Love this place

Cooking for groups

2010-05-07T08:44:00.003+10:00

I just came across this recipe booklet put together by Petersham Baptist Church. It's fantastic! If you cook for large groups it's definitely worth checking out. It's very thoughtfully put together with helpful instructions and tips. There are 25 recipes, with quantities to feed about 90 people each.

2010-05-04T21:05:00.002+10:00

We're thinking of switching to Tumblr cos, ahem... they have a good iphone app. I'm not sure it'll help me blog any more frequently, but you might hear a bit more from Nick! It's all a bit gen Y for me really, but hey, I'm happy to play along.

Crusty Goodness?

2010-04-21T08:05:00.003+10:00

Bread crusts aren't more nutritious - they're just more cooked! Right? Somewhat embarrassingly I only managed to work that one out last week. The childhood programming was strong. Anyway, flushed with triumph I confronted Mum about it. She assures me, utterly serious, that the crusts ARE more nutritious because the minerals migrate to the crust during the baking process. Ok, so that doesn't sound quite right... but I did find this article which claims that crusts are better for you - it's science. What do you reckon?

May Your Kingswood Come

2010-04-19T19:27:00.003+10:00

Allow me to paint in black and white for a brief moment; why are there so few Christians living in working class suburbs?

Perhaps there are and I because I'm new here I don't know them. Perhaps I should say, why are there so few Christians from my kind of church circles...

I'm not trying to incite guilt or have a big rant. I'm genuinely wondering. I was thinking just the other day how in practical terms living somewhere which is more affordable, family friendly etc would seem to be ideal for many christian families.

Leaving aside any issues of prejudice, I wonder if one aspect is that generally christians are encouraged to live near their church so they can be part of the local community. That's great... but it kinda perpetuates the status quo. So what do you reckon? Whether you live in Sydney, Hobart or wherever, how would you feel about moving to a working class suburb with a view to the future church that could be there?

Mornings

2010-04-13T15:56:00.004+10:00

One of the things I'm struggling with at the moment with being a mum is the early mornings. Thankfully Maisy has adjusted to daylight savings and is now waking more or less at 6am. And Nick has been really good at giving me a sleep in on the weekend. But it's still just hard getting up so early each day. There are some consolations though:

10 Things to love about Moonah

2010-04-12T09:46:00.002+10:00

There's Aikido, there's goths, there's great wholesale food places like D.S Trading and Ziggy's. There's Island Markets which reeks of fish but has some great specials. There's the Hmong guy outside Island Markets on the weekend who sells homegrown vegies which are awesome and cheaper than the Hobart Farmers' market. There are pretty old houses and gardens tended with love by someone's grandma and there are nice bakeries such as Jean Pascal and Cullens. There's a nice woolies with very friendly staff and a Harris Scarfe, both with good parking! There's a Chinese supermarket and mythical chinese dumplings at some place in a castle which Luke told me about. There's the Wicked cheese factory with cafe and Churros with cheap and cheerful spanish food. There are even rumours of an amazing japanese restaurant, but no one know where it is or how to find it.

I'm only just discovering Moonah but so far I'm loving it. There's a lot more to Moonah than Putters and Paul's Warehouse. So if you're south of the flanellette curtain go check out Moonah. I dare ya.

Practise

2010-04-09T15:15:00.002+10:00

While I was taking this photo (practise for my 12 Suburbs project) there was a 'tap tap tap' and I looked up to see the lady of the house, in her dressing gown, gesturing to me at her lounge room window. The rose was in her front garden but I wasn't even leaning over the fence so I'd kind of figured it would be ok. When she found out what I was doing she was very friendly and offered me a cutting!

ps - I've forgotten the rule with 'practise/practice' can someone explain?

12 Suburbs

2010-04-08T09:30:00.004+10:00

I've been inspired. 52 Suburbs is a blog by a lady who explores and photographs one Sydney suburb each week for a year. The photos are gorgeous and it's an awesome idea. Gosh it would be hard work though!

I was thinking about doing that sort of thing in the northern suburbs when I realised that there are 12 suburbs from Moonah to Granton. So how about one a month? Perfect! Daunting, but do-able. So I've set myself the challenge. April is practice month and I'll start with Moonah in May.

Now, I just have to get over my fear of taking photos of people!

View Larger Map

The Old Man

2010-04-03T10:33:00.002+11:00

I wonder if men like fishing because it's way of doing nothing while still doing something. I suspect golf might be the same :)

Yesterday our bible study group came around for hot cross buns. We invited the whole street too. It was lovely but I was a bit disappointed because looked like none of the neighbours had come, but then the couple who live opposite us turned up. We chatted to them for ages! They are an older couple and they've been there for 20 years. Apparently that's nothing though, there are a few on our street who've been there "since day dot".

They had lots to tell us about the street and the history of the area. Apparently our houses were all built in '49 by the housing commission (housing commission didn't have quite the same connotations back then). We found out that before the current owners bought our place (a few years ago as an investment property) it was owned by "the old man" who'd lived there since the beginning. It was he who planted the fruit trees.

And the best bit? We live next door to "Old Ma Bones".

It's good to be home, but...

2010-03-23T14:28:00.003+11:00

It's great to be back, it really is. There was a background level of stress living in Sydney which I didn't even realise until we came home. But it's not all fruit trees and lattes here either.

There are a few things that I've found hard coming back. One is that you have to work to re-establish friendships. Of course our dear friends are still dear friends. But because we haven't been part of each others daily lives for the last three years it takes effort to get that ease of regular contact back again. Perhaps it's also the stage of life we're at with many of our friends now having kids, or more kids, and busier jobs. We know they love us still, it's just harder for both of us now.

I guess this is mostly a church one, but coming back you can also find things difficult with new people. Because everything is familiar to me, I can walk in like I own the place and really put off someone who doesn't know me. It's easy to come across as arrogant or presumptuous when you know somewhere so well but haven't been around for a while.

There's a subtler sense of isolation moving back than moving somewhere new. Because it's unexpected it can creep up on you. I wasn't really prepared for that. But I think now that I've realised it, I'll be much more easily able to deal with it.

Brrrr

2010-03-22T09:46:00.002+11:00

Right about now in Sydney I'd be relieved that the weather was finally starting to cool down. This morning, here in Hobart, I'm having difficulty typing because my fingers are stiff from putting out the washing on a cold and windy morning. Last night I dug out the thermals when we were watching tv. We just switched over to our winter weight doona. But I'm still holding out... I refuse to use the heater until it's April!

When They Grow Up...

2010-03-17T08:56:00.005+11:00

Following on from yesterday's post, one of the things that I'm really thankful I've done over the last 10 years is get married and start a family. I wonder if in years to come, missing out on that will be something our generation grieves and grapples with. What about Gen Y, growing up at a time where relationships are not really valued? It's not nearly as painful to say "I wish I'd applied myself" as it could be to say "I wish I'd committed".

---

[edit: as I was hanging the clothes out I was thinking about that last line and how for some the greatest sadness may be "I wish I'd found someone who would commit". I just wanted to add that because I'm not trying to be smug here or have a go]

When I Grow Up...

2010-03-16T13:54:00.004+11:00

You know that feeling of unlimited potential that you have when you're young? It has an expiry date. I realised many years ago that I would probably never be a gymnast. But there are other things which I'm still having difficulty accepting I'll never be naturally awesome at.

I came across the website of a girl I was at school with. She takes awesome photos. I didn't know her very well, but I don't think she was into it back then. Not only did it bring up all those feelings of 'what have I been doing with myself for the last 10 years' It also made me realise: I will never be that good. Not naturally anyway.

Now, do I write a paragraph with a positive, up-beat ending explaining how I'm going to be mature and work hard at all the things I'd love to be better at? Or do I leave it hanging? I'm not sure...

What do you wish you could be better at?

5 Baby Things I've found Really Helpful

2010-03-16T13:30:00.004+11:00

(dear reader, feel free to ignore... this is merely theraputic self-expression!)

I loooove to give advice... but I know it's usually the last thing new parents want to hear. I'm trying to be good and keep a lid on it- I really am! But sometimes you gotta blow off a little steam I figured this was the best place to do it. So, here are 5 things we found most helpful with a new baby:

- Sling: ours was a homemade hug-a-bub style wrap. In the newborn stage Maisy would sleep twice as long wrapped up in it. Nick went out for walks and I would get some sleep. It was fantastic.

