If I just lay here...

I've got a new favourite band.


"If I lay here, If I just lay here
Would you lie with me
And just forget the world?
Forget what we're told
before we get too old
Show me a garden
That's bursting into life

...I need your grace to remind me to find my own..."


'Chasing Cars' from Snow Patrol's new albumn: Eyes Open

Boat

God bless this tiny little boat
And me who travels in it.
It stays afloat for years and years
And sinks within a minute.

And so the soul in which we sail,
Unknown by years of thinking,
Is deeply felt and understood
The minute that it's sinking.
(Michael Leunig, 1990)

(Photo taken in 2004, Munda, Solomon Islands)

Bandana Day

Here we have a celebration of Bandana Day!
One of our 11 year olds from Youth Group has recently undergone her first treatment for Leukemia. It's really heartbreaking.
Leukemia, at least, has a reasonable survival rate these days but the chemo is so tough - and it really just does prove that shit happens to good people. I've really been asking how can this happen? (As have her family!)

Anyway, it's tough stuff. And there's not much we can do to take her suffering away but we have been plugging bandana day to support Canteen which supports her.

The top pic is some of the uni crowd (Uniting Spiritually) and the bottom is some of the kids from her youth group.

Tomorrow we're hitting up the church with bandanas too, although we'll wait and see if the oldies are ok with putting bandanas on their heads :). You know how it is.

Get behind Canteen this weekend!

Authentic worship

Everyone has told me about the genius of Cheryl Lawrie and her alt worship creations…

On the weekend I had the pleasure (well, sort of) of experiencing something of the sort. Cheryl set up a simple sacred space using the story of Job, relating to anger with God. It is the first time I have ever cried in worship. It is, I believe, the first time worship has ever connected with what I really thought. Really. Deep in my heart.

And it hurt.

Yet it's authentic, and that's all we can ask for.
The picture above asks what are you raging about?

'Give me the courage God to say that I am angry at the world, and at you.
That things aren't all different
That you aren't different
That you are not what I need you to be

And I don't know what you can make of this.
That is all I have faith left to pray.'

Thanks Cheryl.

Make Indigenous Poverty History

On Sunday night we had a reflective service at church on "Make Indigenous Poverty History". It's hard to digest all the Milennium Goals at once and remember, recognise and rectify in an hour or so. Yet it was enough to move us into a recognition of the dramatic injustices in our country and a common hope and committment to make a difference, wherever and however we can.
We each read a committment aloud together and signed the Poverty Pole with our handprints. We'll put the pole out the front of our church in the ground and hope that we might be evangelistic about justice for Indigenous peoples!

Opportunities

So the universe is trying to tell me something, I'm sure.

Today I/we had another community happening. Another woman in trouble. Dave and I were driving along and happened to see a man chasing a woman and then punch her, and she fell to the ground. I already had Dave's phone in my hand and started dialling the police (you know, friends that they are of mine :)) in time to see three more young guys run towards her also.

They threw her handbag out in the intersection and she ran out to get it and started to leave the scene, and the men walked behind her in pursuit. We sat in the car, giving details of everyone to the police and to their credit, they said they would be there right away.

Dave and I kept driving (we had to find out the street name) and in a couple of minutes went back. Even though this was a time when I didn't want to put ourselves out there in a bunch of angry young men (and the woman seemed safe for the moment), I wasn't sure that it was okay to leave her there without the police.

Good news! In 3 or 4 minutes the police arrived with two very big officers, and we saw them tackle the man who punched her as the woman walked away.


My mum joked that I should just start staying at home and I joked back: "But who will save all these women?!?!". It's kind of a joke but has a really sad side to it.

Technically, our actions today could be unwelcome and interferring. On the other hand, it is never ever okay to abuse people like that, and that man belongs in jail. Not that I believe in our "punsihment" system either. But that's another story.

A good news story for the police today. A not so good one for this town. And probably a not so good one for all of us again, who looked on or drove past.