Nomes' News is Good News

Faith…

2008-08-31T23:34:00.003+10:00

It can be too easy sometimes to get lost in the outcomes of our faith that we can miss what faith is all about. We are looking to move mountains but missing the point of faith. We look to what we receive by faith, sometimes even what we think by faith we should receive, instead of looking to the one through whom we receive faith and all its benefits.

I have been challenged by a friend recently to think about my faith. Am I limiting my faith by the way I think? Have I got the idea of faith wrong? Am I missing out on good things because of my lack of faith?

I think I have recently discovered that the answer to these questions is yes but not for the reasons I might have originally thought. I have been reading through Matthew’s gospel and over the last few days I’ve been noticing the times that Jesus rebukes people for their lack of faith. I have been wrestling with this idea of faith and lack of faith and it occurred to me tonight as I read Matthew 16 and 17, particularly 17:14-22, that a lack of faith is due to a focus on the outcomes of faith instead of on the person in whom we have faith. In this passage a man comes to Jesus begging him to heal his son who was possessed by a demon because Jesus’ disciples were unable to. When the disciples asked why they couldn’t heal the boy Jesus’ answer was, “Because you have so little faith.”

The disciples’ problem wasn’t to do with the outcome, exorcising the demon, but to do with their faith in Jesus. They didn’t understand that Jesus was the Son of God who was to conquer the Prince of Demons.

You see it again in 16:5-12, the disciples were thinking about outcomes, bread in this case, and missed that Jesus is the provider of all their needs. This is also why Peter, who was walking on water started to sink, because he took his eyes off Jesus and began looking at the outcome of his faith (Matt 14:22-33).

Faith is not about the outcomes but the one in whom we put our faith, Jesus Christ. When we focus squarely on him, the outcomes seem to pale in comparison, yet they flow freely at the same time! We are truly blessed abundantly when we stop looking at the outcomes of our faith and look to Jesus. Get the focus right… don’t look to the outcomes on the periphery when you can look squarely at the source, Jesus Christ himself!

When we fix our eyes on the author and perfecter of our faith, when we seek first his kingdom and stop worrying about the results, the blessings will overflow and our burdens will be much lighter!

I will get back to the singleness issue very soon… I promise!

Do you have the gift of singleness??

2008-08-04T00:35:00.002+10:00

This is a question on the minds of many young Christians today… Many would see the gift of singleness as a special, supernatural gifting from God that disables sexual desires within a person, giving them the ability to be single for life. This ‘gift of singleness’ is also often attributed to Paul the Apostle, specifically the teaching of 1 Corinthians 7. But I think that if Paul were around today he would be most adamantly objected to this idea!

I think Paul would say (and in fact does say in 1 Cor 7:7) that if you are single, you currently have the gift of singleness! And if you are married, you currently have the gift of marriage! Both singleness and marriage are blessings from God. They are both gifts in their own right. And at any point, God, in his great wisdom, may present the occasion in which your gift may be exchanged. Just because I currently have the gift of singleness, doesn’t mean that I will never be married. And just because my married counterparts currently have the gift of marriage, doesn’t mean that as a result of a tragic accident or illness, they may once again have the gift of singleness.

Both marriage and singleness are blessings and gifts from God, although, they are two very different gifts and bring with them very different privileges and heartaches. Again, I think this is what Paul is saying in 1 Cor 7. Being married brings with it many more cares and concerns than singleness. A married person has a spouse to consider, love and take care of. With a spouse comes another whole family, with some in-laws. It may bring with it the blessing of 1, 2, 3, 4 or more children; a bunch more people to be responsible for. These things are also blessings themselves, but with each of these blessings there is a huge amount of responsibility and concerns. Singleness doesn’t bring with it these kinds of privileges and concerns; it has a set of different ones. A single person has more freedom with their time. There are less people dependent on them every time they make a decision. But it does come with the heartache of loneliness and the desire for companionship. I think this is Paul’s point in the second half of 1 Cor 7 and as a pastor he wants to spare people the worries and added concerns of marriage.

Marriage is NOT a sinful or second rate choice for those who cannot control their hormones. Again, I think Paul would be horrified with this conclusion! Marriage is a blessing from God. It was woven into the fabric of creation right back in Genesis 2 when the woman was created as a helper for the man. Marriage is a beautiful thing! However, it is also not to be elevated so highly to the detriment of the blessing of singleness! Singleness is NOT a second rate choice for those who no one really wants to marry. If you are single right now, there is NOTHING wrong with you! You are not single because you are unlovely!

Both marriage and singleness are blessings from God, and Paul is encouraging the Corinthians to get their priorities right…the Kingdom of God comes FIRST! Whatever situation God has placed you in, serve him! Don’t waste your life wishing you had the other gift. Both gifts have privileges and heartaches, and God knows your pain, whatever it might be. God is our loving Father who knows what is best for us and the hard thing is that it may not always be what we think is best for us. But God is a trustworthy God! He loves his children and is working all things out for their good (Rom 8:28). He wants us to seek first his Kingdom and his righteousness and he will provide all that we need (Matt 6:25-34). Whether we are single or married, whatever our current gifting, God wants us to use our gift for his glory. He wants us to put his kingdom first!!

To come… Can you choose lifelong singleness?

Like little children...

2008-06-29T22:55:00.003+10:00

"Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these " Matthew 19:14

Lately I've been feeling like I'm walking through a pitch black night, so dark that I can't even see my hand in front of my face let alone see where I should place my foot to take my next step. As I've been reflecting on this, wishing I knew what was the best way forward, what I was to do next, I realised that I have no where to put my foot. There are no more steps that I can take...

This may seem a little depressing but it reminded me of the footprints poem and made me think that maybe I wasn't meant to be looking where to put my foot at all. Maybe I wasn't even the one walking. What I needed to realise was that I am actually being carried in the arms of my Heavenly Father who knows the way in the dark, because to him darkness is like day. I needed to trust that God would carry me. I needed to stop trying to take the next step and rest secure in the journey that God was taking me on...

It's the image of a small child, totally dependent upon her dad's strong arms to carry her in the dark night. Yet our problem is that even though we can't see a thing, we keep wanting to jump out of our Father's arms and make it on our own. We want to be grown ups, and grown ups don't need to be carried in the dark because its scary. In fact, grown ups aren't even really allowed to be scared of the dark...

We keep forgetting that the Kingdom of God belongs to those who are like children, not grown ups! We can't see where we are heading in life, and sometimes we struggle to even work out where to place our foot for the next step... and its at this point that we need to remember that God knows exactly where we are heading and he knows the best way to get there, our job is to take shelter and comfort in his loving, capable arms. We need to not try to wriggle out of them but let our Father carry us...

This is the humble dependence of a child upon their capable, loving father... and the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to such as these...

Are you thirsty??

2008-04-21T11:26:00.005+10:00

Do you ever wonder why the harder you try to fulfill your life the less you are satisfied? Do you often feel like, "if only this or that would happen then life would be good"? Do you spend more time thinking about the things you don't have than the things you do?

I know that I often feel like this. I often spend so much time wishing I had this or that. Worrying that life isn't quite what I wanted it to be. Or feeling sad that I'm missing out on good things.

Part of the truth is that I AM missing out on good things. There are so many good things in this world and its just not possible to have them all. But the problem with this is we often dwell here... this is the place we spend all our time, feeling sad because we are missing out on good things. And this is a restless and weary place to live, always worrying about what we don't yet have...

Last night God showed me the other side of this weary and restless coin...

"Be at rest once more, O my Soul, for the LORD has been good to you." (Psalm 116:7)

When we spend all our time worrying and being sad about the good things we don't have, we completely miss the good things that God has already given us! We spend so much time longing for physical water that never satisfies that we forget to drink from the spring of living water that wells up to eternal life. And at this spring we find rest. At this spring we find joy. At this spring we find life. Because at this spring we find Jesus!

I find it crazy that I struggle to read God's word and commune with him because that is where I find this living water. I find it stupid that I would run around trying to fulfill my needs and desires when God is ALL I need because he is the one capable of giving me all things. I find it absurd that I long and thirst for physical water which will never satify me and ignore the living water that will never disapoint.

"But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." (Matthew 6:33)

God loves to bless his children... we just often miss his most beautiful blessings because we are too preoccupied with what we don't have.

Stop drinking physical water... and drink from the spring of living water that wells up to eternal life... This is where we find rest for our souls!!

2008-02-13T10:37:00.000+11:00

It has been so long since I have posted on here so I thought it might be time...

Unfortunately I don't think I necessarily have anything profound or interesting to write. Perhaps that's why I have been silent for so long.

There has been so much that I have been thinking about in the theological world in the last 6 months but I'm not sure how to go about sharing that. I've been thinking about order of creation and what it means to be a woman created in God's image and what that means for how we relate to, minister alongside and best support men created in the image of God.

I've been thinking about feminism and how our society views how men and women relate.

I've been thinking about the atonement and how to best explain the Biblical data.

There is so much running around my head at the moment. Some of it is getting clearer, and some of it is still a massive fog... but what I can clearly say is that I am so excited to be heading back to college for this final year and to have the opportunity to think further through some of these things... and maybe I can share some of my thoughts along the way...

2007-09-28T09:08:00.000+10:00

Control… It’s the primordial human sin. This is the problem Adam & Eve had right back at the beginning. They didn’t want to let God be in control… they wanted to be.

The more I think about control the more I think that everyone ‘has a problem with control’ to one extent or another. It may look different from person to person, and the extent to which it is a problem may differ, but essentially, being human means we have ‘a problem with control’. If this wasn’t the case, then we would have no problems trusting God. But, in reality we do!

People yearn for control. Lacking control is uncomfortable and distressing.

The ‘problem with control’ exhibits itself in different ways in different people. There appears to be temptations or problems that are predominately masculine and others that are predominantly feminine (generally speaking). Now, I can’t say a great deal about guys, since I am not one, but I have some limited observations… VERY generally speaking, it appears men attempt to gain control through force and aggression. They tend to throw their weight around when they feel insecure. There is probably more to say on this and if you are a man, please feel free to chip in and correct me or offer some other suggestions.

However, I have noticed a number of things that are predominantly feminine temptations in the world of control. Women attempt to control their husbands (or the men around them) through nagging. They try to control their bodies through exercise, diets and most noticeably ‘problems with control’ exhibit themselves in eating disorders.

But the one that is most interesting to me is the way that women dream and fantasise about real life: the future, romance, whatever really. I think the reason women do this is because it creates a ‘feeling’ of being in control. Things always work out the way you want them to when you are dreaming. You are never disappointed and you get to decide what is best. BUT this isn’t control at all. It’s an illusion. The big problem that this creates is a false sense of security and this can be very damaging to the woman involved.

But, the BIGGEST problem with our ‘problem with control’ is that it drags us away from God. We try to rely on ourselves instead of running to the God who created everything, knows everything and is ACTUALLY in control of everything.

There are so many things in this life that we can’t control… most things really… and recently I have been reminded that we can try to take our lives into our own hands but it won’t necessarily work out as we plan. What’s more, it can turn out to be more disastrous than it was in the first place. I, along with 3 other work mates, had the terrible experience of seeing a girl attempt to take her own life. As far as I know, she did not succeed. Part of me is sad on her account, that life was so horrible before she jumped but now life is likely be worse. But part of me rejoices that she gets a second chance at life.

But I guess one thing is for sure… no matter what we do we cannot overcome or thwart the plans of God. If God wants us to live… we will live. If God wants us to die… we will die. This sounds miserable and horrible but the comforting thing in all of this is that God knows better than me. I don’t know why horrible things happen all the time but God does… and he is in control. And I can know God. He is loving, merciful, kind, just, righteous and holy. I can know the one who knows what’s going on. What a comfort!!

