Goings on

Yesterday we had a prayer meeting for Tasmania. It was great to talk a bit together about what's going on and a bit overwhelming when I realised all the things good and bad that are going on. I guess that's why we pray :)

Societas is the college magazine. It has descriptions of all the students and staff and has a spotlight on particular people from each year. Look for the focus on 'The Tasmanians' on page 50 . You can purchase a copy from us for the very reasonable price of $6.




We're going on Mission from this Sunday till next Sunday. We'll be going to East Lindfield and doing things like teaching scripture in schools, doorknocking, helping run evangelistic events and other things.

Straight after the mission Dan and I will be going to the SMBC preaching conference. Don Carson and Dale Ralph Davis are the main speakers for the week. Apparently there's a joke going around SMBC where everyone gets 'Ralph' as a middle name. I can't wait.

Nick Ralph Bultman

Cool things about life in Sydney #2

We had the day off classes today for a day of prayer. How awesome and encouraging is that!

Cool things about life in Sydney #1

Aldi. For those of you who don't know, Aldi is a chain of super budget supermarkets. Sounds like just my thing hey. Oh yes! I love Aldi. I love it that everythings still sitting in cartons on pallets and that you have to get it out yourself. I love it that they do great cheap Mediterranean food. I like the stir through sauce with olives which you can get for $2.29 and the pasta for 49cents. I love the fantastic museli bars which are $1.89 (for the same amount as you'd get from uncle toby's or whatever but yummier). I love it that Aldi is generally better quality than homebrand, and cheaper! I especially love the wacky 'Surprise Buys' each week, like the 3m high blow up waterslide, or the extendable bakeware. I hope they build an Aldi in Tassie by the time we get back.

Jindabyne

The town sits quietly in the hills around the lake. Even for a Sunday morning this place seems hushed. The sky is grey, the town is still, the morning cool. I can hear the fall of poplar leaves like dry papery tinkle-bells. Jindabyne is waiting.

I guess that's what a ski town feels like when you visit in Autumn.

We had such a nice weekend. Matt and Mel shouted us a weekend away with them to the Snowy Mountains. On Friday afternoon were very excited to be jumping on a bus and heading interstate. The bus trip was pretty long. Most of the time my book was more interesting. The trip from Sydney to Canberra reminds me a lot of driving through the Midlands. When I realised that we had reached our arrival time and there was no sign of Canberra I texted Mel, "Don't know where we are but have just gone past a huge plain on the left, hope to be there soon"

Turns out the enormous plain is actually Lake George. Although it currently has grass growing, it has reappeared and disappeared over the years. There are titles for farming land because when Canberra was settled it was empty.

Anyway, enough about the lake. It was awesome to see Matt and Mel. The weekend almost felt like a visit home, not just because of the trees and the mountains and the fresh air but also because it was wonderful to spend the time hanging out with good friends.
The chairlift was really fun. It takes about 15 minutes and goes from the village of Thredbo up to the ski fields (and the start of the walk to Kosciusko).

Once we got up the top we decided to walk up Mt K, Australia's highest mountain which, as Mel says "you can pretty much walk up in flip flops". Unfortunately we kind of ran out of time, so we had our lunch in view of the top and decided that Tassie's mountains are much more impressive and that we weren't going to bother going to the top. It was nice to be in the mountains again though:










The ride back down the chairlift was even cooler than the way up. It was so steep! You can't quite see it in the pictures, but there is something pretty scary about coming over side of a mountain in a flimsy little thing like that. You can see the town of Thredbo sitting in the valley. It was far more interesting to have a look at close up though. It's a pretty much a resort town. Obviously in winter it's packed and ski chalets can be rented out for $3,000 a week! Still, they also try to cater to the summer market too:


I reckon that's probably my favourite photo from the whole trip. If you want to see some more, especially the pretty ones of Jindabyne, check out my photo blog.

Other favourites were the rhyming town names. There is a Bredbo and a Thredbo, Cooma and Cooba and there were plenty more imaginary ones that we came up with on the car trip! Well, this is all getting a bit random, and I should be getting back to my essay. More on Canberra later, maybe.

"One of our chief evangelical blind spots has been to overlook the central importance of the church. We tend to proclaim individual salvation without moving on to the saved community. We emphasize that Christ died for us 'to redeem us from all iniquity' rather than 'to purify for himself a people of his own'. We think of ourselves more as 'Christians' than as 'churchmen', and our message is more good news of a new life than of a new society." - John Stott, Ephesians Commentary

That kind of sums up what my essay was about. I used it as a decorative quote, italicised at the top of the first page.

