Post-rant: let’s get back to the program; I’ve recently stumbled upon a site called lookbook which is kind of a blog for people to post photos of what they’re wearing, and for the community to see, hype, comment and enquire. The majority of the participants seem quite indie, but there are some amazingly beautiful and stylistically sophisticated fashionistas on the site. From what I’ve seen so far my favorites would have to be:

• Betty from Paris especially in these looks:
  

  
  

  
  

You can visit Betty’s blog here: Le Blog de Betty

• Andy T from Mexico, living in Amsterdam especially in these looks:
  

  
  

  
  

You can visit Andy’s blog here: Style Scrapbook

I wonder if these kinds of looks are generally European and we’ve just not caught on downunder, or if the Christian circles I’m en are just not that way inclined. And if so, where do I have to go to meet such fashionistas??

Now there are some cool guy fashions floating around the site as well, but they all look extremely expensive (at least those that aren’t awful…), and something I doubt I’d be able to finance in my job.

I’ve been thinking about groups a fair bit of late, especially in the sense of being a part of them and how that looks. I think it is feasible that one can belong to a group without being supported by them. It’s not a popular or ideal place to be, but it happens nonetheless. For example, you have a particular role that requires that you be in that group, but those in the group do not particularly like you, or endorse that role, and therefore you’re not supported.

I’ve always found that group dynamics are not an easy thing to understand or get in to, and I really struggle to feel a part of a group. Mind you, picking up and moving cities has meant that it was a great deal harder, especially moving into groups that have long-standing relationships. I’m amazed at how easily people seem to gel with new people and can almost instantly become best friends and/or share intimate secrets with each other.

What are your secrets to belonging??

We effectively heard 2.5 talks from each of the speakers – a short introductory talk on the Friday night, followed by a full talk on the Saturday and Sunday mornings, breaking the normal tradition of a Saturday night talk. That talk was replaced with a panel of 5 people speaking through various experiences of work combined with a Q&A time. I didn’t find it particularly relevant or helpful, and subsequently fell asleep during it. After the Saturday night session the Steve Morrison Quartetplayed, joined by the talented Con Campbell and featuring an impromptu performance by Colin Buchannan.

The talks were based around good work and identity in Christ; following Jesus’ example and shaping the world from the margins. These things didn’t seem specifically targeted to the ‘young worker‘, they would have worked just as well with older workers. There was no push to how to go about doing this good work, or even what it was, it was just a kind of blanket command to do them….

One thing that was said from the pulpit that struck me was that

Within 2 years of working, many many many people turn away from Jesus. They disconnect.

This is a pretty short time in the scheme of things… And yet it appears to ring true. The world is a place in which you can lose yourself. I looked at the reasons why I was still a Christian, having spent 6 years in the workforce, most of those in a large corporate company, and came up with the following:

• I know and love Jesus Christ as my savior and redeemer, I know of the great sacrifice that He made by giving up His life in submission to God the Father.
• I’m involved in my church, and have found a way to be loving and serving the members on a regular basis.
• I’ve kept ‘the world‘ at arms length, by not relating as much as I could to it, because I know and have seen the great sin and temptation that flows out there. This has it’s disadvantages in that I’ve not been able to be a great witness to my non-Christian friends though.

I think that Engage needs to address some of these issues. Not just speak of how to do what the world expects us to do and take what we’re given there, but to stand up and make a difference and to know that we’re not alone out there. We have unity in Christ and unity in the Church as the Body of Christ. Some things that I’d like to see are:

• Talks on evangelism, targeted at method that can be used in the workplace. Encouragement towards events that have been setup to help evangelism, like City Bible Forum
• Examples of what people have done to continue to build themselves and each other in the workplace. When I was at the bank, I found a Christian in my workplace and ended up forming a group of 5 guys that met up with each other to read the bible and pray over lunch once a week. I was also able to gather people that attended my Church; past and present to meet up on occasion to share in fellowship over a meal.
• Talks on generosity and money. Young workers are in a unique position, generally single and looking at mortgages, or at least saving to buy a house. They have a responsibility to be good stewards of the financial gifts that God has bestowed on them. Why not be generous rather than materialistic??

Another difficulty has been the limited time in which we are able to meet together, with people having to include travelling to the location of choice. As a result, dinner one evening was suggested, yet met with little enthusiasm. Adri was keen, being one who wasn’t often able to make it to the lunch meets since she worked fairly out of the way, and so tonight I met up with her and Simon to have dinner at the Redoak Brewery.

We met after work and opted to dine in the bar over the restaurant due to the price of the meals. We gentlemen opened with an Aussie Ale. Simon opted for the Tajima Wagyu, tomato and Root Vegetable Pie, Adri chose the Steak Sandwich on damper roll with homemade beer and tomato relish and hand-cut chips and I settled on the 9″ Redoak Pizza topped with Cinnamon and black tea smoked chicken, roasted pumpkin, salsa verde and Swiss cheese and roquette with Redoak Hand-Cut Chips. The meals were satisfactory, but not great…

Post dinner I settled in with a Blackberry Wheat Beer, not sure what exquisite beer Guthers enjoyed, I’m sure he’ll mention it here…, as we retired to the more comfortable loungey chairs… Despite the intriguing desserts on the menu, we decided that a cheaper alternative was required and so we left the Redoak in search of some form of frozen goodness.