Psalm 33

1 Sing joyfully to the LORD, you righteous;
it is fitting for the upright to praise him.

2 Praise the LORD with the harp;
make music to him on the ten-stringed lyre.

3 Sing to him a new song;
play skillfully, and shout for joy.

4 For the word of the LORD is right and true;
he is faithful in all he does.

5 The LORD loves righteousness and justice;
the earth is full of his unfailing love.

6 By the word of the LORD were the heavens made,
their starry host by the breath of his mouth.

7 He gathers the waters of the sea into jars;
he puts the deep into storehouses.

8 Let all the earth fear the LORD;
let all the people of the world revere him.

9 For he spoke, and it came to be;
he commanded, and it stood firm.

10 The LORD foils the plans of the nations;
he thwarts the purposes of the peoples.

11 But the plans of the LORD stand firm forever,
the purposes of his heart through all generations.

12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD,
the people he chose for his inheritance.

13 From heaven the LORD looks down and sees all mankind;

14 from his dwelling place he watches all who live on earth—

15 he who forms the hearts of all, who considers everything they do.

16 No king is saved by the size of his army;
no warrior escapes by his great strength.

17 A horse is a vain hope for deliverance;
despite all its great strength it cannot save.

18 But the eyes of the LORD are on those who fear him,
on those whose hope is in his unfailing love,

19 to deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine.

20 We wait in hope for the LORD;
he is our help and our shield.

21 In him our hearts rejoice,
for we trust in his holy name.

22 May your unfailing love rest upon us, O LORD,
even as we put our hope in you.

2007-08-22T22:22:00.000+10:00

“I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength.” Philippians 4:12-13

I have been thinking a lot about trusting God lately. And just recently, I began to question my trust in God in a particular area of my life. But I realised today that the reason why I was doubting was because things didn’t look they way I thought they should. I think I was beginning to expect the feeling or experience of trusting God to be different in this situation. It looked like God wasn’t hearing my prayers. I think I was expecting that trusting God would mean that things wouldn’t be hard or would be different somehow. I had the mentality that “If I trust God than ‘X’ should be the outcome.”

As I reflected I was both comforted and challenged. I was comforted by the reminder that just because things don’t look like I expect them to, doesn’t mean I’m not trusting God. But I was challenged to stop trying to dictate what trusting God actually looks like, to stop trying to be in control.

I was also reminded that its through these times that God tests our faith. It’s easy to trust God when things look like we think they should, when what we think is good lines up with God’s idea of good. But it’s those times when we can’t see why we feel like we do or why certain things are happening that our contentment is really evident. Anyone can be content when they have everything they want.

The Apostle Paul is such a great testimony to this. No matter what his situation, whether it looked great or was really painful, he had learnt to trust God. That’s why he could say with confidence that he knew what it means to be content despite his circumstances. Contentment comes from trusting who God is, from really believing His good promises.

But that’s not to say it’s wrong to question what God is doing. Job did and he was called righteous before his friends. Sometimes this questioning can lead to a clearer understanding of who God is and a greater sense of peace about the chaos that seems to go on around us. Questioning sharpens our minds and strengthens our faith. And that is only a good thing.

Unbelief

2007-08-07T08:50:00.000+10:00

How wrong Dr Spock is...

I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief! (Mark 9:24)

This has been my prayer almost everyday recently. I have begun to realise a great deal of our problems in our relationship with God come from unbelief, a lack of trust in Him. This is largely because some fear or another is driving our desire to be self reliant. Yet the crazy thing is that it is actually much more frightening when we are in control. We are sinful, limited human beings yet we still fail to trust that the all-powerful, all-knowing, creator of the universe, our good and loving God knows what he is doing. This is ABSURD!

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)

God has promised that he has good things in store for His children but we continue to lack trust. We don’t believe that this is really true otherwise we would only trust God all the time. But we continue think we know better than God, that we can really make the best decisions regarding what is good for us. This too is ABSURD!!

"Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! (Matthew 7:9-11)

2007-07-31T11:00:00.000+10:00

The surest thing in this transitory life is the fact that we will all die. No one can escape death’s reach. Each of us at some point in our lives needs to come to terms with our own mortality… But the uncertainties of death still plague us. When will I die? How will I die? Will I die alone? When will my loved ones die? These too are questions we need to face but the problem with these question is there is no certain answer. We can’t really be sure when we are going to die. Neither terminal illnesses nor the appearances of complete health can dictate when or where we will die.

But in all this we can be sure that there is one man who death could not keep down. One man who defeated death on our behalf. Jesus went through death and rose again so that we can be sure that death, while certain, is not the end. Those who trust in Jesus can be comforted by the fact that they too will be raised from the dead to live forever with Him. This does not take away the pain of death, or make grief disappear but it is a comfort to know that on the other side of death we will see the face of our glorious King and Saviour.

What’s more… we know amongst the uncertainty of death that God is in control. We may not understand how things work, why healthy people die without notice and those who are terminally ill live beyond the expectations of medical professionals. But one thing we can know is God’s character, that he is faithful, loving, merciful, gracious, slow to anger, kind, patient… we can know the God who knows what’s going on. And we can trust Him!!

“The fear of the Lord – that is wisdom” (Job 28:28).

2007-07-25T21:19:00.000+10:00

If you've seen and love Empire Records then you might understand what I mean when I say at the moment I feel a little like Lucas.

"A.J.: What's with you? Yesterday you were normal and today you're like the Chinese guy from the Karate Kid. What's with you today?
Lucas: What's with today today?"

Well, perhaps not exactly like Lucas...

Change

2007-07-21T19:46:00.000+10:00

I love change... I enjoy new things, new adventures, new relationships, change is generally a positive in my books. But change doesn't always come easily. Change can come through a tough time, or a end of something, or an epiphany. Change can be unexpected or much anticipated. Change can be painful or carefree. Change...

In the last couple of weeks God has been changing me. He has been teaching me so much. This kind of change, change at the core of who we are, is generally, no, nearly always painful. It hurts my head to think so hard about things and it scares me as I am shown some of the ugliest parts of who I am. This change at the time is really sucky. But this is the best kind of change.

This is the change that sees the beaten down weather board house turned into a glorious heavenly building. This is the product of the Spirit's work in His people. This is God, the master renovator at work. But the new improved house does not come without the knocking down of some walls or a hole or two. It come with pain and hard work. But the end result... is priceless!!!

Kick Back & Relax... with old friends!!

2007-07-15T09:30:00.000+10:00

Funnily enough I never really thought Canberra would be the place I would end up for a winter holiday but it has been really great. I mean, I am FREEZING but seeing my friend Jenny has been really good and today I'm catching up with an old friend, Kerryn, from Uni, who I haven't seen for maybe 2 or 3 years. I can't wait!! Kerryn and I used to pray together during our final year at uni but life gets crazy, as life does, and we haven't caught up since then. Also tomorrow I'm seeing Kelly!! I lived with Kell for 2 years at MAC but this year she has been living in Melbourne at St Andrews Hall (the training place for CMS Missionaries) because she is preparing to go to Japan next year as a missio.

I guess lately I have been thinking a lot about how precious good friends are. They are the kind of friends who no matter how long it has been since you've seen them, its always great to catch up. Ther kind of friends who instantly you pick up where you left off and it feels like you were chatting only yesterday. The kind of friends who know you so well and love you anyway. The kind of friends who you can be yourself around and not worry you are going to say something dumb (coz they've heard you say the dumbest things already). The kind of friends you'll have for life!! What a precious gift these friends are. I'm just so excited that God has given me such amzing friends. What a blessing!!!

2007-07-09T22:40:00.000+10:00

I am begining to feel like the idea of having a holiday might just be real... It's been a long time in the making and is well and truly overdue.

This year has been quite hard work. My family has been quite sick and with Nan getting sick and dying so suddenly things got put on hold.

But finally I am getting to the end of playing this catch-up game that I have been playing for the past 3 months or so now. I'm getting excited at the prospects of being back ontrack with everyone in my year. I have now finished 2 overdue essays and my work from over summer (literally finished about 15mins ago). Now I have to prepare for my next essay which is due 2nd week back and I have a 10 min sermon to prepare and preach to 2 of my classmates... but before I really get stuck into all that... I'm going on holidays!!!!

So, Thursday I head down to Wollongong for the night, see some family and friends then I head to Canberra for the weekend to catch up with some friends who I haven't seen for a while (a couple of the girls I'm going to catch up with I haven't seen for 2-3 years). So that should be great!! Then I head back towards Sydney and stay 2 nights with a really good friend (who I have known since I was 6). I'm really looking forward to that. There is something amazing about friends that you have known for that long. No matter how long its been since you've seen them, things are always the same... It's such a joy!! I can't wait!!

I'm also looking forward to things in the future...
* Getting on top of study and getting the most out of the last 18 months at college
* The birth of my nephew in September
* Planning for a holiday to France next July (my first trip overseas)
* Working out what to do as a student minister next year

It's been a while since I've felt this excited about the future... But mostly I'm excited about the prospects of sharing the gospel with those around me and seeing people grow in their relationship with God... What a joy and a privilege it is be apart of God's amazing work. It's really amazing to see how God changes people's hearts right in front of our eyes. It is so humbling (and reassuring) too to know that it is God who gives the growth in people's lives. How amazing is He!?!?

We'll this is a bit of a long entry... sorry about that... I do hope that you are still with me... trying to make up for lost time I think :)

I'm sure there is so much more I could write right now but I wont put you through it... Thanks for reading...

Long Time, No See...

2007-06-07T14:48:00.000+10:00

A lot can happen in a short period of time...And this seems to be the case in my life regularly.

In the last couple of months my nan died, I had to preach a sermon at College, I went on Moore College Mission, my grandma had an operation... and well that's the tip of the iceburg. And I have been sick for about 2 weeks now, with the symtoms of my flu changing everyday... very bizzare.

Anyways, some good things that have been happening...

My oldest brother and his girlfriend are going to be having our first nephew in September - and yes, I am that crazy Aunty that just wants to buy everything for him. His name so far in his life (well, life in the womb anyhow) is Gumnut!! I'm particularly excited about him and I can't wait until he arrives in the world and I get to spoil him all the more.

The other good thing is that I finally finished my Doctrine essay (this was due nearly 2 months ago). I finally got it handed in on Tues. Now I just have to do my Ethics essay which will be 2 1/2 weeks late - oh well better late than never I guess.

So sorry again for the absence (this is becoming a recurring theme) and sorry this post is not particularly exciting. I will try to post more regularly but wont make promises that I'm unlikely to keep.

Draft: Complete!!

2007-04-22T16:43:00.000+10:00

I have the first draft of my sermon being looked at by a friend at the moment!! Praise God!! He has been very generous in this sermon coming together quite quickly. Thankyou for all your prayers.

Now I pray that the same thing will happen with my essay.

Thanks again guys.

Tasks for the next week or so

2007-04-16T15:00:00.000+10:00

* Essay
* Sermon (Preaching next Tues @ Chicks Chapel)
* Summer Work (Needs to be finished by Monday)
* SLEEP!!!
* Perhaps I'll work a shift or two to earn some money - but perhaps I wont too.

Apologies for the silence...

2007-04-14T23:20:00.000+10:00

Not that anyone is really paying attention to this little blog these days, but I thought I would apologise for the silence nonetheless...

My family has been sick, my Nan died this week, I have been trying to get things that need to be done done...

My apologies...

Eph 2:8-10

2007-03-11T15:52:00.000+11:00

"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-- and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."

These verses are dear to my heart at the moment. God just keeps bringing me back to them. Verses 8 and 9 are so well know that you probably didn't even need me write them in but sometimes I think we miss part of the goodness when we stop at verse 9.

I have been doing some thinking on predestination and a whole bunch of things and I am constantly excited, humbled and comforted by the fact that God designed me before the creation of the world to be the person I am now, born into the situation I was and chose me to be his child. He also prepared the good works that I am to do. So it's not like God looked down from heaven one day, saw me and thought, "Naomi Ireland...she looks like she's got some talent... maybe I'll pick her and she can do stuff for me." No!! Its actually the complete opposite. He designed me to be the person I am to do the good works he prepared for me in advance to do.

