enchanted dvd One of my big concerns in regard to the budget on this trip was how I would
fund reading. Books are expensive and I love to read. I figured it could add
at least $50.00/week to the costs unless I could find a way of getting good
cheap books. So to discover some gems in Op shops has been a real bonus.

The Halls Creek op shop had a number of half decent titles as well as the
usual pulp stuff and the Salvo shop in Kununurra has several books worthy of
a read. I bought 4 books for the grand sum of $7.00 which has to make a
bibliophile very happy.

As I was rummaging thru the laundry baskets of books in the Kununurra op
shop I came across one entitled Following Jesus by a bloke called Segundo
Galilea (Danelle reckons he sounds like a coffee bean) and after a brief
skim decided it was worthy of purchase. Galilea is a Chilean Catolic priest
and liberation theologian who has written a short and relatively simple book
around the theme of what it means to truly dedicate ourselves to
discipleship. I read many books of this kind, but not often from this
perspective so I figured it would be a good balance to the predominantly
North American based stuff that I find myself reading.

It’s immediately worth noting that our context has a huge impact on shaping
our theology – much more than we tend to give it credit for. The Latinos and
others from impoverished contexts gave us liberation theology and wealthy
white westerners gave us prosperity theology. I haven’t come across a name
for a theology that has its roots in suburban western life, but is not
prosperity driven. I imagine it would be something like ‘comfort theology’
or ’security theology’ as that it what seems to form so much of our middle
class western dreams. Hence Jesus becomes the one who makes life safe and
secure for us. as if.

This is challenging because we have to admit that it’s impossible to do any
kind of theological reflection outside of a context. And because of that we
need to regularly be open to the insights of other cultures to help us get a
fuller revelation. At times this can be challenging and it may even seem
that our brothers are waaay off the mark. however reality is that we may be
the ones missing the point.

Here are 3 few quotes from Following Jesus that I thought worthy of sharing.

“We believe that it is appropriate to the religious life to call into
question or even protest against the church and society: against the church
to the extent that it I decadent or ambiguous, or has lost its radical
dynamism; against society, to the extent that it become dehumanized or
dechristianised (not sure what he means by this), and thus the source of
oppression and injustice” p.82

So. If we are leaders with any nouse then we will be protesters when we see
either the church or society lose their way. We won’t stay silent and tow
the party line, but we will have the courage to speak up – loudly. The net
result of this is that we will not be popular for long.

“A religious movement will never be authentic unless it returns to the root
of its own prophetism. Its radicalism is a sign of vitality and of its right
to continued existence. Its absence is a void that calls into question its
very reason for existence in the church and society. One of the causes of
the present crisis in religious life rests on the fact that many who have
given themselves to this life have discovered this void” p. 83

How true. When we lose our founding charism we become a social club and this
is one of the issues we are currently grappling with as the church in the
west.

“Normally the people of greatest character, most maturity, are those who
have the greatest difficulty with obedience. This is quite normal. One does
not arrive a free obedience without passing through rebellions. Obedience
consists of a synthesis between the acceptance of the will of God and a
complete Christian freedom. It is extremely difficult. It is a work of the
Holy Spirit. And one does not arrive at this without having passed through
many crises and even through many errors.” P. 93

I thought this was insightful. A conformist finds ‘obedience’ easy. A
non-conformist or a questioner will struggle much harder to accept the rule
of another.

This book has some real gems and is worth a read.

We have been in Townsville since Friday and have been enjoying being back in relative civilization – if you can call Queenslanders civilized… ?

It was a big drive across and not that interesting to say the least. The section of the Barclay Highway between Mt Isa and Richmond I am officially renaming the Barclay Track – only to be attempted with a 4WD! Seriously – someone in the Qld gov needs to have a good look at that one. It’s a shocker – like a roller coaster!