- White Noise: www.simplynoise.com was our friend until 3 1/2 months (when we progressed to lullabies) Babies love white noise.

- The Happiest Baby on the Block DVD: the settling techniques in here were extremely helpful.

- Sleep Right, Sleep Tight: book on controlled comforting. We started doing their program in Feb. Within a few days Maisy was responding really well. Now she settles herself to sleep around 70% of the time with no crying whatsoever. I can't stand either of the extremes and found this a good middle-ground approach.

- Baby Bee-Hinds: I wanted to do cloth nappies, but terry flats were just crap. I ended up buying these online on special ($27 each) when she was 5 months old and they've been awesome. I just wish I'd bought them earlier!

Phew, thanks for indulging me. All better now :)

Graduation

2010-03-15T06:26:00.001+11:00

Today is graduation day for those of us who did the 4minus1 degree at Moore and I can't be there. I've never really cared about graduation before. I didn't go to the graduation for my Arts degree. I wasn't really interested. But I'd really love to be at this one.

The whole degree took so much effort that I'd like to actually be able to stand up, shake the hand and take the certificate. This one actually feels like an achievement.

Far more than that though, I'd love the chance to be hanging with my Sydney friends, to catch up, drink some coffee, eat some food and enjoy the time. Overall I'm glad to be finished but I really miss the friendship, conversations and stimulation of the college atmosphere.

Oh well, hope everyone who can make it has a great time. We'll do our best to visit sometime this year.

It was worth it

2010-03-14T14:26:00.000+11:00

As many of you would know, I found college pretty punishing. The whole environment didn't agree with me. I'd say that our three years at college were the hardest years of my life so far.

So it's been great to be out and back in Tassie. Not on holiday but actually home. Finished.

But as we settle into life here all I can see is the great benefit of the whole college experience. The way I've been taught to think, the info that's lodged in my brain, the discipline it's instilled. I'm loving actually being involved in a local church again and in almost everything we do I can see that college has helped me to approach it better. Now I can appreciate what was mostly just painful at the time and I can say 'it was totally worth it'. I'm still glad I've finished but I can appreciate now what a great thing it has been.

Also, as I've read the Bible lately I've been reminded about why I was suffering. It's for the sake of the future church in Glenorchy. It doesn't exist yet but we've been preparing for it. It's a bit embarrassing that I didn't see it that clearly as I was going through college. It might have made me whinge less.

Things I have learned so far living the Northern Suburbs

2010-03-12T14:04:00.003+11:00

These aren't like, profound reflections or anything... just everyday stuff.

- I have the wrong haircut. Women in the 20-30 age range do not wear a bob. Womens' hair is almost always long, though sometimes you see it very short.

- You should mow your lawn. Regularly. Otherwise you'll get a letter from the real estate agent. Perhaps this applies elsewhere too... I've just never had a lawn before.

- It's normal to have kids when you're young. And kids are great.

- If you don't want to feel out of place wear make-up when you go to Northgate. It doesn't matter if you're wearing trackies and uggies, wear make-up. And if like me, you have the wrong haircut, tie it back.

- It's nice. Different culture, sure, but it's not scary or crummy or rank. There are heaps of good things about this place and people love living here and are really proud of it. And we are too.

just blog it.

2010-03-12T08:31:00.002+11:00

I want to blog. I like to blog. I'd like to keep blogging... but it just ain't happening!

This week has been crazy hectic. I've been producing the newsletter for Vision 100 and juggling that and Maisy has kept me very busy!

Nick's been learning coffee this week at work. On Monday morning he did some training and since then he's been doing the take-away shots at the Liverpool St store. It is incredbly busy! It's one of those sink or swim, immersive learning experiences. Coffee by immersion. Anyway, he's enjoying it. The guys there are great to work with and he's feeling pretty good about it. And he comes home smelling of coffee :)

This week Maisy's started doing "mamamama" and "dadadadaDA" (the last one goes up to squeal pitch). It's hard to pinpoint exactly when they're words and when they're just noises, but they're definitely being associated with us some of the time at least! And she gets very excited when I tell her "Daddy's home!"

Ok, am fighting for the keyboard... will sign off.

Maisy brag, ahem "update"

2010-02-20T20:51:00.005+11:00

It's been a big few weeks for our little girl. In the last couple of weeks Maisy has:

- started crawling
- learned to sit up
- been teething
- become a total chatterbox
- learned to chew
- started getting separation anxiety
- begun settling herself to sleep... sometimes
- figured out how to pull herself up to standing

In a few days she'll be 8 months old. It's amazing seeing her grow up.

Is this thing on...?

2010-02-20T20:43:00.002+11:00

We missed blogging. I kept making up blog posts in my head, or saying to Nick "you should blog that". Anyway, now we're back in the game. We had the name months ago, but it's taken a while to find the perfect template.

We hope you enjoy :)

We're finally there

2009-12-19T10:37:00.003+11:00

We've been back in Tas for almost a week now. It's a bit weird. For the last three years our visits to Tassie have been short holidays and it's hard to shake the feeling that this is just another one of them.

We've been lying pretty low so far, staying at Mikey and Nikki's and resting up a bit. We've had a look at three houses and applied for two of them, one in Glenorchy, the other in Goodwood, a small suburb right next to Glenorchy. I think once we have a place it'll all feel a bit more real.

Motivations

2009-12-14T09:37:00.000+11:00

I was listening to one of Pete Woodcock's sermons from the 1997 MYC on 'The End'. I thought his application on motivations to avoid sin was helpful.

If I'm honest.. sometimes I'm so taken up with the love of Christ that I don't want to sin...

That's rare though isn't it?

Other times it's really because of my brothers and sisters. They stop me from sinning. Don't they, really? That's why fellowship is essential, that's why you must get into a church... it shouldn't really be 'I can go or I can't go', it's absolutely vital...

Sometimes not even that is good enough, so it's the very fear of hell... so that action [sin] is an action from hell, not an action from the end, that is not what I'm created for. That action is actually of another universe if you like. It's of a universe of hell and darkness. So it should be a powerful motivation, sin is not trivial.

Last day today

2009-12-13T09:10:00.005+11:00

We're just doing the final cleaning and chucking out of rubbish today. There's a bit more to do but it should be pretty manageable.

Yesterday and Friday we had small farewells. Friday was at Shenkin, Saturday at the Taphouse. They were lots of fun and it was nice to see people before we leave. The reality hasn't really sunk in though, I still sort of expect to be able to hang out with everyone and visit Shenkin next week like I did this week.

Yesterday I went to Shenkin for my 2nd last lesson. I brought 500g of one of Campos' single origins (Indonesian Java Blawan) and we made and drank heaps of coffee. Here's a photo of my first attempt at a macchiato.

Bruce Smith on Mark 5:25-34

2009-12-12T19:45:00.003+11:00

The other day I listened to a sermon from the resources page of the shiny new Moore College website. It was by Bruce Smith on Mark 5:25-34. To be honest I found his voice frustrating but there was something about the sermon that was really compelling. I think it was in the way he treated the story and reflected on it.

One highlight was his comment on verse 30 'Jesus knew at once that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched my clothes?”' He talked about how Jesus was unprepared for the miracle and how it cost him to heal people. It struck me that I only really think of the cross as sacrificial, I don't really think of the cost of his ministry. It was a cool little reflection on Jesus' humanity and ministry.

In the soup/Down the drain

2009-12-11T20:11:00.003+11:00

We weren't in the best zone for it but we had a great time at the In The Chute conference. The the paint's still wet on lots of stuff but the organisers did a great job getting it all together. I wasn't expecting heaps from this one, while I was looking forward to the interview, I partly went because I want to go to the one in three years time when the first of us will be a year or two in to church plants. It's the sort of conference that will get better and better as people come back each year to catch up and spur one other on.

There were a few standout things from the conference:

Andrew Heard said that part of Geneva membership will be putting 5-10% of your church's budget towards church planting. I reckon this was one of the most significant points of the conference although not much was made of it.
Any idea of the church planter as a glorious hero was killed with a reminder of the pain and struggles of church planting. Dave McDonald and Dave Sheath shared some stuff that was moving, scary and at the same time, really encouraging because by God's mercy they were still standing.
Hanging out with Mikey before, during and after the conference meant lots of craziness and really helped me process things.
Paul Dale's big message was about humility and motives in planting. Again, a product of painful personal experience and really inspiring us to serve God in our weakness.
Having the chance to meet lots of others who are in a similar position. There was a real sense of camaraderie.
Bron and I were interviewed by Dave Sheath, Andrew and Cathy Heard as potential church planters. My only complaint was that it would have been good to have longer to talk so we could have heard more of their advice.

