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.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

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,

-----------------------------------------------------------------

(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.

Qld State Youth Alive Concert

Last Saturday was the annual Queensland State Youth Alive concert. Over the years I had become quite critical about Youth Alive events – be them the huge state concerts or the local Ipswich, Brisbane or Gold Coast events – however this year I spent a bit of time evaluating the night, and coming to some conclusions.

It’s BIG! There was thousands of young people filling the Boondall Entertainment Centre, the place was packed. And the concert was worthy of a crowd that size. It was a professional, loud, entertaining concert. But I’m not too convinced of its ‘outreach’ potential.

It was definitely not a church service, there was worship music, but I still think the emphasis was appealing to young peoples wants for entertainment, not giving them a humble and honest chance to worship God. The message was incredibly wishy-washy. Paul Geerling spoke on Jesus our Hero. Basically he gave the dictionary definition of a hero, and then proceeded to tell us that Jesus fitted ever part of that definition. (Sidenote~ I wonder how Jesus fits the part where a hero is a skilled and champion warrior, Paul just said that he was and went onto the next point. Sounded like he couldn’t really say anything on that point cause it’s a real stretch of any Biblical truth – end sidenote)

Paul did a great job of going through the crucifixion story with screen shots from Passion of the Christ for emotional effect, and I actually warmed to this part of his message, until he skipped the part where Jesus did this to pay the price for our sins, and jumped straight to the resurrection. His main point for doing the whole cross reflection was to talk about Jesus rising from the dead, and because Jesus can do that he is a superhero (like it was some superpower or something). Telling the story leading to the cross is great, but I think he missed the point big time with making about a superpower instead of the forgiveness of our sins.

All in all the message fed the emotional need young people have to be pumped and entertained. There was little bits of biblical truth in there, but they were watered down so much by other hype I felt it really wasn’t worth it.

The Guy Sebastian side of the night was pure entertainment, but being a closet Guy fan I really enjoyed it.

Which really points to my main reflections on the whole night – it was very entertaining, but is that a good thing?

Yes I think it is. All the money and hype that went into that night created a great place to bring young people. Is a Youth Alive concert along going to bring people to Christ, I really don’t think so, I really don’t think it provides an atmosphere or the teaching to let someone know who Jesus really is and what he did for them. But Youth Alive used as a ministry tool, in conjunction with the local youth groups is a fantastic thing. The WHY leadership team hadn’t planned on going to YA as a youth activity, but when a heap of the young people wanted to go we organised some cars and headed down. Using the concert to get people excited and then to start discussions in future weeks is a great strategy to start sharing the Gospel with some of the un-believers in our group.

And all the money that goes into it – I think even if one person is saved and their lives turned around, then it was all worth it – who can put a price on one person’s salvation??

Spinal Ward

Jono was moved into the Spinal Ward last Friday. All this time he's been in the general inpatients wards because the SIU was full. But now he's down getting the specific care he needs to get better. Instead of doing 30 minutes of physio a day, he's now doing 2 hours in the morning, pluas an hour of OT later on.

He's the only 'walker' in the whole ward and has really come to a realisation of how blessed he is. Seeing people who have been in the SIU for 13 months and still only have the smallest use of their hands really makes you see the amazing miracle of Jono's healing. Some of these people had accidents which look miniscule beside Jono's moto-cross accident, yet he's walking. Praise God.

Continue to pray that he now regains the strength he once had, and the movement which is yet to return.

Jono Update...

Just a quick one for those following along at home. I visited Jono again last Thursday, he's continuing to improve, even though the progress is slowing a little. He's moved into a different ward, in a different bed so has lost the room to put up most of his cards and gifts. His left arm is gaining more movement, as is his hand -there is not much strength there though.

He is walking quite well and hardly uses his wheel chair anymore. He had a day out on an SU training conference a few weeks ago, and it drained him completely, Jono himself said it showed he wasn't quite as 'well' as he thought he was.

God is continuing to work though - keep praying.

New Job

As of today I am no longer a Network Support Officer for RACQ; I am now a Network Administrator (still for RACQ). Basically now instead of looking after individual computers and printers, I am looking after the servers, network communications gear and user settings. New experiences and more training, I'm sure it will be good.

Gettin' Around...

Ok so it's been just over a week since I've blogged, that's not due to me having nothing to blog about though.

It was a bit of a mixed up week for me. I had a busy/nothing sort of week... you know where you find yourself with no time, but can't really figure out what you got done.

Last Sunday was great. Dad and I headed out to the Nostalgia Drag meet at Willowbank Raceway. It has to be my favourite event of the year (well it happens twice so my 2 fav events). Only pre 1972 Aussie and Pre 1980 US cars are allowed to compete, and it has also turned into a huge Hot Rods and Customs car show as well. I think there are about 120 pictures up on flickr of just some of the most awesome old cars Qld has to offer.

Dad and I spent nearly the whole day on the start line, chatting with the marshals, helping out the track starters, pushing broken cars off the track and cleaning up oil spills - as well as enjoying some decent burnouts from the old muscle cars.

The week was turned upside down slightly because I was suppose to start a new job on the Monday. However there was a mix up and won't start until tomorrow (I'll post on that later), so I had pretty well left my old position, and couldn't start my new one. I felt like I was in no-man's-land so I took a couple of days off, giving myself a few days rest, and a chance to get some stuff done at home.

This weekend was my Grandparents 50th Wedding Anniversary. So I headed up to Hervey Bay with my parents to visit them. My cousins were there, and my uncle for a short time. Last night we went out to 'Decks' on the Hervey Bay Marina for a seafood buffet feast! 2 dozen oysters, 3 crabs and about half a kilo of prawns later I was feeling pretty good. And even after travelling home today I still haven't needed anything to eat...

These last few weeks have been a touch mixed up as well because I have had a friend from the USA visiting. Natalie came from California in 2004 to work at Whitehill as a volunteer office intern for 9 months. She decided to come back and visit these last weeks, and it's been good catching up, as well as cruising through Brisbane and a few different things to allow her to soak up as much Aussie atmosphere as possible.

Hopefully life may settle down again now so I don't have to blog about everything all in one post again...

My Achilles Heel.

You may remember back in May I mentioned I'd injured my ankle quite badly. Post Here . I've mentioned it on and off when posting about different activities I've been involved in.

Honestly, I think this has been the toughest injury I've ever had to deal with/recover from. I've done a few silly things in my 24 years, like break wrists and collar bones... I even dislocated this same ankle when I was in grade 11. But this time it really took me down. I think mainly because it's been such a long and slow recovery process.

