Our youngest - Thomas - who is 5 on the 20th February started School this year. Here he is with his current "camera" smile. He's loving school by the way and is enjoying everyday. His reading and writing are improving already.
Monday, February 12, 2007
Tom's at School
Our youngest - Thomas - who is 5 on the 20th February started School this year. Here he is with his current "camera" smile. He's loving school by the way and is enjoying everyday. His reading and writing are improving already.
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
Staying Missional
Starting a new church is hard at the best of times - starting a new type of church that looks a bit different to the norm is even harder. We've been confronted with some extra challenges at Mimos lately that has caused us to re-establish our purpose. Towards the end of 2006 we lost a third of our group who moved away from Melbourne. The Harrisons (our founding pastor - Ruth) moved to Thailand, Alicia moved back to Cairns, and Chris and Liz Logan moved back to the USA. Our second challenge was that we were notified that our regular meeting place - The Stolberg Beer Cafe - was not going to be opening Sundays anymore.
Annette (my lovely wife), who has taken on the responsibility of leading and coordinating the church, has been great at calling us back to our original vision. In a recent email she said
We need to strategically consider what we are doing in our own neighbourhood and encourage each other in this and keep each other accountable to the people God has placed on our heart. When we gather as the wider Network we will be spending more time hearing what God is doing and praying for each other. Let me share a quote from 'Organic Church' (Neil Cole) - "Every Christian is a church planter and every home is a church...This is a whole new way of seeing Christ's church and it is happening today all across the Western world. I believe it is a contagious movement that will connect with many people who are disengaged with the old conventional church but seeking Christ. We must take Christ into people's lives, and it must be in the context of relationships." I'd love to consider that each of our homes is a church ready to bring the truth of Christ to those seeking Him.
We met on Sunday at Bundoora Park initially and then moved to McDonalds because it was so hot (37C) and reconfirmed our committment to be primarily missional - that is each person and/or family focusing on building relationships and being Christ in their own neighborhoods/work places/schools etc and that we will gather together as a network on alternate weeks for accountability, teaching, worship, sharing, prayer and to refocus our mission. Our prayer is still that we would "Be imitators of God, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us (Ephesians 5:1-2)
Annette (my lovely wife), who has taken on the responsibility of leading and coordinating the church, has been great at calling us back to our original vision. In a recent email she said
We need to strategically consider what we are doing in our own neighbourhood and encourage each other in this and keep each other accountable to the people God has placed on our heart. When we gather as the wider Network we will be spending more time hearing what God is doing and praying for each other. Let me share a quote from 'Organic Church' (Neil Cole) - "Every Christian is a church planter and every home is a church...This is a whole new way of seeing Christ's church and it is happening today all across the Western world. I believe it is a contagious movement that will connect with many people who are disengaged with the old conventional church but seeking Christ. We must take Christ into people's lives, and it must be in the context of relationships." I'd love to consider that each of our homes is a church ready to bring the truth of Christ to those seeking Him.
We met on Sunday at Bundoora Park initially and then moved to McDonalds because it was so hot (37C) and reconfirmed our committment to be primarily missional - that is each person and/or family focusing on building relationships and being Christ in their own neighborhoods/work places/schools etc and that we will gather together as a network on alternate weeks for accountability, teaching, worship, sharing, prayer and to refocus our mission. Our prayer is still that we would "Be imitators of God, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us (Ephesians 5:1-2)
Tuesday, February 06, 2007
Redecking the Deck
I've just spent the day making our back deck a bit more live-able. We've had an old table and wooden pews there since we moved here 5 years ago and we never really use the area. I've been planning for a few weeks looking at furniture and drawing up some floor plans.
We bought a new outdoor setting (from Rob Cousens in Ringwood) which is very comfy (a major criteria in our choice). I got a wall mounted water feature and also installed shade blinds (because our deck faces west and gets direct sunlight). I had to repaint some areas where the paint was starting to lift and after that I went to it on the makeover. See some pics below.
It's definitely a much more inviting space to go and have a cuppa or sit and have breakfast while reading the paper on the weekend.