This has had 2 major implications for me in recent days. It has helped me see that I am just a faithful servant doing what God has already marked out for me. God is in control, it is his ministry not mine. No matter what my minitry looks like all praise and honour must go to God. I have a responsibility to be faithful in prayer and service but it is not MY ministry it's God's. I can only plant the seed or water it... it is God who makes it grow. This both humbles me and relieves me!

The second is that I cannot find my worth in the ministry I do. I don't know if you fall prey to the same temptaions that I do but I often feel like my value or worth as a minister of the gospel is found in the results of the ministry I do. But this is a major lie of the Devil. My value and worth is found in the fact that I am God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus and that He has chosen, by grace, to save me, completely separate from anything I have done.

"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-- and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."

What an amazing God!!

The Beauty of the Storm

2007-03-04T23:49:00.000+11:00

How amazing are thunder storms?!?!?! I wish I had a photo of the storm
that is currently making its mark in our skies but if you live anywhere
in Sydney (or probably Wollongong for that matter) I'm sure you know
exactly what I am talking about.

This storm has an imminent presence right around Sydney. It felt as close in Kingsgrove as it does in Newtown. BRILLIANT!!

It's at moments like these that you remember how amazingly powerful our God is. So powerful that at the moment he says "stop", the rain and thunder & lightning of a seemingly unpredictable and uncontrollable storm will cease immediately. And the even more profound thing is that this is the God who loves me, knows me intimately and has the best planned for my life. And who can argue with a God like that?!?!

Storms both reassure me and excite me...

2007 is going to be a good year!!

2007-02-28T20:34:00.000+11:00

Today I did a little more spring cleaning... and it feels good!!

Clean Room, Clean Mind!!

2007-02-26T20:15:00.000+11:00

Anyone who knows me, knows my room is not the tidiest place in the
world. But people who know me also know that I really don't like it
being messy I just never get time to do anything about it. Well... I
dedicated today to "getting my life sorted." This started with organising
my room. This, however, could not have been done without the help of
Tania and Anthony... so a special thanks to you guys.

So my room is nearly organised and life is getting on track for a new year at
College. This morning we had 2 hours of Doctrine with Doyley ...
Eschatology. It was great really good. I'm really looking forward to
getting stuck into college this year...I'm all about the focus!! - well
we'll see how I go ;)

But now it is time for the Soiree...

Hope

2007-02-14T11:27:00.000+11:00

Over the last couple of weeks I have been thinking quite a bit about heaven and about the results of having a sure hope of our inheritence in heaven. I spent a fair bit of time chatting to my friend Sue on holidays about heaven and how we long to be in heaven where we will have complete rest; no pain, no aggravation, no tiredness, no stress, just peace!! Peace in the presence of our Lord... what a concept!! At about this time I was reading about faith and hope in Calvin too.

The more I though about hope the more my perspective on life changed. One day I said to Sue, "Will there ever be a day when I wont feel tired?" And her simple and profound response was, "Yep, in heaven." How true that is.

I think having a sure hope of heaven give us both a sense of discomfort/lack of contentment and one of complete contentment. This sounds a bit strange I know but bare with me...

Our lack of contentmet comes from the fact that this world isn't our home. We long for heaven with an almost painful yearning. We aren't satisfied with this world because we know that a much better one is on its way. Yet...

Our hope also produces in us a contentment. We become more content with our everyday existence because we stop expecting heaven in this life now. If we don't expect that there will be a day when we aren't tired until we get to heaven, we don't get as disappointed when we wake up each day feeling tired. If we don't expect that people will always be kind and loving towards us, we aren't as disappointed when we are hurt by the people we love. But this isn't a pessimistic outlook. Its not to say we walk around thinking, "No one loves me, everybody hates me, I think I'll eat some worms." No, it just reduces our expectations...

Hope teaches us to trust more in God and his purposes for our lives and to not expect too much from this life. But it also teaches us to eagerly wait for the time when Jesus will return. How liberating!!

WATCH OUT!!

2007-02-11T17:16:00.000+11:00

Sgt. Pepper may be after you... You better be careful what you say...

I think I will be seeing a lot of Sgt. Pepper in the future...

Check out this video on You Tube... It's a complete CRACK UP!! Man I love these guys!!

Oh and... Don't Be That Guy!!

sigh of relief

2007-01-19T12:21:00.000+11:00

It is over!! I have done my Hebrew exam! And I don't have the feeling of being completely ill that I had the last 3 times that I sat it, so here's hoping. It's all kinda funny because I had been so cocky this year when it came to Hebrew, "All I need is 3% more than last year" was my catch cry so I slacked off and did next to no work. What I should have done instead was knuckle down and absolutely aced it since I had done the course once already. And the funniest thing is that I got exactly 3% less in this final exam than I did last year. God has a funny sense of humour. His way of humbling me I guess.

So this time round I worked as hard as I could in 2 weeks (around work and church) and threw myself upon God's mercy and I think this time it might be ok. But it has taught me a valuable lesson about humility. No matter how good you think you are at something God can always put you to shame if he has to. He wants diligent and faithful servants, not cocky, lazy ones. So this year (as I say every year) I am going to work really hard a being a nerd. I am going to do my very best to be faithful and diligent in my studies coz this year I am really going to need it.

Thanks for your prayers. Keep them up...I'll certainly need them :)

Now I'm off on holidays for 10 days!!! Yay!! Singing at friend's wedding tomorrow in Toowoomba then heading to spend some time with friends in Lismore. Can't Wait!! I really need this break!

Hebrew...Friday!

2007-01-17T15:39:00.000+11:00

Hebrew and I say our final goodbyes on Friday morning from 9am-11am. I would really appreciate your prayers for this. I still have a bit of work to do and not a lot of time to do it in. Also I am fairly exhausted at the moment. Plese pray that I will learn effectively and have the energy to study. Oh... and that I pass this time!!!

Thanks :)

An Ode to Liz

2007-01-13T15:59:00.000+11:00

This post is dedicated to my dear friend Liz. Liz has become a faithful reader of Nomes News and so far her faithfulness has not been rewarded. So here it is for you Liz, a whole post dedicated to you...

Well, between working in the shop, stuff at and for church, studying for Hebrew and well, socialising, there has been little time to blog. So I am sorry for the time between posts. But... life is good although tiring. I am really looking forward to my holiday coming up in 7 sleeps!! I am heading to Toowoomba for friends from church's wedding which I am singing at. Very exciting and scary - my first publicish gig where you will really be able to hear my voice - this is a little scary. But I have been practising lots and my voice has improved thanks to my singing teacher, Nicole's, brilliance. If you need a good and affordable singing teacher I'm sure she will be happy to have more students :) Then after the wedding I head to Lismore for a week with friends and their family (lots and lots of babies!!). So I will have 10 tens days of holidays all up - CAN"T WAIT!!!

In other exciting news my friend Ali just moved over from NZ. It has been great to see her and spend some time hanging out. She is a champion. It is great to have her in the country. I am looking forward to spending more time with her over the next year or so.

Oh and I got to speak to my mum last night. That was brilliant!! I love my mum and at the moment she is in France putting furniture into her new house... yes you heard (well read) right... FRANCE!! Very exciting. And she will be renting it as a holiday house so if you are heading to France and want somewhere to stay in the South check out my mum's website and book her house - frenchvilliageexperience.com

Tues ends my stay in the deluxe house :( I have enjoyed being there, having my own space, and having people over - and I've enjoyed the pool and the LCD screen TV ;)

Well tomorrow is going to be a long day and there is still lots of work to be done...

Liz... you rock my socks ;)

There is no Hebrew...

2007-01-04T15:47:00.000+11:00

I was given a supp for Hebrew!! I always had one but the transcript I received didn't show it. I always get flustered and upset by these things and they always turn out to be ok. You would think that I would have learnt by now to trust God... but I guess even trust doesn't take away the pain of disappointment. But this time will be different. I am going to work hard and cream Hebrew. No more of this fluffing around. This will be the last time!! No more Hebrew!! (I do really love Hebrew but like a child or an animal it needs a lot of attention - which obviously I have not given it - so this final supp will be our parting *sigh*)

For those who want to know...

2006-12-30T21:44:00.000+11:00

I did get my results... I passed everything except Hebrew (again!)... but hopefully will get a supp and will not make the same lazy mistake next time.... Hebrew will be conquered!!!

Comatose

2006-12-27T18:46:00.000+11:00

This is how I feel at the moment. I am tired and starting to get sick :(

But life in general is looking much better... I have made a lot of helpful decisions in the last week I think. It was the week for reflecting and being proactive. I'll see how long these things last.

I have also had so much fun entertaining people lately. It is a blessing to have such a lovely house to be able to do that. I have realised how much I enjoy having people over, preparing food for them and being able to be hospitable. It is a great blessing to be able to be in one place for such a long time and a place that allows me to be able to entertain. If you would like to come over at some point and eat some food, drink some wine and hang out with me, feel free to let me know :)

But for now I think it is time for me to have some dinner and pass out just like this cat ;)

Hectic!!

2006-12-20T10:30:00.000+11:00

Life in the last couple of weeks have been crazy. I have been loving working at Glassons and again hanging out with my cousin. She is such a blessing to have around and I know it has been good for her to have me around too. It is nice to feel appreciated. She says that I am her God-send in the shop and I feel much the same about this job. It is a God-send for me at this point.

But I have had so much stuff on too. Last weekend was mental. Between working 5 days last week and anticipating the 5 I would work this week in the shop I still had to lead and 8.30am Prayerbook service at Church, organise craft and have my minimites class (21 2-4y/o's), give a talk at youth group, organise a NYE Party and all of that was on one day!!

With the stress of possibly not getting everything I need to do done I got a headache on Sat that is still visiting me. I took Monday off work and just read a book, hung out by the pool and slept.

As for me... In general I am doing heaps better than I could have ever anticipated... still get sad... I wish things could have been different... but life goes on...

Momentary blackout for the homeless

2006-12-11T23:34:00.000+11:00

Yes I am once again homeless for 3 months that is why I have been in a bit of a blackout and haven't blogged much... but now I have landed in a great house for over a month... 4 bedrooms, 4 levels, a pool, a plasma screen TV... really, does life get any better than this? ;)

Not only that but I started my job with my cousin at Glassons in Chatswood. It is fun to be hanging out with her more (she is so full of life and energy - I love her), and to be busy selling clothes again, earning money and having a life that is quite separate from college - ahhh so nice.

I have been in this house only 4 nights and have already had Tan and Lis sleep over, a sleep over Christmas party with the girls in my homegroup, and Wed night will be a Survivor party. Wow, I love having a house to entertain in. It is so much fun.

I also got to spend a night at Wagstaffe with the Party Boulevard crew... gee I miss you guys!! They are so much fun and the great thing is, they accept me as I am. They love me whether I'm happy or sad. It was great to be back hanging out with the old crowd again - ahhh a place to belong.

Refiner's Fire...

"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose" Rom 8:28.

This has been what I have been holding onto so tightly lately. Even in the hard times... particularly in the hard times this promise is true. It is often really hard to trust this promise when things are difficult. About 4 years ago I prayed that God would break me and make me into the person he wanted me to be, but that he would wrap his arms around me as he does it. [WARNING: this is a dangerous prayer to pray so don't pray it if you don't mean it!] If there is one thing I have learnt over these last 4 years is that it is through these hard times that God is actually doing his best work. He is refining us and making us more like Jesus. Our faith is like gold that needs to be refined and purified but this only occurs as it is put into the fire and the impurities are melted away.

Thank you Lord for these hard times... Thank you that it means I am being made more and more into the likeness of your Son... Thank you that this is ultimately your good purpose for my life... Thank you through the hard times your promises are true and we can trust you!!

That's What Friends Are For...

2006-11-29T18:54:00.000+11:00

"Keep smiling, keep shining
Knowing you can always count on me, for sure
That's what friends are for
In good times, in bad times
I'll be on your side forever more
Oh, that's what friends are for"

I have always loved this song... And today this song goes out to all my friends and family who not only have made the last couple of days bearable but have made today such a beautiful day.

