Exegetical Stu-ing

The Last Post

2008-06-01T17:30:00.002+10:00

I'm sure someone, somewhere has used this title for their last blog post but I like it all the same.

Well friends, as you will now no doubt expect (from the title and the previous line) I am officially signing off from the blogging world (as far as I can see into the near future at least).

I have quite enjoyed blogging. Being able to write things about things through my eyes, and have whoever cares read them has been good, however you have probably noticed with mine and most of my linked friends blogs, that of recent time the posts come fewer and fewer as life (and Facebook) take over.

Work is busy (but really good) and home life is good too but I want to be realistic about how much time I have for things. So instead of just not posting for 12 months (as some are in the habit of doing) I am making a clean cut.

Feel free to look me up on the 'book though. Stuart Lee (photo is me standing next to what used to be described as a 'small ute'.

Catch you later.

Sydney here I come!

2008-03-04T10:42:00.002+11:00

Hi All,
Just a quick note to say that I applied for, was offered, and accepted, a job up in Sydney. Woo Hoo!
I will be working for John Holland on the Sydney de-salination project in Kurnell. I dont really think that de-salination is the way to go as far as our water resourcing is concerned, however if they want me to build it, I will come.
It is kind of sad saying goodbye to the people in Canberra though, but I will still be able to visit them and spend some time during the coming snow season. :)
I told my work on Friday last week. It wasnt much fun resigning, but the people who I work with at the moment were pretty reasonable about it so that was ok.
As for how long I will be around, I have to work till next Tuesday (11/3) then I am on holidays till the day after Easter Monday 23/03 (going to the Formula One in Melb). I would then have to work for 4 days (which I am trying to convince work that they dont need me for) before disappearing. I will start the new job on the 29th of March.
Over that time I will, of course need to find somewhere to live but I dont think it will be too hard. If I cant find anywhere I can stay with my Dad and step-mum but it would be a pain because I would have to find somewhere to put my stuff etc etc.

Christmas + NYE

2008-01-02T15:43:00.000+11:00

To those who read my blog, apologies for the lack o' post recently. No excuses.

Christmas was good this year. Work Christmas was a new experience. We had our branch Christmas party at Luna Park which was cool. The put us up in the Hyatt in North Sydney. The site Christmas party was at a local resteraunt and the alcohol bill was almost 3 times the food bill. Crazy. Also, various subcontractors were kind enough to give presents to us for helping them out during the year. I got 2 bottles of 12yr old Scotch, 1 bottle of 15 year old scotch, 4 bottles of wine and some misc other things. Again, crazy!

Christmas with the family was good. Like usual I spent most of Christmas day driving around from place to place (Homebush-Hurstville-Kareela-Engadine-Homebush-Pyrmont) but I quite like driving, especially in my car at the moment.

Speaking of that, it is time to sell the little guy. It's been great fun having it but I think that I can use my money more wisely by getting a cheaper car.

Here are a couple of photos that I took to put on my Carsales.com ad.

NYE was good too. I was a bit apprehensive about the party but it turned out to be a really good night. My friend Al had a 'white party' which meant that everyone had to come dressed in all white. People had some good ideas too. Lots of white accessories happening! I will try and get some photos from there and either post them here or on Facebook.

Yesterday I drove back down to Canberra and am at work at the moment. It's really quiet though. Most of the workers dont come back until next week.

Motor Show

2007-10-22T15:48:00.000+10:00

Went to Sydney this weekend for a friend's 30th birthday. It was at the clock hotel balcony bar in Surry Hills. Not bad. I only knew the host and one other guy so while it was good I was pretty tired after working all day Friday and driving to Sydney from Canberra.

The Saturday I went to the motor show which was fun. The other guys I normally go with couldnt make that day so I just went by myself. It was still way good though and I got lots of good photos (as you can see below).

Lamborghini stand

Alpine Chysler 300C

Porche 911 Turbo Cabriolet

Audi R8

Recent events

2007-10-07T12:21:00.000+10:00

Recently:
1/ I got offered a job up in Brisbane for an obscene amount of money. Turned it down because I decided that the wiser, long term solution would be to stay with the company I am with. That most likely means that early next year I will be moving back up to Sydney. Not definite, but unless things get significantly better I will be back up in Sydney faster than a tumbleweed in a stiff breeze. I will probably have a separate post exploring my thinking behind that later.

2/I signed up for Salsa dancing classes with a local dance studio. They start on the 18th of October. I need to get out there and do more social things. This seemed like a good option.

3/ I had a friend's 30th in Sydney the Sat night of the long weekend, went to Wollongong for the Sunday/Monday morning and realised how much I miss the gong. It was great hanging out with friends and catching up. I hadn't been back in a while and was beginning to feel it.

4/ Got an Xbox 360 this week. Traded in the old xbox and a bunch of games. It was good to get some money off the 360 but it felt a little sad. I've had alot of fun memories with that box. From youth group events, to friend's bucks parties, to having mates over and playing Halo 2 through in one sitting, there were many good times there. Hopefully the 360 will keep that theme going.

5/ This weekend has been pretty quiet. Could have gone to the gong for some Salsa dancing but because I had to work today I decided that it would be easier to just stay home and chill. Ended up finishing Halo 3 Friday night/Sat morning. Helped the new housemate set up the spare room, watched some 'Scrubs' and went to a friends house to watch Australia play badly enough to lose to England in the world cup. It was a good night apart from the loss though. Good company, good hot chocolate (thanks Tim), and good jokes (mainly at my housemate's expense) made it the highlight of the weekend.

Training in Sydney

2007-09-03T15:51:00.000+10:00

On the 23-24th of August I had training up in Sydney (Parramatta actually) on Risk Management for Supervisors and Managers.
As I am officially a Canberra resident, work put me up in a hotel. The Courtyard in Parramatta. It was actually the first time that I have stayed in a hotel - ever! And it was way cool. I mean, I have stayed on countless camps and group things but they have always been a dorm type thing with at least 4 bunk beds in a room (and no room service!)
So, I turn up at the desk not really having any idea what I am doing and the lady asks me who I am. I say that I have a booking and she hands me this form to fill out. One of the sections is how I am going to pay. I look up to the lady and say that I thought that work was paying. She responded with "yes sir the company is paying for everything". Wow. So she gives me directions to the room and my swipe card and I go up the elevator to the room. I swipe the card, walk in and put my bag down. The room was quite nice. About 8 meters long and 4 meters wide including the bathroom (I stepped it out to see for fun).
The room has a queen size bed, large desk with a TV on it and the mini bar inside it, a single lounge chair and a coffee table. On the desk is a folder type thing with instructions inside of my mission (I mean how the hotel works). There is the costs for room service meals, things to do in Parramatta and so on.
I thought that I would get some dinner so called the number and a lady answered asking me what I would like. I ordered the salt and pepper calamari and a beer.
Soon enough there was a knock on my door and a friendly girl with my food turned up. She asked me where I would like it set down and if she could open my beer for me and if I would like it poured into the glass. It felt a bit weird actually but was nice to have done for me.
I could go on in heaps of detail about the rest but I will just say that it was really fun and I quite enjoyed the novelty of it all.
Also the training was helpful.

Blogger vs Facebook of DOOOOMMMM!!! + Snow

2007-08-17T16:15:00.000+10:00

Hi,

Recently I have been swept up by this wierd phenomenon known only as facebook (and by swept up, I mean spend 15 mins a day on). I face a bit of a conundrum as I have now potentially to choose where to spend my posting time. I guess to tell the tales of the life of Stu, blogger will still reign supreme, however for easiness of use and the ability to track down and amass more and more friends till I rule the facebook world!!! ahem, facebook will do the job.

So, if you want to find me there, just type in my name (Stuart Lee) and look for the handsome young Atlas holding the steel beam. :)

As for the snow, well this trip (#3 for the season) was fairly interesting. I went down with friends from church and we stayed at the Jyndabyne backpackers from Friday-Sunday. As snow trips go, it was the worst conditions I have ever skiied but it made me appreciate how good the good days are!

Friday there was gale to storm force winds. All the chairs were on wind hold even in Smiggins so it was T-bar central the whole day.

Saturday it rained. No snow or sleet, just rain. Too warm. However, it made me realise how I need some new gloves which I bought on Saturday night and are in the photo below.

Sunday was good. Parked at Smiggins and traversed across to Blue Cow and Perisher. The day was clear but the previous two days of T-bar joy had wrecked me for the Sunday.

From Blue Cow centre.

Snow Trip 2

2007-08-02T13:08:00.000+10:00

Last weekend I went on my second snow trip this year. I went down with a friend's church ski trip.

It's kind of weird this year, I am going 3 or 4 times (I guess a benefit of living in Canberra) when last year I went once and that was the first time in about 5 years!

The first day we went to Thredbo which was pretty good. The snow was a bit icy which meant that it was difficult to ski. The company was good though which more than made up for the icy snow. Above photo is at Merritts. I got the prize for 'biggest stack' from going down Wiamea and hitting some nasty ice. The prize was a mug with 'no guts, no glory' and a black diamond on the side. It of course has gone straight to the pool room!

The second day, only about 6 of us skied and we went to Perisher. The snow was heaps better and I felt alot more confident about the whole thing. Did a few tasty blue runs which were quite enjoyable. I'm certainly not up to double blue or black yet but should progress some more by the end of the season which is a good thing.

The next snow trip is on the 10th-12th of August which should be great!

Snow Weekend #1

2007-07-20T12:21:00.000+10:00

Last weekend I went to the snow and it was awesome.

We left at about 5:30 on Saturday morning and drove straight down to the snow. It was great fun. The first day I really needed to get my snow legs happening but after a few green runs I was able to remember most of what I learnt last year.

Top of Mount Perisher

We stayed at the 'snowline caravan park' in Jyndabyne in one of their 3 'backpacker' cabins. The cabins are small (basically consist of a bed and a cupboard per person) but we only needed to sleep in there. I was with a couple of friends who were much better skiers than I and they were happy to impart their skiing knowledge on to me and give me a few tips. By the end of the second day I was doing some reasonable blue runs with the best achievement being the 'towers' run on mount Perisher.

My Skis

2007-07-11T13:21:00.000+10:00

Some of you may wonder what I do for work.

I work as a Site engineer for a contracting company called Leighton Contractors. The division of our company I work for competes for work against the Bovis Lend Lease's and Multiplex's of the construction world.

I work down on a site in Canberra building a new large complex of 3 buildings worth about $250M.
I kind of liken the project to a wheel (hear me out). We, as the principle contractor are kind of like the 'hub' (bit in the middle) and all of the various consultants and sub-contractors are kind of like the spokes. We ask for information from some (consultants) and give other information and directions to others (sub-contractors).

Whereas my old job in Wollongong was one of a consultant where the majority of your skills needed to be in number crunching and specifying different products, my current job is more about organisational and people skills. I kind of end up being a mini project manager, looking after a number of subcontractors that make up a portion of the total project itself. I think that my previous job has helped me leaps and bounds in my ability to do this.
I quite like the work and working with people, but sometimes the hours can be long and if I dont look after myself (which basically consists of getting enough sleep) I can start to struggle.

Although we have to work pretty long hours at the moment, there are some cool perks that I had never really had before in other jobs. As I am an engineer, I will list them!:
- Clothing. Since we are down in ice-cold Canberra, they have given us a warm jacket (project specific), moleskin pants, thermals, gloves, boots, and thermal socks. Every now and again a rep comes around and you get a beanie or something cool.
- Free food. Pretty much once a week we have a site BBQ which is pretty nice. Also, occasionally the subcontractors take us out for dinner (usually one per subcontractor) to some nice restaraunt. My precast concrete guy is going to take a few of us out in a couple of weeks.
- Free samples. I know this one is a bit random but the other day the architect for the project gave me all of the tile samples that different tiling reps had given them. I now have an almost endless supply of tiles that I can inlay in bits of woodwork that I make. They are pretty nice tiles too. I am going to make the architect that gave them to me some coasters as a thankyou.

Well that is mostly it. Days are filled with looking at drawings, nutting out details, sending and recieving emails, meetings, and generally managing the subcontractors and consultants that work for us.

p.s. I tried to put a heading on this post but it wouldnt let me :(

Weekend

2007-06-27T12:31:00.000+10:00

Last weekend was good. Good but tiring.
I drove up to Wollongong after work on Friday, went to Sal's house and role played, continuing our campign which was fun. It is good to be able to see the dudes from Wollongong again.
After role playing, Mark and I went to TOD (boys house) and hung out, waiting for the uber awesome lan party weekend which Mark W had organised. Friday night we stayed up till about 2:30 in the morning playing various arcade games on Tim's custom made arcade machine. One of the best games was Puzzle Fighter. Kind of a variant of tetris but with a street fighter kind of vibe. You challenge the other player and whenever you get a combo of blocks being removed it adds blocks to the other players stack.
Saturday was fun too. We played some Warcraft 3 tower defence and some battlefield. We of course ran into the usual lan problems of non-compatibility, firewalls and the rest but overall it was lots of fun.
Sunday morning I went to Al's house and he made me a tasty omelette and we watched some Seinfeld (most recent season out) which was fun. Drove home about 12:00, had 45 mins of sleep and went to church.
Last night bible study was on the last 2 weeks sermons in Provervbs: Husbands and Wives. It was a good study but we finished probably 45 mins later than planned. Work again at 7am this morning.
I'm tired.

Posting

2007-06-19T11:39:00.000+10:00

Hi All,
As promised I am trying to post more often.
Enjoy.

Proverbs 31 Man?

2007-06-18T12:50:00.000+10:00

Last night's sermon at church was on Proverbs on the topic of 'Husbands - A few inconvenient truths'. And I have to say that it was really good.

The sermon focused on the references to Husbands in Proverbs (of which there are only a few) together with a biblical overview of marriage generally and the good old Ephesians 5. The really interesting (and helpful) tack that the minister put on it was by looking at the different ways in Proverbs that women were referred to and what sort of man would encourage or discourage certain behaviour.

The inconvenient truths that he spoke on were:
- How husbands are to live like they are married, not single by the way they spend their time and money. How much time do you spend away from your wife? Stuff like that.
- Who you should spend time with when you are not with your wife. Are there friends or groups that encourage you to be dissatisfied with your wife.
- If you have some sort of issue, are you avioding talking about it with your wife and discussing it with someone who is not your wife.
- What images you are presented with telling you what is beautiful. He spoke on how the world inundates us with images of what is beautiful. He said that whatever your wife is, that is what should be beautiful for you. If she is short, then beautiful is short, etc, etc.
- He also spoke about the power of words and how although he would never hit his wife in a million years, he has said things that were very hurtful and was ashamed about that.

He used lots of good examples, but one of the ones that really hit me was when he talked about the woman of Proverbs 31. He spoke saying 'What sort of man would the proverbs 31 woman be married to? He took a couple of examples like verses 16+17 "She considers a field and buys it out of her earnings she plants a vineyard. She sets about her work vigorously; her arms are strong for her tasks." What sort of man would her husband be like? The minister said that he doubts that her husband would be a slob who sat at home and did nothing all day which, of course, is a great point. What sort of man would inspire and encourage that sort of woman?

Although I am not married I believe that this sermon is great for 2 reasons. The mainstream reason people give is that one day I may be married and so it will apply later. Sure, but I believe that there is a better reason in that the kind of man that makes a good husband also makes a good brother in Christ. The kind of things mentioned: how you spend your time and money, who is helpful for you spend your time with, what images are going into your head, and how you speak with people are great things for all Christian men to be working on.

Will the Christian men out there join me in trying to be a Proverbs 31 man?

I snow what you mean

2007-06-15T14:25:00.000+10:00

I had the day off yesterday. For the first time ever I couldnt get to work due to the fact that the job was snowed out.
On my way to work, the police had blocked off the road and turned everyone back because of the snow. I didnt see any actual snow which was sad but some people who made it in before they closed the road took some photos.

This is the on-site concrete batching plant.

And this is one of the perimeter roads.

Kind of weird but way cool.

Long Weekend (Queens Birthday I think)

2007-06-13T12:36:00.000+10:00

This last weekend, as a long one, meant that I was able to go up to Wollongong and spend some time with friends up there.
Sat lunch time I drove up and caught up with Kester, Al and Dave Gray. Sat night Jon invited people over to his house for pot luck dinner which was good. Sunday was fairly cruisy with a visit to the gym and then church. It was nice to catch up with people I havent seen in a while.
Monday was role playing with the boys which I had missed. It was probably more enjoying to be able to hang out with them than the playing itself but I admit that the playing was pretty good too.
I called Dad for his birthday during the day. It was nice to have a chat. He was going well but my uncle had had a fall which was unfortunate.
After that I went up to Sydney and stayed at mum and Terrys. I got the car serviced Tuesday and got back to Canberra yesterday afternoon.
Not an action packed weekend by any stretch but it was really good to see friends and spend time with them. It had been too long.

Bye Bye Car

2007-05-22T12:26:00.000+10:00

Yesterday I had some good news. My friend in Wagga, Luke, is going to buy my Falcon Station Wagon off me.

I have been trying to sell it for a little while and I am glad that I have finally sold it. Although it was a good car it is quite draining on the finances having to register, insure, service etc etc a second car.

Whilst it is good that I have sold it, some things I really liked about the station wagon were:

- It would seat 5 people comfortably on a long trip.

- I had lots of good times with friends and youth group going on adventures all over the place.

- You can put all sorts of stuff in the back. It was especially good for those trips to Bunnings where you need to transport long sections of timber home.

- It was pretty inexpensive to buy in the first place (I got it from my old work at the trade in price) at $9000.

- After owning it for 3 years and having done 50000kms in it, I sold it for $6000 which means that it has only depreciated $1000 a year (pretty good for a car of it's type).

- You can sleep in the back. The roominess isnt great but it is a great option in a pinch.

- I did my first adventure drive (along the coast to adelaide and back along the Sturt) in it and for the 3000 or so km's I drove I never had a problem.

- Oh, and this picture reminded me that it also can tow things! :)

So although it is gone (well it will be as of Saturday) it has well and truly earnt it's place on the cool wall of cars I have owned.

St Mix Weekend away

2007-05-03T19:42:00.000+10:00

Last weekend was the St Mics getaway.
We went to a Christian campsite in Nowra, near the river. It is the same spot we go every year and I reckon it's a great place.
I finished work Friday night and drove up to the camp. The drive there was partly dull (expressway) and partly awesome (from Illawarra highway to Nowra). It didnt take too long though.
The weekend was really good. It was great to catch up with some of the dudes and especially good when it came to a few I hadnt seen in ages. One of the most encouraging parts of the weekend was how happy people were to see me. It was a good challenge for my perception of how people see me.
The topic of the weekend was 'Friends' and we spoke about the friendships that people have at church. One pressing issue was the one of 'clicky' groups at church and we talked about a number of things related to that.
We had 3 main talks and I guess they were:
1/ What was Jesus like to the people around him and what does he say about the way to treat people.
2/ Putting your faith into action by being loving to your fellow Christians.
3/ Putting your faith into action by being loving to non-Christians.
There were a number of related topics discussed but in 3 lines I would say that if asked.
All in all it was an awesome weekend and I am very glad I went.

