Jeremy Clarkson on Inquiries into Top Gear Safety

Off the Recharge topic for the minute, have a look at this. Here's a part of an article written by Jeremy Clarkson, Top Gear presenter, on the back lash from Richard Hammond's Jet Car accident last week. Shows some good points on the liability silliness we've come to experience these days.

It therefore seems likely that soon, in a matter of weeks maybe, the Hamster will be back on his feet and ready to start work. The question is: will he have a show to go back to?

As I write, swarms of bureaucratic bluebottles are nibbling away at the crash site on a York airfield, desperately trying to find some reason why Top Gear should be banished from the screens.

Well, contrary to reports that he was put there by ratings-hungry producers, it was his idea. He wanted to know what it would be like to go really fast. And I know exactly why.

If he’d been interested in flowers and vegetables since a young age, he might very well now be standing in a pair of wellingtons on Gardeners’ World, talking about compost. But he isn’t interested in compost - he’s interested in speed.

Some people are born with a physical need to take risks. Steve Irwin was one. Christopher Columbus was another. And Ellen MacArthur is a classic case in point too. Telling her to stop sailing round the world is as daft as telling a black person to be white, or a blind person to look where they’re going.

But of course, we have a whole industry nowadays designed to do just that. To ensure that nobody ever falls over, that nobody ever hurts themselves, that nobody ever dies. And that if someone does, then the system must have failed and a head must roll…

How can this be a problem for anyone other than Mrs Hammond and their children? Because he crashed and tied up the emergency services? Oh come on. Are we to tell DIY enthusiasts who fall off a stepladder that no ambulance will be forthcoming because they should have called in a
professional plumber? Perhaps you might argue that Hammond is setting a bad example and that kids might try to copy him. What? In their jet cars? On their airfields?

In the last series, while attempting to build an entire car from scratch in one day, the nearly completed project fell from its stands onto the floor.

“Who’s fault was that?” I barked.
“Oh for God’s sake, how’s that going to help?” said Hammond.

He’s right. How can blaming someone help? We just need to make sure the little guy keeps getting better and that when he does, he can get back in a car, get back into Top Gear, and go 316mph.

Get well soon, Hammond. We all miss you greatly.

I'm with you Hamster, strive for speed, strive for adventure. It's the people who don't understand those feeling who are now looking to try and can your show!

Recharge ~ Elective... McChurch

Last elective, seems like this blog is going to be overflowing with Recharge charged material. This is actually providing a really good release for all the stuff I’ve been thinking about from the weekend.

McChurch – ahhh it was the name of the elective that drew me in. After going to Bel’s first elective I’d decided to skip this one, in fact I was going to skip the 4th elective session all together, and just hang out with some mates who I only get to see a couple of times a year. In the end though I was walking with Jono and he had decided to go to McChurch. (Sidenote: My friend who broke his neck, suppose to never walk again, has been out of hospital a week and came up to Recharge for the whole weekend. It was great to see him getting around almost normally. Still so much healing to happen though. I was able to spend a lot of time with Jono and I enjoyed every moment of it – end Sidenote)

So in the process of just walking with a mate I ended up at the elective anyway.

Should all Christians operate & look the same? Is it possible to have a church that offers a real experience that suits the community, or must every service be pre-packaged? Is Christianity just a franchise – like Maccas, convenient & easy, rather than healthy? Discuss how “McChurch” might actually be keeping people OUT of the Kingdom of God, in contrast to the lengths Jesus was willing to go to in order to get them IN!

Great topic, so much potential for great discussion on how the Church really is meant to function, and how we do things wrong in the West; however I really felt the way the elective was done it failed to deliver.

Again a good story, a travel story about trying to find a lookout in Indonesia, in the pitch dark, to watch an amazing sunrise. Not having a clue where they were going there was much pain, fear and eventually help from a local man and his horse. Eventually they found their way to this lookout just as the sun came up. As they got to the lookout she sees a tour group arrive, driven by bus and shuffled out to the lookout to witness the sunrise.

How pre-packaged and boring is the tour group idea! I know I would have preferred to be in Bel’s shoes and even though it wasn’t the easiest way to find the lookout, she got to experience so much more, and interact with the local community.

Is that what the church has become? A pre-packaged deal where people know what they are going to get, they can turn up sit for an hour then leave. Or in most cases, know what the package is so not bother turning up at all.

