Can't Sleep......it's 12:44 AM

Hey all,
Naomi here for a change...........for some reason God always seems to knock on my door at the most inconvenient times.........like right now, it's nearly 1:00 am and I desperately need sleep, but God has just hit me with something and all I can do is think on it and the more I think, the more urgent it becomes!!!!!! I think he wants me to blog it, then he will let me get to sleep!!!!!!

So here goes,
Many of you know, and some of you don't that ten years ago Pete and I lost a baby, I was around 23 weeks pregnant and my waters broke early, I was rushed to hospital and after many painful hours of the doctors trying to stop the bleeding and all that stuff, they decided the only thing to save my live was an emergency cesarian which resulted in our little boy Caleb only surviving for 36 hours.

About 1 & 1/2 years ago when I thought I was totally over the pain of it all and had well and truly moved on with my life, God gave me an amazing vision of my three healthy boys in one hand, and my tiny fragile baby in the other......at this point I burst into tears and said why God Why?? God then put his hand on my shoulder and said "Naomi, you don't need to know why, you just need to trust me" this was one of those life changing moments where Gods presence in all of my life was so clear and undeniable that I could do nothing but worship his awesomeness!!!!!

Anyway, I guess I thought that was book closed, healing done, move on with life...........until today...............today my husband shared with me that an older gentleman in our community has shared with him the story of his first baby being still- born, in the same hospital we had Caleb (of course many, many years earlier) this man has shared with Pete the pain he still has, and when I heard that I burst into tears, I just feel so sad that this man still has pain after so long, when we have experienced healing. So when I tried to get to sleep about an hour ago, I couldn't get this man out of my head, I tried praying for him............and I am sure that's great, but I realised that God wants this broken, hurting man to experience the same healing that Pete and I have experienced.........This healing that God offers is for everyone, not just a select few. I don't know how, but Pete is becoming quite involved in this guys life and I am sure God knows where it is all going.

Anyway, last thought to do with this stuff...........I am so excited by the idea that God is the master of the slow reveal!!!! imagine if ten years ago I lost my baby, then God healed my hurt and it all happened fast................ instead, when I thought the book was totally closed on it, God showed me even more, and has given me even more compassion for those that are hurting and pained...............wow, he is a mighty God!!!!!!!

Anyway..........Peter wants to sleep (the computer is in the bedroom, and I woke him up)

Hopefully I can sleep now,

Thanks for reading

Naomi

Don't Judge a book by It's cover? - Yeah Right!!

I know that the saying Goes "Don't Judge a book by Its cover, but sometimes there really is no choice but to...

Take Australia's own Col Stringer, well actually he is a yank by birth he just loves trying to prove his Aussie-ness by writing books about Australia's Christian Heritage and stuff ...

His Yankee-ness really does come out in his newest book as he leans against his Humvee - in his classic king-gee pose - sunnies and all, suggesting that that is what it is to be a man!!??!!

Well as I said I will never read this book so I cannot judge it by its content - only by its cover - but I think I will never measure up to this sort of manhood - maybe I should change my name...

From Peter (Peta?)

Date Change

Hi, Just a quick one here...

The date of our interview has changed from friday morning to Saturday morning (2nd Dec) from 8.30ish to 12ish...

Please don't forget to pray!

Peter

Legalism, Freedom & Sobriety

Most of our regular readers will know when I do my prattle that I don't always make sense, and this post may be the same. I use this space as a place to get out thoughts that I have running around in my head & as such they are not always completely formed, or linear, so bear with me, humour me, and most important give me feedback to let me know how I am going...

Anyway, onto my post...

I want to preface my post with this scripture...

1 Corinthians 10:23-33
"Everything is permissible"—but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible"—but not everything is constructive. Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others.Eat anything sold in the meat market without raising questions of conscience, for, "The earth is the Lord's, and everything in it."If some unbeliever invites you to a meal and you want to go, eat whatever is put before you without raising questions of conscience. But if anyone says to you, "This has been offered in sacrifice," then do not eat it, both for the sake of the man who told you and for conscience' sake— the other man's conscience, I mean, not yours. For why should my freedom be judged by another's conscience? If I take part in the meal with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of something I thank God for? So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks or the church of God— even as I try to please everybody in every way. For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved.

