Phone a friend...

I have discovered, in a new way, that I really don't like calling people! I would much rather email them, or write a letter! It's not that I don't LIKE talking to them... I just don't like the idea of interrupting them, or they may not be there, and then there is the question of when is a good time to call someone..

Fortunately, or unfortunately, I no longer have that many phone numbers of people in Sydney, as I left a few vital things behind in HK..namely my list of names and phone numbers (what few I had!), so for whatever reason... there is email!

I much prefer seeing people in person though, when comparing the phone and face to face, though, yes, phone does work when it's the only option!

The downside of email to, is that while it is less intrusive, it's also likely for people to not reply, for whatever reason, or they just aren't on the computer as much as I can tend to be....

Oh well, one of the joys and delights of being back in Sydney..!:)

Life, rich, satisfying, enjoyed, abundant!

I woke up the other night with this verse on the brain...

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. John 10:10.

I love the simplicity and clarity of the second section- Jesus is so clear when he says this.. I have come that you may have life, and have it to the full. I checked out a few other versions, and love that in all of the versions, the thief's plan is the same.. to steal, kill and destroy, yet... God's is much more lavish, rich, wonderful than that. How often we forget, or settle for less, well at least I do. It's easy to get bogged down in all the things that are constantly in front of us and lose sight of the bigger picture. And soo lovely to be reminded once again of how God loves each of us, and to be reminded of HIS purpose for each of us! So, may you know the rich, lavish, life to the full, in a new way this week!


10The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it [a]overflows). (Amplified)

The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life. (New Living Translation)

A thief is only there to steal and kill and destroy. I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of. (The Message)

Awesome quote from Breakfast at Tiffany's!

I was watching Breakfastat Tiffany's this afternoon- it's one that's so famous, and well known though, that you can often miss the reason WHY it is such a well known, and good movie!

A quote really struck me at the end though this time, and really made me think about all the situations today where we can get caught in this trap, of trying to be free, and in the process, creating our own super strong cage!

This is Paul Varjak, speaking to Holly Golightly (Audrey Hepburn).

YOU KNOW WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU, MISS WHOEVER-YOU-ARE? YOU'RE CHICKEN. YOU GOT NO GUTS. YOU'RE AFRAID TO SAY,"O.K., LIFE'S A FACT." PEOPLE DO FALL IN LOVE. PEOPLE DO BELONG TO EACH OTHER, BECAUSE THAT'S THE ONLY CHANCE ANYBODY'S GOT FOR REAL HAPPINESS. YOU CALL YOURSELF A FREE SPIRIT, A WILD THING. YOU'RE TERRIFIED SOMEBODY'S GOING TO STICK YOU IN A CAGE. WELL, BABY, YOU'RE ALREADY IN THAT CAGE. YOU BUILT IT YOURSELF. AND IT'S NOT BOUNDED BY TULIP, TEXAS, OR SOMALILAND. IT'S WHEREVER YOU GO. BECAUSE NO MATTER WHERE YOU RUN, YOU JUST END UP RUNNING INTO YOURSELF.

Sticky Date pear cake with caramel nut topping

Well, I have been doing some baking, but finally remembered to make something new, AND take a photo of it, so here goes! Delicious!!

Sticky Date pear cake with caramel nut topping

180g dates, diced
1/2 cup boiling water
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp orange zest
125g butter
220g (1cup) sugar
1 egg
½ tsp vanilla extract
225g plain flour
2 pears peeled, cored and diced.


Topping
130g brown sugar
60 g butter
50 g rolled oats
50g mixed nuts chopped
45 ml (2tbs plus 1 tsp) milk


Combine dates, water, baking soda and zest and stand for 1 hour to allow dated to soften. Heat oven to 170c. Grease and line a 23cm square cake tin. Beat butter and sugar will creamy. Add egg and beat well. Stir in date mixture, vanilla, flour and pears until evenly combined. Spread mixture in tin and bake till just set, 25-30 minutes.