To be honest I was kinda dreading today. I felt like it was jut going to be awful and lonely... But God has blessed me with some gorgeous girlfriends who surprised me with a birthday picnic. There was champagne, strawberries, chicken wraps, brownie cake... the view was beautiful, the food was beautiful and the company was beautiful!! Thank you girls for such an amazing day.

Also thanks to Urban Bites... probably the best cafe in Sydney. The place where no one could possibly ever be sad.

But mostly I have God to thank for providing me with such amazing friends and family... Looks like things can only get better from here...

Coz that's what friends are for...

Life...

2006-11-27T14:14:00.000+11:00

One of my ex-boyfriends had a beautiful baby boy, one of my good friend's got engaged, my brother set a date for his wedding... I just want to be ecstatic for them, but the pain is so great.

My birthday is on Wed... not shaping up to be particularly good.

I start work at Glassons with my cousin on Thurs... hopefully that will be a good distraction.

Life... it can be so hard... so much pain amongst all the joy.

I praise God that I am his child... not sure how I would survive if that wasn't the case.

Endings...

2006-11-26T23:50:00.000+11:00

End of exams...

End of another year of life...

End of some things beautiful...

So many mixed emotions... So little energy... So much in need of a rest...

2006-11-21T21:50:00.000+11:00

Things you CAN'T do when you're NOT in a pool

Just as well I will have a pool over summer or this could be me!!

Party Plans!!

2006-11-15T16:25:00.000+11:00

Ok... so I'm thinking dinner and drinks on the 24th Nov.

Dinner: Litani's Lebanese Restaurant, 120 Corrimal St, Wollongong @ 7.30pm.

Drinks: Somewhere in Wollongong after that.

If you're keen to come along and hang out (particularly for dinner) then please let me know by next Wed (22nd Nov).

YAY!! :)

I know I can... I know I can...

2006-11-15T12:55:00.000+11:00

With not a great deal of sleep behind me I sat my NT Exegetical Exam today. When I first got in there, I freaked out!!! "I don't know enough to translate these or write anything about them!" Then I started translating and it wasn't that bad... Praise God for the ESV!! ;)

I think I wrote 3 decent exegetical papers that they should find it difficult to fail. Not brilliant but definitely not failable. So I think I can say that I have passed NT.

Now I have a bit of space to prepare for OT Theology and Exegesis next Mon & Tues and then Church History on Thurs. Ahhh, a moment to breathe... but only a moment.

I also realised that tomorrow it will only be 2 weeks until my birthday!! I didn't really realise it was that close. I am normally excited for months beforehand. It has kinda crept up on me this year :)

Am thinking about having a dinner and drinks thing in Wollongong on the Friday night beforehand so if anyone is around maybe you would like to see the sights of the gorgeous Wollongong for a night. But I will keep you posted.

I think I can... I think I can...

2006-11-14T17:41:00.000+11:00

I am feeling a little like The Little Engine that Could... except I haven't quite made it to the "I know I can... I know I can" bit yet.

I sat our NT theology paper today and have NT Exegesis tomorrow.

I am tired and feeling like my brain is failing but I have so much work to do.

Not feeling overly confident with NT altogether. I mean I think I passed today but not with flying colours.

And tomorrow is in Greek. Ah Greek! I love it and I hate it!! I guess I just wish I had done more work.

Gangster Ball

2006-11-07T16:03:00.000+11:00

Some pics from the Ball...

Warts and All

2006-11-06T17:25:00.000+11:00

I want people to love me warts and all. I am not perfect. I will always have faults. But I want to be loved despite my flaws. I want to be loved for ALL of me and this includes my flaws. They are a part of me and although I don't necessarily like them they contribute to who I am. Is it wrong to want to be loved for who you are, warts and all?? I want to be loved for who I am even if I never changed. Is this something unreasonable?

Can you care about someone's godliness yet still love them even if they never changed? Or should you expect people to change in areas of godliness? Is it true love that wants to see the person change or true love that loves them despite their faults??

I want to grow and change and be more like Jesus. I want his Spirit to be refining me. But I also want to be loved warts and all.

I guess God loved us warts and all. He loved us even when we were his enemies. He loved us so much that he chose to die on a cross for us. But then his love changes us. He love us so much that he saved us to be made like his son. How does this translate into how we are to love each other?? I am so confused.

Here is one man's interpretation of God's love...

Your Love Changes Me
(Nathan Tasker)

I look in the mirror at the man in front of me
Just a hazy reflection of all the things I want to be
So frustrated by all the compromise
So embarrassed by the way I feast on the hollow lies
When your truth is so much sweeter
And your love is so much deeper

Well you cannot love me more and you will not love me more
Though I come to you with nothing I receive your righteousness
I come just as I am, oh, but here's the mystery
While I can come without changing, your love changes me

I sometimes imagine when I am all alone
Given some more time I could have done this on my own
How can I be so blinded by my pride?
How can I forget I was dead before you gave me life?
For you are the great life giver and you are the promise keeper

Well you cannot love me more and you will not love me more
Though I come to you with nothing I receive your righteousness
I come just as I am, oh, but here's the mystery
While I can come without changing, your love changes me

Nothing of my own I bring simply to your cross I cling
Nothing of my own so I know it's you alone that gives me everything

For you loved before I loved you and you've done what I could never do

Well you cannot love me more and you will not love me more
Though I come to you with nothing I receive your righteousness
I come just as I am, oh, but here's the mystery
While I can come without changing, your love changes me

To be known...

2006-10-29T10:18:00.000+11:00

I have been contemplating a lot lately about how helpful it is to let lots of people know all about you. I am an extremely open person who is quite real and not afraid of my emotions. But I have been thinking about how helpful that is. When do I need to hold back? Who am I to keep a bit of distance from? How am I to still be real without baring all??? I am not sure. But I am working on this.

However, there are advantages to being open. It means that people can know you. And this is truly an amazing thing. To be known by someone and to be able to know someone. What a privilege!!

I felt this was really true when my friend bw painted me a painting for my room. It is beautiful and it is totally me!!! I love it! It sits proudly above my bed and matches my room perfectly. Thanks chick!!

Redecorating!!

2006-10-10T16:31:00.000+10:00

There is always a joy in redecorating. It makes a space feel more like you and this is always comforting. It is nice to live in a space that you feel at home in.

Well, Josh has changed rooms recently at Chappo and has been going about making his room feel more like his space. He has asked some friends to do some paintings for his walls. One of our friends Bec did an awesome 3 part painting in oranges and reds (and hopefully this will make it to Josh's blog soon - when he gets around to blogging again). They look fantastic above his desk.

He also asked one of his friends from uni to do a painting for him and this one is a little more telling. Ricky knows Josh well!! You have to take a look at the master piece called "Striking Josh" on Ricky's Blog. It will definitely make his room feel more like him :)

On a completely random note... The MAC/Moore Ball was on Friday night. Once I get my hands on some good pics I will tell you all about it.

A Reflection

2006-10-04T10:13:00.000+10:00

It is difficult when someone you care so much about reflects back to you something that is really ugly about who you are or who you have become , for whatever reason.*

It is like when you look in the mirror and see a massive blemish that just dominates your face. It is hiddeous and you barely want to look at yourself.

This is kinda how I feel at the moment. What makes this so hard is that I know it's true. And it hurts people that I love. The only thing that I can do at this point is to throw myself on the mercy of my Heavenly Father and pray that he will change my heart and make me into the woman he wants me to be. For all you praying types, I would deeply appreciate your prayers on this.

I really just want to reflect Jesus!!

* Mostly there are good reasons for these things but that doesn't make them any less ugly and painful to deal with.

God's Surprises

2006-09-13T11:10:00.000+10:00

I am supposed to be reading for and writing a Doctrine essay (which really needs to be mostly finished by Wed night) but my head is so full and busy with other things, which might have to do a little with the hours I have been keeping lately.

The last couple of weeks have been full of surprises from God. I have been thinking a little about how God works in our lives. Sometimes you can see fairly instantly why God lets and makes things happen in your life and sometimes it takes the gift of hind-sight to really see what is going on. Sometimes these surprises come in the form of hardships and sometimes in events of absolute delight.

I am pleased to finally report that there has been more of the latter than the former lately (although the former hasn't been absent). I have been reminded again of how true it is that when you let go of your attempt to control your life God really blesses you. And he blesses you beyond what your brain could have conceived. It is funny how God really does know better than us and it's funny how we constantly try to live otherwise. I guess this is kinda related to my essay (I am looking at the significance of the Fall being a historical event). We as humans always want to tell God what to do and how to do it. We think we know what is best for us but more often than not (in fact pretty much most of the time) we don't know what we are talking about because we can't see the whole picture.

We like to give God our broken toys to fix but we want to hang around and boss him about while he fixes them. This is where my (well God's really - he just happened to clear it up for me recently) Philippians 4 Diversion Therapy comes in. Paul urges us to "not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present [our] requests to God" (v6). And he promises us that "the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard [our] hearts and minds in Christ Jesus" (v7). But it is only recently that I began to put the rest of the chapter in the context of the whole. You see, a wise father gives his child another toy to play with in order to distract their attention from the broken toy. And this is what Paul tells us to do in the next verse (v8). He tells us to think about true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and praiseworthy things. I think that this is the secret of contentment that Paul learned. Give your cares and worries to God, distract your thinking and let him deal with them...and he will bless you beyond your wildest dreams.

Now I am working on applying this in the area of my finances. But I know that God is good and he wants to give his children good gifts. And boy has he proved that recently!!! What a joy and a privilege it is to be a child of the God who created the heavens and the earth.

If you are a child of God - REJOICE with Paul (Phil 4:4)!!!
And if you are not then please consider it!!!

Shenanigans!!! And some serious stuff!

2006-08-12T19:58:00.000+10:00

I really should be heading to bed right now but I thought that I would blog about the crazy night that just occurred (and plus I haven't blogged for a while and who knows when the next installment will come).

Went out for farewell drinks for friends who are going overseas for 3 months - good chance to catch up with fam and friends....
then the small college contingent arrives... Dani, Lisa, JT and Anthony.... and this is where things start to get interesting...
Well, there was the phone discovery - some poor person had left their phone behind. Let's just say this incident involved Anthony's number ending up in this random person's phone.
Then some how we managed to get onto JT's dream girl - and this was a springboard for a whole bunch of craziness. Conversation on this and related topics lasted for a good 2-3 hours including a trip to Maccas at Ashfield. We all had to list our top 5 qualities of our ideal partner which had Lisa wanting someone who "likes doing stuff" and Anthony set on his wife "being dumber than him" :) We had the privilege of hearing some of JT's theories on boys and girls (you can ask him about those) and many other mad things. [This night seemed a whole lot funnier before I started blogging about it but oh well we will continue...] Pretty much Lisa and I were "psychos" ("but lovable psychos" - quote JT) being absolutely ridiculous.

However, on a more serious note... we did get to discussing what we think Christian leadership looks like in a marriage. For anyone who has spent much time with me lately you will know that I am in "Renovation Period", this pretty much means that my brain is working over-time and I am questioning and re-evaluating pretty much most things in my life and one of the things that I have been thinking about is Christian Leadership in marriage...

I think conventionally we are taught that headship is about the guy being spiritual more mature, have a better grasp of the Bible and making the decisions. Does submission have to mean being quiet and agreeable?... I have been starting to ask if this is really what the Bible is talking about or is that just something we have come up with. Anyways, so some of the helpful things that came out of tonight is that maybe knowledge is about relational knowledge? Maybe the husband has to be the initiator of spiritual things? Maybe who is more "mature" than who doesn't matter? Maybe Bible knowledge is not really where it is at? Relationships is about "knowing" the person. That is relational knowledge. And this kind of true relational knowledge only comes through self-revelational. We know people because they tell us about themselves. And we know God because he has told us about himself in his word. So maybe this is the key to leadership in a marriage... someone who is going to encourage you as an individual and a couple to grow in relational knowledge of God? Because relational knowledge isn't just about the head, it is about expressing love through action. It is not effective unless it in the context of people relating to one another...

