I reported that I had crushed my finger during the fateful trip to Swan Hill. Well, the fingernail is still black and ugly but doesn't seem to be doing anything. It's neither healing nor dropping off. It's like it can't decide whether to be dead or not. It continues to live, function and grow in a state of undeath but it's definitely not being 'normal'. It's my undead fingernail; my zombie ungula. An ungula, by the way, is another word for 'claw' or 'talon'. I looked it up on the Internet when I was searching for another way of saying 'fingernail'. So now everyone who insists that it's only a good blog when they 'learn something new' should be happy.

We've finally got some idea what we'll be up to next year. We think we'll be staying here in Dubbo for the first part of the year (probably anywhere between three and six months) and then being sent to a first-year centre. At the moment the favourite seems to be Swan Hill, but we'll see. Things can change in the course of a month. While we're here in Dubbo we'll be finalising things like our visas and how much of the course that I haven't yet done I can get away with not doing.

It's really hot here. It must be mid-thirties. And it's still only spring.

Calvin has been pestering us for a pet for a while. He's tried to convince us that a goldfish wouldn't be much work but I don't believe him. Or maybe I should put it this way, I believe that a goldfish is not much work but the point is that Ruth and I would be the ones doing it. Well, OK, mostly Ruth. However, we have now acquired two guinea pigs and they sit in a bird cage on our front lawn. The guinea pigs are sisters (I hope they are anyway because I gather than guinea pigs don't have the same qualms that we have about brother/sister relationships) and the boys 'possess' one each. Calvin named his little pet 'Sydney', which is quite a good name for a female Australian guinea pig. Reid showed a little less sensitivity but just as much imagination by naming his 'Spiderman'. So we have two new additions to the family - Sydney and Spiderman. Hmmmmm. I made it clear to Ruth that we could only take them on if I was not expected to have anything to do with them. I failed to get a similar understanding in place when Xanthe was born so I wasn't going to get caught out this time.

Have a good week. See you in a week and hopefully I'll have something worth saying.

Bored of the Flies

2007-10-12T21:43:00.000-07:00

The photo above is how I looked before the Australia/England rugby game last week. There is no photo of how I looked during or after the game, but be assured that I definitely looked happier that I do in the photo above. The game against France is being shown at 4a.m. tomorrow morning. I think I'll be giving that one a miss. I'll have to check the score when I wake up in the morning.

Open Week has finished here at Cornerstone. I think that it went very well and it certainly seemed to make a positive impact on many of the the people who visited us. I enjoyed talking to people and hearing their stories - it's fascinating to hear how God is and has been working in people's lives. I also really enjoyed the first game of soccer I've played since arriving in Australia. Of course, regular fellow-players will not be surprised to learn that I dazzled the entire nation with my silky skills. However, I did discover that, despite the exertions of the mat run, I seem to be a bit out of shape. It also showed me that I do miss the games I used to enjoy as an integral part of HHBC FC. Maybe I can remedy that situation in the near future.

I've found that, pretty much without exception as far as I know, people who spend some time living here in community at Burrabadine are generally attracted to what we are doing and experiencing out here. Cornerstone is far from perfect, but the heart of what it is about is focused on mission, discipleship and whole-of-life spirituality. The general response from Christians who spend enough time here to get over the 'radical' nature of things can see the advantages and blessing of the way that we're doing things. I think it can be quite hard to be confronted with the example of a different way of living, especially as people can see that there's a lot to be said for it. There are things that could be a lot better here; things that other organisations will do very well, but I think that Cornerstone has made a genuine difference over the years and will keep doing so as it continues.

Eddie is back! No, not really. I haven't seen him in many months so have to assume that he's long gone and maybe been eaten by something. Possibly Reid. This lizard was spotted outside our house a couple of days ago in about the same spot that Reid saw the lizard with the black tongue a long time ago (I mention it in a previous blog, continuity fans). When we drove to Bourke was saw a few lizards just sitting on the road, sunning themselves. There is a lot more variety of reptilian activity here in Oz. We are not known for out scaly wildlife in the UK.

