Things I wish I could Instagram #3

Tonight Hannah came to visit our new place for the first time.  It's always nice to have visitors, but especially when it's someone great you haven't caught up with in a long time!  We shared a cup of tea and chatted with Tia and Ashley for a while.  It was a really nice time to catch up with Hannah and show her around our place!

Hannah gave me a bunch of pale purple tulips for our new house.  Tia and I set them up in a vase and now they're sitting on the coffee table!  If I could, I would instagram them for you to see...but you'll just have to take my word for it!

Things I wished I could Instagram #2

So, we went for Breakfast on Saturday morning.  It was a lovely cafe in Hawthorn with great food and great coffee.  I had a large latte, and poached eggs on a muffin!  It was very delicious.  We also had a great waiter looking after us!

We had to walk through a corridor to get out to the main entrance on the way out.  They had pictures on the wall of the corridor.  One was a thick wooden dark brown board with different types of coffee written in thick black letters.

The kind of thing you'd instragram...



from the cafe - not taken by me though

How does this happen?!?!

When a day doesn't quite go to plan...

Yesterday, we had a busy morning at Church, with EQUIP, which runs in the morning before Church, where the Christian teens come for ministry training.  We've been preparing for mission and learning how to teach Bible stories.  Straight after, we raced into the morning service, and after Church, Dave and I gave a presentation on our mission trip to India.  It was great to be able to share with the congregation about our trip!  We enjoyed lunch together, as usual, and then a bunch of the young people had planned to go bowling in the afternoon, because Rachel's brother was visiting from Tasmania.

We had a great time of fellowship together.  By this time, it was about 4:30, and we quickly planned to pick up a couch from Steve's, and deliver it to my new place.  In order to do this, we would need a trailer, so I contacted Hayden who was happy to lend us his.  We thought through the plans and timing, and knew we would make it back in time for Evening Service.

So, we filled the car with strong men (Lem, Dave, Kev and Steve) and drove over to Hayden's.  Gresham helped us find the trailer and drag it out to the car...only to find that it didn't fit onto the tow ball.  First problem.  So, being the resourceful guy that he is, Dave managed to get access to his cousins trailer.  So, we drove all the way out to Ringwood, and picked up the trailer.  Then we drove all the way back to Waverley, to Steve's house, to get the couch.  By now, it was about 6:15.  The boys managed to wiggle the couch out of the house and carry it into the trailer.  It was just slightly too big to wedge in, so we had it sticking out one end.  Then, we went to rope it down...but Steve had no ropes on hand...Second Problem.

So, we scrounged around and managed to find enough bits and pieces to keep it secure - at least to be comfortable enough to drive it home.  By this time, it was 6:45, and there was no way we were going to make the 7pm service.  We drove cautiously from Waverley to Balwyn.  The boys in the back had three minute shifts of watching out the back window to make sure we still had a couch there.  After the time was up, the stop watch would beep and the next in line would groan as he turned around to take his shift!  It was pretty intense.  We finally pulled into my place, and that's when the real trouble started.  The boys wiggled and jiggled the couch all the way up the narrow stairs.  But couldn't get it into the doorway...Third mistake.  By this time (8pm),we needed to get Kev back to Church so his mum could pick him up, and we wanted to take the trailer back before it got too late.  (And I suspect the boys wanted to get rid of me because I was getting a bit stressed)  So, after deciding to take the door off, I left the guys, and drove Kev back to Church and then took the trailer all the way back to Ringwood.  Unfortunately, I was all by myself...fourth mistake... so Dave's cousin had to get up and come outside and help me drag it up the driveway in the dark!  Back at the house, the boys borrowed a drill from Johnny (the construction manager from downstairs), who helped them take the door off, and the arm of the couch off, to be able to get it inside the living room.

By the time I got back home, the girls had returned from Church, the couch was in, and I was exhausted!  I'd missed the service, and our friends, the Ellises, who had come to visit that night.  But, we did get the couch in, and I do have very generous friends to give up all that time and energy to help me out.  Dave said, "It's our greatest accomplishment yet!!"

Things I wish I could instagram #1

So, I don't own a smart phone, so I don't have access to Instagram.  But I appreciate it, and sometimes things just catch my eye which would be perfect for Instagram...hence the new series - where I'll try and use words to describe instagrammable things.