After searching underneath the QVB to find places closed, we surfaced to find Passionflower. Simon had Chocolate Hazelnut, Adri went with the Strawberry Swirl and I gave up one of my favourites: Jaffa for Lychee Rose. The benefits of being a student even came into play to the tune of 10%, thank you Moore College!!!

All in all a pleasant evening with a lovely and extremely attractive couple, one that would welcome numerous repetitions. Love youse both!!

I’m happy to announce that starting the 6th of April I shall be employed by St Paul’s Carlingford as an Office Administrator/Receptionist.

The position has been available since the end of January and I’d been strongly encouraged to apply. After gathering together my resume and reference from work I put my application in on the 16th of February. I managed to grab a half day off on the 26th of February for my interview, just shy of heading up to Men’s Katoomba Convention.

Last Wednesday I got the call from my new boss, offering me the job!! After signing my letter of offer, I submitted my resignation to the bank, giving 3 weeks notice of my final days work.

It’s been an interesting time working for the NAB. I’ve definitely learnt a great deal and been stretched in my abilities. I’m a little sad to see the end of it, but definitely glad to be moving on, especially into administrative ministry.

I’m very thankful to God for His provisions in my career and it’s development, and to all those that have been praying for me about this work and the path that it’s taken.

• Graceat6 launched
• My sister Anna married Arthur
• Con Campbell gave an intro to Colossians
• Growth Groups started for the year
• I turned 30
• Moore College
• The Hurt Locker
• Mens Katoomba Convention
• One Night Only with Way Out West and John Digweed

I’m currently in the process of re-theming CHONGLAND again. This year should hopefully see an upgrade to HTML5 & CSS3 in the code as well as a mobile site for you iPhone users.

It’s an exciting time and we had a large number of people gathered together, new and old, to mark the occasion. What is changing is the feel of the service and how we go about being a part of the body of Christ.

Our Mission statement reads:
Real with God
Real with Each Other
Real with The World

Each week we will be meeting together for a meal, reading & learning from the bible, praying and singing together.

We’ll be hearing Mike preach from Luke 19-24 as a lead up to Easter. We’ve also been given a helpful daily reading guide with questions to ponder. It’s available to view and download on the website if you’re keen to follow along as well. It’s a great tool for those that find it difficult to commit to reading, thinking, and praying through passages in the bible and will hopefully instil some great reading habits.

I’m interested to see how things pan out, how we meld together in love and service with each other, and how, if at all, the dynamics of our church change.

p.s. I had a small video cameo in the growth groups video, which you can see on the website under partners -> growth groups.

My night was spent at Chinese Laundry to hear UK DJ Danny Howells. His set tonight was good, but not great, having plenty of nice tracks, especially those of the funky bouncy progressive variety, but it was missing that spark that binds a set together making it flow on a proverbial journey.

Tonight was the first time I was able to test out my leg on the dancefloor after my knee reconstruction 4 months ago. I had a great boogie towards the start of the night before the crowds started to fill up the space around the dancefloor. Everything seemed to flow smoothly giving little to no pain, which was good. The only thing that seemed to be lacking was stamina, mainly in my calves and soles of my feet. As usual there were plenty of looks, stares and giggles, some of them appreciative and others in jest, along with the occasional request for pills…

The crowd tonight was a big mix; probably 1/3 was there for the DJs and got into it well, the other 2/3s seemed out of place or to not be enjoying themselves. There were plenty of beautiful girls fluttering about, dressed to impressed. It was tough not to continually look at them and cross the dangerously thin line of appreciating beauty and lust.

There was a variety of hors d’oeuvres on offer, from mini pies topped with avocado, smoked salmon on crackers, spring rolls and mini bruchetta to name a few and I’ve been drinking Boags all night long, about 5 or 6 in the span of 3 hours… Free stuff is great, but over-indulgence is never far away.

The third Christmas party is tomorrow night at The Italian Village in The Rocks. I’m not going along for a number of reasons; it’s $50, we went there last year for our Christmas party and the food was pretty average.

The movie really gives you a connection with Max; you feel for him as he runs away, as he screams and shouts, and as he feels for the ‘Wild Things‘. The characters of the ‘Wild Things‘ were pretty interesting, a few of them are strong and well developed, whilst others were very weak and could have potentially been left out. The imagery within the film is absolutely breathtaking, I absolutely loved the scenery that it was placed in, amazing glimpses of the world that we live in, places I wish I was able to get away to.
There’s plenty of humor thrown in amongst the drama and action of the film, and the story is well fleshed out considering the original book being a fairly short picture book.

I felt very much like Max whilst watching this film today, having a pretty crappy weekend, I just wanted to run away to another world, some place where people would recognise me, look to me for things, care for me and share things with me. A place where I could go wild and run about and be free. I don’t know why, but I feel so alone in this world, even when people are about… It’s one thing to continually serve people, but how do we go about being served ourselves?? Surely it should be a two way street…