Work Rest and Play

2007-04-20T15:02:00.000+10:00

Hi All,
Since Cirque Du Soleil I had a pleasant, albeit quiet, long weekend. I was able to catch up on some sorely needed sleep and all those other pesky things that can go by the wayside when you are flat out. So, I washed all my clothes, cleaned my room, did a bunch of gardening, unpacked some more boxes. That sort of thing.
Back to work was pretty good, although the first morning 6:00am wake up was a bit nasty. I had also needed to catch up on the work that didnt get done by me being away. So, that made for a pretty busy week. Also, I needed to work Saturday too. That was pretty nasty with alot of hard work (maunal labour is tough if you dont normally do it!) tying steel, chairing up and generally getting the slab ready to pour that afternoon. I slept like a baby that night.
Since then work has been a little better with not too stressful days.
This weekend: I am going to see the Brumbies play the Force at Canberra stadium with friends from church tonight. It's my nan's 80th birthday on Saturday in Ulladulla so I will be driving down there early tomorrow morning. Sunday will be sleep in and washing etc. and Sunday night, Church. All good.

Easter Holiday

2007-04-10T13:54:00.000+10:00

Hi All,

In keeping with my resolution to post more, let me tell you of my Easter holiday.

I had decided to take the 4 days before Easter off work to relax, catch up on some Zed's and generally feel like I live where I do (you know, unpacking the last couple of boxes etc.).

The first weekend was much like any other. Church was good and I enjoyed sleeping in more than just 1 or 2 days of the weekend. However, after I had watched a movie at home on Monday morning I felt like actually doing something with my holiday and not just lazing around at home.

So, I decided to go for an adventure-drive. I packed my car and headed off south. I drove to Cooma, then Wagga Wagga (along the snowy mountains highway) and stayed the night at Wagga Wagga.

Here Is one photo I took along the snowy mountains highway.

After staying with old friends in Wagga, I drove south along the olympic highway, through Albury/Wodonga and had lunch in Beechworth (where they tried Ned Kelly). After that I continued south-east along the great alpine road which was awesome.

I bought a bottle of wine from Boyntons winery (where I took this photo).

At Omeo, I started north West along the Omeo highway and got as far as Mitta Mitta that night. I stayed in a caravan park next to the river which was awesome. The nasty part of the trip was that the Omeo highway had alot more dirt road than my map indicated! Not Happy!

This is my camping spot at Mitta Mitta. Not bad for $17!

The next day I drove North and turned East on the Murray Valley highway, then I turned South to head along the Alpine way through Thredbo and Jindabyne. I had a late lunch in Cooma and got back at about 3:00 on the Wednesday. I may have gone further afield but I had to be back for Wednesday night to go and see Cirque Du Soleil.

It was awesome by the way. We splurged on VIP tickets which got us a special tent before the show, in which they served us grilled salmon or beef dinner with all sorts of cool entrees. We also got unlimited drinks and groovy desserts during intermission with chocolate spoons! The show was awesome too with a little audience participation enforced on me by the preshow clowning.

All in all, good times. The rest of the time off was relaxing around the house doing those holiday type things: cleaning, shopping, church over Easter was quite good too.

Jesus is risen! He is risen indeed!

Long time no post

2007-03-23T17:20:00.000+11:00

Hi Blog world. Sorry for the lack o post but I've been busy.
Things in the nations capital are going well.
I have moved into a Christian house of 2 girls and 2 guys (one of them is me) which is really good. The people are cool and quite friendly. We have a really big newish house with 3 garages, 5 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms and 4 loungerooms. Totally cool.
Church is also good. We had our weekend away about 2 weeks ago and it was great to be able to meet new people and hang out doing weekend away type stuff as opposed to the standard after church conversation with someone you dont really know. I have joined a bible study which is on Tuesday nights at our house (after all, it's a good venue) as well.
Work is also going well. Insane long hours and lots to learn and do but going well. I am working 7am to 6:30pm most days and am flat out the whole time (hence the lack of blog). This being said, the people at work are quite happy with my work and think that I will go far in the company. Not that it is that important to do, it is still encouraging none the less.
Tomorrow is Kerryn B's wedding and then I am off to the mighty Gong for fun and adventures catching up with the crowd there. Should be a fun and enjoyable weekend.
Will post more often.
Stu

Moving to Canberra.....FInally.

2007-01-24T12:21:00.000+11:00

After living out of a suitcase for the last 3 months I finally get to move to Canberra this weekend.
Although living and working in Sydney has mostly been fun, I am really looking forward to my new home. It will be great to start to make life in Canberra. I look forward to going to my new church 'Crossroads' and getting involved there.
Last Sunday was kind of sad really. It was my last night at St Michaels Wollongong and I will miss being able to see my friends that often.
I am driving down to Canberra after Simon and Amanda's wedding this Saturday. I will then have all day Sunday to unpack some critical boxes and start setting up my room before work on Monday! It's not too bad though, I moved all of my stuff down there at the end of November so at least I dont have to do that bit too!:)
Should be fun!

Summer School

2007-01-12T21:45:00.000+11:00

Over the last week I have been at the CMS summer school.
This year is my 3rd summer school and I have to say that just as the previous summer schools, it has been alot of fun.
The talks this year were given by William Taylor and I have to say that they have been possibly the best so far.
William spoke on the gospel of Matthew. He particularly focused on chapters 8-13. The focus of the week was understanding the times in which we live.
William showed us the way in which the gospel of Matthew is so well ordered in it's argument.
Matthew 8:1-22 was on sin, God's judgement and the shadow of death, Jesus God's King and the reversal of death, and The cross, Jesus death and the payment of death.
Mathew 8:23-9:13 was on faith, not fear, people not pigs, sin not sickness and 'sick' not well.
Matthew 9:14-10:15 was on Times of clear headed Kingdom conviction, Times of gut-wrenching Kingdom compassion, Times of earnest prayer, and Times of sustained public proclamation.
Matthew 10:16-33 was on Unprrovoked persecution and heavenly provision, and Ruined reputation and heavenly recognition.
Matthew 10:34-42 was on the 'ties' of the kingdom. A change in family relations, As a result of a change in family values, bringing a change in family fortunes.
Matthew 13:1-33 was on the advance of the kingdom by God's initiative, with God's judgement, through God's word, with mixed results. In God's power, with hidden force.
Matthew 13: 31-52 was on The advance of the kingdom, alongside the enduring presence of evil, with deliberate delay and decisive decision. This is with joyful 'inexplicable' investment.

We learned that Matthew's gospel is extremely organised and that the order of each chapter is deliberate and focused.

In point form, the main things I got from the talks were:
- There will be no golden age where Christians are well respected and valued
- Jesus spoke and things happened just as the father in creation
- the structure of Matthew's gospel in these chapters is narrative then discourse, then narrative
- the 'sticking plaster' solutions of this world will never solve anything
- Jesus has 'come early' to save sinners from the coming judgement.
- for a brief moment heaven came to earth in Jesus.
- now is not the time for finger wagging moral high-horsemanship.
- we need to pray. ALOT!!!
- we are living in non-normal times in the western world
- we are to expect alot of persecution.
- we are to recieve a royal recognition in heaven
- Jesus spoke in parables so that people would have to come to Him to seek the answers.
- dont be discouraged by the different soils in the parable of the sower.
- we are told the parable of the sower so not to be discouraged.
- compare Jesus' kingdom to the kingdoms of the day. Where is the Roman empire now? etc?
- there will always be evil in the world this side of Jesus' return.
- Jesus return is deliberately delayed so that more people may turn to Him.

Although summer school is much more than this, I thought I would share with you what I was reminded of. What I enjoyed and not so enjoyed I will write about later.
Stu

Christmas

2007-01-05T08:19:00.000+11:00

Hello all you out in blog land.
I thought that it was high time that I pause with the all deep and meaningful posts and just say what I have been up to.

Christmas was quite nice. I did pretty much exactly the same as last year but I enjoyed it more. I guess I have been getting more out of that stuff lately which is really good. Christmas eve I went to my cousin's townhouse in Artarmon for a cool BBQ lunch and hang out. That was good because I dont see my cousins very often.

Christmas day I went to church with my dad and Helen (step mum). Grrr! Why do people have to give such watered down sermons at Christmas! The guy talked about the historical biblical context of the Christmas story which I thought was a good idea but then he basically said that Jesus was God's back up plan when option A (the covenant with Moses) didnt work the way He wanted. Clearly the bible says that God has only ever had one plan.
Why does that matter? Well it's not in the scope of this blog, but if people arent sure why it is an important issue I can write about it later.

After church I went with Dad and Helen to Helen's daughter's family's house to watch their kids unwrap their presents. After that it was to the Helen's son's house to say 'hi' for an hour or so. Then off to Mum and Terry (step father)'s house to hang out with them for Christmas lunch. That was quite nice and I was able to see Mum and Terry and the Terry related people.

Due to the better pay of the new job I was able to buy nicer presents for people which I really quite enjoyed. On the recieving end, Dad and Helen gave me a Westfields voucher. Helen's Daughters family gave me some coffee mugs, Mum and Terry gave me a Myer voucher and a couple of nice polo style shirts. My step sister Jenni gave me a 6 pack of beer and so did Terry's brother's family.

I can see that, for me at least, the effect of having more money means that I am able to take much more pleasure in the giving than the recieving. The giving doesnt hurt that much financially, and the recieving isnt such a big deal (I could just go buy some item I really wanted). I would probably say that another year's maturity is in there somewhere as well but these things still seem interesting to ponder in the whole 'where do you get your contentment from?'.
I am increasingly becoming aware of how easy the trap of loving money is to fall into. Please pray that I love God above all.

The 'high' ground

2006-12-29T20:41:00.000+11:00

I have always thought of myself as a thinker. Also, I think of myself as someone who does things for my own reasons, not what people want me to do.

Now the reason I mention this is that I have been thinking a fair bit lately about what I do and say. I would say that the old Stu thought in lines like this:
- I dont care what people think (in some areas)
- I think it is funny so I will say it.
- I would like to compliment someone so I will say it.
- I will behave in a certain way because I think that it is fine.

In regards to this stuff, my behaviour in the past has certainly not been non-biblical, however I wonder if it was the best thing I could have done at the time. Both for me, and the person/s involved.
Many times I have thought "no, I wouldnt do that, that's what everyone does" or "I am happy to compliment so-and-so on what she is wearing because I would like her to feel better about herself" or one of the above statements. I wouldnt want to behave in the way 'everyone else' behaves because that would mean that the world was dictating to me the way to behave and I am above that.

Now I am not really wanting to discuss at this point where those thoughts come from, more just the effect of them.

As I look back over the last 5 odd years I think that at many times and in various ways, due to thinking "I know what I mean, why don't you?" and behaviour springing from this type of thinking I have seemed:
- weird
- creepy
- desperate
- rude/insensitive
- etc.

What I have learned from thinking about this stuff is that although I am an individual and the way I am, if I dont think about what people expect to hear and are comfortable to hear/see, and dont behave in a manner within those 'boundaries' then I am doing them, and subsequently me a disservice.

I guess what I am saying is that I cant be too high and mighty to think that I am above playing the social 'game' that everyome seems to play. I wouldnt say it is like people playing games, just that there are many unwritten rules to social ineraction that are helpful to adhere to. I cant think, "I will be what I like and if you dont get it, that's too bad" because I think that for the benefit of the people around me, and as a follow on result, the benefit of me, I need to think about where others are coming from.
Knowing these things I believe that I can make others feel more comfortable around me, and as a result have more people enjoy my company.

Pets

2006-12-19T19:19:00.000+11:00

Hey.
I just thought I would write a quick post on pets and the value they can bring to your life.

As I site here typing, Henry the cat sits beside me. He is fascinated with all I do and wants to be a part of everything I get up to.
Not that Henry is my cat, but over the last while we have grown to be great friends. Once I get sorted in Canberra, I would like to try and get a cat.

Why on earth do I say this? Well, I have realised that in situations where I could feel lonely, such as being up in Sydney, away from my friends, I feel nothing of the sort. A big part of that I think is because of Henry.

I think that when people ask me why I would like to get married, one of the first things that comes to mind is companionship. Although a pet is not a person, the kind of relationship you have with a pet is similar in some regards.

Firstly, a pet and you are each others best friends. You spend lots of time together and really enjoy each others company. Secondly, a pet isnt likely to stop hanging out with you because they are too busy/have a boy or girl friend. A pet loves it when you come home and wishes you werent away. They are also keen to snuggle which is good for the human need of physical contact.

Of course a pet is not a person, nor a substitute for a spouse, however they can be greatly helpful in easing the loneliness factor and livening up your life. As a result of hanging out with your pet, you are then able to hang out with the people you know, not needing to get validation or too much interactive time, being able to spend time with people as a 'normal' well adjusted person.
You dont need more time or effort than the next person and are happy to go with the relational flow, not clinging to people or being 'high maintenance' but relaxed, making those around you feel quite comfortable with you there.

This, I have found will help leaps and bounds with the people you spend time with.

Stu

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step....

2006-12-13T23:24:00.000+11:00

Friends,
You may wonder why I have not written of the wonders of Canberra and my life there. Well the main reason for the lack of this kind of post is that due to work, I remain in Sydney.
Yes, mere days after I moved all of my stuff to Canberra and shut down the townhouse in Wollongong, work told me that I would be in Sydney 3 months instead of 1.
To be honest, originally I thought that this would be horrible, but due to the kindness of Leigh (my step bro) and Maya (his lady friend :)), I am able to house sit for them and look after their totally cool cat Henry.
So, I type this to you, a mere 10 minutes drive from work in North Sydney, overlooking the harbour, on the 14th floor. Totally awesome.

To be honest, life at the moment is kind of surreal.

To put it in context, as a boy growing up, I was subject to a broken home from the age of 10. My two brothers and I moved with my mum to Ulladulla. Mum worked hard but initially supported us 3 boys on a part time wage by herself. Obviously we were very poor. In moving to the new school I greatly struggled to make friendships. This was probably due to my eczema and athsma. I could easily say that during the 5 years that we lived in Ulladulla I had pretty much no friends. Due to this, and the situation I had found myself in, I suffered greatly from a lack of self confidence and low self esteem, which eventually ended up becoming depression over time.

Thanks to God's great blessings, he has enabled me to work through the depression (I still take anti-depression mediaction). I have been able to get a degree in Civil Engineering. Although I took 2 years longer than standard to finish the degree, failed subjects along the way, and general difficulty working 3 casual jobs in Sydney and trying to pass uni in Wollongong at the same time, I was able to finish uni.

Out of uni, I still struggled quite alot with depression. My first job out of uni lasted 3 painful months (due to the company being dumb and eventually me being offered a position with JN).
JN was a great place to work, however the depression still plagued me as I tried to work hard in a new job finding things difficult and having to learn most stuff from square one.

As you probably know, recently I began working for Leighton Contractors. To be honest, it has been great. They think that I am doing a great job, value my opinion and input, and expect me to be a project manager within 5 years. It feels odd, that someone who has struggled behind the 8 ball for so long would become a project manager for the largest contractor in Australia.
So, as I write to you from a unit in Pyrmont, with my lovely new car downstairs and diary full of important meetings that will use my skills to save the company thousands of dollars, I remember where I have come from, and how, basically it has been my consistent hard work and effort, not much else, that has got me here.
I could have, like many people seem to feel, that the first 25 years of my life would dictate the remainder, however it is not how it works.

Finally, in regards to all that, I consider it rubbish but for the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ.
Although the things I have been given are great gifts of God and I greatly appreciate being a confident person with what I have been given, it all pales into insignificance when compared to knowing Christ.
I would prefer to be a mentally retarded, pennyless nobody that is going to heaven than anything else this world has to offer.

With that in mind though, since God has chosen to bless me the way He has, I thank him for the short term goodness and pray that I would always seek first His kingdom and righteousness using the 'tools' He has given me to enable more people to come and know the salvation that can only be found in Christ.

Singleness and Faith

2006-11-21T10:47:00.001+11:00

As much as I am adverse to writing posts about the single issue, occasionally there is something that I feel is helpful to say.

2 weekends ago, after my first week of the new job, I went to 'A day on the Green' in Mudgee. It was quite fun. While at first it didnt bother me, the fact that everyone else in our group of 12 was with their significant other (and I was really tired from the first week of work) started to make me feel pretty sad. This wasnt helped by the fact that after a few bottles of wine had been drunk by the non-drivers, couples were being fairly snuggly which made me feel further left out and reminded of the lack of someone to snuggle with.

So, as I am driving the car back, I mention to one of my passengers that I was feeling pretty sad about my singleness. His response, which is one that I have heard a number of times was "Stu, you just have to trust God".
Now on face value, this comment seems quite true. In all aspects of our life we are called to trust in God. The thing that both my friend and I didnt realise is that I AM trusting God with it. Just because I find it difficult occasionally, doesnt mean I am not trusting God.

In recalling the conversation and thinking on it, two bible verses particularly come to mind:
Hebrews 12:4-11
"In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons:
"My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline,
and do not lose heart when he rebukes you,
because the Lord disciplines those he loves,
and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son."

Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it."

and James 2:20-24
You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness," and he was called God's friend. You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone."

From these verses (and others) I believe that I AM trusting in God. I am enduring hardship as discipline and my faith is accompanied by deeds. I havent gone off and found a non-Christian girlfriend, or picked up and slept with some girl I met at a nightclub. Nor have I given up on God and decided not to go to church anymore becasue I am not getting what I want.
I may find it difficult sometimes but I can see through my actions (and my feelings most of the time) that I am trusting God with this.
Although it may be hard sometimes, that doesnt mean I am not trusting God. My friend needs to know this so that when he and I talk about these things, he isnt inadvertantly saying something that isnt true, and I need to remember this so that when I feel sad about being single I dont heap on top of that guilt for not having enough faith in my creator and saviour.