Does that church then pre-package itself and go off on a mission field, and expect people of a totally different culture to accept the Gospel on the pre-packaged terms. Do they even think that your standard Aussie will be drawn in by the McChurch? (Sidenote again: That’s almost a mute point, what is a ‘standard’ Australian! So much multi-cultureism there’s about as much cultural differences in different parts of Sydney than there is going to Africa! – end sidenote).

That’s about where the elective ended it’s prepared speech – after that there were more promos for Global Interaction with a DVD about work going on in Kazakhstan. I found their DVD very ‘Getaway’ and not really showing what the organisation were doing in the country.

The open discussion at the end started churning up some good stuff. We outlined that there was a pre-packaged church, and that wasn’t totally Biblical. She mentioned we need to find a different way of doing things so we meet people where they are already at (the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman), but she didn’t really give any ideas on how to do that. And also how the McChurch can involve itself in getting into the communities around it.

My personal beliefs are that McChurch needs to change… is Whitehill a McChurch?? I think it’s been trying to break away from the pre-packaged stuff, but there’s more to do. However larger developed churches need not sell their land and become emergent, there is still a place for the traditional church, but it needs to be community service based. It’s another personal thing, but I hate programs, rosters and planning meetings, I think they develop this pre-packaged McChurchiness which I find so bland.

Anyway back to the elective discussions. A friend of mine (who just happens to be the director of WEC Australia) opened the discussion about asking what role the McChurch had in this scheme of things. He was playing a little ‘devils advocate’ sounding like a pro-McChurcher and there were a couple of ‘emergents’ in the crowd and they bit.

There was much discussion about how the church should be relationship based, how it should be community centred and that they need to be visible. But through all of it no one mentioned how the large established churches could continue to be involved in Gods work.

I love the emergent church idea, but I find it hard to accept when they are so condescending of the established church. The people in this elective that bit to my mates comment were very anti established and pro emergent.

I missed the part where my friend answered his own question (we left when the time came for the main meeting to start), but someone told me later that he explained how WEC works with its church planting.

Working with the established church to grab support to go into a unreached community. The people who feel the call move in, live with, establish relationships and join the community they want to reach, all the time with the support of established churches in the area. This allows for shared resources, a sending base as more people become in tune with the new outreach and a fellowship with the greater body of Christ. I’ve personally seen this at work in The Gambia, as the Evangelical Church of the Gambia (ECG) works with WEC to plant churches in different villages. WEC missionaries live in the communities, but it is also through ECG that the church is established.

I don’t think that people in that elective realised that the director of WEC ( a church planting organisation) was amongst them. He never said exactly who he was, and never mentioned WEC (which is pretty humble I think), but he did explain a good Biblical plan for planting churches in new communities, being culturally sensitive, meeting needs and spreading the Gospel.

Recharge ~ Elective... God of the Car Park

Second Elective, another by Stan Fetting. I enjoyed his first elective, and the conversational direction he took with it. God of the Car Park sounded intriguing as the following blurb demonstrates.

Whilst people in the 3rd world are dying of hunger and are praying to stay alive till morning, we are praying for car park spaces. Western comforts have reduced our vision of prayer and destiny and reduced God into a genie for our laziness. This elective invites us to upsize our view of God.

I’m always up for ‘upsizing’ my view of God so here are my thoughts.

A bit of a lead in first, Stan started the discussion off with the following story. (well my memory of the story)

-All around the world these events happen at the same time. Julia is in Brisbane, she’s 19 years old and driving into the Chermside Shopping Centre car park at around 8pm. Suddenly she starts praying to God with as much passion and faith that she can muster, because she has a situation that needs prayer.

At the exact same time Sara is waking up and getting her brothers and sisters ready for school. She is in Bulawayo Zimbabwe, and she spent all last night making some little craft items to take and sell at the now illegal market place just outside of town. She needs to make these sales to help feed her siblings, whom she looks after now that both her parents have died from AIDS. Sara is only 16. Before she leaves, she kneels and prays to God, please help me sell my items today, please don’t let me get arrested by President Mugabe’s police because he has tried to stop us from making money. Please keep my brothers and sisters safe while I have to leave them alone.

Back in Australia, in a Western Australian Aboriginal community, Lisa is sitting on her back porch. The ambulance has just left, taking her mother to hospital. Her father came home tonight, after going to a secret binge party. Lisa hid while her father beat her mother until some of the elders came and pulled him out of the house. The ambulance picks mother up, but her father has just returned inside and though Lisa has gotten use to the beatings, tonight her father seems even more violent. In fear she cries out to God to help her survive the night safely.