Mikey liveblogged the conference and really captured some of the gems.

Edit: Doh! This post was by me (Nick), still not used to sharing a computer.

Good timing

2009-12-07T08:58:00.000+11:00

Bron's sick, Maisy's sick, we're all pretty exhausted. And now, just as Maisy was relaxing and about to sleep, there's a jackhammer working on destroying the footpath right outside our house. We're not going into the conference in the best shape possible. It'd be awesome if you'd pray for us.

Practise

2009-12-05T19:23:00.007+11:00

Me working my not quite mad skills @ Shenkin:

These ones were much better

Sydney according to Nick and Bron

2009-12-04T12:20:00.004+11:00

Ben spent a week with us. It was his first time in Sydney, first time on a train and first double ristretto. We showed him Sydney as we know it. That mostly meant places to eat and drink.

@ Campos

On a ferry

@ the Taphouse

@ Elizabeth's in Glebe

@ Shanghai Night

We also went to Shenkin, Redoak, Uighur Cuisine and Mecca. Ben got a jar of pickled herring from Ikea and it was delicious. It was lots of fun to show Ben our favourite spots and enjoy some of them for one last time.

Empty

2009-12-03T20:05:00.004+11:00

The removalists have come and gone and with them, the last major stress before we move back. Ours was their last place for the day and they were pretty happy it was a small job. They loved Maisy too.

So now we're camping out in our almost empty house. We had pizza for dinner and are about to start season 4 of How I Met Your Mother.

The removalists just called, they're picking our stuff up this afternoon

2009-12-03T08:52:00.002+11:00

Which means we've gotta get cracking this morning!

Sydney Reflections: Going Home

2009-12-02T13:51:00.001+11:00

Looking back on our time in Sydney, one thing I regret was moving up with the move back to Tassie at the front of my mind. In some ways it was necessary but it's hard to really fit in somewhere when you're already thinking about leaving.

Growing up in Tassie in the 90s, everyone seemed to be moving away. If your parents weren't thinking about it, you had friends whose family was moving to Queensland. Of course, that's been the story of Tasmania for a long time. There's always more jobs, more opportunities, more exciting things to do away from Tasmania.

So we still get asked, 'are you coming back to Tassie?' We've given no indication of doing anything other than going back, we've never talked about doing anything else. But we still get asked. From the Tasmanian perspective, just being on the mainland is enough to make it a valid question.

So with that background and our commitment to returning to church plant in Tassie, our attitude to Sydney was a bit defensive. As a consequence, it was harder to feel part of things and probably made us harder to be around. That's not to say it's all been dark or negative but it definitely coloured our time here.

The next step

2009-12-02T10:32:00.003+11:00

Yesterday afternoon I spent a couple of hours at Shenkin, with Ben giving me some barista training. We did heaps of practice stuff and then I steamed the milk for a couple of hot chocolates and finished off by making a latte for Ben's mum. Apparently it was good.

It was so much fun! Ben's already taught me heaps about coffee and it's nice to go that bit further and actually learn to make it. Also, it means I'm a bit closer to having a useful skill.

We're planning to have a few more lessons over the next couple of weeks.

5 Months Old Today

2009-11-30T22:28:00.002+11:00

The Melbourne Coffee Junket

2009-11-24T18:47:00.008+11:00

Ben's been telling me almost all year 'before you go back to Tassie we're going to go to Melbourne, the coffee is amazing'. We finally did it, about 10 of us ended up spending Monday cruising around Melbourne in a big van, going from cafe to cafe, geeking out and drinking far too much coffee.

We had dinner on Sunday night at Cookie. It was very cool, very Melbourne. They had some great beer. I tried Emerson's Old 95 for the first time and it's already one of my favourite beers.

First stop in the morning was Brother Baba Budan. It's a small place tucked away in a side street. It didn't blow me away like some of the other places but in some ways it was my favourite. It was a very cosy, nice place to be.

Ben and Carly @ Brother Baba

Chairs on the ceiling. I love it.

We stopped at Cumulus for breakfast.

Dead Man Espresso has a beautiful setup. Nice wooden finish and a cool sheltered section out the front. They were really friendly too.

St Ali was cool. I had a cold drip coffee which was amazing.

The slayer

Proud Mary has an awesome, ridiculous, custom made, 6 group Synesso machine. It only opened a few weeks ago and was a big part of the motivation for the trip. It didn't dissappoint. The coffee was amazing, the whole setup was beautiful and Nolan, the owner, was great too.

Finally we got to Seven Seeds. It's hard to tell and by this point I was pretty stuffed but I think theirs was the best coffee of the day.

We ended up having lunch/dinner on Acland St in St Kilda before jumping on the plane and heading back home.

Coffee count: at least 8. Possibly more, I lost track.

A golden age

2009-11-18T18:47:00.004+11:00

Today was the kind of day I'll reminisce about and idealise once college is far behind me. In my mind, every single day at college will seem like today.

Great coffee and early morning study at Elizabeth's in Glebe (although no Bernie or Soph to keep me company), fun times reading and distracting Dan at College, a quiet afternoon finished off with a couple of hours at the Berkelouw Books cafe with a bit more distracting Dan to complete it.

Last day tomorrow.

On Fashion

2009-11-18T16:12:00.003+11:00

I stumbled across a link to Gwyneth Paltrow's website GOOP this morning. It's kinda interesting, in a lifestyle channel kinda way. She possesses that old fashioned quality of grace to which women used to aspire. She has articles on cooking, travel, lifestyle, relationships, health etc. Oh yeah, and fashion.

It's funny to think that there are some people for whom looking good is a professional necessity...

Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, fashion. Well, I reckon 99% of women think about clothing and fashion quite a bit. What we wear expresses who we are, what we feel about ourselves and how we want others to see us. Even if I'm at home all day, I still take a little bit of time to decide what to wear. So what does this have to do with Gwyneth? (you can see I'm feeling a bit weird about writing about this) Well, I read quite a sensible article on her website about having a 'uniform'. She writes:

"I used to spend a lot of time looking at fashion, reading about fashion, generally being bemused by fashion. Then one day I had children and it all kind of went out the window. For a few years I was basically in sweat pants and I didn’t mind it. It’s a fine line, however, between being comfortable and being demoralized by being frumpy all the time. Just because I no longer had an hour to stand in front of my closet and try to figure out what to wear, did not mean I had to don the same high school t-shirt from the day before. As I started to get back into the world of work, I needed to wear something easy and chic that did not require a lot of planning or accessorizing. It is here that I did return to high school, but this time for a clothing concept: the uniform."

I can't ever imagine wearing her 'uniform' (grey tank top, black leggings)... but I do like the general concept. As a young mum who doesn't have time to agonise over what to wear, as a Christian who doesn't want to foster obsessiveness or vanity and as a woman who would like to look nice and presentable I think that all things considered, it's a very sensible idea.

Watch out for the end boss

2009-11-17T19:56:00.002+11:00

One exam left, doctrine, the end boss of exams. We didn't have a doctrine exam last year so this one has had two years worth of teaching to bulk up, learn to breathe fire and get nasty. I need to make sure I hit and run, hit and run and stay out of his reach.

Seven is a big number when it's counting exams. It's hard to believe that they're almost done. I've actually started looking forward to things beyond them. Over the next few weeks I'm looking forward to:

Spending some time hanging with college mates
Showing Ben from Tassie around some of our favourite Sydney things
Going to Melbourne with Ben from Shenkin to drink far too much coffee
Going with Bron to visit some of our favourite spots in Sydney
Hanging with Mikey and drinking far too much coffee
The poorly named but probably awesome In The Chute conference

Church

2009-11-16T08:54:00.002+11:00

Thanks for your prayers! We finally got to church last night. The planets were divinely aligned and all of Maisy's sleeps during the day were perfectly timed. I even managed to shop and cook a meal for some friends. The whole day just went really smoothly. And it was great to be there. Craig spoke on the bit in James about taming the tongue and that was challenging and encouraging. And it was really nice to briefly catch up with people. We'll miss DPC.

