Kenya tomorrow!

Well the time has come for us to hope in three planes, and spend the month in Kenya telling people about Jesus, and helping them out. Check out www.myspace.com/foxfires for updates as the month goes on.

Rowan Returns

Today Rowan returned to our church, Rowan used to be one of our assistant ministers for quite a number of years, a big part of that was with the youth at our church.

He was very inspirational for me as I was going through the later part of high school as a Christian, and I (along with the rest of our church!) was very sad to see him go.

He left to be head of the 'EU' which is the Christian group at Sydney Uni, and by the sounds of things, God is very much at work through it which is very exciting to see.

It was very encouraging to hear Rowan preach again and also to be able to catch up with him. God as given him an awesome gift with preaching, he always does it in a very clear way, and is always overflowing with energy which is pretty much impossible not to absorb if you are sitting in the congregation. I also love his sense of humour.

I think tonight made me realise how much I miss him - although in saying that I definately wouldn't want Stefen or Peter to leave either! They are awesome too. God blesses us in many different ways through different people, each person can do many things in a unique way that will bless others in the way God knows is best.


I had a bit of a panic attack when I thought I had lost my keys, I got to church and found a hole in my wallet... and no keys! What confused me though, was that the hole only led to inside the padding of the wallet, and therefore they couldn't have dropped out. I fished out each coin from the padding, each time hopping it was the keys, but alas, they weren't in there.

Upon returning home I found that I had just left them in my pocket on Friday.


Oh yes, and the Big Year 13 Kenya Supporters Night is up very soon! Be there... or don't!

Kenya! (Norway?... More Like Snoreway)

Upcoming fairly quickly are two different things that are going to be promoting our mission trip to Kenya:

* First off is Youth Church (5pm) and Evening Church (7:15pm) this Sunday 13th May.

Both services are going 'African', some form of African food is going to be there (Morocan Chicken at Youth Church - thanks to Chris from Year 13 who is going to kindly help), and the supper at Evening Church is going to be African themed thank to the bible study doing it that night.

Also at both services I am going to be interviewed, a DVD is going to be shown, a chance to support the mission with prayer, and another night is going to be pushed... that night is...

* The Year 13 Kenya Mission Supporters Night

This is on Thursday 31st May from 7pm - 9pm at Menai Anglican Church. This is a special night for all the Year 13's, where we will be telling everyone what we are going to be up to in Kenya through various forms (music, dramas, interviews... puppets!). Also a chance to support the mission financially and in prayer.

Everyone is very welcome to come to either of these!


---

I've been very tired recently, it all started last week after bible study Monday night, I went to bed kind of late, took a while to get to sleep, then woke up after about 3 or 4 hours cuddling my blanket which was entirely under my sheet... this confused me enough so that I was not able to go to sleep again.

And I haven't really caught up on that lost sleep as of yet, college always exsausts me, add onto that kids club and yr 6 - 8 youth in the afternoon of college and I'm pretty much stuffed. Usually I can use Saturday to recharge, but last Saturdaythere was Children's Ministry Conference. It was really good - great combination of teaching, practical ideas, and hanging out with others from my church, but it left me even more tired, I slept for 12 hours that night.

I though I had finally caught up, but I've hit the wall again, and unfortunately this week is a biggie... I've got a few things to do to prepare for the Youth Chruch and Evening Church Africa things mentioned above, I'm doing the yr 6 - 8 youth talk this week, and still got a fair amount of college homework to do... I'm stressing a bit...

KYCK 07

We came. We saw. We played stomp.

As expected Kyck (without the start!) was awesome. The talks were very good and were actually all quite challenging from the word go. The theme of this year was 'Follow' and was focused on chapters 9 - 19 of Luke.

A big thing that came through the talks was the cost of following Jesus - that of giving up everything to put him first in our lives, and the implications of doing that. We need to 'count the cost' before we make the decision. But the decision is very worthwhile! The most important one a person will ever make... ever. We need to live our lives focussed on the life to come - that which we will be living in heaven eternally with God and all of our brothers and sisters in Christ!

Something that got me quite excited was after one of the talks they had a reflection time where they got the youth to think about how they can follow Jesus at school. It was very cool to hear the ideas that many brought up.

Something else I've found exciting is that of seeing God at work in the lives of the youth at our church. This isn't something that just came up at Kyck (I may have mentioned this in the blog before too), but it was something that stuck out to me yet again. Its great to see the many ways they are using their variety to serve God and others.