For those who don't know, I did it playing soccer, and due to my busy life, and the fact I thought it was just my generic "I've hurt my ankle" problem, I didn't go to the doctors for about 7 weeks. When going to the docs, I was told I'd torn all 3 ligaments on the outside of my right foot. The doc said I should have been on crutches for at least 3 weeks (when I only used them for 2 days), and that I can't play any contact sports for at least 12 months - and I should consider never playing soccer again.

I did it on the 21st May, and even now I'm still in some pretty intense pain at times. Thankfully I've gotten past the stage of being in constant pain, and just this week I have started jogging again, and was able to join in games at WHY last night.

So 12 weeks of pain and recovery, and totally changing the way I've had to live my life. Stopping soccer was a big thing, and knowing I'll probably never play again was even bigger. I've tried to stay involved in the team, being a lines-man and different things, but I still look out on the field and feel like I'm missing out on being part of the team.

I haven't been able to do much exercise at all, but I've tried to keep active doing really non-stressful stuff.

The biggest thing though has been the emotional drain, caused mainly through not being able to give 100% in things like WHY and the WEC camps I'm involved in. It took a lot of self restraint to say I can't join in most activities, and even though I had that self restraint I started hating myself and my abilities that were forcing me to do this. It wasn't that I wanted to have fun, it's more that I really value the connection you can have with young guys when partaking in something physical. I reckon the best relationship building time with young blokes is through working together, or sometimes even competing against each other in some sort of sport or game.

On WEC camp I had to find other ways to build relationships, and found it in really listening to the guys and having to take the time to give them enough opportunity to share bits of their lives with me. I learnt a lot about my boys, but I also found it took a lot longer to build those friendships to a point where they were willing to share the 'real' stuff in their lives.

At WHY (Whitehill Youth) it's been slightly different. I've had my boys in my group all year, and have already built good relationships with them. Here I've felt like I've been letting the leadership team down. I haven't been able to run or even join in games. Some times I've even had to leave early, just cause I twigged the ankle and been in so much pain I had to go. But mainly cause after 3 months of constant pain, sometimes I just couldn't be bothered doing anything but sitting down cause I wanted no change of causing any pain. Meaning I was no help at all at WHY on those nights, which got me emotionally down, which probably made me even less helpful.

I've felt I've become pretty useless, due to the limitations I've had to place on myself to let my ankle heal. It felt great last night to play some indoor soccer with the guys, even though I was really careful. But just being able to run, and kick a soft ball was so good.
We're going ice skating next week, I'm not sure if I'll be able to do that, but with the progress this week, maybe I will.

Happy Snap (gone wrong).

Was checking out the images on my phone last night. And found one of the co-leaders at youth group had been taking a few pics with my phone.

So I guess just to teach her a bit of a lesson, I thought I'd post it up here for the whole world to see.

That'll learn ya Emma!!

My Heart Christ's Home

I can remember the first time someone gave me this little Christian tract. I was on a WEC Camp in grade 12, and someone just handed me this book and told me it was good. It wasn't some huge 'spiritual' moment or anything, just in passing saying that it could help me out with my Christian walk back at school.

And they were right. This book really changed me... it's only about 30 pages long, but it's so simple, so honest and so deep all at the same time.

The story is of a young man, who has just invited Jesus into his heart, and is bringing Christ into his new home (his heart). They tour through the rooms of the house and Jesus helps him clean up, repair, wash and work in each room.

If you can find it, read it. It truely is a great way of expressing how Jesus changes lives, and wants to interact with you on a personal level.

I've just bought a heap of these tracts, and a study book, and over these next 2 terms will be looking at it closely with my grade 10-12 guys at WHy? on our study nights.

I pray they get as much from it as I did when I was their age (woah now that makes me feel old!!)

Progress...

Next Update on Jono.
Thought it was about time I sent another update. Jono's progress is still coming along. A little improvement each day. He can walk now with the aid of a stick. Praise God! The physio said he can walk unaided whenever he wants to but he has to take it real easy (getting his balance) and just going slow, but Praise God! it's great he can walk. Also his left arm is still very weak in the upper muscle so he can't move his whole arm much, he said it still just flops in the shower. He can move all of his fingers now, but he says he can't grab anything yet. But., as I said he sees improvement every day. He's enjoying getting around on his wheel chair going for races with a girl, who is also a Christian in another ward. (No, not girlfriend, I can hear him saying,) but fun.

Anyway, thankyou so much for your prayers. Paul & I are back at work now. (my first day) so it'll weekend visits from now on which I find hard. Anyway, I've really enjoyed the time I was able to spend with him. and am thankful my boss let me.

'Bye for now. love from Jenny

Jono's Walking

I saw Jono last Thursday, and that day he'd been with the physio and had taken a few steps using the parallel bars.

Today I got this email from his mother.

Yesterday Jono walked from the bathroom to the bedroom. It was SOO exciting! About 6 metres. He also is getting around in a wheelchair - driving with one hand - Tricky stuff - even around corners, using his foot to maneuver the front wheels. He's fun to watch. His left hand is getting stronger but he still can't move his middle two fingers. God has been so good to us. We Praise Him. The doctor said he'd never walk again so this has now been proved wrong and we are very thankful.
He is a great witness to everyone in the room including the nurses, cleaners, etc.

Anyway, 'bye for now. Love Jenny

Amen, Praise God!

Hird's Return Sets things in Motion

What can I say, the man is a legend! James Hird returned from injury this week, and for the first time in 4 months (16 rounds of footy) the Bombers get a win!!

I was out, so only caught the end of the Essendon/Brisbane game, but what I saw from the end of the 3rd quarter on, was a vast improvement from what's been happening in previous weeks. The Bombers sent the ball forward, they kicked in confidence instead of handballing back into compromising situations like we've seen most of the season.

Hird's presence was hard to miss, 4 goals, the teams top possessions for the match, and he moved himself around wherever needed. There's no doubting the leadership role Hird filled last night.

It was also slightly satisfying seeing the Bomber beat the Lions, there's been a fair bit of competitiveness there over the last few seasons, with the Lions usually coming out on top. On Brissie TV this week, the Lions v Bombers game was advertised with a slogan "Lion's have got this one in the bag." Spoke too soon didn't you guys!!! :-)

Queensland Bigpond 400.

Last weekend was the local round of the V8 Supercars at Queensland Raceway in Ipswich.