We had a lovely afternoon today. After a lethargic and grumpy morning, I made sushi and we took it to the park nearby and ate a sushi picnic and read books for a few hours. It was so lovely, spread out in the shade on our makeshift picnic rug of towels. It was a still, warm, soft kind of day.

We spent the rest of the afternoon making pasta, which is just about ready for dinner now. Mmm, spinach and fetta ravioli with lovely fresh tomato sauce.

Wanted: Flat Share Mate

Ok, I knew the rental market was tight, but I didn't know it was that bad ;)
The add also specified that they wanted a someone with a female profession.

You are now rocking with the legendary Roots Crew

What a show! The Roots know how to perform. My only experience of hip hop shows before this have been De La Soul at the Falls Festival a couple of years ago and Lyrical Commission a couple of times in Hobart. Those shows have been all about getting the crowd into it. De La Soul especially were constantly interacting with the crowd. The Roots have a huge reputation built on their live show so I was expecting similar sort of stuff but more of it. However, they didn't do what I expected, there wasn't a heap of interaction. They put on a show, they gave us a spectacle.

At the start the stage was totally dark. You could see shadows walking on stage, getting into position. Then the beat started. Black Thought began to introduce The Roots, still in darkness. People started cheering and going a bit crazy just with anticipation. Then the lights came on, every single one of them, pointed directly at the crowd, Black Thought started rapping and the band kicked in. The song was Web off The Tipping Point which is pretty much 3 minutes of straight rap, no chorus. Watching 'Thought perform was incredible. "Tryin' to breathe like black'll collapse your lung". I'm not sure he was bragging.

A highlight was Hub's bass solo. All the others went offstage for a while and he just started mucking around. He did a bunch of styles and hyped the crowd up heaps. He looked like he was enjoying himself.

They did a medley of a heap of different rap songs. Hip Hop is Dead by Nas, Get By by Talib Kweli (watch for a cameo by Kanye), That's That by Snoop Dogg (language), Shimmy Shimmy Ya by ODB (language) and a heap of others I can't remember. When Shimmy Shimmy Ya started this dude I was standing next to went crazy, we rapped together, it was a special moment.

They performed a heap of their own songs, often just doing a verse or two rather than the whole thing. They did several from Do You Want More??!!!?, a couple from Things Fall Apart and Phrenology and one I didn't know so was probably from Illadelph Halflife and a heaps from The Tipping Point and Game Theory. All up it went for about 2 hours.

For an encore they did The Seed. They also did (I think) a Michael Jackson song which I didn't know but was still pretty cool.

In some ways I was a bit disappointed that there wasn't heaps of interaction with the crowd. It's one of the things I loved about De La and is a particular strength of hip hop shows in general. Still, The Roots were completely entertaining for 2 hours which was awesome.

Cosy

You might remember that I posted a while ago about a little sign on a telegraph pole advertising a lounge room for rent? Well, the rental market must be getting worse. I saw this today: "lounge room to share with other student... $165" At that rate, King St could have had about 15 people!

Look! A Distraction!

Something I noticed while reading through Ephesians, which is not directly related to my essay and therefore is intriguing me, is this from Ephesians 4:11-12:

"And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ..." (ESV)

Anyway, if you've studied Ephesians before I'm sure you've probably noticed it already. I just thought, isn't that interesting - the purpose of the 'specialists' (as it were) is not to do the work of ministry, building up the church, rather they are given to equip the saints (everyday Christians) for ministry to build up the church. They're not there to do all the work! They're there to prepare everyone, to help get all hands on deck.

All gone now

Look at that! Couldn't you just lick it off the screen? Mmm, delicious! More goodness from Nick's newfound enthusiasm for baking. You want some? You'll have to come and visit. Or you could try getting the recipe from Nick. Good luck though ;)

We watched Jamie tonight. Mmm, literally fabulous! It was all about tomatoes. The recipes were amazing. But my favourite bit was when he was showing off his baby tomato plant and basil "planted in a tin can for a bit of a laugh". He walks round the garden holding it like a stubby and eating tomatoes off it. Says none of them have ever made it as far as the kitchen.

I think the whole thing made me even consider trying to grow tomatoes. Even a little windowsill snack plant would be nice! Maybe we'd best see if we can keep the herbs alive first though.