I don't know... It is very late and my thoughts are probably very incoherent. If you have any wisdom to donate to this cause of mine please feel free to share it with me.

Mission Accomplished!!

2006-08-03T10:26:00.000+10:00

Ok... so I got to bed about 4am this morning with an almost complete essay (not a very good one but almost complete nonetheless), nearly didn't get out of bed - so thank God for my Dad calling me this morning - I still had to re-read and fix up my essay a little, write a synopsis, print it out and hand it in (all in about an hour and 20mins in the end). But it is not done!!

I also went to the doctor today for a check-up, had some blood tests so my arm is sore at the moment but it was nice to get out and have a walk over to Glebe. But this means I didn't go to class today.

Had coffee with my women's chaplain. Managed to freak JT (and a bunch of others) out by how quickly I can tell a quite complicated story. Wrote my bible study for home group tonight in record time (thanks for that God!!). And now am going to nap so I can function tonight.

That is about all - my brain has turned to mush!!!

Grrrr...

2006-08-02T20:58:00.000+10:00

I am very sleepy!!! I was not planning on being up at this time of night for this essay. I have words but it is still not finished. I need to re-read it and check it and also fix up my very dodgy intro and conclusion. But now I am going to attempt to sleep for a few hours and hope that I will be able to achieve this in the morning before 10am! This is not my best essay!

2006-08-01T17:06:00.001+10:00

I finally started writing my OT essay. I am writing on Gen 3:14-19 and its implications on the theological idea of curse. Very interesting. As always I have left my essay to the last minute. Most people at this stage have almost finished (or at least have about 2000 words down) but me I am just getting going. My excuse is that I need the pressure of deadlines to produce my best work (and so far I have not been disappointed).

Currently I have 351 words!!! Need at least 2700 by 10am Wed morning!!

So tomorrow will be a big day. I am working to avoid staying up all night tomorrow night. That would not be pleasant. I doubt that would produce my best work. Well it is time to sleep as Tan will be giving me my wake-up call at 7am. (What a girl!... She is almost becoming the wake up caller for all of MAC).

And... a pinch and a punch for the first day of the month :) he he he

The World of Blogging

2006-07-29T12:50:00.000+10:00

My friend, Lisa, just joined the world of blogging. And what a strange world this is. It is a place where the personal thoughts of people are readily available to everyone in the world. And often it takes the place of real relationships (this is a debate I am constantly having with one of my friends). But whatever it is Lisa has really taken to it. This is somewhat of a surprise since she is easily distracted (and she herself would confess this). But she is in the process of really making her mark in the world of blogging. She commenting regularly all over the place and she is getting lots of readers and comments too. She is really putting me to shame :)

Holidays...

2006-07-08T06:48:00.000+10:00

Well time does pass... (nothing unusual for me). College is finished for another semester. I have already enjoyed 2 weeks of holidays and have 2 to go. So far my holidays have consisted in lots of sleeping, lots of movie watching and lots of relaxing with friends.

I have also been house sitting for 4 weeks in Carlton which has been fantastic!! It is so nice to have some space and time to think. I have also loved getting to spend more time with people from church. They are great. I have made some really amazing friends here.

Last weekend I played in the squash tournament in Dapto and walked away with a new racquet which is exciting. The sad thing is that I was playing in the wrong grade. But these things happen. It was great to see friends that I don't get to see very often and have some fun hanging out with my bro and others.

Don't really have much planned for the rest of my holidays just enjoying doing nothing and having no plans. That is something that I haven't done for so long!!

Well, I have jut written my semi-regular (kinda like my posts) newsletter. If you are keen to have a read then let me know and I can send it your way. Not sure how to post it on here - I am a little old fashion still :)

Until next time...

On MAC!

2006-06-11T16:10:00.000+10:00

I feel like I need to add a disclaimer to my previous post on MAC. Yes I do struggle to live at MAC but that is largely due to my childhood and living at MAC brings up things that I guess I haven't dealt with properly yet. MAC is not really bad and many girls really enjoy living here. And to be honest there have been things that I have enjoyed about living in this community. It has been a great place to foster friendships (some of the friends I have met here are invaluable to me). It is a place where people care for each other and look out for each other.

Often when our emotions are sore then things get a little out of perspective (as they did for me on Monday). MAC is not a bad place to be. It has been difficult for me, it is true, but I am only 1 out of 42 girls and each girl has her own story. Some really enjoy living here. And any college-like place that you live in (even with just a couple of girls in a house) has its ups and downs. There will always be little things that bug you - but that is life - you can't avoid it. But that is not to say that it is a horrible place to be. I guess there is just so much stuff going on in my head at the moment, lots of emotions I am trying to sort through and this also heightens the feelings you have. It is also sinful nature to lash out at something tangible when you are having an emotional overload. And I am quite aware of my sinful nature.

On Tues I went and spoke to the Dean of Students here at MAC about how I was feeling and she was amazing. It says a lot when people who are a part of the institution you struggle with will happily sit down with you and empathize with how you are feeling while maintaining their commitment to the institution. It was a very helpful time.

So I guess the bottom line is that I am quite ashamed of saying the things I said in my out burst on Monday and I am sorry if they have tainted people's view of MAC. While I struggle here, I am aware that it is not completely MAC's fault and that there are lots of things that I need to deal with too. I hope these thoughts are helpful too.

Now it is time for me to sleep.

It's been a while

2006-06-06T09:11:00.000+10:00

I apologize to those who actually read my blog for not updating for a while. But life has been consuming lately. I have not been coping well with life in general and to add to that I have had mountains of college work to do. Currently I am supposed to be writing a sermon that I am to preach in the morning at Chicks Chapel but it is tough and I have had an unpleasant interlude.

I guess if you know me personally out there you would know my struggles with living at MAC. Over the last little while they have heightened significantly and I am no longer coping very well at all with living here. I hate it. It is an inflexible institution that charges painfully high fees to FORCE you to live here. There seems to be little escape from this place. I have recently been looking at the prices of flats in the area but the sad thing is that even if I can move out I wont be able to do that until the end of this year. There is a little bit of light coming up as friends are going to Greece for 3 1/2 weeks (and possibly more) next tues and I will get to house sit their house for them. If you have a house and you will be going away anytime this year and would like someone to housesit then please let me know. I will happily look after pets and plants and even children if it gets me away from this place.

Well I should go and try to get this sermon done. For the prayers out there, please pray for me. I can do with all the prayer I can get right now!!

Mission is too close!!!

2006-05-01T16:23:00.000+10:00

For all you prayers out there please pray... Mission is fast approaching and I don't feel at all ready. This term is shaping up to be a massive term with lots of assessments and other stuff on. So any prayer for mission prep and just college would be very much appreciated. Mission is generally quite hectic particularly for the girls on team (coz there's not many of us) but we have 5 parish centers that we are involved with which makes our mission a tad crazier!!! It will be utterly exhausting (and when we are done we have a Greek exam the following Friday - yay!). And I only just realised that going on mission means that I miss 2 weeks of church - this is very sad. I totally love this church. It is really great!!

Anyways off to bed now - have had a massive weekend which I will fill you in on at some stage but not right now.

THE GREAT ESCAPE!!

2006-04-28T20:53:00.000+10:00

Its been a long time between drinks and I am sorry. The last week has been quite crazy. I have been writing an essay on witchcraft in the 16th Century which has taken up a lot of time plus been particularly depressing. But by God's grace I managed to hand it in on Monday (precisely at the due time) and now I don't have to think about it.YAY!!!

But let's go back to the Easter long weekend...

Here starts a most excellent adventure. Friday morning I went to church for Good Friday and that was tops. Not long after church had finished though I escaped to a world that existed at Newington Armory (Sydney Olympic Park) for three days. This was The Great Escape music festival. Tim (my brother) played with his band on Friday about lunch time. He was AWESOME!! What an exciting event in his growing music career to be put on a bill for such an awesome festival. This started a great weekend of phenomenal music. I would love to recount each moment for you but that would take forever and I am not sure I could do it justice. It was so good. I have entered a new world of amazing musicians and I am loving it. The festival had people like Sigur Ros, Donavon Frankenreiter, Roderigo y Gabriela, Eskimo Joe, The Black Keys, Silverchair, The Beautiful Girls, Something for Kate, Xavier Rudd, Bernard Fanning, Clare Bowditch, Martha Wainwright, and so much more. My favourites (apart from Tim) were Donavon, Sigur Ros and Roderigo y Gabriela. But everyone was great. In a little effort to do these great musicians some credit I will send you to the Great Escape website for you to look some of them up and see and hear for yourselves how great they are (www.thegreatescape.net.au). Also have a look at Tim's website it rocks too (www.timireland.com.au). I can't really express the amazing time I had listen to the music.

One thing I can express is my feelings about camping.... YUK!!! Freezing, dirty, smelly and gross. I hate camping!! But I survived it for the joy of the music. I camped with Jono (my bro), Bri (Jono & Tim's housemate), Amanda (Bri's sister) & Nick (one of Bri's friends) and that was great. It was great to hang out with them. I was so stoked that Amanda came along coz that meant that I got to know her but also that we didn't have to hang around the boys all the time. But it was just such a great weekend. Plenty of bonding (particularly the boys bonding), food and great music. I just loved it. It was my first experience of a music festival and it has certainly given me a massive taste for it.

On Sunday I had to leave about 3.30pm to go back to church. I had a shower for about half an hour to scrub the dirt off, clean my hair and generally just feel clean again!! Church was great that night. Dave preached an awesome sermon on Finding Life and clearly explained the gospel. Then after church I went back to the festival (really clean!!) to listen to Donavon and bring the tribe home. All in all one of the best weekends of my life so far!!!

The dream kinda continued somewhat into the next week (although it was essay week - going out to music became my lifeline in a depressing swamp of witchcraft reading). Tim played a gig at the Metro on the Wed with The Audreys (another band that played at the festival) and that was great (I didn't get home til after 2.30am that morning). Then Thurs night we got tickets to see Roderigo y Gabriel at the Newtown RSL and this was almost the best gig I have ever been to. These 2 are the most talented guitarists I have ever laid my eyes on. You have to see it to believe just how amazing they are. Gabriela would play her guitar while beating out the rhythm at the same time (all on her guitar) - AMAZING!!! Then Fri night Tim played again at the Excelsior in Glebe for a cozy and relaxed gig. This was a great end to an amazing week in the world of music.

I am still living in this new world of music and I am really loving it. I have wanted for ages to be exposed to new and quality music and now I feel like I am in a whole new world and it is a world that I love and feel very at home in.

Well life goes on...and it did. Back to church on the weekend and it was great again. I really love St George North. It is such an awesome church. Well I finished my essay on Mon then headed down to Wollongong to do some hard core holiday catch ups. I spent some time with my fam and lots of really loved friends. So that was excellent. I have my friend Sue coming down from Lismore tomorrow because she has a wedding in Sydney so I will get to spend lots of time with her which will be just fabulous!!! And also on Sat I have my long time friend Angie's wedding so that will also make for an excellent weekend.

All in all life on the outside has been great. However, life on the inside has been very turmultous. I think there is lots of stuff in my life that is quite tough to deal with so it makes living inside of me confusing and sad. Prayerfully, with God's help and others I will be able to work through this stuff ready to face the next trauma that comes along (and they roll around oh too regularly for my liking). But life does go on... so I keep plodding and try to work out in each trial what God is teaching me and trust that he is shaping me into the person he wants me to be.

Oh yeah... and boys are still stupid!!!! But I like them so much!

That is all for now I think...

Random...

