Church the most boaring place on earth!

Tomorrow and Wed. I'mgetting payed to hang out with a yr 8 boy for the day. His mum usually calls me up before each holidays and I spend a couple of days just hanging out with him while his mums at work.
So spoilt getting payed to bum around playing cricket and footy and X-box (or more like watching him play X-box because those thing are definately not one of my talents!) but then again my other jobs are almost the same- although they do have their moments.

Talked with him a few times about stuff, and although he's never stepped foot inside a church he's convinced that church is the most boaring place on earth. That and to him christinaity/ God/Jesus etc. is the church as so they're all the most boaring things on earth. Can't really argue that church isn't boaring but hopefully break down the church is God thing or at least make him think about stuff more.

Banning the cross

Watched a show yesterday (think it was 4 corners) on Guy Sebastians church during my 'I'm not moving from the couch cos that would take way too much engery and I'd die' phase.
Anyway somethig that got my attention was the comment that they don't have any christian symbols including the cross in church as they thing that makes their church inaccessable to non-christians.
first response was that this was marketing taking over church. Having done a marketing minor at uni we were always told that marketing wasn't the evil thing which people often make it out to be- 'marketing is letting people know and have more info about things they want and need'- while this is in a way true I've also learnt about many of the manipulative devices marketing uses on people who have no idea (have a really interesting textbook which I've kept from last year on consumer behaviour which while I know it's a textbook, is not too hard to read and could save you from falling unknowingly into so many traps!).
But then again- if a confrunting symbol such as the cross is preventing people from entering the church then maybe it's not needed. are we just being selfish by having it? has the church and christians got so caught up in a symbol instead of the meaning behind the symbol?
So do we ban the cross?

The world needs young people

Still not feeling 100% so if something don't make scense or I say something really dumb you can blame it on that!

This is what Jono added to everyones warm fuzzies on camp-

The world needs young people
-who cannot be bought;
-whose word is their promise;
-who put character above wealth;
-who possess opinions and a will;
-who are larger than their work;
-who do not hesitate to take chances;
-who will not lose their individuality in a crowd;
-who will be as honest in small things as in great things;
-who will make no compromise with wrong;
-whose ambitions are not confined to their own selfish desires;
-who will not say they do it "because everybody else does it";
-who are ture to their friends through good times and bad times, in adversity as well as in prosperity;
-who do not believe that shrewdness, sneakiness and hard-headedness are the best qualities for winning success;
-who are not ashamed or afraid to stand for the truth when it is unpoplular;
-who can say "no" with emphasis, although all the rest of the world says "yes".

Charles Swindoll, 'Living above the level of mediocrity, p.1078.

Sick as!

Hey guys,
arrived back from camp on fri and spent all of sat vomiting! haven't been sick like this in ages but yesturday I vomited a grand total of 22 times in 10hrs- you prob didn't want to know that but I reckon that would have to be a record- for me at least.
Also the fact that I was stuffed after camp meant it's really taken it out of me and from about round 10 on I had to creat a method of using the coffee table to hold my head over the bucket and spent the night on the couch!-ok thats enough grotty details.
Camp was great and the kids totally blew me away- esp my small group, but at the moment I having trouble just sitting up at the computer- so back to the couch for me and I'll post on camp soon.

Angel

Father, I wish I were an angel
Free to be everywhere with them
to hold them when their lonely
and hold their hand when they feel lost
to stand by proudly when their winning
but also if they lose
to laugh and cry
and hurt and die
as in life it always goes
but as a human I often fail
so please
if I were to die
make me an angel so
they could feel the comfort from my love
without every knowing I am there

'Passions'

This is what I wrote for my Devo. for camp last year on the 'Get Red Hot' theme and studies on 'passion'-

When I was in year 8 one of my best friends died. This was a major shock for me, death wasn't really something I had ever had to consider and suddenly I was forced to go through the death of someone very close to me. It hurt. It hurt so much that I became numb. I though, what was the point of becoming close to anyone if I'll end up losing them anyway. So I emotionally distanced myself from everone, I still had friends but I'd always hold myself back, keep a barrier between us. I played out the role of being a good friend without any feeling or passion.

In a movie I saw recently (Tuesdays with Maurie) they said 'love one another or you die'. I didn't allow myself to love anyone and I was dead, I was emotionally dead. I became numb to something I was reuly passionae about and hence nmb to life itself.

God was and still is a great help and has gradually brought me back from the dear. First the realisation that he is always there with us and never leaces us and latter that we have to love one another and that I couldn't continue to distance myself rom everyone around me.

