backyardmissionary

“The only reason a great many American families don’t own an elephant is that they have never been offered an elephant for a dollar down and easy weekly payments.”
Mad Magazine

A few years back I pondered jumping ship to a different denomination.
I was in flux with my work roles and open to all possibilities. At that stage it was a Church of Christ I was looking at, in many ways our closest cousins. It never did eventuate but not specifically for denominational reasons.
In the […]

Jarrod McKenna’s Wednesday’s with Gandhi:
 

 
“Jesus expressed, as no other could, the spirit and the will of God. It is in this sense that I see him and recognise him as the Son of […]

No, not prostitution I am writing about…
I’m still on the subject of ‘teaching’.
One way for me to improve the way I relate to the kids at school is to see them as somebody’s daughter or someone’s son and to treat them as such - someone’s pride and joy. When you are a relief teacher […]

This is the title of my sermon for next week at East Fremantle Baptist Church.
Its based around some thoughts that have been brewing for a while around the quest for the ‘good life’ that seems to dog both believers and non-believers alike.
It seems there is a belief that we can create heaven on earth, […]

I have 4 days teaching year 5’s starting tomorrow.
To be honest I am a bit nervous. I used to be a good teacher, used to have a great rapport with kids and a lot of creative ideas when it came to education. I don’t like the thought of not being able to do it quite […]

If variety is the spice of life then I am having a curry!
One of the things I have really come to love about my Forge role here in West Oz is that I find myself speaking to and interacting with such a diversity of people.
Today I was speaking at a conference with the local Lutheran […]

If people in Perth were looking for ways to make peace and praise practical this Sunday you’re welcome to join us Peace Tree crew for the Gulu Walk.
“Every morning and every night the children of Northern Uganda walk for their LIVES. We’re walking to tell their story.”
Not sure what that is? Please click here to […]

Well after a rookie tipping year that can only be described unbe-bloody-lievable it was time to hand over the loot. At the start of the year Morgs and I put a 6 pack of Crownies (for him) against a bottle of red (for me), with the winner to recieve the prize at the end of […]

After 4 years of blogging I have learnt never to blog on a controversial topic after more than 2 glasses of red wine.
I have some thoughts percolating…… and I have just finished my second glass of red…
Its a recipe for fireworks.
Don’t do it…
(Drink the third glass and then really let rip!)

Jarrod McKenna’s Wednesday’s with Gandhi:

“Jesus was the most active resister know perhaps to history. His was nonviolence par excellence.”
-Gandhi -Vol.84, June 26, 1946
I too hold that Jesus is not less than, as Gandhi put it elsewhere, “the greatest practitioner of nonviolence in history.” And while we could whine and moan in long self righteous diatribes about the […]

This site updates you what is happening in the world as it happens.
Some of the stats are quite disturbing …

Ok, we’ve looked at Ghandi, but what about these guys.
This article is about to be used in the next Forge National Newsletter and is re-printed with permission from GIA. It was originally published in their Resonate magazine - a great journal for the young adults in your church wanting to think more deeply about […]

A little while back we began ‘re’-exploring the whole issue of communion and how we practice it.
We have taken our time over the month to read, research, discuss and finally arrive at some conclusions. Yesterday Danelle led our meeting - one where the kids were present the whole time - and we finalised what we […]

Surfing in the snow… from Tom He writes: “Below zero wind temp and the water is around 33 degrees. A little north of Duluth, Minnesota”
Crazeeee!

I think I’d be turning back about now…

Nice waves!

Check the snow on the point…

I remember year 8 well… for all the wrong reasons!
I was an absolute turd of a kid, always getting into trouble and once got kicked out of class 8 times in 8 periods for my poor behaviour. When I was 20 I actually threw out all of my lower school reports because they were so […]

I sat down last night to check out some places the 4 Hamos could go for a holiday pre Christmas. On this occasion I am thinking decent accommodation but not too expensive - a 2 bedroom chalet / villa somewhere in the south west, near the coast would be fine. I am thinking $100.00-150.00/night maximum.
I […]

Last week I was the ’soakwell man’ and the r’etic man’…
This week I am the ‘blind man’ installing about 20 timber venetian blinds to the house we are selling.
I’m not particularly gifted as a handyman, nor am I particularly patient with finicky and/or mundane tasks, but given the cost of installation was $1000.00 and […]

Jarrod McKenna’s Wednesday’s with Gandhi:
“Because the life of Jesus has the significance and the transcendency to which I have alluded, I believe that he belongs not solely to Christianity, but to the entire world; to all races and people, it matters little under what flag, name or doctrine they may […]

As many of you would know we at Forge are constantly seeking out missionaries who will choose to invest their lives in a specific people group.
You may wonder what the criteria for an internship placement is… Well Daz from Forge Tasmania & Third Place Communities (also the primary guest at our third intensive) has developed […]