To make the topping, place all ingredients in a small pot and stir over low-moderated heat till dissolved and bubbling. Quickly spoon over cake and bake for another 15 minutes or till risen, golden and toasted.

Best served warm from the oven, with cream!
Serves 12

That moment...

There comes a moment... that is undefined, but it seems that it just can't be avoided... when you return to a place that is known and familiar, it's normal and on the surface.. nothing seems to have changed... however.....

Yesterday I had a great day out with a friend who has also returned from Asia, after living there for 4 years. We were catching up on being away, but also comparing notes of the good and and the challenging of returning home. We were also bringing each other up to date or information that might be helpful to each other... useful information, websites, things that had changed, road rules- where we can and can't drive, and where we need those funky E toll things to drive, or where we need to pre pay for the public transport.... we might look Australian.. but there is quite alot, we have found that isn't clear to us... let alone for people who speak a different language, or haven't grown up here. We have changed, and our friends and families have changed too.

Anyway, all the conversation should have alerted me to the fact that I was more aware of it all, because, lo and behold the moment arrived... it's a time that you can't define, or predict, but the moment is unmistakeable. I don't know how one can avoid it, or if it's just something that a person has to go through when you return to a known, familiar place after a long absense.

Things have changed, rules have altered, relationships have changed or a different because of different circumstances, things are technically the same, but there are minor things that just take a person off guard, or shock, hurt, or baffle you, or maybe we just react differently because we are taken off guard, or are just trying to find our way, knowing that we, and the situations around us have changed.

On the up side- and there are far more ups than downs- it's awesome to know we are where we should be where, and have loved seeing the way God has been moving in our lives in so many ways.

So, in it all, while we can plan and expect reverse culture shock as we return to any known and familiar place after a long absense.. there are still times and moments when it takes us unawares..! And I know too, that I will keep making mistakes, both big and little, but am glad grace continues to abound, and trust that it does in my little neck of the woods here too!

When I grow up......

I want to be.....

a clown doctor
a baker for a cafe (ed- of cakes, biscuts and treats!)
a barista
a counsellor
a joy giver
a buddy for youth who need a friend and someone to support them
someone who cheers people on (I would say a cheerleader.. but not quite that..!)
a traveller
a prayer warrior
someone who sees God clearly, dramatically, hugely, miraculously at work in my life and the life of those around me..!

I am job hunting at the moment now that I am back in Sydney... looking for the perfect job that will fit in around life, and the perfect course(that I have!)..... good thing it's a no brainer for God!:)


edited... I think this list could and will grow....:)

In person

I had a wonderful day today with my sister, her husband and two children (and my brother too)! Having just returned to Sydney after a very long absence, I have only just met my younger niece who is now over 9 months old, so there is alot of catching up to do!!

I was holding her at one stage during the afternoon and stopped at one point in wonder of that moment. It can't happen long distance, over a skype call, or regular phone call. I haven't been able to see her in a normal context and really got to know her properly myself till now, and even then, I am just at the beginning. Albeit, I have heard loads about her, her gorgeous charm, personality, smiles, who she looks and acts like, how different she is to her sister.... but the stories and recommendations, even the baby talk, and giggles on the phone have not been the same as person to person contact.. of "being there", on hand and in person.

Many thoughts came together as I enjoyed this moment today- of people I like to see, in person who are spread around the world, of people I would like to support better- yet can't be in the same place as them for whatever reason, and then brought to mind a conversation I had recently of what our relationship should be with God. The jist was that we should be glorifying God in all we do, or celebrating him....but isn't our relationship with God too, about being there, in person, of being relationship, inviting Him in and giving our daily lives to him, in the big and the little- that it's not "out there" and and abstract concept, but tangible and lived in a relating way, like other significant people who we want, and choose to spend time with, in person...