2006-04-12T15:25:00.000+10:00

I know that it has been a while. But life is crazy and such has been my life lately. I am endeavoring to be a nerd this year so am trying really hard to do a decent amount of study. So some standard but excellent things that have happened during the week are squash, dancing and church. I love all of these things a lot!! Also last week Lisa came up from Orange (where she is doing an 8 week rural placement for Uni) and so we all hung out, spent a lot of time laughing and catching up. This was really great.

I started singing lessons again tonight!! My new singing teacher is a friend of my brothers'. I am looking forward to spending some time improving my voice. This will be good.

I feel that although I have been crazy busy life has not been particularly interesting in terms of reporting online. Boys continue to confuse me (although probably for different reasons now). They take up too much time and effort but for some reason I cannot just forget about them. We are getting geared up and organised for mission at the moment. This is a big job for the women becuase there is generally lots of women's' events but only a handful of women to spread around (this is not to mention all the other things that we are involved in too). But all-in-all I am really excited about mission. It will be a really good week I think!

Anyways, I am extremely tired and this entry is not particularly interesting so I think I will stop and save you all the time, effort and boredom and take myself to bed!

2006-04-02T17:14:00.000+10:00

Tonight was lots of fun... Tan and I bought a cheap bottle of wine an hung out on a nearby oval. A friend Dani came and joined us a little while later. It was fun. We talked mainly about boys (something new) and laughed a lot together. It was great.

Today was also good. Tan and I went to a Street Jazz class at Sydney Dance Company and that was good fun. It was hard work but great. I am also trying to catch up on my Summer Calvin reading and so did that this morning.

Last night I had dinner with a friend and talked some more about boys. But it was quite a lovely night that we will being doing again in the not too distant future.

Thursday night I won my squash match. That was very satisfying. I won 15-13 in the 5th (for those of you who at all understand anything about squash) which just means that it was a long and hard match. But very enjoyable and the fitness work I have been doing has seemed to pay off somewhat. So that was encouragement to keep training.

Anyway, I am going to take advantage of the extra hour sleep tonight so I am going to go to sleep. I hope you all sleep well too.

The week gone by...

2006-03-28T14:56:00.000+11:00

The week was quite a hectic week. I had every night out which gets a little bit much but on top of that I also had a Doctrine Book Review which was due today. So here is what happened...

Mon was college graduation. This was a great night. Graduation was at the town hall in the city so Naomi, Tan and I decided to go cheap clothes shopping in the city. I scored a couple cheap tops and 2 cheap belts. Very exciting!! Graduation was also good. Tan and I were in particularly silly moods which made for an extremely fun night. Then afterwards we got to catch up with some old friends which was also great.

Tues Tom Wright (Bishop of Durham in England) came to lecture at college. That was interesting but I was just so tired that I could focus properly on what he was saying (actually I think tiredness featured quite highly in the week). This day was also Seumas' Birthday so we went out to dinner to a vegan restaurant on King St. The food wasn't too bad but I had the buffet and it just wasn't hot enough. But then we went for gelato and that was GREAT!!

Wed was Bible study night. Another interesting night studying Hebrews. This hasn't been the easiest book to study especially since I have girls in my group at very different stages in their spiritual walk and very different levels in their knowledge of the Bible. It has been a real challenge and a stretch to really think hard about the individual girls in my group and to work out the best way to encourage them. But I think I am getting there.

Thursday is squash night. This night I filled in for a team in the West Comp and so I had to play at Windsor which took about an hour each way. But I won fairly easily and it was a nice enough game.

Fri I baby sat for the most delightful family. They are a gorgeous English family with 2 of the most well behaved children I have seen. They are 5 and 9 and they are just so delightful. It was also nice to earn a bit of cash while working on my book review.

Sat was a nice day. We went down to wollongong for my mum's birthday. I got to see family and catch up with one of my cousins who I haven't seen in ages. That was really nice. Then Sat night was a housewarming in Syd. Needless to say I did not get any work done this day.

Sundays these days are always great. I really love my new church. It is nice to go to such a great church to make my move away from my home church easier. But the people there are just so great. But perhaps I will tell you more about them in another blog.

So anyways, I got my assignment in, had dinner and went for a walk. So now it is time for me to go and do some Greek!!

Ouch...

2006-03-16T19:13:00.000+11:00

The hard thing about investing so much of yourself in any relationship or anything is that the potential for getting hurt increases dramatically. I hate that things in this life hurt so much. I wish that we could be in Heaven now where there would be no more crying or pain for the old order of things will have passed away. I know that through these times God is holding me fast and that in 2 or so years time I will look back and see how God used this time in my life to bring about his good purposes but that doesn't ease the pain right now. Things just hurt so much at times. I wish I could just make it all go away but I can't. One thing I can do is pray and ask others to pray for me. Please pray that I can cling to Jesus' love for me and who God has made me in his Son (a forgiven Child of His) and that I can trust God's good purposes for me, even when things are hard...

Sickness...

2006-03-15T12:51:00.000+11:00

Last night at dinner I found out that a friend from College ended up in hospital. On Sat night during the night she had a seizure in bed and managed to fracture 3 of her vertebrae. She then had 2 more seizures on Sunday. She is in a lot of pain but is generally good in spirit. The hard thing for her is that she is from America and only moved over here in January. So she is a long way from home and family and is in hospital.

This one event brings with it mixed emotions. There is the pain that we live in a broken world where horrible things like this occur. But also there is the joy to see God's family kick into gear and care for one of their members. So many people have been up to visit her and take care of her. Her boyfriend has been an absolute gem staying by her side.

But it is just so hard to see her in so much pain. And the doctors haven't been able to work out why they happened yet. That in itself is quite a blow. Please pray for her that she may heal quickly, that the doctors may work out why this happened and work at preventing it happening again, and also that she may hold on tight to the love and hope she has in her Saviour, Jesus Christ.

Online Again!!

2006-03-11T20:29:00.000+11:00

Ok his time is for real!! I have hooked up the internet in my room. I am back online and it will all be happening. I wont be promising daily updates (as I am working hard at becoming a geek) but I will keep you all regularly informed to the shenanigans of my life!!

To start... Tonight I went out to my brothers gig at the Hopetoun hotel in Surry Hills, Sydney. It was a brilliant gig!! Tim has released a CD that can be bought in any JB Hi-Fi store in the country. It is called "Down in the Well" and his name is Tim Ireland. He is currently on his east coast tour which is awesome. His website is www.timireland.com.au Check it out!! He is heading down to Melbourne next week then will be up in Byron and Brisbane, then home again to play the Great Escape Festival at Newington Armory in Homebush. If you are in the area check out the tour details and get down and have a listen - you wont regret it.

Well that is my plug for the night and now it is time to sleep...

Back to work we go...

2006-03-01T10:48:00.000+11:00

Well the whole internet thing didn't work out as I had planned therefore the updates that I promised didn't really come about. I am now back at college and have moved back into MAC but I am still working at getting internet into my room so I will try to update as often as possible but this time I won't make any promises.

College so far has been good. Last week I had a really bad cough and so wasn't sleeping very well. But as of Sun night I have started to get some sleep which means that the world looks a little brighter. It is good to be back at college but the workload this year has increased from last year (although less than last year's 2nd year) so that will be a change.

These are my college resolutions (not NY resolutions)

Keep my room tidy (this one my mum will love! I spent so much of my time travelling last year that I never had time to tidy my room so I am going to make a concerted effort this year for things to be different)
Go to breakfast (I was so tired last year that I didn't make it to breakfast pretty much ANY morning)
Bed time 11pm as often as possible (this will remain to be seen I think once the social stuff gets into full flight)
And all of this is to be able to Study more!!!

Feel free to keep me accountable for these things. And we will see as the year goes on if I can really do them :)

Well that is it for now but hopefully I will be back sometime in the not too distant future :)

I am back!!!

2006-02-15T11:05:00.000+11:00

Yes, it is true. I am really back. We have worked out how to get the internet in the house that I am staying in. So no more rude interruptions from nosy hackers thank you!! You can keep your hacking to yourself. And also stay away from my friends' blogs. I think that it is very rude of you.

Well summer has been really hectic, quite tough but not uneventful. I spoke on a youth camp in early Jan, lead on LiT (another camp), have had grandparents unwell and in hospital, my step-dad's white blood cell count doubled in 4 months (he has leukemia), I have made some great new friends, started at an excellent new church, have tried to do some college work in between, oh I also failed my Hebrew supp by 3% (which was quite disappointing - esp since I don't think I have ever failed anything before) but on the up side I still get to learn Hebrew over the next three years and don't have to work as hard as all the other Hebrew students at college.

Well that is a glimpse of what happened over summer. Over the next week or so I will go into the detail of some of these events but I thought it might be best to ease people back in.

oh yeah...and boys suck too!!! (and this will remain a mystery for most of you).
;)

Hacker uncovered!!!

2006-02-14T16:13:00.000+11:00

Ok so I just worked out that the hacker was actually one of my friends - very funny but very cheeky. Jeltzz must have been very bored that day :)

2006-02-09T01:06:00.000+11:00

hi. i have hacked naomi's blog. you may remember from such blogs as jeltzz, and the recently hacked A day in the life of....

so really, what is going on with this blog? no wonder it has so few comments. i mean, you don't update for a month, and you expect people to be reading it? no one drops by to read a blog that doesn't get updated for a month.

but i suppose summer is busy enough, without trying to keep up with the Internet. i mean, how are the kids going to get to school?

so the question you are all asking is, how did i manage this |-|4cK1ng f34t of l337 sk111z? well, that information belongs solidly in the vault.

so, as we like to say here at Rancho Relaxo, throw another banjo on the cabana boy!

I will be returning soon!

2006-02-02T09:00:00.000+11:00

Hey all,
The blog has not died! January has just been a crazy month and when I get a chance to sit on the net for a substantial period of time I will update. So please bear with me for just one more week or so then things will be back on track!!
Thanks to all who keep checking!!

Merry/Happy Christmas!!

2005-12-27T09:05:00.000+11:00

Just a quick blog to say Merry/Happy Christmas! I pray that you all had a lovely Christmas. I will update you in full (with Photos) of our Wagstaffe Adventures shortly. The week was full of LOTS of fun things - I even got a tan. Unbelieveable!!!

Well until I return home and have time to blog properly - enjoy your holidays!!

Farewell, Survivor & Shopping!!

2005-12-14T17:50:00.000+11:00

Sunday was my farewell from Dapto. It was very sad but also very lovely. I think maybe about 200 people turned up to say goodbye. I felt really loved. It was nice. Leaving your home church is something you only do once. And it is such a strange feeling. I am very excited about my new adventure but a little sad about the people I will leave behind and not get to see week-in & week-out. But I will work hard at keeping in contact with them and will pray that they will do the same.

Survivor!! We had a Survivor afternoon/night at Naomi's house in Como yesterday. It was lots of fun. We watched 3 episodes that we had missed then watched the Finale & the Reunion. Oh yeah and in between we had a delicious dinner and a spa. It was great! Hanging out with friends is always good.

Well, today was shopping with Ingrid and Lynette. That was lots of fun also. I didn't spend as much money as I thought I would. I picked up some fantastic bargains - jackets, shirts, & pants from Just Jeans for $5 or $10 each (mainly for my brothers). I was so impressed. I did get some new clothes with money I got from my Grandma for my birthday and Christmas so that was fun too. I didn't get anywhere near as many Christmas presents as I would have like but there is still at least 1 1/2 days of planned shopping left in this week :)

Next week is Wagstaffe...I am so looking forward to a holiday. Wagstaffe in the Central Coast and there are a number of us going to stay at Naomi's family's holiday house. There will be plenty of fun, wake boarding, good company, plenty of rest and hopefully amongst all of that I can get some talks written for a camp I am speaking at in Jan. We will see.

Well it is time for some sleep. :)

End of a Chapter...