I hope this helps some out there.
Stu

Moved

2006-11-20T10:38:00.000+11:00

Thanks to some awesome help, all of my stuff now resides in Canberra. Well, techically it is west Queanbeyan but it's just easier to say Canberra.
Big thanks go out to Doug, Mark, Al and Irwan who gave up a whole day to load the truck and come to Canberra with me. Honourable mentions go to Dave Gray and Kester who kindly helped me load the truck in the morning. Also, a big thanks to Adam Clay my ex-housemate for doing such a great job on helping clean in the week prior to the move.
Saturday morning I picked up the truck from Budget at 8:00. We packed it and were on our way to Canberra by about 10:30. Got to Canberra about 1:30. Unloaded and hung out with the one new housemate and her boy till about 3:00. Drove back, took the old fridge and Dave Gray's old bed to TOD. Dropped the truck home and since Doug was alone that night (it was Lisa's hens night), we watched a movie. We ended up seeing "Fast and the furious - Tokyo Drift". Very typical fast and furious movie with dumb plots and even dumber ideas (such as, lets solve problems by racing cars). However, there was lots of cool cars and well done driving scenes so, for a simple movie after a big day of moving, it was ok.
Yesterday was a massive slog. After getting up I basically cleaned the house the whole day and packed the rest of the stuff into my car. I had missed alot of kitchen things in the initial pack so my car was pretty full. There was sooo much cleaning, sweeping, steam cleaning, mopping, oven cleaning and stuff. I went to church and came home and kept going. I went to bed at about 12:30 after everything was done! Phew! Oh well, it's done now. As I closed the door on the place I felt a little sad as there were alot of fun times there.

All Systems Go for Launch

2006-11-14T11:39:00.000+11:00

Well, I have started work at the new job and it is really quite good.
They are quite appreciative of my experience and have me doing all sorts of things like creating scopes of work and organising subcontracts to be sent out and prices revised. The hours are tougher but when I move down to Canberra I think it will settle down a bit.
I have found somewhere to stay n Canberra. Quenabeyan technically. I found it through the church I will go to (crossroads). It is a massive house with 5 bedrooms, 4 loungerooms, 3 bathrooms including a bidet and a spa bath. It is with 3 girls at the church. I understand that some people may have minor 'be careful' type issues however I think that it will be really good. Particularly to eliminate some dumb habits I have formed by living (essentially) alone.
This weekend I am moving my stuff to Canberra. I hired a truck from Budget and have got a couple of the guys from church coming over to help. Whilst the stuff moves and the townhouse in Wollongong is no more, I will continue to work in Sydney, stay at Dad and Helen's house during the week, and be in Wollongong during the weekends for the next few weeks. Originally they said that my time in Sydney would span a month but it may end up being two.
Other than that, I went to U2 on Friday night and it was awesome. Good sound, great lightshow and good music made for a fun night.
Will write more soon.

Moving

2006-10-17T11:22:00.000+10:00

Overall, I dont mind the act of moving that much.
As I see it, the pros are:
- Chance to throw out that clutter that just keeps coming.
- Exciting to have a new space and think through where stuff will go.
- Have things cleaner than they usually are.
- Day to hang out with friends who (hopefully!) help.
- Exercise
As I see it, the cons are:
- Dust Dust Dust, I hate the damn stuff. Mainly coz I am allergic to it.
- Too much exercise! Can keeps you tired for longer than you normally are.
- Things getting broken/lost by moving them.
- The cost of the whole thing, both financially and timewardly.

Last Saturday I went down to Canberra to have a look at a couple of places to live. There wasnt really that much around. The real estate agent I spoke to said that while they do more rentals than anyone else, they have hardly anything available.
Still, I did find a couple of nice places that I will put in an application for. See how we go. I dont need a place for about a month but that isnt really that long.

The calm before the storm

2006-09-22T13:15:00.000+10:00

As Little Rach has said, long time - no post.
Not that it was, but I can now conveniently say that the lack of posting was the calm before the storm.
What storm you may ask?
I am moving to Canberra (well Queanbeyan technically)!!!!!!
A little while ago, I applied for a position with the Leighton group (the largest building contractor in Australia) and I recently found out that I got the job!
I will be a site engineer working on the new defence HQ down near there. Pretty prestigeous(sp?) job.
Why on earth would I move you might also say?
Well, it has been a very tough decision. Many sleepless nights weighing things up and 'what if'-ing to the n'th degree. All my friends are here pretty much, and I am doing good stuff ministry wise. I guess that (apart from weighing up things like what ministry stuff will I be able to do there etc etc) the main reason for going is that it would be a change that is good for me.
Also, realistically, Wollongong and all it holds would only be 2.5 hours drive away and I love driving. I severely doubt I would drop off the planet.
Your prayers would be appreciated with it all though!
Stu

Church Conference

2006-08-15T12:32:00.000+10:00

This weekend gone we had the annual church conference.
It was really good. The guest speaker was a guy called George Athas and he spoke on the Holy Spirit from Luke 3 and 4. Really good.
Things like how the Spirit enables us to say no to sin (of course we still stuff up sometimes) and the way the spirit works in us vs the way evil spirits work in people Jesus talked to. We also learnt how the Spirit does not come in and invade us, but takes up residence in us to allow us to be the people God made us to be.
Other than the talks it was also really good to be able to hang out with families of other congregations and spend a little quality time with people from my own congregation too.
I got to hold little Elka who is only 6 weeks old while her mum and dad had lunch. It was really nice to hold her and while I was holding her, her mum said that I would make a good dad. That was a nice compliment.
I want to be a dad.
All in all, a really good weekend of building up and relating.

Ow the pain!

2006-08-02T13:50:00.000+10:00

I have a name for my pain and it is Bodypump!:) (guess the movie I am alluding to)
Over the last while I have been going to the gym. Not going to any classes, but just using the cardio machines to try and trim down a bit.
Now, the walker and the bike are ok but there is a particularly nasty machine called the cross trainer. It is hard to start using it but if you increase your time every time you go, after about 6 times you can do 20 minutes in 1 go. 300 Calories burnt for that 20 mins so sayeth the machine.
So, it is with this mastery of the cross trainer that I decided to join my friend Bekk (wife of Mark) for a class of Bodypump on Tuesday morning. Right now, I hope I will be able to walk up the street by tomorrow! OK, so I slightly exadurate (sp?).
It has given me an understanding that certain repetitive exercises (especially machines) are quite specific at targeting certain muscles. Unfortunataly that means that the other muscles near there dont get the workout they need.
All this being said, I would like to go each week because it seems to be quite effective.
Bring it on! Grrr! :)

What's up doc?

2006-07-18T11:17:00.000+10:00

Well, it's Tuesday and I am excited for the weekend.
The reason for that is that I am going to the snow!:) Yaay!:)
Now, normally I would find it a bit expensive, but my friend from church is a school teacher and said I can come with the school group he is leading.
Just went and bought some snow type gloves and am getting more and more excited about it.

Hmm, what else has been happening... not much. There have been the occasional things to go to with friends from church which have been good.
Work is progressing along well. I have lots of things to do to keep me out of trouble. At the moment I have a guys house extension, some loading platforms, a 3 storey office building in Nowra and a 7 storey block of units in Ulladulla (the only way that is possible is on a sloping site with 2 levels of undergraound parking).

We role played last night in our Ebberon campaign. It was quite fun. Kester would have been able to kill us with the nasty monster he had. It was a spider that was a spellcaster and if it bit you, and you failed your fortitude save, you became dominated by it and had to attack your friends! No one could see it because it had invisibility cast on it and it was little. The only thing that saved us was that it ordered those under it's control (my character included) to try and knock out the others instead of kill them. That was so the spider could bite them and they would also become his minions.

The terrible two's

2006-06-30T13:09:00.000+10:00

This week my step-sister and her little toddler came and stayed for a couple of nights to kind of have an away from home holiday on the cheap.
I have to say that it has been eye opening to my understanding of children and maybe I dont want one that bad...

I (and others I am sure) would say that I love kids. However, for the fist time that I know of I saw what I would say was the 'other side' of childrens behaviour. Not that I hadnt looked after kids who misbehaved, just that I hadnt experienced it to that degree. There seems to be something about 2 when they are really naughty but still dont understand repercussions for their actions....apparently...

Wednesday night we went for dinner at the local Chinese restaraunt and baby Gideon decided that it would be a good idea to tip a bowl of singapore noodles over his head and throw everything he could get his hands on on the floor. That was just the start. During the 36 hours he was around, he threw a glass light fitting into the bath which exploded on impact, threw food everywhere, opened all my dvd's and left them face side down on the ground, damaged the venetian blinds, attacked my housemates laptop and nearly ripped the disk loader out of my xbox.
As a general rule, when they are being that way, they will throw anything they can lift, press any button they see, and generally try to destroy anything in their path.

Now, the reality of the situation is that he is 2 and that is apparently what 2 year olds are like. You cant hold that against them. I also should have thought of it beforehand and toddlerproofed my house but you live and learn. Also, Gideon is a lovely kid so dont think I am just paying out on him.

I guess the main point is that if you know what to expect with these type of things then you can be a little better prepared for them. Both mentally and orderly.

Long Weekend

2006-06-14T12:50:00.000+10:00

Hi All,
While I want to continue with the Romans bible studies I thought I would update the goings on as well.
As I said in a previous post, I had a girlfriend for a bit but it didnt work out. One thing I have learnt is that when you get a girlfriend you have to make space for her in your life. Other things get adjusted this way or that to make the time needed for a relationship possible. Of course, if you end up breaking up with them, all of a sudden there is a big gap where they used to be. I dont mean soppy heart stuff (although it's painful of course) just that you seem to all of a sudden have alot of time on your hands. Initially that is great in that some stuff you didnt get to do, you go and do and so on. The trouble is that it doesnt last that long. As I found out last week, I was feeling really down because lots of the people at church are coupled up and as a matter of course end up doing that kind of stuff. Often it means they are unavailable because they have to go to a party of the girlfriend's friend for example. There is nothing wrong with that. It is a natural part of life. I was just finding it hard feeling like I hadnt done anything really social for a while.

So, that was last week. Since then, it has been a total turn around.

As I am a heart on the sleeve man I told a few close friends about how I was feeling. I have to say that their actions have been awesome. Thanks, of course end up going to God for that and the way he worked in my friends to cheer me up and get me back on track was great.
Friday night I organised for Tim and Jon and Kester to watch the opening ceremony and first game of the world cup at my house. From work to about 8pm I went to the pub with Kester and Cath. That was quite good. We then went back to my house and Tim brought over his xbox 360. We played a few games before the ceremony started. The guys went home after the first half of the Germany vs Costa Rica game (3am ish).
Saturday Jon had the cool idea to go op-shopping so we went to a couple of places in town and I got a virtually new Van Heusen buisness shirt for $12.
We had lunch after that in town and I went home to sleep the afternoon since I had about 5.5 hours sleep the night before.
Work up and went to Anne's house for dinner with Ben and Stacie, Matt A and Tina. It was a really nice night with Anne's usual brilliant cooking (we had souffle for dessert if that is an indicator). That was a good night with good fun and chats and a game of uno attack in there for good measure.
Went home at 10 because Tim and Jon were coming over for the England vs Paraguay game. Watched that which was good and went to bed after the game.
Sunday was nice too, I had a nice sleep in and did a whole stack of washing up and vacuuming etc etc. The house (at least downstairs) was looking good. I then went to my dad's house for his birthday which was an early dinner. After dinner I went home via my little bro's house to pick up some of his stuff (he is going back overseas-to Sweden this time). Got home, unpacked and went to church 45minutes late. Church ended up being quite good too. One of the girls was leaving which was kind of sad because she was cool. It was good to be able to say goodbye though.
Monday I had a BBQ lunch with Mark and Genno with Mark's parents. That was nice too. After that Mark came over to my house for role playing with the dudes. After role playing we went to Irwan's house to watch the Australia vs Japan game. Irwan wasnt very prepared though and the first half was watched with some pretty ordinary reception. During half time, Jon and Pete and I decided to watch the second half at my house which was a good decision because we could actually see the ball on the screen!:)
Last night after work I went and picked up a bed from my little bro's house too. He wasnt there because he flew out that afternoon but his mate helped me pack the car. I got home, unpacked it and we then had bible study. After bible study, I set the thing up, made my comfy new bed and went to sleep. Phew!

Anyone for tennis....

Romans Bible Studies - Part 1

2006-06-01T12:49:00.000+10:00

Hello,
The last few weeks we have been going through Romans pretty fast. The idea is that we would study the second half in detail and so we fast tracked the first 8 chapters.
Pretty much everyone in the group really enjoyed the studies so I thought I would post them for all you dudes out in blog-land to use if you want.
I have put suggested answers in for helps sake. They are not meant to be exhaustive, just helpful. Also, some questions are fairly easy, but sometimes it is good to have a few easy questions in there to keep the ball rolling.

Romans Chapters 1-2 (we did chapters 1-3 but I dont have time to write it all now!:)

- Pray

- Read Romans Chapter 1:1-7
- Who is the letter from? Paul
- How does Paul describe himself? Called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God
- List the elements of the gospel that Paul mentions in his introduction.
- Who is the letter to? The saints (Christians) in Rome

- Read Chapter 1:8-17
- From this section, what is important to Paul? The church in Rome, preaching the gospel (note how many times he mentions it in this section.
- What do you need to recieve righteousness from God? Faith

- Read Chapter 1:18-32
- Who is the wrath of God being revealed against? Men who suppress the truth by their wickedness
- Can you say these people are acting out of ignorance? No, the truth is plain to them, God's power and nature is clear to them through His creation
- How does Paul describe their situation? They rejected God and so God gave them what they wanted.
- Again, what does vs 32 say about their actions? Though they know the truth, they choose to sin and encourage others to do so as well

- Read Chapter 2:1-4
- How could you as a Christian be thinking at this point? I'm not that bad, I havent done most of that stuff
- Where do we stand in regards to God's righteous judgement? We deserve judgement as well
- How are we able to repent? Through God's kindness

- Read Chapter 2:5-11
- When will God's righteous judgement be revealed? The day of God's wrath
- How does this help us when we see the guilty go unpunished? There will be a time when God will judge in righteousness and truth. He doesnt forget.
- What do we know about God's judgement? It will be completely fair and everyone will be judged to the same measure.

- Read Chapter 2:12-16
- Who is Paul talking about when he says "Those who sin apart from the law"? The Gentiles
- How will they be judged? According to the law on their hearts
- Who are those "under the law"? The Jews
- How will they be judged? By the law
- When will all this happen? Judgement day

- Read Chapter 2:17-24
- What is different for the Jews? They have the law. They are God's chosen people.
- What were the Jews supposed to do? Show God's glory to the world
- What were the Jews doing? Not practicing what they preached.
- And what was the result of this? God's name blasphemed instead of glorified.

- Read Chapter 2:25-29
- What is the important thing here? Keeping the law's requirements. What your heart is like
- Who's praise matters? God's
- Summarise Chapters 1 and 2. What is the overall argument so far?

Work Work Work

2006-05-23T12:35:00.000+10:00

Work is good. I am pretty sure I have said I am staying where I am and putting in some hard work.
That has been really good. I have had lots more responsibility and ownership of the jobs I do. I have been working later too. 6pm most nights of the week. It is still less time than if I was doing all that travelling that I thought was such a good idea.
We have lots of work on which is really good. I have been doing quotes for people, talking with clients and generally being the guy.
I have a good feeling about work. I like turning up and working hard and putting in a solid days work is quite rewarding.
I think part of how I feel about it at the moment comes from having enough experience to be able to take the responsibility. Earlier on in my Engineering career I think I didnt enjoy it that much. I made a few mistakes and generally found it difficult to not want to leave exactly on 5.
Since I have talked with the boss and we agreed that I would 'step up' it has been really good. I have been getting more respect from everyone concerned and feel that I am doing a good job.

With that in mind I would like to comment on how hard it is for a Christian in the workplace.
I have found in my time at work that although I wanted to show a good biblical model of not working too much (showing the importance of other aspects of my life such as ministry and time with friends/family), I went too far the other way. In my leaving at 5 on the dot I lost alot of respect from the people I work with. They saw me as more of a non-committed, bare minimum type guy who didnt really want to be there.
As I have stepped up and work harder, I see them having more respect for me which can only be good for the message I am trying to tell them - the Gospel.

Single Again

2006-05-15T13:31:00.000+10:00

As the title says, I am single again.
Emily decided that she didnt feel that we should continue going out.
Although I was quite upset about it, much prayer has been answered.

Prayer points:
Stu
- Keep trusting in God in all things.
- Seek to serve God will all that I am.
- Take what I have learned from the relationship and grow from it.

Emily
- Same as Stu.

Decisions and more

2006-05-11T13:03:00.000+10:00

Hi all,
Well, after lots of soul searching and thinking and discussion with friends, I have decided to stay where I am in regards to work. It was a hard decision, but I think it was a good one.
I talked with my boss here which was one of the most helpful things I could have done. He told me that there is a senior engineer position here if I want to step up to it. That it would be good for all concerned here and the money element can be sorted out too. This would be all whilst staying where I want to be, which is Wollongong.

One thing I have decided to do is sell my motorbike (well at least try to). As much as it is great and fun and fairly economical to run, it also costs heaps to register and insure it and I think that if I dont have it, I would be able to be in a much better financial position. Another thing is that my mum hates me having it and it causes her to worry more than she already does. As much as I am my own person, I still want to honour my mother and father.

Last weekend was quite good. We had our church weekend away down at Koloona which is kind of west from North Nowra. It was lots of fun with some good talks on God's passion and our passion (how they should be the same). I rode the bike down which was good but getting a little cold these days. I had good nights sleeps both nights and I think I attribute most of that to the awesome flanelette fitted sheet that I recently bought from woolies for $12. I thouroughly reccomend them! There was also a well run trivia night as the Saturday nights organised fun activity.

The not-so-good news is that Emily's masters project has been stopped. She had a half yearly progress meeting last Friday in which she was told by her advisers that she wasnt allowed to continue. I think that was quite unfortunate because it was obvious to me that she had put stacks of effort and time into it.
Since Emily is an international student she is now going to have to sort out what that means for her visa and all sorts of stuff. Please pray for her as she works through what to do. Whether she can enroll in some other degree, change her visa to a working visa, or has to go back to America. She deinitely wants to stay and I definitely want her to stay too.

Prayer points:
Emily
- Please thank God that Emily has responded well to the decision her advisers made.
- Ask that no matter what happens it would be to God's glory.
- Ask that she would be able to stay if that is God's will.
Stu
- Thank God that I have been able to stay in Wollongong.
- Ask that I would be able to serve God wholeheartedly in Wollongong.
- Ask that no matter what happens with Emily's visa that I would trust God and serve him only.
- Ask that if it is God's will that I sell my motorbike.