Dad and I have been involved in motorsports chaplaincy for almost 2 years, but this was the first V8 Supercar event we have done the main chaplains job. Usually Garry Coleman travels with the V8s as their series chaplain, Dad and I are usually his 'helpers'. However this year Garry had a bad back and didn't want to make the trip up to Qld, so Dad and I inherited the soul responsibility for the event.

It was a really easy weekend actually, no big accidents (unlike last year....) and the officials were great guys. Dad gave a quick talk and a prayer at the official's briefing on the Sunday morning, and we stood with the officials in the pits for a few of the Fujitsu Development Series races. Other than that we cruised through the paddock, speaking with a couple of teams, mainly Formula Ford and the other support categories. The Sunday we spent most of the day as spectators, sitting on Turn 1, where all the action was.

Love the V8s, pity about the Holden win, but we had a great time - and I believe we gave glory to God in our care and attitude to the drivers, teams and track officials (which was the whole reason we were there).

Jono Update

I vistited Jono again last night. He's doing well for someone who had such a bad accident. He showed me how he can move a finger on his left hand now, it's the first movement he's had in that hand/arm.

His progress is coming along quickly, he's got a lot of strength in his right arm, and can pull himself up on his bed. He can move his right side very well, including his leg, at physio he can stand with assistance, putting nearly all his weight on his right leg. His nervs are still a little shot, he told me about how in the shower he can put the water on his left leg and it feels hot, but when he puts it on his right it feels cold. He's also got this one sweaty patch on his forehead, which seems to be some nervs just playing up and telling him it's too hot in that one spot.

For old time WECcers you may know Jono's physiotherapist, Joel Dunstan. How amazing is God!! He has put Joel (WEC leader from about 3 years ago) right there to help Jono recover, and have a good mate with him most of the day. I spoke to Joel on the phone last night, and he's confident Jono's condition will continue to get better.

Jono's got lots of stuff, cause he's had lots of visitors. There's a nice 'tiger print' cowboy hat, a stuffed emu, couple of teddy bears, a dog, and a bunny. I'm sure he thinks the best prezzie is the model of Craig Lowndes' V8 Supercar which I took him last night :-P There are also cards ringing his bed, a couple of bunches of flowers and a few balloons. It's like partyland around his bed!

Keep praying.

Belly-flopping Bomber

No this isn't about the Essendon Bombers, though belly-flopping may be a good descirption of their season so far....

Qld news was full of stories on Tuesday about the RAAF F1-11 Bomber which lost a landing gear wheel on take-off and was forced to do a 'wheels-up' landing at Amberly.

My Father works at Amberly, and watched the landing take place. The pilot did exceptionally well to land so cleanly without his landing gear. Dad reckons that there probably isn't too much damage to the jet and they'll have it flying again eventually.

If you saw the footage on the news you know what I mean when I say it was amazing to watch, and Dad caught all the little stories the news missed, like where the wheel ended up, and how fast the pilot and navagator exited and ran from the jet.

Anyway here are 2 photos taken just before the jet hit the ground, I love the one where it's just been caught on the sling.

A Friend's Bad Accident.

A great mate of mine, Jono, had an accident during a Motocross race out near Chinchilla last weekend.

He was on a jump and missed his footpeg, falling off the bike and landing on his head. He broke his neck. The doctor said that the injury is very similar to someone diving into a shallow pool. First up the doctor said that Jono would never walk again. He had a piece of bone floating near his spinal chord so he was in surgery at the Princess Alexandria Hospital for around 6 hours on Sunday.

Waking up he had sensation in his toes. Something that probably was not expected, but something we can thank God for.

I received this email from his mother this morning.

Yesterday Jono was sleepy a lot of the day. They had increased his morphine, but also he didn't sleep well the night before. He talks to us just like normal and is great to be around (as usual) He cheers everyone up who comes ( and therefore us too ) He has lovely flowers - 4 bunches - and a balloon and a teddy holding a balloon. The nurses say he's the most visited person in the hospital and the other men in the room are enjoying it too - He's having morphine every 3 hours.

He can lift his left leg off the bed 4 inches and his arm 6 inches but can't move his fingers. He can rotate his hand. His right hand he can scratch his head with as he has more strength also his right leg is pretty good. Yesterday the physio had him sitting on the side of the bed. He balanced there by himself for 1 minute. She was very pleased.

Thankyou so much for your prayers. Love from Jenny & Paul

Praise God for healing miracles, it's still too early to know if Jono will walk, but with his attitude and the power of God I'm sure he will.

Keep him and his family in your prayers.

MY!! Car

I received a letter in the mail yesterday. I have made my last payment on my car loan. So the XR6 really is MINE!!!!!!!!

I worked really hard to keep the payments up, and have knocked off the loan in just under 18 months. Funny enough they included options for housing loans with my letter, but I don't think I'll be using those for a while.

Random Shots of Life

Well I've had my Nokia 3250 for 2 months now, and am loving it. It's such a versatile little unit, and very handy to have on you all the time.

It's also allowing me to take many a photo just because I have a camera with me all the time. So I thought I'd share a few from over the last couple of months.








Elijah Zambra, my youth Pastor's son, what a little dude.









My cardboard models on my desk at work. Not that exciting, but hey go the RACQ/NRMA promo!







Ok Seriously, what would happen if this truck rolled!!! What a clean up effort that would be.











Elise and one of her youth group girls at Amped/WHY? one Friday night.

A Season to Forget

13 straight losses!

Um, I really don't know what to say, I knew the Bombers have been out of form, but this season is becoming a nightmare.

And just look at the injuries in last nights game, more players sitting out.

It doesn't look like it will get much better.

WEC Camp - Take 2

The second week of WEC Highschooler's Camps is over. And I am wrecked! 1 week is usually a tiring time, so 2 weeks has been a big push.

This week I wasn't a cabin leader, but what we call a 'floater'. Basically I 'floated' around doing all the behind the scenese stuff that needed to be done. This also included being a Dorm Inspector, it was nice to be on the other side of inspections for once.

It was a great week, God moved on our Wednesday night Gospel Presentation, and most of the camp felt moved to either accept Jesus as the Saviour of their lives, or to realign their lives with their creator. There were a few tears, and lots of deep conversation as 60 young people got their lives right with God. It was a priverlidge to be able to help them through all that.

We had basically the same layout as last week, with mostly the same activities. The music videos were awesome this week, very professional, and the ice slide got a little widler with a few surfers trying a few tricks on the slope.
There's over 100 photos just of camp B on the WEC Campsite Photos blog but here are a few of my favourites.

