I've heeded the requests...

It's nice to know people read my blogs? You know how I know? They ask you to update it!

Bear with me, as I'm going to cover a few issues and events that have occurred since my last post.

Melbourne

Two days after my last post, we went to Melbourne for 4 days. Bliss! Melbourne is my FAVOURITE city in Australia, and I get dreadfully upset when we leave. Weird considering I've only visited 4 times in my life - but it just feels like 'home'.

So we ate a LOT of good food, drank some REALLY good wine (prizes to whoever can find Forrest Hill Estate's Pinot Gris in Brisbane!), and I reignited my love of foreign cheeses at Richmond Hill's Cafe & Larder.

And the highlight of the trip was Phantom of the Opera. It was the reason we went, and it didn't fail to disappoint. Anthony Warlow is THE master of voice - noone (bar Crawford) could ever compare.

So now I'm at home, and longing to return. Watch this space - we're looking at dates in January (after Rwanda), or March.



Rwanda

We had our first meeting for Rwanda on the weekend - and I'm very excited. Just really looking forward to going back to Africa, and serving in the place I've always longed to. The team are fantastic, and we're full of ideas on how best to serve Rwandans.

I'm in the process of learning Kinyanrwandan (the local language), and this has been very exciting. I've always had a bit of aptitude for languages, so it's nice to be spending time on it.

A bonus for me has been our flight plan. I was very worried about the 16 hour flight to Johannesburg (and then the flight to Kigali), but they've changed things entirely. Now we fly to Bangkok, and then on to Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), before Rwanda. So my longest flight will be 10 hours - much better!

Stopping in Addis Ababa will be interesting. Brad and I have a serious interest in adopting an Ethiopian child, so if time permits I would be very interested in exploring the city, and getting a 'feel' for the landscape, seeing we may very well go back in a few years time for our 'forever child'.



Church

Ahh, Church. I'm really battling at the moment. Next week it will be four weeks since we went (working and Unlimited conference hindered this), and to be honest - I feel more spiritually refreshed OUT of Church, than in. I'm feeling guilt over this, as it's not 'traditional' to feel this way. But something about personal worship and having to create 'God time' for myself (rather than have the time 'set' for me) has allowed me to flourish more than normal.

And it's not just my Church. I love my Church. It's just - why the construct that every Church (from Hillsong to your strictest Catholic/Liturgical service) uses? Why? I'm going to have to do a bit more reading on the historical development of Church, and what it was that inspired the majority of Christian Churches utilise the form they do.

Mind you - it's a bit scary doing this. Last time I shared this with someone, they were more inclined to believe I was being rebellious or having issues with authority, than an actual 'revelation' of Church evolution, from Acts to today.

*****

So that's my life lately. Sorry it took me a bit to sit down and write!

When you gather for worship, each one of you be prepared with something that will be useful for all: Sing a hymn, teach a lesson, tell a story, lead a prayer, provide an insight. If prayers are offered in tongues, two or three's the limit, and then only if someone is present who can interpret what you're saying. Otherwise, keep it between God and yourself. And no more than two or three speakers at a meeting, with the rest of you listening and taking it to heart. Take your turn, no one person taking over. Then each speaker gets a chance to say something special from God, and you all learn from each other. If you choose to speak, you're also responsible for how and when you speak. When we worship the right way, God doesn't stir us up into confusion; he brings us into harmony. This goes for all the churches—no exceptions.

The Message, 1 Corinthians 14:26-33.

Herein lies my quandry with the construct of 'Church' as it now stands. Why don't we do as the above verse states?

Why does Church require singing, then sermon, then ministry time, then finish?

Does our very tradition of 'Church' limit the way God can move and minister to those who follow Him (and want to follow Him)?

I don't know what's been going on lately, but I've been questioning the very essence of Church as I've known it for the 26 years I've attened (ie. my entire life). Sometimes I wonder if the way Church is 'done' actually allows God to move the way He wants to?

It's a struggle to go to Church somedays. I don't want it to be for MY blessing; but I do feel very stunted and restricted in the way Church is 'done' (and it's not just my Church - pretty much every Church I've ever gone to uses the same formula to create a Church service). My spirit soars when we look outside the traditional form of church (worship, sermon, ministry), and look into valuable dialogue as a group of peers, rather than a minister/ministry team/flock system.