So, for now, I will enjoy spending proper time with my nieces, and other friends and family in Sydney- I so wish I could hang out with everyone "now" and not have any other responsibilities... some time..!:)

Each bite of the apple...

Well the day has come, and I have arrived! I have much to say, yet am rather at a loss for words. I have many things to buy, and places to go yet no money; Many people I am dying to see, yet I don't know where to start... many jobs to do, but would rather see my friends, so, much to do, yet I don't know where to start!

I am in Sydney, with no ticket anywhere else, and huge stack of things to get through and don't know where to start... so I will listen to good music and reply to emails... till I go out tonight with a friend who is about to leave...

An update will come out soon and I am sure things will happen at the right time, but till then, looking forward to catching up with everyone in this beautiful freezing city:) Feel free to help me bite each bit of the apple, one bit at a time, and I am sure I will get there eventually:)

Travel plans!

Well, I was planning to send out a newsletter from London with my future plans... but I was suddenly lost for words and the whole thing was just too big in the tiny bit if time left!

So, in a nutshell.... I fly to Brisbane to spend the week with my Grandmother, then we both fly down to Sydney next Thursday. She will be there for a holiday, and I will be there to live!

More news to come, but that's it so far!

Thomas Merton

As I get to the end of my time here in London, I have been thinking back over some of the things I have done. One of those things was to attend a Besom Conference, on how to start a Besom in your own area. We were all given a Besom- a type of broom, make of small branches tied together- the concept being to sweep away the suffering. You can check out what Besom does here. Attached to the Besom, was a quote by Thomas Merton. It has stuck in the back of my mind as I have pondered it over the last few months, so I share it with you now.

"What is my new desert? The name of it is compassion. There is no wilderness so terrible, so beautiful, so arid and so fruitful as the wilderness of compassion. It is the only desert that shall truly flourish like the lily. It shall become a pool, it shall bud forth and blossom and rejoice with joy. It is in the desert of compassion that the thirsty land turns into springs of water, that the poor possess all things."

I have been hunting around to see what else he has written, and found the following, so share them with you now. Enjoy!

"Persons are not known by intellect alone, not by principles alone, but only by love. It is when we love the other, the enemy, that we obtain from God the key to an understanding of who he is, and who we are. It is only this realization that can open to us the real nature of our duty, and of right action. To shut out the person and to refuse to consider him as a person, as an other self, we resort to the impersonal "law" and to abstract "nature." That is to say we block off the reality of the other, we cut the intercommunication of our nature and his nature, and we consider only our own nature with its rights, its claims, it demands. And we justify the evil we do to our brother because he is no longer a brother, he is merely an adversary, an accused. To restore communication, to see our oneness of nature with him, and to respect his personal rights and his integrity, his worthiness of love, we have to see ourselves as similarly accused along with him ... and needing, with him, the ineffable gift of grace and mercy to be saved. Then, instead of pushing him down, trying to climb out by using his head as a stepping-stone for ourselves, we help ourselves to rise by helping him to rise. For when we extend our hand to the enemy who is sinking in the abyss, God reaches out to both of us, for it is He first of all who extends our hand to the enemy. It is He who "saves himself" in the enemy, who makes use of us to recover the lost groat which is His image in our enemy."

"Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy. That is not our business and, in fact, it is nobody's business. What we are asked to do is to love, and this love itself will render both ourselves and our neighbors worthy if anything can."

And finally a challenging thought for you all....

The biggest human temptation is … to settle for too little.

"Dear friend, understand this. Nobody has an effective healing ministry without love. As Paul says, what really matters is faith expressing itself in love. If we love people we feel for them in their needs and are prepared to turn to God for answers. Our faith may not always match the need, but spurred on by love we seek the Lord for more of His love, faith, power, and authority in our lives."

