more about nothing

It's been a while! After the busy-ness of easter, i think i slept through last week. I had many things to Blog about, but as i usually read or sleep on the train (where i Blog from), they just didn't get written.

so firstly, a few random notes:

Hi to anyone who's visiting here from randy's Blog. Please feel free to say hi.

it was good to see my boys (the Adelaide Crows) get up and win over the weekend. We're currently 4th on the ladder. Hopefully port will loose in today's game.

For the next 4 weeks at insight, we're having '4 hot nights' with 4 fantastic speakers: Jason Stevens (ex Cronulla & st George rugby player), Pat Mesiti, Nathan Claridge, and then our very own youth pastor, Luke McMartin. It's going to be a great 4 weeks. Then in June, we are having our 'Insight Getaway' - our first camp in over 3 years. We'll be freezing our butts off down near bowral in the southern highlands, but it's going to be fantastic. Pat Mesiti is our guest speaker for the camp also.

tomorrow is ANZAC day. Sadly for many, this day is nothing more than another public holiday. Thankfully, due to the fantastic teachers who taught of at school, and my family history, i am not one of those people. You see, i always knew that my paternal great grandfather fought in world war 1, but many years ago, i was at the home of my maternal great grandfather looking through some really old boxes when i came across some world war 1 medals. On closer examination, we realised that some of them (well, most of them) were medals for service at Gallipoli. We were quite surprised by this discovery, as he had never spoken about serving in the war. As a result, we don't know when he arrived at Gallipoli - if he was among the first to land there, or came later. But he was there.

so now, every ANZAC day, i not only think of the people i know who are currently serving around the world, but i take some time out to remember my two great grandfathers who fought in world war 1.

my friends and i are taking a bit of a road trip tomorrow to observe ANZAC day in Canberra, which should make for a nice (cold) day.

'they shall grow not old
as we that are left grow old,

age shall not weary them
nor the years condemn,

at the going down of the sun,
and in the morning

we will remember them'

// posted by Paula @ 8:05 am 0 comments

I hope that everyone had a happy and relaxing easter; mine was a happy one, yet not quite relaxing. That probably had something to do with the easter production that we held at church over the long weekend.

As i mentioned in the previous post, the opening night of the production was a huge success, and attendance was such that we had to turn away literally hundreds of people! Sunday night's production was also well attended - people were lining up 90 minutes before the doors even opened!

Sunday night's production was interesting. Strange little things were going wrong all night. One of the wireless headsets stopped working for no apparent reason. The corded microphone i was to use wasn't on stage. The guards accidentally threw Jesus off the stage. One of the guard's helmets broke just before he went on stage. Lights were falling over.

But because we knew that God was moving through the production, we decided that we would get the choir to pray when they were off stage. And guess what happened? Everything started to go smoothly! And at the end of the play, lots of people responded to the Salvation message PRAISE GOD!

Yesterday was my day of rest, which basically consisted of Me sleeping in, then lounging around on the couch watching videos.

My friends and i went and saw 'Failure to Launch' last night - it's a good fun movie. I'm just glad that my 30-something friend who still lives at home didn't come...

and finally, we all ended up back at my house, where i cooked dinner for 8, so we wouldn't have to pay a public holiday surcharge on our food.

All in all a great weekend!

so what did you do over the long weekend? Any special family traditions? Any camping trips? Anything special at church?

// posted by Paula @ 8:00 am 1 comments

Last night was our first performance of our easter production, 'Beautiful Day'. To say that it went well would be a slight understatement.

It started at 7.30, but we had people lining up from 6.00! Our auditorium holds 1000 comfortably, but last night there were people sitting on the floor and stairs, just to fit in the auditorium. 3 allocated overflow rooms were also full to standing room only. A rough estimate had around 2000 in attendance.

and to make things even better, over 40 people responded to the salvation message given at the end of the production.

it was a great night - we were all on such an adrenaline rush that we headed out to McDonalds afterwards (hey it's hard to find anything open on Good Friday) and i didn't get home till 2am. It's a good thing that i'm not working today!

Happy Easter everyone.

// posted by Paula @ 11:51 am 1 comments

If i didn't see it, did it really happen? Unfortunately, i happened to see the last 5 seconds of THE match yesterday, so i guess it really happened.

So that wast the only blemish in a fantastic weekend. I actually had a date for my friend's 21st - those who actually know Me know how huge that was. Unfortunately, i took my Sanguine date to a party, so he spent more time with my friends than with Me! It was a good night anyway.

and What's the go with easter cards? I've never given or recieved one, but we had a few disgruntled customers because we didn't have any! (We don't have any easter stock - probably because we're a new store or something).

well Here's my stop, so i'm off to easter rehearsals.

// posted by Paula @ 7:12 pm 4 comments

I've now been working at WORD for 2.5 weeks, and yesterday, i was promoted to 'acting store supervisor'! It's quite exciting - but i'm not sure who's more excited - Me or the other staff!

Tomorrow i'm heading off to a 21st on a paddle boat on the hawkesbury river, which should be fun. More details may follow...!

Have a great weekend everyone, and may the Lord cause His face to shine upon ... The crows & eagles match this weekend and allow the crows to utterly defeat the eagles!

oh, and don't forget to watch Lano & Woodley monday night on 'enough rope'. (Thanks to Rodney and my Mum for the heads up.)

// posted by Paula @ 7:34 am 3 comments

For those of you who live under a rock, the 2006 AFL season began last weekend. I'm happy to say that my beloved crows started off the year well, and our evil nemesis (port) also started off the year well - with a loss!

This weekend sees my boys hosting the eagles, which will be a good game. The two teams are pretty evenly matched, although we didn't have the pre-season dramas that West Coast had this year; it will be interesting to see if that affects the eagles at all this year.

It also turns out that one of our part-timers at work is from Perth, and is an eagles fan. That's unfortunate, but at least he's an AFL supporter!

// posted by Paula @ 7:39 am 2 comments

A while ago i posted on living our lives as a response to all that God has done for us. I'm currently reading 'The Air I Breathe' by Louie Giglio, and came across this passage:

worship is our response to God. In other words, we don't initiate worship; God does.
He reveals; we respond.
He discloses; we respond.
He unveils; we respond.
He chooses to show us how amazing He is; we say, "God, You're amazing!"
Our whole relationship with God works the same way;
He loves; we love in return.
He calls; we answer.
He leads; we follow.

// posted by Paula @ 7:49 am 2 comments

Pastor John was speaking about end times on sunday night, and mentioned some statistics that shocked Me:

there have been an estimated 70 million martyrs since the time of Christ, and approximately 45 million of those have been martyred since the beginning of the 20th century, which from memory works out to around 170 000 per year.

so, two questions for those whe are still reading my little Blog:

1. What are your thoughts on martydom, as it relates to you?

2. When listening to teachings on end times and the return of Christ, what are you immediate thoughts - not relating to the specific theology, but how it relates to you personally.

please do take the time to consider these questions. If you want further clarification, or to reply privately, please either comment or email Me.

// posted by Paula @ 12:25 am 2 comments