We bought a new outdoor setting (from Rob Cousens in Ringwood) which is very comfy (a major criteria in our choice). I got a wall mounted water feature and also installed shade blinds (because our deck faces west and gets direct sunlight). I had to repaint some areas where the paint was starting to lift and after that I went to it on the makeover. See some pics below.
It's definitely a much more inviting space to go and have a cuppa or sit and have breakfast while reading the paper on the weekend.
Monday, January 29, 2007
Are You a Gentleman?
I got this little quiz from my wokmate Ross - a bit of fun
| I am 56% Gentleman |
 Generally you act like a gentleman, but sometimes you're careless with your manners. Most people know that you're trying your best - and that's usually good enough. |
Saturday, January 20, 2007
More China Photos
A traditional Chinese village outhouse - reminded me so much of an Aussie dunny
Me getting the Miao treatment at a cultural dinner and show we attended in Kaili
Bamboo scaffold was a common sight in the construction of some large buildings in both Kaili and Guiyang.
Bamboo scaffold was a common sight in the construction of some large buildings in both Kaili and Guiyang.
Kate and Matt doing puppets at one of the primary schoolsMonday, January 15, 2007
China Post 8
Saturday 13th January
After a couple of early starts and late nights we took the opportunity to have a sleep in this morning. The children enjoyed their corn flakes for breakfast and James and Grace took Annette and I out for a Singaporean breakfast of fried carrot cake that neither looked or tasted like carrot cake and Singaporean coffee with condensed milk.
When we got home we packed our backpacks and headed off to Singapore Zoo - praying that the weather would clear. We had agreat day at the zoo and after some early rain it stayed clear most of the day. Ron and Marilyn met us at the zoo at 6pm and after having tea there at KFC we went together to the night safari which is a separate section of the zoo that focuses on nocturnal animals. It consists of a 45 minute tram ride with an optional 30 minute walk in the middle. We had a great but the kids were pretty tired by the time we got home. All of them fell asleep in the car.
Sunday 14th January
We walked to Bartley Christian Church this morning. There are a number of Balwyn families who attended this church prior to migrating to Australia. We went to the 11am service and Pastor William Lee (who was the guest speaker at last year's Balwyn church Easter camp) took us and the Freemans to lunch. After lunch we went to Dennis and Linda Heng's apartment with the Freemans and Lailin and Hao. The children swan in the pool (in the rain) supervised by the men while the women went shopping. We all went out for tea and a game of ten pin bowling. We got back to James and Grace's at 10pm.
After a couple of early starts and late nights we took the opportunity to have a sleep in this morning. The children enjoyed their corn flakes for breakfast and James and Grace took Annette and I out for a Singaporean breakfast of fried carrot cake that neither looked or tasted like carrot cake and Singaporean coffee with condensed milk.
When we got home we packed our backpacks and headed off to Singapore Zoo - praying that the weather would clear. We had agreat day at the zoo and after some early rain it stayed clear most of the day. Ron and Marilyn met us at the zoo at 6pm and after having tea there at KFC we went together to the night safari which is a separate section of the zoo that focuses on nocturnal animals. It consists of a 45 minute tram ride with an optional 30 minute walk in the middle. We had a great but the kids were pretty tired by the time we got home. All of them fell asleep in the car.
Sunday 14th January
We walked to Bartley Christian Church this morning. There are a number of Balwyn families who attended this church prior to migrating to Australia. We went to the 11am service and Pastor William Lee (who was the guest speaker at last year's Balwyn church Easter camp) took us and the Freemans to lunch. After lunch we went to Dennis and Linda Heng's apartment with the Freemans and Lailin and Hao. The children swan in the pool (in the rain) supervised by the men while the women went shopping. We all went out for tea and a game of ten pin bowling. We got back to James and Grace's at 10pm.