In a remote refugee camp in Somalia, Wilfred is standing in line. He’s been there for 2 hours already, and there are still so many people in front of him. But today may be the day. Today he might get to the front of the line and find out his name is on the list, the list of families granted asylum in a foreign country. Wilfred has heard Australia is a good place, and that is his first choice, but anywhere away from the war and hunger, anywhere where his 3 children can grow up safe will be fine. Wilfred stands in line and prays his name is on the list, he prays that God will save his family from all the troubles of his country.

Back to Julia, she’s still driving her 2002 model Hyundai Accent through the car park, and praying hard. You see she heard at church last Sunday that God wants to be part of every aspect of our lives, and tonight is Thursday. She’s meeting some friends for a quick dinner before heading to see a movie, and she’s a touch late. So she prays… Please God, give me a car park close to the entrance, I don’t like walking much anyway, and I’m already late. Please let there be a park, near Myers would be best, cause that’s close to the food-court… As she turns the corner she sees a white Magna reversing out of a parking spot, about 6 away from the door. “THANK YOU God!” she exclaims, waits for the space to clear, parks and walks in to meet her friends.
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I think from the whole weekend, this elective was the one I took the most from. That story tugged at a certain part of my heart. I realised that we take a fair bit for granted, and in the context of the story, I class Julia’s request as insulting, considering the prayers others were speaking to God at the same time.

The church in the West has it too good. We have our houses, grocery stores, cars, money, air-conditioning, and so much more. It’s made us so comfortable, and honestly looking down our street, you couldn’t tell who were believers and who weren’t. The way Christians live in Western societies today is just as materialistic, just as consumerist as everyone else.

Stan told of a prayer meeting he was at where a couple were praising God because they had finally decided what colour to paint the outside of their house, and this had been causing them much pain. People in Africa are just praying to have something over their head while they sleep.

From my time in The Gambia, I saw a lot of poverty. And coming home I felt so ashamed of how much we have, but 2 years on I see I’ve fallen back into the Western trap, the consuming, materialistic world of the West. I’m ashamed.

Why do we feel our trivial needs are so important, we ask the God of the car park to provide for us, and don’t give half a thought to those in the world who are truly in need of God’s deliverance and help.

As a conclusion (because this has become quite long), Stan mentioned he had made a pack not to ask God for a car park space. Instead of asking God to provide something he probably really doesn’t need, now he focuses on thanking God for what he already has. A car to drive to the shops, the ease of a shopping centre, freedom to leave his home.

Man we take a lot for granted.

Recharge ~Elective... Christocentricity

Next up, electives. Now I really wanted to try and engage in some discussion in these electives, and so decided not to take my notebook with me.

So all this is coming from what I’ve remembered, and seeing as though the 4 electives I went to presented by 2 different people, I hope I don’t mix some of them up.

I’ve recently been looking into some ‘alternate’ ideals of the Church. And so chose electives at Recharge which I though would stretch my thoughts on what the Church is.

First up…

Christocentricity - putting Jesus back at the centre of our agenda's

Stan Fetting is a Zambian born Baptist Pastor, having worked in South Africa, the UK and Australia. Someone mentioned to me before I went to his elective that he’s known to be a bit controversial and ‘left wing’. Honestly that excited me all the more to go to his electives.

The Recharge booklet had this little blurb about this elective.

Within the church, fashions come and go, fads rise and die, agenda’s wax and wane. When all the hype dies down we sometimes as Christians and churches find ourselves off-centre, with our energies and passions directed at things other than Christ and His agenda setting teachings. This elective will examine how the Beatitudes contrast vividly with aspects of contemporary Australian spirituality and how we can recalibrate.

Straight off the bat we tossed up the dominant properties of today’s Australian spirituality. In the media, both Christian and secular, who are the main characters representing the Australian church. What do we within the church see as the main aspects that are seen about Aussies ‘religious spirituality’.

I put forward that Australian’s spirituality is music driven, we discussed the music/worship niche; it seems that churches these days are defined by their music. The fact that people can walk out of a church service and ask “How was the worship tonight?” – “Yeah it was a little off tonight hey…” Churches win new people from other churches because their music is better.

Stan (of course) had a list he had prepared earlier. Dominant Christian figures included mainly Anglican and Catholic Bishops, but of course you can’t ignore that these days Brian Houston is probably Australia’s most well known minister. He defined the major themes of Australian Spirituality to include some of the following, power, wealth, blessing, intensity, prosperity, (there were others but I’m sorry they’ve slipped my mind).