I like this 'prayer points' bit. I might have to do it more often.:)

Farms are way cool

2006-05-02T13:10:00.000+10:00

Lots has been happening.
Firstly, my holidays were really good. Nothing extreme, just good times.
Easter Friday was the Cathedral Easter Convention which was quite good. Richard Chin and John Dickson spoke well. On Easter Sunday Emily organised a sun rise at the beach adventure for a bunch of her friends. After that we went to her house and she cooked omlets for everyone. Mmmm tasty.
Emily, The Fletcher's and I went to the Easter show on the Tuesday after. It was really good. We saw the woodchop, sheepdog trials, displays and the end-of-the-day show. It was all really good. I was pretty tired by the end though! I left home at 7:00am and got home pretty late. Good day though.
During the week I pretty much chilled out. I had a job interview in Sydney on the Thursday which they ended up not offering me the job due to my uni results! (4 years out of uni, when will they stop haunting me!)
Friday afternoon was the occasion known as IronFest. What is that I hear you ask? Well, put together jousting, mediaval weapons and armour, hand to hand fighting displays, blacksmithing competitions and tasty food and you have IronFest. Totally awesome. Kester, Owen, Simon, Mark G and I went all the way to Lithgow for the event.
We stayed at a local caravan park in an onsite van which was cool. There was a double bed and 3 single beds (there was some discrepancy if Simon was coming or not when we booked). The 3 singles were bunk beds and the bottom one was just a mattress on the floor!
We got there Friday late afternoon and checked in. We then did our food shopping for the weekend. We picked up some pizza's on the way home and had them for dinner. Kester had organised a cool one off level 13 roleplaying campaign for us that we played both nights we were there.
The festival itself was really good. One poor knight got jousted in the place that no man would want to be jousted. He ended up being ok though. I would say more about IronFest but I have limited time to write this blog.

Monday after that I worked. It was pretty quiet because many people took Monday off to coincide with the public holiday on the Tuesday. I went for another interview (in Wollongong) during my lunch hour. I havent heard back from them but dont like my chances.
Tuesday was ANZAC day and Mark E and Shaggy came over and we played a bit of role playing. Shaggy had to go though so Mark and I made another character for a different game Mark is hoping to lead. Tuesday night we had a bible study social event where people came over earlier and I cooked dinner for them. We had bolognaise which seemed to go down ok. After that we played 'Cranium' which is a fun game (thanks for bringing that Emily).
Wed/Thurs was work.
Thursday night Emily 2 of the Fletchers and myself went to see Pete Murray at the Wollongong ent ctr. It was really good. He was struggling with a bad cold but I still thought it was a really good concert.
Friday I had off work. I went to Sydney for 2 more job interviews. Both of them were really positive with the second one offering me the job on the spot. I found out on Monday that the other one rang the agency straight after I left to offer me a job as well. More on that in a sec.
Saturday I went to the Fletcher's farm out near Crookwell. Emily was going to come too but was sick.:( Whilst the drive out there was a solid 3.5 ish hours it was still great! They have a little Pee Wee 80 that I got a go on and a cool little barn thing that they are making a holiday house out of. We painted the floor with this cool paint for concrete which looked quite good. We only got half done but it was still lots of fun. The boys and I also dug the start of a stormwater trench which was pretty hard work but fun too. Another quick burn around on the bike and we headed home at about 5. Really good day.
As for the job world, well I have a bit of a quandry now. Do I take the job and make life harder for myself? Or do I take the poor but easy option to stay? Hard choices.
Much prayer and thoughts required.

More stuff

2006-04-13T12:18:00.000+10:00

More of what has been happening.
Last week was cool.
Role playing Monday night, we went well. None of us died though Matt's character was issued the smack down by a rather large and angry Ogre.
Bible study tuesday night went well with our follow up study from judging others, which was on rebuking. We talked about how we are called to rebuke and how in doing that you are actually loving the person. All rebuke should be done with much thought, prayer and love.
Wednesday was a suprise adventure with Emily to visit my Dad and step-mum. Both of by bro's were there and their girlfriends. It was nice for Emily to meet some of the family. It went quite well.
Saturday night was Susan's 21st. It was upstairs in the function room of the Balgownie pub. There was some really nice food floating around (including salt and pepper squid - a personal favourite). There was also a bar tab for beer wine and softdrinks which was cool.

Church on Sunday was really good too with Lionel doing a really good sermon from Matthew.
And now, the week till now!...
Monday was good with some more role playing. This time it was my characters turn to spend some time dying on the floor (actually I think it was his bed - a bad guy came through the window and smacked me one. That combined to a accidental attack from Mark's character had me unconsious). Once Mark had actually landed some blows on the bad guy, they healed me up. All good.
Tuesday was bible study and Eltham did a topical on Hell which was interesting. We talked about what the stereotypical ideas of hell were and then looked at a stack of bible verses looking at the words used of hell such as 'hades' and other ones, one of which meant similar to the rubbish dump outside the city. Quite good. The only down side was that we ran overtime, substantially. Not so bad though.
Yesterday I managed a good find of 2 xbox games for $50 at EB games. I got the simpsons hit and run and Mechassault 2. Both are quite new and the sticker prices added up to $120, so to get them for $50 was a good deal in my mind.
Today I am at work... not so bad considering that in 4 hours I will have 10 days off work. Pretty happy about that!:)

The week gone.

2006-04-03T12:59:00.000+10:00

Well, it has been a busy week!
Monday Emily and I went to visit Morgan with Jon and Morwenna. He has been moved to Coledale hospital and it is soo much better. The hospital is new and clean and nice. He has an electric wheelchair and can go outside onto the carpark and has an awesome view of the ocean. The air is really nice there too. He was happy to see us and it was really good to see him. Jon and Morwenna bought him a really nice bunch of sunflowers.
After that, Emily and I went to her house for dinner via woolies. Good stuff.

Tuesday was bible study. We looked at judging others. We started with getting a good doctrine of sin happening, then looked at how God appointed judges in the OT. We then looked at how God is THE judge. The we looked at how we are not to judge. In light of all that looked at how we are however called to be discerning and rebuke in love if required. This week's study is on the rebuking in love part. What is appropriate to do, who does it, etc etc. Should be good.

Wednesday was unimovies. We saw Munich which was pretty full on. It made me sad that people would do that to each other and put into view more of how sinful this world is and how blessed by God I am to live in Australia in 2006. Thanks God.

Thursday night Emily and I went to the Beachhouse seafood restaraunt. I would normally not have gone but one of our clients from work said that I should come along and he would pay for my meal. He is the Licencee there. The food was brilliant. Probably the best meal I have ever had. Easily the most expensive. But thankfully that was sorted out. Quite a nice night. Emily and I were going to go and study the bible and pray together but we ended up running out of time after I picked up some golf clubs for Friday's work golf day.

Friday was our annual work golf day. Good fun. I was picked up at 6:15 in the morning and we went up to Maddens Plains to the golf club there. Work put on bacon and egg rolls for breakfast, paid for the green fees, unlimited drinks all day and a BBQ lunch. Good stuff. That afternoon I ended up having a inspection in the afternoon and then went home for a sleep! After that Emily and I went to friends house to watch a movie and eat some pizza. Quite good. The movie we got was 'the 40 year old virgin' recommended by her brother. The movie was pretty ordinary unfortunately. Funny in a few places, but also a bit unnecessarily crude in alot of places.

Saturday day we had our church social group event. We were going to go to the beach but it was windy and rained so we went to the minister's house for board games and chatting. That was good too. I broke in my new poker set and we played 5 card texas holdem. Lots of fun. Saturday night was Hannah's 21st. The dress up theme was 'uncool but culture'. There were a few nerds. I came as a live action role player. Pretty fun but I was tired so didnt get into it as much as I should.

Sunday was a good sabbath! Chilled out at home, did the washing, did some woodwork, wrote most of Tuesday's bible study and generally relaxed and chilled out. Sunday night was church. An awesome evangelistic sermon by Sandy on the Gospel. Had to leave straight after because Emily's friend was having a 21st. We caught up with her and hung out for a couple of hours. Pretty fun. She is a bit of a character!

Man, what a week! Full on. But really good. Thanks heaps to God.

Good news!:)

2006-03-27T13:15:00.000+11:00

Hello all,
As much as I have been tempted to inform all out there in blog-land, I have been cautious because,... well,... just because. Sometimes you just need to hold on to too-good-to-be-true news because sometimes it doesnt happen the way you think. It has been over a week now so I guess I can spill..
As of last Sunday (19th March) I am no longer a single man. No, I didnt elope with someone, just that I am officially going out with a lovely girl called Emily.
Emily is studying a masters in medical ethics at uni and started coming to my church recently. I could go into a vast amount of detail but I will just summarise it by saying that she is great.
On the weekend, Friday night was Cath's 25th birthday which was really nice. We started out at Roppongi for dinner and then went to the north Gong upstairs for Cocktails and hanging out. I bought Cath a cocktail for her birthday. I think she liked it.:)
Saturday night was Emily and my pre-arranged 'date' we went to the German club for dinner and dancing and then we watched a couple of movies back at my house after that. Totally cool night. We both had a great time.
Yesterday I went for a motorbike ride with an old friend. He lives in Sydney now and so once I got to his house we went north along the Pacific highway. It was lots of fun. We stopped at Mt White for lunch and then went on to Wiseman's Ferry. The road was pretty rough and so was harder work to make sure I was being safe. Good fun though. I got home at about 6 and boy was I in pain. Aches all over. Especially the butt! I can even feel it today and probably will tomorrow too! I had an array of dead bugs on my face and had an interesting sunburn mark but if you arent getting dirty you arent having fun!

What goes on

2006-03-24T13:12:00.000+11:00

Well, I think it is high time for a 'what have I been up to' post.
I'll try and keep them a few days worth.
Monday was work. Pretty good. We are doing post tensioned design now which is a new step for the company. One of the big post tensioning companies has sub-contracted to us to do the design for certain projects. So far I have done one in Redcliffe in QLD and St Andrews Lutheran College. It has been quite interesting and so I would say that work generally is going very well.
After work I would have had role playing but it was cancelled. So instead I went around to Shaggy and Alice's house to hang out and play the PS2 with Shaggs. We played star wars - Battlefront 2 which is a fun multiplayer game. Their son Zander was around too. He's getting pretty big now!
After that I dropped over to Emily's house to give her a cat scratching post that I picked up from homeart on sale. All good.
Tuesday after work was bible study. Eltham led the study which was a topical on the relevance of the old testament law. Quite well done. There was some good discussion and I think people learnt stuff.
Wednesday I got myself a new Xbox game! Red Faction 2 second hand from EB games for $20. Hard to go wrong for that price! Played it a bit after work and then went and saw Paul play at the Oxford. Not such a big turn out but the music was the usual high quality you can expect when you see Paul play.
Last night was good too. A little xbox, then went and played indoor ultimate frisbee at the uni. We won our first game and tied the second. Third was a bye. The second game was especially hard because the team we played had 2 players who apparently played for Australia! It was fun and good exercise. My poor legs! Need to work on the running fitness.
Well there you go. Hopefully I can keep up the updates at a decent frequency.

One Way Streets

2006-03-20T13:03:00.000+11:00

How do you feel when you put alot of effort into a freindship and the other person just doesnt seem to reciprocate?
To be honest, I dont like it.

I think that it is a tricky business because what I do and show to people who are friends is often different to what someone else would do. I also think it is incorrect to jump to immediate negative conclusions. But what is reasonable to expect from your friends? In one sense you should expect nothing. But, what is helpful for them to be doing to maintain the equality in the relationship.

With some people, I feel like I am the one doing all the emailing, all the instigating and basically keeping the friendship going. When I think about the one-way nature of the relationship it makes me sad. The question then is, what should I do about that? Should I do anything? Well, sometimes the person in question may just not think much about that stuff. Sometimes they are busy and in the overall scheme of things they are reciprocating, in their own way.

Sometimes however, I think I am expecting more out of the friendship than they are willing to give. At that point I think it is helpful to just take a step back and see what they do. For some people that means they dont ever make another effort to email me or whatever again. That is sad, but to be honest, a one-way relationship like that is just not helpful. I think alot of it comes back to the doormat stuff that Matt discussed.

My time is valuable, I am a great guy and if so-and-so cant see that then I am going to spend my time with someone who does appreciate me. I guess alot of it is linked to self-esteem. If you think you are worth less than standard treatment, then when some shmo treats you that way, you think it is fine. They will continue treating you that way and so reinforce your low self esteem.
In my time I have done alot of time and effort chasing people who just didnt treat me the way I should be treated. Often these were the popular people who's friendship I craved. I used to think: "If only I just did such and such...". Getting past this has been a great gift of God.

The reality though, is that you are one of God's creatures and deserve the respect and time due to you. If people treat you like you arent worth their time, then get some new friends. You deserve better.

Primary Hard Disk Failure

2006-03-10T13:29:00.000+11:00

Last Friday my computer had a bit of a problem. At about 9:00 in the morning I was mid writing an email and my computer froze. No biggy, it's happened before. I tried to CTRL ALT DEL it to get the program manager up and find out which program wasnt responding. There was no response.
That had not happened before but, using my extensive computer knowledge, tried the old 'turn it off and back on again' trick. As it reset it stopped and said "Primary hard disk failure" and then "Insert system disk to continue". That wasnt so good.
I decided that my computer was just having a bad day so I turned it off for 5 minutes and made myself a coffee.
I came back and turned it back on. It just got to the windows loading page and then reset itself then tried again. This just went on for a few minutes and thought it was bad. Took my computer down the road to the computer guy and after he tried to get the info off without success informed me that basically all my stuff was gone.
Now, I dont really have a computer at home that is use very often because I dont have the net at home. So, apart from the obvious work stuff I had on there which is a whole world of pain, I also lost all of my personal stuff that I had accrued from the last 3 or so years of work here. As much as that is annoying, the most annoying thing is that I also lost all of my emails that people had sent me. Subsequently I have lost most people's email addresses.
So, if you're a buddy of Stu and have my email, I dont have yours! If you could send me a one line email (or more if you are inclined) so that I have your address again.
I'll be backing up more in the future methinks...

BS in '06

2006-02-28T13:01:00.000+11:00

Bible study this year looks really good.
Last week was our first study of the year and it went really well. We are looking at Hosea.
The group is fairly different from last year. The main difference is that this year it is a mixed group which is cool. There are a few people I dont know that well either so that should be good in building relationships.
Socially it looks good too with people already taking initiative and organising to have dinner tonight. Good work Mel!
As for size, the group is on the larger side of things (we had 10 last week) but it still seems to work well so I am fine with that.
Hmmm, not much else to say about bible study at the moment.
I'll keep you posted.... hahahahaha. Nice work dad.

Tagged again

2006-02-16T12:47:00.000+11:00

George has tagged me, so here are my answers.

Four Jobs I have ever had in my life:

Since I have had about 15 jobs I will just pick the most interesting ones.

Lincraft - Storeman
Citibank - Credit card collections over the phone
Riverside Oaks - Function centre waiter
Bull n' Bush Hotel - Glass collector

Four Movies I can watch over and over:

Transformers the movie
The Princess Bride
Gattaca
Star Wars - Episode III

Four Places I have lived:

Sydney
Ulladulla
Western Sydney
Wollongong

Four TV Shows I love to watch:

Simpsons
Futurama
Anything on The xbox channel... ;)
Anything on The other xbox channel...;)

Four places I have been on vacation:

Tasmania
Surfers Paradise
Melbourne
Adelaide (does it count if you drove through it?)

Four websites I visit daily:

Google
Blogger
Trading post online
Ebay

Four of my favourite foods:

Delicious delights number 8 on lebanese bread
Turkish Delight (the real stuff)
KFC
Chips (crisps)

Four places I would rather be right now:

In heaven (although I think that answer is cheating).
In bed asleep (hey I'm tired and a bit sick!)
Going around a tasty fast corner on my motorbike
Camping and canoeing around milford sound in NZ.

Four people I am tagging:

Eltham
Little Rach
J
Matt.

Long weekend

2006-01-30T13:04:00.000+11:00

On Australia day I went to a local park with some of the people from church for lunch. It was really nice. We just chilled out and chatted for a bit. Some of us played boules that Eltham had brought along. That was fun, especially the crazy 'across the little creek' ones we had happening. I left the park at about 2:30 and went down to stuart park to find the dudes playing cricket. Didnt really know where they were and after a while just gave up and went home. I slept for a couple of hours because I stayed up far too late on Wednesday night. Woke up and went into Wollongong proper to watch the fireworks which started at 9pm. We got there about 8 and tried to get donuts but they ran out. By the time we did that and chatted to a couple of people we saw while wandering around it was 9 and time for the goodness to begin. They were really good. Music accompaniment and all came together to create a great show. Overall it was quite a nice day.
We had a compulsory day off work Friday and I just did stuff like clean the house and paid the rent.
Over the weekend we had our planning weekend for Church where we planned out the years events and decided what days bible studies would be on etc etc. It was also really good. We got alot done and I think that this year at church will be really good with people growing and having a big focus on looking after people, both new and existing. Anne cooked for us which was brilliant of course. The only sad part about that was that on Friday night I stared the CSIRO health and wellbeing diet. The piles of awesome muffins, chocolate stuff and Sunday morning bacon had to be resisted with much anguish! That beinng said there were still lots of great healthy options which were very tasty anyway.

Holidays and Summer School

2006-01-19T14:42:00.000+11:00

I have had other things to do and keep putting off writing this blog. No real reason except that I have had other things to keep me busy at lunchtime and so on.
To summarise my holidays I would say that they were very worthwhile. It was great having a solid 3 weeks off work and I think I really needed it. In hindsight 2005 was a bit of a disaster year with lots of hard times (lots of good ones too). Having the time off really helped to recharge, get perspective and start thinking about what I will be doing in 2006.
Last year I think I took on too much ministry stuff. Not that I did a poor job of it but I guess I started growing resentful that I was doing so much and missing out on things and so on. I dont think that is a smart way to go so I am pulling back the reins on what I am doing. Last year I led a bible study, did youth group 2 nights a week, met up with about 3 people once a week, did service leading, prayers, bible reading and music for sunday nights. I am also on the maintenance comittee. That was the regular stuff, not counting one offs! This year I will be doing bible study and maybe a service lead occasionally. I might meet up with a person or two as well.

As for specifics of what I did while I was away from work, the first week off was Christmas type stuff. I went up to Sydney and did various things with relatives. It was better than I had expected and that was nice. I got back to the Gong on about Tuesday (I saw Chronicles of Narnia on Monday in Sydney) and chilled out. It was quite relaxing. Dont remember anything too outstanding about the week between Christmas and new year. I know one night Kester and I played through Star Wars - Battlefront 2 (Christmas present) in one session. That was good. Other than that, it was pretty quiet - totally sweet. The week after New Years was pretty similar. A few nice social events but generally pretty quiet. Didnt mind that at all.

