Currently: Second Sunday of Advent

Since I haven't really had the inspiration or desire to write proper blogs, I got this idea from a blog I stalk from time to time. The blogger just had a baby recently and had kept a list of questions she answers to keep folks up to date with the pregnancy.

Well, since my life isn't quite as interesting as having a baby, my questions might be a little duller but hopefully I'll start doing a better job of updating from time to time hey?

Currently...

Reading:

Numbers - Since Seminary, I've lost the desire to read the Bible because it started getting too academic. I'd want to exegete everything I read. But a few months back, we were working through stories from 1-2 Kings with the kids and suddenly I realised I wanted to read the Bible just as a storybook all over again. This is probably the furthest I've made with Bible-reading that's non-academic.

John - Advent reading through the book of John.

Psalms and Bonhoeffer's Prayerbook - Rhonda e-mailed me the reading guide that XZBerlin is following at the moment and I've found myself missing that part of communal reading. So this.

A Year with Thomas Merton: Meditations from his journals - just because.

Listening To:

AUSOT podcasts - recently became a normal part of the spiritual diet.

Christmas music - a mix of Straight No Chaser, Vienna Boys Choir and songs about Mary's journey.

Watching:

The Hobbit - went to the midnight premiere with Janice. Feels a lot closer to home this time than watching the LOTR trilogy partly because I actually live in Middle Earth. Martin Freeman does an amazing job as Bilbo Baggins. But of course, Andy Serkis as Gollum is still my favourite. 

Sherlock - found out Janice owns the first 2 series when we helped her move several weeks ago. Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman are awesome.

Experiments:

(This will feature updates about a couple projects I'm working on. The long term goal of these projects is to figure out what it means contextually to find space for spiritual conversations to happen.)

The Third Place project - Recently realised we're communicating a lot more these days, but not conversing as much. Working on figuring out the whys and implications.

Mission Master Chef - This began as a challenge to find recipes that would cater for folks of all backgrounds - ethnicities, diet constrains, budgets, time etc. Currently on break because of the busyness of Christmas season.

Musings:

If native folks were left alone in the first place, would social welfare even be necessary?

If all have sinned, and all sin is equal, does that mean all are also equally righteous?

There's a difference between condoning certain behaviours and standing in solidarity. We don't condone alcoholism, but we stand with the alcoholics while they go to AA, just as we don't condone kids acting up and being a distraction in kids club, but we stand with them and help them figure out how to manage their own behaviour.

Ministry:

Highlights:

WSKC (Westside Stars Kids Club) kids seem to be getting into the whole Advent calendar thing. And no, I'm not just talking about the countdown calendar, but the liturgy and the story.

SUPAkidz had our last run for the year. It was manic as usual since we're severely under-staffed, but the kids I ran into at Carols on the Green all seemed to love it and want to come back next year.

Lowlights:

Exhausted. It's been tough trying to keep energy levels up on all fronts of the children's ministry at WCF and as much as I've enjoyed both the activities and the kids, I've been simply running on adrenaline since October.

Life in General:

Highlights:

Life has never been as random and spontaneous as it is now. Family coming in 12 days.

Lowlights:

It's difficult being in a place where there are hardly any other 20-somethings close by. While I love the folks I live amongst, most of them are in a different place of life than me and it would be really nice to, for once in my life, act my age.

So there you have it. I'll try to keep this up at least once every other week or so.