Four days/Four weeks

2009-11-15T15:46:00.003+11:00

It's hard to believe that we'll be leaving Sydney in four weeks. It's sad leaving the place which has been our home for the last 3 years. There are so many wonderful people we'll miss, so many cool places we'll look back on fondly.

Newtown has been our little world, and it's weird to be leaving somewhere which has become so familiar for Glenorchy, which is so foreign. On the one hand we're absolutely crazily looking forward to being back in Tassie. But on the other hand there's lots of sadness leaving here.

I called this post Four days/Four weeks because it's four days till Nick finishes exams and four weeks till we're in Tassie. Although I'm looking forward to Tasmania, I'm even more looking forward to this Thursday! Like everyone, we're really just limping on to the finish. Nick is still sick, we're both exhausted. But God is good.

In 1 month from today we'll be moving back to Tassie

2009-11-14T06:59:00.003+11:00

Crazy.

10 Reasons to Partner in Church Planting

2009-11-14T06:47:00.001+11:00

Ed Stetzer gives 10 reasons for partner in church planting.

Sydney Reflections: Dan told me

2009-11-13T20:26:00.002+11:00

Before I started college, Dan Shepheard told me to figure out how much time I wanted to study and then stick to it.

So generally I've worked between 7am and 5pm Monday-Friday and some Sundays (the benefit of evening church). It's been such good advice:

Having those hard edges meant that I've been able to rest without feeling like I should be studying. I hated that feeling when I was at uni
It's helped Bron feel loved. She never feels like she comes 2nd to college or that she's a college widow
It's taught me to work hard and efficiently but to be happy with whatever I can manage in the time I have
My ability to do well enough in the time I've allowed gave me confidence which helped the stress levels
Having a day off ensured that I kept some interests outside of college
Even during exams I've been able to keep having my day off and finish work at 5. It's better for me and better for Bron and Maisy

For all that, if I was starting again I'd probably make the starting time 8am and be happy to finish any time between 4 and 5.

Ways to help new mums #4

2009-11-12T09:31:00.002+11:00

Massage

Ok, this one's not for everyone. But a massage voucher might be a really great gift for a new mum. Looking after a baby, especially the feeding, is pretty hard on your back. I even would have loved it if some of my visitors (ok, only the ones I knew really well) offered to give me a 2 minute shoulder rub. It certainly would have made me much happier than having the dishes done or other usual things that people offer to help with.

More on exams

2009-11-11T17:24:00.002+11:00

There's something perverse in me that likes exams. They don't just force me to learn things, although I appreciate that, the actual exam is often where things come together in my head. I can learn all the facts beforehand but the essay questions force me to synthesise the info. I often find that my best learning happens in the actual exam as I think about things from an angle I haven't previously considered.

And often, they make me want to keep learning.

Morning Exams

2009-11-11T17:04:00.001+11:00

There's something very liberating about walking into the exam room. All the stress disappears. No more preparation. No more anticipation. Just put whatever you've got on paper.

That's why I love morning exams. I'm as awake as I'll be all day and I haven't had half the day to think about the exam, wonder if I should do more study that I really don't need to do and feed off other people's stress.

Shame then that all seven of our exams are in the afternoon.

thegenevapush.com

2009-11-11T07:04:00.002+11:00

The Geneva Push website is now up. We're looking forward to the conference in December. Check it.

please not now!

2009-11-10T18:34:00.001+11:00

Nick came home today with a raging sore throat and feeling achey all over. Please God, not now! He's got four exams left, up to next Thursday.

Ways to help new mums #3

2009-11-10T10:49:00.002+11:00

Shopping

A friend of mine would send me a text saying she was going shopping later that day and did I need anything. They might not take you up on it, but I'm sure they'll appreciate the offer. It's generally best to offer several hours before you're actually going though. And if they don't want anything, you could be super nice and get them a block of chocolate anyway :)

Sunday again

2009-11-08T16:35:00.004+11:00

I'm beginning to dread Sundays. 6pm church has been difficult with a baby but up until recently we'd managed to muddle along. Then Maisy hit the 3-4 months old "I don't like sleeping" phase. and last week also came down with her first cold. She's getting a bit better with the sleeping, but it's still up and down.

For some reason though, Sundays always seem to be the low point. I have a little confession to make. Some won't bat an eyelid. Others will be shocked. We haven't been to church for the last 4 weeks and given how today seems to be going... it's looking like it's going to be 5. At college I mentioned in passing to someone that we'd missed one week. They were shocked. Student ministers? At Bible College? What? The general idea is that we're not going to be able to do that once we're working for a church so we should suck it up now.

So yeah, I'm feeling a lot of pressure, a lot of anger, defensiveness and stress. We have a lovely, seemingly easy baby and we get out a fair bit during the week. But for some reason we cannot get our act together to get out the door at 5:30pm on a Sunday.

If you're reading this I'd appreciate your prayers.

Ways to help new mums #2

2009-11-08T10:01:00.002+11:00

Food

In the first few weeks after Maisy was born I realised my needs had become very simple. They were:

Sleep

Food

Hugs

That was it. Amazing how simple life is when you get down to it isn't it?

Through the generosity of friends and brothers and sisters in Christ God provided for us so well during that time. We had a meal roster organised by college friends which gave us dinner 5 nights a week for 3 weeks. Once that had finished the guys from our bible study group at church also brought one meal a week for us for another 5 or 6 weeks. It was amazing how well we were looked after and we are incredibly thankful for it.

So, what can you practically do?

- Meal rosters are awesome. Don't feel like the food has to be super fancy though - especially if there are a lot going on at the same time (friends of ours were cooking for 5 or 6 meal rosters all in one week!).

- If you're making a meal for someone, anything is better than nothing. Spag bol, bought roast chook, whatever. It seriously will be appreciated. However, if you have the time and inclination it's really nice to include veggies or salad if you can, cos new parents end up eating a lot of spag bol, toast and take away!

- Meals aren't the only thing that's helpful. If you're not the cooking type, consider dropping off a bag of shopping with snacks. Maybe a box of healthy museli bars, some cheese and biccies, fruit, nuts etc. Breastfeeding is hungry work! And when you're desperately needing sleep you don't have much time to eat.

- If you're organising a meal roster for someone, build in a backup in case something goes wrong. Because by the time you work out the meal isn't coming that night... you're definitely not up for cooking! I reckon one extra meal per week is about right. Make sure they get it at the start of the week and that it's freezeable.

- Even after the meal roster is finished there are difficult times and difficult days. The six week growth spurt can be really hard as can the 3-4 month mark when babies start not sleeping so well again. A random freezable meal or some soup definitely wouldn't go astray!

Good times with Wisdom Literature

2009-11-05T14:10:00.001+11:00

To balance my last post I would like to say that Paul Williamson, one of our Old Testament lecturers, rocks my world. His stuff on Job, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes is pure gold.

The awesome thing about exams is that the study makes me want to get into the Bible more.

SWOTVAC: Today I learned that...

2009-11-05T13:57:00.002+11:00

... to be a 'well respected' Old Testament scholar you need to be into conspiracy theories. Whatever the truth might be, it can't be found in the Old Testament, you need to dig beyond the text and discover what really happened.

Old Testament scholars do for the Old Testament what Dan Brown does for the New Testament.

Ways to help new mums

2009-11-04T12:44:00.002+11:00

I thought I'd do a short series on practical ways to help out new mums based on my experience over the last few months. So, without further ado, here they are:

#1 They might not want help

Strange one to start with I know, but it's worth realising that when things are really crazy, sometimes you just don't want to feel out of control. That's not to say that they don't need help. They may desperately need it. But be sensitive in the way you go about it.

Four Months Old

2009-11-02T09:34:00.005+11:00

You remember Spurgeon

2009-11-01T19:56:00.006+11:00

Things got pretty crazy this afternoon so we didn't make it to church this evening. So what we did instead was read one of Spurgeon's sermons, on Jonah 2:9 'Salvation is of the Lord'. It was great, just what we both needed. Here are some highlights.

From his introduction:

Jonah learned this sentence of good theology in a strange college. He learned it in the whale's belly, at the bottom of the mountains, with the weeds wrapped about his head, when he supposed that the earth with her bars was about him for ever. Most of the grand truths of God have to be learned by trouble; they must be burned into us with the hot iron of affliction, otherwise we shall not truly receive them...