The third week I was away was CMS Summer School. It was sooo cool. We had morning talks on Ephesians (7 Talks took us through the whole thing), evening talks on Islam, relating to Muslims and information on some of the roots of the palestinian conflict. It was very informative and helpful to understand what some of the issues people are facing these days.
Apart from that there were quite a few helpful missionary sessions with the topics from social justice to what to do to become a missionary. There were roughly 5 sessions at a time so you could pick the one you wanted. For summer school you have to sort your own acommodation and food for the week and for the second year running I camped with the Chapmans. Kester and Cath were there for 3 nights and Suze was there the whole time as well.
The format is that you have a morning session between 9ish and 12:15, then there are no sessions until 7 that evening. It means that as well as great teaching you are able to have plenty of time to relax and enjoy Katoomba and the blue mountains. In free time I was able to: do the 1000 steps/giant staircase round trip (near the 3 sisters), go to the local pool, have lunch in town at a nice cafe, and have devonshire tea at the Hydro Majestic.
Other than that goodness, I was able to kind of have a bit of an adopted family for the week in the form of the Chapman's and the Grinter's. Apart from the few days Kester was there I was pretty much the only man of the group. It was cool hanging out with the kids and doing my 'man duties' such as hunting down and gathering water for the camp.
The only down side was that due to the rain, setting up and packing up was a bit of a pain. It didnt bother me too much but I certainly loved my post-camping shower at home and being able to put on some truly dry clothes. I quite enjoy outdoor stuff so it didnt bother me much really.
So, all in all, a great time of being refreshed in Gods word, rehoning my focus and encouraging me to continue on where I am. I think that the current plan will be to work for the next 2 years (most likely in Wollongong, but who knows) and then go straight to SMBC in 2008. God may change that of course but that is the plan for now!

TAG

2006-01-16T13:00:00.000+11:00

Ground Rules: The first player of this "game" starts with the topic "5 Guilty Pleasures" and people who get tagged need to write an blog entry about their 5 Guilty Pleasures as well as state this rule. In the end, you need to choose the next 5 people to be tagged and list their names.
1. Sleeping in. There's something great about not having to get up at a certain time. Being able to just further relax and if you want to, go back to sleep.
2. Riding my motorbike. The feeling of the wind in your hair doesnt actually exist due to a full face helmet but it is a great feeling. Acceleration and cornering are probably the best parts.
3. Playing Xbox. I have a chair at home that Mark E has dubbed the 'pole position chair' due to its ease of placing directly in front of my 80cm TV for xbox gaming. It is way comfy and is one of those Ikea ones that rock. Totally sweet.
4. Hanging out with friends. I would say that I am a fairly social person (however I do need to have time alone to recharge). It doesnt really matter what we get up to but just generally kicking around with friends or maybe going on an adventure of some kind is always heaps of fun. (I dont know if I would put this under '5 guilty pleasures' but I certainly love doing it).
5. Consuming food and beverage. Thanks be to God that one of the acts required for sustaining life is so good! I guess he could have made it boring but he didnt. My cup truly does overflow!
So, who to tag... I will say Eltham, Simon, Sal, Janet and Matt. If anyone wants to just tag themselves though, dont let me stop you.

Growth

2005-12-22T09:47:00.000+11:00

It's an interesting thing, growth. I would say that most people want to grow. But I would say that many people probably dont grow as much as they could. I think part of the problem is that there is often a hard part in growing that people often want to avoid.
The way muscles grow is that when you do solid exercise, you actually break down the muscle fibres which then grow back larger and stronger than before. It can be uncomfortable, those few days after a solid gym session, but after the pain, the results are worth it. You are stronger than before.
I think that growing as a person is similar. An integral part of our growth is the breaking down part. It might be changing your opinion on something, it might be a stern rebuke by a friend or even just a subconsious change. Either way, there is some kind of breaking down of perceptions, or attitude or actions. Sometimes you dont even notice it and other times it is so horrible that you dont think you can stand up under the pain.
I guess this is where often people do not want to grow. They see that they might need to accept they were wrong about something, or whatever and choose not to do so. Many people would take this as admitting that your actions were flawed before. People do not want to admit that something they have done was flawed. Instead of growing, they remain where they are.
Often it isnt that straight forward, you might put your foot in it or whatever and hurt someone. Accepting that you have done them wrong and apologising is part of that breaking down. You have realised you have hurt someone and in the future will be more careful. Those future actions are the growth that has occurred.
There is also the other side of the coin in which you kind of have hardship or whatever thrust upon you. It is no fault of your own but I believe that people can still certianly grow through that. For example, when I was growing up, my parents got divorced. Certainly no fault of my own. I could have used that as an excuse to run amok and refused to grow from it, or I could choose to grow as much as I could.
I think the decision to grow or not is often a consious one.
Hebrews 12:7 "Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it."
I guess my point in all this is that even though things might not go the way we want some of the time, people may hurt us or whatever, we know that God is using it to make us into the people he wants us to be. When you face pain or hardship how do you respond? Do you shake a fist at God and say how dare you? Or do you use it as an opportunity to grow?

I may have not been thorough enough or generalised too much but there are some thoughts on the matter. Feel free to comment.

Christmas and so on

2005-12-20T12:58:00.000+11:00

Hi All,
Since the season is upon us I thought I would let you know what I am up to. Friday of this week the office goes for lunch and pretty much doesnt come back. Sometime Saturday I will drive up to Mum and Terry's house and hang out with them that night. Sunday morning I am going to go to church with my Dad and step-mum Helen. I wish they would go every week but at least I can encourage them on Christmas day. That's right Dad if you are reading this!
After church I will go with Dad and Helen to Helen's daughter's house to watch their kids open their presents. From there we go to her son's house. I say a quick hello and then go back to Mum and Terry's house for Christmas lunch. I hang out with them that night and then go home the next day most likely.
How do I feel about Christmas? Well, to be honest I have mixed feelings.
I am happy to be able to celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus but am saddened that people most often dont even think about him, let alone have him as Lord of their lives.
I feel sad that I would love to have a family (wife and children) of my own to celebrate it with.
As for the rest of my family, well to be honest I feel like the Lee (my surname) element of both parents Christmases is really low. Last year at my Helen's family's christmas that I came along to, there was my Dad, my bro and I (3), and on Helen's side there were roughly 20 at a guess. Some I hadnt ever met before. Similarly at Mum's as well, there were the 3 of us and about 15-20 others. Dont get me wrong, I love both my step-parents and their families, they are all really nice and friendly people, but sometimes I dont feel like it is our Christmas.
I dont go 'home' for Christmas (or any other time for that matter), I go to Mum and Terry's house and Dad and Helen's house. Do you notice the difference? As for my place in Wollongong, I dont know if I call it home either. I guess I am truly in a place where heaven is my home and Christmas is a time in which I long for home more than any other time in the year.
The obvious plus side to this is that I am probably quite able to do overseas mission work and not get homesick so much that I cant do what I went there for.

After Christmas I will probably hang out in Wollongong. Dont know about NYE. I might see what Leigh (my step-bro) and Maya (his gf) are planning. After that I have another week off work and will be getting ready for CMS summer school. The week after that will be summer school. I am looking forward to that heaps. It will be great to hear a week+ of great bible teaching and spend some time lying in my hammock. Ohh yeah!

Being that I have taken a couple of weeks off from Friday 23/12 till Monday 16/01 I wont have access to the internet. Just letting you know!

Napoleon Dynamite

2005-12-12T16:08:00.000+11:00

Napoleon - Well, nobody's going to go out with me.
Pedro - Have you asked anybody yet?
N - No, but who would? I dont even have any good skills.
P - What do you mean?
N - You know, like, num-chuck skills, bow hunting skills, computer hacking skills. Girls only want boyfriends who have great skills.

Weird Dreams

2005-12-05T13:28:00.000+11:00

The topic of dreams is often quite an interesting one. When a person says in a group "I dreamt..." often others have had a similar style of dream. This often leads to interesting tales by people of what they dreamt about.
I dont claim to know much about dreams but from my experience I would put them (or their constituent elements) in 3 categories:
The first category would be related to what may be going on in life. So, if you are working on a big project at work, you may find yourself dreaming about it. Also, if, like me, you like to read a part of a novel before bed, you might dream about stuff related to it.
The second category I propose is related to your fears and desires. Sometimes you could dream about overcoming a fear or alternatively, find yourself running around in dream world trying to get that desired thing but always having it slip out of your hands.
The third category is just plain ramdom. All the weird stuff like places you have never been etc. Basically all the stuff your brain just makes up from scratch (or at least it would appear so).
Most of the dreams I remember have all 3 of these things in them. I guess what I have found weird is that previously I used to have a 'recurring location that I had never been to' dream every few months. But lately they have been every night. I have one near the ocean, one on an airport runway, one 'random overseas locations' one but I have never been overseas, one island paradise one, the list goes on.
I had one the other day when I was in some kind of maze that some evil people put me and my friends (not actual individuals I know - that was just the vibe) and they set all sorts of traps and challenges to kill everyone off. But because I was some kind of special dude I kept surviving somehow. It was quite strange, but I have been reading the 'wheel of time' books before bed each night and the same thing happens to the main character.
Last night I had one where I was kind of country hopping around the world but kept running into the same lot of people but there were a bunch of mean people too who kept wanting to take some item of value from me. Kind of weird.
Why do I write this? Well, I dont know. I dont know if there is any real point in interpreting dreams. That being said, it is interesting to see how different people dream about. I think it gives you a bit of an insight into them.
I am pretty sure the bible says it is not cool either. Maybe because people take their interpretation and run with it in the wrong direction. Not sure....

Things to do in Sydney when your alive

2005-12-01T14:04:00.000+11:00

I guess it has been a while since the last 'what I have been up to/will get up to' post. So here we go...
Last weekend was our evening service end of year party. It was quite good with people putting in alot of effort to dress up. The dress up theme was to wear something you probably wont ever wear again. I wore the black and white Jester's outfit I made for the previous year's black and white ball. As much as I think the outfit is a tailoring masterpiece (I made it) it isnt the kind of thing you are going to wear...anywhere. If you have seen the movie/musical 'An American in Paris', James Dean's character wears it to a black and white ball.
Sunday afternoon one of the youth group kid's parents invited all the youth group leaders over for afternoon tea. It was quite nice and the sticky date pudding was brilliant!
Since then, Monday night I had a few ppl over (in lieu of role playing, not enough ppl could make it) for a movie. We watched 'War of the Worlds' which I hadnt seen and enjoyed quite alot. Tuesday night was the last bible study of the year. Next Tues we have our bible study end of year party combined with the girls bible study.
Upcoming events are JBS on Friday. I think it is my 3rd last JBS ever. Well, maybe apart from special one offs we may have next year. Saturday morning is our company's Christmas party (both Sutherland and Wollongong offices). It should be ok. I havent been to one before but I am pretty sure they are pretty good. It's in Audley which should be nice provided the rain holds off.
After that I am going up to Sydney to Prospect to have lunch with some old friends from my Church in Blacktown. That should be really good. I havent seen them for almost a year. It's pretty hard to find time to meet up with everyones busy schedules.
As for Saturday night/afternoon, well I am not sure. It is likely something will present itself. If not I will prob just hang out with my mum and step-father and brother at their house in Newington.
Next week is our office Christmas party on Wed night. Should be ok. See how we go...

Exercise

2005-11-22T09:40:00.000+11:00

Lately, due to daylight saving, I have had the opportunity to go for some good length walks to get some exercise.
Due to Shaggy lending me his old 128MB mp3 player and a bit of free time, I have been able to go for at least 3 walks each week varying from 1-2 hours in duration.
I have felt heaps better for it and I think it is having a good effect on my physique (well maybe...). It doesnt cost anything to do (well probably $1.50 worth of batteries), and I get to explore my neighbourhood, walk along the beach, and generally chill after work.
It has been very beneficial and I am thankful to God for getting my butt in gear and getting out there!
Lets see if I can keep it up.

Anne and Morgan

2005-11-17T08:45:00.000+11:00

Anne called me yesterday to say that she and Morgan are engaged!
Congratulations Anne and Morgan!

Deleted

2005-11-10T12:06:00.000+11:00

In keeping with standard operating procedure, blog posts that have been misunderstood have been deleted.
In future, posts will be written with more care not to be misunderstood.
Regards,
Stu

Rate your life

2005-11-01T12:45:00.000+11:00

In response to Little Rach doing this test, here are my results.

This Is My Life, Rated
Life:	6.3
Mind:	6.7
Body:	8.4
Spirit:	7.9
Friends/Family:	3.5
Love:	0
Finance:	6.8
Take the Rate My Life Quiz

I think it sums up things reasonably accurately.
Any questions?

Work is moving

2005-11-01T12:27:00.000+11:00

Just to let all you in blog-land know, our work is moving tomorrow and thursday. We are only moving around the corner but we will of course have no email or internet for the entire time, perhaps friday afternoon I may be up and running, dont really know.
See you on the other side!

Win/Win

2005-11-01T09:58:00.000+11:00

I was thinking the other day, that I am in a pretty good win/win situation. If it is raining, then I can listen to, and enjoy the rain drumming on the roof. And if it is dry, I can go for a ride on the bike and feel the wind in my hair (so to speak).
Thanks God.

The 'Power of Love' credits

2005-10-13T15:36:00.000+10:00

Last night, after our youth group meeting, I went to the second movie at the unimovies. It was a zombie movie which wasnt too bad. I like the post-apocalyptic style movies because people make all sorts of cool vehicles and inventions.

Humorous quote:
Guy A: I want to leave here and go up north, into Canada.
Guy B: Why would you want to do that, there's no people up there.
Guy A: That's my point.

I saw the humour in it. Not that many others did.

One other thing, I think there is entirely not enough use of the 'Power of Love' by Huey Lewis and the News, as ending credits. From last night's Zombie movie, to 'Luther' to 'Pride and Predudice', I reckon each of these could do well with the 'Power of Love' credits.

Of course once you are tired of the Power of Love, the other option is the Terminator 2 credits. But they work better with girly movies.

Maybe I need to cut down on the coffee....

My Bike

2005-10-12T13:21:00.000+10:00

Car trouble

2005-10-12T12:57:00.000+10:00

Sometimes I believe I am cursed when it comes to cars. The one I have now is only a few years old, but since I got it I have spent a fair bit on fixing it.
6 months ago the battery light came on and soon the car wouldnt start. I didnt know what it was and people told me that after about 5 years you probably need a new battery, so I got a new one from Kmart (cheapest around) for $120. When I got it to the car, the light stayed on. Took it to the auto electrician and got a replacement alternator for $275 ($150 cheaper than a brand new one from Ford). The guy said that the reason it died was that the power steering fluid was leaking into the alternator out of a faulty hose. Cheacked with Ford and was quoted $300 for a new hose. Went to a wrecker and bought a second hand hose for $70. The next day I just happened to be talking to my little bro (who works for Ford in Sydney) and he said that the problem was a tiny washer (should have been recognised and changed when I got a service not long before that). Grrr. Went to the washer place and the guy ended up just giving me about 6 of the damn things for free. Changed them myself and havent had a problem there since. I could have saved all that time effort and money if the person who serviced the car had bothered to put a new washer in. Needless to say, I wont be back to Keira Ford.
Just before my holiday away I went and got the car serviced. They told me that the rear discs were scored and I needed new ones, as well as new rear pads and handbrake pads. This amounted to $500. Which at the time was all the money I had saved for my holiday. Thankfully God sorted it out and I was still able to go and have a great time.
So, you would imagine my concern when all of a sudden, whenever there was a load on the engine that it started shuddering and losing power. I was pretty sure it was the gearbox and gearboxes cost lots. I learnt from last time and when I went to pick up my new bike on Friday night, took it straight to my bro to take to work during the week. He took it in and recognised it to be dodgy ignition leads. He put on some second hand ones that were kicking arond the workshop and he says it runs fine now. Big thanks to God.
Dont know what the point to the whole story is, but maybe that I should trust God more. He has it sorted out.

The Long Weekend

2005-10-05T12:10:00.000+10:00

I had a great long weekend. Let me see what I did...
Friday after work I went to my friends house in Sydney for a night of 500. It was really enjoying. Good fun and banter was had by all. About 11:30 I said I should go home. They said that I should stay for one last game. I said alright. First hand I called misere and won (which is 250 points) and the second hand I called misere again and was overbid. So I called open misere and won!. Woo hoo. 500 glory. My poor partner didnt play a single card in the whole game.
Saturday was good also. Woke up at a respectable time and cleaned the garage, set up the drum kit, cleaned and vacumed my room, and ironed 11 shirts. Went to Stuart Park for sport and had Susan's goodbye that night. We had pizza and dessert at the church hall and then went to Namik's for coffee type drinks. Quite good.
Sunday had lunch with Tim and Jon at Caesars and did prep for service leading that night. Church was good but a bit quiet due to the long weekend and the grand final. After church we went to Pak and Stacie's house for some good quality after supper supper. Quite fun.
Monday was good too. Slept in, mmmmm. Then went to Stuart Park with Jon and Tim to kick a ball around. We met Irwan down there and walked along the bike track for a bit. Quite fun but it was really hot. At 3:00 we went to Susan and Morwenna's house to watch 'Luther' which was pretty good I thought. Went home after that and just enjoyed a quiet early night in. Good finish to the long weekend really.

Pride and Prejudice 2005

2005-09-20T09:37:00.000+10:00

Recently, at a dinner with Christian friends, a comment was made: 'easy to get, easy to lose', 'hard to get, hard to lose' (in the realm of people's relationships). It was more of a joke but the discussion turned to whether it was ok for someone to be keen for a long time on someone else, basically saying that the time and effort was worth it because the person was special. There was a bit of discussion about the merit of this and during the discussion one person said "But what if she is out of his league?, even if he got her, he would be forever trying not to lose her."
This is the comment that I would like to comment on in this post.