WEC Highschoolers Camp Photo Site

As a spin off to WEC Camps this week... I was asked to put up a site for photos from camp.

I did this back in 2003 and was surprised to find the site still active - check out www.geocities.com/wec_photos

I don't have the time to create a site from scratch like that one... so what better to use than blogger, and flickr!!!

I whipped this site up in a couple of hours... http://weccamp.blogspot.com so to see photos from Camp check it out - I think I'll put a link to the flickr account on my side bar as well.

I'm also hoping that the campers will make use of the c-box I put on the site to keep encouraging one another now they are back in the 'real world'.

Here are a small sample of some of the camp A photos... HOW AWESOME IS THAT ICE SLIDE!!!


Camp Bornhoffen, nice quite place in the middle of the mountains!

Riding a Boogie Board down the ice slide, nice!

A little style on the Ice Slide

See the ice fly

Bush Dancing

The cool drummer boy!!! (me :-P)

Group shot of Camp A

WEC Camp 06 - Great Cabin Group

I had a great group of grade 10 guys this year. We learnt all about the missionaries in our chosen country (I need to be a bit secretive about which country it is due to its political views on Christianity).

All I can say though is that the couple we learnt about come from Southport on the Gold Coast and are doing amazing work where they are. They've been in country for 3 years, have learnt the language and are now working on building relationships with the locals and ministering to them so they can see you Jesus Christ really is, and why it's the true religion, not Islam!

Camp was so much fun, we had an ice slide, bush dance, video hits competition and as always the room inspections. My cabin did well, coming second and only loosing by 2 points to the girls cabin from India. We nailed our memory verses (Psalms 139:14, Ephesians 2:10, 1 Corinthians 10:13 and 1 Corinthians 6:19,20) and our Field Focus' were creative and informative.

On Thursday we were doing our bible study sitting on the grass, I was bitten by what I though at the time was a green ant on my toe, painfull but not really a problem I thought.

By the end of the study I felt a pain just above my left eye, I could feel what I thought were more bites on my eyelid. Strange, but I just asked one of the guys for some sting cream cause I thought I must have been bitten there too, and it was quite painful. Well when I realised that my eye was puffing up big time, and I was getting blotches all over my face, arms and back I got a bit more worried.

It turns out I had a pretty violent allergic reaction to whatever bit me, or it was a poisonous spider or something. I took some antihistamines and went to bed. I felt pretty crook for the rest of camp, but all the swelling and most of the blotches went away after a couple of hours. I still have a big red mark on my toe where I was bitten though.

I've just found out they need someone to help out on Camp B for general leading and music stuff so I'm taking next week off work as well and heading up to Mt Tamborine for another week of WEC Camp!

Yeehaw!

Weekend roundup.

OK so it was a BIG!! weekend, but unfortunatly I don't have enough time to write it all out. I'm off to WEC Highschoolers Camp tomorrow, my 8th camp (6th as a Leader).

Vanessa's wedding was priceless! Just a totally amazing day, check out my flickr account for a whole heap of photos. I'll be getting nicer ones, but this is the best I can do for now. There were lots of tears (including me), but the day was just perfect, everything went to plan, and Vanessa looked gorgeous.

Anyway I have to go pack for camp, and get all my leading stuff together... see you in a week.

Round of 16 - Aussie Aussie Aussie...

5am and another early morning up and at it to see the Socceroos take it to the world. This time Croatia were our targets.

I got up a touch late and was just stumbling out of my bedroom when Croatia scored in the 2nd minute of the game, not a good start.

Again I think the referee was terrible, we should have had a penalty for that Viduka hold in the box... and the handball late in the second... I couldn't believe the ref missed that!

But we made good use of the penalty we got, with Craig Moore hammering the ball home. After Viduka's two misses in previous dot shots it was good to see someone else step up.

Then there was tears when Kalac fumbled the ball and let it dribble in for Croatia's second point. Luckily Kewell was able to slot one in to equalise (though at the time I wasn't too excited as I was sure he was offside, but I'm glad luck finally went the Aussies way and the ref missed it!)

In the end the 2-2 draw was all we needed and we're into the knock out rounds, next game Italy. It will be a tough one, but with soccer you never know how it will turn out.

(pictures from www.worldcup.com)

Wedding Update

Well the big day is this Saturday. Vanessa and Andy finally tie the knot. It's been a busy couple of weeks organising so many different aspects for the day.

2 weeks ago they moved their gear into a little rental flat with the hope of buying a removable house and putting it on some of Andy's Mum's property at the end of the year.

The online gift registry has worked really well, and is significantly smaller than when I posted it up, which hopefully means Ness and Andy get a lot of the stuff they need to start their lives away from home.

So pray for a nice day Saturday, I'm driving one of the brand new Nissan Maximas for the bridal procession, and I'll post up photos after the event.

Aussie Pride

2am... Australia v Brazil.

It's now 3:15am, 10 minutes after half time, and Brazil are up 1:0

Come on the Socceroos push it back!!

SYG 06 - Whitehill Army Rocks Gatton

An Awesome weekend. State Youth Games QLD was a huge success. The largest attendance numbers ever for Qld SYG, we even had about 250 people complete the fun run, how sweet is that!

Whitehill came second to Springwood again!!! Ahh well we'll get them next time, it was good competition all round though. Whitehill won the Netball (B Grade), Soccer, Womens Team Fun Run, Touch Football (A Grade) and Volleyball (A Grade) so we did all right. We were also runners up in the A Grade Netball and B Grade Volleyball, so we OWNED the netball and volleyball courts!!

The volleyball semi final between Whitehill and Springwood 1 would have to go down as the greatest SYG sporting moment in history. They were the 2 finals teams from 05, (Springwood beat us last year) we played for 20 minutes and at the end it was a draw, so we had to keep playing until one team won by a 2 point margin. The game went for another 15 minutes!! So full on... continueing point for point.

By this time the whole Whitehill team, and Springwood team plus pretty well every other church were lining the court (there was probably 150 people watching the game, cheering and yelling war cries and stuff), the atmosphere was electric and on the court it was so intense I felt like I was playing an International game or something! We fought so hard and finally got the 2 point advantage to win the game! Unreal!!!!

We then proceeded to beat Springwood 2 in the Grand Final by 35 points. We were so pumped from the last game nothing was going to beat us.

Even though there was some rivalry and competivness the sportsmanship and team spirit was awesome, all churches cheered for each other - Whitehill once again won the team spirit award, which is the award we always really want to win.

