All Age Service

We try to have two of these a year, a Sunday when Children's Church and Beginners Church goes the whole distance with the adults and are the main focus. Where possible we try to give the kids responsibilities of leading in some way. The principle behind this is that children have much to teach us. The underlying theology is that God will speak through our children and teach us about things we often overlook, if we just allow for those opportunities. The picture above shows Beginners Church (3 year old to grade Prep) preparing for a song.

Church will be messy if we add kids to the mix... and fun too. Here we are letting our written prayers travel off into the white cloudy yonder. The helium balloons did OK considering how wet it was outside.

Mya's Baptism

We had the privilege of attending a baby's baptism with our Vietnamese friends who arrived in Australia nearly 30 years ago now. Mya was the newest grandchild of Mo and Ha. Their third daughter Thui is Mya's mother. In the picture above, Thui's husband Michael is holding Mya. Beside Michael is Mo and Ha's fifth daughter Rosemary and Thui is beside her (not as tall as Rosemary). The priest did a wonderful job involving the children in the celebration. Mya was 'crossed' with oil by as many people who were willing to come out to do it.

And of course the kids who were already out the front all had a turn making the oiled sign of the cross on Mya's forehead. Mya was literally glistening by the end. It was a very special occasion to share. We are glad for Thui and Michael. May God bless and nurture this young family.

Coffees with Dan

We do our catch-ups with Dan at the Centreview Cafe in Greensborough Plaza. Lately we have been doing it a couple of times a week because Dan is between jobs. He is starting again at a place called Shuga where he has worked before. We can be glad that prayers about this have been graciously answered by God. Dan feels blessed.

Greensborough Plaza allowes sunlight into the space as most of them do. This place has a strong roof feature covering a generous 'well' space giving light to all three floors making it fairly unique.

Afterward we often drive Dan back to his home so that we can continue our chat just a bit more. While he is living close we will take these opportunities while we have them.

Spirit Coffee

We don't normally buy take away coffee. This time we went to Seven Seeds near Melbourne Uni and found all seats taken. That's the trouble with really popular coffee joints. So displaying great lateral thinking, we had our coffee across the road in the car. These are times for us to chill out and work through issues or projects that are in front of us and in that sense our conversations are spirit led. The idea of the spirit was brought home by the condensation on the windscreen.

Family Farewell

It has been over a week since Michelle and Alyce left us but we have been way too busy to post a blog on it. So it comes now between other things to be done. It was a Sunday afternoon. Dan arrived early and made himself at home. He started a chai tea for the rest of us and that set a good tone. We then had a hour and a bit to say our good-byes. It was a relaxed time and before it ended we had made it out to the front yard for a couple of family 'snaps'. This one worked OK. Michelle and Alyce then flew to Townsville and we have heard that they liked Magnetic Island so much that they visited it twice in the time they were there. It is surely a magic island. If you visit Townsville you just have to visit Magnetic. It is a piece of God's paradise fragmented away from Eden when the continental drifts started. We will return...

For Every Window

There is a different glow for every window

Flashy arrows shoot through our panes

Refracted rays from within and without

Transparent gains of having such frames

Such as these in a wall tall and dark

House eyes that open with curtains that fall

Scraping floor and skirt weighted down

Drawn to allow separate worlds to meet

Ridges between two spheres entreat

Blocking cold wind and rain sleet and snow

More than we might need to know

Sparking and trickling and that's not all

There is to show about letting God call

New things aglow for every window

Launceston

Our one shared excursion together was the drive with Donna and her son Dave to Launceston. We had to restrict our time there to the area of the Cataract Gorge and even then we did not walk very far along the path. Maybe we'll give it a better go next time we visit. We had to be happy with just snippets of the experience in order to share a nice meal together by the river edge.

Everywhere one looked was a view of something in an unlikely context. As for the houses lined up infront of the sharp rise of rock, they look pretty odd with that sort of backdrop. Nearby to this row houses was an old tram track but it did not seem to have been used for some time. Launceston may have once had trams.

Anyway, enough of this ramble. It was a nice trip to Tazzi and the entries below are blogs that attempt to share a bit of that.