Back to Australia. This is what greeted us as when we emerged from the big boat. Melbourne. Good trip home.
Reflections on Tasmania:
- In the words of Juan Antonio Samaranch: Best. Holiday. Ever.
- The people aren’t that weird
- Not all the women have mullets
- Everyone waits for the little green man to appear before crossing the street. Row thinks that it’s because people aren’t in a hurry.
- It may be because of their isolation from the rest of humanity, but Tasmanians are very proud. They think that they’ve got something pretty good that the rest of Australia are missing out on. They may not be too far from the truth!
- More people follow the Aussie Rules football than follow Jesus
- Pray for more churches and ministries that will proclaim Jesus: who died for our sins, was buried, was raised from the dead and then appeared. (1 Cor 15:3-6)
Have you missed our Tassie Tour Journal? Check it out here:
Dave + Row. April 07.ps – we didn’t really sleep in the lifeboat – but the seas were pretty rough…
pps – thanks for joining us on our adventure (what was
your favourite day of our holiday???)
Last day in Tasmania. Spent the day in the car. Buying some birthday presents. Eating. This lunch was fantastic. French stick. Cheese. Cascade Ginger Beer and Apple stuff. Killing time in Devonport waiting for the boat. (Coffee freaks – no Starbucks… so we had a coffee that you guys may have approved of!)
We noticed this sign that said there was only one lifeboat. So when we heard the Captain say that the seas had officially got rough and crazy, and having seen the movie about the ‘unsinkable’ Titanic, we decided to sleep
IN the lifeboat. Not comfortable. But reassuring.
We left Hobart with some lovely coffee. Shout out to all my coffee snob friends and family (esp
Andy M and
Guthers... EDIT: +
Michelle)
Ross is this little town about 76kms out of Launceston. Quaint. Used to have a women’s prison during the convict days. PS. I heart Row.
Launceston. We’re pretty much over the tourist thing. Went for a walk down some gorge. Water was ugly. Air was nice.
Worst meal of Tassie? Chinese from the food hall in Launceston. Don’t ever, ever, ever, ever buy Chinese from food court… it’s been sitting there all day… what were you thinking David!! Dessert was good. Pancakes. Yum. Here’s a free add for some businesses on Charles Street.
“We preach Christ crucified.” Saw this on a church over the road from the food hall. It made up for the bad meal. Do you know Jesus? Read more
here
Today is ANZAC day. Watched the 11am march through the main drag of Hobart. Thankful for sacrifice of Australians. Thankful most of all for Jesus’ sacrifice (1 John 4:10).
Port Arthur. Expensive. Worth it. Tour was great. We’ve enjoyed checking out Heritage buildings, learning about Convicts and becoming better acquainted with 19th Century ‘Justice’. Moved by reflecting on the events of 28th April 1996.
I heart Hobart. Launceston was next on the itinerary. But… we are staying in Hobart one more night. Yes. We’ve taken a stack of Hobart building pics. Here’s a few. 300 was the movie of choice for Wednesday night. Dave: I liked that movie. Row: Why? Dave: The violence. Did you like the movie? Row: Yes. Dave: Why? Row: The violence.
Fantastic sleep-in this morning. (Mental note: don’t get used to them!) Mt Wellington is tall. Mt Wellington is colder the higher you get. Mt Wellington is great. (That was a Haiku if you stretch the rules to 6 syllables/ 12 syllables/ 6 syllables.)
Last Friday I said that there’s no traffic in Tasmania. Now that we’re staying in Hobart – there is some traffic – but not much. It only takes 10 minutes to get right out of the city into Sticksville. That’s pretty cool. Lunch was yum at Home House Winery.
Dinner was yum back in Hobart.
TV sucks. It’s been fun watching a bit each night, but we’re glad we don’t own a TV. A Current Affairs and Today Tonight are funny. I’m not sure they are supposed to be comedic. Laugh. ABC is by far the best channel on Australian TV. We’ve seen some interesting docos and stuff. Hobart is brilliant by night. Don’t get stuck in front of TV. Enjoyed coffee and dessert at Maldini’s at Salamanca. We were the only 20 somethings without trendy mullets.
We had a delicious breakfast before leaving on our road trip from Strahan to Hobart. Row was disappointed that she had to see her breakfast for a second time. The road was crazy crazy zigzaggy for about 100kms of the 260km journey. Good fun!