When I mention to people that our joining UNOH will mean amongst other things a vow to sobriety, I get lots of strange looks. I find myself quickly adding the explanation "it is not a theological belief that Christians should not drink, it is just that we are working alongside many alcoholics & so it would not be appropriate..."

Even after saying that, many Christians say that they could not give up alcohol like that, (in fact from what I hear this issue is a real problem for many would be UNOH members, and causes them not to join!).
This whole issue really makes you think though doesn't it? I don't believe that the bible says it is wrong to drink. Obviously the proof texts of the water into wine miracle and the last supper proves that Jesus was not against it. Having said that, I do believe that the bible teaches that alcohol is dangerous (especially getting drunk) and that it probably is better that we steer clear of it. (the bible has a number of these issues - it could even easily be argued that bigamy falls into this category!!)

We in the church (probably particularly in Australia though I think the Poms are probably there with us too) have decided that that we don't want to be seen as sticks in the mud, so we have a drink or 2 with our mates to show that Christianity is not all about rules and regulations, but that we too can be cool... this sort of fits into the "If some unbeliever invites you to a meal and you want to go, eat whatever is put before you without raising questions of conscience." part of the verse above. It's all about cultural relevance, not ostracising ourselves from community for the sake of the gospel.

The UNOH vow of sobriety probably fits into the next section of this passage, where it is all about not being a stumbling block & stuff like that. So both expressions really are valid and have their Justification in scripture.

It is all about what Christ has called you to; Right?

But the next question is do we only drink so that we don't look like prudes, or do we drink because we enjoy it? Do we drink when we are at a Christian part where there are no "heathens?" (I use that word to have a stab - I would never use that word in a serious context myself) - and lets face it most of our "Christian" parties are like that... do we over indulge at these parties? Do we have a quiet drink at home alone? How much do we drink? How often?...

Have we just used "cultural relevance" and freedom in Christ as an excuse to indulge? - if we are not willing to give up the Christian "Right" to drink for the sake of reaching out and helping those who are drowning in their alcoholism, have we just negated the whole argument that it is ok to drink??? It could almost be argued that our freedom to drink has become a legalism in it's own right.

We are so caught up in showing the world that we are like them (in the name of being IN the world but not OF it), we are so caught up in being relevant and Cool, that our attempts at cultural relevance have gotten in the way of our obedience to Christ. I even feel like I need to justify the “Uncoolness” of a vow of sobriety to my Christian friends!!! This is where the first part of the above scripture comes in...

"Everything is permissible"—but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible"—but not everything is constructive. Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others.

When it comes down to it we may have FREEDOM in Christ, but we don't really have any RIGHTS in Christ. We are called to obedience. We should not be looking for the loopholes that allow us to enjoy life, we should be looking for the opportunity to surrender our life:

...Anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. (Matthew 10:38-39)

There probably are many other examples of this sort of behaviour in the church today - certainly the poverty V's riches argument is one of them, and the degradation of true worship for the sake of the seeker sensitive mega church could also be argued as another one... What do you think? - can you think of others - it probably is a very fine line, we can easily fall into either a legalism mindset or a rights mindset - but let me know what you think...

Christmas gift idea!!!

OMG ('G' stands for Goodness - I am a good Christian boy I am!)...

check out this link: http://www.armorofgodpjs.com/

dont forget to look at the product information page to see all the merchandise they have to offer.

And visit the salvation page to give your heart to the Lord (its as easy as A.B.C!!).

Peter

The Date is set...

Hi everyone,

The date is set for our interview with UNOH - it's December 1st.

This is the date when we find out if our six months here in Noble Park have paid off or not, we find out if we have proven that we have what it takes to be UNOH apprentices.

Pray for us - PLEEEAAASE!!!!

(P.S. You may have noticed that I have updated the look of the blog - I hope you enjoy!....)

Faith - Why all the confusion????

