Didi's rabbits

We visited Sunita didi's house one afternoon to see her newborn rabbits.They were so small that two fit in my hands at one time! Ellie liked the rabbits but the cat was her favourite.

Close encounters

On the way to the hotel we had close encounters of various kinds:

Firstly "Thomas" the "Tank" engine. So dubbed because of the grey stuff pouring out the top.

Near this bridge we met some monkeys.

A short Holiday!

We enjoyed a lovely couple of days away with Liz. At her request we went "somewhere green." We enjoyed the scenery the conversation and the pool and other fun activities there.

A nice family photo!

Don't you love it when you smile so hard your eyes shut?

Fun with the kids

 Matt was away for a couple of weeks recently, so the kids and I had great fun, making origami boats...












And floating them in the drain outside our house just after a downpour.






















We also made a robot called "Square" out of a cornflakes packet. He, of course, needed some books, binoculars, a mobile phone and necklaces created for him.












E particularly loves painting, but neatness is not her strength.

Group Homeschool!

Some photos of the kids on their first day of school. We're part of a group homeschool coop with some American families which meets three mornings a week.

Two kids were sick the first day, so there were only 7 that day. Both of my kids had a fabulous time. Afterwards I asked E what her favorite part of school was. Her answer: "biscuits!"

Ellie's first day of school

 Putting her best foot forward. She had a great time!

 O and E wanted to dresss up in turbans. They looked at themselves in the mirror and O said "We look like policemen!" Hence the stern faces!

Back to India!

Our journey started on a train to the airport. It was a good thing, because there was a huge traffic jam on the motorway that day and we might not have made our flight if we had driven!






























We were on a airbus A380. It's big.




















A monorail in Singapore.





















The kids looking out our window at our hotel in Calcutta.














Two days after we arrived back we were straight into teaching at a workshop! Not recommended.

If you're reading this ...

on your own computer. Then you're rich: see here.

Pro-choice is not real choice

A great, bipartisan article on abortion by, Lyn Bender, a woman who had one.

She says that she actually felt that she didn't have a real choice, that abortion was her only option - even in our society which overflows in choice.

Read more here.

Lausanne talks are up on iTunes

search for Lausanne 2010. Gold.

Abortion debate

My post on getup's website on their new pro-choice campaign:

I am pro-choice in the true sense. I believe that a woman has a choice to not fall pregnant. She has the choice to take take the pill, to use an IUD, to use a condom, to use a diaphragm. So many choices.

I only support the the right to have an abortion if those rights to choose have been forcibly taken away from the woman (eg. when she has been raped.)

I don't understand why people on the left of politics (like me), support our Government providing adequate safety nets for the underprivileged in our society, and support big action on climate change (partly because it is the poor of the world who will suffer most if our climate changes), but we don't respect the right of the most defenceless person in our society - the one inside another person - to continue their life outside the womb.

Doesn't this seem strange to anyone else?

I'm a big supporter of most of getup's campaigns - except this one. I think the abortion debate should be taken off getup's radar, because I think we are divided on this one.

Sabbath rest

I just read a great book on parenting, Confident Parenting by Jim Burns. In one chapter he talks about how to "do" sabbath with your family. I found his 4 different categories of sabbath rest helpful. (Note: I've changed their titles so I can remember them more easily).
Physical restoration: Taking care of your body. Sleeping in, taking Nana naps, lounging around with the family... and for those who need to get more exercise to restore their body: taking walks, jogs, going for a swim.
Emotional restoration: Doing what gives you emotional energy. For me this means hanging out with good friends. For others it might be doing something by yourself - like taking a candlelit bath.
Spiritual restoration: Doing things which restore your soul and give you spiritual strength. Reading the bible, taking a prayer walk or prayer hour, listening to and singing worship songs, listening to a talk, doing devotions with the family. These can be done individually and as a family.
Relational restoration: Spending time together playing as a family. Doing fun things together which create memories, encourage bonding, reduces tension, and affirms each member of the family. Playing board games, going on fun outings, sharing a special meal, doing whatever makes you laugh together and have fun.

I found these categories very helpful because I often tend to concentrate on one or two of these types of sabbath, when we all need them all in some measure. He also isn't legalistic about setting aside one whole day for sabbath, but he does encourage scheduling regular times in the week or month or year to do these activites so they are prioritised by the whole family.

Why shepherds?

Why did angels appear to shepherds in Luke 2?

Shepherds!???!

Isn't that a bit random?

Or is it some imagery to do with Jesus being the shepherd of Israel, so symbolically, shepherds coming to worship him first is appropriate?

Or was it that God's angels were just overflowing with joy and had to sing about it, and the shepherds happened to be there when they did?

Just wondering.

A solar powered India?

Here's an ambitious plan for solar power generation which the Indian government is contemplating. I hope they go for it. Power cuts happen every day over here.

Some natural wonders

The last post has prompted me to recall things which I have seen which have made me (metaphorically) breathless at the natural world we live in. Here's my top 10.