Speaking of which, the flies. THE FLIES! I've already mentioned the veracity of the flies here and I've been suffering for the past couple of weeks. Just stepping outside of the house is an invitation to be set-upon by a swarm of The Buzzing Death. They are either very brave or highly stupid as they seem to have no sense of self-preservation. They sit on your face until you try to kill them and then...then they fly off for a nanosecond before returning to your face. I'm surprised at how well I've adapted to them so far. Annoying as they are they don't bother me as much as they used to. However, I have a feeling that when the summer finally kicks in I'll be longing for the days when they only attacked in groups of ten. I have to say that I don't think I'll ever get used to the terribly horrible position of getting in the car and setting off only to find that you've trapped three flies in with you. You're totally at their mercy then as any attempt to swipe them away, open the door or even shoo them out of a window can result in sudden veering and / or potential death. You just have to sit and bear it as they proceed to lay eggs in your eyelids. Still, I suppose that life can't just be fun all the time.

Dubbo in the Spring

2007-10-05T17:06:00.000-07:00

It's been a bit quiet round here. It's school holidays and last Monday was a bank holiday. There were no lectures last week so lots of people cleared off for a few days. A large group of Cornerstoners were away providing a Pizza Runners service at Black Stump, a Christian alternative music festival. I think it sounds like the name of an amputee reunion rather than a music festival, but that's Oz for you.

This coming week (the second week of the spring break) is the Cornerstone open week. There will be about thirty people joining us here in Dubbo to spend a week experiencing Cornerstone and deciding if they want to join us. It would be tempting to welcome the people with a big smiley face but then pass them secret notes during the week with things like "HELP ME" written in big red crayon. As I am a Christian I shall resist the temptation.

It's well and truly spring here, with temperatures reaching into the 30s. We're still waiting for rain but as I write big black clouds fill the sky and Ruth has brought her washing in. It's looking pretty hopeful.

I've been preparing some teaching sessions on Acts to prepare for the first week back in classes. We're doing a nationally recognised Training and Assessment course so we need to teach some classes to make sure that we're competent at teaching. This is in preparation for those of us who want to stay on at Cornerstone as staff members. I've quite enjoyed preparing the classes, though I see that a lot of work goes into each session. I'm looking forward to it though.

Tonight is a big night for me. At 10pm England shall be facing off against Australia in the Rugby World Cup. Things could go very well or very badly. I shall be watching it with a bunch of Aussies so it's not going to be my finest hour whatever happens. A friend suggested that I get there half an hour before kick off and just gloat over the fact that we're World Champions for as long as I can just in case it all goes badly after the game. By the time some of you read this it will have all been decided. Congratulations or commiserations will be welcome as appropriate.

100 Things to Do Before I Die

2007-09-28T23:37:00.000-07:00

It's been a really warm week here though there hasn't been as much rain as we've needed. The warmer weather does have it's downside though. The flies in Australia are numerous and are specially bred as 'attack flies'. Ruth has found a way of avoiding being eaten alive - as you can see from this photo. It's almost as if we're intentionally trying to allow the locals to play 'Spot the Pom' or something like that. We'll be availing ourselves of the community swimming pool in the very near future, but we draw the line at wearing socks and sandals at the same time.

It's not been a great week for Ruth. She was tasked with looking after a friend's budgie over the holidays (today marked the start of a two week Spring break in Australian schools). He was delivered and it was decided that it would be a great idea to put him the aviary that we have on our veranda. A previous resident of this flat had converted part of the veranda to a luxury bird storage facility, so in went Buddy the budgie. He looks happy doesn't he? Well, he was - flying all around and having the time of his life. But all the time that he was enjoying a bit of space and exercise he was plotting anarchy in his tiny bird mind and within a couple of hours he had quite literally flown the coop. So Buddy escaped from a maximum security aviary where he had been imprisoned for a crime that he, quite conceivably, didn't commit. He may, and I stress the word may, have escaped to the Los Angeles underground and be working as a soldier of fortune. If you have a problem and if you can find him then maybe you can let us know.

So, I've promised you something special haven't I? Well I suppose I'd better deliver the goods.

Yes. It's this week's Dubbo Photo News. And guess what? A couple of weeks ago Georgina (a daughter of some staff members here) had her 18th birthday party. And guess what? There was a photographer from Dubbo Photo News there. And guess what? THAT'S RIGHT! I was in the one of the photos that was printed. Here's the page that I appear on. Can you spot me?

No? Here's a close-up for you. The quality's not great, which is probably the only thing that makes this photo bearable.