Maybe it is just the result of growing up in a Charis-pente church, but I have always struggled with the issue of faith. It seems, if I believe everything that I have been taught over the years, to be a very complex issue... what is faith??? If we believe the "Word of Faith" teachers (I use that term lightly) such as Hinn or Copeland then faith is a substance that you acquire, it can only be activated by your words, and if you don't have it, you are not a real Christian. The WofF guys even suggest that God has faith, and put that faith into action when He created the world.

I am not suggesting that the Charis-pente outlook on faith is quite so extreme, though I am sure in some churches it is, but there is still this real mysterious, ethereal quality to faith that no one can really quite explain. I can remember sitting through sermons and even courses on the subject, looking through the usual verses to try and get a handle on it all. On many occasion, I even went through my exhaustive concordance pulling out all the verses on faith, just to get a handle on it.

We are taught that we can heal & be healed by faith, that we can tell trees to uproot themselves, and move mountains and walk on water, and be bitten by poisonous snakes (well, you don't need faith for that, but you do need it to survive) and all sorts of stuff... yet Jesus says that you only need faith the size of a mustard seed to do it all!!!!

So what exactly is this stuff called faith & where do you get it? It must be pretty valuable, even more valuable than gold, or white truffles !!

well, when it comes down to it, the answer is quite simple...

lets turn to a dictionary for a definition - not a highfalutin theological dictionary, just a normal everyday English dictionary...

The Online Cambridge Dictionary says:
Faith (TRUST) noun [U]
great trust or confidence in something or someone:

Pretty complex huh?? Therefore, it could be said that in our context, faith is nothing more than trusting in the Lord.

Faith is trusting in the Lord!!!!
...... - Easy!!!
......... - I can do that!!!
.............- Mountain get up and move!!!
............... - Dang, didn't work!!!

Great trust or confidence... Hmmm, I guess that is what it comes down to; do I really have Great trust or confidence in the Lord??? Peter had great trust in the Lord when he stepped out of the boat onto the water - for a second or two - then the reality of what he was doing sunk in, and so did he...

The Apostles saw healings and miracles happen through their work, why? because they knew what Jesus required, he modeled it to them, they dropped everything they had to follow him, they put their security, future, and life on the line. They learnt to rely on the Lord to meet all their needs, they became like the lilies of the field. They trusted in the Lord for everything.

Maybe this is what we are missing, maybe we are controlling too much of our own lives, not trusting the Lord, watering down what Jesus taught to fit into how we want to live our lives, how every rational person would want to live their lives. Maybe we are more like the rich young ruler than we realise - living a good Christian life, following all the rules, doing the right things. But when Jesus challenges us, calls us out of our comfort zone into complete trust in him, we walk away. It is easy for us to do, we are not faced with the Son of God in the flesh asking us to give up our security, so we can rationalise it, spiritualize the 'sell everything & give it to the poor', and go on living our good Christian life.

Maybe if we could truly surrender ourselves to God, truly trust in him then we would see our faith grow from the infinitesimal little atom that it is now, slowly grow into a small little mustard seed, maybe by that time we would not be telling mountains to move to prove our power in the Lord, maybe by that time we would be praying and acting against spiritual and institutional mountains that are oppressing people to prove that we work for a God who cares for the downtrodden, the insignificant & the poor... makes you think doesn't it?

yay, a new monitor!!!!

Yay- Finally we have a new monitor - the other one was slowly giving out - the header to this blog (the on that says Dekker's Journey) looked the same colour as the background of the blog on our own monitor - hopefully now I can fix this us - if ever I get a few minutes spare... yeah like that will happen!!!!

Burmese Outing 2 - Electric Boogaloo

Well, there really were no flash dance related activities on our second Burmese outing, it just sounds like such a great title for a sequel I had to resurrect it...

Our outing this time around was to have a bit of a tour of the wonderful city of Me!bourne (the advertising is obviously getting to me!) . We had about 50 Burmese coming along on our trip with us again this time round - so obviously these guys enjoy our company, and we just toured around the city walking down southbank; seeing the buskers (with mixed reactions from our Burmese friends) hanging out by the crystal clear waters of the Yarra River, having a delicious lunch of Burmese curry, jam packed full of tripe and liver and other stuff I could not identify! (yum yum! - my missions training is really paying off!). We also took a tour around the city on the Melbourne circle tram to see all the sights.

