It was that kind of Conference

Occasionally, you enjoy a conference that is saturated with the gospel, just encourages you, fires you up, but paints a very real picture, not just the glossy stuff. What a joy those conferences are. The Church Planting Conference of the last couple of days was that kind of conference.

I have just three things to say:

• Well done, Nick, for awesome blog-coverage of the whole thing. Seriously, read Nick's posts :)
  
• If you want fuller notes, drop me an email... I took notes which run to some 27 pages!
• But don't be content with my version. I'm also buying the DVD of the whole thing. Let me know if you'd like to borrow it sometime.
  

Listening for Leaks

Two little announcements have been nestled in among the conference material so far. They won't affect many of you, but for those few who are interested and/or know the characters involved...

1. Al Stewart has been named the next director of Evangelism Ministries - with a twist! (See ACL story here) It sounds like the plan is to expand EM's scope to include a role in Church Planting. Al seems a great bloke for the job.
   
2. As Nick mentioned, Al Stewart and Andrew Heard jointly announced the In the Chute conference for those on the cusp of planting churches. It's scheduled for the end of November.
   

Two great initiatives, I reckon.

Church Planting Conference, Nick's Thoughts

Check out Nick's posts on the Church Planting Conference that we're both in on today and tomorrow. There's been great stuff so far!

House Party (i.e. Weekend Away)

Last weekend was our third-year 'house party' (incidentally, could that be the dumbest-sounding term possible for what is essentially a weekend holiday?!?). So my class traveled down to Wollongong for some time together, Bible teaching, meals together, and laughs.

We took the scenic route this time around, which was well worth it. Noah and Coco enjoyed the sights.


Being our last year-house-party, it made me realise what a blessing my peers are to us, and just how soon we'll be farewelling them for Tasmanian shores. Mixed emotions!

Bean Tampered, Summer Hill

Bean Tampered, a new café in Summer Hill, opened its doors on Saturday. We made it in there for the first time this arvo.

They roast on site, which is a promising sign. The roaster, Lino (sp.?), had a roast on the go while we were there.


As for the coffees we were served... well. It's not great news. I think the extraction left a bit to be desired. Either that, or the beans were just too fresh. Kate's milk left a lot to be desired (just over-heated). She couldn't finish it. Cute red saucers, though.


But I'll be back. I figure they'll iron out the bumps soon. And I like the idea of a local cafe that roasts on site.

Luddites Eat Too!

Last weekend my mates, Pete and Pamela, hosted a Luddite Food Festival. Genius idea.

We all had to show up with a dish or a cake or whatever that we'd made 'from scratch' and without the aid of electrical gadgetry.

I made Silk Handkerchiefs with Pesto Sauce from Jamie's Italy--think homemade pasta and homemade basil pesto. Extra points for hand-rolling the pasta (no pasta machine here!). But I lost points for forgetting the rule and banging the basil in the food processor at one point. Oops :)


I felt like Popeye after rolling the pasta. Throbbing forearms. Ouch.

Three cheers for Pete and Pamela's Luddite Food Festival!

Ends. And Relief.

These last few weeks have really taken their toll on me, I think. There have been a bunch of wonderful things happening, but it's all left me feeling pretty drained. But two things ended today, which spells relief, in some measure.

The last in a long line of stressful things happened earlier today: my final Hebrew test. Yup. The last one. Last. Done. Finished. No more.

The second thing (also today) was this: the end of semester one. Just one more semester to go for my degree!

In the Hebrew test, here's what I was confronted with:


The test was actually pretty cool. I don't mean I did well (I did ok). I mean I liked the questions. Here's the format:

• You're faced with that bulk of text. You give two translations: one that's close to the Hebrew, if clunky; one that's smoother. Then you have to comment on what's gained and lost in smoothing it out.

Ahhh. Holidays. Please pray we get some great rest and time to reconnect.

Bows and Arrows and MTS

I've made a few comments on the recent MTS Cricket Team Conference over at the MTS Tasmania blog. Why 'Cricket Team'? It's basically a vision for ministry trainers across the country to gather into groups of a dozen or so (hence the cricket team), to locally embody and encourage the whole MTS thing. I reckon it's a brilliant idea.

Mikey and I were flying the flag for Tassie at the conference, which was held here in Sydney (well, Port Hacking).



We also did archery! A kinda team-building, bit of fun, I guess. It was really difficult, but rad. Mikey still doesn't like Legolas.


The conference got me really pumped for getting back into things in Hobart, especially evangelism. It also reinforced to me just how encouraging it is to learn from and hear from like-minded guys from other contexts. Praise God for the MTS guys, I reckon.

Old Testament 3. Another Essay in the Box.

These blokes were my roomies on Winter Camp, Aushen and Frank.


And some more of the serenity at Stanwell Tops.


But today was the day of my Old Testament essay, well, finishing it anyway. Please thank God that I found time to do it in the last hectic week or so. Secondly, it really was great to spend some good time in the Psalms. It was quite a nurturing kinda exercise.

From Winter Camp

I'm posting this from my room at the Presbyterian Youth 2009 Winter Camp. It finishes up tomorrow, but has been great so far. (I'm on the Junior Camp, which is for Years 7-10)

My role on camp is to be a Pastoral Carer. It's a very cool system: they recruit a bunch of people like me to come and hang out with the other leaders on camp to chat with them about life and ministry. I'm allocated 5 blokes, and they're my focus; I'm their go-to man for all sorts of things.

Four other cool things about this camp...

• Well-Pitched Material: Sermons, Bible Studies, even just the little things... cute little video bits here and there, thoughtful ways to involve the young'ns in stuff.
  
• The Venue: it's at The Tops Conference Centre, which, at just about every point, is just a bit nicer than any other campsite I've been to for this sort of thing.
• The Organisational Kung Fu: They have dedicated tech teams, dedicated musos, dedicated activity-organiser-ninjas. The result is a very smooth-running machine indeed.
• Integration: Today's programme included a massive activity/game thing, which led seamlessly into the sermon (in terms of theme and relevance to life) in such a way that I reckon it reinforced the Bible's message really strongly.

I'm going to sleep now...

Coffee Love

The barista at Shenkin invited Nick and me to a cupping (coffee tasting) evening, which happened last night. Coffee love.

We had a ball. Nick's written it up here, so please check his post out. I second his comments on the Ethiopian Yirgacheffe. It was phenomenal.

And there was beer-tasting, too.




Nathan's comment: "Blue Cheese!" He was dead right. This beer tasted just like a blue cheese. Notice, too, the hand-written portions of the label. Uber-small brewery, I guess.


The whole event was arranged to coincide with the arrival of Ben's new little joy: his new Synesso espresso machine. For one reason or another it wasn't quite ready to roll last night, so Nick and I went back first thing this morning to taste the first shots from it. Double rists. Delish. Great work, Ben.