The kids were excited to get to Townsville as they were keen to stay at Caravan park they had seen in the brochures. Sam revealed the power of branding when he insisted we consider a ‘Big 4’ park next place we stay. So here we are in the Walkabout Palms Big 4 right on the edge of town and at the intersection of two of the busiest roads in Townsville! It is well set up and we have enjoyed a few days of comfort and indulgence (hot showers and electricity). The mosquitos and heat bugs that have plagued us all the way around disappeared when we got here too. Its been great to sit down at night and not be constantly swatting bugs away or waking up in the night scratching yourself… so to speak…Aside from the constant road noise that reminds us we are back in the city it has been a good place to stay.

We have been in and out of Townsville City a bit and spent a bit of time down on the Strand – the beachfront area. We have lazed around a bit and done the usual school stuff. I was finally able to download the Iphone 3.0 update which allows the phone to function as a modem, so the kids have been able to do their Mathletics and our internet hasn’t been restricted to a 3 inch Iphone screen. 3 G reception actually gives you reasonable speed and with 1 gig of download in my monthly virgin allowance we are pretty well set.

I have to say that my first impression of Qld is one of commercialism. I know we are tourists of a sort, but I have really enjoyed a ‘rougher’ Australia than we find here at the moment. I can only imagine how we will feel when we hit the Gold Coast…

As of tomorrow we begin heading north towards Cairns and the towns up that way. We don’t really know what to expect so we will just be figuring it out on the run. We got offered 3 nights in Palm Cove at a 4 ½ star resort for $200.00 which sounded tempting. It involved listening to someone drone on about Timeshare for 90 mins – which I could do with no problem and not get suckered into – but the more we thought about how we’d need to reorganize car and camper etc we decided it wasn’t worth the hassle. We are well organized in the camper now and the appeal of a luxury apartment just wasn’t enough to sway us believe it or not.

Danelle has reorganized the camper so that our storage is much more efficient. The only problem is now I have no clue where things are… It took me 9 weeks to get the hang of plan A and now I need to remember that my clothes are in the ‘bread cupboard’!

Anyway, that’s a brief update on the traveling Hamos.

Sadly… propaganda works

I wish I could easily recall a time when I heard a politician from the left side of politics actually affirm the decision of someone on the ‘right’, or vice versa. But it seems that written into the political job description is ‘except in the most embarrassingly obvious situations DISAGREE at all costs!’

It seems every time the left has an idea the right will fault it… Or every time the right do something well the left find flaws.

If life were as black and white as some politicians make it sound then it would be simple to choose who to vote for… But what you actually read is not pure information or even reasoned opinion, but ‘propaganda’ – a unique kind of perspective and one that actually insults the intelligence of the listener.

It assumes we are dumb enough to see complex questions as having simple solutions. It assumes us = good and them = bad.

It ought to be an embarrassment to the people who use it, and it should be – except that it works! People fall for the nonsense that gets said on tv and in the media – more fool us…

Let’s be honest folks – no political party has all the right answers – nor is any of them devoid of some useful insights, but the rabid bickering and arguing that seems to characterise so much of the political game is so tedious.

In fact its one of the main reasons I have never run for prime minister…

I don’t know where my links to other blogs went…

I updated to the next version of worpress and they have disappeared. So for those who are worried that they may have offended me… nope…

Just lost em!

Its pretty much impossible to travel anywhere in outback Oz and not be
struck by the impact of both alcohol and pornography. All throughout the
Kimberley’s, the NT and remote Qld are large signs identifying ‘restricted
areas’ – zones where alcohol is either strictly limited or where it is
banned and where possession of even soft porn incurs a hefty fine – think
$5000.00.

Why is this the case?…

And is it just aboriginal people who this is wreaking havoc amongst?

It has caused me to reflect deeper on how we deal with these issues in a
non-indigenous setting. I wonder if alcohol wasn’t currently legal – and if
we knew its social impact – if we would even ponder making it readily
available? I actually tend to think not. Given the amount of grief that has
been wrought in our own communities through alcohol abuse, I imagine that at
some level simple ‘common sense’ would dictate that we make it a prohibited
substance. (Yes – I know this leads to other problems / black market etc).

It seems that the impact of alcohol on aboriginal people is more visible
because they are louder, often have their disputes in public and don’t seem
to have the same concern for ‘decorum’ that we anglos appear to have. But my
observation is that the impact on middle class white folks is often not much
different. It just (usually) happens behind closed doors.

