Fast Times at Canowindra High

In preparation for Easter, the centre at Canowindra is currently going through a 'Screen Fast'. What this means is that we are trying to fast from TV/Computer screens during the Lent period. So why am I updating the blog, you may ask, as doesn't this involve breaking the fast? Well, there are levels of fasting and what I'm doing is not using a 'screen' for 'enjoyment' during Lent. This means no computer, PlayStation or TV for entertainment purposes. As I don't enjoy updating my blog then my fast remains unbroken while I write this...

Actually, the purpose of the fast is to deny these things the level of control in our lives that they seem to have. For some of the students, pulling themselves away from films, video games and Facebook is a really tough thing to ask. It seems to me that we've become somewhat addicted to the screen when it comes to spending our 'free' time. It's also about freeing up some time to do more productive things. So I'll be doing a lot more reading and (hopefully) boardgaming over the next month. I might use the PC for relaxation if it's for something constructive (like writing and the like). I think that this will be a really useful discipline for me, as I lose a fair amount of time each day to browsing the Internet and making my way through the X-Files. I'm currently watching Season 7, so it'll be a month until I can carry on and pick up from episode 9 (Signs and Wonders, X-Philes).

Just to keep you all informed - Ruth and I have finally got our bridging visa, which is good because otherwise we would have had to leave the country today. We're waiting for them to process our application and make a decision, which may well not happen until the baby is born. A decision being made any earlier would require direct intervention from God, so let's pray for that, eh?


Despite having just graduated, my education continues. I spent some time yesterday laying new turf in parts of the garden, all in the name of an easy life. I am looking for a garden that requires minimum care, so Ruth and I decided to increase the grass quotient. It works well, except for the fact that I hate mowing it. We didn't quite have enough turf to do the whole garden, but we did most of it. Some of the fellows came and helped us out - but only for a short while. Most of it was done by myself and Les, one of the staff team who looks after the centre. Well, he did most of it. I was quite happy to watch a 79-year-old lay my turf for me. What are you looking at me like that for? If it makes it any better, at least I wasn't shouting "FASTER! GO FASTER, OLD MAN!" as he did it.

There is a price to pay for a nice garden. If I'm not the one that has to pay it, then all the better.

Third Time Lucky...

Hey everyone. Well, the big news is that we finally got our visa application off. It will have arrived on Friday, which is good news because our current visa actually runs out in seven days. As always, everything runs to God's timing and not ours. I think we're beginning to learn our lesson about trusting Him to sort everything out in His timing - so hopefully now He'll stop doing this to us.

The other big news is that I graduated yesterday. For the third time. I've already gone through this with King's College and Spurgeon's, so as you can imagine, it was a nice change to go through it again on the other side of the world.


However, I was a little disappointed to find that Aussies do the graduation thing the same way as we do in the UK. I was expecting a bit of local flavour, you know, maybe corks hanging from the bottom of the tassle on the cap or something.

I also wasn't too pleased with the way that the cap made me look. It's not exactly a flattering look, especially for one with such a hairstyle as mine. So I decided to take matters into my own hands...


After all, "When in Rome..." and all that. After two previous graduations it was nice to do things a little differently this time and acknowledge my Aussie hosts by wearing an Akubra hat. CRIKEY!!


Spot the Englishman. It's like Where's Wally? but totally different.

Anyway, I had a really great time at the graduation. I enjoyed it, and felt very pleased that I've cleared this final hurdle. Canowindra is going really well - I feel that this is what I've been working up to for the past two years and that I'm finally doing what I came to Australia to do. I'm excited about what I'm doing and what I hope that God will do through Ruth and I while we're here. As I've said in a previous blog, there's no better place to be than where God wants you. Now that the visa application is off I can focus on the next few months of teaching and discipling, as well as the baby coming in May. We'll see what God does now!

How's It Going?

This is just a quick update - trying to keep to my "little and often" pledge.

Thanks to all of those who expressed concern over the Victorian bushfires. We are nowhere near the affected areas of Victoria or NSW, but we did have a couple of days of light fog which was caused by the smoke from bushfires drifting hundreds of kilometres in our direction. You may have gathered that the public response over here has been quite amazing.

Things are well with us. We're still waiting for the final few things to come together before we can submit our visa application, but these are all things that are in hands other than ours so there's nothing that we can do about it at the moment. That's fine by me, as it allows me to develop my skills in laziness. I'm not getting much chance to do that at the moment.

When I've been disciplined enough to put aside a little time for reflection and reading I've been thinking a bit more about the idea of stories and their role in God's purposes. It's a subject that interests me considerably, and I like to think of the way that our lives unfold as part of God's bigger story. One of the things that I came across that I really enjoyed was a quote by G.K. Chesterton. Apparently, he said "You cannot finish a sum how you like, but you can finish a story how you like." That's pretty good.

Now I just need to make the time to start reading my new book - Ancient Sorceries and Other Weird Stories by Algernon Blackwood.

Hottest Place on Earth

We hear that the UK is currently covered in snow drifts that have run the country to a standstill. The irony is that New South Wales was, apparently, officially the hottest place on the planet yesterday with temperatures of 47 degrees recorded in some parts of the state. It didn't get quite that hot here in Canowindra, but it was 40 degrees and that's still pretty hot. Hot enough to make picking watermelons a little bit harder than it might be.