It was a great day of building relationships with these people, Jacob made a bit of a friendship with a 12 year old boy named Cubby, and Sam as usual was adopted straight away and was being looked after and fed all day long (which did pose a bit of a problem when it came to the offal curry!).

People were quite eager to pose for photos with members of the team as well as getting group photos with the Melbourne skyline behind them. It was great when we arrived back at springvale station to have everyone thank us for a fun day out and shake our hands - I think we are really making inroads into this community.

Peter

Just an Observation

I was in a group of men the other day at a course I am attending through UNOH, when the facilitator of the group asked an interesting ice breaker question. It went something along the lines of this - what do you think of old people, and at what age is a person considered old ?

The responses to both these questions were pretty much the same. Fortunately there was no comments on geriatric driving skills, or whining about young people today. Everyone generally said they had respect for old people, that they had lessons they could teach us if only we listened etc.

The interesting part came when people answered how old old was - everyone answered "You are only as old as you feel" or something along those lines. I don't know if its just me, or do those 2 answers seem to contradict each other. Obviously if we have respect for old people then getting old must be an ok thing to do - but we don't want to admit we are getting old & that's where comments like "your only as old as you feel" come from. So we still have a fear of getting old or want to avoid it.

Is this fear due to our mortality, or do we truly see old people as a nuisance or having no value?

If its due to our mortality then, that is a fear that as Christians we need to get over - because our mortality is not really a problem in the greater scheme of things.

If it is because we see old people as having no value then no amount of trite P.C. answers is going to cover up how we really feel and we will never learn from our elders, the mistakes and successes of the past!!!

It makes you wonder about P.C attitudes... Are they just a way of covering up our true feelings, to make sure we fit in with the rest of society and don't offend anyone? Are we lying when we sprout all the various trite answers people expect of us? Does this sort of issue stop us, as Christians, being a voice in the wilderness? (obviously at this point I am thinking beyond the old age issue...)

There are some really great views on life that would be regarded as P.C. but there are some really damaging P.C. outlooks as well - in fact sometimes the same P.C issue can have a positive or negative aspect to it depending on what definition you give it (like religious tolerance)..

But if we are running around covering up our true feelings in the name of political correctness, have we not become hypocrites or possibly impotent -

as Christians as we called to be sunshine & lollypops?

• never offending,
• never resisting,
• never standing up for what is right?

Is this a misguided view of God's love?

But having said that...

• When do we stand up?
• When do we turn over the tables?
• When can we be a voice?

The prophets of the Old Testament were regarded as nutters by the people of Israel - often hated and persecuted sometimes ever killed - have we missed the point in being able to fit into society, in being loved by society, in having a live and let live mentality???

We need your vote!!!!!!

Hi all,
This is just a quick post and I need everyones opinion on something........that's right you can't just read this time.............I need responses......

ok...........every Thursday night our church has a community dinner, in the past we have all brought a plate every week, but recently the church split into 4 cooking groups, so each group caters for everyone once a month (thus giving us three Thursdays off from cooking)

Peter and I are lucky enough to be hosting a cooking group at our place and we need a name...........we are now down to two choices

We are trying to decide between................

Cheap as chips

or

the dodgy dinners

Sp pleeeeeaaaase, if you have never left a comment before, now is the time to start...........you don't have to leave your name............just your opinion on this very important matter............

Love to you all

Naomi............

Little Miss Sunshine

We went and saw "Little Miss Sunshine" at the movies last night, this was the first chance I have got to go and see a movie in a Looooong time, and I thought "ah crap - a chick flick" (not that I am adverse to many movies classified by many as chick flicks - but with a title like that - come on!)...

How wrong I was!!! - this had to be one of the better movies I have seen in a long time - possibly not a top 5 entry, but definitely in the top 10 to 20. This movie rated 'R' in the U.S. but only 'M' here at home was a dark comedy about a very broken family taking a road trip to get the youngest member of the family "Olive" to the "little Miss Sunshine" beauty pageant... The family include a drug snorting grandfather, an unsuccessful motivational speaker father, a suicidal, homosexual uncle, a worn out - trying to keep everything together - mother, a Nietzsche reading brother who has taken a vow of silence, and Olive, a glasses wearing, slightly chubby 7 year old girl, who does not fit into the usual mould of a U.S beauty pageant kid...