OK. It's a terrible photo in about every possible way, but I made it. So I had to go to Georgina's 18th birthday party in fancy dress to get in, but at least I made it. And when I say fancy dress then let me clarify that I was dressed...ahem...as a woman. A hideously ugly one at that. Let me explain how this happened. We were invited to Georgina's party and the theme was 'Fashion'. Ruth suggested that we go as old women and for want of a better or even more relevant suggestion I agreed. I left her with the task of securing costumes as I was in Victoria for the days before the party. When I returned from Swan Hill and prepared for the party I was given my costume of a dress and a wig. There was nothing 'old ladyish' about either of them. Even more puzzling was the fact that Ruth's 'We'll go as old ladies' suggestion had become 'You go as a woman and I'll go wearing only slightly less fashionable clothes than I normally wear'. So I went to this party dressed in a highly inappropriate manner. No-one else, and I mean no-one, had even touched the whole 'cross-dressing' thing. I don't know what's more distressing - the fact that none of the other guys in the photo are in fancy dress or the fact that I suspect I now know what Xanthe is going to look like when she's older and feel really, really sorry for her.

Still, appearing in the Dubbo Photo News was number 58 on my list of '100 Things to Do Before I Die' so we're getting closer to the number 1 spot. Now I just need to move on to number 57. I'll keep you posted as to how my attempts to turn lead into gold are going.

Another update.

2007-09-22T20:55:00.000-07:00

This is just going to be a brief update to let you all know that we're still alive and kicking. This has been another week where there has been not much happening, so I've not really got any news for you. The 'something special' that I thought I might have for you this week didn't materialise, so you'll have to wait until next week.

I suppose that a lot of this week has been taken up thinking about the coming year and what it might hold for us. We're still not sure if we're going to be in Dubbo for another year or if we'll be shipped off to a first year centre in another part of the country. We're open to either option and there are benefits to both.

Matt and Jane left last weekend which means that Bill and I have been left with responsibility for the Mat Exchange. It also means that I have lost a Risk buddy. Oh, and if you're reading Jane then you left some tweezers in the flat. Ruth is going to send them on to you. Or maybe they're Matt's tweezers?

Spring is a really nice season. The flowers are in bloom and the weather is lovely, but we're still praying for rain. This week I was speaking to a guy who reckoned that he was going to lose about $15,000 worth of crops unless we have rain in the next week. Drought is a serious matter.

Congratulations to English pals Terry and Ruth who are expecting their first baby sometime in the next six months or so. Having babies is also a serious matter. Just as I've found so many Australians who are able to be positive about their future (regardless of the drought) so too can the birth of a new baby be and expression of hope for us Christians. There are a lot of things that aren't going too well in the world, but bringing children into it can be a practical way of demonstrating faith that God is still involved and going to do good things in the future. At least, that's what I tell myself when I catch Xanthe causing various degrees of havoc around the house. See you in six or seven (days).

To Swan Hell and Bourke

2007-09-16T04:56:00.000-07:00

Hello all. Today I'm going to be telling you about my mammoth road trips undertaken this week. Firstly, on Wednesday I went down to Swan Hill in Victoria (about a nine hour trip) and then, after returning on Thursday, the Webb family took a trip inland to Bourke (a mere four hour trip). Let me tell you how it all went...

I went down with Matt to Swan Hill to help him move some stuff in preparation for his family's move there this weekend; I also wanted to check out a first year centre and see another Cornerstone set-up. There are some important things to pass on about this adventure.

i) Ruth told me that I had to tell you that Matt was pretty ashamed of his packing skills here. He told me that it was the worst packing that he had ever done. Nothing broke though, except for maybe a bit of a cupboard.

ii) Here's a handy hint - it doesn't really work too well to try and cook meat pies on a truck engine. It seemed like a good idea, but by the time we checked them out the bottom crusts were black and charred. I tried a bite of the unburnt bit but it tasted like I had put my mouth to an exhaust pipe and inhaled. Matt then chose that moment to tell me that he suspected that the truck had an exhaust leak. Not nice. In fact, I couldn't get rid of the taste of carbon monoxide for a few hours.

iii) Avoid the Hay Plains. Imagine a landscape that's totally flat and devoid of anything interesting. Now imagine this stretching on for about three hundred kilometres. That's about three hours of nothing but sky and flat scrubland. Yes, it may sound romantic but it was one of the most soul-destroying experiences of my life. By the time we got to the other end I was about ready to throw myself off a bridge - but that may have been a residual pie effect.

iv) Swan Hill itself is pretty nice and we noticed that there seemed to be an opening for a mat rental business. Maybe I can convince Bill that he needs to do a run down there - a sixteen-hour round trip should sort the men from the boys.

v) I hurt my finger. Ouch. It's gone a bit black under the fingernail.