I have to say that I am a lover of red wine and I regularly enjoy a beer, so
what I am writing disturbs me greatly. I don’t write this from any
theological conviction re the rightness or wrongness of drinking – I hope
those debates have gone the way of the dinosaur – but if there were a
theological frame to slot this into it would be that of how we shape the
kingdom now and how we best love our neighbour. Is it more loving and more
in line with the shaping of God’s kingdom to abstain from alcohol and to ask
others to do likewise?…

I don’t think any politician would ever have the balls to run a prohibition
campaign – not here in Australia – so we will never go that route – but I am
somewhat perplexed by this wonderful substance that I enjoy so much, yet
that seems to be the root of so much social evil. Of course I understand
that the root of the ‘root’ is a ’sinful nature’ that uses good things in
wrong ways, but I can’t help wondering what a community would be like in the
absence of any alcoholic drink.

Honestly – I don’t like the thought of it! I’d miss my evening glass of red,
but I was saying to Danelle this afternoon that if we actually knew that
complete abstinence was the key to a healthier society then I’d be prepared
to bite that bullet. I think the aboriginal communities have been learning
this the hard way. I wonder why we haven’t seen similar restrictions come
into white communities?… I guess its cause no one would ever allow it, but
perhaps we need to rethink this one. (he says still not really wanting to go
there.)

As for porn.

Well any moron knows that porn is evil stuff and messes with people at all
levels. Obviously the extent of child abuse in aboriginal communities has
been a catalyst for its prohibition, but I wonder why we still permit this
one in our communities? What level of porn related child abuse, female abuse
etc is acceptable? Obviously we feel that some level is ok as we don’t rail
against it. Is it just too hard?

Sometimes we just live in the world we know and don’t question the way
things are.

Many of you would have seen the ‘Truman show’. A movie in which the central
character (Truman’s) entire life is a TV show but he doesn’t know – he is
completely unaware. He has been caught in a giant studio right from birth
and every other person is an actor. It’s the ultimate voyeur television with
people all round the world waiting on his every move.

At one point the creator of the show is interviewed. His name is Christov.
The interviewer asks Christov the creator of the show, why hasn’t Truman
ever cottoned on to the fact that his life is a sham?

Why hasn’t he realised?

Its a fair question. Christov replies quite profoundly “we accept the
reality of the world with which we are presented” . How true… we accept
the reality that we grew up – our family’s reality – our local community’s
reality – we accept the media constructed reality – the world as the TV
tells us it is.

Maybe we have accepted a reality in regards to alcohol that actually needs
to be questioned.

Maybe we all need to ask more questions generally.

But – yes – sometimes I worry about where the answers would lead us.

In short – banal crap.

‘Biker Chicks’ claimed to be a study into why girls like bad boys. In reality it was a pretty boring collection of stories stitched together with a guise of academia.

Don’t waste your time on this one

21.6.2009

Yesterday we left an overnight roadside stop about 50 km out of Mataranka
and headed south expecting to get to a lake near the town of Elliot. It was
a cold night and the rumble of road trains every 15 mins or so was a
reminder to try and find campsites a little further off the main drag.

We stopped at Mataranka to enjoy the thermal pools and at 34 degrees C they
were great! The nights and mornings are very cool now – I even dragged the
trakky daks out last night – so to have a warm bath was very nice. Getting
out again was a different matter!

From Mataranka we went to Daly Waters where we planned on doing a lunch
stop, but ended up staying the night. We had heard it was a fun place and
very unique and at $20.00 / night for a powered site we thought it too good
to pass up.

The whole scene is very funky and the pub is a hoot. It’s got a real wacky
outback vibe and needs to be seen – a real Aussie icon! They do a Beef and
Barra BBQ each night so we signed up that – again blowing the budget quite
significantly but it was great stuff and well worth the $$.