The camping was exceptional, the Whitehill team became family! It was cold, but we burnt a heap of stuff and kept warm, we were tired and sore so there were massages all round, and when we got hungry we ate like kings!!! (thanks Craig and Marion!).

I've got so many photos, I'll have to create a flicker account to put them all up, so keeps your eyes peeled, they'll be online soon.

Such a great weekend... Qld youth leaders, plan to get your churches involved next year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lifeshapes - Pentagon

Ephesians 4:7,11-13. But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it... It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

I've noticed so much emphasis on Spiritual Gifts in the church recently. I see Youth Groups speaking on how teens should find their Spiritual Gift, so they can serve God whole-heartedly, and Churches running courses in how to define your gifts. But before we define out gifts, we need to see what Ministry Role God is calling us too.

In the above passage God doesn't give us our gifts, but gives us to a certain Ministry Role. There are 5 Roles within Christ's family.

• Apostle
  An apostle is one who is 'sent out'. They are visionaries and always pushing into new territories and ministries. In fact the Apostle 'touches' the other 4 roles in some way. Paul from the Bible is a good example of an apostle.
• Prophet
  Prophets hear from God. Sometimes it's just from standing back from a situation and get a clear picture of what is happening. Having this clear vision of what God intends allows for creative solutions, things that other people wouldn't see.
• Evangelist
  The bringer of good news, and the ability to speak it with clarity and understanding. Evangelists love spending time with un-believers.
• Pastor
  The pastor seeks needs, provides comfort and encourages others. They spend the majority of their time with Christians, helping them grow and encouraging them. They feel the burdens of other's problems and have a knack for speaking the truth in love.
• Teacher
  Teachers are able to explain things in a way others can understand. They understand they hold the truth, and are excited to share it. They enjoy reading and studying the bible and sharing it with others.

So find your Ministry Role, decide what your here on earth to do, then define the gifts God has given you to do it. Don't try and cover all 5 roles, you'll just burn yourself out.

Lifeshapes - Square

4th week, so obviously our program today is sponsored by the square.

"We all look like sheep from in front and shepards from the back"

I Love that quote! It's a true picture of what us Christians should look like. Jesus looking back sees us as sheep following him in total trust and confidence, yet other disciples and un-believers look from behind and see us as a shepard to follow and learn from.

If you're a Pastor or not, a Worship leader or a pew warmer, we're still all leaders in some regards.

There are 4 levels or stages of leadership and discipleship, we reacte to each as both a leader and a disciple, and through different stages of our lives move through the stages.

Level 1 - I do, You watch.

Mark 1:16 - Jesus says "Come follow me", the fishermen put down their nets and follow. Jesus leads, and people follow. We watch while Jesus teaches, we learn, without activly doing anything except listening.

Level 2 - I do, You help.

As Jesus teaches his disciples he starts getting them to activley help him in his ministry. The bring the children to him, Peter, James and John are witness to the transfiguration, and the disciples interact with the crowds Jesus speaks to.

Level 3 - You do, I help.

The roles reverse. Instead of the leader doing the work, the disciples are doing the majority of it, but with the help of the leader. Goals are set by the disciples, people recognise that they are responsible.

Level 4 - You do, I watch.

Jesus sent out his disciples on their own 'mission trip'. He gave them words of advice and then let them go on their way. They returned 72 days later and reported all that had happened to him. Jesus watches and the disciples go out to grow the kingdom of heaven.

Wild Bucks Night....

Well I'm a bit late posting this up, but I've had so much stuff to blog about recently. Saturday night was my soon to be brother-in-law Andy's bucks party. It's still 4 weeks to the wedding, but there are so many things on at the moment that this is the only night we could plan it for.

So 14 of us headed down to Kingston Park Raceway for a night of hardcore go kart action. I haven't been karting in 3 years so was really looking forward to it, and Andy's brother (Marty) is a fantastic driver and always good to be on the track with.

There were three guys who were leagues ahead of the rest of us, Marty and Ben were pulling consistent 56 sec laps, fast enough for them to qualify for the twin engine karts! My best lap time for the night was a 59.445, not bad considering I was the heaviest guy there.

The only thing I wanted to do that night was beat Dad, and I'm happy to say I passed him 3 times over the 3 races and beat his lap time by 0.6 of a sec!! There were also some spectacular accidents, most of them caused by my brother Brett, but hey he had fun :-)

Marty was taken out in the third race by some crazy WA driver, don't know how they get their licenses over there! Nah it wasn't Ben's fault, he came around the hairpin to find Marty spun right in front of him and there was nowhere to go (except straight into the side of Marty's kart).

North Qld

I spent the last week travelling to the Cairns branch, and then driving down to Townsville. We're currently rolling out brand new PCs to all branches in Qld, and I was sent up to Cairns and Townsville to set up their branches.

I've never been to Cairns before, so was looking forward to seeing somewhere new. My flight left at 9am Monday morning, and though I made the flight in plenty of time, my co-worker just missed it. So I traveled alone, and Josh caught the next flight an hour later. Once in Cairns my luggage wasn't on my plane, so I had loads of fun filling out forms about that, but luckily when Josh arrived on that next flight, so did my luggage. The baggage guys in Brisbane just put my bag on the wrong flight.

We then grabbed our hire car, a brand new BF Falcon XR6! Hopping in the car I saw the odometer reading - 15k's... so it certainly was brand new!

Work wise, the trip was a bit chaotic. We had 1 less computer than we needed in both branches, and some of the PCs had the wrong software on them. We spent way too much time reorganising, and the work went so slow. My sprained ankle made things pretty hard. I limped everywhere all week, and carrying stuff was a nightmare.

We did one branch and one towing company in Cairns, and two branches in Townsville. In the end we got it all done but Josh and I had to do a fair bit of improvising to get there.

Our motel in Cairns was nice, comfy rooms and a good restaurant. We didn't spend too much time there and on Tuesday night we decided to head to the casino for dinner. It was a huge buffet, and we were able to sit for about 90 minutes and just have a meal and chat. Josh had just become a full time Network Support Officer after 12 months on an Industrial Training contract through QUT.

The drive to Townsville was an eye opener. We drove through Innisvale. The environment there was devastating. Forests were bare, trees with only the smallest amount of green regrowth on them made for an eerie grey landscape. All the trees and palm trees were leaning in the one direction, actually most palm trees were snapped or had lost their branches.

