backyardmissionary

I finished reading The Shack last night.
I got home late and read the final few chapters pretty quickly to get it over and done with. Sadly it wasn’t a book that resonated with me at all. I know it has been valuable to some, but I found the cringe factor was rather high as [...]

We are up and running Canada. Yeeha!
There are some great resources on there as well. Check out the videos of Eddie Gibbs

As of November 14th I will no longer be the Forge WA director and my role will be taken over by the very capable and brilliant Scott Vawser. Ironically I will be down south all that following weekend on Forge business because we couldn’t arrange an earlier time - so I will ‘finish work’ and [...]

Today was the second day of daylight saving for Perth and the first ‘work day’. I was actually surprised at how difficult it was to get out bed even though I am normally an early riser.
I am swinging voter on this one.
As a bloke who does physical work I like that I get to do [...]

At the moment I am almost finished The Shack and while I haven’t been blown away by it neither have i been overly disturbed by it. It will go into the back room probably never to be seen again… Unlike the bookshelf right by my chair where all my hot faves are kept!
Also waiting to [...]

If ever you needed convincing that bad press sells books then this is it!
I have read plenty of negative stuff about this book from the very conservative critics and I have also heard some very positive reviews from friends who have read the book, so I decided it was time to spend the $$ and [...]

Tonight at dinner I shared some of the journey Phil & family are on.
Phil is a gutsy courageous missionary and someone for whom I have great respect. He & his family are faced with an incredibly difficult choice as life in Afghanistan becomes increasingly fragile and dangerous.
To stay or go?…
We discussed it tonight as a [...]

Its been a quiet time here on the blog.
Some days I feel like I absolutely have nothing left to say.
Its a funny feeling… Then in the space of a few days I have a frantic series of bewildering thoughts that I am processing and blogging about.
I think its the whole deal of needing [...]

I have been reading ‘Sweet’, the novel by Tracy Ryan about the relationships between a WA Baptist pastor in the 80’s and 3 female members of his congregation. Essentially it explores the rather subtle issue of codependence and how this develops between a pastor and congregation. I don’t know how wide an appeal this [...]

I am currently reading ‘Sweet’ a novel I discovered on Nathan’s blog and finding it very interesting - partly because it is written about a scene I have been so intricately involved with for the last 34 years, but partly because it addresses the ongoing issues of co-dependency that plague both church leader and church [...]

I was chatting with one the members of our Brighton Residents Association committee today. She is concerned that in one months time the team of 9 people will shrink to 4 as members move on, but that there is no one to replace them.
Recently a community survey sent to every house in Brighton (3500) got [...]

For the last year this has been my approach to the irrigation and landscaping work I do.
I have never been known for my home handy man skills - in fact one of the standing jokes at our last church - was that ‘dangerous’ was defined as Hamo with a Bunnings bag! However part of the [...]

I heave a bit of a sigh as I write this, but I’m a little weary of the way these words get used interchangeably to describe church, when I would suggest they have quite different meanings. I hear it and read it regularly so for what its worth here is my explanation of the difference.
As [...]

In networking our computers at home I was browsing thru Danelle’s photos and came across this set of Sam. I reckon it captures him to a tee!
He’s a happy, chirpy boofy 5 year old and these seem to show that side of him well.

‘Hanging out the front’ seems to be an art form in our street, and as summer draws closer it looks like we’ll be doing a lot more of it. The kids play out there and if you’re feeling a bit bored you’ve only got to walk out your front door to be greeted by friendly [...]

The falling Aussie dollar is a bit of a worry as we look at heading to the US next year. Earlier this year we were looking at getting almost dollar for dollar value as exchange, but now its under 80c and sliding. Bugger. Hopefully another 6 months will see it move back up, but who [...]

After a rocky start I am quite liking it but not yet blown away.
The original frustrating issue - not being able to connect to my own wireless network - was solved by getting another router. This was something we needed to do anyway and everyone in the house is much happier with the strength [...]