...He shall best meet the wants of God's people as a preacher who has had those wants himself; he shall best comfort God's Israel who has needed comfort; and he shall best preach salvation who has felt his own need of it.

From his explanation:

No man of himself, even when converted, hath any power, except as that power is daily, constantly, and perpetually infused into him by the Spirit. But Christians often set up for independent gentlemen; they get a little stock of grace in hand, and they say, "My mountain standeth firm, I shall never be moved." But ah! it is not long before the manna begins to be putrid.

This story he tells of George Whitefield is both classic Spurgeon and classic Whitefield:

George Whitefield said, when he preached on Kennington Common, where they threw dead cats and rotten eggs at him, "This is only the manure of Methodism, the best thing in the world to make it grow; throw away as fast as you please." And when a stone cut him on the forehead, he seemed to preach the better for a little blood-letting.

No hell

2009-10-30T10:42:00.002+11:00

A few of us were talking the other day and we realised that in 3 years of doctrine classes we've covered heaps of different topics but haven't covered hell and hardly touched judgment. I wonder if that's intentional?

We've come a long way baby

2009-10-29T16:17:00.002+11:00

Last week I had a look at the 'my documents' folder on our desktop computer. I've hardly touched it in 3 years so it was like opening up a time capsule. I found old sermons, notes, essays and other bits and pieces. My overwhelming impression was 'this stuff it rubbish'.

There were sermons with paragraphs that just made no sense either on their own or in context. There were 'how tos' with bizzare ideas on how to conduct ministry. It's hard to think back to those times and imagine how it all made sense. It's amazing how my perception of the world has changed. If I can bear the shame (and to look at it again) I'll post some excerpts later on.

It's a nice way to head into my final exams though, I've learned heaps @ Moore. I owe so much to those who've taught me.

Anticipation

2009-10-28T08:32:00.003+11:00

Last week I was down in Tassie for the V100 conference. I had a great time catching up with Mikey for a beer, going for a walk up to the lookout at Mt Stuart with Dan and visiting TBT as well as spending a bit of time at mum's.

I also got to meet up with Andrew Heard (from Central Coast Evangelical Church) and learn a bit more about church planting from him. It was a meeting that was about 18 months in the making but it was worth it. I'm really looking forward to getting into it.

The V100 conference was quite short, from 4pm-9pm on Wednesday night, but it was fantastic. I was so glad to have come, I got to spend a few hours with about 50 others who I'll be working alongside next year, hear what's been happening and pray with them.

At the moment I'm working on filling out some pretty detailed forms for my church planter assessment with The Geneva Push. I've posted one of the questions and my answer over at the MTS Tasmania blog.

Stuff

2009-10-24T17:20:00.002+11:00

The closer we get to moving back home, the less I feel like posting. I just don't quite know what to say.

It doesn't help that my world at the moment is home and baby and husband. I'm loving it, but I feel like it's not very interesting for others if that's all I post about. So unless I can think of something, for the next few months you're likely to get 'we're still here' updates, baby photos and food. I've done the baby photos already in the last couple of posts so I guess that leaves the other two:

Yes we are still here. This week Nick was in Tassie for a few days for the Vision 100 conference. Maisy and I did ok, though I was pretty exhausted at end of it - and very glad to have him back. This last week Maisy's been much more difficult to put to sleep. Apparently they all do that at this age. Thankfully she's still sleeping through the night though.

I've also started reading Luke's gospel again and have been really challenged to listen and do what Jesus says. There's so much stuff that's uncomfortable and which I try to ignore or rationalise away. It feels very scary to take Jesus seriously, when actually I should be thinking about what it means to not take him seriously.

Well, on a lighter note, food. We're loving River Cottage on tv. And we found a new cafe in Glebe called Elizabeth's Boutique Cafe which is awesome. It has great food and excellent coffee. French toast with Rhubarb and strawberry compote served with creme fraiche. Mmm.

Joy

2009-10-20T16:09:00.002+11:00

Maisy's Finding Her Feet

2009-10-17T15:17:00.002+11:00

But she still hasn't quite found her balance.

Busy weekend

2009-10-12T09:31:00.004+11:00

We had a lovely but busy weekend. On Friday we had lunch with Matt and Mel and Mel's parents at Redoak to celebrate Mel being admitted to the Bar (capitals? I dunno). That was lovely and delicious and Mel even shared some of the Adriano Zumbo macaroons I got her as a present. Yum!

Saturday morning we headed over to Aidan and Soph's for brunch to celebrate Aidan's birthday. Then in the afternoon Nick went to The Local Taphouse with Bernie and Aidan to celebrate Oktoberfest.

It's mandatory that all our Tassie visitors are taken to Shenkin. I think we must've clocked up over 20 so far. So on Sunday morning we had brunch at Shenkin with Matt and Mel. I'm not sure whether the chocolate croissant or the shakshuka or the felafel wrap won in the end. Perhaps it was a tie. Anyway, I think they enjoyed it. We certainly did!

In the afternoon we went to Bernie and Katie's to celebrate Lily's first birthday. They'd made an awesome Nemo cake and we also got to meet the family which was lovely. Poor Maisy had been dragged around all day though and hadn't slept much so on the way home she lost it in the car. Instead of going to church we pulled over in a side street and I fed her and then we went home and put her to bed and had fish and chips for dinner.

It was a very busy weekend. Socialising really takes it out of me so I'm glad to have a quite day today. And you know, I don't think I cooked at all the whole weekend. That's something I've been appreciating lately. Whilst I do like cooking, I go through periods where I'm not inspired and it becomes a chore. When things are like that I really appreciate having the weekend off.

Douglas Adams on technology

2009-10-10T16:18:00.002+11:00

I recently came across this quote from an interview with Douglas Adams (author of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy)

There’s a set of rules that anything that was in the world when you were born is normal and natural. Anything invented between when you were 15 and 35 is new and revolutionary and exciting, and you’ll probably get a career in it. Anything invented after you’re 35 is against the natural order of things.

h/t Faris Yakob in this Fast Company article

The Little Green Prime Minister with a Light Sabre

2009-10-07T19:30:00.000+11:00

I handed in the last essay of my degree yesterday. It was for our ethics subject and I wrote on John Howard Yoder and his book The Politics of Jesus. To be honest I picked him because I thought it'd be the easiest option. What I found though, was that it's been one of the most stimulating and encouraging things at college this year.

At first I found him pretty frustrating to read. He does some pretty wacky things with the Bible and thinks very differently about it. But he grows on you. And there's something about his stuff. You can't just dismiss it. It's the way he talks about Jesus.

For Yoder Jesus is untamed. He doesn't operate the way we expect him to and he doesn't let us settle for the status quo. Yoder particularly emphasises the distinctively Christian view of power and leadership as submission and service.

It was really cool to read because Yoder comes from a very different perspective. He made me think. He reminded me of stuff I believe but don't emphasise and pointed out stuff I'm blind to. So even though I can't go all the way with him, I want to know Jesus better. I don't want to let my own prejudices and weaknesses keep me from following him. I want to let Jesus change me to be like him rather than change Jesus to be like me.

This is what we want

2009-10-07T16:30:00.005+11:00

Please pray for people like this for the Northern Suburbs.

Maisy is 3 Months Old

2009-10-04T10:45:00.003+11:00

She's still a happy little vegemite. And a pretty noisy one too. There's lots of "Haaaa" noises and squaks. She still likes her monkey book, but I think she's starting to get a bit frustrated with the monkey's unresponsiveness. There was a beautiful bit when we could talk from across the room and she would think it was the monkey, but she seems to have figured that out now too! Anyway, we're having a lovely time.

Bridge Road Imperial Porter

2009-10-01T21:56:00.005+10:00

Just got back from The Local Taphouse, one of my favourite places in the world. This time I went with Ben and Carly from Shenkin, one of my other favourite places in the world, and Genaro and Ed. A good time was had by all.

In terms of the beers, the highlight was the Bridge Road Imperial Porter. That beer is ridiculous. It is by far the best porter I've ever had. The dark and toffee, coffee, chocolatey, woody flavours are out of control. It weighs in at 8.5% so it's got quite a punch too.

I would go as far as saying it's one of my favourite Australian beers.