The book 'Pride and Prejudice' is set in a time and place where people's social class divided them. You had a place in society basically based on your parent's wealth and you were to choose someone to marry from amongst your 'equals'. The people richer than you were considered your 'betters'. If a rich man asked a poorer woman to marry him it was a very strange thing indeed.
The main character, Lizzy, flies in the face of convention when the richest man in town, Mr Darcy proposes to her and she rejects him. The trouble of course is that in his pride he thinks of Lizzy as less than him, and of course would marry him because he was 'better' than her.
Today, it's not like days of yore. People are so rich (comparatively) that someones status is not often taken into account. However, there still seems to be some kind of 'class system' in our world, and sometimes more unfortunately, our Christian circles. Obviously the lines are not as clear cut as they used to be, but they are still there, just taking different forms. Things like confidence and good looks have taken over from wealth and status. People are still seeking security, it is just in different ways.
What are you saying when you say "they are out of so-and-so's league"? I take it that you are saying that one person is not good enough for the other. Just as someone in Lizzy's day could have said the same thing, but had different reasons in mind, the overall idea is the same.
Frankly I think this is a crap way to think about your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. It is clear from what the bible says that all Christians are equal in God's eyes and we should see people as God sees them. If you as the like-er, feel like the like-ee is out of your league, you are just as wrong as the like-ee saying that they are out of the like-er's league. You are equal in Christ and no person is better than another.
If you arent interested in someone of the opposite sex for whatever reason, fair enough, nothing wrong with that, but to walk around saying stuff like 'I am out of their league' promotes an unhealthy way of thinking that just isnt Christ-like.

The system is really down!

2005-09-14T12:21:00.000+10:00

Alright, I thought email was bad before. Our computer system had some serious issues the last couple of days. Monday midday all of a sudden we had no email, no internet and no printing from all computers. It has just come back on a few minutes ago. Hooray for tech dudes.
Having email again is cool but I promised myself I was going to go for a walk down to the beach for some exercise during lunch. So, cant write any more.
Later.

Stuff

2005-09-09T12:36:00.000+10:00

Over the last few weeks I have had a bit of a chance to think about stuff.
Since being told by rob that he didnt think I was suitable to do mts at this point in life I have had a chance to think about my options and so on. I think the most likely scenario is that I work for the next 2 years or so and then go straight to bible college (SMBC preferably). As I am now 27, I dont think I should wait 2 years, then do MTS, then go to college. One reason for this is that MTS is supposed to give you opportiunities to see what full time ministry is like and try your hand at various church type things. Well, at the moment at church I pretty much do exactly the same as Mark (of course he does other things outside of church for ECU) except preaching, and he is doing MTS, so I dont need to do it from that perspective. The other thing is that I would be in a far better financial position starting bible college this way.
So, between now and then I am thinking of changing jobs. Where to and all that stuff well I dont know. I have an option to stay at Dad's house in Sutherland for a year on the cheap. However, I also just applied for a 6 month contract (with option to carry on if it works out) working in North Queensland. It would be for about $45/hour and the flight up and 6 months worth of accommodation would be paid for! Pretty good and would be great to see more of Australia and save up some cash. There are lots of other options too like working in Sydney etc but I will see where God leads me.
Speaking of bible college, the question would be for how long and why. I think I would like to either go overseas or bush Australia possibly working as an engineer. Where and how and all those questions, would of course need to be worked out as they come up. With that in mind maybe I should plan to only do 1 year at college. If people at college think I should do more, I am happy to be convinced in that direction...
The trouble with doing stuff like that (overseas/bush) is that it would have a good go at making you give up due to loneliness. I think that putting conditions on God (such as "I will do this if you bless me with a wife") is totally dumb. However I also think you need to be realistic about the sort of person you are and what you can achieve in the situation you are in.
I guess we will see what happens...

Holiday Summary

2005-09-05T12:54:00.000+10:00

Alright, I should be writing responses to people's emails but I need to also finalise the holiday in the form of a summary.
The holiday was great. No question. Thanks heaps to God for keeping me safe and fed and interested and not lonely.
When I set out, I thought "I can sleep in the back of my car for free". Now this is a true statement, however, to be able to use essential facilities such as shower and toilet, you need to stay at a caravan park, minimum. They cost roughly between $10-$20 a night and extra people are about $10 per person on top of that. Since I was staying at caravan parks, you get space to put up the tent, so why not. There is something cool about sleeping in the back of the car (it was pretty comfy and warm) but you have stacks more space in the tent. It's a pretty big tent and it still only took me 15mins to put it up by myself. Also, most of the time, in your caravan park fees, the use of the BBQ's they have there is often complimentary.
I hadnt thought all this through and so spend a fair bit of cash on counter dinners at local pubs and paid a fair bit for lunch each day.
With all this in mind, the far cheaper option would have been to bring cooking equipment etc. buy all food at Woollies (or safeway as it is called in Vic and SA) and keep it in an esky.
Of course the other thing I will do differently next time is go with some friends. Going it alone was cool and beneficial, however if I wasnt doing interesting stuff I would have felt lonely a bit. With friends you dont really have to be doing anything, you can just kick around and enjoy their company. It is also cool to have some people to share the cool stuff you enjoy along the way. I took lots of photos while I was away but it's not the same.

Summary of the Summary:
Next time, staying at caravan parks on the cheap and having friends with is the way to go. I think a system of driving to somewhere, camping overnight, spending the next day in and around the place you are staying at, then moving on to drive for the day after that (essentially moving at half pace)would be good.
These things are just the 'fine tuning' things.
Overall the holiday was awesome and lots of fun. Since the furthest west I had been was Wagga Wagga and the furthest south I had been (apart from last years trip to Tas) was Merimbula, I certainly expanded my horizons.
For the benefit of those planning a similar trip, here are some vital statistics:
Total K's driven = 4000 (well 3997.2, 400kms from Wagga to Wollongong)
Average k's per day = 400
Total cost of fuel= $500 (I lost the reciepts but that's close enough)
Total cost of food and accommodation = $400
I got to do all that for less than the cost of a plane ticket somewhere!
Thanks heaps to God who has provided everything I need. Most of all thanks for Jesus death and Ressurrection.

More Holiday

2005-08-30T17:20:00.000+10:00

Day 7 - The day of expensive petrol. (Sunday)
I left Kingston S.E. and fueled up on the way out of town. $60.
Drove north and looked at the Koorong which is a long thin stretch of water. Quite interesting. I met this cool guy and his dog who fetched rocks. That's right, rocks. A small growl and a larger than fist size rock was thrust at my feet. I threw it and off he went. Hehehe, loved it.
After that I drove to Adelaide through Strathlbyn and looked at Adelaide from the summit of mount Lofty. It was cool but by this time of the holiday it had started raining a bit and was really overcast. The drive into Adelaide was interesting with this really long steep descent which seemed carved out of the rock. There were tunnels and everything. Pretty cool. Engineers entertainment!
By this time the funds were getting pretty low. I could have sat in my car for 4 hours and gone to church in Adelaide but thought I should press on. Drove through the Barossa and stopped at a small place called Blanchetown. Man it was crap! After a thorough search through the whole town I found that they had no churches in the entire town! I was to discover a bigger and nicer town a way up the road called Waikerie but it was all part of the adventure. It had churches and stuff but by then it was Monday.
Filled up that night for $50 or so. Hmmm, $110 worth of petrol in one day...
Day's Km's = 480
Roadkill count = 4
Music - MYC 2005 - Ministry - Talk 2
Franz Ferdinand
Soundgarden - Down on the upside
Daft Punk - Discovery
Spin Doctors - Pocket full of Kryptonite

Day 8 - (Monday)
I'm out of here! After looking at the funds and realising I had roughly enough money to pay for petrol to get back to the gong I started home along the sturt highway. Stopped on the way at Renmark which is nice. I bought 3 nice bottles of wine from the Woolpunda wineries cellar door ($6 each). I thought it would be a crying shame to drive through so much wine country and not buy a single bottle.
Made it to Wagga Wagga at about 7:30 and parked outside my friend Luke and Liz's house. I had spoken to him late the week before and since then couldnt get in contact. They werent home so I thought they would be back soon. After all he is a youth minister and I thought he was out. Little did I know they had moved! Oh well. He called me at about 9:30 and gave me directions to the new house. Pretty funny. I was just thinking I would have to spend the night in the car again.
Day's Km's - 832
Music - MYC Talk 3
Triple J Hottest 100 Volume 3 Discs 1+2
Triple J Hottest 100 Volume 4 Discs 1+2
Triple J Hottest 100 Volume 6 Discs 1+2
Sophie Ellis Bextor - Read my lips
Billy Joel - Greatest Hits Vol 3
Best of Van Morrison

Day 9 - (Tuesday)
It was great to catch up with him and Liz. I slept on their ultra comfy (doesnt look it but it is) couch. They have a little baby called Henry. He is 6 weeks old and gorgeous! I got to hold him lots and before we went out in the morning I put his booties and jumper on.
I'll say it again... I want to be a dad!
I went to the Wagga zoo and looked at some cool animals. Made friends with the birds there (my housemate Dave has a cockatiel and so I know some bird type noises) and walked back to their house for lunch.
That afternoon had a bit of a nap and then we went to their bible study. For $2.50 I got heaps of pizza and snackys. It was great to study the bible with people I had never met before. We studied Zephaniah 1. It was good. I reccomend a read if you get a chance. The people's house we had the study at was really nice. It was kind of on a property (I would guess 100-150 acres) and was pretty new and cool. They were growing wheat and some other stuff. I guess it is kind of what my dream home would be like. A bit of property with a few animals on it and growing some things. Also, my engineering juices could flow in regards to designing and building all sorts of sheds and the like.
Days km's - 37

Day 10 - (Wednesday)
Woke up after a great sleep on the red couch. Said goodbye to Luke and Liz and Henry and made for the gong. Got in at about 3:00 in the afternoon. Went to Tim's house and we downloaded/looked at the 250 or so photos I took while I was away. Burnt them on a CD and I went to Ben and Alice's house to visit them and their new baby Alex. It was nice to see them again and hang out. Alex is only 2 weeks old and sleeps alot. I still got to hold him and got more clucky...

The remaining days I did alot of sleeping and cruising around. Watched 'Once upon a time in Mexico' with Kester and Tim on Wednesday night. Role playing with the dudes on Friday, Pub with Cath and co on Friday night. Mmmm, totally good to have a relaxing few days after a holiday as well.
Thanks heaps to God who provided everything for me. Kept the car running, me awake and the Kangaroos away from the car! I had a great time and sometime tomorrow I will post a summary of the holiday and costs and recommendations to others who may be thinking of having a similar trip. I should also be having a 'hot drinks and photos' night once I print up the photos which should be fun.

Holiday - Days 5+6

2005-08-29T16:17:00.000+10:00

For the sake of ease, I will write out the rest of the holiday less posts. It may be long, but enjoy!

Rest of Day 4 - Went to Young and Jackson's for a beer because it was reccomended as a place to go. It was cool, but there is something about being in a heaps social place (such as a pub) by yourself. I thought this to myself while I drank my $7.90 beer. It was a nice beer, but man! Walked over to the casino to have a look, man it's offensive the kind of money people were throwing away at that place, someone living in any kind of non-first-world country would cry at the waste.
Got lost on the way back to the hostel. Found my way back at about 12:30 or so with a massive blister on each foot. I did the pepsi challenge with them by popping the one on the right foot and leaving the one on the left. Popping is definitely the go. The best way to pop is to tear a bit of the skin and watch the goo flow! (Sorry to the faint hearted!)

Day 5 - Probably the best day of the holiday, went through Geelong and along the Great Ocean Rd which was fantastic! Saw the 7 apostles along with the pile of rubble that used to be the 8th. They had helicopter rides but they were pretty schpensy. Stayed at a caravan park in Warrnambool that night. Found out that is where Deakin Uni is.
Day's Km's = 447
Music: The Cure - Greatest Hits
Jamiroquai - Travelling without moving
Gun's and Roses - Use your illusion 1
Triple J Hottest 100 #3 Disc 1+2
Tracky Dax - Crimes of fashion

Day 6 - Drove from Warrnambool to Kingston S.E. Quite a nice place really. Stayed at a caravan park for $10 and the guy even gave me a powered site for the non-powered rate coz i was only charging the digi-cams.
The local place had good food pretty cheap. I got a T-bone steak with huge amount of juicy sides (including cooked mushrooms, cauliflower in cheese and roast pumpkin) for $9.50. Heaps good value compared to lots of other places I had been to.
During the day I stopped at Portland and enjoyed a tram ride which ended up being far better value (and way longer) than expected. Got some good photos though.
Roadkill count = 2
Day's Km's = 406
Music = Jamiroquai - Funk Odyssey
Queen - Greatest Hits
All time greatest Pub anthems (dont ask!) disc 1+2
MYC 2005 - Ministry - Talk 1

Summary So Far

2005-08-18T19:20:00.000+10:00

Totally awesome. I wish I had done it earlier. The car has been quite well behaved and havent had any problems. Thanks heaps to God. Food has been ok but I keep eating too many lollies as I drive along. That has got me a potential upset tummy if I am not careful. Had some fruit for lunch today and it was really good. After all, you dont spent vast amounts of energy sitting in the car driving. So, a light cheap Woolies fruit lunch is a good option which I will use more as I go along.
I must admit, as someone who esteems the company of others so, I thought I might be lonely. Far from it actually. I have been having a great time and it has been really rewarding and fun. I think my experience over the last few years is more of an 'alone in the crowd' one, rather than plain lonely. If I hear about all the fun stuff other people are doing, naturally I want to be a part of that. I have found out from going away that I quite enjoy being by myself and enjoy my own company. I think the feeling of being less of a friend compared to so-and-so is the feeling I dont like. Of course, that is something to deal with but I think I am coming along quite well with that anyway. Especially over the last 6 months. This has been quite helpful.
Fuel has been pretty schpensy. Varying from $1.15/litre to $1.30 for just plain unleaded. I have been using premium which has sometimes been only a few cents a litre extra.
Today's km's - 400
Today's music: I will have to get back to you about that.

Holiday - Day 4

2005-08-18T18:46:00.000+10:00

Day's summary: Well, it's not really over as I write this but at least I have a few things sorted. After waking up after a comfy sleep (far comfier than thought originally) I went and paid for my accomodation. $20! That's ok. It was offset by the fact that I didnt have to buy dinner! Went up mount Oberon and found that due to a recent bushfire, the only path up the mountain (you can drive part of the way up) after the carpark went for 700m then was unable to continue. Still got a couple of photos but not as good as hoped.
Drove to Phillip Island and looked at stuff for a little bit. Not really much to look at but got a refreshing cappucino at the cafe there.
Continued on to Melbourne. Go here at about 4:30 and started to look around. I realised that my options for accomodation were limited. I thought I could drive through and find a camping site on the other side of Melb or could try and find a cheap Hotel. However, sitting down waiting to see what I would do, I stumbled across some American tourists (who would have thought, right) and thought, where would they stay...? The answer dawned and at the local info centre I found a close YHA - with Parking. For all of $31 I am staying in a 4 person room, have a bed, somewhere to park the car and are heaps close to town so I can actually do some exploring. Thanks heaps to God for his abundant provisions to me!

Holiday - Day 3

2005-08-18T18:34:00.000+10:00

Day Summary - Had a big ask this time, needed to make it to Tidal River in Wilson's Promontory. Decided to set up the tent this time in a local caravan park overlooking the water. Sooo goood. For all of $10 i was able to have a spot, and use of facilities. I woke up at 6am to see the sun rise, took a photo of it hoping it would go away after that, but alas no. Refused to get up and slept in to 10:00. Breakfast consisted of an 'Up and Go' breakfast bar and some 'fruit sticks' I made the mistake of packing...
Made it to Tidal River at about 6 to realise that it is not actually a town, more of a giant caravan park. No shops, no pub, not much at all. Dinner that night consisted of some salted peanuts and some homebake chocolate chip biscuits. Sad, but they did the job. Since I got there late had no one to pay for my time, doesnt matter, the next morning they managed to charge me $20 to sleep in the back of my car... It was soo comfortable though. Warm too. It go to about 5 degrees outside. I had a thermometer on the roof of the car which I checked periodically...
Km's driven - 587.6
Roadkill count - 3
Music:
St Germain - Tourist
Everclear - So much for the afterglow
No Doubt - Return of Saturn
Ugly Kid Joe - America's least wanted
Midnight Oil - Greatest Hits
Jamiroquai - Space Cowboy
Ben Folds Five - Whatever and ever amen (Sad, already used up all my folds...)

Holiday - Day 2

2005-08-18T18:26:00.000+10:00

Day's summary - After good sleep in and chats with nan, I got away at about 11. Headed south and looked at a few interesting places along the way. Stopped at Moruya for a sec and thought of Doug! Missed out on Bega (sorry Anne I know you love it there!) due to driving through Bermagui and Merimbula. I am glad to have done this coz there are some really cool photos from the detour.
Continued though Eden and made it to Mallacoota as planned (each night I plan the next day. Pretty cool.). Both places were awesome with some tasty photos on the speed-cam. Malacoota is in VIC and so has beer in 'Pots' and 'Pints' (a pot is a middy equivalent). Stayed at the beachfront caravan park. Totally awesome place. Had dinner at the local club. Not bad...
Km's driven - 257.6
Roadkill count - 1
Music:
Dire Straits - Brothers in Arms
Ben Folds Five - Self titled
Blink 182 - Dude ranch (I was getting sleepy and needed fast music! - just kidding!)
Green Day - Nimrod
Propellerheads - Decksanddrumsandrockandroll
Faith No More - Greatest Hits

Holiday - Day 1 16/8/05

2005-08-18T18:20:00.000+10:00

The day's summary:
Slept in! Every good holiday starts with some well earned rest! Bought a new tyre for the car $110, Paid the Electricity and my phone bill (or at least organised for it to be done), washed the car at 'carlovers'.
Left the Gong at 3:30, got to nans at 5:30 in Ulladualla. She had a huge T-bone steak and wedges for me soon after arrival and I slept in a real, fresh, bed. Hard start to the holiday I know!
Music:
Counting Crows - August and everything after,
The darkness - Permission to land,
The Vines - Highly Evolved.
Km's travelled - 150
Roadkill count - 0

Holiday Note

2005-08-12T13:48:00.000+10:00

As previously said, I will be on holidays for the next 2 weeks.
As I will have no access to a computer, I will be unable to blog stuff or email people.
You have been warned! :)
Stu.

Disappointment

2005-08-12T13:46:00.000+10:00

Hey all,
Just had lunch with Rob Copland.
Doesnt look like I will be doing MTS next year.
Bit disappointing really.
Stu.

The System is Down...

2005-08-09T16:28:00.000+10:00

The email server at work is being dumb again. Yesterday I only had email half the day, today it's been out pretty much all day.
Here's hoping for tomorrow...
Stu

Stu the Tent-Maker?

2005-08-03T13:26:00.000+10:00

The email server at work is being a bit dumb so I have a little time to post things.