It took a long time to drive, because there was so much damage to the road, and we had to stop at road works every couple of k's. Innisvale and the towns around it were a mess. Even weeks on most houses have tarps over their rooves and smashed windows. The Innisvale Hotel was a wreck, and the McDonald’s had also taken a beating.

Josh and I spent the whole time pointing and expressing our shock at the devastation, and how terrifying it must have been there when Cyclone Larry smashed through the area.

Our motel in Townsville was awesome. Josh and I got side by side rooms on the 18th floor, overlooking Castle Hill and Magnetic Island. Josh was unwell so he ordered room service Wednesday night, I ventured down to the restaurant where I had a great butter chicken curry and they served nice coffee afterwards. The Cowboys NRL Leagues club was opposite our motel so I ventured over there to catch the State Of Origin. However the place was packed, standing room only, so I decided I'd rest my ankle and just head back to my room and watch it there, obviously disappointed in the result.

In the end it was a successful week, though tiring and it felt very long. I was happy to get home and rest up.

Lifeshapes - Triangle

Life is full of relationships, it doesn't matter who you are, where you live, or what you believe, you are going to have and search for relationships with others. Jesus had meaningful relationships, He chose to walk in three specific relationships;

1. With God his father
2. With his chosen followers
3. With the 'hurting' world around him

So the triangle is a good way to remember the three dimensional tier of our relationship needs. Up = Our relationship with God - In = Our relationship with fellow believers - Out = The rest of the world Jesus has commissioned us to reach.

So we need to work on keeping our relationship with God growing. Jesus said he could do nothing by himself, but only through the power of the father.

God created us as social beings, as believers we are in relationships with each other, Hebrews 10:25 Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

Jesus also told us to go into all the world and make disciples. We need to get out where the 'lost' are, where people who don't know Jesus feel comfortable. To fulfil Jesus' commission we need to leave our comfort zones, we are the ones who have to move OUT.

No blogging, now off for a week...

So I haven't posted in a while. I was in Bundaberg, earlier this week and on coming home have just been through the normal rush of my weekend. Usually either on Saturday or Sunday I like to find the time to sit down and blog for an hour or so, type up my Lifeshapes overview and all that.

This week I missed my weekly small group due to my trip, so spent some time looking at the Triangle of lifeshapes, but I haven't had time to throw together a diagram and summary.

Why?

Because yesterday (Saturday) during our soccer game I had a coming together with one of the blokes on the other team. We both tried to kick the ball at the exact same time, and in doing so I've sprained my ankle quite badly, it's put me on the side line for a few weeks I think, and I'm praying it won't effect my State Youth Games effort in 2 weeks time.

So I'm limping everywhere at the moment, actually I'm lucky Dad owns a pair of crutches cause I've been able to use them to keep the weight off it. I haven't been to the doctors as yet, because I have another work trip to Cairns and Townsville this week, so I'm just going to push through that and then deal with it.

So yes, off to Cairns tomorrow, so I'll see you all in a week. (Prayer for healing would be apreciated thanks)

My Life in Pictures

Well I mentioned it back in March, and finally the phone I won through the Pepsi Rock Paper Scissors competition arrived this week.

I'd been away on a work trip to Bundaberg and came back to find my brand new Nokia 3250 on my desk. So now I have a good camera with me wherever I go. So I can now document my life in pictures of the most random things.




My workmate Pete driving the company car on the way to a job.









My work computer.

Our I.T Storeman Ashneil







My fully sic ride outside the Ipswich RACQ office this afternoon.

I'm unstoppable now with my new toy, so stay tuned for the next installment :-P

Lifeshapes - Semi-Circle

A pendulum swings melodically, rhythmically and almost hypnotically at times. Like a metronome, which keeps time for musicians, pendulums swing in constant beat, spending equal time on each side of their swing, consistently moving, keeping time forever. If you trace a pendulum swing which swings from horizontal to horizontal it will create a semi-circle.



John 15:1-4 "I am the vine , and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me."

These days we're so busy. I mean we even brag about how busy we are, almost trying to out do others with stories of overtime, rushing around, picking things up, and complaining we have no spare time.

God created us to work, God worked hard in his creation, and then created us in His image. So we are built to be engaged in active work, and feel at a loss if we are unable to work for a period of time.

But looking at creation, what was mans first day spent doing? We were created on the 6th day. So our first full day as a created being was the 7th day, and that was the day God rested. So our first day on the planet, we rested with God.

But God also wants us to bear fruit and use our skills for meaningful work. But the key is that his first moments of time spent with his creation was in rest. So many times we plan our working weeks, and then use the little bits of time left over to catch a quick rest. That's not how God did it, he planned a rest time, and then worked from it.
The semi-circle shows us we need to work from rest, instead of resting from work. Like a pendulum we need to swing from a time of rest into our time for work, and then consistently swing back into a rest time, so we can again move into a time for working.

Jesus rested before his ministry, and seemed to pattern rest into his ministry as we went alone to pray with his Father. He also taught his disciples to 'get away' and rest so they could then move back into their work. (Mark 1:12-13, 35-39 & Mark 6:30-32)
When we rest we give God time to prune us, to allow us to abide in God, and from abiding we grow. From growing we bear fruit. From bearing fruit we are cut back. This is the pattern of the semi-circle.

The Wins Continue

Whitehill Div 4 wins 3-2!!!

Great game, though a bit dirty from the other team. 2-1 to Whitehill at half time with the opposition scoring very early in the second half.

Another great goal by out WA draftee Mr Zambra sealed the win for Whitehill. I was able to put a lovely through ball in for Ben so he could take on the goalie 1 on 1 and score our winning point.

We're becoming a real team, our communication is getting better and we're learning how everyone plays, I think we can only get better.

Whitehill Wins!

Well it's the third round of the season and my division 4 Whitehill soccer team won it's first game!

We played Raceview - another local Ipswich team - and I have to hand it to the guys, we held it together pretty well. Right from the start we pushed hard, and really worked on our offense, attacking their full backs and the goalie pretty intensivly. The first goal came from an own goal, which was lucky, but we created our own luck by pressuring their defence. Our second and third goals were scored off some great running by our forwards, and good kick placements from our mids. In the end we won 3-1.

A real confidence booster for all. Even though I spent the whole game nursing a swollen ankle which I'd twisted at Amped the night before and am still trying to recover from.

Lifeshapes - Circle

Eight shapes... eight different life lessons. Whitehill started running the lifeshapes program this week, using simple shapes to set examples on God's teaching. The first week is the 1 sided shape (a circle), week 2 is a semi circle (2 sides) and so on as the weeks progress.