Anyway, without getting into a complete write up of the movie, if you think that the above line up of characters sound a bit depressing for you, and you can't tolerate the most versatile word in the English language (F**K), then I recommend you DON'T see this movie. But if you like a movie that explores the darker side of the human existence (think American Beauty) and somehow has a great laugh at the same time I highly recommend this movie...

Welcome Sisi

Hi, this happend a while ago now, but we have invited my sister Sisi to live with us. It is a bit weird having a teenage girl living with us - considering that all our kids are boys, however I am adjusting to it, and Naomi is very happy to have someone around she can be girly with...

Anyway sisi is a very talented girl in many ways, particularly in writing poetry and photography - in fact this is one of her pics that just caught my imagination so I thought I would put it in our blog:

I will also add one or 2 of her poems at some stage, because some of them are really good once you get past the teenage angst & darkness...

Anyway, it is great to have her around and she is proving to be a great asset to stuff that is going on around here...

Learning lessons

I think sometimes we can be a bit elitist when we move into a ministry position, particularly missions based ones. We do have this mindset so caricatured by so many Hollywood movies of the all knowing Man of God, here to save the savage, uneducated heathens. I'm not suggesting that our view of things is this extreme, however, we can still come to our mission field thinking that we have the answers. No matter how much we loathe the idea of being typecast into this sort of missionary, I think that we still have that outlook buried deep in our psyche somewhere.

For myself, I struggle with the terms mission or missionary, when I apply them to myself (or many others who are doing the same sort of thing around the world), just like I struggle with the term Christian when applying it to myself. In a theoretical sense these terms are fine, but I don't like taking them on myself because of the stigma attached. The sigma suggests arrogance, it holds values of colonialism, brashness, stubbornness, pride, greed, arrogance etc. We have to admit that this caricature does not hold up well against what the bible calls a Christian to be (as opposed to the caricature of a Christian, which is another matter all together),certainly they are values that I do not hold to or are trying to eradicate from my life (stubbornness is a big problem for me).

But having said all of that I feel I probably did come to this new ministry with a sense of arrogance. Not blatant "I am the centre of the Universe" type arrogance, but I did have some element of arrogance, I thought that I would come in, I would befriend people, I would make a difference in their lives, I would be doing a good work!!

The reality has been quite different however - I should have remembered my days back in Sri-Lanka, when I was too wet behind the ears to have this sort of opinion of myself. The stuff that I learnt there was amazing. Above all, in Sri Lanka I learnt the truth behind a God who has a bias towards the poor and marginalised (though it took me quite a few years to be able to articulate this lesson), I learnt the glory of worship done in church through a cheap casio and beaten up old acoustic guitar, I saw the love in genuine community as people of humble standing in life supported and cared for one another. Coming to Noble Park however I didn't think that I would be learning such lessons. I don't know why I felt this way, it was probably because the move was not such a major cultural change, I kind of felt that these people were still aussies; even if they did come from different socio-economic backgrounds and in some cases different countries to me, I thought that we would still hold a similar world view.

But that is not the case, sure these people are a bit rough around the edges and have a long way to go in their own journeys with the Lord (as we all do), but the Lord has instilled in them some amazing truths, stuff that people from richer middle class backgrounds are missing, and often yearning for.

One of the most precious values that they have here, is the willingness to take people as they are. There is no need to keep up false appearances here. Sure there are arguments, gossip and people hurting each other just like in other Christian communities, (though they are more up front than in most other communities that I have been in - but that is probably a good thing too). All the people here have failed or are imperfect or broken in some way. They cannot hide this side of who they are, so they don't even try, I wont say there are no masks, because I know there are, however, the masks are different. These people are not trying to live up to some clonesque concept of what a perfect Christian living in victory should be. Nor are they expecting me to live up to this sort of value.