I think he was pretty well right on.

We then spent the remaining time looking at Jesus’ sermon. His big speaking opportunity when he takes the time to teach people about his Father.

Matthew 5:3 - Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

What does it mean to be poor in spirit? Does that fit with things like prosperity, intensity? People grieve the fact they are full of sin, sometimes to the point where they don’t want to let Jesus save them. But when they do they receive such joy, because they have come from such a broken spirit. Working from that poor spirit allows a truly humble and God lead Christian walk.

Matthew 5:4 - Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

Actually this links in with the first one, Stan told a story about a member of his congregation who heard the Gospel, and came right up to the point of conversion so many times, but never quite crossed over. When he finally did he told Stan that the main reason he hadn’t done it earlier was that he felt so dirty, so terrible about who he was that he knew he wasn’t worthy for Jesus. He mourned his past life, and came through it to find and serve Jesus.

The rest of the Beatitudes speak of the meek, the hungry, the merciful, pure, peacemakers and persecuted.

Do anyone of them fit what the majority of Australian Churches are known for? In the past few months I’ve heard sermons on Jesus the warrior (peace, meek, merciful???), God blessing us with good things (persecuted, meek, hungry, poor in spirit???) and the Church becoming the powerful establishment where famous people turn to, where politicians come for advice (meek, pure, mourning????)

I mean in the West, evangelical churches today look to the letters of the New Testament for their teachings, to the doctrines of the new church. Pentecostal churches take the majority of their messages from the Old Testament, the power and prosperity that God gives to the people who obey him.

But the Gospels teach of the humility, the meekness, the kindness of Jesus. In his own words God tells us how we should live, because these are those who will inherit the kingdom.

So churches, be they emergent, traditional, contemporary, evangelical or pentecostal need to forget the current trends of Aussie Spiritualism and instead take a stand and live the way Jesus spoke of.

Recharge ~ Worship

Ok, so I thought I’d start with my favourite part of the weekend. I got to play drums for Andrew Sercombe out at the Chinchilla Keswick Convention back in 2003. It was a simple but pumped youth camp and though we didn’t have the best gear, we had some good muso and some very passionate kids.

Andrew blew me away. His skills for leading a musical worship time were easily recognised. His guitars skills were good, but it was the way he lead people into a place where they felt free to shamelessly express themselves to God which was what made those times of worship so memorable.

These days Andrew works with Soul Survivor UK and also runs workshops and seminars on corporate worship in the Church.

For the last 2 years Andrew has lead worship at Recharge, and though it is musically driven, it really is a time of worship, not just a time for singing worship songs.

This year I was really drawn into the times of worship. As a drummer I am slightly musical – and so good quality music does influence my comfort in expressing myself to God (for example is I’m hearing off rhythms, beats or harmonies I find myself distracted from what I’m expressing to God and listening to the music). Andrew’s band were all fantastic musos, I in particular connected with what the drummer was doing. His skill were a level above anything I’ve ever played, but it was the joy on his face, the passion in which he played, and his sensitivity to everything else that was going on that really made me connect with him. As a drummer myself I felt when the music was going up and down, and I could hear what I thought I’d be doing on the drums at any point, and pretty well the whole time the drummer was doing exactly that (just with better skills).

Drumming for me is worshipful, so listening to someone else drum in worship can really focus my thoughts and life my praise to God. I don’t know who this guy was but he’s the best worship playing drummer I’ve ever heard, and somehow I’d love to personally thank him for the work he did last weekend.

All that said, the thing I really loved about Andrew’s worship times was the fact he could lead 500-1000 people into a time of meaningful worship through music, and not create the emotional hype which sometimes takes over, distracts and destroys peoples attitude of praise. How he does it I really don’t know, maybe it’s his humility which is evident even from the stage. But however he does it, it is a gift God’s given him and I praise God that Andrew uses it so well.

It’s probably got a lot to do with song choice. Instead of choosing songs which look at our individuality with God, most of the songs sung last weekend included lyrics professing corporate worship.

How great is our God
Sing with me
How great is our God
And all the world will see
How great, how great
Is our God.
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Almighty God, in every way
You are above and beyond understanding
If we did not praise, the rocks would cry out
Glorious God, high above understanding

Andrew’s leading in worship focuses the whole congregation on pointing their praise to God, not thinking about what God can do for us, but what we are doing for him. Throughout the Bible we come across angels sitting and continuously proclaiming Holy Holy Holy, a continuous repetition of praise. I think that’s what Andrew strives for, continuous praise of God through song.

