The Sunday Summary [2012-21]

Monday night at growth group, we were led by Nic in the absence of Brett, continuing through Zechariah, this week looking at chapters 7 & 8 which speak of feasting & fasting. It was quite interesting how fasting is normally associated with mourning and sorrow, when it can also be looked at from a discipline and devotion aspect as well.

Tuesday morning I ventured out to Top Ryde in search of Diablo 3 from Big W, only to find that they weren’t stocking it on shelves until Thursday, but for the price of $58. Rather than hang around till JB Hi-Fi opened to buy it for $69, I headed into the office. Gary and I ended up finding a copy each for $59 online through Dick Smith and ended up doing a pay & pickup, which is pretty funny considering they were selling in-store for $69 as well… When we went to pick up, we saw Pat, who was also amused that we had bought through him. At the end of the day I got home and did the install on a few of my machines at home, before Geoff came around. For the first half an hour, we had great difficulty getting onto the servers, as I’m sure millions of people worldwide did, so we organised dinner during that time; pizzas from Dominos. By the time our pizzas were ready, we had managed to get into the game and play through a little bit. I started a Demon Hunter and Geoff a Barbarian.
We wandered down to the local Dominos to find a fairly lengthy queue, including a familiar face; Brooke from Lots of Watts. Our order appeared on the screen for pick up, but when we mentioned it, they said it wasn’t ready, so we waited around, for a good 20 minutes… When the lines had diminished, they asked us again for our order, and again searched around the store for it, to no avail. Then after checking the computer, they looked again for the order, and finally found it on the bottom shelf, where it had been the whole time, and was now lukewarm… After eating warm pizza, we got back to the game; working out how to play again, with some familiar things, and plenty of new things, though some just slightly tweaked from the previous games. We played through the a third of the first act, before Geoff had to leave.
I then started playing a Monk, and that was pretty fun.

Wednesday evening was more Diablo 3 with a few bits and pieces for the graceat6 Weekend Away thrown in.

Thursday night I got home to my parents place for dinner, and to pick up some things for the weekend. After that I came home to pack and play.

Friday was a 3/4 day in the office before coming back to pack more things for the weekend and then finally go to the weekend away at Camp Kedron. Upon arrival and setting up my bed for the weekend, it was on to set up the tech. The camp had just had their projector bulb blown, and so the roof-mounted projector wasn’t functioning. They had a spare that they brought in, but there wasn’t enough cabling to connect my laptop from next to the mixing desk to the projector, nor the right connectors to use the roof port. So the guys there ended up going off and grabbing a cable from their tech consultant.

Saturday morning I got up early and went for a jog, only managing about 3km in the cold. After breakfast we had our second session with prayer, some singing, an interview, book review and a short short intro talk leading into discovery groups where we looked at passages of the bible and summarised them to form some kind of an outline for Mike’s talk, this morning on the Convictions of the Cross of Christ. I led a group with Monique and we had Joelle, Jessie-Lea, Nick and Nic in it. After morning tea, we got into the third session, with a more comprehensive talk. Mike ran through at a fairly quick pace about how the cross is of first importance, that it is central to the Christian life, that it was God’s plan and Jesus’ plan, fulfilling scripture and showing both God’s love (which we think we deserve, but we don’t because we are quite frankly unlovable) and God’s holiness (which means that He is totally separate from us, so far removed, that when He meets our sinfulness, it must result in judgement). Mike then went on to talk about Propitiation, Redemption, Justification and Reconciliation.
In the afternoon during free time, I got in with some of the guys to play some soccer, which was both fun and tiring.
The evening session was a time for sharing what we’d been learning so far from the weekend. It was a good time, and there were quite a number that shared.
Saturday night activities started with a Retro Prom dress up, followed by trivia, and then a relaxed time after that, featuring a photo booth and musical performances from a number of talented people within our congregation, finishing up with a DJ set by Wonki. I found this time actually quite difficult, having been a long day, and one behind my camera for a fair bit of the evening. I found myself plonked in an armchair just watching the world go by, and that was quite sad. After a long while of that, with little interaction, I just gave up and went to bed, asleep by the time anyone else from my cabin made it back even.

Sunday morning felt pretty hard as well, the overhanging effects of the evening still present in my mind, and quite different from that of my peers, who had been up to all hours of the morning… I practically gave up my service when it came time to do the tech for the next session, as the Saturday night activities had borrowed equipment from the main session stuff, and not been returned to normal. I found myself outside, head in my hands, sorrowful and in prayer to God, asking that He give me the resolve to continue on. It was really really difficult, especially having just read Romans 12 during quiet times…
It was also difficult in discussion group to lead and to put in because of the way that I was feeling. I have to keep on remembering to cast aside myself and do things for the good of others, following Jesus’ example.
The next talk was a little less coherent, Mike was a bit ambitious to tackle things in the way that he did, but I guess it was a good thing to try.
When I got home, I got to relax, taking in some more Diablo 3, before having to put in some more work to do the powerpoint slides for the evening.
Tonight Mike spoke on Seeing & Believing from John 20 and how we are to live in this age of resurrection. It is an age of peace with God, of mission, of the Holy Spirit, and of forgiveness. We are not to doubt, and when we do, we are to come back to the scriptures.