2005-12-10T20:42:00.000+11:00

This weekend marks the end of a chapter in my life... Dapto! I will be finishing up at Dapto this Sunday. In 2 days time in fact. It all feels a little weird. I am excited about seeing ministry done differently and I love the idea of change. I love adventures and really am looking forward to what God has in store for me next year. But at the same time I look backwards and see the great things about Dapto. My mum tells me I have been at this church for 19 years. That is a long time!! It is practically my whole life. A lot has happened in that 19 years. All the things that have occurred have shaped me into the person that I am now. God has used every little experience (both good and bad) to make me who I am today. So to move on from that is also a little strange. When you leave something that has really only been your reality for most of your life is bizarre yet exciting. I think the reality of the situation is beginning to kick in.

I guess there is also working out how to finish off ministry the best way possible and to care for people in the best way I can. I know that this is not something that will be complete by Sunday night. It will take time and energy. But when you are talking about people's lives sometimes you need to sacrifice things so that another person will benefit more in the long term. I will work this through. I do know that this will not be my final time at Dapto forever but at the same time I know that honestly I wont be back to see Dapto Anglican on a Sunday much at all. I will have another parish that will require my attention. There are many mixed emotions going on inside at the moment.

My time at Dapto has been a great time to build some amazing friendships. The Pickford's have been absolute treasures. They have welcomed me into their lives and family so freely. There has been hard times but the I guess in the end I just feel apart of this family and indebted to them in many ways. There are also some amazing friends that I have here at Dapto. I have received so much support and love and I know that there are many that will continue to pray for me as I leave Dapto. And what a privilege prayer is. To know that people are committing you to the most awesome and high God's care is just so comforting and reassuring. He is a great God and he is faithful and powerful. He us able to do immeasurably more than we can ever ask or imagine.

Well, some random catch up of events. We had our carols in the showground tonight and it was great. I was involved in Kids' craft for the first 2 hrs or so but it all went really well. People pulled together and helped out and were amazing.

Grand Finals for squash were last night. I lost in 3 but played quite well and our team also lost. But in the end we had fun and we didn't have to referee so we were happy. And plus we won hand towels that are quite nice - so who can complain. My squash team is great and I love them heaps. They are great girls.

Well I think that I should sleep now - I am extremely exhausted. Please pray for this weekend. I am not sure really what it will hold (particularly Sunday night). Thanks :)

Jessamine McPhail

2005-12-07T13:55:00.000+11:00

McPhail Girls

2005-12-07T13:52:00.000+11:00

Here are the McPhail girls. Isabelle and Tamsyn holding their baby sister Jessamine.

Mountains Adventure

2005-12-07T12:47:00.000+11:00

Mountains and Madness!! Yesterday a group of us went to the Blue Mountains to hang out with Tim and Jodie. It was great fun!! We had lunch on a cliff at Jodie's house, went for a huge and very fun bush walk, had dinner at a look out looking at the 3 Sisters, and had coffee at a very flashy hotel. It was really lovely. I will post photos as soon as I get them.

I also have my squash Grand Finals on Thursday night so hopefully we can win!!

My friends the McPhail's had a beautiful baby girl on Friday morning. Her name is Jessamine Love McPhail and she was 9 pound 9oz (very big girl). I will be living with these guys for Dec and the beginning of Jan, which will be really really lovely.

Ok dinner calls...

Ben Lee Rocks!!!

2005-12-04T17:22:00.000+11:00

Arjh and I went to see Ben Lee last night. And he ROCKED!!! It was such a good concert. I know many of you out there don't like Ben Lee but he is a great performer and I had an absolute blast. This will just be a short blog (unusual for me I know) because I have to preach at our 5pm Youth Service tomorrow and my sermon still needs a lot of work. Please pray for me. So I shall go to bed so I can get up and do some productive work before 10am Church (I am very sleepy now). Night all!!

Holidays are Here!!

2005-12-01T16:01:00.000+11:00

Well, the holidays are here! This week is going to be bit of a crazy week but I am not stressed or unhappy about it. It is good that this is the busy week and I haven't had time to crash yet. I spoke at Refresh (our Mums of Preschoolers Group) this morning. It was an evangelistic talk about the preparations God made for the first Christmas and our need to prepare for Jesus' return. By God's grace it went well and I believe that there were interesting conversations afterwards. That is pleasing.

I still have a talk on Daniel for Kids' Club on Friday and a sermon on Mark 11 & 12 for the Youth service on Sunday. So still quite a bit of work to do this week. But I really enjoy preparing talks and getting stuck into the Bible so it should be an enjoyable week. And God is gracious when his word is being taught.

My birthday had continued for 3 days now and that is nice. I went out to lunch today with my Grandparents for lunch and then went to Thai with my parents for dinner. Grandma took me shopping to spend my birthday and Christmas money and I bought new jeans and a new party top. So I am looking forward to wearing my top out to Karaoke next Wed night.

Well to put a slight downer on my birthday my real dad in his usual style completely forgot about my birthday and even when I dropped him hints today still didn't really get it. You would think after 23 years I would be used to it but it still makes me a little sad :(

Anyways in general it has been an absolutely lovely week. Oh yeah I nearly forgot that Molly (Mary - who I stay with on the week ends, her 11 year old daughter) had made me a birthday cake. So I got to have that last night. That was lovely. It tasted great too!!

Ok that is all for now...

23 Today!!

2005-11-30T07:28:00.000+11:00

Yes it has finally arrived - I am no longer "nearly 23" but I am in fact 23. A friend told me of a little girl who said, when asked her age, "I am 4 but I'm still a little bit 3." I though that was just precious and well now I can't even say "I'm 23 but I'm still a little bit 22." :)

We had our BBQ last night and it was just lovely. I had such a great day. There was lots of fun to be had and lots of great friends to hang out with. We spent the day making salads and stuff and it was really just a lovely day. I enjoyed myself thoroughly. I also got some really lovely presents from friends that I just love.

I was preparing myself for a little anti-climax today because I didn't think many people were going to be around but so far it has been really nice. I had breakfast with my eldest brother while taking another one of my brothers to an appointment in the city (I have 4 brothers in case you are slightly confused at this stage). And I will be having lunch with some college friends soon too. I do however have a talk to write by tomorrow morning. I am speaking at Refresh (our mums' group in Dapto) but prayerfully it will come together fairly easily. I have been thinking about it for a number of days now.

The weekend was full of fun!! Friday night a group of us went to Ian's house for a few drinks then I came back to college to hang out with Naomi. We ended up talking about life and boys till about 3am. This meant that we only had about 4 1/2 hours sleep because we both had to pack up our rooms and move out of MAC by 12pm on Sat. But it was most enjoyable and it was great to spend some quality time with her. I think that she is just such a great chick. Well Sat came around very quickly (a little too quickly perhaps) and I moved out of MAC taking stuff to my brothers' house, the Mcphail's and leaving stuff in my car for the weekend. Sat night was Dave Yu's 30th and that was great, then back to Dapto for church in the morning. Church was good. I had lunch at Peter and Cheryl Cosgroves house which was just delightful. Again there was more talk of life and love and all that goes on. It was really great to be able to catch up with them. They had a bottle of Champagne waiting for me as a celebration for end of exams and my birthday so that was fun. It was just a lovely day. Then caught up with Arjha briefly, had a nap, then headed back to church. After church I came back to Erskineville and stayed the night at my bros' house.

I did enjoy my weekend very much and this week is looking to be busy but I am ok with that. Next week will probably be a week to crash and catch up on sleep and just relax. But for now I should write a talk.

It's Over!!!

2005-11-26T04:59:00.000+11:00

Exams are finally over!!! Yay!!! And now it is party time!! Well party time started last night and will continue until at least Mon arvo. One long after exams party - very fun!!!

Well after our final Doctrine exam I had dinner, then we went to Kuletos for 2 for 1 Cocktails, then I had to run off and go to my squash Semi-finals while everyone else headed to Karaoke :(. I played and lost and our team also lost but that is still ok coz we get another shot at it next Thursday in the Finals. But I did leave Squash significantly early enough to be able to join my friends a Karaoke World. That was SOOOOOOO much fun!!!!! I loved it. We left there just after 12am and a few of us went around to Maccas. I was a great night. I has so much fun!!!

Hopefully tonight will consist of a trip to a club for dancing, tomorrow night is a friend's 30th in Sydney, then Church Sunday and our Birthday Party Monday. Oh yeah and I have to move out of MAC before 12pm on Saturday. So it is looking like a busy weekend but a lot of fun will be involved.

Ok need to get ready for our final chapel for the year. This will be sad coz I have really enjoyed chapel this year. Well Holidays here I come!!!!!

1 more to go...

2005-11-24T12:58:00.000+11:00

Yay!! Only one more exam to go! I left Biblical Theology half an hour early today :). This disturbed some of my friends since it was only a 2hr exam. But I didn't want to be sitting around for 25mins staring at everyone else who was still writing. So I finished as quickly as I could and got out of there. The exam itself was ok. I think I will pass sufficiently. Again my results will not be particularly brilliant but as long as it is over 50 I am happy at this stage.

Now I just have to get through Doctrine tomorrow! Dinner is very shortly then perhaps I will have a little nap and try to get motivated to do some work for Doctrine. Prayer at this stage is really welcomed.

I did go a little crazy after the exam. It was nice to be finished and only have one to go. Tomorrow I believe that I will be even more crazy since I will have 0 exams to go!!!! It is hard to believe that I have almost finished my first year at college. WOW! Only 3 more to go :)

It was Bec's birthday today so we hung out for a little bit - that was nice. Can't wait til our party. It will be lots of fun! Well, now it is dinner time!!

Has anyone seen my motivation??

2005-11-23T18:09:00.000+11:00

I appear to have lost my motivation to study at this point. This is not particularly helpful!! I do pray that it would come back. I only have 2 exams to go and I can't seem to scrape together the energy and enthusiasm to study.

It was a friend's birthday today so we went to the local pub or dinner. That was really nice to hang out (and procrastinate as it were). I think that he had a good time too. Another friend turns a year older tomorrow as well and we will all celebrate these occurances next Mon afternoon with a BBQ for 4 of us who will have graduated to the next year of our lives (or will within the week after). I am looking forward to that - however it also takes my attention away from Biblical Theology and Doctrine study.

Only 2 more days and 2 more exams then I am free. However, next Wed I have a talk at our mums' group in Dapto and also a sermon that Sunday. But I do really enjoy speaking and preparing talks and sermons so that will be good.

Some other great news that I found out today is that my friends Paula & Jason McPhail had another little boy yesterday. His name is Ezekiel Jason. I love that name - Ezekiel - it is great!

Anways to bed I go where I will continue to read a little on the person & Work of the Holy Spirit.

Strange...

2005-11-19T20:06:00.000+11:00

I think I have hit mid exam blues. I had a great time hanging out with some friends at college tonight for one of the guys' birthday (it was actually nice to be at college on a Friday night). I got to catch up with some old friends and that was really lovely. But then before I knew it everyone was gone and I was all of a sudden on my own. I was in the mood for hanging out with people then somehow I ended up on my own. That made me quite sad. So now I just feel sad :( It is strange how your mood can change so quickly. I guess that's what can happen when you are under the pressure of exams and probably a little sleep deprived.

Anyways, today's exam was fair. It was Church History and I think I did ok. I have had the amazing blessing with these exams to get questions on the topics that I have studied. Form guiding has served me well so far (by the graciousness of God - of course). I guess today I was really thanking God for the great figures of the Church like Athanasius, Ambrose, Augustine (yes they all like names starting with 'A' - it get confusing trying to remember who is who for and exam). If it wasn't for men like these, modern Christianity could be very messed up. Under the sovereign hand of God, he raised up these great men to fight heresies and defend the truth and we get the privilege of reaping the benefits of their hard labour and often martyrdom. Let's pray that we in this generation can stand firm in the truth and defend it against heresies (even if it means giving up our lives) so that future generations can also know the truth of God.

Well I could probably ramble on for hours but I will spare you and get some sleep :) and hopefully feel much better in the morning.

Old Testament? Not a problem!