Today, as I was fruit shopping, I picked up an apple.  While it was a red apple, it had the usual flecks of orange/yellow and almost green.  This particular apple I picked up, and turned over to have a little squiz, to make sure I was only purchasing prime specimens.  On the background of red, was a yellowish patch in the shape of a perfect love heart.

Instagrammable material...Yes!

Tasmania Photos

Some pictures from a few days in Tasmania

 We stayed in this old fashioned cottage for one night.  When I woke up in the morning I built a fire in this stove and then boiled the kettle for coffee.  We also cooked pasta the previous night, and toast that morning.

This is the front porch of the house.  The man who owned it had built it himself and it was out in the middle of nowhere, along a dirt track, past an empty beach and up a gravel road.

This is an apple orchard we came across, full of delicious, ripe apples.

 Apple crates

A cute staircase at the Apple Orchard

This is colour select on red.  It accents all the red against the black and white. 

 This old house was in Cygnet.  I've done a colour select on brown, which accents all the brown against everything else, black and white.

 This is Snug Falls.  We drove in to the area and then walked for about half an hour and finally came across this beautiful place hidden in the forest.  The water was ice-cold!

 This is the car we drove around - feeling very good about ourselves!

Having a good time on top of Mt. Wellington.  We were there on a great day with magnificent views of Hobart and the surrounding areas. 

 The old bridge in Richmond.  Playing with some settings on the camera.

 This is a fruit truck that we saw each day as we drove home to the place we were staying.

Some pictures from a few days in Tasmania

A week in the life...

I thought it'd be fun to scribble down some of what has been the last 7 days!  Phew!  It's been huge!

Monday

After a wonderful Easter weekend camping at the Belgrave Heights Convention, we got together on Monday morning and went Paintballing.  It was my first paintball experience!  It was a freezing day in Melbourne, with a strong wind and pouring rain.  After getting into our body armour and camo, we went out to the fields.  The first game, I was so scared I couldn't move.  I stood behind a mound and didn't take my gun off safety mode until the last minute.  The second game, I overcompensated and was a bit trigger happy!  I finally got into it and did some good moves.  All was going well until the last game, when we were out in the pouring rain and I slipped over and landed backwards on my arm.  After being pulled from the field, Lilly did some first aid, we filled out an incident report, and then Dave drove me over to the doc for xrays.  (Turns out it wasn't fractured - they think it's tendon damage).  Had to wear a sling for a day...and bear with the pain, even to this day!  Monday night we had the Canterbury Youth Group over to my place for some boardgames.  We hung out, ate pizza, played together.  It was a lot of fun and a great time together during the holidays!

Tuesday

After popping in to the shop to do a bit of catch up work in the morning, I jumped in the car and drove the 3 hours out to Halls Gap to join the PYV West Camp.  I arrived around 2pm, just when the first Session was starting.  Jared Keath was preaching on Philippians.  It was a wonderful camp with a great bunch of teens and leaders and it was nice to hang out with them all on Tuesday and Wednesday while I was there.  I also got to see friends, Hui, So Young and little Nathan!  It was good to catch up with Toby and Jared and chat about Church and life etc!

Wednesday

I stayed over at camp for one night, and sadly had to leave on Wednesday after lunch.  I headed back to Melbourne to make it in time for a follow up at the doc, where she confirmed that my shoulder was going to be ok!  With that good news, I headed straight over for soccer training, where Ian worked us pretty hard.  By the end, my whole top right side of my body was aching and I think I'd fallen over 3 times in 5 minutes!  It was good fun though.  Afterwards, Tia and I grabbed a coffee and went back to Kath's to hang out!

Thursday

I had an opportunity to join the PWMU meeting at Canterbury Church today.  I spoke about the Mission Trip to India and was able to share lots of stories and pray for our friends over in India.  That night, we had our team reunion.  Everyone met together and we looked at lots of photos and talked about the good times, and prayer together.  It was a really nice time to see everyone again and to reminisce together.