Colin Urquhart

Reversing reverse culture shock

Last week I was at a conference, which was just awesome. I may tell you more about it, but for now, it needs to sink in a bit. One evening though, I ended up having an awesome meal with about 5-6 other people. We had all lived overseas serving in some capacity (some had come to England especially for the conference before returning!). We have a rich conversation about reverse culture shock, and the process by which one returns home and settles back in. I was really interested.. because of the job I had done, because I am smack bang in the middle of returning home, and because I am really interested in learning more about how to support people as they come and go from overseas.

On fact that really shocked us, was that 40% of returning missionaries suffer from depression! That’s terrible! It was great talking through some of the things that can help or hinder the process of leaving and returning home, such as finding people to talk to who understand, our feelings of failure, or completion, or being, or feeling judged. It was awesome too, to hear about courses that are run for people who are going, and even returning home (I had never heard of that before!), as well as new books that are out.

There is also a new bible available which has an emphasis on God’s heart for the poor- how great is that! Check out an article on it HERE.

Monday night cooking...

Yesterday afternoon, I spent some time looking for something to make, finding the right one, going to the shops, to make it. It was a new one that I hadn't tried, and I was on desert. Sound familiar? Maybe not, but it just took my breath away when I realised what, exactly I was doing...!

You see, Monday night in HK is cooking night, where I cook a main, or desert, depending on whose turn it is, and while I miss my time in HK in general, this was a different kind of missing!

So, what was cooked? A birthday cake for Samuel, who is currently somewhere in South Africa, but we decided to celebrate anyway! A new recipe, chocolate walnut cake, from one of my favorite blogs, dead easy, and hasn't really lasted long:)

I don't know how possible it is, but will try and keep testing out new recipes each week- will see how it goes:)

Momento Mori

Momento Mori

Sweet day, so cool, so calm, so bright-
The bridal of the earth and sky-
The dew shall weep thy fall to-night,
For though must die.
Sweet rose, whose hue, angry and brave,
Bids the rash gazer wipe his eye,
Thy root is ever in its grave,
And thou must die.

Sweet spring, full of sweet days and roses,
A box where sweets compacted lie,
My music shows ye have your closes,
And all must die.

Only a sweet and virtuous soul
Like seasoned timber never gives,
But, though the whose world turn to coal,
Then chiefly lives.


Robert Herrick 1591-1674

The Kingdom

I went to Wales for the long weekend a few weeks ago, and had a glorious time! One of the many, many wonderful things about it was rediscovering poetry in some books there. I couldn't resist writing a few of them out, so hope to share a few with you here. This one is from a book of collected poems by R.S. Thomas, a Christian poet, who wrote an enormous amount. The other book I found, was called " A book of verse for boys"! So it was full of war, hero's, vision, and and glory. I may share some of them later, but for now, enjoy:)

The Kingdom

It’s a long way off but inside it

there are quite different things going on:
Festivals at which the poor man
Is kind and the consumptive is
Healed: mirrors in which the blind look
At themselves and love looks at them
Back: and industry is for mending
The bent bones and the minds fractured
By life. It’s a long way off, but to get
There takes no time and admission
Is free, if you will purge yourself
Of desire, and present yourself with
Your need only and the simple offering
Of your faith, green as a leaf.

I have been thinking more about what I wrote in my last post, and think I may have misrepresented the topic a little. Well, I cirtainly didn't go into how much I don't like seeing the end results, or seeing people being recognised for the part they play in a project/person's life/event either directly, or indirectly. I didn't go into the fact that the building that I saw, were indeed built over decades, and some even over a hundred years, so of course, the people involved didn't expect to see them finished (though I wonder how they dealt with changing technology, and fashions- but then, yes, things did move slower than they do now!)

