Jethro Nearly One

Jethro is nearly one, and because we would not be able to be around on his actual birthday, Bec and Gord organised an early birthday party so we could celebrate the occasion with them. That was really nice.

Jethro was definitely not sure about the little burning stick poked into the nice nutty chocolate slice. To add to that, he noticed that everybody was intently watching him and waiting for him to do something. Bec helped with a subtle puff of air at the critical moment and he was given the credit with shouts of praise.

Then of course came the eating of the chololate slice. Very yummy. Jethro happened to be in a pretty tired state but lasted well enough through his own party before he "crashed".

Peter had a short reading spot with Piper and Jasper, if you could call reading a puzzel book reading. It was more finding and talking about each picture, and this was extremely well managed by Piper who knew where absolutely every hidden thing was on each page!

The Balcony Edges Closer

Here are a few "before and after" shots of the project at the Gembrook Retreat. Peter has recently been able to make the decking area child-safe with the 54 banisters screwed to the railings. There is still a window and wall to go in between two of the posts in the downstaris porch area, and there is plenty of paint needing to be slapped on. But the project has reached a stage where it can function reasonably well for what it was designed to do, and for that Peter is very much relieved.

Fifty-Seven Peter

Peter reached this rather unimportant milestone just recently and the gift theme was predominantly clothes. A highlight was a classy Gloster stockmans shirt, an original country shirt that feels great to wear. The trousers were from Rivers and complement the shirt, and the vest is from Savers. A memorable rag-trade birthday.

Winter Olympics

The primary school kids of our church and wider community came together for Zone. This happens once a month and this time it had a Winter Olympics theme. The feature game was the slalom across a soapy surface. The kids loved that doing it and watching it, though there were a few bad falls that required attention!

A safer game followed as a down hill (?) speed dash where adult leaders acted as gravity pull and used the same slipery surface to pull kids along. That worked well.

There were a large number of kids so they had to wait their turn for their age call up. So in the meantime they played in the "snow" which looked a bit like leftover wall insulation. Very clever. After all, snow is not so common in Australia and it is definitely the wrong season for it.

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The Bible devotion that concluded the evening was Romans 8:31 "If God is for us, who can beat us."

While these kids had their Winter Olympics inside, the teenagers lounged about outside watching an open air movie with the help of a video projector. It was that sort of night.

Good Rain!

At last some good rain came and doused our suburb. The previous day a good fall came tantalisingly close but moved north to other places. This time we were given heaps. Because we are on watering restrictions our plants were desperate for a drink.

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Later we heard that the western suburbs were badly affected by the storm. Trains were cancelled and the freeway to the airport was cut!

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It seems that in these days nothing happens in half measures.

Seeds for the Soul

We went and saw Avatar in 3D. Peter could see lots of theological motifs. He was particularly moved by the floating seeds of the Tree of Souls. Floating spirits. Around this time in our area of Melbourne there are similar designed seeds floating about. Children chase them. They are hard to catch without crushing them. The connection is quite significant.

Coffee with Rolf

We caught up with Rolf who was in Melbourne on church business. He is husband of Nonna and dad of Jesse, Nathan, Asher and Bethanie. The more quiet one. We took him to a speciality coffee place, that Asher and Jaye found, called Seven Seeds in Carlton. We had a nice time of it catching up on our family stories and exploring theological issues.

Wall Art

For a while now Peter has admired a particular wall in Brunswick (close to central Melbourne). He does not know the artist but feels that he/she had fun creating it and allowing the random to happen. There is giftedness in the hands that held the spray cans.

A little further down the same street is another even looser wall drawing but with all the signe of quality and sensitivity. Peter feels that the same artist visited here as well.

Sally Hope

God's love and care everywhere

The Light of life all around us

The Light came into the world

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A new life for the Hope family

A whole new world of meaning

A completely new dynamic

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A little life direct from God

So close to God with wisdom from God

Having recently come from God

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Attached to God's culture

So recently there

A child in our midst

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To remind us of God

We are truly blessed