A 750ml bottle of the stuff will set you back $29 so you've got to be pretty committed to it. Still, it's worth it.

Two of my favourite things

2009-09-29T17:19:00.013+10:00

There are lots of thoughts about doctrine and church planting waiting to be blogged but this is what I've got at the moment:

I finally managed to do a homebrew in Sydney. I bought the ingredients when we were down in Tas and bottled it yesterday. It's a bitter. I added some crystal grain and goldings hops to the tin and the malt. I feel closer in spirit to Martin Luther already.

The crystal grain cooking away

Last week Maisy, Bron, Andrew Tung, Soph and I went to Shanghai Night. It's my favourite restaurant in Sydney. I want to eat dumplings forever.

Quite possibly the greatest picture ever

GTD with baby

2009-09-28T13:57:00.003+10:00

Some days with a baby are just plain difficult. It can be a struggle to get even the most basic things done such as getting out of your pyjamas or eating lunch. Yesterday wasn't a great day in that respect. But it's not all bad! Today Maisy has been really lovely and has had several long sleeps. So I've:

Done the dishes and tidied the kitchen
Done two loads of washing
Vacuumed
Baked a museli bar slice
Watered the plants
Had a nice toastie for lunch (uninterrupted!)
Finished a big sewing project
Done a bit of dinner prep ahead of time

And now I'm sitting down with a banana custard smoothie (seriously, you should try it!) having a bit of internet time and waiting for Maisy to wake up.

Coming Soon

2009-09-27T21:07:00.005+10:00

In 11 weeks from today we'll be in Tasmania!

It's my blog and I'll rant if I want to

2009-09-27T21:07:00.003+10:00

If you can't rant on your own blog, well, where can you!

Allow me to bust a little myth I've heard several times recently. Because when people whinge about rich mums dominating the footpath with enormous, expensive prams it make me mad. Prams are like fine food and women's clothing: the smaller they are, the more expensive! So maybe have some pity for the poor mum wheeling around that enormous clunker of a pram. She probably couldn't get out of the way even if she wanted to.

---end rant.

Sydney Ranga Day

2009-09-23T10:11:00.004+10:00

Sydneysiders woke up to the eerie orange glow of sunrise in a dust storm this morning. Or, as my friend Roger put it, it was Sydney Ranga Day.

I really wanted to go out and take photos, but I figured I valued having a dust free camera more than pretty pictures. So here's the view from our front window at about 6:30am

Time Well Spent

2009-09-20T18:45:00.002+10:00

This week was the last week of our mid semester break. I think we've used it well.

A couple of trips to the Local Taphouse and sampling Rogue's Old Crustacean Barleywine and Murray's Icon 2IPA among others
A trip to Redoak
A number of visits to Shenkin (they switched to Jack and the Bean beans on Thursday and they're delicious)
A trip to Uighur Cuisine in Chinatown
A trip to Campos

Ben showing off his mad skills

We've been able to hang out with Dan, Paul, Gwyd and Dave, all up for the School of Theology Conference, Fiona came round for a visit and we spent time today with David Jones, Emma and Huw and Jonno.

Also, a couple of college mates and I got to talk to Marty Foord who's a bit of a puritan expert and a lovely bloke. It was one of those conversations you walk away from feeling excited and passionate and motivated.

Heart of Class (and other terrible titles)

2009-09-20T15:22:00.008+10:00

I've been doing a bit of thinking about class prejudices and that sort of stuff. I guess I'm trying to understand the issues behind my own feelings about going to the Northern Suburbs. I decided to re-read a bit of George Orwell's The Road to Wigan Pier, in search of his discussion of class prejudice in England in the 1930s. Here, he gets to the heart of the matter:

But there was another and more serious difficulty. Here you come to the real secret of class distinctions in the West.... It is summed up in four frightful words which people nowadays are chary of uttering, but which were bandied about quite freely in my childhood. The words were: The lower classes smell.

It's worth reading the whole chapter for a fuller explanation! But I think that in those days he was right. The lower classes were feared and hated, but underneath all of that that was a feeling of replusion, a fear of the 'dirtiness' of those who had to work hard to survive. Even those with the most 'advanced' views, as he explains, still hold this feeling deep down:

I have known numbers of bourgeois Socialists, I have listened by the hour to their tirades against their own class, and yet never, not even once, have I met one who had picked up proletarian table-manners. Yet, after all, why not? Why should a man who thinks all virtue resides in the proletariat still take such pains to drink his soup silently? It can only be because in his heart he feels that proletarian manners are disgusting. So you see he is still responding to the training of his childhood, when he was taught to hate, fear, and despise the working class.

Nowdays I think the issue is violence. I know that in my own heart that's what I'm scared of. And I definitely think it's the dominant image put forward by the media. I think that nowdays, to the western middle class mind, the lower classes are rough, menacing and violent. And I think that's at the heart of our class prejudice issues. What do you reckon?

Maisy and the Monkey

2009-09-19T09:56:00.003+10:00

Maisy's new best friend is the monkey on the cover of her Monkey See Monkey Zoo book.

13 to 31

2009-09-12T13:10:00.003+10:00

It's 31 in Sydney today. It feels like a world away from the 13 degree weather we had for most of the week in Hobart. Thankfully the house hasn't warmed up too much yet so we're hanging out inside. It's been a nice day off, though we've spent a lot of the day trying to teach Maisy to sleep! (She's great at night time, but not so good during the day).

Her latest trick is doing the one-armed push up during tummy time. Didn't catch it on camera, but this one's still cute hey:

We'll Be Back

2009-09-09T22:30:00.003+10:00

Back to Sydney tomorrow. It's been good here, but I'll feel more comfortable when I'm back home. In some ways though, it's a bit scary going, because it's for such a short time. It's almost like we're going back just to finish things off and pack things up. The future seems so close.

We booked our flights back to Hobart in December the other day. It all feels so real now and that's scary!

Tonight we spent the evening talking with some people who are interested in ministry in the Northern Suburbs. It was very encouraging and has really driven me to pray. It was also disturbing though, hearing about how messed up things are there.

I guess it's particularly scary thinking about taking our family to live somewhere where things are so full on. Part of me thinks 'how could we possibly consider living there?' and yet the other part of me thinks 'how could we not!'

Please pray for God to be working in the Northern Suburbs (of Hobart). And please pray for us, that we'll be growing in love for people and trusting God more and more.

Things I'd Forgotten About Hobart

2009-09-05T10:28:00.002+10:00

We're in Hobart for a few days, visiting family. It's lovely to be back, but there are few things I'd forgotten.

How freezing cold the tap water is! It's like it comes straight down off the mountain and into the tap. Great for drinking, not so good on the hands!

How close everything is. When it seems like nothing to drive from North Hobart to Kingston to pick up something you'd forgotten you know you've been out of Tassie for a while!

How awesomely bogan it is. Love it!

Moby Dick

2009-09-03T21:50:00.001+10:00

I'm 1/4 through Moby Dick. I've been wanting to read it for ages and it's not disappointing. My reflections so far:

- I'm so glad I did an arts degree at uni. What good is history and philosophy? Moby Dick, that's what.
- It has a really pleasing level of uneditedness. Most of what I've read so far would be reduced to one chapter of another novel. It's not frustrating though, it feels like we're luxuriating in the story.
- For all that there are also some great lines and turns of phrase.
- It's cute reading 19th century efforts at science. Patronizing but there you go.
- I like it that Battlestar Galactica's Starbuck is named after the first mate in Moby Dick.
- The whole story has a sort of biblical quality to it. There are heaps of references but it's not just that, it's the characters, the tone, the movement. It's almost as if he's trying to write a Bible story.

Back to it.

Racing Up the Charts

2009-09-01T13:29:00.002+10:00

It's been hard to post the last few days cos I've been really busy! Nick got gastro on Sunday night and although he was a fair bit better by yesterday, he's still recovering and still in quarantine. Thankfully, Maisy and I are still healthy! But it has been pretty exhausting looking after the little one all by myself.

Speaking of her, she's definitely getting bigger! She got weighed and measured yesterday because we had to get her heart scanned (she's fine) at the Sydney Children's Hospital. She's put on 2 kilos since she was born (9 weeks ago today) and has grown 5 centimetres taller too! That means she's racing up the growth charts. And she's almost gone up another size of jumpsuits too.

