"I think it better for you not to be that kind of man"

You know when you get taught something twice, it's probably best if you pay attention to it. We had a seminar a few weeks ago at Moore Women* by Andrew Cameron, one of the lecturers, which was about following Jesus in an engulfing world.

It wasn't what you'd expect though - how to follow Jesus despite the pressures of busyness, family, work, society, materialism etc. It was about a desire we all have, and which, if left unchecked will keep on motivating us all our lives. That is, the desire to be accepted by the 'inner circle'. It is that 'inner circle' which is always just out of our reach and which, if we do gain acceptance, we are quickly tired of and start looking for the next. It's this constant yearning to be accepted, and a constant discontent with our present circumstances which C.S. Lewis describes as the desire for the 'inner ring':

My main purpose... is simply to convince you that this desire is one of the great permanent mainsprings of human action. It is one of the factors which go to make up the world as we know it - this whole pell-mell of struggle, competition, confusion, graft, disappointment, and advertisement, and if it is one of the permanent mainsprings then you may be quite sure of this. Unless you take measures to prevent it, this desire is going to be one of the cheif motives of your life, from the first day on which you enter your profession, until they day you are too old to care. That will be the natural thing - the life that will come to you of its own accord. Any other kind of life, if you lead it, will be the result of conscious and continuous effort. If you do nothing about it, if you drift with the stream, you will in fact be an 'inner-ringer.' I don't say you'll be a successful one; that's as may be. But whether by pining and moping outside rings that you can never enter, or by passing triumphantly further and further in - one way or the other you will be that kind of man. I have already made it fairly clear that I think it better for you not to be that kind of man.

C.S. Lewis "The Inner Ring" - Essay Collection

I can see it in myself. I can also see how it is contrary to the heart of the gospel where we find true acceptance and belonging. Christians are now 'in Christ' and, as Paul says in Romans 8:39

"Neither height nor depth, not anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord"

I wasn't surprised that after hearing that great seminar at Moore Women, a few weeks later we were given a series of articles to read for one of our classes. The very same message was there, in print, so that I could read it slowly and wrap my head around it. Much harder now, is putting it into practice!


*Moore Women is a weekly meeting for women at college and wives of students. Normally there will be a talk or a seminar and an awesome supper. Often lecturers will come in and give talks on material they've been working on recently or a topic on which they're a bit of an expert. It's great stuff, and awesome that college caters for wives of students with this and other activities.

What are These?

Yesterday morning we dropped in to Dave and Elsa's. They have two little boys who are about 3 and 5. A cool change had come in overnight and it was a trouser day. Elsa was telling us when she was dressing them that morning she got their trousers out from the back of the cupboard and the boys said "What are they?! I don't want to wear them, they're silly!"

Yes, you know you're in Sydney when little boys don't even know what trousers are!

Goodbye!

Due to the end of daylight savings, we had a whole extra suprise hour to have breakfast with these guys before they left.

Some gems from kindergarten so far:

-In Genesis 12:10-20 Abram seems to be doubting and uncertain. In Genesis 15:6 he believed God and had righteousness credited to him. Nothing changed in his circumstances between the two chapters, he was no closer to having the land or the descendants promised. In ch. 15 God's word had come to him. That is what made the difference.

-God wants to be known, he does not want to be mysterious and ineffable but he acts so that people can know him.

-The knowledge of God is very experiential; the experience of salvation. This knowledge of God isn't just intended for the generation who experienced it but as the stories of God's salvation are told, new generations come to know God just as the first did.

-When being introduced to a new character in a Bible story ask what do you expect from them by the end of the story? What is their mission? This helps you think about how the rest of the story plays out.

-In Genesis 1-11 we see that God is committed to his creation no matter what. Sin spreads frighteningly but God's grace increases all the more. This shows us something of God's heart and is the light we should be reading the rest of the Bible in.

If we've been a bit quiet of late, it's only because we've had the wonderful privilege of hanging out with our great friends Mike and Nikki and their (nearly two year old)son Xavier. They've been staying with us for the last few days and it's been so good to see them. It could well have seemed a bit squishy in our little flat with four adults and a two year old, but these guys are so nice to have around they don't ever feel like they're in the way.

I know I've said this before, but what we miss most about home is all the people we know and love. Having some of them here makes us happier and sadder all at once. I think there will be tears when they go, not just for them but for everyone.