For me, I have become more comfortable in my disability in this community that I ever had in my life. For those of you who don't know me too well, I suffer from a mild form of cerebral palsy that affects the right side of my body. The Lord has done some amazing things in my life in regards to my disability, but the fact remains that he has not completely removed it from my life (I have seen improvement, I would say I am at least 90% better than when I was a child). This sort of disability is looked down on in the middle class church and society as a whole. For many Christians it is a sign of a lack of faith, or God's judgment, or sin in your life or some other horrible thing like that. As a result I can tell my testimony of the Lords healing in my life, and celebrate in the fact that He has helped me forgive those who teased me through my childhood, I can even say that I believe that the Lord has kept the disability in my life as a reminder of his authority & power as well as to keep me humble (and I strongly do believe these things), and everyone will be touched and praise the Lord with me.

But I still needed to hide the fact that I have a disability otherwise the illusion comes crashing down, all of a sudden it is not so worthy a story to praise the Lord for. So I have to hide, I don't dance, I don't play sports, because these things make it obvious that I am not quite right. But here, in this community I am surrounded by others that are not quite right, and in many ways some of them are less right that I am. Now, I find myself free to kick a ball around, I find myself free to dance with my wife. Friends in the community are calling me to play in a cricket competition with them, even though they know I am not the best sportsman in the world, in fact, I think they actually enjoy that fact. Unfortunately I cannot make it to the competition due to other commitments, but my friends rib me about it, and I enjoy it. I don't have to hide. I can be me.

Thanks Lord!

Peter

Throwing our kids in the bin...

This has been an interesting week for me, one of those weeks that you end up hearing those sorts of things that people only mean to be heard behind your back. We never thought that our decision to follow the path we have chosen would be popular, and in many ways we were surprised by some of the places we got support from, and equally surprised by where we got some of our negative feedback from.

One of the negative comments that I came across this week went something like "UNOH expects people to throw their kids in the bin!", suggesting that when we chose to follow this path, we did so without regard for our children, and that our children will suffer as a result of what we are doing.

When I first heard this I laughed, NOTHING could be further from the truth!!! Our Children have flourished in the environment that they are in.

When Naomi felt the call towards UNOH a little over a year ago, she denied the call due to her having children. Just as those thoughts where going through her head (it was during an altar call) the preacher mentioned that there was someone in the congregation struggling to come forward due to the fact that she had children and she felt that she could not drag her children onto the mission field. The preacher said that if God was calling us to the field He would have taken our children into consideration, and that we would be robbing our children of what God has in store if we did not follow him.

Having taken the plunge (and I know that I have mentioned this a number of times) I cannot deny that this is the truth... If all our plans to join UNOH fell apart today and we found ourselves stuck in Noble Park I would have to say that God's hand was in it, and His Blessing was upon us, the changes that living here have made in all our children through school, friendships and getting to spend more time with both their parents is amazing. But it goes beyond that, our children are part of our ministry, we really are a team. Our children open doors for us in this community that we would otherwise be struggling to open. Jacob has an understanding of this, and a real sense of adventure and excitement over it. Sam & Luke don't really get it yet, but their natural enthusiasm and friendliness are priceless.

Jesus said:
"If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters yes, even his own life he cannot be my disciple." (Luke 14:26)

The word hate here was not meant to be taken literally - that would be too freaky and would be in direct opposition to our loving God's character - rather it is hyperbole to say that all else must come second to a true disciple of Jesus. If we let anything get in the way of God's purpose for our lives then we cannot say that Jesus is Lord of our lives, whatever it is that is stopping us is the real lord - and unfortunately with children there seems to be an unspoken acceptance in the church for that sort of idolatry - makes you wonder about the motivation behind such groups as Family First doesn't it? It sounds like an admirable value but is it really biblical when taken to its logical extent.

In fact, this concept of having anything in the way of you truly following Jesus (& truly having Him as Lord of your life), puts a whole new serious spin onto one of our most watered down scriptures too...

That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. (Romans 10:9)

Well that's about all I really have to say on that topic, I think I need to ponder in a bit more...

Hmmmm... (the sound of me pondering)

Peter

Finally an Update

Forgive me bloggers for I have sinned... it has been over 2 weeks since my last blog entry..