After our visit to the hospital yesterday I was thinking yesterday how awesome our healthcare system is. I mean, getting to see a pediatric cardiologist for free? How many countries will do that? Thank God for good healthcare hey.

It's a beautiful day

2009-08-28T11:01:00.002+10:00

It's been a beautiful morning today. It was just too good to do anything but wag. So Nick and I went out for breakfast together. We had a really nice time. We talked lots about the Northern Suburbs and stuff and that was good. We just came home and prayed for that stuff. Nice morning. Sometimes it's awesome to wag :)

Lots of things

2009-08-25T18:50:00.007+10:00

Chris, Lucy and Billy Jones were up for a holiday last week. We had Thai with them and the Canes. It was lovely to be hanging with them all, it felt like old times - with the addition of four little ones.

Shenkin is still my favourite place in the world. Bernie and I have been spending some quality time there. The other day Ben had some beans from Jack and the Bean to try out. Delicious.

This term I've been catching up on my doctrine reading. When I say catching up I really mean actually doing it at all. I've read The Triune Creator by Colin Gunton, Redemption Accomplished and Applied by John 'Ghostbusting Ass' Murray, Holy Scripture by John Webster, The Holy Trinity by Robert Letham and I'm now reading The Work of Christ by Letham. I've still got Possessed by God by Peterson and Eschatology and the Shape of Christian Belief by Doyle to go. But then, in theory, I'll be pretty set for the exam.

When my mum was up Bron and I went out for a Maisy free picnic.

The Taphouse is still my favourite place in the world also. A few of us are planning on making a trip out there tomorrow evening. I yearn for it.

This is Maisy completely failing to burp. She's still very little but she's working on it.

Finally an update

2009-08-23T16:14:00.006+10:00

Blogging is like cleaning. If you leave it for long there's so much to catch up on you keep putting it off.

Last time I blogged Maisy had just been going through the 2 week growth spurt. Babies seem to 'wake up' around 2 weeks and Maisy was no exception. Since then she settled down a bit and by the time she was 4 or 5 weeks old I had a week where I didn't even need day sleeps any more.

But then we hit 6 weeks and she had a massive growth spurt. I was feeding her all the time. One night, she fed pretty much on and off from 4:30pm until 10pm. It was pretty crazy. Suddenly we were getting a whole lot less sleep again. I reckon it was probably harder than those first few weeks (not counting stuff like recovering from labour and having the blues).

On either side of Maisy's growth spurt we had both of our mums visiting. They stayed for a week each and it was really lovely having them here. In a way it was good timing too as they were able to do lots of baby holding and helping out.

Nick's mum left on Thursday and since then things have been getting back to normal a bit. Maisy is sleeping MUCH better and I'm back to not really needing day sleeps. Evenings are still busy though as she stocks up for her big sleep by feeding pretty frequently from about 3pm-8pm. Then we're trying to put her to sleep and get to bed ourselves so we get a decent rest.

Maisy is growing well (and getting really chubby!) and thankfully we've all stayed healthy so far. That's something I've been pretty anxious about with swine flu being about and stuff. It's been a bit of a paranoia for me, but I'm trying to keep trusting God and remembering that he's looking after us.

On Tuesday Maisy will be 8 weeks old. In these couple of months she's grown so much. Not only is she outgrowing her clothes but she's also doing cool stuff like smiling and gurgling and cooing. She's just recently discovered her hands but is still getting the hang of finding her mouth with them. Today I read to her from a bible story book her great Oma gave her and it was the first time she's really seemed interested in books. Of course there's been plenty of reading going on anyway. Nick often reads out Lord of the Rings in the evenings when I'm feeding Maisy and I try to read the Bible with her in the mornings too.

There's been plenty of busy times and some things have been hard. But Maisy is really pretty chilled out. She's a real delight. So, although we haven't been blogging much, we've certainly been enjoying things.

And I think Maisy has too

Nothing like a hot lunch

2009-07-19T21:23:00.006+10:00

Sometimes you do crazy things to feel sane. Like making ricotta gnocchi with spinach and tomato sauce for lunch.

It's been a bit of an unsettled few days. The Maisy who could put herself to sleep seems to have forgotten how. And the Maisy who could sleep for 7 hours at a stretch seems to prefer her sleeps in smaller bits. Still, God's been looking after us and we're all still healthy and mostly sane.

I reckon I'm probably better than average at crazy stunts of one off sleep deprivation. When Maisy was born I had 4 nights in a row with pretty much zero sleep and I was obviously sleep deprived, but coping pretty well. But when it comes to the ongoing, low level lack of quite enough sleep....well, I think I'm much worse than average. So, after a shower and a long walk in the sunshine I came home and made gnocchi for lunch and it was nice and I think we all felt much better.

Tweet tweet

2009-07-17T21:49:00.004+10:00

I find it much easier to use facebook than to blog these days. Composing a blog post seems like a lot more effort. It requires thought and a subject. It's so much more sustained. At the moment life is full of small, beautiful details. It's twitter sized.

Anyway, gotta go. The little mite is hungry...

Edit: well, she wasn't hungry enough to wake up properly - yet. She's a funny one. She may not look much like me yet, but she can certainly stay alseep like me (mostly when I'm waiting to feed her!) And she stretches like me and sneezes in multiples like I do too.

The Local Taphouse take 2

2009-07-13T18:53:00.006+10:00

Yesterday Steve and I went to The Local Taphouse. Steve had a Murray's Dark Knight Porter and a Hofbrau Munich Helles and I had a Murray's Nirvana Pale Ale and a Moo Brew Dark Ale. We both agreed that Moo Brew won the day.

The Moo Brew

We also had some beer battered chilli chips with parmesan aioli and an artichoke and feta pizza. Those chips are amazing!

It was around 2pm on a Sunday afternoon and the pub was packed out. Standing room only by the time we left. I really love the place. Another thing I'll be missing when we leave.

A lazy Saturday afternoon

2009-07-11T16:29:00.003+10:00

We've been having a great time hanging out with Maisy. Yesterday we had the Canes over, today we went to the Eveleigh Market. Bron got some flowers and a 1792 from Bruny Island Cheese. We also tried the Gympie Farm butter again and I was sorely tempted to pay them $23.50 for a kilo.

In the afternoon Fiona visited and now my girls are crashed out on the couch and I'm half watching Sydney be an average footy team.

Good times.

Another little adventure

2009-07-06T17:34:00.007+10:00

We've been having a great time with Maisy. Today we've had a nice sleep which ran to about 7 hours, a quiet morning, an icecream in the park and then another visit to Shenkin.

Maisy loves the sling. Also, I've gotten heaps of smiles, double-takes and even squeals wearing it.

Yesterday we went to Fratelli Fresh which is an awesome specialist grocer/Italian food shop. They gave us a taste of their range of amazing balsamic vinegars, aged 6, 8, 10 and 12 years. We got some olive ciabatta, eggplant and red capsicum that went very well with the Bruny Island Cheese Otto that Suds and Adele gave us.

Mmmm...prociutto wrapped cheese. Thanks Del and Suds!

Lost and found

2009-07-06T07:21:00.003+10:00

They say your life is over when you become a parent. That you lose your independence, your time is no longer your own, you'll never be free again.

And there's truth to that. I'm sure parenting is hard, harder than I can imagine based on one week's experience! But something Nick and I have been talking about a bit is that the loss is nothing compared to the gain.

For all the freedoms we've lost, we've gained so much. The chapter of life as a couple without kids has ended, but our life together as a family has just begun and that's bringing us even more joy. To value my freedom to do whatever I want as the most important thing is completely missing the point of life.

Jesus said,

"For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it." - Matthew 16:25

A little adventure

2009-07-03T18:22:00.004+10:00

I took Maisy for her first visit to Shenkin today. There will be many more. They'd just reopened after a two day break to renovate their counter setup. It looks really good and makes the whole room seem bigger.

Everyone loved Maisy and all the customers came over for a look. It's lots of fun wandering around with her. We're looking forward to another little adventure soon.

The simple things

2009-07-03T15:35:00.003+10:00

Life at the moment revolves around us sleeping and Maisy feeding. We're loving it. Will post more soon.

Meet Maisy Ellen

2009-06-30T16:17:00.003+10:00

Maisy Ellen Bultman was born this morning at 12:39am. So far her favourite things are looking around with her big, dark blue eyes, feeding and pooing on her mum. She's a gorgeous little thing and seeing her with Bron is something special.