Well, we are tired and sad and we miss you all lots. But we're also pretty content up here. We're having a pretty good time. We love our place, and our beautiful Glebe. We're proud to be part of "the Tassie crew" at college. We love it that we're learning so much, and even the experience of coming up here has taught us to rely on God much more. He is so good to us.

And we're having fun! Ever since we found out Mike and Nikki were coming up we've been thinking of all the cool things we could show them. "Mike and Nikki would love Sonoma"(artisan sourdough bakers). "We have to show Mike and Nikki Cafe Otto, they'd love it" (garden cafe, classy but chilled - just their style)

On Wednesday we wagged college lunch and brought the other Tassie guys back to our place for toasties. We saw a dead bat on the footpath on the walk there. They look like ugly little furry men. Very odd, but that's beside the point. Anyway, it was a great chance for everyone to catch up. Wednesday night Mike and Nikki treated us to a turkish feast. There's a place in Enmore that does home delivery so we got pides (chicken and spinach, haloumi and fetta) and kebabs and it was so yummy!

Thursday night the guys cooked a feast and we had Nigel and Fiona around. It was great to see them, and nice that we could all catch up together. I realised how privileged we are to have the other Tassie guys around at college though. Nigel goes to SMBC. It's not that far away, but in Sydney it's far enough away to be really isolating. Various circumstances have just made it so much harder for them. Going to Moore because that's where our friends are is not as silly or shallow as it sounds. It is a real blessing to have the other guys around.

Today I wagged and hung out with Nikki. I think we spent most of the morning sitting around in our pyjamas and watching Xavvy being cute. He's talking quite a bit now. It's pretty hard to understand, but gosh it's cute! He was talking in French as well as English, playing games and singing. It's so beautiful, he can sing most of Amazing Grace! He sings it very softly and shyly, and you'd only know that's what he was singing if you knew the words, but it was really special - one of those moments to treasure.

Newtown, college and some cool cats

By the way, the main thing that was stressing us with Centrelink went ok (Nick's job diary) so, thank God for that - and thanks for your prayers and support!

Ok, so we have a digital camera and at the moment it's my new toy so I'll probably be posting pictures for a while yet (novelty's not going to wear off quickly with this one - I've been wanting one for years!)

Anyway, shout outs to Pablo:

This lovely grey tom lives at College. He doesn't look it in this photo, but he's really friendly and lets me pick him up and even comes over to say hello.


This svelte young ginger was spotted out the kitchen window last week. She has mad agility skills


Cricket happens lots at college. That's really all I have to say about that! (oh, yes that's Nick on the left)


This is Stuart and Susan, "our friends from Lismore who are presbyterian and have a car" (this is their full title. Nick tries to use it as much as possible. It keeps getting added to)


Susan and Bek. Bek's married to Weber and they're from QLD (well, his family is originally from Taiwan) They're awesome queenslanders because you can complain to them that it's hot and they'll agree with you (They hate summer so much they went on honeymoon in Tassie. You may have even met them at crossroads cos they went there once)


Some crazy dudes.


And lastly: Newtown. The North end of King St to be precise. This was on thursday when I decided to stay in at college and wait for Moore Women. I had just finished in the library and was on my way to Rowda Ya Habibi to get my dinner. If you think Souvlaki is good, just wait till you've tried a kebab from Rowda. We're talking roasted beef, harissa, garlic sauce, hummous, tabouleh, red cabbage, marinated onion stuff. There are so many flavours going on it's unbelievable. I should have got a picture of it, but really, it would've just looked like a souvlaki. You'll just have to taste one.

House

This is the rest of our 'virtual tour'. Welcome to our house!


The lovely cockroach free kitchen. Notice the plethora of cupboards and the lack of built-in benches. The bench-y thing on the left under the window is actually an Ikea chest of draws I found on the street which was missing its drawers. Makes a perfect bench, even Nick height too!



The bedroom is bigger than it looks, I think we just have it set up really cluttered. That's what happens when you take what's given in terms of furniture!



The bathroom. Lovely pink toilet, yes. And they managed to match the shower curtain with the green and yellow tiles as well as the pink toilet - quite a feat I reckon. Ok, so it's old and not very colour coordinated, but it's not rank (and that's a bonus given the other houses we looked at!) I actually like the yellow and green. I'm not sure of the exact era, but I'm guessing its probably 20s or 30s. Very art deco anyway. Also, our most greenest view is out our bathroom window. Sometimes interesting birds come and sit in that tree. We had a flock of lorikeets a while back, they were not shy! And today we had a kookaburra. Weird. Oh, and I'm wearing a dress I got up here at a shop called Tree of Life. Most girls I know would love that shop.