Bourke is a different kettle of piscines. It's a town that is considered to be a gateway to the Outback - there's not much civilisation left inland after Bourke. In fact, in Australia the phrase "Back O' Bourke" is used to refer to something that's in the middle of nowhere. Bourke has suffered greatly because of the drought and the town looks very dry and desolate. However, it has something of a rich history by Australian standards and some of the locals are optimistic that tourism will replace irrigation as the lifeblood of the town. It was encouraging to find hope in such a place.

We stayed with John and Heather Buster on their farm. The Busters were one family who, I guess it's fair to say, were instrumental in making Cornerstone happen thirty years ago. The Busters are just one family who have really felt the impact of the drought but remain hospitable and generous. The boys certainly enjoyed the trampoline, swimming pool, rope swings and all sorts of things. It's certainly a great life for children out here.

Bourke is, of course, where Splashe Cola originated. It's no longer produced here but we were able to get a photo of the factory where it used to be made. Even this sight is not enough to dampen my addiction.

Paul and Robyn Roe took us out to Bourke to see where Cornerstone all started. We visited Pera Bore, the original Cornerstone Community site, and although the properties had fallen into a state of disrepair we spoke to people who were still influenced in one way or another by the impact that Cornerstone had on the town. It's really exciting to be a part of Cornerstone; you feel that you're a part of something that's leaving a lasting legacy. That's a pretty great place to be. No doubt I'll have more to share with you about these trips over the coming weeks but it's getting late and I wanted to get something up on the blog before the end of the weekend. Have a good week and I think that I might have something exciting to show you on the next update...

Youth isn't everything

2007-09-08T02:37:00.000-07:00

Another week has passed and it's been another good one. Although it's been business as usual for Ruth and I it's been a busy time for the children. Xanthe has a little tooth budding up from her bottom gum. I'm of the firm opinion that (generally) teeth ruin children but Xanthe carries it off pretty well. Reid has been ruined for a long time now, but we've finally broken the back of the potty training with him. Like Calvin he's gone to being pretty much trained overnight. He's a very clever boy.

As it's a slow news week I thought that today I'd post an excerpt from something written by one of the teaching staff Peter Volkofsky; the Director of Mission at Cornerstone. It's something that I've found really encouraging and gives a glimpse into the sort of thing you can expect from Cornerstone. Read it and then think hard about how you're going to get over here and join us.

I sometimes think that we are too clever in Cornerstone at being flexible and fitting in. There are times when this is a great quality. But we make a habit of it and what with forgiveness and grace and restoration, we forget that there are oceans of could-have-been saints, could-have-been Mary Slessors and Amy Carmichaels who are sidelined by the cool scene and now are just warming pews in a cool church somewhere. Nightclub evangelism and party evangelism is usually a great way for the enemy to wreck the lives of Christian young people. If you read the books of those saints, you realise that the only reason they did not end up as fizzled pew-warmers is because when the others were at parties, they were running kids clubs, youth groups, preaching, praying or studying the scriptures. A lot of us have no idea - the books tend to make it look as if they just had great self control.

It was no accident that Jesus did not engage in the most risky and dangerous part of his life's mission until he was well over thirty. The reason many middle-aged Christian people are doing less dangerous things than they used to is because when they were younger, they disqualified themselves. Their Father in Heaven had no other option but to put them on light duties. Adventure will come! No fear of that. It is the dreadful lie of our culture that you must take the great adventures while you are young. Maybe so in abseiling and Bungee Jumping; but it is not so in the truly dangerous business of the Kingdom. Your youth is supposed to be a time of qualifying yourself for them, let the Father bring them to you in his own careful way. I believe he has allowed you to taste some serious failure because he knows that one of the biggest qualifiers for those later mission tasks is steely and patient obedience. You only get that after years of training your body and soul in lonely places. The enemy knows what you can do and that the Father wants to use you to do a lot of damage to the gates of hell. It's kind of like the way the opposition try to take out a talented sports star in a rugby team. A wise coach will not expose that young player too much at first. He knows that the player's very enthusiasm and passion is in fact a weakness at this point. It is only when that player has submitted to the boring and hard art of building strong defensive skills that he will be truly ready. The lesson of your experience so far is that your defensive skills are weak. It's often the case with talented people...

New Wheels

2007-08-31T02:05:00.000-07:00

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.