The labour was very short and intense, 3 hours and there she was. It seems that Bron is a childbearing machine. She did really well. I think the speed made it even more bizarre, we were expecting it to take much longer but hardly an hour after we got to the hospital we had this little girl in our arms.

We're smitten, thank God for all the answered prayers.

Church planting conference, session 12

2009-06-26T15:25:00.002+10:00

Last session for the conference! It's been great but I'm starting to get silly. Steve Cree is gold. He's lots like a guy in my class who's from Steve's church in Lismore. He's just quickly belted through a stack of reflections on church planting and the theology of teams. If it doesn't make sense it's probably my fault not Steve's.

Tips on church planting
Church planting without a mentor, someone you talk to most days, not just once a week, is a terrible idea.

Gotta get organised. Read GTD.

Should know a bit about everything. Just so you can get how things work and can integrate everything within the church.

One of the best things you can do in a team environment is critique everything. Get used to criticism, learn the difference between fair and unfair criticism and helps you prepare for personal attacks.

Simple Church by Thom Rainer.

Even if you can't have a church building, try to have a church office. Helps people if there's a hub, people drop in and help, serve, etc.

Put your best people on welcoming.

Try to have the best kids ministry in town, including the kids talks.

Have decent music

Welcome transfer growth. Lots of the transfers are people who might not get the gospel.

Be wary of transfer growth. Can't assume they're on board or get or own the vision.

Don't change things to make people happy.

The big idea isn't just for the sermon but for the whole meeting. So the newcomer as well as the regulars get the message.

Link the Bible studies with the preaching roster. Then, if you don't have a heap of really qualified Bible study leaders you're making it a bit easier, helping things stay on track more.

Communicate through every means possible.

Use special Sundays. They have a Celebration Sunday and a Vision Sunday near the end of the year to set things for the next year.

Don't just pick the best person for any particular ministry but someone who can train others. Gotta think about what it will look like in a few years time.

Theology of teams
Largely, teams are known for being dysfunctional. Patrick Lencioni writes some great books on teams (check it).

Not lots of data in the Bible on church goverment, teams stuff. Doesn't give us a blueprint.

Evangelicals tend to think of it in terms of offices. But Luke's punchline in Acts 6 isn't 'and thus the diaconate was established'.

Charismatics tend to think of gifts more, word gifts, service gifts.

There's another category: fellow workers, the ones at the end of Paul's letters.

We don't get told about their gifts or offices (mostly) but the big thing is that they're driving the mission forward. Relational way of thinking about teams.

Helps think about recruiting. Homegrown peeps work well. Healthy conflict only happens where there's trust.

Helps think about theological education, not everyone needs to be theologically educated. Teams can have only one or two preachers but a bunch of other complimentary people.

Church planting conference, session 11

2009-06-26T14:50:00.002+10:00

Just heard Dave Sheath from Lakes Evangelical Church. I dug his stuff on keeping the vision alive:

Keeping the vision alive. They keep the vision of the church alive by:
-Newcomers' supper
-New members lunch
-AGM to reset the vision, they get about 80% of the church to the meeting

-Aimed to grow by 30% each year. People expect growth.
-Aim to plant a new church, it was always on the agenda so that when the time came it was no shock or pain. People knew that this is what the church is doing, it's what they were always going to do.
-Flagging change as early as possible is important, do it as soon as you know where you're going.
-Aim to employ one pastor and one MTS trainee for every 100 adults or part thereof. This means that when they got to 210 people they knew it was time for the 3rd pastor and MTS trainee. No big deal, it's what we were always going to do.

Church planting conference, forum 6

2009-06-26T12:52:00.002+10:00

Archie Poulos on church planting:

Failure is crucial. We mustn't be frightened of failing.

Church planting conference, session 10

2009-06-26T12:28:00.004+10:00

Martin Morgan, who's planting a church in Rouse Hill has been speaking to us about contextualisation. Most of this session hasn't really done it for me but Martin gave a bunch of great reflections on the big church which dominates the area, Hillsong.

They're great at performing to an audience, teaching and persuading, gathering a group, and convincing and converting - moving people along from entry to commitment. We mustn't bag them out without reason because they're doing a good job.
They're great at understanding sociology, getting the atmosphere right, creating expectation of hearing from God.
People from Hillsong tend to be really positive and gracious, generous. Australians are a bit stoic, sarcastic, but Hillsong creates an environment where you can be a bit more positive.
The majority of new people come from other churches.
Hillsong people are very highly committed, people tend to leave because they're working really hard but not getting fed, get exhausted.
Many evangelical churches have no sense of anticipation, eagerness. People don't tend to come expecting anything awesome. They do at Hillsong.
They've done a great job of contextualisation and of moving people from checking things out to committing and serving.
Preaching is really direct, people leave knowing what to do, how to live.

Church planting conference, session 9

2009-06-26T10:45:00.002+10:00

Archie Poulos and Brian Tung have been building on what Richard Hibbert spoke about discipleship and church planting:

If you don't visit people, hang around with them, the church plant doesn't work
-You need to give not an hour to people but a day, a week
-Not just a cultural thing, valid across the board
-Time is a commodity, it's the valuable thing you have to give as a planter
-Failure to give time is why Archie's Italian ministry failed
-Anglos don't expect you to give them much time, that's why you can get away with it with them
-Others do expect it and you won't get anywhere if you don't give it to them
-People are the greatest resource, invest in them, expect great things from them

And Archie's take on the homogeneous unit principle:

Homogeneous unit principle - like attracts like
-But you can't predict how it will work beforehand, often ends up going in unexpected directions
-For Archie's Greek church it wasn't 'Greek attracts Greek' but 'wog attracts wog'
-Got all kinds of others coming as well as Greeks.

Church planting conference, session 8

2009-06-26T10:17:00.005+10:00

We just had Richard Hibbert talk to us about his experiences planting churches in Turkey and Bulgaria and reflecting on cross-cultural ministry in Australia, especially in unreached people groups. Jai and I met with him last week in Lakemba, I'll share a bit more about that another time. Here's a little taste of what he had to share:

Intensive discipling is the key to church planting, especially in x-cultural contexts
-needs to be highly relational, spending hours and hours together
-in the Bible but also doing all the other stuff, eating, talking, etc
-think about how people make decisions, learn, interact
-honour the way their culture works, family relationships

Richard also spoke heaps about and really hammered the idea that we must work hard to figure out what Christianity will look like in other cultures rather than imposing our view of what it looks like for us.

Church planting conference, session 7

2009-06-25T19:51:00.002+10:00

Today's been a long haul, but totally worth it. Andrew Heard has taken the 7th and final session for today. He's been talking about leadership. Here's a selection of my notes:

How do you turn pastors into leaders?
-They need to know where they're going and sell their vision to others.
-Leadership is about taking people somewhere.
-Ultimately leadership is a spiritual issue.
-You need to be so gripped by the gospel that you can feel the flames and taste heaven.
-You need to be able to think about what your vision looks like and how to put it into practice.
-Need a passion for seeing people saved.
-So that your sermon on Sunday is not just a matter of exegesis but of leadership, where are you taking people?

Vision and mission statements are great but they are really just communication tools. If you don't have that vision burning inside you the statement will just stay in a drawer gathering dust.

Need to have thought about where you're going. Be able to articulate it to others.

Church planting conference, session 6

2009-06-25T17:37:00.004+10:00

Al Stewart and Andrew Heard have been sharing reflections with us on their time in the USA.

They're still working at pulling together the various church planting networks around Australia. They also announced a conference in November/December for guys who're in the process of or about to plant churches. It's called 'In the Chute'. There'll also be some coaching stuff taking shape.

There'll also be a church planting summit sometime later this year.

Some of Al's reflections:

We desperately need to revitalise churches as well as planting new ones.
The biggest single human factor in church planting is leadership
Ministers are busy with stupid things, people in the congregations are often just sitting on their hands. We need to ditch lots of the stuff that's taking up our time.
Where you've got people deliberately spending time with non-Xns things happen.
We're often apologetic for exercising leadership.
Often the preaching in churches fails to reach the men.
We don't tend to support the really gifted leaders amongst us. As denominations we haven't been deliberate either at supporting good guys, putting good guys in the right places, getting the wrong guys out of places where they outghtn't be.