Soon, I hope to do MTS and then go to bible college (almost certainly SMBC). After that, I hope to go overseas as a missionary. Of course, all these plans are just that, plans. God may have a completely different plan for me, but that's my plan at the moment. If God chooses to bless me with a wife, obviously what she wants to do with the future will impact on what we will end up doing.
From previous posts you know that I am a structural engineer. Well, if I end up overseas as a missionary, I think one thing that would be really cool would be to do some engineering as well as telling people about Jesus. I could help build bridges in Africa (I watched the movie "The ghost and the darkness" and thought I could be like the main character guy - Just no man-eating lions please!)
or some other kind of engineering whilst working with the local people to proclaim Jesus.
This would be quite good in that I probably wouldn't have to be financially supported by a mission organisation. The prayer and emotional support I wouldn't be able to do without of course, but I would be able to free up funds to be able to send other people.

A friend brought to my attention recently that this idea is basically a modern day equivalent of what Paul did during his ministry. He supported himself by making tents so as to not be a burden on the churches he ministered to. Often people used to live in tents... these days they live in buildings... I would help design and build the buildings...get it? :). Maybe my sense of humour is slipping...
I reckon that sounds pretty cool.
I guess we will see what God has in store for me....!

Living in Bellambi

2005-08-03T09:15:00.000+10:00

For those who have not visited my abode, it is a 2 bed townhouse located in the suburb of Bellambi. It's quite a nice house but it's in a fairly undesirable neighbourhood. Our neighbours on at least 2 sides often have 'domestic disturbances' and are really quite loud and angry about it. The neighbours on one side have had the police called on them quite a number of times, one time, the single mum and her 16 year old son had a fist fight in their driveway. Other times the younger son screams like he is being murdered, with loud calls of "Mummmy No!" Needless to say, it's not a great neighbourhood.
As much as having stuff like that going on around, I would hope that the people around notice that the only loud noises that come from our house are laughter and fun(oh and me making stuff out of wood). Hopefully soon I will be able to have some good chats with our neighbours and I would really like to have them ask what is different about Dave (my housemate) and I. I would love to bring them the good news of Jesus and let them know that if they trust in him they will eventually go to a place where there is no more mourning or crying or pain.
If you could pray for myself (that I wouldnt be afraid to talk with them) and my neighbours, that they would come to trust in Jesus, that would be awesome.

Holiday

2005-07-25T12:06:00.000+10:00

In the last 2 weeks of August, I will be going on a holiday.
Originally it was the 2nd and 3rd weeks but our church conference is on the 13th and I would be away for it. Since I havent booked anything or things like that, I thought I would just move it so I can attend.
The plan is, to drive down the coast, stopping and taking pictures to my hearts content. I will go through Victoria and enjoy what is left of the 12 apostles on the great ocean road. I will spend the first night at my nan's house in Ulladulla and then I will either sleep in the back of the car (I have a newish Falcon Station wagon so there is plenty of room) on an air mattress or, If I plan to stay somewhere for more than a day, I can put up my tent at some kind of local caravan park and sleep there.
After coasting through Victoria (get the pun! Hahaha I'm so funny! Perhaps not..)I will check out Adelaide and head home through the Adelaide Hills and Barossa Valley (mmm, tasty wine!). My mum suggested that I check out Broken Hill on the way back. So, should be cool. I also have friends in Wagga that I would like to see on the way back. I have got 2 weeks off work, so that should be enough time to look at a fair bit of stuff.
Hopefully the car will behave itself. It's pretty new but I havent had a good track record with regards to car reliability. So, will have to pray for that.

YO WHAT UP G!!!!

2005-07-20T11:18:00.000+10:00

Man, work is pretty full on. Since 2.5 weeks ago it has been flat out and doesn't really look like letting up much. I thought I would just take a sec or two to write this quick post before going back to work. The boss is away on holidays until early next week and so I have had lots to do.
The last 2 days I have been able to drive to Menangle and Otford for site inspections. That was quite fun. Also, I have been able to go on a whole pile of other site inspections as well which have been good. I have probably averaged about 3 a day which is quite high. One advantage of that is that since the boss is away I have to use my own car. This is good because work reimburses my km's at about 60c/km. So, in the last few weeks I have done 350km for work so I will have extra money in the account on Thursday arvo which is always good. Funnily enough, I will proably spend the money getting the car serviced but since I had to do that anyway, it's better if work essentially paid for it.
MYC was awesome. Not that I was able to be there the whole time, but the time I was there was great. I drove up on Sunday morning for pre-MYC with Steve Bell and Saru. the trip up was good with music by J and Saru (we listened to the CD they made for the bob eviction party). This year MYC was on the topic of ministry. The talk I did hear, and the seminars I did were quite helpful. Also, it was cool to seek to look after people as well. I felt that since I was only there for a small amount of time, I would try my best to look after people. I think approaching MYC that way was really helpful. I guess there could be some kind of sermon illustration in regards to the time being short and needing to focus on proclaiming God's word.
I have been keen to get into woodwork since the start of the year when I bought a book on it. Thanks to the dudes and dad I have a quite good set of tools now. So, on Monday night I made a workbench. Yaay. Now I dont have to saw things sitting on the ground. Now I can get to making the TV stand (I have an old TV as my TV stand atm) and speaker stand/dvd storage things. The benefit of making things is that I can make sure I have enough space to fit things. I can also add some special modifications if I want.
More thanks to God for blessing me heaps with all sorts of blessings.

Yaaay Birthday!

2005-07-07T09:12:00.000+10:00

It was my birthday on Sunday, and overall I have quie enjoyed it.
Saturday night Kester, Cath, Susan, Sally, Bry and I went to see 'The Bar at Buena Vista' at the Wollongong Entertainment Centre. It was fantastic. The grandfathers of Cuban music were really good. They had the old ones (70-87 years) and the new generation as well. On top of that there were 2 dancing couples on stage who did an awesome job of dancing to the faster songs. Very entertaining.
Before the show, we went out for dinner at the Vietnamese noodle place on Keira St. It was really nice. I had rice paper rolls for entree` which are a favourite. Kester and Cath gave me this cool necklace made of Jade and bone. Really cool. Once I crimp it to the right size I will wear it. They were also kind enough to subsidise my ticket for the show.
On Sunday I went to my mum and step-father's house in Sydney for a combined birthday lunch with my step-sister. It was lots of fun with much of my step-sister's/step-father's family there. My step-father's brother and their family gave me a 8 pack of miscellaneous beers from around the world. I enjoyed the 'Bin Tang' one which had the note on the bottle 'Best served with Friends'. It appealed to my sense of humour.
The food was really good with an entree` of little squares of bread, with mayo on it, then a shelled prawn and a little pepper on top. Mmmmm. I might have to make them next time I have people over for dinner.
Went home after that but was pretty tired for church. It was a good sermon by Sandy about the bible's idea of worship. He also talked about reasons people do/dont come to church which I think was challenging especially since I almost didnt go coz I was really tired. Many people wished me a happy birthday afterwards though and it was quite nice. Certainly glad I went.
Yesterday was awesome as well. Simon had rung me and organised to have lunch at 12:30. When I walked out of work, we walked up to the white seats and a bunch of the dudes were all waiting there. Suprise! It was sooo cool. They had a cake (ultra blue icing), cards and a couple of cool presents. They gave me an engraver and an electric screwdriver. Oh, and the most bizzare/cool one of them all: a bright orange skull topped container of sour chuppa chups! I didnt think he belonged at work on my desk so I took him home and put him in the kitchen.
Cool birthday. Quite enjoyable really. Thanks to God for cool brothers and sisters in Christ.

Me on the net

2005-06-28T13:21:00.000+10:00

Those of you who know me well already know this, but for the benefit of those who do not, I will inform you of my current ability to use the force, ahem, I mean the net.
At the moment I do not own a computer. This makes a few things easy/cheap, but also makes others difficult.
The advantages: Well, I didnt have to fork out the large wads of cash required for a computer in the first place which is good. If I had a computer I would probably get the net at home and would have to get a fixed land line instead of using my mobile as my home phone. On top of this I would have to pay internet access from some service provider.
The disadvantages: Unfortunately this leaves the only access to the net is on my work computer. Therefore reading/replying to emails or looking up stuff/blogging is limited to me being in the office. That's not too bad but of course I need to do my work and not spend too much time on non work related things.
The other disadvantage is that since I dont have unlimited time to write posts or comments, it is hard to say exactly what I mean in the time allotted. So, if I write something that doesnt sound right, feel free to send me an email to discuss.
Other than that, the ability to type and print youth group talks and prayers etc. for church is another small disadvantage.
Probably the dullest post ever, but what are you going to do?

News on the job front.

2005-06-24T13:25:00.000+10:00

Well, it's Friday and I certainly still work in the same place.
I went to Parramatta for the interview on Monday night. It wasnt really what I was expecting. I went in and we had the usual chats between myself and the 3 directors. They were all quite cool and one guy seemed to be a Christian. There were pretty much 4 reasons why I didnt take the job (they pretty much offered it to me on the spot).
Chronologically:
Reason #1. They were interested in someone who would sign up for the next 10 or so years and probably end up being a director. I really only wanted the job for 12 months and I think it would be pretty slack to give them the wrong idea.
Reason #2. Their opinion of 'excellent salary' and mine differed slightly. I am not moving to Sydney and battling Parramatta traffic on a daily basis (dont get me wrong I love driving, but sometimes I think the middle of Parra is worse than the middle of the city) for the same money as I will get after my pay review in a years time.
Reason #3. The advertised company car would remain at the office for the first 6 months and after that I would be allowed to take it home. Also, the Commadore/Falcon I had in my head turned out to be a corolla. Not that I dont like Corolla's, well, compared to the falcon I own now, they are pretty ordinary.
Reason #4. The following day at work the boss talked to me about how we just werent getting any people applying for the other engineer's position at our office. We also just lost a draftsman and so if I left we would be down 2 engineers and a draftsman and the company would be pretty stuffed. The boss also talked to me about changes to the way the office works with kind of jobs we do and also that I should expect good things out of the upcoming pay review.

So, here I stay for the moment. However, if I get offered a job in southern sydney with a company car that I can use straight away and a decent salary I would seriously consider it. It would mean I could pay off the current car (so no more repayments each fortnight) and I would be able to live at Dad's house (so no rent). I thought of the option of just moving to Dad's house anyway, but I think that the $105 a week rent I pay will be spent in petrol getting to work instead.

Post

2005-06-16T12:24:00.000+10:00

I suppose it has been a while since my last 'what have I been up to' post. That is partly the fault of one certain online game known as Bejewelled 2.
This aside I have been up to a few things. I had a solid day of role playing with the dudes on Monday which was really good. Origin was last night and afterwards hanging out at Lisa's house for an end of exams dessert and drinks night she organised was good as well. Good relaxed atmosphere and got to say 'hi' to Sim as he was walking out the door.
Sunday night was really good with after supper supper at Litani's.
I have also applied for a few jobs advertised on seek. Partly to find out what is out there, and partly to be able to use in my salary review which is coming up. I think if I get the positions advertised I will take them to my current boss and say "this is what I have been offered, can you come close to matching it?" I figure that I have 12 months to get myself into a good financial situation (pay off loan etc) and then I can start MTS halfway through next year. I just need to make sure I use the next 12 months to the best of my ability.
I have an interview on Monday night for a job in Parramatta (company car provided) and I got a call yesterday about one in Albury but I dont know if I am willing to move.
Oh, that's the other thing, my Dad has offered for me to stay at his house for the next 12 months virtually rent free. It is in Sutherland though, so I would then have to revert back into sir travels-alot for that period of time. Not that it's a problem. In good traffic its only 30mins from Wollongong. Need to decide if that is a smart move or not.

Godliness with Contentment is Great Gain

2005-06-06T13:10:00.000+10:00

In one sense I have been hesitant to write a post on the topic of singleness, but a conversation I had with a friend on Saturday night helped clarify (and succinctly word) some thoughts I had on the topic, particularly with it's relevance to contentment.
Also, with Matt posting similar type posts, I thought I would add my 2 cents.
So, here we go...
It is quite easy to adopt the thoughts in one's head: "I will be happy when I meet someone". Society (and especially the media) promote this and as you start looking around, what you see seems to back up these thoughts. The TV says (I'm paraphrasing) 'sick of your unhappy life?, then go to the gym and get thin, once you are thin then the opposite sex will find you attractive and you will be happy'.
This is a big pile of poo! There are heaps of things in life that get people upset. Whether it is uni, or work, or just coz you are getting a bit sick, you cant escape life without being upset part of the way through. The trouble is that when we look at our lives we can think 'I just need someone and then I will be happy' we are fooling ourselves. Ask (or just plain observe) the married people you know. Are they happy/content people because they are married? Or because of the kind of people they are?
I think you will find it is almost always the latter. It is easy to look around and think that the single people are the uncontent ones. I dont think it just some kind of odd coincidence that the guys that seem to have most of the girls attentions seem to be the content ones.
When looking for a potential partner, I think one thing that is often thought of is: Is this person content in themself? Are they going to be my equal partner in life or am I going to have to babysit them the whole way? Am I going to be comfortable knowing that this person is content in themselves or am I going to be treading on eggshells for the rest of my life?
Now this being said, of course there is a definite place for carrying each others burdens and looking after each other. I was more commenting on what seems to make people attractive.
When talking with my friend (he is married), he said that the understanding he has come to, is that marriage is not for contentment, but for holiness.
I think the way he has put it is helpful. He didnt enter his marriage thinking that it would make him happy, he entered it thinking it would make him more holy. The presence of his wife in his life had a significant effect on his holiness. He found that his now wife encouraged him greatly towards holiness. He was holier with her in his life.
How do you go with seeking to be content in the situation you are in?. If you are like me, it is damn tough. Blocking out the message conditioned by years of living in the world is hard. Some helpful things I have found to do are:
- Try not to watch too much TV or read magazines which reinforce the incorrect thinking.
- Be proactive in organising your life to be full of things (especially hanging out with friends). This means there is less time to sit there and think your life is dull.
- Read your bible and see the great things God has done for you. Know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him. He saved you from an eternity away from Him, in the light of this, everything pales into insignificance.
- Spend time researching what life in other countries in the world is like. Especially third world countries. Next time you put the heater on, eat food till you are full, or have a hot shower, thank God that you can have these things.
- Try to aviod certain situations that are unhelpful. (especially if you are in a certain frame of mind). In one day, I went to a friends wedding and then had dinner with 2 ex-housemates and their wives. They spent most of the time talking about their married life and spouse and I had a less-than-great time. Instead, try to go to things that have mixed groups or non-clingy marrieds.
As you look around and dwell on the things you have, as opposed to the things you do not, your focus shifts from unhappiness to thanks and life is far more enjoyable. As you enjoy life, other things which you had wanted are far more likely to fall into place.
Dont get me wrong, this is all ultra hard and takes time. But as I have gone through this process (well most of it) I have been grateful to God that he has blessed me abundantly with great friends, a good job, a good car, a good place to live, never being hungry (genuinely hungry I mean), ministries, I could go on but you get the idea.
The other thing to ask is: How are you going in bringing out the best in people? Are you making them more holy by your presence or less?
If you dont have any concerns about being single then thank the Lord for that!
Comments?

What I do at work.

2005-06-03T15:30:00.000+10:00

Apart from sleeping, the one thing that takes up most of my time is work.
What do you do? I hear you ask.
Well, I am an Engineer. Technically my job title is Structural Design Engineer but that sounds a bit over the top. Engineers are at heart problem solvers. The problems that I solve at work basically revolve around buildings and making sure they stand up under a set of assumed loads.
Much of my day is spent in front of the computer (hence being able to blog things whilst not actually owning a computer) designing things, and the rest usually involves going out on site inspecting the buildings being built to make sure they are building it right.
For a typical building, we will get the Architectural drawings and from that I will make a finite element model of the building in my computer. It's pretty fun and generally doesnt require too much brain power. Each building is made up of slabs, beams, columns and walls. I also put in the loads for the 'dead weight' elements inside the building such as tiles and stud walls.
Once the model is made, the computer solves it. Each element is assigned properties and the computer turns the model into a matrix of simultaneous equations to solve. One particularly large model was a 100Million x 100Million matrix. The computer solved it in about 1.5 hours.
Once the model is solved, I can find out any loads on any part of the building and design the elements from that to resist those loads (safety factor in there of course :) ).
Once the sizes of the members are decided, sketches are given to a draftsperson who turns the sketches into drawings that the builder can build off.
Inspections are pretty fun. You get to go out to some pretty cool sites such as the penthouse level of a beachfront block of units. It also changes up the day and getting out of the office is also good. Oh, did I mention that I get to drive the boss's brand new commadore as well. :)
That's most of it really. Not particularly exciting for the non-technical but I like it. It is challenging and no two days are the same. There are some interesting projects worked on as well, such as the new golf club house and the big block of units on the corner of Station and Crown St's.

Then till now

2005-06-01T12:48:00.000+10:00

What has been happening lately? Short answer - not much, long answer - Also not much.
I will, however, attempt to fill in the details so as to not be too dull. Maybe I will comment on a few areas of life as well.
Last weekend I was sick. I dont get sick very often but I still hate it. What I mean is that I dont get so sick I have to take days off work or cant make it to things very often. In fact over my working life (including working while at uni) I can probably count on both hands the amount of days off I have had for being sick (not counting nose fixing operation).
So, being sick I couldnt go to sport or the gym coz my head hurt whenever I moved it around too quickly. After waking up at about 1:00Pm, I stayed in bed and finished reading "The DaVinci Code" and may I say what a pile of crap. Dont get me wrong, as a story teller and book writer, Dan Brown is really good. I quite enjoyed the book from that point of view but the historical and theological 'facts' that he explains with an air of unshakable certainty were pretty ordinary (actually just plain wrong). If I hear about the sacred feminine one more time I think I will throw up (either that or try and castrate Dan Brown). I think I will write a more in depth review on my thoughts as a later post.
After that I layed on the couch under my doona with the heater on and watched movies for the rest of the day (till 4:30). I had borrowed "King Arthur" and "The usual suspects" off Matt (ChinDoGu) which were quite good. "King Arthur" was a standard Jerry Bruckheimer movie with action and standard 'good guys win' action. No real twists and fairly formulaic. I still like movies like that and find them fairly entertaining. On the other hand "The usual suspects" was very clever and thought out. Not your standard movie. Had a great ending.
At 5:00 met the boys in town and we watched the rugby union final. Quite entertaining, though the Waratahs lost. Tim and I went to Macca's and got soft serve cones and went to 'The girl's house' and watched Star Wars episode 4. I thought it was good watching it thinking back to 3. I want to watch 6 again and see the emperor die. His death is so much more meaningful now we know the full story.
Role played on Monday night. I think the Bard wasted about 45 minutes of game time singing songs for people and being rediculously too careful in finding our contact who, was pointed out to me when I got jack of it and just asked the bartender. He said "that guy over there". Ohh well. It was pretty fun and I am really getting into it. Looking forward to next session. It's also comforting to know that Sally's character is there to look after me. Shame a L2 Wizard has been more effective in combat than a Shifter Barbarian... ;).
As for general things, bible study is going well. We studied Revelation Chapter 7 this week and we are going through the book at a blistering pace (not). It has promoted lots of good discussion and I think generally it has been helpful for those involved. This weeks discussion included the 144000 and who they were. We had a few options. Some said they could be old testament 'Christians', others thought they could be Christians alive when Jesus returns. I think generally the overall consensus was that they were the whole people of God who were sealed. The 144000 turn up later on in the book as well and we kind of agreed to keep chewing through before we solidified our thoughts.

