My New Year’s… 2007.

Oh I don’t understand Your ways
Oh but I will give You my song
Give You all of my praise
You hold on to all my pain
With it You are pulling me closer
And pulling me into Your ways

Now around every corner
And up every mountain
I’m not looking for crowns
Or the water from fountains

I’m desperate in seeking, frantic believing
That the sight of Your face
Is all that I need

I will say to You
It’s gonna be worth it
It’s gonna be worth it
It’s gonna be worth it all
I believe this
It’s gonna be worth it
It’s gonna be worth it
It’s gonna be worth it all

I believe this
You’re gonna be worth it
You’re gonna be worth it
You’re gonna be worth it all
I believe this
You’re gonna be worth it
You’re gonna be worth it
You’re gonna be worth it all

Jeremiah 29:11-13 // For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

Sunday in Sydney

I find it really interesting the reaction to the video of Saddam Hussein’s hanging… people want to watch this stuff. I wonder if one day when the saints are being beheaded, they’ll put that on mass tv… as the world gets darker, people will become more bloodthirsty… the worst kind of reality television. I don’t know if it’ll go that far, but I know that it will probably get worse.

We met at Lou’s this morning… and went to Sydney’s Paddy’s Markets… I bought a shoulder bag… went on the monorail, had lunch, came home .

Doing nothing for NY’s… I’m boring…

The final countdown

I had never heard of the song ‘the final countdown’ until I did the Forerunner Internship. I learnt more about music from the 80s in that 5 months than I had in my entire 17 years so far.

But I guess the title is apt… I’m now on the final countdown to actually getting to Perth… tomorrow is New Year’s Eve, and I have no plans except to go to bed early. Sunday or Monday we’re going to Paddy’s Markets, and Tuesday the idea is to go to the Blue Mountains… basically a nice-scenery place 2 hours north of here… then I fly out really early Wednesday morning.

DTS doesn’t actually start till January 7th (Sunday) but it’ll be good to have a few days in Perth beforehand, methinks…

Onething broadcast

It’s good stuff. A little weird… the 8pm broadcast is at 2pm my time and I’m usually out… but the 5am broadcast is at 11pm, and I can get that, or the 2pm one is at 7am… talk about bad times aye. Might try to be here tomorrow for the 2pm one… i’m watching the 5am ET one now… it’s good stuff.

The other option was going clubbing with my sisters… right now, i don’t drink… i don’t actually have any theology formed on that, it’s just that most of the people I hang with, and the type of ministry and path I’m on… yeah, drinking just doesn’t make sense..

Perspective on $

www.globalrichlist.com.

Silent fasting.

Okay, if anyone reads this who knows anything about silent fasting… the theology of being silent (?), practical stuff, how you deal with needing to answer questions and what counts as ‘noise’ or communication… please leave me a comment, i very interested.

Heart-connect

It’s only been a week… but it’s been a week with just my family who don’t all neccessarily ‘get’ what I do… most of them don’t… and it’s not the same as being with people I’m doing this journey with.

So yeah, right now I’m feeling a little lonely… a little like I need someone to talk to… to hang with over a Starbucks frappuchino or a McCafe hot chocolate or in the prayer room with the beanbags, raiding the communion supplies at 1am on a cold but still night in the middle of Lower Hutt. Maybe just a phone call… someone who gets the journey… someone that can kind of understand what’s going on… because community is what this thing has largely been about, and I’m not yet connected to a ywam community… someone I can dream with and scheme with…

Any volunteers?

A new year….

I keep trying to get inspired to write new posts about a new year… they’re burbling away… watch for a post soon.

Yesterday I met up with Jenni, a friend from school who has lived here in Sydney for two weeks… we got burgers, and a Starbucks double-choc-chip frappuchino with extra cream base, and whipped cream (there is no Starbucks in Perth… but there is the Perth YWAM cafe, Kaio.)… went and spent an hour with a homeless kid on the street, gave her my bible… came home last night and watched movies with my sister.

Today Lisa, Drew and I (sister, brother-in-law) went kayaking with a group from the backpackers we’re staying at, and spent a couple of hours out on Sydney harbour. I got real real tired so on the way back I went in Drew’s double kayak, Lisa took my single, and we towed them back together. Spent the afternoon watching tv at Louise’s with Andrew… tea with family… back to the backpackers. Hopefully an early night tonight.

Technical difficulties

My cellphone is playing up… I’m not actually getting a lot of texts until quite a few days after they got sent (e.g. yesterday I got texts from 5 days ago.) So if I love you all very much, text you, then you don’t reply, you know they’ve gone into cyberspace… which unfortunately seems to be quite often.

Rather nteresting jokes… fantastic music

What do a cat at the beach and Christmas have in common?
Sandy Claws…. (aka Santa Claus, in case you didn’t get that.)

I’d like to promo one of my favourite music people… I’m never quite sure what you call worship-leaders-who-release-CDS… because worship artists never seems quite right, because worship isn’t an art, it’s a lifestyle. Anyway, her name is Cindy Ruakere, and she’s like one of my all-time-favourite New Zealand worship leader and speaker peoples…

She’s done a few conferences and the like with Onething and Hope Centre… she’s been doing itinerant ministry for over 7 years, as I understand it. She and her drummer (Maryanne) and bass guitarist (Anita) are headed overseas on a nine month international tour in 2007, so hopefully we’ll run into each other somewhere in the nations.

So check out the nice website at www.cindyruakere.com… visit her myspace at www.myspace.com/cindyruakere… and buy the new CD that they’re releasing in January. It’s called Karanga, and I was in the studio for some of the time when they recorded it, it sounded great then, and once all the BVs and editing and mixing and mastering (I don’t get what they do exactly. Make it sound more beautiful?) are done, it’ll be amazing. I think the release date is Jan 15…