And I truly felt I connected with God, not because I was singing of how he fills me up, and makes me feel good, but because I was telling him how awesome, fantastic, almighty and great he was.

Recharge 06

www.recharge.org.au

I spent this past weekend up on Mt Tamborine at the 2006 Recharge Young Adults convention.

I was really looking forward to the weekend, I've had some pretty stressfull weeks at work, and I was looking forward to a break. I also had some personal issues for wanting to get away, and specifically get to Recharge.

Looking back on the weekend, those personal issues weren't resloved, but inflamed. Not sure if I want to put too much up here about those yet. However the studies, speaking and opportunities to corporatly worship God were challenging, humbling, inspiring, inquisitive and mind/faith stretching.

Over the next couple of days I want to put up some posts about a few aspects of the weekend.

1. The key-note speaker Tim Manders' messages on Radical Discipleship
2. The 4 electives I took part in, Christocentricity - putting Jesus back at the centre of our agenda's (Stan Fetting), God of the Car Park (Stan Fetting), Risk and Love (Belinda ???) and McChurch (Belinda ???)
3. Andrew Sercombes attitude to Worship and leading the music for the weekend
4. Some personal reflection on the social and practical environment created at this Young Adults event.

Jump in my KIT2000

The Hoff has made a new music video. This played at the Qld V8 Supercar round on the big screens! So funny, so typical Hoff.

Will you turn to the Dark Side??

Hamo's got a great discussion going over on Backyard Missionary, about his ideas of maybe switching to an Apple Laptop.

Some good comments and feedback on the age old debate - PC or MAC!!??!!??

Top 10

Close call tonight for Mutto on Australian Idol. He was in the bottom 3, but was the first person back safe in the show.

It frightens me how much money people must spend on voting for this show, I don't think Mutto has the fan base willing to spend (waste) hundreds of $$$ on a TV show.

Going Home

Well today Jono is walking out of the hospital for the last time (emphasis on the word walking). In what only can be describes as a miracle from God, Jono is heading home to his parent's place in Gympie and leaving his time in hospital behind him.

It's been such a quick and painless recovery, and going to visit Jono every week has really allowed me to see the progress of his healing and just the amazing blessings God has given him.

I visited him last night, as he was getting ready to go home, and I was able to catch a couple of photos to stick up here for those who haven't seen Jono in a while. Also note he's wearing the Craig Lowndes Triple 8 Racing shirt Dad and I got him at the Qld 400 V8 Supercar round just after Jono's accident.

New Toys & Settling into new Job

Check out this little beauty! I've been a Network Administrator for just over 3 weeks now. And this is the first new toy I've been involved in purchasing.

It's a 17" LCD monitor with keyboard and touchpad attachment, it connects to a 32 Port KVM (Keyboard, Video, Mouse) switch box. It allows you to use this one screen, keyboard and mouse (touchpad) to control 32 different computers or servers.

We spent about an hour installing and setting up the unit today, and plan to start playing with it tomorrow.

Apart from this, I've mainly been doing reporting and licensing checks, not the most exciting work, and it's taking me a while to feel comfortable in a new role. Going from somewhere where I knew it all, and was considered the expert, into this new place where I know basically nothing, it's certainly been a challenge.

Today though I headed out with a couple of the Network Support guys and went to the QUT Co-Op Education Recruitment Day. I started at RACQ as a Co-Op recruit (12 month contract as industrial training counting towards uni marks), and we hire at least 2 recruites a year. So I enjoyed selling the RACQ to a heap of uni students, making sure they know RACQ is a great opportunity for them to get some good, broad industrial training.

Oh and they put on a pretty nice lunch as well...

Brock/Irwin Cartoon...

I saw this in the Sunday Mail yesterday, and it made me smile. Some people at work were talking about it, and were pretty disgusted with it.

I don’t know? Is it offensive? It wasn’t in the typical political cartoon section of the paper, but in the Peter Brock tribute.

That’s why I like it, I think it’s a small simple tribute to the quality and personality of these two great Aussie Icons.

Let me know your thoughts?

A Note from Sports Chaplaincy Australia

My father and I work with Sports Chaplaincy Australia (SCA) as Motorsport Chaplains. As I'm sure all of you are aware, Australia's most iconic motorsports personality, Peter Brock, was killed in an accident during the Targa W.A yesterday.

