We went to Phillip Island this weekend for a woman’s retreat. It was my first time at Phillip Island so yay. We went to the penguins and they were very cute and I had my first sunbake and swim. I had to drive the van there and back and around the place. Very cool, I like driving the van. Was a lovely weekend hanging out with some credo chickies. Everyone was so lovely and my relationships with the girls were strengthened. All except one. Before dinner I suggested that someone say grace, and after they had finished, this girl turns around and says to me, “why do you bother saying grace if you don’t even believe in him.” Everyone including me was just like “wow.” The night before we had been talking and I simply suggested that the Bible may or may not be 100% fact and that it is possible that men wrote it and that sometimes it is a little bit sexiest. Obviously that proves I don’t believe in God. Damn my whole life is just a big lie and I better get in contact with her God who teaches lets judge eachother, that is so more important than tolerance and love. Sorry if that sounds bitchy and hypocritical, it is just where else do I vent but in my journal. It was a real struggle not to say all of that to her. Ray told me I could challenge her on it if I wanted but I decided to just leave it. Sometimes theological debates are fun and interesting but this one had the potential to get nasty and if that is the case then what is the point. Especially when everything else was so lovely.
Lord, help me to meet this self imposed and totally unnecessary challenge.
It is 3:00 in the morning and I am off to bed. Another late night just hanging out with the crew, a.k.a computer and books. Great company these fellas are – they are a little boring and very quiet and they wear glasses and clothes that don’t match but they are full of wierd and wonderful and worldly facts. That is my attempt to be positive about them because, you know, I am a caring person.
I went to church tonight and someone from world vision spoke. Do you know that if we increased our giving in oveseas aid from 03.5% to 03.6% then we would increase government spending/year by like the whole amount that World Vision gets from Australia in a year and that is like a very large amount of dollars that I can not remember. Like my God what the hell is wrong with our Government? I seriously don’t get it. Why be stingy? Oh yeah, of course, more money needs to be spent on stuffing the planet full of crap. Sorry, in my hope for a happier world, I almost forgot.
John French was in Melbourne today and out of the blue he called me and wanted to catch up. We had a lovely dinner, courtesy of John, so thanks to him. It was great to be able to chat to him about Urban Seed and what I am learning here and we talked about Hannah and God and the other special people in our lives. Oh yeah and going to Alice Springs. I can not wait for that trip. Then he came back to my lovely place above the church, you know just to let me show of how cool my place is, and we both agreed that it is pretty great and God has blessed me. He was supposed to go to another dinner but it was cancelled so I am really happy he called me. Visitors from Sydney is always fun.
I used to think you were all missionaries to your neighbourhood, but now I see that it is in your neighbourhood that you ahve learnt the gospel, and that you are actually missionaries to the church.
At 9:20 on a friday night I am trying to get my assignment done while being distracted by all your blogs. What has happened to my life? That is not to insult your interesting and funny blogs it is just I used to dance and dine and have tons of fun. Now my head is full of Helene Cixous and Jacques Lacan. A feminist and psychoanalyst (psychoanalyst are very patriarchal). Now my fun is reading about these two criticising each other. Oh yay.
Dave Andrews came back into my life this weekend and it was really great. He recognised me and said “Hi, what are you doing down here?” He even remembered I was from Sydney. Can you believe that? I guess it helps having a twin. It means he has seen my face more than he has actually seen my face, if you get what I mean.
I went to the Melbourne Tear conference for a day and Dave was speaking. It would have been great to go for the whole weekend but with Blackstump last week and a Uni degree to get it was not really feasible. My friends here are calling me a conference junkie. What do you know from speed junkie to Christian Conference junkie all in the one lifetime. Life is so diverse. So anyway back to Dave Andrews. He had me nearly moved to tears a few times with his stories that made the simple things in life come alive. He reminded me that ministry is not having set agendas where we all go out and try and force ourselves onto people but rather it is about grabbing hold of the Kairos moments in our lives and other people’s life. We need to be involved. These Kairos times are change, celebrations, conflicts, chance encounters and cycles.
Example of change- When we move to a place introduce ourselves to our neighbours. Invite people over. Apperently it is less wierd when you first move to a neighbourhood rather than five years later.
Celebrations – Birthdays, state of origin etc.
Conflict – When somebody kicks in a store window, gather everyone around, get everyone to share with the person why they feel hurt by that and then get each person to give the person who ahd been violent a hug. Before you know it the person who kicked in the store window will be crying and also feel cared for.
Chance encounters – if you happen to be standing next to someone you recognise, do say hello and ask them how they are going. Listen to the answers they give you.
Cycles- have a baby and then everyone will want to stop and talk to you. Walk around the neighbourhood with your baby. Men with babies are less scary. Also when someone in your community loses a love one, even if you don’t know that person very well they will appreciate your condolences.
Ok these are just examples that he gave. Not all of us have people kick in our windows and unfortunately not all of us have a partner to have a baby with.
He reminded me that in community not everyone has to be your best friend. Most of the people that Jesus connected with were people that just came to see him speak. They were not intimate with him but the connection still happened and it was still really important. Jesus was actually only intimate in his life with 12, and maybe a few extra, people but he was still a community person who made time for people. It was amazing watching Dave. Lots of people wanted to talk to him over the weekend and he stopped and gave all of them time. Beautiful. I bet that is what Jesus was like. Like the woman that touched Jesus cloak and was healed. Jesus felt the power go out of him and he could have kept on hurrying to Jairus’s house (Jairus, very important man) but instead he stopped and said ” Who touched me,” and then he stayed and talked to the woman, leaving her with the lines, “Your faith has made you well.”
I am done with big things and great institutions, and am for those tiny invisible molecular moral forces that work from individual to individual, creeeping through the crannies of the world like so many rootlets, or like the capillary oozing of water, yet which if you give them time, will rend the hardest monuments of man’s pride.