I don't know if I make any sense with this. I don't even know really where I'm going with it. All I know is that there's a lot of questions in my head right now about what 'Church' really means, and if God gets limited by the way we 'make' Church.

Home Church appeals. I don't know how that fits in with my commitment to my home Church (one I've had to make as part of a missions team), but I'm enjoying studying the concept of Home/Organic Church, and how that links up with the Church of Acts.

I'll keep you posted as to how my thoughts and feelings evolve. I just feel very disatisfied right now.

Cows held responsible for late night chaos & disorder

Why is it morning???

Yesterday was a very LONG day. Ended up scrubbed in for 4 hours on one case, and really knocked me around a bit (very frantic). Only to unscrub, and agree to being oncall again last night (I was oncall on Saturday night - no call in).

Now, I knew I was going to be called in, and here's why.

a) I NEVER get called in, whenever I'm on-call.

Fluke, luck, blessed - doesn't matter what you call it. Been on-call once a month every month since January, and always had a full night's reprieve (which is good, except then you wake up feeling very grumpy that you COULD have gone out/had that glass of wine/watched that late movie/etc etc).

This pretty much shows I should have a giant target on my chest saying 'due for call in'.


b) The woman who called in sick, seems to attract patients.

As soon as I heard who I was covering for - I knew it. I even told Brad. That's it, I'm getting called in. She's just a magnet for it. And I knew if I was 'playing' her, the magnet would follow me.


And the REAL reason I got called in???

c) I didn't see any cows.

Now, to your garden variety theatre nurse working in a city of 1 million people (or whatever) - this seems like a hallucination. Cows? What cows???

But, you have to understand - it's the Ekka. Which means cows. LOTS of cows. Thousands of them (ok, slight overstatement, but you get the point). Cows walking around, calving, getting judged, eating, mooing - just being cows.

I.
LOVE.
COWS.

Biggest crackup of my life is seeing cows on highways and roads. Ask Brad. We go for a drive - the ultimate goal is to see a free range cow.

And the Ekka means cows. Cows on the side of the road diagonal from the hospital I work at every single day. BLISS!

But there were no cows on the way to and from work. And DID I LOOK? You betcha!! No cows. Udder tradegy (ha!).

So there it was - I knew I'd be called in. And called in I was.




10:50pm, phone rings. Sasch, knowing ahead of time the lack of cows GUARANTEED a call-in, went to bed at 8pm. So she was ready!

11:25-2am was her time in theatre. Recovery room nurse.

(I should add, to further the reasoning, there still were no cows as she went down the road. This DEFINITELY meant chaos and disorder)

And chaos and disorder there was.

So now, she has a 12 hour break. Which means 3 hours at work.

(A side note - there were still no cows as she drove home this morning).

Sasch is NOT happy.

Night shift over for another month

Well this month's night duty's over. Birth Suite was overrun both nights, so kept us up and on our toes through the nights. A few other 'interesting' cases floating around too (in other parts of the hospital), so we had to be prepared in case we had to leave the floor to tend to them.

Other than that - been a really quiet week! Poor hubby's been rolling out a project, so he worked overtime almost every night last week, and then Saturday. He was supposed to have today off with me, but now has a facilitated meeting instead. They've given him 3 days off next week instead (including public holiday). Which means he now has 11 days off in total for our 'break' to Melbourne. Some people get all the luck!

But what have we done? Hmmm...

My stepsister was up for a week before heading on her year's holiday travelling overseas (NZ, North America, South America, UK, Africa & Europe). Had a family dinner for that (mum your dinner was SUPERB!)

And after reading my diary, it looks like the rest of my week was spent either working, or asleep! Fun times! :)

We went out to Lone Star last night, which was lovely. Hadn't been since about February. We have a soft spot for the Young Care Cocktail (non-alcoholic). BRIGHT pink (tastes like a redskin), but it's for a good cause!

Oh yeah, and been doing a bit more work on research for Zimbabwe, and also a bit for Rwanda. The Rwanda team is all finalised now (with 9 members), so it means we can REALLY go (we can't go until there are workable numbers on things like this).

