backyardmissionary

This morning Ellie went thru her toy room and chose some of her toys and books she could give to the kids who didn’t have any.
She has been following the Tsunami story with us and is obviously wanting to help. A little bag of toys and a rug sits by the door waiting to go […]

The beast is back on the road… Will the repair work? Only time will tell! Here’s hoping…

Ok, after much discussion and tooing and froing I was convinced by several reputable parties that I ought to at least have a go at a self fix on the crankshaft of the beast. One of those reputable parties was my wife who suggested $200.00 was a much better fix than $2000.00.
It is a bit […]

Yesterday I stripped the bits of my car to get to the crankshaft pulley.
It is well and trulyu cactus with a large split thru it. The question though is whether the crankshaft is able to hold a new ‘key’ and work the pulley that I will get at the wreckers tomorrow.
So far I have one […]

After 30 years of surfing I have learnt a healthy respect for the ocean.
Today Mark and I went fishing and when we left it was still and glassy, almost perfect conditions. We sat out on the third reef for almost an hour and then in an instant a northerly wind started to blow.
It […]

I have just started reading Tim Winton’s latest book - The Turning. As soon as you enter its pages its like stepping into a west aussie coastal town with all the familiar faces and characters.
I love reading Winton because I feel like I know the people he writes about (I probably do!), the boys from […]

I’m not a big fan of Christmas - this pic pretty much says it all. Found courtesy of Jonny.

Anyway… enjoy the day…
I might be back some time in the next two weeks, or I might go blow up another one of our cars…

Yesterday we returned from a week in Margaret river with my good mate Stuart Wesley and his family. I have known Stuart since high school so you could certainly call us old friends and in those 25 years we have become very good friends.
So… how was it?…
I guess that all depends on what you […]

Tomorrow we head off on holidays for 3 weeks. We will be in Margaret River for the next week, back in town for Christmas and then for the two weeks after that we’ll be making it up as we go.
I might be on here occasionally as this is a passtime I enjoy. Then again it […]

I used to be able to
make a year 7 boy cry at 50 paces with a glare. I used to be able to approach
them and feel the ground move as they trembled” see the fear in their eyes” see
that fear forming a small puddle on the ground at their feet”
Those days have gone”
and the world […]

I was at the swimming pool on Friday with Ellie and Sam and I bumped into someone I hadn’t seen since I was 20 and doing volunteer youthwork for YFC. We were on a team together.
She asked me if I was still going to church…
Notice the question?
Not which church was I part of, but was […]

This Thursday we head off to Margaret River for the start of a holiday. It was just going to be a one week break and we were going to take two weeks in first term next year.
However, with other committments that has become really difficult. So, we decided to add another two weeks on to […]

Yesterday we had our first ‘leadership team’ meeting since coming to Brighton. Basically it was one member from each family that came together to discuss the questions I mentioned in my previous post. Up to now the team hasn’t felt the need for a dedicated team of leaders, however in recent times it became apparent […]

Tomorrow is our first ‘end of year’ review that we will have as a team. We have asked someone to come in from outside who knows what we are about to help us reflect on the year that has been, both as a team and as individual families.
I am hopeful that we will have a […]

Last night I gave my mobile phone a bath…
I left it in the boat which I had hosed down. It was sitting in the well of the dash area under water for the evening… Not all that good for a phone…
I managed to get a new SIM card but hav’t got a new phone yet. […]

I like what Dallas Willard has to say about discipleship. He calls it like it is but does so in a way that makes you want to ‘give all’ rather than seeing discipleship as a list of ‘musts’.
The overshadowing event of the last two centuries of Christian life has been the struggle between Orthodoxy and […]

Today I met with the guys from our Baptist Youth Ministries exec team to discuss the possibility of part time work next year as a youth ministry coach. It looks like it’ll be a goer. Sensational! I get to do something I enjoy, can do well and even get paid for it.
It will start in […]

This morning the principal from the school I teach at rang to tell me that the next two student free days probably wouldn’t be of much use to me and I didn’t have to come in if I didn’t want to… ummm… let me think

Apparently I have been quoted in a book and I didn’t even know it! I guess it happens to famous people all the time, but it hasn’t happened to me before.
Michael Moynach’s new book, Emerging Church.Intro is where I crack a mention. It is stuff from my article on ‘Burning your Bridges’.
Next time I am […]

I loathe Christmas carols!
But I love it when I discover a song that captures some of what the Christmas period really is about. Bruce Cockburn has done a sensational job here.
Thanks John for the tip off!
Mary grows a child without the help of a manJoseph get upset because he doesn’t understandAngel comes to Joseph […]