Times a-changing: Semester 2 Kicks-Off

We're now one week and one day into second semester at college. What happens in a week? A Hebrew test. That's what. (I really like Hebrew, but it is the weirdest thing this world has ever seen).

Several things have changed... Biblical Theology is finished for the year, as is Congregational Ministry. On the other hand, Philosophy (with David Höhne) and Mission Foundations (with Greg Anderson) have started.

A friend of mine had this to say about first year at Bible college: "First year is basically where you figure out how you study and learn not to stress out when other people are studying and you're not - you can't study all the time, everyone's different, there'll always be someone studying and it can't be you all the time".

Sounds simple, but that's super-helpful advice to a busy little student.

On a different note, Nick and I aren't back into swimming yet (we've only been once since returning to Sydney - it was fantastic to be back in the pool... we discovered we can still swim!!!).

Holiday. Celebrate.

Why the long hiatus in blogging? Well, surprisingly, holidays intruded! I kinda expected that would mean more time to 'keep people up-to-date'... not so.

As many of you will be aware, we spent the first three weeks of holiday in Tassie. Gosh it was great. Time with family and friends and doing very little else.

Stuff we got up to in Hobart:

• Fairly successfully avoided college work (except for some language-revision, which I'm happy with).
• Read a few books that had sifted to the top of the pile.
• Watched half of the first series of Northern Exposure - time has taken it's toll, I think.
• Went to Richmond (with Pete and Pamela, who were visiting from Sydney)
• Took a trip up the mountain.
• Kate managed 2 colds in as many weeks; Noah had conjunctivitis and an ear infection simultaneously.
  
• And, of course, spent time together and with family (those who were in the state) and friends. (But, if we didn't get a chance to hang-out with you, it's not because we don't like you - we just couldn't cram more in!)

Then back in Sydney we had a lovely family picnic out at Vaucluse. (I'll put family / cute pictures onto Noah's blog - here's one that caught the lovely-ness of the day, though.)


We had a week back in Sydney before college resumed. We did some errands (like, finally got our licences changed to NSW; got our fridge fixed), watched some Scrubs (Season 4), and went on a Church Conference with the Cathedral... that was excellent. It reminded me of how important weekends-away are for building relationships. I think it was especially helpful for Katie, in giving her more a sense of belonging at church.

On a related note, the Conference also induced serious deja vu. It was at Merroo, in the Blue Mountains: the campsite where I went to Club 5 in 2000 and 2001. I was taken back to those halcyon days with Philip Jensen preaching on Zechariah; Chris' Skyline's breakdown in Yass; and mt growing realisation of the need for people to work full-time for the cause of Jesus... Halcyon days.