Anyway, overall, it was wonderful to look at those buildings and see the perspective that the people involved would have had. They were building in faith, knowing they were part of something much bigger than themselves. I am sure they would have loved to see the end result, as I really would, but they knew they wouldn't, but it didn't stop them from sowing into the lives of the generations to come in such an amazing way. Ahh, to have the grace and patience to see things through in such a way:)

Smaller than the big picture

During my time in Italy and the UK, I have seen a lot of churches! Especially in Italy for a week, we walked through many churches, heard monks singing Gregorian chants, sat and watched, saw a mummified nun, admired the architecture of the different churches of different ages. Amazing. Last week, I went with a Cantonese friend to Westminster Abbey, and that was an experience in itself! It was amazing!! I had never really bothered about going in there before, and am so glad to have had the opportunity to see it finally. I was amazed at how huge it was, but also how much was in there. For a place that is so important and used for so many big events, I was impressed that it hadn’t been completely cleared out!

So yes, in Westminster, there was the graves, or memorials of such people like Queen Elizabeth, and Queen Mary, Charles II, John and Charles Wesley, Isaac Watts, Jane Austen, Jeffrey Chaucer- the list goes on!

The thing that has really, really struck me though, through all of these beautiful buildings, is that none of the architects would have seen the buildings complete, because back then they would have taken decades to build!!!! The people who started working on the buildings would have started in faith, trusting that each building would be completed, and not changed, that they would be used for their original purpose, that they would be special to the people who are able to use them. Talk about being open handed!

So, as I think about projects, people, things that I have been involved with, projects that I have seen the start, or the middle of- I have been reminded of these buildings, how small I am in it all, and what a gift it is, not a given, to see some of these things completed!

Check out some of the buildings I have enjoyed over the last few weeks!

Big Ben!

There are so many things I love about being in London, but one is seeing Big Ben! It always reminds me of the story of Peter Pan, one of my favourite London-based books, and since then, a favourite movie… depending on if it’s the Disney version, or any of the other ones that have been made.

I love that idea of the boy who didn’t want to grow up, and while there are times that I see adults who want to remain childlike in a way that’s not helpful, there is definitely a context that we are all called to be children, to come into God’s presence like children, open, aware, trusting of our Heavenly Father.

So when I see Big Ben, I am reminded of the scene in Disney’s Peter Pan, when Peter descends on London ready for fun, adventure, and new discoveries, and likewise endeavour to look ahead with that perspective too!

Matthew 11: 25-26
At that time Jesus said, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure.

Matthew 18: 2-4
He called a little child and had him stand among them. And he said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

Gentleness

As part of this time I am having at the moment, I am loving listening to talks by people from all over the world! It is wonderful having the time to ‘take a deep breath’ breathe in what is being shared in different churches and seeing how they all compliment each other, though they are from completely different places. It’s wonderful to see how God’s word works together, that it is real, life giving, our food and drink.

I was thinking about it all though and was challenged particularly by the concept of gentleness. I was listening to a talk earlier today, which really highlighted it for me, in a roundabout way! I mean gentleness in the calm, patient, caring, thoughtful kind of way, not a weak concept at all. It struck me that it could be seen as weak, of not being special or unique, and ‘nothing’, or something not worth anything, but I don’t think it’s that at all.

Being gentle in all things takes great strength, as we seek to stand for what God says in all circumstances, without bowing and being overruled, or going over the top in the other extreme. Philippians 4:4-6 came to mind as did 1 Timothy 6:11-12. Much to think on, and be challenged by, and challenged to live out....!

Snow photos

Well, I am sitting up here, tapping away on the computer, very aware of all the events that may be happening on the other side of the world today, and waiting, for, well, something, so am uploading photos!

I had taken some photos of the snow a couple of weeks ag, yet hadn't had a chance to upload them, so here they are!

The photo above was the scene that greeted me as I came out that Sunday morning- beautiful! It was absolutely magical!

This one, was while I was out walking across the Common (local park) to the cafe. It looks like most of the snow had gone, but it was still snowing at the time, so again, was wonderful! It's much warmer now, which is probably a very good thing, but I did enjoy it!

A beautiful picture, of grace, forgiveness, purity, and more:)