John Weds Chrissy

On one of Melbourne's coldest November days our dear friend Yvette saw her eldest son John marry his beloved Chrissy in the Greek Orthodox Church near Coburg station. Not everyone invited to the reception actually attended the church ceremony, which is strange for us who see this part as the important witness to God. The lovely picture is taken at the reception and shows Yvette with her three children and Chrissy the new member.

What was quite unusual at the church was the symbolic way John and Chrissy' heads were physically bound together with a white ribbon attached to large silver ring-like crowns. They had to walk around the communion table three times maintaining this connection. This gave a lot of meaning to what was happening for those of us who did not understand the Greek mass.

Afterward we were allowed to pose by one of the wedding cars. The driver went out of his way and encouraged us to make use of the opportunity while we had it. Who were we to argue.

Wind, rain, wind or more rain, it was a wedding to remember. The bride's maids all froze. Chrissy was not deterred by the cold. It was her day. It was certainly a good day for Victoria, since we are more often in drought.

The Hut

This is a lesser known building at the Gembrook Retreat. It is out of sight from the other buildings and much lower in the valley. It was used as the main residence before the main building was completed. Let's say that was about a generation ago. The hut's unique character is not well appreciated because the place has an ugly external appearance, and the word "hut" has connotations of having to really rough it. A big plus is its fire place. We have sat for hours and gazed into the flames on the nights we have stayed there. These were times for our spirits to revive. We think the building is very special and it is our preferred choice of accommodation there at the Retreat.

If this place grabs you like it has us, then be advised to bring a few torches and a mosquito net. There is no electricity and there is water about with plenty of mosquito lava. There is a small gas cooker supplied and basic kitchen equipment. You must bring your own food of course. There are plenty of blankets about, but you will need to bring your own sheets. There is a visitors book on the little table to add your thoughts to. The place has a double bed and a double bunk arrangement.

Some time in the future, Peter would like to clad the unfinished internal walls with something in keeping with the uniqueness of the place.

Children's Service

It was Peter's task to give last Sunday's message at church. Unlike ordinary sermons, this was totally focused on primary aged children. He used an adapted version of Godly Play, a method of teaching the Bible (from Texas) that leads to contemplation and self-examination. The theme was the Good Shepherd. The Godly Play method required meaningful visual aids like the standing figures of the Good Shepherd and an ordinary shepherd. Five sheep and a wolf were also made. Green felt was the good grass. Blue felt was the cool, clear, still water. Black felt shapes represented the dangerous place. There was also a simple sheepfold to complete the props. It is always a bit of a trick finding the wherewithal to make these things but it was worth the effort.

The adults did not miss out. There was a closed circuit video camera on the Good Shepherd story and the story action was beamed onto the big screen for everyone else to see. This of course proved a distraction for the children who would often look at the big screen as well. But it seemed to work out. The children enjoyed listening to the story and watching the figures move about, and were ready to participate by reaching in and moving the sheep. So there were factors to this Godly Play story that were very random and risky. It was Godly Play and God was playing in our midst creating surprises. Peter got plenty of positive feedback afterward.
The service also had a creative prayer time when people left their seats and joined a group to write or draw a prayer message. This brought in something of a craft element into the service, something our Children's Church always does when we are in small groups. Even though some adults sat this one out, it seemed hugely successful and afterward the prayer sheets were hung up at the front. We got good feedback on that too.

Once a year our Children's Church and Beginner's Church lead the adult worship. This took a bit of planning because it was something completely out of the ordinary for everyone in our church. Children gave the Bible reading, led in the actions to the songs, acted in an interview drama, collected the offering, and fully participated in every segment of the service including the creative prayer time and the Good Shepherd message. We are so thankful to God for such a positive time for all. An "all stage" (of life) worship is tricky to do and this was as close as we have ever come to believing that it can be done well. In God's grace, that is.

Big Room Changes

We have come a long way and it is time to give Gembrook Retreat's new look a bit of a showing. Below is a rare picture of Peter taken at the start of the current renovation project over a year ago. At that stage the Gembrook Working Group knew what had to be done. The new plan was to divide up the retreat's very large dormitory sized room into four: two bedrooms, a toilet room and a large living space. This all had to be done to a pretty tight budget and at a speed that suited everyone involved. The north wall of the new living space now has two new windows. They throw in plenty of light and hopefully extra warmth next Winter. Now that this stage has been reached, the new bedrooms will be immediately used by an additional family who have just joined the community to support Steve and Jane' family in their hosting of the retreat and caring for the land. Without the Working Group's vision and resulting renovation work the new family would not have been able to come and contribute. It has been good to see the smooth and divinely managed way all this has come together.

Small Room Challenge

This toilet room in the project proved the most complicated to bring to a functioning state. It involved separate work for new wall, window, toilet, sink, lighting, plumbing and piping. And all that after the floor had been mostly reboarded. The mirror from a second hand collector, now the front of a built in wall cupboard, has helped to complete the room's requirements.

The sink cupboard was built to house an 'under the bench' sink and not be too wide. The bench itself is a combination of two types of timber joined, shaped, sanded and painted up. The cupboard sides are of scrap wall cladding. The spout and taps were set into a tiled wall area to save space. This sink had to do more than just provide for hand washing. It will be used for tooth-brushing as well. Alternative sinks being retailed, that suited the size restrictions, were designed for a totally different sort of decor. It was inevitable that we created the unusual in a place like this. Even now the doors of the sink cupboard still require constructing. That will happen in due course.

One very real challenge was cutting through a double brick exterior wall and setting in a new window. There was much study done for where to attach the flashing and other waterproofing measures.

An unknown factor was when a plumber could come and much was completed without knowing when that would be. When he came he did a first class job. Peter likens the plumbing work to a piece of art since the space available to join new pipes seemed too tight. So for it all to come together the way it did has been a great encouragement and a relief for Peter.

Gembrook Changes

The first picture shows what the great north wall looked like one year ago. The windows ran along the top so the tremendous view was only available from the ground floor. As part of the interior work to make the dormitory room into four useful rooms two windows were cut into this wall to add to the earlier one. The old cladding was progressively removed. Surprisingly, there were three wall cavities if the outside plastic cladding is counted to enclose a cavity. The wind was taking bits of that away whenever it got gusty.

After removing the plastic and black painted sheet metal, and the loads of dead Jasmine branches, we came to unpainted sheet metal. Behind that was the normal yellow synthetic wall insulation with the interior timber cladding of the living space behind that. So to create windows in this wall much had to me stripped off. At present there are three windows at the end of the house where most of the project work is getting done.

This is a recent picture of weatherboarding on the wall surrounding the new windows. The weatherboard nails have penetrated the sheet metal easily enough, thankfully. The original wall covering at the other end of the house will have to wait a few more years while other projects at the retreat have their turn.

Waratah Day

The much awaited day arrived and over fifty people found their way to the Gembrook Retreat to spend some time there and enjoy its beauty. Steve gave us a demonstration on how to prune, so when selecting any flour we wished, we were also enhancing future growth. There were loads to pick from.

As well as waratahs we also selected from the wide range of Proteas growing there. Both types of "related" plant relished the semidry areas they were planted in, and most of them had already grown high over our heads. We were small people in a large garden of surprises.

Barb showing off her selection. This will have to be a regular event.