Weekend of Goo

2005-05-23T12:54:00.000+10:00

For a weekend in which I thought I would struggle for things to do, I certainly wasnt bored. Thanks to God and friends there was plenty to do.
Friday night after work I had the usual JBS action. After JBS I went over to Matt's house and we played a little Warcraft 3. Pretty cool game. I like real time strategies and this one was a good one. We played for a little while but I was aware I needed to be at the Oxford to see Pak's band 'Waik' play at 11. Got there and found another band playing. I quickly realised that the advertised time of 11 was a bit optimistic. The band came on at 11:50. Still though, there was a good chance to chat with Paul, Jon, Eltham, Doug, Kester and Sim who had all decided to come too. The band came on and they played well I thought. I'm not into metal as much as the other guys but still quite enjoyed. Also, Jon and I ran into Cath Speed who was out with some mates.
Helped Pak pack has drum kit away... (bad grammar) and got home somewhere in the order of 2:00.
Saturday was also suprising with stacks to do. Sandy invited me around for lunch and we talked about my future ministry stuff. It was quite like a Club 5 interview if you know what I mean. It was great to just hang out with him and his girls (Karen was at the Equip conference). I want to be a dad!
From Sandy's I went to Steve Balson's house. We played around with a drum machine he had just bought. It was pretty cool with lots of funky tunes it could play. You could program it to play all the drum bits for a song and then Steve would play along with it. Pretty cool.
After that I went to Mark and Genno's house. The last I had heard sport had been cancelled for winter and since Genno was keen to hang out I came over and we played backgammon. It was good to learn. She won the 3 games we played. However the second and third games were won because she got heaps of doubles in the dying rounds. I found out later that some people actually played sport. I am still unsure as to whether it is cancelled or not.
Went home and got ready for 'Unified' which was on that night. It was quite good with some encouraging talks by Richard Chin and good singing and stuff. There werent really that many people there but hopefully there will be more at the next one which is in November.
Kester rang me at the end of that to say that he had finished work and to see if I was keen to do something. I went over to his house and we played Kenshin (I think that's what it is called) and Bond whilst enjoying a couple of beers Kester had bought which came from somewhere strange (I forget where).
I got home and watched the first half of the FA Cup. Great game but was fairly tired by then (dont know why!) and so went to bed.
Sunday was good as well. Had Caesars with Jon and Tim at Towradgi beach in the sun. Had some prayer time and good hanging out. Cleaned some of the house when I got home. I still need to set aside some serious time to cleaning it properly.
JBS was ok. We looked at 1 Tim 4 this week. Church was also good with a good sermon by Rob on Isiah 44-47 (ish). It was kind of wierd sitting in the pew not having to do anything. It was the first week in ages and was thouroughly appreciated. Sat next to a new guy James who had also seen the new Star Wars so there was plenty to talk about.
Need to prepare for bible study on Tuesday and a JBS talk on Friday. Prayers for organisation and fruitful work would be appreciated!

Doormats and the Deity

2005-05-23T12:49:00.000+10:00

I wrote this in the first couple of weeks this year. Since a few things have been raised, especially on Matt's blog, I thought I would post this and see what people thought. It is my first effort at writing something and some kind of editing could be appropriate. I thought it was ok though, since I am an engineer and I wrote it in about 2 hours.

Doormats and the Deity – A comparison of Christ’s humility and ours.
Philippians 2: 1-4.

Recently, the assistant minister of my church and I have been discussing the topic of Christ’s example of humility from Philippians 2. In our meeting up I realised that I previously had almost glazed over the first 4 verses of the chapter in excitement of getting to what Jesus has done.
Upon closer inspection, we can see that this passage is full of application. A proper understanding of Christ’s example of humility provides great benefits for us in our mandate of imitating Christ. Once we begin to put others above ourselves, we will start to have a great impact on our brothers and sisters around us, while also furthering our understanding of the great sacrifice that Christ has made for us.

1If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2then make my joy complete by being likeminded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose.

Are you united with Christ? Are you comforted by his love? Do you have fellowship with the Spirit? Joy or Compassion? (Paul knows that the answer to all these questions is ‘yes’) Then be to others as Christ has to you. We are called to have the mind of Christ, being one in spirit and purpose. What is our purpose? Think about what you do. Do your actions reflect this command? Is that seen to you as one in Spirit and purpose?
I have found that commonly at this point that we can fall into the trap of being double-minded. Our spirit and purpose do not have the required ‘oneness’ that is called for. We want to be as Christ has been to us, however, the sinful nature creeps in with it’s selfish desires removing our focus from others and placing it on ourselves.
Selfishness (putting your needs above the needs of others) is the opposite of humility (putting other’s needs above your own) and is warned against in a number of other places in the bible as well as in the next few verses.

3Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. 4Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

It is important to note here that considering others better than yourself is not related to inherent worth. We are all equal in Christ and it would be contradictory to say that you should see others as better in God’s sight than yourself.
It is saying that we need to consider others needs better than ours. We are to consider others not in our estimation of them, but in our caring for them, putting their needs above our own. What are people’s needs? Think about what are the needs of those around you. Are those needs being met? How can you meet those needs?
We are also called to do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Loving in tenderness and compassion will mean that we will be looking for others above ourselves. This is how Christ’s humility expressed itself.
Seeking the good of others is the cure for selfish ambition and vain conceit. We cannot do the two at the same time. Such a man is a double minded man, neither hot nor cold.

The risk of becoming a doormat
It is also important to note that this does not mean that you are to put the wants of others above your needs. For some of us there is a temptation to do what other people ask of us regardless of the cost for us. We can easily think that this is what Christ wants us to and so we can find ourselves at the mercy of people who don’t understand our needs (or their wants for that matter). An important concept in life comes in here. The concept of boundaries. We need to understand what our needs are and make sure that we don’t kill ourselves trying to satisfy the needs of others. Needs that may actually only be wants. See vs. 4. We should look to others interests, as well as our own. We have interests too and they are important.
I think it is easy for us to want the acceptance of the people we esteem. We seem to so desire the approval and attention of certain people. Often these are the ‘popular’ people, who’s friendship can somehow make us feel accepted and wanted. Often though, these people are not the people we should be spending all of our energy on. They are often quite self sufficient (hence the attraction), or have quite a few people looking after them already. It is likely that there are others who need us far more.
Our sinful nature can tempt us to lay down everything to be trampled underfoot just so we can get the favour of those we so esteem. This is not good. Not only are we not really looking for our own needs, I don’t really think we are looking for the popular people’s needs either.
In contrast, apart from straight out doing what we are supposed to, spending your time and effort on people who really need it is extremely rewarding. The people you do this with feel loved, they are encouraged, and they, in turn, appreciate your efforts far more than people who receive heaps of encouragement on a daily basis. The body of Christ is built up and that is a great thing.

So, as you go about your week, who will you be thinking about? Will you think of how to impress someone. Or, will you think of someone who might be a little left out or under cared for, and invite them over for dinner or even just call them up for a chat. It’s the little things like that, that people notice and are thankful for.

As Jesus said in Matthew Chapter 25, verse 40. 40“The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’

The Phantom Attack of the Sith

2005-05-20T12:43:00.000+10:00

Wednesday night (techincally Thursday morning) was the premiere of the last of the Star Wars prequel series: "Revenge of the Sith".
The day started pretty standard with work till 5 ish. At 7:30 Kester and Tim came over and we watched episode 2: Attack of the Clones. When this finished we went into town and waited in line. Overall, the lining up was ok. We were waiting for about an hour before they opened the doors. While we waited we noticed that hardly anyone had dressed up. There were a few jedi but not much apart from that. The stand out dress up was Vader. Someone went all out for a Vader costume, complete with full helmet and flourescent light red lightsaber. Pretty well done.
The movie was awesome. Of course, I wont go into detail, just to say that it was really well done and quite dark.
Had to drive Sim home since he lent has car to Amanda. Unfortunate he was on the other direction. Home and in bed by 3:00 ish. Fortunately, I had arranged to take Thursday off as annual leave. Slept in until about 12. Mmmm, so needed. Checked out the xbox demos Kester had leant me, cleaned up the house a little and did some washing up. Went to the gym and cursed the fact that it was a week since I had previously gone. I am a bit sore today.
Not much else to say. This weekend looks quiet. Going to see Pak play in 'Waik' at the Oxford tonight at 11. Apart from that I guess I will let The Force, ahem, I mean God, guide me.... :)

The Weekend Away

2005-05-16T13:13:00.000+10:00

This weekend just gone was our 7PM congregation's weekend away. It was a great weekend with fun and shannanigans for all, including a damaged ankle for Shaggy. :(
Friday night got home from work at 5:30, packed my bag and car and headed off to the church carpark where we all met before going down to Foo's Golden Inn for some Chinese dinner goodness. After that we piled into cars and drove down to the Kaloona conference centre in Nowra.
When we got there, we were met with the bad news that the previously mentioned sleep in and late breakfast was not going to be possible due to fixed meal times at the conference centre. With this in mind, I chose to go to bed at around 12:15. However, Eltham soon came in and we chatted for 45 mins or so, then Matt and Josh came in and, suprise suprise, Josh was up for a conversation. I am not sure how long we talked but I seem to think 2:30 was an expected sleep time.
Next day was really good with a few people coming down for the day and 2 great talks from Sandy. The main focus of the talks was evangelism. The 4 talks were on the topics of: Pray (for our non-christian friends and family, for opportunities and that we would take them), Love (really love people, dont see them as 'targets' or things like that. Get involved in their lives and love them like Jesus loved the 'tax collectors and sinners'), Share (share the good news of Jesus death and Resurrection with them as opportunities come up for the time is short), Invite (invite them along to church events and evangelistic services etc.).
Free time was cool with some ultimate frisbee being played. It was a good game with good involvement by all. After that stopped, I joined the volleyball game that was going on, it was fun with Sandy playing it up and smashing the ball down in my face in a DOMINATING type way. Lots of fun. Played a little red butt with the guys and found out later that Shaggy had damaged himself during the game. After that a few of us went for a walk down along the river. Apart from not looking where I was going and stepping in a cow pat it was pretty enjoyable...
After dinner we had the standard 'compulsary fun' that goes along with camps of this nature. We played 'capture the flag' which was kind of like tip but with objectives and so on. It didnt go for too long either so we were able to have a game of 'Settlers' afterwards. Finished off the night by sitting with Johnny and chatting whilst also reading the article in 'The Australian' about Peter Jensen. It was a hatchet job and was pretty harsh. However, I couldnt help but laugh out loud when I read lines like "He is too busy saving souls instead of looking after people's real needs".
Sunday was also good with the 3rd and 4th talks by Sandy. Sunday lunch and then home time. Drove Mark and Genno home and then went home myself for about an hour before having to go back to church for JBS. Shaggy was in emergancy waiting to get his foot looked at so I had the boys to myself. We went down to the EQ and got Squishies because Tim remembered the memory verse. The study was on 'Overseers and Deacons' from 1 Timothy but I was having trouble applying it to the kids so they were pretty restless.
Church was good but by this time I was ultra tired and had to leave pretty early after it finished. Rob did the first talk in our series on Isiah. He overviewed the first 39 chapters about God's warnings to the Jews saying if they do not repent they will be punished. They did not repent and were taken into exile for 70 years. However, God brought them back and let them start again and that is kind of where Chapter 40 came in. The sermon was good but, like I said, I was tired. Thankfully, during most of the service I was round the corner behind the drum kit so no one could see me yawning.
Now I'm at work and in desperate need of sleep. I have a day of checking drawings today which is pretty dull but I did get to go on an excursion to site this morning which was fairly interesting.
All in all, not bad...

Status Report

2005-05-13T09:29:00.000+10:00

Hmmm, what to say... It's Friday morning, the church weekend away is this weekend, and I'm procrastinating.
What has been happening lately? Well, in one way, not much (as in nothing's changed) and in another, plenty of stuff because God has blessed me with quite a full and enjoyable life.
Last week was the week of exercise. Monday - Gym, Tuesday - Rowing and push/sit ups at home (I bought a rowing machine off ebay a while ago), Wednesday - Run/Walk and push/sit ups. Thursday - Gym, Friday - Youth group (counts as exercise - all that running around with the kids), Saturday - Gym. Sunday was the appropriately named day of rest.
Friday night after JBS I cant remember what I did. Saturday night some of us went to Chilli's for dinner and then went back to my house to watch 'Cypher' which was good (seen it before but still good). Sunday night I led the service and it seemed to go quite well. The passage spoken on was the "If a man is going to build a tower, will he first not extimate the cost?" part of Luke. It also talked about the salt losing it's saltiness and I used some salt as a prop. The sermon was quite challenging and helpful for us to think about counting the cost.
This week, Monday (monday's are pretty busy these days) I went to work, then straight to Dan Pym's house to meet up one-to-one, then straight to TEAM for the bible study leading training. Then, instead of the usual gym, we had organised some nerdy role-playing at Kester's house. Got home about 11 and was insanely tired.
Tuesday was pretty standard with the third study in Revelation. We just finished the letters to the churches and are now getting on to the more 'interesting' parts. Booted everyone out early and tried to get some sleep. Slept like a rock.
Wednesday went to the uni-movies that night and we saw 'Robots' (pretty damn funny!) and 'Titan AE' which I hadnt seen in ages and found as good as ever.
Last night I went to the pub for 45 minutes with Cath and the dudes. I had a lemon lime and bitters which was about a hundred times better than the last one I had there. Went to the gym after and got home and went to bed. Mmmm sleep.
This weekend is the evening service 'getaway'. It should be good. I think a particularly good point is that we get to SLEEP IN!! this year. Breakfast is served sometime around 9:30 or so. Which is fantastic. Hopefully I wont get so tired this year.
Also, my housemate Dave went and bought a ticket for himself and I for the 12:01AM premiere or Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith. So, that's pretty cool. I have also got Thurday of next week off to recover after the late night.
Stu

Questionnaire

2005-05-09T16:54:00.000+10:00

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Having a bad day?

2005-05-09T16:46:00.000+10:00

As much as these sound plausible, I have my doubts!

Having a bad day? Just remember, it could be worse.....
1. The average cost of rehabilitating a seal after the Exxon Valdezoil spill in Alaska was $80,000. At a special ceremony, two of the most expensively saved animals were released back into the wild amid cheersand applause from onlookers. A minute later, in full view, a killer whale ate them both.
2. A psychology student in New York rented out her spare room to a carpenter in order to nag him constantly and study his reactions. After weeks of needling, he snapped and beat her with an axe leaving her mentally retarded.
3. A woman came home to find her husband in the kitchen, shaking frantically with what looked like a wire running from his waist towards the electric kettle. Intending to jolt him away from the deadly current she whacked himwith a handy plank of wood by the back door, breaking his arm in two places.Until that moment he had been happily listening to his Walkman.
4. Two animal rights protesters were protesting at the cruelty of sending pigs to a slaughterhouse in Bonn Germany. Suddenly the pigs, all two thousand of them, escaped through a broken fence and stampeded, trampling the two hapless protesters to death.
And finally.......
5. Iraqi terrorist, Khay Rahnajet, didn't pay enough postage on a letter bomb. It came back with "return to sender" stamped on it. Forgetting it was the bomb, he opened it and was blown to bits. Your day's not so bad, is it.........................

Actions speak louder than words

2005-05-09T10:57:00.000+10:00

Werent there more people in our group?.......
As I recall it, about 2 years ago, our group (by group I mean the people who do stuff on Saturday night) was much larger and the majority of the people within it were single.
Since then, as people have been 'getting together' as it were, attendance has dropped off and all of a sudden the only time you see certain people is at church on Sunday night.
Now I understand that people are busy and so on, but it seems like most single busy people still make it out and the busy 'going out with someone' or married people do not.
I know this post is generalising, but I am observing on what I think is generally going on.
What sort of message does this send to the single people? Well, the actions are saying that I will hang out with you guys while I am single, but as soon as a better offer comes along, well I'm giiiiooooonnnneeeee. By people's actions they are saying that being with someone is a preferred situation to be in.
So many times I have had a friend who I hung out with heaps. As soon as they got a girlfriend though, all of a sudden I never saw them any more. They always had time for me before, but all of a sudden I just wasnt a priority. Their actions were saying that they were happy to hang out with me while they were single, however once a 'better offer' came up, I had to go and look for some new friends.
This situation is unfortunate. From the bible we know that both singleness and marriage are equally valuable in God's sight. However, from the way Christian people (myself included - dont get me wrong, I am not thinking in any way that I am different) behave, singleness is an inferior life style. As much as people SAY that it is great to be single, their actions are often saying something different.
Last night at after supper supper the response to 'What's so good about being single?' was unanimously that you can do what you want. Unfortunately, when all your friends are spending time with their significant others, knowing that you just clocked up your 60th hour on a particular xbox game doesnt get you rejoicing that you are 'doing what you want'. Gee, let me think... play xbox, or hang out with some cool Christian girl... it's not exactly a hard decision.
Now this being said, credit where credit is due. People like Johnny and Morwenna, Mark and Geno, and Kester and Cath seem to be making genuine efforts to hang out with the remnants of the group.
But with many other people (not just at church I mean), it seems like the instant they get together with someone they just spend all of their time with each other. When you ask what so-and-so is up to tonight, often the reply is "They are over (insert boy/girlfriend's name)'s house". While they were so happy to hang out with everyone before, all of a sudden they are a ghost.
To be honest, I dont know if I would be any different. With this in mind I guess I would try to hang out with (insert future girlfriends name here) at other times and try to keep Saturday night open to still hang out with the dudes, but until I would be in that situation I cant say.
Sure this might all be hard in the light of reality, but what message do you send the single people you know?

This certainly isnt all there is to say on the topic and I understand that I have painted a fairly one-sided view of the subject, but then, that's what the 'comments' section of blogs are for arent they?