We have just gotten to the end of the school holidays, and what a mad time it has been... Mad, but Fun! Between women's retreats, men's retreats, Family retreats, extra kids for the holidays, A Burmese outing to Phillip Island & a huge grand final party, we have not had much time to think, let alone blog...

We were privileged to get the use of a house in the middle of farmland in Pakenham over the school holidays, first off the women of Noble Park got a chance to get away for 3 days, there was lots of eating and girlie talk (which is about all women do when they get together) . After this our family got to go away for a couple of days with a couple of the boys from the neighbourhood. The boys kept themselves entertained quite well, and so Naomi & I got some real relaxation time and got to watch a few DVDs along the way!
Once that was done, The guys got a chance to go for a couple of days, We got to spend a bit of time in bible study, but mostly it was about kicking a footy (yes Steve even me!) playing basketball and fishing.

We also got to spend the day up there this past Saturday for the grand Final (yes Steve I even watched a lot of it!). There was a massive crowd of us and we had a BBQ and played on the Trilampoline (spelt this way on purpose - its a Simpsons thing) - well it was probably more like wrestling...



Then today we got the privilege of taking around 40 Burmese immigrants on a day trip to the giant worm and Phillip Island, this was a great opportunity for these people to have a day out and see a side of Australia that they have probably not seen yet, they got to feed some kangaroos, pat a wombat & koala, play on the beach (even try to drink some sea water) and see some awesome sights it was a great day and a great opportunity to connect even though they all had little or no English.

So, now we are exhausted, and are looking forward to the kids going back to school so that life can get back to the usual hectic rush (as opposed to the madder than ever hectic rush of the last 2 weeks)...

Peter

Kids, Kids everywhere

I sit here watching out my window, my front yard is filled with kids (ok so there's 7 of them) They are sitting on the front fence...........just hanging out. I am filled with absolute joy and excitement at this picture I see before me. There's something awesome going on here, and it's so unreal to see that our kids can be a part of the life we have chosen.
About a week ago someone from the community approached me about the idea of a few of us starting a kids club in the community (something I had already been thinking about anyway) so to see it happening naturally and organically is super cool.

I have this funny feeling, that when we think we should start a new project or ministry.......the best thing to do is wait for a bit and see if it's already starting to happen.........if it's supposed to fit, then the threads will already be there.

That's just my take on the whole thing anyway, you might think something different!!!!!!

Naomi

Slave to Porn...

Ah, Pornography, sometimes I think it is the only reason that the internet was created...

I do not know what the official figures are on men who use Porn, but I know that the figures are high... Knowing a thing or two about computers I am often asked to help people fix up their computers, in doing this it is not uncommon to come across computers that are full of those tell tale signs of frequent Porn usage. This is the sort of stuff that does not turn up on your computer through the inevitable porn spam that we all suffer from, or accidentally clicking onto a porn site, this is the sort of stuff that comes from a habitual user. Let me tell you without naming names, that the vast majority of computers that I have worked on have this stuff, and many of them cannot blame it on their teenage sons (because they don't have any!). There are those that I have worked on (too few unfortunately) that have no sign of Porn on them, and they belong to people that I really do hold in high regard, these people have real integrity throughout their lives.

There has even been a time or 2 when I have had to help out a minister too, and the tell tale signs are there as well - even those we see as holy or ordained suffer from this hidden & dangerously addictive problem.

And Yes, I struggle with porn too, I have the good fortune of having a wife (a forgiving wife) who caught me out. This brought the subject to a head for me & we were able to begin to deal with the situation... Too often this problem is hidden and not talked about - I'm not suggesting you need to go to your wives and fess up guys, trust me it will hurt them real bad, real, real bad. But maybe there is another guy who you can ask to hold you accountable, maybe if we stop hiding this stuff, we can start to deal with it, and become real men of integrity.

