backyardmissionary

Arrived… Its cold - that’s Melbourne for you…
I had the worst fish and chips in Melbourne the world. Thick doughy batter that was inedible and soggy three day old chips… The little Italian woman at the shop doesn’t speak enough English to understand ’squid’…
"Can I have some squid rings please?"
"I don’t know what he is…"
I […]

Around 4 times a year I try to produce an update on what is happening in our lives as we live and work here in Brightn Its a bit of a summary of what we are seeing happening in the local area and where we see God at work. Its mostly Danelle’s and my story […]

I’m off tomorrow morning to the Forge National Summit. Its the first one we have had, so it’ll be interesting to see how it feels to be around 400-500 people all sharing the same sense of mission and purpose.
I have two sessions to present, one entitle ‘A Daring adventure or Nothing - The Heart of […]

In September we will have lived in Brighton for 2 years - time really has flown by. People ask me if I enjoy living here and I can only say that I love it - really love it. Its not that this is the world’s greatest suburb or anything like that. Its a patch of […]

It was that kind of day in sunny West Oz again today.
I tried to get my two presentations for the National Forge Summit finished today - which was a tad ambitious! I got the first one done (’A Daring Adventure or Nothing - The Heart of an Apostolic Leader) but the second will have to […]

Last Monday’s surf was so good that Paul and I decided that given the beautiful weather we would do it again today.
So at 11.00 we hopped in the boat and began to head up to the Alkimos, noticing as we went that the swell was significantly larger than last time… Last time we […]

Each Wednesday I meet up with a small group of guys who are also in the process of thinking thru what it means to do mission and be church in this 21st C. Its one of those informal groups that has managed to sustain itself on some good relationships for over 2 years now.
This Wed […]

For those who can’t make the Forge National Summit here’s a ‘heads up’ on a great weekend of inspiration coming up.  It just so happens we have 3 cutting edge, creative thinking missioners in

Perth
at one time so we are looking to use them for a ’storyfest’ around new ways of being church and […]

Like most bloggers I am interested in how many people read this thing - where they are from. their comments etc.
Lately it has fluctuated between 400 a day and 120 a day people reading and looks like it is on a downwards spiral in terms of reader numbers. Who knows why?… (maybe people have realised […]

This bloke is coming to Perth again this week.
I am interested in going to hear him, but I’m not sure I’d get a seat. I heard that last time he came he was ’sold out’. I find it unusual because he isn’t overly inspiring in his ads.
But when you look at his website and […]

One of our Brighton community is an 18 year old first year Uni student. Lets’ call her Jane for the sake of anonymity.
Last week during her exam period she got the date of her exam wrong and missed sitting the exam. Ouch! That means redoing the unit. It was suggested to her by one of […]

Steve has done an interview with Al Hirsch on his new book that is soon to be published.
The sound quality is a bit ordinary, but Al does give a bit of an insight into where the book heads.
Great picture of Hirschy too!

Today I went to catch up with old friends - John & Angie Wilmot, now with 6 kids who are missionaries in Malawi.
I dropped in for lunch at 12.00 and left at 4.00. It was one of those days when time flied and common bonds had us talking and totally losing track of time.
I find […]

The WA govt is considering making it law for young people (non full fare payers) to stand for older people on public transport.
What is the world coming to when we have to make a law for people to do what people ought to do?
I think its an idea fraught with difficulty and the time/money would […]

In the last five years I have forgotten just 2 appointments.
Both this year and both with the same person… This afternoon as I realised that I had stood the same guy up twice I wasn’t quite sure what to say. ‘Sorry’ was about all I could manage as I phoned to apologise.
I said to Danelle […]

Its not often you get to say that about the surf but today was just that.
After 3 weeks of rain we finally scored a sunny day, with light offshores, so Paul (another local church planter) and I launched the boat and made the 10km trip up to the Alikmos.
The reef we surf over is 2km […]

Yep.
At this stage there isn’t much for us Aussies to crow about, but if you want to stay in the loop of all that’s going on in pommyland then drop over here and have a read.
I have been invited to contribute and probably will at some point… if I have anything vaugely useful to say!
In […]

I was as ecstatic as anyone the day we heard that Douglas Wood had been freed from captivity in Iraq. He is someone’s husband, dad and brother and is in many ways ‘one of us’.
I was impressed with how the Wood (en!) brothers handled the whole process and how the different groups made it happen.
Then […]

"The wise man built his house upon the rock…"
So starts that old kid’s song that those of us who grew up going to Sunday school would know. It compares the wise man who built his house on the rock with the foolish man who built his house on sand. And the basic conclusion is that […]

I’m not a big fan of internet tag - but when someone gives me a chance to talk about the books I love them I’m right in there!
Thanks Darryl.
Here are my answers to the question:
Number of books I own - My guess = 1200?… Doesn’t really sound like a lot does it? I remember when […]