I received this email from Cameron Butler, National Director of SCA this morning.

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Your Prayer & Support
Can I please invite you to remember our many Motor Sports Chaplains who are currently serving across Australia at racetracks and events in the face of yesterday’s news. I have been informed that many of our Chaplains have been asked to help today to provide care, debriefing and comfort to the extended Motor Sports family.

Together with the Brock family, the Motor Sports Community, a close-knit group, is grieving deeply.

Can I please ask you to pray for:

• The Brock family
• Kim Van Keule who was the Chaplain present at the Targa WA race. He has been ministering to the family and many race officials involved.
• Terry Dorrington who is assisting with the Co-Driver and officials
• Garry Coleman and his team as they provide debriefing and God’s love
• Mark Bateman and others who are in contact with the Brock family and friends in Melbourne
• Race officials, CAMS officials and others involved in Motor Sports
• God’s mercy and comfort for the entire motor sports family
• Healing and transformation in peoples lives over the coming days and months
  

You can stay updated at www.sportschaplaincy.com.au.

Thank you dearly for your support, encouragement and commitment to our ministry at SCA.

Yours in Christ, our strength,

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(Photo from http://www.targa.org.au/)

So I don't think these prayers are just for SCA chaplains, and as a Motorsports chaplain I invite you to join in this prayer letter, and hold these people up during this hard time for the sport, and especially the familes involved

Zimbabwe Mission

A friend of mine, Ben Zambra, is joining 7 other people from Whitehill today and heading to Zimbabwe for 3 weeks to do missions work. Right at this moment Ben and the others would be sitting on a Boeing 747 probably somewhere down near Antartica as they make their way to South Africa before heading on a smaller plan to Zimbabwe. (Sidenote- why over Antartica? Well cause the winds provide a better flight path when flying west, better to go far south first - end sidenote). It's actually the same flight I took on my way to The Gambia.

Pray for the team as they minister to AIDs orphans, famine effected villages and some of the poorest people in the world. I'm sure it will be emotionally draining on the whole team, witnessing such poverty and the corruption of the government is a heart breaking experience.

Pray also for the people of Zimbabwe, that God can provide their needs, and work within them.

Tribute to Steve

Where were you when you heard the news of Steve Irwin's death? I think that will be a question a lot of us will be asked (and will remember the answer too) in years to come.

I had a lot of respect for the Crocodile Hunter, and I had the privledge of meeting him back in 1994 when I was 12. My grade 7 school camp included a visit to Australia Zoo, which at the time was a modest Crocodile Park (in fact I'm not sure it was even called Australia Zoo back then,) and part of the tour was getting to meet the owner, Steve.

Crocodile Hunter aired in the USA from 1992, but even in 1994 he wasn't well known in Australia, but just after our visit was when the first of his documentaries began to air on Aussie TV. At the time though I was drawn in to this amazing man, who took a lot of time to show us kids some stuff about Aussie animals. He made each one of us feel real special, even stopping his prepared talk when a Huntsman Spider crawled up the wall. He grabbed the spider with a 'Crikey look at this' and proceeded to tell us what an awesome creater this spider was. He took every chance to educate people on conservation.

That was the only time I ever met Steve; but from that one encounter I've always felt I've 'known' him; as I'm sure many of people around the world felt. To hear of his death yesterday really shocked me. A stingray of all things took the life of the crazy crocodile wrestler in a freak accident.

Makes you reflect on our lives here, how quickly they can be gone, and how quickly we enter eternity that lasts forever. Where do you want to spend eternity? Doesn't that matter more than what you do on earth?

My prayers are for his family. Bindi, Bob and Terri, it must be so hard to loose a Dad and husband, especially with the whole world watching. I pray you are comforted with the love only God can give, and that you can find a way to trust in him that all will be alright.

PHOTO - taken from www.australiazoo.com.au

Rain Down

Praise God we've had some much needed rain here in South East Qld this week. However we didn't even get enough in the Wivenhoe Dam catchment area to make any difference in its levels at all.

We're told that for the Dam's percentage level to rise even the tiniest bit, 55mm of rain needs to fall in the catchment areas. Now a friend told me that in the last two days he received 60mm of rain at his place in Ipswich, but out in the catchment area they only received 22mm.

I feel compelled to call anyone reading my blog to ask God to send rain to the Wivenhoe area. We need over 500mm to get the levels all the way back up, but I feel an urge to ask God for 100mm throughout October.

Please join with me in prayer.