The first few weeks with the new students have gone well so far. They're a good bunch and I'm looking forward to seeing how this year pans out. Calvin's been back at school for a couple of weeks now, and he's really enjoying that too. It's going well for us. We're hoping to get the final stages of our visa application sorted out in the next week or so too. I suppose that this is the final calm before the storm really, or at least that's how it feels.

Of course, the baby's birth is getting nearer and nearer and we're still not sure about names. We've polled the children and the depths of our own imaginations and we're currently looking at one of the following names - "England", "Bon Bon", "Action Man", "A Little Boy" and "Will". Obviously the children all think that it's going to be a boy. How interesting.

You might want to get your votes in before it's too late.

Picking Watermelons

The new students have arrived and we've begun Orientation. I've not been around much for the first couple of days, so I haven't really begun to get to know the students. I'm not taking my first lecture until next week, so I've been preparing that and trying to get up to speed with the lectures that will follow after my first one. It's going to be quite an intense time, but I think I already told you that, didn't I?

Ruth and I went to Canberra on Tuesday (oh, and the kids came as well) for our medicals. It went well, but we've got no air conditioning in the car so the journey was...let's just say 'highly uncomfortable'. I was the only one having an X-Ray (the kids don't need one and Ruth is pregnant) so had to face, once again, the indignity of having my body zapped with radiation and then the radiologist coming out a few moments later and saying "Yeah, we need to do another one because your chest is too big for the machine". The same happened to me in the UK. So, I'm being doubly irradiated every time they X-Ray my chest purely because I happen to be a stunning Adonis. Well, or freakishly malformed. One of the two.

Speaking of 'Adonis', I've had a few shifts on the farm. We've been doing watermelon picking. We start our shift at 6:30am, and finish at 12pm - so as to avoid the blistering Australian sun. For that period I am picking watermelons. Watermelons can grow to 20 kilos plus (Calvin was weighed for our medicals and came in at 20.1 kilos) so I'm spending a few hours heaving my children around in the heat. A few more weeks of that and I'll have the bronzed body of a Greek god and arms that could crush a human head like...well, like a ripe watermelon. A perfect set of skills for teaching and discipling in a Christian community, I'm sure you agree.

Anyway, I'd better get on with it. Those lectures won't write themselves.

The Beginning of the Year

Hello one and all. We're a couple of weeks into 2009 and things are beginning to start happening.

The new students will be turning up in the coming week, and things begin in earnest next Monday. I am still (at the time of writing) unsure of some of the things that I will be doing so I can't, at this stage, predict how busy I'm going to be. I suspect that I'll be very busy in the opening months of the year, as it'll all be new to Ruth and I. I think I'm teaching Old and New Testament, which appear to be the first two teaching modules. This might mean that I'll be packing a lot in before Easter, but I'm looking forward to the challenge. I'd be lying if I wasn't said I was apprehensive about it as well. It's all new and it'll be a steep learning curve - and we're right in the middle of sorting out the visa too. We ended up packing a lot in to the last six months and I think the next six will be even more tiring.


We've been in Sydney for a few days. It was nice to take advantage of the summer weather and visit the beach. We also traveled up the Sydney Tower, which gives a view of the city from high in the sky. I suppose it's a bit like the London Eye, but it doesn't move about. Actually, Sydney from the sky looks like any other city from the sky. The things you'd really like to see (such as the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House) tend to be obscured by high-rise office buildings. A good time was had by all, though we did a lot of walking and we left behind a box in Ikea.


So it'll be an intense couple of weeks, and an interesting few months. I think that one of the key things for me will be to keep trying to work God into the centre of what I'm doing. I can easily see all this becoming a comfortable 'routine' and that's part of what I was trying to avoid by coming to Cornerstone in the first place. I want to make sure that I don't end up wasting my time on projects that appear to be worthy but turn out to be secondary - or worse.

I'll let you know how things are going. God bless.

New Year Update

Hello all, and a Happy New Year.

Just thought I'd write you a quick update since we've finally entered 2009. I finished my Certificate IV course on New Year's Eve, which was a cause for celebration in itself - though I haven't had my work marked yet so it's possible that I'll still need to do a few bits and pieces to satisfy the assessor. This means that Ruth and I can finally begin the visa application process - and with only three months to go before we get kicked out of the country it's about time.

Ruth I have to work our way through medicals and police checks, so we're probably not going to be able to submit the actual visa for another month at least. If you're inclined that way, please pray for us as we negotiate with the bureaucratic Orwellian nightmare that is the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (if anyone from DIAC is reading this then I don't mean it. You're lovely people really).

Thanks to all of you who have kept reading through the dark times of 2008 - yes, that includes you Peter Idris. Hopefully I'll be able to keep you up-to-date with what's happening in Canowindra over this year. Provided that we're still here in a few months, that is.

That reminds me. I'd better change the name of the blog - The Webbs at Burrabadine is so 2008.

Hope that you had a great New Year, and keep watching the skies. Errr, I mean, this space. Keep watching this space.