New Every Morning

This week is, and is going to be a hard week.

In a week like this, I find myself asking the question- what does scripture have to say to me in life's difficult times? What can I turn to for comfort? Or often it's not that articulate and thought out- I just pick up my Bible and cry out "Help".

And as often happens, the verse that as a church we are memorising this month, the very verse that Tim and I did a kids talk on this last weekend, was the one i needed to hear. The verse we had was Lamentations 3:22-23- but I'll give you the context. May it comfort you in whatever situation God has placed you in.
Love B

19I remember my affliction and my wandering,

the bitterness and the gall.
20I well remember them,

and my soul is downcast within me.
21 Yet this I call to mind

and therefore I have hope:
22 Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed,

for his compassions never fail.
23 They are new every morning;

great is your faithfulness.
24 I say to myself, "The LORD is my portion;

therefore I will wait for him."
25 The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him,

to the one who seeks him;
26 it is good to wait quietly

for the salvation of the LORD.
27 It is good for a man to bear the yoke

while he is young.
28 Let him sit alone in silence,

for the LORD has laid it on him.
29 Let him bury his face in the dust—

there may yet be hope.
30 Let him offer his cheek to one who would strike him,

and let him be filled with disgrace.
31 For men are not cast off

by the Lord forever.
32 Though he brings grief, he will show compassion,

so great is his unfailing love.
33 For he does not willingly bring affliction

or grief to the children of men.

Photos of my life Part 1

Well, one of the things that Tim and I bought with our airport voucher was a camera.
We are very excited about, and some of my excitement I have to say is that I can finally have photos on my blog. Not that I'm going to have many I'm sure- I'm just not a super photo person, but I am excited that at least you can see some pictorial evidence of my life.
I wanted to do a day in the life of Belinda, but of course I forgot to take photos for much of it- so here's just a taste!:

My train trip across the habour bridge. It isn't a particularly good photo but you get the ide

I don't know if you can tell- but the scary looking man at Luna Park Sydney is raising awareness of Men's Health this Movember :)
After Mainly Music on Wednesday myself and some of the church Mums who attend/help went out for Japanese. This is four year old Samuel trying to avoid getting his photo taken. Samuel is my good buddy- he's a shy little boy but he loves "Tim and Alinda". His Mum Nicole started coming to Mainly Music last year, and eventually became a Christian. She is getting Baptised this Sunday- which we are all very excited about!

This is where I spend most of the day- Chatswood Baptist Church. It's a wonderful place, and particularly a wonderful place to do kids ministry as it is something that the whole church cares about and is behind. This particularly day was spent on Mainly Music, Talking Nicole through what would be happening with her Baptism, emailing people about their involvement in ministry next year, and preparing for my last scripture lesson of the year.

The beautiful roses in the Memorial garden near the station- with a train behind. I'm just heading home after a very tiring day. Self Portrait on the train!

Oh, and on an unrelated note- here's a picture of my spunky husband taken by someone who actually is a photo person!

Love B

God is...

How would you respond?

I asked my scripture class what we had learnt about what God is like this year.

Two of the girls (using the black-eyed pea song) described him as...

G. L. A. M. O. R. O. U. S.

hmmm.....

Cooking

Cooking for me started as a chore, became a joy, moved onto a therapy, and is now (most of the time fun)

When I first got married I was a jar kinda girl. Kanton was my dear and sweet friend. I can't quite pin point what changed it- the cool and exciting gadgets that sat on our wedding present table- calling out for use? The ever appreciative hubby who decided for some reason I still haven't figured out that I am the best cook in the world (so much easy to cook when you get appreciation)? The not so healthy wish that rose up in me to be a domestic goddess like I believed all my other married friends were? But somehow I started to take it seriously and discovered in the process that I loved it.

Then I started working in ministry- and cooking became a kind of life line. Why? I didn't figure it out at first, but then I read a book or heard a talk or something from someone who had started ministry and developed a great love of woodwork. Ministry for him, and for me- was one of those strange occupations where there are no output targets, no reports due in that are accepted or rejected. Yes, you could get to the end of a Bible study and say- that was a good Bible study or that was a bad Bible study but it's not really the point. Ministry is about people, about loving people and showing them Christ- and what they do with it, well that's actually not your part of it. It is open ended and uncertain- and it's often long after you've finished that you actually find out what impact you have had.

So in that world- I needed cooking. I needed a recipe to follow. I needed a task that took half an hour to 45 minutes and had a result, either it was burnt or it wasn't, either Tim wanted to me to cook it again or leave it off the menu forever. There was something so wonderful about that and in the first 6 months of ministry it was a bit of a lifeline.

I was reminded of these things watching Julie and Julia. This movie (which was great by the way- so nice to see a movie that was so positive about what marriage can be!) carried similar sentiments as Julie realised how special cooking was to her, that no matter how hard or awful her day had been, she could always come home and cook. It was a certainty and a joy.

And I still love cooking, even though now I am more used to ministry, more used to trusting God with the unknown, and better able to judge my efforts on my faithfulness rather than on my results. I am also more aware that when God in his kindness and goodness changes some one's heart, it has very little to do with me and so much more to do with him.

