Illness...

I just got have lunch with one of my Dads today while my mum is over in France (she returns late Tues night). It was delightful. We spent time chatting about many and varied things. He is breeding cockatiel's and budgies at the moment and also hand-rearing some of them. He is just waiting for a couple of babies to get old enough to start hand rearing new ones. Benson (their black Labrador) was also topic of much discussion. He is such a beautiful boy who gets up to lots of amusing and cheeky things. But he is always so cute that he often gets away with murder (of blue-tongues and the like...)

But lunch today also had its sad moments. In case you don't know Dad was diagnosed with leukemia in Jan (although it had probably started 12 months before). I think today was a sad day for him. And therefore a sad day for me too. I guess this follows along the lines of this sinful and broken world that I was thinking about earlier. The toughest thing about the type of leukemia he has is that at this point it is not curable and its progress is hard to predict. It is possible for it to flare up in a month or two and for things to head down hill very quickly or it is also possible that his white cell count will stay fairly stable for the next 20 years. It is just unpredictable.

I guess today I have just been so feeling the pains of this broken world and caused to run to the comfort of my Creator's arms. We don't know why all these things happen. But one thing we can know is the Creator who knows why all these things happen!!!! What a comfort in such a painful world!!

Relationships!

I am reminded today how hard relationships in a broken world can be. Even when there is no one to blame people are still hurt. It can leave you feeling so disillusioned about the world and about God.

But I guess one thing we do know is that God is good. He is the source of love and relationships and he is in control. He is also a faithful God in whom we can trust when things are difficult and painful. I guess we need to keep reminding ourselves that the sin in this world is caused by our rebellion against God and that God created us to be in a relationship with him.

If we know God as our Father and Jesus as our Lord and Saviour although there will be pain in relationships in this world we can look forward to the time when God "will wipe every tear from [our] eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things [will have] passed away" (Rev 21:4). There will be a time when relationships will only ever be good. We will be in a perfect relationship with our God and in perfect relationships with each other. But until that time we need to work hard at loving God and showing his love to those around us.

Let's keep working hard at our relationships. Praying continually to the God who created this world and who loves us. And let's seek to put others needs before our own. This is how we should live as children of God. And finally let's always remember to seek forgiveness when we sin and to forgive those who hurt us.

Ramblings

Things this week have been a little crazy. Part of it has to do with not going to bed early enough and that never helps the emotional state. But I got to play squash last night and that was really relieving. I played the toughest No 1 in my grade and I played the best squash I have played in the last 2 years. I lost in 4 (best of 5 games) but I was happy that I played well. It was also good to get away from everything and to just focus on what shot I was going to play and running like crazy to get to every ball.

I will be finishing up at Dapto on the 11th Dec (only 6 weeks away) so if you are around Dapto on that Sunday night it would be great to have you join us for my farewell. And I will be starting at St George North on the 15th Jan so it will be great to have a month off and to recover from being so tired this year. I am really looking forward to this new part of my life. But I do know that it will be hard for my mum when I am in Sydney on the weekends too.

Well this is the beginning of me updating my blog more often than I used to. Let us see how long it lasts. That is it for now.

Izzy's Party

Lis, Izzy, me and Tan also at the party. It really was lots of fun!

Izzy's Party

This is Dan (Uni Boarder @ Chappo), Russ, Marty and Ian (in first year

with us) at Izzy's (and 2 other uni girls') B-Day Party on Sat night.

It was a really fun night. We played lots of silly games and hung out.

Many Blessings!!

I have been thinking lately how much more beautiful life is when you get to share it with people. God has richly blessed us with many beautiful things in life and I often forget to take the time to thank him.

I have really been enjoying spending time with and getting to know better some newish friends. It has been great!! Most of them are in second year at college (which can be quite helpful when you get lost in the first year course). They are Seumas, Marty, Tim, Russ, Al, and Kamal. There is also the regular crew of girls, Tan, Naomi (Nice), Lisa and Bec. We have also been joined by Izzy lately which has been fantastic. Izzy is from England and is in Australia for a while doing prac for her degree. She has till the end of December in Sydney with us and then heads to Brisbane for her 2nd last placement. We are currently trying to convince her to stay and do the last year of her degree here in the Sydney region somewhere (personally I think Wollongong would be a grand spot!) She is studying Landscape Design.

It is nice to be able to sit back and enjoy God in a time when things have the tendency to be very stressful. I am currently preparing to preach in our preaching class after lunch (although at this very moment I am not). Then we have Hebrew exam next Friday, stuvac, then 2 weeks of exams.

Last Friday we had our final Greek exam. That caused me considerable amounts of anxiety and I was feeling quite ill for the few days before it. However, my fantastic tutor (Seumas) worked hard with me and encouraged me lots and I do think that I passed quite effectively. I may not come out with flying colours but around here passes are great!!

In preparing my sermon for this afternoon (from Philippians 3:12-16), I have been reminded and encouraged to "press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." (3:14) What a great privilage it is to be one of God's children and to have a relationship with him!!!

Sunday morning at church I was also encouraged and reminded about how as Children of God we can come to him anytime in prayer and pray for anything. He loves to hear us pray. Pray continually!!!! What a challenge! I often need to be reminded to pray more.

Well, I have been encouraged by Seumas and his blog to try to keep this a little more up-to-date. So I will endeavour to do that. I do thank God for your prayers and your interest in what he is doing in and through me!

MAC/Moore Ball

Here is the long awaited picture of the Ball. As you can see everyone

scrubbed up brilliantly! In this photo we have Naomi (otherwise known

as Nice Naomi), Polly, Jonny, Me, Lis, (in the front) Anthony, Bec

& Gav.

The Crew!!

Here is a shot of the yachting crew! You can't see everyone but you can see that we had a great time and it was a beautiful day!

Me and The Bridge

This is one of the photos from our glorious day on Sydney Harbour!!!

Holidays and The Coming Term

Holidays were a little crazy. Well the last week of term and the first week of the holidays were extremely busy. We had the MAC/Moore Ball, I had to preach at both College and Dapto in those 2 weeks, I had a Hebrew test, an essay, lead 2 services and I got sick for a weekend (just before my essay was due - VERY inconvenient!). So by the end of that time I was pretty tired.

However, I did get to spend a few days in Wagstaffe (Central Coast) at Naomi's family's holiday house with a bunch of good friends. That was extremely enjoyable and a good chance to sleep in, play games, hang out at the beach and do not a great deal! The holidays did not feel long enough and sure enough before I knew it, it was time to go back to class.

Term 4 has begun (almost 2 weeks into it) and it will prove to be a very busy, stressful and tiring term. In week 4 I have our final Greek Exam, week 5 preaching in our preaching class, week 6 final Hebrew Exam, then 1 week of STUVAC and then into 2 weeks of final exams (6 in all in that period). So lots of prayer over the next seven weeks will be warmly welcomed.

However in the midst of all of this a group of us got to spend the public holiday aboard Naomi's Grandpa's 33ft Yacht (yes Naomi is the source of many hours of fun!). It was such a beautiful day and the company was splendid. There were 11 of us on board and we all had a great time (although one of our friends unfortunately felt a bit sea sick for most of the trip). After sailing all day we went to watch Serenity at the movies (which might I say is an extremely good film - if you don't mind a bit of violence) then went to a Turkish place on King St for dinner.

I will post both ball and yachting photos very soon so that you can see the fun that we had. But until then I must study hard! Bye for now...