2005-11-17T18:05:00.000+11:00

Old Testament today was quite pleasant. Although sadly enough some of my friends did not find it so. I don't think that I will absolutely kill it but I wrote 4 decent essay in which I knew what I was talking about and 1 absolute shocker in which I had no clue!!! I will definitely pass and perhaps even do well. That would be nice.

I had a rest tonight and will get back into studying Church History tomorrow. I think that when you are doing so many exams in such a short time you need to rest well and take some time out, so that is what I did tonight. Tan and I went to the shop and bought our 2nd year friends some chocolate for a little study treat and went round and visited them and drop them off. They have a Doctrine exam in the morning which will be reasonably difficult. But I am confident that most of them will pass. I was fun (taking them treats that is). I enjoy doing little things like that.

Well I think that is all for me at the moment. I will be sitting CH at 2pm on Friday and will write 5 more essays in that 3hr period. But for now I will sleep and perhaps dream of something completely unrelated to OT or CH. :)

New Testament? Check!

2005-11-16T09:15:00.000+11:00

Ok...so I have done one exam and have 5 more to go! NT yesterday was much nicer than I was anticipating. I am confident that I will pass, even if I don't get top marks. I am not very good at writing essays - particularly in exam settings - but I do think that it will be sufficient.

I have been studying Old Testament today. That has been great!! I have been really excited by the faithfulness of our God and how his word is sufficient for us to trust him. He is worthy of our trust and he gives us the faith to be able to trust him. What an awesome God!! There is a bit of angst at the moment regarding the form of the exam but I am not all that stressed about it. It will work itself out.

Today it rained (well is currently raining) and I forgot to close my windows before lunch which has meant a good part of my room is saturated. Very annoying!!!

Anyways, it is time for a quick nap - then back into it!!

Church History!!

2005-11-10T19:32:00.000+11:00

I have to confess that at the beginning of this year I was assuming that Church History was going to be one of the most uninteresting subjects. But strangely enough as I was studying it today, I found myself thoroughly enjoying it!! Amount of study from yesterday increased dramatically (by lunch time I had completed more study that I did all of yesterday), however, I still did not do as much as I probably should have. Well, tomorrow I turn to Old Testament.

There was plenty more talking about boys as usual today - always an entertaining time! Tonight a bunch of us (Tan, Naomi, Lis, Izzy, Seumas, Tim, Al & myself - to be precise) hung out on St Paul's Oval (next to College) and drunk Coke and as usual conversation turned to dating stories. This is another of one of our favourite topics as we hang out together. Much laughter resulted!! I have often told my friends that if I was to continue with Psychology I would have created a rival for CBT (Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy) which would be called ILT (Ireland Laughter Therapy). Laughter is good therapy for anything!

Oh also my computer went a bit stupid!! I had to get Dr McIver to fix it. It had viruses and stupid Spyware on it. I also had to uninstall and re-install Acrobat reader and Ghostscript. This took up valuable study time.

:)

2005-11-09T18:42:00.000+11:00

Study not going as well as planned. I have found it hard to get motivated - I am too easily distracted.

But this week has been lovely. Two of our friends started dating last night (and about time too). They are so well suited and both such lovely people. That has caused much joy around the place!! There has been much boy talk going on around here lately, but I must say that I do enjoy that.

Early night tonight and will attempt to get up for breakfast (with the help of my alarm clock - Tan) and get into either old testament or church history...have not decided yet.

Study...

2005-11-08T18:04:00.000+11:00

Day 1 of Stuvac is over! And I didn't get a great deal of work done. I started with New Testament and was looking at Mark's Gospel. I was really enjoying what I was learning and so will continue with that for a bit tomorrow. I also have to look at Romans for the 2nd component of that course. After tomorrow I will certainly have to move on to another subject and then come back to NT just before the exam.

We also got our Church History essays back today. I got the highest mark for an essay this year (B+) but I was downgraded for handing it in late. But that is still a very satisfactory mark considering the conditions it was written under. The 2 weeks before that essay was due were phenomenally busy. I ended up starting the essay on Thurs (due on the following Mon) but then I got sick on the Friday and had to lead a service at church on the Sunday morning. I ended up handing in the essay on the Tues morning about 10am but the policy at College is that you loose one grade for every week or part of. So I lost 1 grade but I am still happy because I thought that it was a terrible essay.

So today has been quite pleasant. We watch last weeks episode of 24 this afternoon and then the episode on TV tonight. There is only 1 hour left and each hour is quite action packed (I may be somewhat addicted to the show). It was very exciting. So that will take up one hour on Friday perhaps (as it will be on TV on Thursday night).

The other thing that has also been supporting my procrastination has been the arranging of a birthday party. There are 4 of us who have birthdays within about a week and a half of each other so we are having a combined BBQ. I am really looking forward to it. It will be lovely to finish exams and then get to hang out with lots of people that I care about.

Well, I believe that I should go to bed so that I can get up and study hard tomorrow - I am looking forward to my date with Mark (the gospel writer that is), so I should get my beauty sleep. :)

STUVAC!

2005-11-07T20:32:00.000+11:00

Well Hebrew is done!! I can only pray that God will be gracious and the PRW will be kind in marking. I guess I feel like I probably will pass but I would not at all be surprised if I didn't. Well, I need to press on to what is ahead... And that is a week of Stuvac (Study Vacation) then into 2 weeks of exams. I have not really looked at these 6 subjects much all year so please pray that my time studying this week will be profitable and precise. I will need to be very diligent and use my time effectively since I will have a lot of ground to cover. However with God on my side, together we can make it through this stressful time.

On a complete tangent, my mum came home from Paris this week. And it was really great to see her and hang out with her. I really love my mum!!! And I missed her while she was away but she really needed this holiday! It was really good for her and she is so much happier for it. I got spoilt and got lots of lovely gifts from her. It was really nice to just be able to hug her again though - that is what I think is best about having her home!

Well, I should probably go to sleep... It is getting quite late. Farewell for now...

Ahhhh Hebrew!!!

2005-11-03T08:40:00.001+11:00

Tomorrow is my Hebrew exam and I am a little stressed!! I don't know anywhere near enough vocab and probably not enough of my verb table yet. I am trying hard to be conscientious but sometimes it is hard when the tiredness kicks in. Please pray that I can study hard and go well in this exam tomorrow and then be able to get organised for the series of exams to come.
Thanks for your prayers!!! They are worth more than gold!!

Sinful People!

2005-11-02T16:41:00.000+11:00

When you start to think things can't get any worse...they do. Today my frustration comes at the sinfulness of individuals. The pain and sadness I feel at this is huge. I am exhausted. Too much has happened in 3 days. And all conveniently around exam time. This has meant that studying for Hebrew has been difficult.

But as usual I hold firm to the truth I find in God. He is in control of this crazy world and the pain I feel at these injustices he feels even greater since he has created each one of us. He hates it when through sin we hurt each other. He hates it when the defenseless are taken advantage of.

But one day there will be justice! There will be justice for all the sin in this world. The scary thing about this is that the sin in my life will also be called to account. I will stand before my creator and have to give an account for all my sin and for pain that has been caused as a result.

But we have in Jesus a saviour who took the punishment for our sin. "For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring [us] to God" (1 Peter 3:18 ). We will be accountable for our sin but if we trust in Jesus' saving death and resurrection we will not be found guilty. What a comfort in this world wrought with suffering and pain!

Harvest of Righteousness and Peace

2005-11-01T18:02:00.000+11:00

Hebrews 12:7-11 "Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it".

A harvest of righteousness and peace!!! What a concept! Sometimes we wish that discipline did not have to occur but if it didn't we would not be true sons of God, heirs to his Kingdom or co-heirs with Christ. "For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father." The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs-- heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory" (Rom 8:15-17).

Hardship and discipline are never pleasant at the time but the fruit that they bear in the end make it worth it (although right now it does not feel like it). Please pray that I will trust that God's purposes for me are good. He is a good and great God and he is worthy of our trust.

:(

2005-11-01T12:30:00.000+11:00

Today has just really enhanced my pain in regards to relationships. I guess in this life things don't always work out the way you would like. And that is the time when you need to trust in the one who created you and who has called you to be his child. "Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!" (Matt 7:9-11). God knows what it best for us and we just have to trust him in that even when things are tough. This is what I will work hard at doing right now.

Illness...

2005-10-31T11:24:00.000+11:00

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!

2005-10-31T07:52:00.000+11:00

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

2005-10-28T13:50:00.000+10:00

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

2005-10-26T16:13:00.000+10:00

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

Izzy's Party

2005-10-26T16:10:00.000+10:00

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!!

2005-10-26T05:05:00.000+10:00

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

2005-10-18T16:38:00.000+10:00

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!!

2005-10-18T16:28:00.000+10:00

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

2005-10-18T16:25:00.000+10:00

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

Holidays and The Coming Term

2005-10-07T15:02:00.000+10:00

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...

Term 3 is coming to a close

2005-08-30T03:53:00.000+10:00

Just 2 weeks until the end of third term. Boy time really flies. Before I know it i'll be at the end of my first year at College. But before I get to rest the next couple of weeks are going to be pretty hectic. During next week and the week after I will have 2 sermons to preach, and essay to write and a Hebrew Test to sit. But the good thing is that the faculty at Moore College have decided that it is time they learn how to teach :) so they are at two days of training today and tomorrow. This means that we don't have any lectures which is great!!! So hopefully I can get a bit done these days.

In the world of sport...I have started playing comp squash for Elanora (in the North) so that I could play a higher grade so I am playing number 1 in A2. The first week I played I got hit in the face with a racquet three points into the game and I also pulled my hamstring. So needless to say this wasn't a very good introduction to my new club or A2. Last week I had a good run but lost in 3 which was a bit sad but I am excited that I will have a good match each week.

I have also accepted a new job for next year at St George North Anglican Church in Carlton, Kograh, Bexley area. I am excited and looking forward to a new challege and it will be so nice to go to church closer to home and not have to travel so far.

Well I should be off as I have lots of work to do. Thanks for your continued prayers.

Cheer Squad on Beach

2005-07-25T19:29:00.000+10:00

This part of the cheer squad on the beach. From left: Tan, Naomi, and

Lisa (I being behind the camera). Should explain for photo below that

Jonny is from Ireland and has only been learning to stand up since the

February this year - hence the excitement of catching the wave.

Nomes' News is Good News

Faith…

Do you have the gift of singleness??

Like little children...

Are you thirsty??

Unbelief

Change

Kick Back & Relax... with old friends!!

Long Time, No See...

Draft: Complete!!

Tasks for the next week or so

Apologies for the silence...

Eph 2:8-10

The Beauty of the Storm

Clean Room, Clean Mind!!

Hope

WATCH OUT!!

*sigh of relief*

Hebrew...Friday!

An Ode to Liz

There is no Hebrew...

For those who want to know...

Comatose

Hectic!!

Momentary blackout for the homeless

That's What Friends Are For...

Life...

Endings...

Party Plans!!

I know I can... I know I can...

I think I can... I think I can...

Gangster Ball

Warts and All

To be known...

Redecorating!!

A Reflection

God's Surprises

Shenanigans!!! And some serious stuff!

Mission Accomplished!!

Grrrr...

The World of Blogging

Holidays...

On MAC!

It's been a while

Mission is too close!!!

THE GREAT ESCAPE!!

Random...

The week gone by...

Ouch...

Sickness...

Online Again!!

Back to work we go...

I am back!!!

Hacker uncovered!!!

I will be returning soon!

Merry/Happy Christmas!!

Farewell, Survivor & Shopping!!

End of a Chapter...

Jessamine McPhail

McPhail Girls

Mountains Adventure

Ben Lee Rocks!!!

Holidays are Here!!

23 Today!!

It's Over!!!

1 more to go...

Has anyone seen my motivation??

Strange...

Old Testament? Not a problem!

New Testament? Check!

Church History!!

:)

Study...

STUVAC!

Ahhhh Hebrew!!!

Sinful People!

Harvest of Righteousness and Peace

:(

Illness...

Relationships!

sigh of relief