China Post 7
Thursday 11th January
We had an early morning today rising at 6am for a 7:30am departure from JianHe. We had a good journey to Guiyang on expressways most of the way. It is very mountainous in the areas we have visited and the expressway was a combination of tunnels and bridges for much of the trip. At one point we passed through 17 tunnels in a 30 minute period. The tunnels ranged in length from 200m - 900m. We arrived in Guiyang at 11:30am and after taking our luggage to our hotel room we went out for lunch. A group of us who were craving western food went to Pizza Hut. It was very expensive by Chinese standards but was about the same as what we would pay at home - 55 Yuan for a family Pizza - about $9- Australian. The quality control was very good and it tasted just like home and the kids loved it so much we went back for tea later in the day. The afternoon was spent shopping and resting. Annette and Kate went out shopping and Annette bought some woollen dress pants and a top for 120 yuan ($20 AUD). Matthew, Thomas and I rested and watched some sport on TV. The hotel had a free wireless so I was able to catch up on Cameron White's superb performance in the 20/20 and Harwoods surprise inclusion. We got an early night ready for an early start tomorrow and a day of flying.
Friday 12th January
We woke at 6am and took our bus (which we have had with our driver Yang Su Fu for the whole trip). We arrived at Guiyang airport at 7am and after a long time to check in the 25 of us (5 left yesterday for Japan and other parts of China) we went straight to our plane and left for Guangzhou. After arriving in Guangzhou we walked a few hundred metres to the international section of the airport and checked in our baggage and went through customs without a hitch. We looked through the shops and had lunch at a "western" restaurant. We had hamburgers and spaghetti which were ok but not really fully western. We left Guangzhou at 1pm for a four hour flight to Singapore. James Seah (brother in law of David Tey - the business manager at Kingsley) picked us up and took us back to his place where we'll be staying for the next few days. James and his wife Grace took us to a shopping centre to buy breakfast cereal and milk for the kids and we had McDonalds for tea. Annette and I chatted with James and Grace before going to bed. Annette, Kate and I are in the guest room and Matt and thomas are sharing a large bedroom with Ezra and Esmond - James and Grace's sons. Oir first impressions of Singapore are very positive - it is very clean - but also very wet at the moment - it has not stopped raining since we arrived.
We had an early morning today rising at 6am for a 7:30am departure from JianHe. We had a good journey to Guiyang on expressways most of the way. It is very mountainous in the areas we have visited and the expressway was a combination of tunnels and bridges for much of the trip. At one point we passed through 17 tunnels in a 30 minute period. The tunnels ranged in length from 200m - 900m. We arrived in Guiyang at 11:30am and after taking our luggage to our hotel room we went out for lunch. A group of us who were craving western food went to Pizza Hut. It was very expensive by Chinese standards but was about the same as what we would pay at home - 55 Yuan for a family Pizza - about $9- Australian. The quality control was very good and it tasted just like home and the kids loved it so much we went back for tea later in the day. The afternoon was spent shopping and resting. Annette and Kate went out shopping and Annette bought some woollen dress pants and a top for 120 yuan ($20 AUD). Matthew, Thomas and I rested and watched some sport on TV. The hotel had a free wireless so I was able to catch up on Cameron White's superb performance in the 20/20 and Harwoods surprise inclusion. We got an early night ready for an early start tomorrow and a day of flying.
Friday 12th January
We woke at 6am and took our bus (which we have had with our driver Yang Su Fu for the whole trip). We arrived at Guiyang airport at 7am and after a long time to check in the 25 of us (5 left yesterday for Japan and other parts of China) we went straight to our plane and left for Guangzhou. After arriving in Guangzhou we walked a few hundred metres to the international section of the airport and checked in our baggage and went through customs without a hitch. We looked through the shops and had lunch at a "western" restaurant. We had hamburgers and spaghetti which were ok but not really fully western. We left Guangzhou at 1pm for a four hour flight to Singapore. James Seah (brother in law of David Tey - the business manager at Kingsley) picked us up and took us back to his place where we'll be staying for the next few days. James and his wife Grace took us to a shopping centre to buy breakfast cereal and milk for the kids and we had McDonalds for tea. Annette and I chatted with James and Grace before going to bed. Annette, Kate and I are in the guest room and Matt and thomas are sharing a large bedroom with Ezra and Esmond - James and Grace's sons. Oir first impressions of Singapore are very positive - it is very clean - but also very wet at the moment - it has not stopped raining since we arrived.
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