The Circle

Kairos is one of several words which in Greek mean time. Another is Chronos, as in the passage of time (i.e chronology), kairos is a specific point in time, a moment which will be memorable for some reason or another.

We can use these kairos moments, and the shape of the circle as a lesson on choosing to learn from life.

In the diagram above the arrow is our life. The 'x' is a certain kairos moment, it may be something small (i.e spotting a beautiful sunset, a bible reading or a chat with a friend) or something more impacting (new job, death of a family member). The idea is that whenever you realise you're in the middle of one of these kairos moments there are things to do so that you learn from the experience, and make it a life changing moment for God to help you grow that little bit more.

Two things to do - Repent, and Believe. The word repent comes from a Greek word that means to change your mind or have a change of heart. Once we change, that will effect the outlook on the rest of our lives.

First thing to do in repentance is to observe our thoughts, reactions and emotions to the kairos event, then to reflect on why we reacted like the did, why we feel like we do and why this particular event brought on these emotions. Then we need to bring someone else in on the process, and discuss you reactions. Other's will have a completely different outlook on what you're going through.

Just because we experience a kairos moment doesn’t mean we learn from it. The only way to bring change into our lives is to take action through belief.

Again there are three parts, planning from your observations and reflections, finding someone to be accountable too (probably the same person you choose to discuss it with), and then you need to act on everything you've learnt and complete the change in your life.

Our lives are about connecting all the events that happen to us. In essence that's linking all the kairos moments in our lives. We have so many opportunities to learn and let God stretch and grow us.

So keep a lookout for kairos moments this week, and use this process to grow your relationship with God, and change your life.

What's going on!!

OK seriously, what a woeful start to the season. This weekend's game against Hawthorn just clinched it for me. COME ON BOYS! I thought the first round was great, we absolutely trounced Sydney, and Lloyd kicked the first 5 goals.

5 weeks later and looks what's going on. Lloyd's gone for the season, and we haven't won a game since that first week. Last weekend was horrific! 1 point!!! ahhh! I mean with all the controversy about the Freo v Saints game ending, I'm almost wishing the Essendon game went for an extra 30 seconds... we may have won!

Anyway, not loosing faith, just venting some frustration, let's go boys... make it like the 93 season... loose the first half, and finish with the premiership!

Weekend News

Well I had a GREAT long weekend!

Saturday I played soccer. It's the second game of the 06 season, and man, 90 minutes of football is a hard slog! We're playing division 4 of the church leauge this year, and having only ever play div 6 and 7 (bottom 2 divs) these first two games have been an eye opener!

Plus we played 1 man down for most of the first half - and were not able to make use of the new unlimited interchange rule at all, cause we've never had a reserve! 90 minutes of footy, and i'm buggered hey, time to work on that fitness!!

We lost 6-2 which sucks cause it was 2-2 at half time. We have the most lucious fields this year, Ipswich Boys Grammar school are letting us use their fields for free - they are awesome... I did the most excellent slide tackle and saved a goal in the dying minutes of the game.... it felt so good to get something exactly right, plus it's so easy to slide tackle on these fantastic fields!

I went for dinner at Ben and Julie's with Scotty, and had a great time. Watching young Elijah roll all over the cat, and having a push up competition (which I lost!).

Sunday was church, and lots of drumming. I played the morning and evening service, at night a strange thing happened. During the bridge of a song I was mainly working the Toms and snare for about 32 bars (for the musos out there), and when I finished my 10" tom fell clear off my kit! I must have loosened the grip screw holding it on, so it slipped off. Never had that happen before!!

I spent the afternoon pushing a lawn airator around our lawn, in the glorious pouring rain!

Monday was a good quiet day, set up another blog for Vanessa's wedding register - so people can check out the register email what they want to take off the list and have it removed. It saves her having a Myer one which forces people to buy only from one store... and more freedom for the 'little' things, like garden hoses and stuff.

The hours

7.23pm!

It's 7.23pm and I'm sitting at my desk at work, in an office building completely empty except for myself. I have 15 computers stacked beside me, and I've finished building 13 of them, so only 2 more to go. I am taking a drive to Toowoomba tomorrow to give the branch there brand new computers.

I find it slightly ironic that I'm going to Toowoomba tomorrow, after only having just come from there after AGMF - and am wondering if it is some cruel joke on the part of the guy planning the new pc rollouts.

I put so much time, so many hours, into working at this job, and what do I get out of it? Well the answer to that is money, but I feel that only getting money from the long hours I spend here isn't rewarding enough.

Why do we work so hard for money? I know we should see our workplace as our mission field and that should give us the motivation to continue in our workplaces, but there are times when I feel I could be doing so much more with my hours!!

Ok so now I've racked up 3 hours of overtime - it's now 7:30 - but do I want to be here? No! If I had planned my day better, I probably would not be here, but I had so much on my plate these computers kept getting put off, and now I have to get them done before tomorrows trip.

I guess also today - to make me more mindful of my attitude towards my job - we had a small mishap in our area. One of the guys (who could probably think a touch more before he acts,) had a freak issue with a network switch. Suddenly the switch on his desk created a 'loop back' and was broadcast over the entire network - effectively taking the whole of the company's computers offline! No small feat!

Unfortunately he did it a second time when trying to figure what the problem was. Now we have management looking closely at our work practices, and it looks like some of the privileges we've had to make our job easier will be taken away.

All this has made me think, is it time to give it all up and try something else? Bible College has been knocking on my mind for a while, but I just don't know whether God really wants me there.

Your prayers would be appreciated.

Well I've just finished the last PC (thank goodness for dual screens so I can blog and work at the same time) and Prison Break is on tonight so I'd better get home....

AGMF Pictures

Benz, Scotty and I leaning up against the Mighty XR6!

The Main Tent, including the SU Cafe and Merch area, what a huge tent!

Our tent in the backyard.

Mike Frost and the Icemen (Chris Poulsen on keys)

Scat at the Fancy Pants Ball - White house paint suits (sorry about the quality, was a mobile phone camera shot)

USQ Main Stage (Thanks to Bec for this pic)

AGMF 06

What a weekend.

Great music, good food, and awesome mates. I headed up to Toowoomba for the Australian Gospel Music Festival with Scotty and Ben on Friday, we set Benz tent up in the backyard of our senior pastors brother's house.

I've never been to AGMF for the whole festival before, there was so much good music! Actually there was so much that I missed some acts I would have loved to have seen.

