Timeshare

We've just had a week away at Nepean Country Club in Rosebud. Yes, we're timeshare owners but not through the "come to our 90 minute talk and get a free weekend holiday" routine. A few years ago we looked into all our options for annual family holidays - camping, caravan, cabins etc and we decided that timeshare was best for us.
We bought our week through the Trading Post. We own a share in Nepean Country Club which is ours forever and can be sold or bequeathed like any other property. We pay an annual maintenance fee of around $500- for our week.
This week can be exchanged for use at any of thousands of resorts worldwide and I know of people who've bought 5-6 weeks of timeshare in Australian resorts exchanged them for weeks in resorts around the world, have travelled around the world staying a week in each resort and then sold the weeks when they returned - a pretty cheap overseas holiday!!
Also we have access to bonus weeks. Bonus weeks are posted on the web by resorts who have empty units for hire. You can usually only book them up to 8 weeks ahead but they are usually $150-$300 for 7 nights in a fully fitted out 2 bedroom unit. We've just booked a week in Marysville in May for $225- and we've taken bonus weeks at Kyneton and Yarrawonga in previous years.
Each year for the past three years we've taken our regular week in the Easter school holidays at Rosebud. We get a two bedroom, two bathroom unit with a fully equipped kitchen and laundry. All the linen, cooking gear, appliances and cutlery and crockery is provided. All we have to bring is clothes, toiletries and food. This certainly saves time on packing and everything is basically set up when we arrive.
Nepean Country Club is well set up for families with 3 tennis courts (2 indoor), a heated indoor pool and an outdoor pool and spa. There is also mini golf, squash court, pool tables, and a fully equipped gym.
It is next to the Eagle Ridge Golf Course and half price green fees are available to resort users. Our unit this year looked out onto the golf course. The next post will have some photos of our week away.

FORGE - Dangerous Stories 2 Summit

As Mike Forst said - what an uncreative title - Dangerous Stories 2 - couldn't they come up with an original name for the sequel.
Regardless of the name, it was a great weekend of networking with other missional church people and hearing their stories - hence Dangerous stories.
Brian McLaren and Wolfgang Simson were the international speakers and we had a host of home grown talent in Mike Frost, Alan Hirsch, and Daryl Gardner (NZ). There were a squillion workshops and electives for the 600 odd people to attend.
I was challenged by Wolfgang Simson's reports of massive church planting in Egypt, India, Myanmar and other parts of the developing world.
I was also interested to explore further the issues of hyperreality and the consumer culture we live in and how the church has bought into this mindset.
Idea Ripple have DVD's, CD's and MP3's of the summit - well worth a look. I've ordered a complete set of MP3's for the Kingsley library - so for you Kingsley students you'll be able to borrow these when they arrive.

Mega Church Satire

I got sent a link from one of my mates - Steve W - to this clip from King of the Hill. It'd be even funnier if it wasn't so close to the truth.

Photos from the Weekend

Thomas celebrated his 5th Birthday.
We went Roller skating today with Carol, Damien (left of picture), Abbey and Kate's frined Sarah.
I spent a few hours on Friday night putting all Matt's lego back together. A few missing pieces but 99% there.

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.

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)

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.