Shout out to
THE GIDEONS! Everywhere we go they have placed Bibles. Thank God for THE GIDEONS – and pray that God would be pleased to bring people from death to life as they read these Bibles.
Salamanca is Hobart’s version of The Rocks – Trendy Heritage Zone.
Took some sweet snaps in Hobart tonight.
GUESSING COMPETITION: What is the name of the above church?
Day 4 = Boat day. Cruising in the World Heritage Area on Gordon River.
‘Hell’s Gates’ (top right) is where Macquarie Harbour meets the Ocean. The worst convicts were sent to Sarah Island (inside Macquarie Harbour) between 1822 and 1833. The conditions were harsh and many convicts considered it worse than a death sentence. I do think that these ‘Hell’s Gates’ aren’t in line with what Jesus says in Matthew 7:13-14.
The tour on Sarah Island was very good. The Salmon for lunch was even better.
There was an audience of 50+ oldies on hand in the arvo for a pantomime, ‘The Ship that never was’. As two of the youngest members of the audience (and therefore at a lower risk of heart attack) Row and I were both involved in the drama. Good times. The 1 hour show told the story of the last ship (Frederick) built on Sarah Island. The 10 convicts who built the boat stole it and fled to Chile. Fascinating story. You’ll have to go to find out how the story ends (or look it up on Wikipedia).
Self portrait # 37. “Goodbye” to Cradle Mountain.
But had one more walk… before driving to Strahan.
Staying in a cottage in Strahan for 2 nights. Dinner in town. Good damper. Fantastic steak. Worst carpet in Tasmania.
For a long time I have made jokes about Tasmanians having 3 arms. Confirmation: it’s true. From the moment we woke up on The Spirit of Tasmania this morning – we saw nothing but weird people. Odd people. Nutty people. They must have been in hiding last night and only came into light when we pulled into the shores of Devonport. Mullets are indeed a fashionable item on women down here.
First stop. Penguin: A town that allegedly has a Penguin population of 3000. The penguins here look more like seagulls. The only normal looking penguins weren’t normal at all – they were made of plastic and one was twice the size of Row! The town of Penguin has a problem with scooters riding skateboards.
Sign 1: Wrong. The best water in Australia comes straight out of the taps here in Tasmania!
Sign 2: Wrong. It’s a trick
Sign 3: Wrong. Beware of Tasmanian Devils – yes. Beware of Tasmanian Tigers – maybe. Beware of Traffic – definitely not! There is no traffic… maybe that’s why there is a need to beware – there isn’t much – so beware it might come out of nowhere?
Sign 4: Wrong. No ice today (wait a month of two…)
We went for a great walk around Dove Lake below Cradle Mountain. Magnificent! Best. Bushwalk. Ever. It's difficult to look at such a marvellous creation without seeing the handiwork of a Creator. The Chateau that we stayed at was very nice – good Devonshire Tea (coffee) and a great Art Exhibition. Most of the exhibits were photos from Tasmania. Favourite photo: a bear too smart for a salmon.
Holidays. Sweet holidays. Hope you enjoy our Tassie Tour Journal.
Early start. Too early. The time of day when only heretics are on TV. One of the best things about staying at Row’s parents place is being able to steal some ‘Up & Go’ from the fridge. It wasn’t enough – so coffee at Sutton Forrest was necessary.
Early lunch in Albury. Best building? The train station. On our way into Melbourne we noticed this unfinished blue fence – no wonder Sydney is a better place!
We spent 3 hours in St Kilda while we waited to board the Spirit of Tasmania. Good coffee on St Kilda Pier. There were lots of fishing rods cast into the ocean without fishermen attending them – where were the fishermen? Maybe Mark 1:16-18??? The Spirit of Tasmania was lots of fun. There were some confusing signs onboard.
A prize for the best interpretation of the above sign…
Just watched Baz L's
Romeo + Juliet. Only the 2nd time I've seen it (1st time was when it came out 10 years ago). Brilliant story (good job William). Brilliant movie.
Would love you to pray for our camp
PHAT. Pray that non-Christian teenagers would be brought from death to life and that Christian teenagers would be matured in Jesus. I'm speaking on 1 Thessalonians in the morning to the year 7-9s and part 2 of an
Idolatry series at the night time combined session for yr7-12s. Peaceout.