Please pray...

We're having Centrelink issues. Thankfully the money is not the main stress factor at this stage, and I hope it gets resolved soon. But various difficulties with Centrelink have been going on since before we left Hobart. It's too complicated to expain them all, but basically I feel like I have been battling with them for months now. I don't want to fight them or complain about them because I value the fact that the government supports us. Nevertheless, it is taking its toll. It's affecting me mostly in terms of stress, and in terms of the time that it is taking away from study. So I just wanted to say our fellow christians out there who may be reading this, can you please pray for us.

- please pray that all the issues will be resolved smoothly and quickly, that the complaint regarding their mis-handling of Nick's newstart claim will be resolved, that the documentation which has been sent several times for my austudy claim will be found, and processed and that they will not need more paperwork.
- please pray that when Nick hands his job diary in this friday they will honour what they told us and accept it and not penalise us.
- please pray that in all of this I will trust God and let go of the stress.
- Please pray that this will not take away any more time from study, or affect our studies negatively
- and also, please pray that we will be godly in our behavior towards all the people we have to deal with and that we (particularly me!) will be able to treat them firmly but with respect and not give way to anger.

I know this is not the end of the world, and that in the big scheme of things it really is not that much to worry about, but I would appreciate your prayers to help me keep seeing things that way!

God has looked after us so well and provided for us in so many ways that I want to praise him and acknowledge his goodness to us. Thanks to God, we have everything we need through the generosity of our family and brothers and sisters in Christ. We're settling in to Sydney life pretty well. We love our house, and our suburb and we're learning such great stuff and getting to know lovely people. We miss everyone back home terribly, but despite that we really are happy and feel very privileged to be here.

"Single Bed, Two Stories"

I love reading the little signs posted to poles around our area. There's so much wonderful engrish.

 

The city was pretty this morning.

This is our view (if you stick your head out the loungeroom window and look left)

Thanks Mum!

Thanks to my Mum, we now have a proper digital camera. I figured seeing as you probably can't visit us here, I will give you the digital tour of our place. Welcome :)

 



I'll post the rest later, but it takes a while to compile them all together. So, maybe I went a bit nuts with the picture. But hey, it's my first digital camera!

It was the bank that broke me

It's funny that 8am has now become a sleep-in for me. I mean, I know lots of people for whom 8am is a sleep-in (especially those with kids). So, I'm not complaining. It's just funny if you know me, you'd know that in my teenage years I was easily able to sleep in till 2pm. In my early 20s it was quite customary for me to sleep till 11am (especially during the King St years) But what happens? You hit 25, start working for a bank, set your alarm clock for 5 something one too many times and BAM! :)

Anyway, tis a nice Saturday morning. It was cold enough for me to get into proper pyjamas last night, AND to crawl under the doona (we usually sleep on top of it) How awesome is that? I predict there will be more days this week when it is cold enough to wear PANTS! And SLEVES!!! :)

This week has been good, but has flown. One thing I meant to post a while ago was this excerpt from my Doctrine readings by Peter Jensen:

“Repentance and faith are called for because they are the basic relational attitudes essential for the knowledge of God. The New Testament contrasts them with the good works by which sinful humanity is forever trying to have God while keeping him at a distance (eg Eph 2:8-10)

Nonetheless it is a blessing of the Gospel that the life of faith is one of good works which glorify God and re-assert our true humanity by showing what we were meant to be (Eph 4:22-24)"

It's not the most stand-out thing from this week, or the thing which has made me learn the most, but it stuck me as a really clear and concise explanation of good works and the christian's relationship with God.

For Emma :)

A big week

For a while I've been at a loss of what to post and I'm still not sure but this will have to do:

The last week has been huge. I have been challenged, stimulated and most importantly come to know and love God more. I've had a glimpse of my sin, been disgusted with my black heart but at the same time had the wonder of Jesus' forgiveness in front of me the whole time. I don't know how to express this properly but this week has been both crushing/embarrassing (thinking about myself and what I'm like) and exhilarating (who knew God's compassion is that great?). God has been so good to us.

And this is only the first week of classes...