A couple of tips though for staying at Daly Waters:

- Position your camper well away from the ablutions. We were right next door
and thought initially thought it great, as we had an ‘ensuite’, but the
leech drains just weren’t coping and the gentle waft of excrement that would
occasionally blow across the camper took away from the experience just a
little…

- Position your camper well away from the pub – or be prepared to stay up
late! The Saturday night crew partied on loud and long probably till
12.00ish and when I saw loud I mean LOUD. I was too cold to go and give them
a rev, but then being Saturday night and it being a pub what could you say
anyway?…

Still – if you’re headed this way then make sure you include it for a stop.
Unpowered sites are only $10/night, there is a pool and it’s a fun
experience.

We also met another family from Ocean Reef who are also doing the lap but
going in the opposite direction so we were able to share tips and learnings.
A shame we weren’t going on the same path as they seemed like cool people.

21.6.2009

You will notice that I’m putting the date into some of these posts now, as I
am posting via email whenever we have access rather than trying to load up
wordpress. Its quicker and more efficient and doesn’t rely on me being
online to actually do it. It does seem to lose some formatting occasionally
so if some posts look a little weird then that’s why.

Sadly pictures are also difficult to upload so if you are wanting to see
some images of where we are at then facebook is still the best option. I
completely understand if you can’t be bothered with facebook! We have found
it very useful for keeping our friends up to date with where we are at, but
it certainly can be an enormous time waster.

Because we will be travelling across to Queensland for the next week or I
imagine net access will be more intermittent so expect ‘bulk uploads’.

As I was reflecting this week on how the old time missionaries went about
their work in different cultures there was plenty to critique – plenty that
we would do differently today.

And yet there are people alive now who still give thanks to God for the work
of those people.

I imagine some future generation will one day read about the missional
leaders of the 20/21st Century and wonder in disbelief at how we could be so
foolish or na?ve, yet the simply reality is that we do the best with what we
know and what we have. That is all we can do.

As I write this I am reminded that God works thru all Christians – even
those I might find loopy or offensive.

I don’t know why he does…

Grace is big I guess

I reckon Paul would say ‘if God can work thru me he can work thru
anybody’…

Some days I find that hard to swallow…

19.6.2009

On a visit to one of the cultural centres in Kakadu I picked up this book
and was sufficiently interested by the blurb on the back page to part with
the $29.00 that was the asking price. That’s a big spend from a bloke who
has been buying his books in op shops lately!

Essentially it’s a bit of a history of Arnhem Land from time before whites
ventured there right thru to today. It tells a pretty sorry story of people
dispossessed and subsequently disorientated by the changes. It traces the
various attempts to develop white settlements which were by and large a
failure until the mining companies discovered substances of value…

With the mining companies came royalties and a whole new way of life for a
group of people who were surviving just fine. While we may have looked on in
sympathy at primitive shelters and dirty conditions, the current situation
is in many ways worse.

The author – Andrew McMillan – says that in regards to white habitation of
Arnhem Land it is either misfits, missionaries or mercenaries who go there.
He is particularly harsh on the missionaries, and his invective towards
Christians in general is a bit overdone. While the missionaries definitely
made some mistakes they at least went there with noble intentions. Perhaps
the most abhorrent things the old mishos did was to try and root the
‘aboriginality’ out of the people either by separating kids from parent so
they couldn’t learn culture, or by beating them for practicing their
culture.

Of course when the mining companies came the amount of alcohol increased and
many people didn’t know what to do with the $$$ they initially received.
McMillan is quick to point out that alcohol and money destroyed a culture.
His depictions of life on Grootye Eylandt are particularly sad as they show
the violence, aggression and loss of hope that seems to depict life in these
communities.

He spend a lot of time telling the story of Galarrwuy, the bloke who
finished up leading Youth Yindi (and who has been a significant leader for
the Arnhem people. Ironically this same man spent 3 years in a Queensland
Bible College preparing to come back and share the gospel with the people
only to return, see the chaos and decide he’d had enough of the church
nonsense and that there was a more important cause to put his energies to -
that of bringing some dignity back to the people of his land. Pretty sad.

It wasn’t a super easy read, but if you have an interest in how things have
taken shape in that part of the world then its well worth dipping into. If
you’re a Christian then you’ll need to read it patiently as he doesn’t have
much time for us