Hit the ground running...

The warning I got for going into year 2 of MTS was the above phrase... I just looked up the meaning of the phrase and it basically means "to immediately work very hard and successfully at a new activity."

The way it was said to me was as though it was a negative thing but I am keen to work hard and be 'successful'!!!

And God has been kind... this year has started really well with all the ministries I am invovled with have started up for the year over the last 2 weeks.

TAT (Tuesdays - Women's Bible Study)

I am leading with Caroline de Jersey again this year. Our group has lots of new people for me to get to know. And we are begining the year by studying Genesis.

Youth Group

My girls are in year 12... they are working hard and have said they are keen to get as much out of youth this year - which is so encouraging to hear that they are committed. We will be going through an evangelism training course in first term: Considering Alternatives.

Drama

35 children we have this year. A little overwhelming in our first week... which led us to do some serious planning, restructuring and programming. Which made the second week far more successful... little planning goes a long way. Praise God for so many new children not from Matthias.

SWITCH - evening church bible study (Tuesday nights)

New ministry that has started up for 18-24 year olds. Everyone meets at the hall for a talk, workshop, discussion, mingle etc and then break into groups. I am co-leading with Marty this year... which will be great. We have a large group of 12 or so people, and I am looking forward to spending time with them all around the gospel of John for first term.

Scripture @ Paddington Primary

Hasn't started yet... the school wants us to wait till Kindy's are settled. Please pray that the school would be more welcoming of us coming in. But Praise God for the opportunity to go in week by week with the glorious gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. I will be teaching years 3&4 again with Mrs Teo.

CURIOUS - ISCF @ Randwick Girls

Haven't started yet. Communication with school has been difficult, but went in on Friday to physically speak to few people. Praise God for 2 girls E & M from Matthias who are keen and eager godly girls who will come.

Pray that Term 1's series on living for the king: All things royal goes well and that the flyers would attract the new year 7's and others along to our group on Friday lunchtimes.

I will be leading this group alone - pray that God would raise someone up to assist me and also for me to train up! Praise God for Nicolette who was able to help out all of last year - pray for her as she starts BTeaching full time at Uni!

He alone is my rock and my salvation;
He is my fortress, I shall not be shaken.
Psalm 62:5

Want to try and learn Greek??

I found this website that is a helpful study resource for learning Greek - not that I can read Greek but maybe one day...

http://www.zhubert.com/

Glorious Holidays

Just returned from the most relaxing 5 day camping trip to Putty Beach with Jules.

...Julia & Hayley

We had a fantastic time away - A typical day would consist of reading, eating, swimming, day dreaming, enjoying nature, meeting other campers, finished off with a little more swimming, eating and reading.

We had a lovely 5 man tent for the two of us (thanks Guy & Sam), a small gas stove, stove top espresso, good coffee, toaster, awesome menu (good work Jules - we even made Sushi for lunch one day), great comfy chairs, folding table (thanks Guy & Sam), esky, gas light ... all the modern conveniences - just NO shower... eek! But hey, the Beach was right on our doorstep or tent flap... so lovely!

...making sushi

We had many bush turkeys sharing our camp site, which you sort of got used to by day 2. We had a possum visitor each our food on the first night... 'yes, Dad we should have put the food box in the car'... We felt at one with nature, dirt by the end of the week was no longer an enemy but a friend.

...mmm coffee

Preparing for dinner one night, Jules was trying out her new can opener, sitting there with the instructions - she just couldn't work it out! Just didn't seem to open the can? So I said I would have a go... so I turned the can the other way around thinking it could be part of the problem and so i started screwing the can opener around and then PLOP all the contents came out from the bottom - Jules had been able to open the can but neither of us thought to take the can lid off... so all the corn was on the dirt ground... instead of chucking it in the bin we scooped it up and washed it off in the ever useful strainer... waste not want not, right?

...the beach

I finished reading The Narrow Road by Brother Andrew, churned most of my way through The Revelation of God by Peter Jensen, got through another Eugene Ionesco play The Chairs and listened to John Dickson 5 part talk series on his book Promoting the Gospel.While reading Jensen I realised that my vocabulary is not quite that of an academic... many words Jensen used I had no idea about or I thought I had a vague understanding of what it meant but when put in the context he used it I had no idea.

Anyway, I decided to compile myself a little list of words that I needed defined and so here are all the words, with my guessed meaning and then the real meaning - hopefully you too can grow your vocab. I don't think I did too badly in coming up with a meanings but nevertheless...

... if you are keen to read you may need to click the image to view

Praise God for the time spent with Jules: sharing life, praying, discussing God's words, dreaming and having fun. Am really thankful to God for the friend I have in Jules.

Thank God for the refreshing time away, camping really allows you to stop, have no technology to distract you - just get back to basics and nature!