But it is still nice to come home to my temperamental stove, my 100s of cooking magazines, and my pantry full of spices- and know exactly what I'm getting into.
love B

Sick and writing

I'm sick again! It's a combination of nose/throat, a slight temperature, and vomiting/nausea. The nausea is (I'm hoping) partly due to some antibiotics I'm taking for a stomach parasite (does the fun ever end with me?), so should go away once I finish the ABs at lunch time.

It's so annoying! And it's compounded by the fact that I always feel ill if I sit up for long periods of time. So I will try to get this post down before my next trip to the couch.

I thought now would be a good time to set down my novel writing goals so that (for once) I might stick to them.

This is the plan...

My aim is to get the first draft of my novel done by December 2010. That's right- 13 months time. I think this is manageable if I get cracking. I'm probably almost half way there at the moment, and so 13 more months should do it.

Part of the aim of Dec 2010 is that I can then set aside 2011 (our last year in Sydney) as the year to actually go about seeing if anyone wants to publish it. The more I read about it, and as I look back on advice received in my creative writing course at Uni- there is more to getting published than just writing a book and sending it out. You need to get your name out there by entering writing competitions, connecting with local writers organisations and finding an agent who can sell the manuscript for you. 2011 will be the year for starting that process. I also like the idea of giving that task a solid year of my life so that...if it turns out that my novel (in it's 2011 form) is not up to scratch, I have a date where I can come to that conclusion and remake it or start something else, or move on.

Scary.

One of the biggest tasks I have to do, which is currently leading to a fair bit of writers block- is to really pin down what I want to overall story (across the trilogy I'm planning to write) to be. At the moment I keep rethinking things, adding extra characters just for the fun of it, and adapting my current story based one what I would like to happen in the next two. I really need to work out exactly what will happen in the future books so I can in some ways set them aside to really concentrate on the one novel.

Alright, time to lie down again.
love B

Places

If there is one thing I hate more than cleaning it is packing!

And this pack will be one of the hardest of all.

Because we are moving from a ridiculously large three bedroom place with no cupboards to a tiny 2 bedroom place with a cupboard at every turn. So we are going to be throwing out so much stuff and I hate doing that! And I know no matter how much Tim convinces me to throw out, I will not throw enough out so when we get to the box-unpacking stage we will be throwing out even more stuff so that our study doesn't end up being the box/junk room.

But the other thing that will be hard is that we are leaving.

I am such a place person. I get attached to places. I love places. It's been over 12 years since my Grandparents sold their farm and yet I try not to thinking about it much even now because I ache so much for it. And even though I'm really excited about moving into College housing, my heart already aches for this place. For the high ceilings and the big windows. For the strange nooks and the musty smell. For the mess that as accumulated in a way that I'm happy with.

I'll miss the trip up to the laundry and the strange little car-park. I'll miss the check-out people at the local store who I see enough to have them smile when they see me walk in.

I'll miss my walk- under the railway line, pass the shops, up to Parramatta road and past the dress shops!

I'll miss Stanmore and even though it is within walking distance of where we will live it will not be the same.

And in two years time I will feel exactly the same about our tiny two bedder.

It's times like these when I need to remind myself that my home is in heaven. And one day I will go there and never have to leave (or pack!) again.
love B

Engaged!

I am so very excited!

Tim's "little" brother (he's the tallest in the family!) has just gotten engaged to his girlfriend Angie. Angela is not only one of the 6 people who read my blog ;) but she is also a dear friend and I am so excited that she is going to be my sister!

Congratulations Joel and Angie! My prayers are with you as you prepare for your big day and your life together to come.

Wish I could be there with you to celebrate! Weeks like this are the hardest ones to be away!

love B

Slug Sluggard

As long time readers of this blog would note- one of the first rude shocks that awaited us on our arrival to Sydney was Cockroaches. Tim and I, it might surprise you, are not the worlds biggest fan of these little critters. In fact, we don't like them very much. And while my fear levels have diminished somewhat (through over exposure) we are very glad to find that for some reason, despite the hot weather, the cockroach population of Stanmore have decided against taking up residents at our house. We are not sure if it's because of our super sonic cockroach repelling beeping machine, or just because we don't leave food scraps around (as much).

But a new friend from the disgusting brotherhood of bugs has taken over.

Slugs!

Now, about 3 months ago, in the dead of winter we began to have slug sightings. Now, I have to admit that I don't like slugs very much. Strange hey, what's not to like? But seriously, the worst thing is that in order to kill them by squashing, you have to put up with a squelch. I hate the squelch.

Thankful the slug sightings have reduced, but we now have an even more disturbing problem.

Slug trails.

You know those shiny trails that slugs and snails leave on the ground that look kinda pretty in the sunshine? They don't look so pretty in your house. Particularly because you know exactly where the slugs have been hanging out while you've been sleeping

These are the sightings I've recorded so far:

-On the lino (not so bad)
-On the carpet (again, not so bad but...)
-On any tea-towel I leave on the kitchen bench
-On any sponge I leave in the sink
-On my cake cooling rack.

Does anyone know where I can get a super sonic slug repelling beeping machine?

Of course, I could just clean the kitchen more thoroughly so that the bugs won't in anyway be attracted to the bench?

But I'm a sluggard.
love B