Noah's Ark

Recently at a community online gathering we were fascinated at the sheer size of the original Ark that Noah was required to make to prepare for the great flood over the land. The dimensions were given and the type of wood and number of decks. This family made a scale size model to match the plastic animals that their child played with and shared their experience with everybody else (below). The result is breathtaking reflecting a construction that seems similar in size to the Empire State Building on its side! We were made to appreciate why it took Noah 100 years to make it. He must have had an engineering mind or it could have developed "Titanic" cracks. Peter made the drawing (above) and added numerous exotic animals on the three decks. He added a totally inadequate food and water storage deck under these decks for the ten months they stayed cooped up. As he drew it he wondered how all these "calm" animals and humans managed to hold it together. This is a few notches above our present isolation experiences in terms of resilience. There were only a few windows at the very top of the ark and according to the biblical story one of them was only opened at the end of ten months to let out the raven and the dove. It would have taken some time to adjust to the outside glare! There are now many more questions that arise from this pondering but that must be for another time. 

Billy Cart Project

Peter was involved with a small group of men in a "Dad's Toolbox" program, an initiative that aimed to support a dad's relationship with their children. At the end of the first three sessions the men picked up where they left off with their billy cart cutting and assembly. The fourth session was fully devoted to painting their billy cart with their children helping. The venue was Bunnings Mill Park. Bunnings offered the use of a meeting room, tea room and a workshop area. The material costs were mostly covered by a local government grant (Whittlesea City Council). The whole experience was 'spot-on' and we have enough to do it all again with another group. What happened then was the "icing on the cake". Most of the families involved met in nearby Epping, on a 'just right' sloped dead-end street, Sunday last, to test out their billy carts. We provide a link to a video of the event, showing the fun the kids had - including a few adults.

Erskine Falls

While staying at Lorne, we and our friends visited Erskine Falls nearby. It was good for the soul to experience the wetness and smells of the falls. The walk down was simple enough but Peter found the walk back up all the steps very hard. It reminded him of his age. Sobering.

Missional Community at Lorne

 We had the pleasure of staying at an Air B&B at Lorne along the Great Ocean Road, Victoria, recently, and sharing the experience with friends from our Christian community. Here are some of the memories. It was super nice to wake up to a sunrise like this.

Snow Fun at Narbathong

This weekend a group of us had planned to drive up to Lake Mountain for a positive snow experience. Our plans went out the window when the coldest weather in eleven years descended upon the Victorian Rangers and lasted over three days. Lake Mountain which does not have serious skiing and only toboggining became closed to the public! We would have had to hire chains for our car wheels if we had been permitted to drive up there, but the Police put up a road block at Marysville mainly due to the danger of falling trees. Already a car had been crushed on the first day of the blizzard and a passenger killed. A lot of traffic had to turn back like us. We backtracked to a place down the road called Narbathong. We found that others had the same idea as us, and like them we made it work. We did not get to the record breaking metre thick snow at Lake Mountain and instead we had fun with 5 cm thick snow. At least our long drive wasn't a total waste of time. Peter also enjoyed the subtle tones of the forest trees with the cold mist and tried to capture this elusive magic yet again alternatively with iPhone and camera.

Marysville

We went to Marysville recently and experienced the wonderful Autumn colours still hanging about as we walked through Marysville Anzac Park. Other pictures were from near by and at the location of the church camp we were on. It was a very relaxing worthwhile weekend.