1. Accidentally seeing a total solar eclipse (see previous post).
2. Riding around country Denmark on the first warm spring day. I saw more green than I could remember, and the additions that humans have made to the environment there are delightful. I'm surprised that this innocuous day has made it onto this list, but it's my version of Wordsworth's daffodils.
3. Driving through a wintry Arizona, seeing only green firs heaped with white snow and then happening upon the orange tones of the Grand Canyon. Amazing.
4. Lying on my back at night just outside Canberra and watching shooting stars and satellites go by.
5. Seeing Kachenjunga (3rd tallest mountain in the world) from a few hundred kilometres away in Darjeeling.
6. Seeing the peak of Everest from a plane (it was the same height as our cruising altitude).
7. Seeing the rings of Saturn through a telescope.

And 8-10? I'm still waiting for those. I wonder what they'll be... any suggestions?

A Lucky Solar Eclipse

I got up early yesterday morning. I happened to be checking the news on smh.com.au and I saw that there was to be a total solar eclipse, and it happened to be in the part of the world I was in.

I read a bit further, yes, exactly where I would be...

I looked at what time it was supposed to be happening... I checked the time here... mmm that's about right.

I turned my head 90 degrees, and I could see, through the clouds, that the sun had almost disappeared. It was just a small sliver of sunlight that I could see on the underside. I wasn't sure if it was the sun or the moon, but then with a moment's reflection I realised that with a solar eclipse it's, of course, both! I'd always wanted to see a solar eclipse, so I was thankful that I had been woken early.

Then the sky went darker than I've seen even thunderous storm clouds darken the sky. It was eerie - we could see that there was bright sunlight still lighting the clouds on the horizon. Some people screamed as the sun disappeared. Some made their Hindu religious wailing noises. Then I could see the ring around the sun before it disappeared behind the clouds.

The darkness remained for about 3 minutes. It was a long time to be in that dark-but-daytime state. (Imagine the three hours of Matthew 27:45!)

Then, in the course of about 30 seconds we returned to what felt like full daytime (but of course the sun was still mostly hidden). It made us realise again how dark it had really been.

I asked my friend later what people thought about it, she said that people aren't scared, but they do think it's something unclean, and that after a solar eclipse they clean all of their plates and pots and pans to purify them.

Are our church planters forgetting something?

There's buzz going around these days about church planting. Al Stewart has been appointed as the Director of Evangelism ministries (in the Anglican church). He's going to focus on church planting.

 

Here's a quote from Al:

 

"I am absolutely committed to inspiring, recruiting, equipping and placing young men with a passion for church planting and reaching the lost."

 

Here's Michael Kellahan's take on Al's message from the recent Moore College Church Planting Conference:

 

"We have got to revitalise existing churches and plant more. The big middle chunk of our churches are not growing. The biggest factor is leadership. We need to support guys and get the right guys in the right places and the wrong guys out (Al Stewart soon to be ex bishop of Wollongong)"

 

My question is:

 

Where are the women in these discussions and conferences? Seems to me that half of our church is women, and that women also have gifts in leadership (even the most conservative amongst us hold that women are at least to lead and train other women.) Even for those who hold that a man should lead a church, couldn't his wife (if gifted and interested) also be actively included in the planning process?

 

I get a little worried that the inital planning is taking place from a very male perspective - and may lead to unbalanced, and therefore unsustainable churches.

 

What do you think? Does anyone else get this vibe?

Did mark think Jesus was God?

Here's something which I've learned recently about Jesus as shown to us in Mark.

 

I noticed a while ago that Jesus never calls himself God in Mark. Our doctrine of the trinity clearly tells us that Jesus IS God, but where is the evidence for that in Mark? You would think that if he was God, he would have told us in each gospel somehow….

 

I was going through Mark chapter 6, and I came to this verse which comes just after the disciples were struggling in the boat, when there is a storm, and Jesus walks on water towards them. When he gets into the boat with them the storm immediately stops, and Mark notes that "their hearts were hard, because they didn't understand the significance of the loaves". What? Is that a mistake, surely Mark meant that they didn't understand about Jesus having power over the storm… Assuming, as we must, that what is written is what Mark intended us to read, then I started thinking. "Well, what is the significance of the loaves?"

 

So I read over that whole section, and I saw some parallels to Old Testament passages which gave clues to the meaning, and what the significance of the loaves (and the whole section) may be.

 

Here's my paraphrase of chapter 6 verses 31-52, with Old Testament allusions in bold.

 

***

 Jesus said to his disciples, come to a desert place and rest a while, because there were so many people coming and going that they hadn't had anything to eat. And they went by themselves, to a desert place. Many people followed them there, and Jesus had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd, and he taught them many things.

 

After a while it became late and they were all hungry. His disciples tell Jesus to send them away, but instead, after commanding them to sit in orderly groups, Jesus miraculously provides bread for the people in the desert. And everyone had enough to eat.

 

Jesus then told his disciples to go ahead of him into the boat as he went up a mountain to pray. Then a storm came, and Jesus saw that the disciples were struggling in the boat. He goes out to them, and does he go straight to them? Not quite. He intends to pass by them. But when he sees that they are afraid of him, he says to them "Have courage. I am. Don't be afraid." And he goes to them, into the  boat and immediately the storm ceases.

 

They were amazed because they didn't understand the significance of the bread miracles, because their hearts were hard.

 

***

 

Who is the one who feeds hungry people in the desert? Who meets with a human on a mountain, and passes by him? Who is called "I am"…

 

The significance of the loaves is the identity of Jesus. Jesus is the one who fed Israel in the wilderness when they are hungry. Jesus is the one who is called the "I am".  Jesus is showing by his actions (in this section, and repeatedly through Mark) that he is God.