Discovered
these dudes last week. We might do some of their gear on
PHAT this week...
26 Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." 27 Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe." 28 Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!" 29 Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."
30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. (
John 20:26-31)
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, (
1 Peter 1:3-4)
28 After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.” 29 A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. 30 When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. (John 19)- Thank God for the finished work of Jesus
- Thank God for non-Christians who were at church this morning
- Ask God that he would bring people from death to life as Jesus' death and RESURRECTION is proclaimed this Sunday
- Ask God that he would be at work through his word on phat
- Praise God for Bec (Row's sis) & Tony's new son... born today!
I uploaded another TALKCAST last night. Check it out
here... they were from PHAT last year. Peaceout.
Just downloaded some songs from
Chris Mayes' band
The Wild Frontier on
triple j unearthed (you need a username to download all 3 tracks). Very cool.
...is back
online. Shout out to
Rodeo Clown for his help. Thanks man.
I've spent some time recently in 1 Thessalonians and been reminded of the way in which the Thessalonians turned away from their idols to serve the true and living God. It's been helpful to reflect on how this is similar to my experience.
I grew up in a Christian family and have always known about Jesus and his death and resurrection. However during my teenage years I spent most of my waking hours (+ countless dreams!) pursuing the idol of soccer. It wasn't until I started to come to
Central Coast Evangelical Church in mid-1998 that I "turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead - Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath." (1Thess 1:9-10 NIV) What impressed me about CCEC was the clarity of Bible teaching week after week and the clear explanation of how the death and resurrection of Jesus ought to impact on all areas of life. Praise be to God!
---------
Guessing competition... a warm fuzzy for each correct answer - 4 warm fuzzies can be redeemed as a coffee:
1) How old was I when the above photo was taken?
2) In which Western NSW regional town was the championship played?
3) What position did I play?
4) What year was this photo taken?
Here are 4 talks from PHAT06 (
ccecyouth yr7-12 camp). Ezekiel is a heavy read. Ezekiel had a heavy task. Ezekiel shows us a heavy God. We had a heavy time studying it last year.
Easter 2007 Monday, April 02, 2007 |
I have mixed feelings about Easter this year. I love Easter. I love Jesus. I am filled with joy and thanksgiving for the way that Jesus showed his love for me by dying and rising again. So Easter is fantastic... it's a great opportunity to tell the world about why Jesus went to the cross.
For the last 10 year I have been going to
Katoomba Easter Convention. KEC is gold. This year I won't be going to KEC (we will probably head up the mountains on the Saturday). I'm a bit bummed about this... it's such a great time with church friends + other friends + fantastic time in God's Word.
HOWEVER... I'm a really, really, really excited to be going to
CCEC for Easter. It will be the first Easter I have shared with my CCEC family!! It's taken 9 years! AH is big on Easter @ CCEC - and thinks it ought to take priority over KEC. So I'm really looking forward to Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday. Above is a video that Grant made for Easter promo.
Click here if having problems viewing.
What are your plans this Easter?ps - we had a real live donkey in church yesterday for Palm Sunday!
pps - congratulations to eternal weight of glory for this 250th post...
There are so many lame youth group names. Lame event names. Lame ministry names in church. I've decided that I don't like acronyms. I can think of stacks of good names that are simply words that may or may not have a deeper meaning. Eg: Proxy, Youth, Crossfire, Change, Velocity, Worthy, Flipside, United, Ignite, Wildside, Massive, Impact, Elevate, Revolution, Phat etc... I also think that generally ones with numbers in them are lame too. Especially ones that refer to the year group that is being catered for... eg. 68 (6-8), 79 (7-9), eleven50 (10-12 - too cryptic). I know of groups with numbers from Bible verses - such as 10:31 (from 1 Cor 10:31) - this is okay. I cannot think of a good acronym. I can think of okay ones... but generally acronyms are a bit 90's... like clip-art!
What makes a good name?What are good names you've heard of (or use)? Can you think of any good acronyms?
Benny Waters wrote this
poem on his holiday. Great stuff. Here's an extract:
In whom is my treasure
the things I delight,
the things that I think of
both day and night?
Is it vain things,
whose glory will fail?
Things that won't last
or ever prevail.
Read the rest
here. Ben is a big John Piper fan... his writing is very Piperesque...
Back to Australia. This is what greeted us as when we emerged from the big boat. Melbourne. Good trip home.
