CHONGLAND

During my time working in the city one of the great experiences has been gathering together with my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ to share in a meal. Lately it seems as though this has happened less frequently as the global financial crisis has hit and as my St Paulian counterparts have moved away from working in the city.

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!!

Long time readers may recall that mid last year I applied for a ministry position within a church that I wasn’t successful in attaining.

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.

I can’t believe it’s been a month since I last wrote here. The month of February has been seemingly long and extremely busy. Here’s a run-down on what has happened, with a view to potentially blog happenings at a later date:

• 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.