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.