Don't allow yourself to become numb as I did. Work through the pain, God is always there and will help you. It still hurts, maybe even more now that it did at the time, and i don't think it will ever stop hurting and at times I still find myself distancing myself from people who get 'too close' but I am now aware when it's happening and I'm gradually getting the strenghth to fight back.
The pain is worth it, don't shut yourself off form the things your passionate about in life allow God to use your passions and you will prevent yourself from dying.


-thought I'd post that mainly because I' totally running out of time this week (to the point where I've written up a 'to do list' which only happens when I have so much to do that I know I'll forget it all if I don't have a list), and I didn't want to write anything fresh!
Also remembered it cos' I'm having to think about what I'll write for my Devo this year for camp- theme 'The Search' (any ideas would be great). Got my mate Pete (who was also study leader) to read it before camp last year cos I was a bit worried it'd be too heavy for a bunch of yr 7 & 8's but I was glad I did it cos some of the kids in my small group really opened up about stuff like a death of his dad and one kid going through parental divorce.
BTW- I'll be away next week so no posts.

Stages

Stages is on this Sat and I've promised to go help Keechy out (and also want to catch up with little Linda- so hopefully she up for it).
Never actually been to Stages (an underage club run once a month by Christians) but as it's Keechy's Forge thing (would use the word project- but not sure it's appropriate) I'm interested to go check it out- that and I reckon it'd be cool to get special access and be able to say- 'cos' I'm friends with the owner' instead of having to line up.

So if ya free sat night your welcome to join me at the Boronia Progress hall think it starts about 7:45pm and we can boogie in a drug and alcohol free event!

Such a waste

I know I promised a happy post, but that will just have to wait.
The church gets all this left over bread from (I think) Brumby's (really the place dosen't matter), so much so that even after giving away like 3 big bags full and then filling the freezer at the church we're still having to throw some away.
There are people starving in the world and we're throwing away bread!
Why to they waste so much flour and water etc. in making so much excess bread just so our lazy society and walk into a shop and there will be what they want. Couldn't it all be sent to people who actually need it to survive and we come up with some kind of pre-ordering system to reduce excess waste of good resources.
When will we ever get over this our country/ family etc.must be fat and completely satisfied before I can ever give anything to anyother needy nation or person. We have the resouces/ technology to transport ingredients such as flour yet all we do is use it for our own selfish desires- ' do we really need coffee from Brazil as much as they might need flour for our thrown out bread'? I'm not going to pretend I have any understanding of the politices involved because I really don't understand any of it- other than the whole pleasing the voters by trying to satisfy the majorities desires (which by the way is much easier if we're all taught to be clones and that we desire the same things).
Is the lack of spelling ability in our schools really important when so many kids have never been into a school, is the price of petorl such a big issue when many out there can't even walk- you watch any of those current afair programs or even our local news stories- and as much as they 're important issues- there are so many more important issues in the world that because we don't have to look at or acknowledge them every day they become our last priority- lucky if they even get any left overs- cos' ya never know we may just need that extra piece of bread, and hold on to it until it's too late and we throw it out.
Once again I can see a problem but not a clear solution, and I'm just as bad as the rest of us in this- but if you know anyone living in Victoria, Aust who could do with some 1 day old bread on a Thurs morning- please let met know, it'd make me feel a lot better (damn us humans with our selfishness :))

Suicide

Some stats- 6 people die each day in Australia from suicide, 80% are male, more females attempt than males more males are sucessful, suicide is the highest reason for death for males between the ages of 25-40.

Some points
-people are much less likely to commit suicide if they have another person with them.
-people who commit suicide often believe others around them will be better off if they do.
- depression/ suicidal thoughts come in waves- if you can get through the tough patch then you'll be glad you made it.
- depression can happen to anyone.

Some of my comments/ thoughts
This really is an issue we can't ignore, so many people a day in Aust alone. I remember in yr 8 I had a couple of friends who attempted so as youth leaders it's definately something to be aware of.
plus it really can happen to anyone (personally although I've been pritty upset sometimes I never really thought of 'ending it') so it's good to know that if you can find someone to hang out with your likely to get through it ok.
I also had a friend in high school who'd constantly tell me about how she'd tryed to commit suicide with a butter knife and then show me all the marks on her arms- I sure this was more attention seeking and still I'm never quite sure how your meant to deal with this- but there must always be a deeper issue leading to this behaviour so again just hanging out with these people couldn't hurt (let me know if you have any wisdom/ thoughts in this).
As for the they'd be better off if I was dead thought- as real as these thoughts are for people I can tell you that there is definately survivor guilt- no matter what the circumstances of death- it will never make those left feel any better and guilt- even if completely illogical is a very real posibility.
I always wonder if people from 3rd world countries or who live in slums commit suicide and thier stats- but really that doesn't matter because it is an issue and we need to be aware and not make any kind of judgement.