I really loved the music this year - the past few years have been good but I defiantely found this year's to be the best. I thought it was led very well, and it was great to sing along with and enjoy the talent that God has given them. One of our own - Ben Ackland - was also in it!

And of course, the rest of the time was just as good. There is a fair amount of time over the weekend, particularly Saturday, where we are able to just hang out and enjoy each other's company. This always helps Youth Church grow even closer as a 'family', and it was no different this year. As Brooksie said when we gave me a lift home from church on Sunday, being in a community of belivers is a small slice of heaven. Coming together to grow to know God better as a community - its one of the closest things we can get to heaven! In Brooksie's words: there's simply nothing else like it.

So overall a very very worthwhile weekend. The only bad thing that came out of it is that I now have a sore throat...

I'm praying that God will work wonders through both the youth and leaders - through us growing both in our relationship with God and our friendships with each other.


(Click for bigger picture)

Easter Craziness

Had a crazy Easter at church:

Youth Church serive Thursday night - went well, was the first Youth Gospel Choir performance.

Good Friday service at 10am, followed by practice for choir for the Easter Sunday 8am service. - I think I actually had a bit of burnout at this point. First time I really noticed it... going to have to look out for that.

Saturday was filled with nothingness, so was a great opportunity to recharge and get rid of any traces of burnout.

Sunday was my first 4 service Sunday. I was in the 8am choir for Easter Sunday, then I helped out at the 10am all-age service by being on 'Activity Sheet and Crayon Hand Out' duty for the kids.

I then went home for a bit before going back for the Unofficial Youth Church hangout thing I was trying out. It ended up going great - had 8 people, which wasn't huge, but still a great number! I personally found it a really encouraging and relaxing time and others said they enjoyed it as well.

Then had Evening Church and supper afterwards. So a good day overall - but very tiring.

Monday I then had a family gathering over at Como (Hey Jason!). And that ended the Easter Craziness.

------

Since then I've been doing nothing - which has been awesome!

I've started playing through Kingdom Hearts again. Its a game featuring a bizzare crossover of Disney franchises with Japanese anime-like characters... which results in a very entertaining, nostalgic, and epic game.

For a look into its awesomeness - just imagine being able to fight as your character against Barbosa from "Pirates of the Caribbean" with Jack Sparrow, Donald Duck and Goofy by your side. Or how about going back to the old-school black and white Mickey Mouse world to fight alongside the old Pete, against the modern-day Pete!... Maybe you have to be a bit of nerd to find that cool, I'm definately a nerd, so in my books, it is quite the coolness.

-----

Kyckstart is coming up this weekend! Really looking forward to it. Also looking forward to see how God works through it in his amazing ways.

CPR (Can't Precisely Remember)

We did the Senior First Aid Course at Year 13 this week. I actually found it extremely hard to concentrate throughout pretty much the entire thing, the only thing I could think about was my desperate urge to go jump into bed and sleep for a few hours. (Though as usual, I had woken up completely by night time... I showed some other Year 13er's Cold Rock at Cronulla).

But even though I was only 50% concious the entire course, I am theoritically able to give CPR to someone if they suddenly fall over and stop breathing. I say theoretically because I doubt I would remember what to do, especially when someone is actually not breathing as opposed to faking it. Hopefully I'll remember it though - but it'd be awesome if the chance to remember never happened. Hear that everyone? Don't stop breathing, and don't die. Thanks!

---

Went to supper after church today - Jason did as well - we usually can't make it because of being a bit geographically challenged, but Lara and Mark very kindly gave us lifts home which was awesome.

It got me thinking about the group of ex-Year12's. At our youth camp at the beginning of the year I got to hang out with quite a few of the ex-Year12's which was great, and I also got to know some of them who I didn't really know that well before.

Unfortuantely I've found that in a regular week there isn't much of an opportunity to catch up with them, seeing them after EC is great, but the time really flies. Some of them lead the yr 6 - 8 youth, and Kids Church (at which time I am still in my half-asleep zombie-like state) but apart from that there isn't really many times.

Hopefully some more opportunities will come up in the future.

Mario and Sonic at the Olympics

http://www.aussie-nintendo.com/?v=news&p=12172

...?








Mario and Sonic in the same game = must buy... this is a historical event!



But... at the Olympics? Could this possibly get any more random?!? (Its random in a very good way though!)