In other, non food related news, I've started a photo blog: http://www.togetbetter.blogspot.com
It's all part of keeping normal while being at college. See, it's great to be consumed by a desire to study God's word but often at college people get consumed with just studying. Or the actual place itself, or the people (lovely though they are) and kind of forget to be human. So it's kind of about that. Kind of because I've been meaning to do something with the lovely digital camera we got and kind of because I got all inspired after yakking about it to Nick G and Simon when they were both up here visiting and taking pictures. Also, it may have something to do with having an essay on the go at the moment. Either way, it's been good because it makes me look up more when I'm out and about.

What is the function of conflict in Mark's Gospel?

When I prepare for a sermon I get excited. "This passage is the most exciting thing I have ever read!" "This passage is the most important one in the Bible!" "Why doesn't everyone talk about this always?" I think of the structure I'll use for the sermon, I think of how it applies to people, I get swept up in it all. But when it comes time to write it I stall. I sit down with a piece of paper and a pen then I stand up, I walk around, I sit down, stand up, sit down immediately and tell myself I need to focus and then stand up again about two minutes later. There's a nervous energy to it all and my thoughts, while passionate are hard to articulate.

I have that with my essay at the moment. I've done the preparation and I'm excited. I have a pretty clear idea of what I want to say. All I need to do now is spill it. Which is why I got up wandered around and am now writing this.

It used to frustrate me. I thought of it as me being lazy. But just now it occurred to me that it only happens when I'm excited about what I'm studying and that jittery, nervous energy is a sign that it's at least having an impact on me. A few times last year I didn't get that feeling, I sat down, did the work, prepared it and preached it. No fuss, no mucking around trying to get myself to sit still. The result: they lacked passion. Someone told me that "it was as if you'd given up" and they were right.

So, this is now an important part of my mental-health checklist. If I get excited and that makes me a bit jittery I'm going ok. If I don't care about a passage enough to muck around a bit then there's a problem.

It's nice to have finally figured that out. It would be easier if we came with users manuals.

BTW: Simon and I went to see The Roots last night. They were awesome. I'll post about it another time.

I heart wiki

The wikipedia phenomenon is a reflection of our society's shift towards majority consensus as a means for determining right and wrong in a factual as well as moral sense. What do you reckon?

ps

Oh, and I nearly forgot - Nick is doing his essay on the function of conflict in Mark's gospel and I'm doing mine on the relationship between salvation and church in Ephesians. Will post thoughts when they are clearer. If you would like to pray for us, please pray that we'll learn lots, grow lots and that what we learn, we'll be able to use to serve and encourage people around us and ultimately, back home.

life, people, dinner and stuff

Things are going well. We currently have a Gross of the Nick variety staying with us, which is very cool. College is humming along, we're hanging out for the holidays and trying to get our New Testament essays done (or, in my case, started). We've also had a really nice run of having dinner with people lately.

Last week we went to Jasmine and Victor's for dinner. They live in this amazing apartment complex in Chatswood (huge high-rise living centred around the train station ). If walking down the maze of identical corridors isn't enough to make you think you're in a hotel, they even have a private skybridge walkway to the shopping centre over the road! But they have a lovely apartment, and it was really nice to get to know them better and hang out.

On friday last week we had a couple over for dinner who are from New Zealand. Aidan is in our year and his wife Soph is working as a doctor. They are lovely gentle New Zealanders. They share Nick's love of books too! We enjoyed hanging out, and I particularly enjoyed the brandy snaps Soph had made for dessert!

Church on the weekend was pretty good. We've been going to a presbyterian church out West. It's small but friendly. It takes about an hour and 3/4 to get there. It's only one train though, so that's not too bad. We're trying to approach the whole thing as a relaxed day which may take a lot of time, but is enjoyable rather than seeing it as a hassle. This was the second time I'd visited this particular church. We were very surprised to see a fellow Tasmanian there - and then to find out he was actually preaching! It was great to see Phil and to hear him preach. He was there as part of his college mission.

On Monday we had Dave and Elsa and their two boys over for dinner. It was great - it's fun having kids around and it was so nice to hang out with those guys. We've really enjoyed the chance to get to know them better since we've been in Sydney. Plus, it's alway nice to hang out with Tassie people. To top the evening off, Nick made his apple tart thing again and I'm pretty sure it went down very well.

This week: essays, and hanging in there!

Tarte Tartin... mmm mmm!

It's no secret that Nick's got into cooking of late. Yesterday was his first foray into the land of dessert. Dessert has traditionally been my domain, but I am happy to share. Especially if it means I get to eat delicious things more often! Last night Nick made this tarte tartin, an upside-down apple cake with puff pastry on the bottom and delicious carameley apples on top.