How does God fit into all this- I not an expert on this issue at all- my sister called me up chrissy eve this year balling her eyes out saying her friend had threatened to end his life, being literally stuck in the city but also not really knowing how to help I refered her to a friend who works in schools and stuff- the story has ended up ok but I really did feel kind of helpless to help out that night.
And back to God (cos' I totally got sidetracked there!) maybe this is a battle between 'good and evil' - we all feel distanced from God at times-even though we never really are. really not sure how it all fits or even my own opinion on it but it's here in the world.

Sorry about a depressing topic- promise my next post will be sickoningly happy!!

'Christian' culture

this post is kind of linking on after the 'globalisation' post a while back. But I was watching a show on TV couple of days ago (yes, I was meant to be writting essays but it was a study break!!) and there was some show where these 'westerners' where visiting some Islanders. One of the people dies while the film makers where their and it was really interesting to see how their culture deals with death- the widow stayed in their house for 2 weeks to mourn and all the other villages after the 2 weeks gave gifts, mostly of shell money (which isn't used in the way we think of money but stays among the villages getting passed around at events like this- definately not the same importance or reliance that we have on money).
The main narrator mentioned that his father was one of the missionaries which converted the villiage, and it was nice to see the villages doing their tribal dances and stuff while wearing wooden cross necklaces (and nothin else above the waist!). The narrator then said something about how the villages then conducted a 'christian' berrial and showed them lowering a casket in a grave with a cross at the top and everyone standing around singing hyms.- so this is the point I'm trying to get at- to me that kind of berrial is more a 'western' traditional style berrial rather than christian yet we now just assoicate it as being christian. I've never heard anywhere that Jesus sung hyms while berring anyone and he himself was berried in a tomb- not a hole with a cross at the top.
I know this is really not a big issue, but it's an example that illustrates what I was trying to get an before. But then this also made me think that maybe missionaries need to bring in at least some 'christian' pratices which contrast the other culture as the people of that culture may find it hard to associated how they've always done stuff without God to fitting God in- eg. might do it how they always have and forget God in the process.- just a thought, still trying to work out what I mean.

The Procrastinator

If there was ever a record for the best procrastinator by doing totally useless things- I'd be winning right now. It's taken me almost 2 and a half days to write a 1,500 word essay (which in uni terms is very small), why I chose to write on a political topic looking at Soviet Russia was a really dumb idea because I really suck at anything political and obviously my motivation level to write this thing is incredably low! Ended up checking my e-mails four time yesterday which is definately not something I usually do and now here I am wasting time again.
I do have something of use to mention though- yesterday went to the gym with Mich and saw the TV's but I didn't have any sound or anything, but the news was on and just from viewing the fotage I thought'd there'd been some natural disaster in Africa or something that I didn't know about. But the story was actually about the hurrican in America it's just the all the fotage was of Negro Americans. Either the TV people were trying to make some kind of political statement by only showing Black Americans surrfering- or (and much more likely) for what ever reason it was the Negro Americans who were unable to escape in time whereas the majority of whites could get out in time. How did that happen? I know I don't know enough about the situation to make any judgements or to really comment on the situation, but just watching the news it was really sad.
Anyway I think I'll go and check my e-mails again just in case anyones written to me in the 30 mins I've been uselessly updating my blog!

Reverse art

Just spent the morning at a place called 'Reverse Art' in Ringwood. So much useful junk! highly reconmend if ya ever want anything arty. My friend Keir and I had so much fun just getting camp suplies- although I don't understand why Keir decided we need any polystyrene- I think he got it just to drive me nuts because I seriously can't stand the sound it makes and I'm already having nightmares about if any of the kids get to it! Usually I'm fine with annoying sounds and don't mind stuff like fingernails on a blackboard etc- been through my sister learning violin in the room next to me so I guess I can go through anything!! but even the thought of polystyrene make me shiver.

Serial Monogamy

Term thats comes up in my socialology classes- means monogamy (staying with one person) and serial so having many monogamous relationships through life. I guess thats quite common in this generation and I just wonder how my generation will react towards or against that way of seeing relationships.
But it also makes me wonder it the basis of a family has to be a life long monogamouse (I too tried to spell anything properly) relationship. Is that what God intends or is that just another christian ideal that we try and hold on to and provides us a reason to segregate others who don't fit into this box. - I've honestly never really looked into this before so I've not really made an opinion over the issue. But when christians are banned from leadership because their not following the 'correct rules of relationships' then it really is something that needs to be looked at. I'll get to it soon but I'm in essay mode at the moment and my heads filled with- how the Soviet regeme inpacted Prokofievs compositional style, - the way music is used in relation to other elements in the film 'To kill a mckingbird' and why do serial killers kill, to consider much else.