The Chris Poulsen Trio was the one band I really wanted to catch, having never seeing them live before, and knowing Chris and loving his playing in Scat and Mike Frost and the Icemen. Unfortunately I forgot the time they were on, and we ended up going to a break dance workshop instead. However Scat were unbelievable! Chris absolutely burnt up the Fender Rhodes, the man is the best piano player I have ever seen, or heard! Scat always put on a good show, but they had an energy this weekend that was above and beyond anything I've seen before. The Fancy Pants ball finished off AGMF on Sunday night, and Chris had this idea that Scat should buy second hand suits and paint them completely white (using house paint). They looked amazing, but as Craig (lead singer) said many times during the ball it would have been mighty hot inside a stiff thick painted suit, shirt and tie!

Chris Poulsen has become a AGMF and Christian music scene star, as soon as he hopped on stage with any band he pulled huge crowds. It's great to see a good friend of mine enjoying his music so much, and sharing it with so many people, I'm sure he has a very prosperous future ahead of him.

Newsboys were the headline act, and they didn't disappoint. Ben, his niece and I ended up in the back of the mosh pit, enjoying the atmosphere and music from one of Australia's best Gospel rock groups. Having Paul Coleman as lead guitar was weird. It's almost a shame that a man with so much talent ends up playing guitar and doing backup vocals. But he is happy, and he still put on a great performance with the rest of the band.

Rebecca St James was good - well the part I saw anyway, we only caught the end. I was even able to get her autograph afterwards.

Other highlight bands were Half Way Out (Chris' brother Dave is the new saxophone player for them), The View (Sydney band I hadn't heard before, but were really impressed by), Rhubarb (haven't seen them in ages but woohoo!!), United Band, MIC, Soulframe and 24 Feet.

In other areas sharing the weekend with Scott and Ben was great. We went to Hog's Breath Cafe for dinner one night, and the Coffee Club another. We drove around in the XR6 and shot people with supa soakers, ran through the Bush Dance at full pace and sang unashamedly in line for Rebecca St James' signature.

I'll post some pictures in a second

12 months of Blogging

Well when I started my blog I created a few back dated topics just to get a heap of stuff on my site, but as of this week my Blogs been online for 12 months.

And it's come a long way.... looking back at some of the stuff from last year I can't believe it all happened 12 months ago!

Amped/Whitehill update

Hey well it's been a while since I've put something up here. My life has been pretty busy, but nothing too serious.

Amped is going great so far this year, we have two major nights running in conjunction with other outings and service events we do. One night is called Nexus - which is a night of awesome praise and worship music, teaching from the Word of God and time in our small groups which we call D-Teams. The other major night is Delta which is where we spend the whole night in our D-Team having a group discussion on some aspect of becoming Christ Like.

Amped's vision statement is to be a Christ Centred, Servant Hearted, Outward Focused Youth Community. We've been acheiving this by focusing on what the Bible tells us Christ was like, working in the community to serve as Christ served and looking to school friends and others to bring into our youth community. Recently we spent the night at a local Aboriginal Church painting their youth hall and sanding back furniture so they can decorate them themselves. It was a great night of service and the youth really enjoyed getting out and doing something productive.

Last week at our Evening Service, we ran what is known as an Open Space Technology conference. Anyone can post a question/topic for discussion on the topic of "The Church". It probably wasn't received as well as we hoped, but I found that the people who put the effort into the night all walked away having learnt something new. I myself enjoyed the night a lot, I posted a topic Why Do We Do What We Do? and had some awesome discussion about what the Church is all about, and why we do some of the different aspects of services. It made me and others think about the meaning behind our Sunday 'worship' services and what role they should take in our lives. I also visited a topic on Is there division between youth and older people in our church?, and What is the Church?

This weekend is Easter, and unlike other years I've decided not to go to the Keswick Convention on Tamborine Mt, but instead to head up to Toowoomba for the Australian Gospel Music Festival.

A New Year Begins

Well the year hasn't really begun, until the new season of the V8 Supercars starts. So even though I know this blog seems to be turning into a rev-head blog, the Adelaide 500 is a weekend I've been waiting for for some time.

And even better, good old Craig Lowndes won the first race, and he sure looks good to win today's race as well. But the whole field looks so good. New colours, new sponsors and new drivers has really made the whole V8 series look and feel so fresh for 2006.

So bring it on, can't wait for the Qld events so I can see em in person. And GO FORD!!!!!!

Soccer Continues

Well we had another game today, played another division 2 team, and only went down 1:0. So another good result, our team is developing, working on our fitness and getting ready for the begining of the real season just after Easter.

For those of you who know Ben Zambra, our WA friend came so close to scoring in the first half, he cleared the goalie and smacked the dead centre of the goal post, very unlucky.

For the upcoming season, I've been placed into the 5th Division team, so am looking forward to the challenge of playing up a division this year, and I get to play on the same team as my brother, and Ben.

What a Morning

Well here's something you don't expect while sitting stuck in traffic on Ipswich Road. This morning just before I left home I SMSed in my code for the new Pepsi "Rock, Paper, Scissors" competition, I sort of did it as an afterthought just before I walked out the door.

Well anyway; I received an SMS while I was stuck in traffic telling me I'd won the half hour competition, so I now have the choice of $500, 2 iPod Nanos or a Nokia 3250 phone as my prize! I already have an iPod, and my current mobile phone is dieing a painful and frustrating death so I'm pretty happy to get a brand new mobile, especially one as good and with so much stuff as the 3250!

Nokia 3250 Information

I love my Mountain Dew, and my addiction has finally paid off, I hardly ever enter these competitions, but with my phone dieing I thought I may as well have a go cause I need the new phone. Now I'm sure glad I did :-)

Bending It...

Ok so maybe linking this post to David Beckham is pushing it a bit, but I had my first game of soccer for the year last Saturday.

Lucky for us it's just the pre-season, meaning the games is only 20 minute halves (making the entire game shorter than one half of a real game), but it's a good way to build yourself up to the start of the season.

Anyway; after only one training session we were all still pretty rusty, and we were playing a Division 1 team. Amazingly we were able to keep the game 0-0, which means we didn't score, but it also means we didn't let them either - GO WHITEHILL!

After the rain we've had the field was pretty soggy, and some full back decided to perform a perfectly executed slide tackle on me so I ended up with mud all over me.

However I really enjoyed the game, felt pretty good at the end of it, and am looking forward to the coming season.

Oh and one more thing I learnt creating this post, if you type in Beckham and do an image search on Google, there are not many pictures of him actually playing soccer!