As to Zimbabwe, I'm part of the 'focus group' for our work alongside Vana Ministries, so we're working on things like mission statement/aims/core values and whatnot. My part is working on an intecessory team, as well as 'focus nights' (dinners, cultural awareness), so that will undoubtedly keep me busy.

And I had a meeting with our minister the other day, and it looks like I might be running a term 'girls only' group next year about Women's Health & Sexuality. It's something I've wanted to do for a long long time, so it was a blessing our minister was so receptive to it. Churches unfortunately have a very long history of 'taboos' when it came to sexuality, so to have someone welcome it with open arms (and have NO problem with the topics I'd discuss - which was huge!), made me appreciate our Church even more.

It's still in the early stages, and I still need to work out a lesson plan - but it's something at least!

Cruisy Sundays

I love Winter days like today. For the first time in a while, it felt like a 'real' Queensland winter. For the last few weeks we've been having temperatures in the minus/close to zero ranges in the mornings, and it's horrible when your houses aren't equipped for it!

So today after Church we decided to take advantage of it. Another of our little 'windowshopping' ventures - this time to James St in the Valley.

There's some great shops out there - I'm a big fan of homewares/kitchenware stores, so I was in my element. And it was fun checking all the menus out at places like Harveys and Cru Bar. We never go to these places (none of our friends do), but it's always good to keep them in your back pocket.

Ended up grabbing some Lick! icecream at the Merlo factory outlet and just wandering around in the sunshine. Very nice!

Recap of the week

Seeing I've been so darn lazy the last week and not typed a thing, I'm now in the position of writing out key points indicating the highlights of the week.

So here goes!

Tues 24 July: Had an allocated day off. Went shopping, hired out 'The White Masai' from video store and played with Vox. Hubby came home and whisked me off to see Harry Potter: Order of the Phoenix. VERY much liked, and again reinforced decision to read the books asap. Still think Snape isn't as evil as Rowling loves to make him appear to be. Great fun!

Wed 25 July: Worked from 8-4:30pm. Thus began the days of caesarian sections. That night came home to compete in our regular home contribution to Adam Hills' "Spicks n Specks" the good ol' ABC. Still love it - just wish Glass House wasn't axed. Now THAT was a great Wednesday!

Thurs 26 July: 6:30-3pm shift. Poor Vox thought his mother grew another head, waking him in the middle of the night for breakfast! Was not very keen on going back outdoors before sunrise either (don't worry mate, I don't like it either). In the caesar theatre again - lots of girls (I think our ratio is even-ing up!). Had a meeting with Peter (minister) in the afternoon which was very good. Have some plans for small groups next year - must stay quiet til get full approval! Did a lot of shopping after that with hubby, only to miss life group for the sake of an early night.

Friday 27 July: 6:30-3pm shift. Didn't have the heart to wake Vox from his slumber, so had an extra big meal that night. Again in the caesar theatre, with again having a large slew of girls appear!

Friday night 41 people from Church came to see 'Amazing Grace' - the story of how the slave trade came to be abolished in the United Kingdom. Although not quite as fun as Harry Potter earlier in the week - the message was far more important for this day and age. Especially once you consider slavery still happens - although now it is more wellknown by the title 'human trafficking'.

And today we helped friends move house in the morning, before watching Brad play soccer in the afternoon. A loss for them, but he scored a goal which was VERY exciting!

My stepsister is up from Melbourne for 2 weeks, before she leaves on a big adventure overseas. Hopefully I will see her sometime this week.

3 day "weekend"

It was nice to have the 3 days off from Thursday-Saturday.

Did a few little things - housework, took Vox to the dog park, watched a couple of movies, that kinda stuff. Nice to relax and kick back.

We've been busy the last couple of nights - Thursday night we have the 'Generosity'small group at Church; Friday night we had a marriage seminar; and Saturday night was our debrief on the marriage seminar.

Saturday was busy too - had a baby shower in the morning, took the dog to the dog park mid afternoon, and then had a late afternoon coffee with my mentor for Rwanda. Was nice to get out a bit - I have a tendency to 'hibernate' most of the time.

Sunday I was back at work from 9:30-6pm. Only had one case, so really only did set ups and caught up on policies and what not.

This week should be nice - going to try and get to Harry Potter at some point, life group on Thursday night, and then going to see Amazing Grace on Friday night.