It is an addiction, a harmful, dreadful addiction, it may not see you dead in a gutter like drugs will, or kill your liver like alcohol, but it will destroy your life, destroy your family & destroy your sex life too (not to mention the harm it does to those caught in the industry - don't believe the lies that these women create to protect themselves, or the BS spun by groups like the Eros foundation). Although I had to deal with the up front consequences of porn through being sprung, it still had a hold on me, my head would still turn when I walked past THAT section of a newsagency. Though I would pull my gaze away from it straight away, I knew that the demon of lust still had a hold on me. But God has challenged me about it quite recently and I think that finally the demon's talons are released from me (I use the term 'demon' figuratively, though the Pentecostal in me still thinks there may be some deeper truth to this!). I came face to face with the destructive power of porn the other day when I visited a lonely old guy from the neighborhood - I will not go into any more details than that, but It shocked me into reality, then I came across this video clip (please guys share it around I think its message is very important...)

I came across it at a great site called www.xxxchurch.com* that deals with this whole issue of Christian guys and the problem of porn - it even has some great resources on it like an accountability program that allows you to select a friend to keep you accountable - every time you visit a bad site, this software sends an e-mail to your friend to let him know, talk about vulnerability, but to have the guts to use something like that...

Anyway guys, we need to face up to this problem, stop being ashamed and do something about it - it is harming us, our wives, our families, the poor girls stuck in the industry, and society as a whole - lets be men of integrity, lets be men who stand out from the lusts of our culture, lets stop harming the innocent and putting money into the hands of men who stand in direct opposition to the Kingdom of God!

*There was a guy who was wearing a t-shirt at the Surrender conference that said "Jesus loves porn stars" with the web address under it - this piqued my interest so I had to check it out... Here I was thinking it was about Jesus loving even sinners like Porn Stars. I thought maybe it would be a site dedicated to sticking it to the conservative self-righteous Christians out there , but it ended up pointing the finger back at me!!!

Irresistible Revolution

I have just finished reading Shane Claiborne's book "The Irresistible Revolution" and I must say the book blew me away. In a largely biographical fashion, Claiborne, goes about explaining the theology behind "Living as an Ordinary Radical." Shane reveals his story of being called to live with the poor and homeless in Philadelphia, his experiences working alongside Mother Teresa, and standing with Iraqi Christians in Iraq as his government bombed their home. Throughout these amazing and touching stories, Shane holds onto humility stressing that he has not done anything out of the ordinary, that he has simply taken Jesus' words seriously. Something that me all can do; unfortunately the Church has fallen asleep so those like Shane are seen as radicals. However he argues that they are, ordinary radicals, ordinary Christians with nothing more to offer than their lives, living out the radical, counter cultural teachings of our Saviour.

This book is essential reading for anyone who is looking for more out of their Christian walk than pew warming, and anyone who is starting to hear the cries of the poor, and see that the bible has an answer.

There are heaps of web links in this book, and I will be spending a bit of time surfing, I'll pass on any of the good links that I visit...

Peter

Surrender 06 cont'd...

Hi again.

Surrender 06 was an amazing time for us. It was at S05 that the final crunch came for Naomi and I in our decision to follow the Lord into the call he had on our lives. So in many ways S06 was an anniversary for us (even though it was a couple of weeks later than last year). S05 was a highly emotional time - particularly for Naomi who finally surrendered the battle she was waging against her call to Missions. The year that followed was mad, going through the discernment process with UNOH, visiting Bangkok, telling all our friends & work mates, moving into Noble Park , settling in etc.

For me, attending S06 was like the end of the first leg of our journey, a time to reflect on how our life has changed, and how much God has been with us and blessed us over this leg of the race. Sure there were great speakers and a lot to be thought about and pondered, but just being able to be a volunteer at the conference, working alongside all the UNOH & Rainbow guys, being a team, feeling welcome was what really stuck out to me.

We really have been accepted as part of the community by now, I was able to have a chat with a couple of people over the weekend who were paying me a compliment over a message I shared at Rainbow, and saying that I was obviously a great preacher. I was saying that I did not want to be a great preacher and am very nervous speaking in public like that, that I was much better at doing teaching on a one-on-one or small group basis. These friends then said to me that it was silly for me to be nervous talking in front of the Rainbow Church crowd, as they were all friends. That conversation has had a big impact on me, not that I am proud to be a great speaker or anything( because I am not!), but that I am accepted as a friend by these 2 and everyone else at Rainbow. Social situations are not my favorite things, and to think that despite my social retardation, I have fitted in and am accepted has really done a lot for me, and my confidence in my call to work in NP.