Wednesday, December 29, 2004
Tsunami
The fatalities from the tsunami in Asia are now around the 60,000 mark.
My heart breaks every time I hear about it or see it on the news.
It's such a global catastrophe - it really reminds us of how powerless we
really are.
I have to admit though - the first thing I heard of when the news broke of
the disaster was "well...the world seems to be falling apart at the seams -
it can't be too long now". There's just so much going on in the world now
that really can't be explained any other way.
On Holidays
My poor little blog! I've been neglecting you :( Oh well, all is forgiven?
Anyways....I'm now halfway through my holidays, and i'm having a great time! Christmas day was sunny and warm - I'm told that it rained back over in Sydney? haha!!! My brother is now at least 6'6" - I don't even make it to his shoulders anymore, which is a bit depressing, considering that he's only 18! Just going shopping to pick up one thing takes me a couple of hours - every where I turn is someone I know and need to catch up with! It gets a bit monotonous at times - everyone asks the same questions - how's Sydney, where are you working, are you enjoying yourself...and finally, the question EVERYONE asks: do you have a boyfriend?!!! For those who have never lived in a country town, that question may seem a bit strange...but in the country, that's what you do....grow up, and as soon as you're of "marrying age" - you should get married and start having kids as soon as you can. So when I, a 23 year old girl, come back from the "big smoke" and I'm still single...people over here don't really comprehend it! They kindly suggest that I'd better get a move on, or I'll be "left on the shelf". Seriously. It's a whole different world over here.
I've got a horrible feeling that I'm going to spend my whole 2 weeks over here, holidaying on the beach, and I won't get a chance to go swimming! It's sunny enough, but the wind is enough to keep you all bundled up. Not fair.
Christmas day was great. I got to spend it with my family and one set of grandparents. My step-uncle's de-facto's children had chicken pox, so they didn't come (which was a blessing in disguise), and my dad's side of the family didn't want to drive the two blocks to our house to spend christmas day with us. Also, my cousin on dad's side was in adelaide having tests done on christmas day - it turns out that she's pregnant with twins (1 boy & 1 girl) - and no father to be seen. It's going to be an interesting next 6 months there.
I went to my old church on christmas morning, and ended up singing for them. I walked in the door, and the worship leader asked "paula, would you be able to sing this morning?". Of course I said yes...it was weird though - it's been 2 years since I've sung at that church. It's weird - every time I come home (It's been 8 months since I was last here) so many things have changed, yet so much is still the same....
.......the more things change, the more things stay the same......
Wednesday, December 15, 2004
Paradise Road
It's the time of the year when all of my church involvements stop due to christmas. This means no more wednesday night CM rehearsals, no more Friday night Insight rehearsals/meetings, and no more cell group on monday nights. This leads to a severely high level of boredom...luckily a friend of mine has access to the pool at the Holsworthy Barracks, so if we've got nothing to do we'll go and do laps.....but, those plans fell through last night, so I was left home....bored :(
However, "Paradise Road" - a movie I'd always wanted to see but hadn't, was on channel 7 last night. So that's what I did.
Those women were truly amazing and inspirational. The fact that it's based on true events...my gosh!
I think my favourite part/s in the whole movie are when the guards are about to "stop" the first orchestra performance and they start singing. The look on the guards face is beautiful. And then when that same guard took glenn close's caracter into the jungle and sang to her - It reminded me that music really is the universal language - it surpasses all barriers that exist with the differing languages. That also reminded me that even though the Japanese were/are portrayed as savages during WW2, they were still human, and their hopes and dreams had also been placed on hold by the war - they were just soldiers too. I loved the scene at the end where the soldier who ran their camp made the comment about how there'd be no more music because Margared had died...then they picked up stones, sticks, even shoes, so they could make noise in her honour, and in defiance of the soldier.
It's a truly inspirational story about what we as humans are capable of - both the good, and the evil.
Cricket
Well with the weather warming up, it seems it's time for the backyard cricket season to begin! - and it seems like it's not just in the backyard!
Yesterday morning for our staff meeting, our senior pastor decided that we'd go and play a game of cricket in the church carpark. It was a beautiful morning for it - the sun was quite warm, so if you were fielding, or even waiting for your turn, it was beautiful just to be able to be outside in the sun!
Unfortunately, I did not quite live up to my cricketing heritage, and was out on my 2nd ball for a lovely duck. Then again, it was one of those matches where the wickets moved depending on where the wicket keeper was, and our Senior Pastor was the "refumpire", so what he said was law :)
Over all, it was a great match - my team lost, but the senior pastor's team won....hmmm...and only a small amount of blood was shed (due to a spectacular collision by the batters!)
Monday, December 13, 2004
it's been a while...
Well now that the craziness of the past week is behind me, I should be more frequently blogging (well here's hoping anyway!)
Last night was the final night of our Christmas production "The Exquisite Gift". It's the first time that my church has held a christmas production - every year for the past 15+ years we've held "Carols by Candlelight", which was always a HUGE success. However, the RTA decided that they wanted our land that we hold that on, so now we've gone inside and started a new tradition with our Christmas production. On saturday night we had around 750-800 people there - not quite a full house, but a good crowd regardless. But, on Sunday night, we had 1000+, more than a full house! Our ushers were adding seats like crazy, and we even had people in the overflow. It was a great night, followed by more fun with our fabulous Jazz Monkees featuring me! And of course we all partied on like crazy afterwards - even going back to a friends house afterwards...I was still wide awake at 2am this morning due to a scrumptious Frappacino from my favourite barista Simon Refalo :)
Our album launch last weekend went really well too. Apparently we only produced 500 CD's, so if you want one, you'd better get in quick! At the moment the only place that you can get the CD's from is the bookshop at Liverpool CLC (which is only open on sundays), but you can also order them by calling the office, or emailing to info (removethis) @clcliverpool.com.au
Wednesday, December 08, 2004
DC Talk vs U2
I've just realised why I like the song "Vertigo" so much - and why it sounds so familiar - like an old song I know.....
It's because it sounds like an old song I know!
I rediscovered my copy of DC Talk's "Jesus Freak" the other day, and have been listening to it ever since. This morning, the song "Day By Day" came on, and lo and behold, it contains quite a few elements of U2's "Vertigo". Now realising that "Jesus Freak" is close to 10 years old, I figure that it would be safe to assume that DC Talk didn't get their influences for that song from "Vertigo"....
Hmm....I wonder if Bono was listening to his back catalogue of music when he wrote "Vertigo"?
Wednesday, December 01, 2004
is it hot or what?
We had Ps John's 50th birthday on the weekend just gone, which was a huge night. The auditorium was full, so we had nearly 1000 people there to help celebrate his birthday! The church gave him a dune buggy - not sure if that's a good thing or not yet, as on monday he was racing it around the car park - and boy is it LOUD!
I've also been to my first christmas party for the year - and we even had a REAL snowman there. Needless to say, that after the party ended, it was a free-for-all snow fight, and I even got a bruise! I was really proud of that bruise :)
For all those who don't live in Sydney and read this blog, it's been ridiculously hot here over the last couple of days, and it's probably going to be this way for another few days yet...but, luckily, one of my friends' dad is the RSM of the Australian Army, so we can use the pool at the army barracks. Woo Hoo!!! It's an outdoor, olympic sized pool, that's 4m deep at the deep end - we couldn't even touch the bottom when we did a pin dive. It was good to be in the water again.
Oh - and if you're reading this, please feel free to leave a comment - it would be great to know who's reading this :)