Friday
Today I did some final preparations for our Canterbury Church Family Camp.  On the way, I stopped over at Mum and Dad's and spent some time with them.  Then we travelled down to Anglesea where the camp was being held.  We had a wonderful time on the first night, setting up, watching the footy and meeting everybody.

Saturday

We got up early and shared breakfast together on the balcony in the sunshine - we had perfect weather for this camp!  After breakfast and music practice we had our first Bible talk and study.  In the afternoon, a group of us went down to Lorne - Joy, Kath, Lilly, Lauren, Josh, Kevin, Ken, Luke, and Alex.  We went to the waterfall (where Josh fell in).  We also went over to the beach and went for a swim in the freezing water.  After an icecream, we headed back for dinner and evening activities.  That night, we had a campfire and a jam in the music room, pen-boarding, some late night snooker, and all round good times.

At the waterfall

Our beach set up

We had amazing weather!

Sunday
I shared breakfast with Michael and Tomoko this morning on the deck.  We had a Church service and  another study.  We enjoyed a barbecue lunch together before we packed up, chatted some more, had hugs with the little ones, and then left.  Lilly, Kath and I went down to the Airey's Inlet lighthouse for a while, and then I headed back to Melbourne.  Here are some photos and collages the girls made.

Coffee at the lighthouse

Lighthouse Views

my '24' photo

Mission (2) Hope Home

Thanks to everyone who read my previous post!  Today I would like to share another element of our mission trip, and that is the main work that we were doing.

We were based at the Hope for Children's Home, where John and Deepa, and their daughter, live with 35 other children.  The children come from a slum community, and usually from Hindu families. They are given a home, a place to live, eat, sleep, but also a place to learn from the Bible and meet Jesus.  The aim is that when they grow up, they might return to their families and support them and share Jesus with them.  Initial impressions of the Home from my journal:

The Hope Home was a lovely place – the grounds had lots to do – basketball, badminton, soccer, cricket. There were lots of animals including a baby goat called Angel. I really liked the atmosphere of the place. And John and Deepa are really relaxed.

We would visit the Home every day.  Some of our team would work in the buildings, painting the walls of the children's bedrooms.  Deepa would always prepare a wonderful lunch for them.  The rest of us would arrive at 4pm and spend the afternoon playing. We enjoyed many things - sports, crafts, music and playing on the equipment.  All the children, young and old, seemed to love running around and playing. It was always a highlight to spend time with them.

At 5pm, we would join together for devotions. We shared Bible stories from the book of Acts.  It became immediately evident how much the children love to sing. We would sing a few songs each time we had devotions. They loved to sing to us and teach us knew songs. It was wonderful.

Each evening, before we would leave, we would share coffee and afternoon tea with John and Deepa. It was a great way to relax together before we went back to PTS.  

We quickly grew very fond of the children and John and Deepa.  Here is an excerpt from my journal:

Let me tell you about Deepa. She is the most amazing woman. She looks after the 35 children including Ashima (her daughter) and her husband. She also cooks for the team while they are there. They have delicious fancy meals which they all enjoy. She prepares afternoon coffee for us each day. She is such a busy woman, but she always comes and says 'Hello' to me with a beautiful smile. She is so sweet and quiet and she always asks me about something of my day that John has shared with her. I love her so much. I told the boys to find a wife like Deepa. They told me to be a woman like Deepa! 

There were so many little ways they blessed us. On Lara's birthday, they bought a birthday cake and we had a celebration. John took some of the team to a Tea Garden and to the Forest Museum.  He also organised a picnic for us all on Saturday. On the day we left he arranged a huge feast for us all!  One thing I loved about John was that he was happy for us to really engage with the children and to do our Bible teaching.  He was comfortable with us, and we were with him.

Josiah and David teaching the boys how to play footy 

Having a game on the grass 

Josh giving a Bible talk

My friend Shankah

 With John under the verandah

 One of the girls braided my hair one day

All together on our picnic

It was a wonderful encouragement for us to see a couple so faithful in their service, and so generous to others.  I was really challenged by the way they open their family to all these other children, and work hard to raise them well!  I pray often for John and Deepa and the children that we met, that God will always provide for them and bless them, and that they all might be effective witnesses to those around them.  

I think this sentence from the end of my journal sums it up pretty well:

I think I will most miss John and Deepa.