Wednesday, January 2nd, 2008
Having moved house at the end of last year, one of the tasks I’ve recently completed is the reconfiguration of our book storage system. Previously we had bookcases of various sizes and hues scattered around the house, wherever there was a spare wall. In the new place we’ve really only got one room with walls suitable - so it’s become a library and entertainment area (for the family) and study (for me). And a lounge for the family pets…
To make this happen we’ve invested in a Billy shelving system from IKEA. Good things about the system: capacity to work in a modular fashion, attach shelves to walls and each other, and the capacity to fit them right against the wall (space allowed for skirting boards). There’s special shelves for CDs and DVDs, as well as the options of doors and glass shelves.
Some lessons learnt in the process of assembling fifteen units:
1. It’s worth it to get large loads delivered.
2. Allow plenty of time and space for assembly.
3. Get help with moving the flatpack boxes around (to avoid putting your back out and damaging walls)
4. Think carefully about what faces to the top, the bottom, back and front. Check before tacking the back on.
5. IKEA are generally very good about exchanging and returning goods.
Tags: Home Front, IKEA
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Thursday, September 27th, 2007
We’ve just entered the housing market again - putting our home on the market. We signed up with the real estate agent on Tuesday morning, had the photographer through on Wednesday lunch time, and the first viewers last night. Today is the day for the 360 degree photography tour.
Take a look at the first online ad for the house here at realestate.com.au.
This photograph is from 5 years ago but it’s still a good indication of what the front of the house looks like.
We decided to move because our property (1400 square metres) is just too much for us. When we first moved here it was great to have the space, the mango, guava, lemon and star fruit trees. There’s something real about having free range chickens. However over time we’ve come to realise that the only time we spend out the back is when we’re mowing lawns, pruning trees and hedges. We don’t have enough water to really garden. And, being a family of geeks, we don’t have the commitment to use every weekend keeping the property looking good. So we’re looking for a smaller property.
Tags: Gold Coast, Home Front
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Sunday, March 25th, 2007
I mentioned in my review of the Forge Conference that Wolfgang Simson was a hyperbolic metaphoric passionate speaker. Well what do you know, he’s also a very approachable correspondent. I’ve had some very useful email conversation with Wolfgang in response, exploring the context and meaning of my remarks and his.
The ‘hyperbolic’ is tied up with the large number of house churches planted by the people Wolfgang met in India, Indonesia and Bangladesh. I got the impression he was being given numbers by church planters that couldn’t be corroborated. No doubt there had been a large number of groups started throughout these countries. But to give the numbers (was it 20,000?) was, I inferred, an example of hyperbole. Not lies. Maybe exaggeration. We got the point - that developing a reproducing theme at the heart of a church planting movement is so important.
Wolfgang responded by explaining that he had came from a background of healthy cynicism in which he set out to test claims of church growth, first in Europe and later in Asia. He provides some background to the people working and researching in India, Egypt, Indonesia and Bangladesh. It was good to hear Wolfgang’s life context and story.
When someone mentioned to me during the conference that they were having difficulty coping with the incredible stories of rapid church multiplication, I shared a story from my life in NZ. It was September 15, 2001. I was at a ministers gathering in Tokoroa, New Zealand, hearing from the AOG pastor who had just returned from India. He told us about incredible responses to the gospel from crowds of people there. He did acknowledge that a response at a revival meeting was not the same as a life-long response of world-changing action. He shared about the miracles, including people being brought back to life. We talked about the different environments, wondering if the Indian people were more open to anything happening.
When I returned home I discovered an ambulance at the front and a crowd gathered around. My wife was standing by the pavement distraught. On the road was my 18 month old daughter who had been hit by a car. She’d died on impact. A neighbour was administering CPR but it wasn’t working. I prayed to God with every bit of earnestness possible. I rushed into the house and rang the church where there was a worship service about to start, to ask for the prayers of the congregation. But Kristen didn’t come back to life. She would have turned 16 yesterday.
So how did I feel about those stories of resuscitation from India? How did the AOG pastor feel about this tragedy? We didn’t have much to say to one another. Neither event made the other impossible. As you can imagine, my wife and I felt dampened in our faith. We already knew that prayer is not magic. We knew that God suffers with us in difficulty. But mustering up the courage and grace to pray for God to intervene was hard for a while. We winced when we heard the story of a young man being revived through prayer at a crash scene not far away. Why didn’t God intervene at our crash scene? But it wasn’t long before we found ourselves plunged into God’s merciful intervention in the world again. It was the faith of our three year old daughter that led to praying for the healing of a friend’s broken arm, with amazing results.
The stories of amazing effectiveness go together with the stories of incredible struggle. And visa versa.
Tags: Church Planting, Home Front, house church, Mission, Spirituality, Theology
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