Who am I?

I found this link on Rose's blog.


You are Schroeder!

Which Peanuts Character are You?
brought to you by


And I found this link on Rhax's blog


You are Romans.


Which book of the Bible are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Prayer Challenge Update

At our last small group Ian brought along some saying that have been important or meaningful to him. There were a couple that made me smile and definitely a few that made me think. The following falls into the former category.

I am your little prayer rock
And this is what I'll do
Just put me on your pillow
When the day is through
The just turn back the covers
And climb into your bed
and WHACK! your little prayer rock
Will hit you on the head
Then you will remember
Since the day is through
To kneel and say your prayers
As you really wanted to
And when you are finished
Just dump me on the floor
I'll stay there through the night
To give you help once more
When you wake up next morning
CLUNK! You stub your toe
So you will now remember
Your prayers before you go
Put me back on your pillow
When your bed is made
And your clever little prayer rock
Will continue to your aid
Because your Heavenly Father
Cares for and loves you so
He wants you to remember
To talk to Him you know!

Unfortunately the challenge I set myself to make prayer more of a part of my daily life is not going as well as hoped. But, I will keep persisting. Maybe I need a prayer rock hitting me on the head to remember.

The Mane Event

I'm gonna be the mane event like no King was before.

Run away. Run away and never return.

'Till we find out place on a a path unwinding in the circle, the circle of life.

And if you haven't guessed what I'm talking about yet, this one should give it away:

It's our problem-free philosophy. Hakuna Matata!

I went a saw the Lion King last night at the Regent Theatre in Melbourne. There was quite a few of us who went - mostly from church and it was fantastic. I'm still singing Hakuna Matata this morning.

It was fantastic. Everyone has said the costumes are great and they are. The performers walk through the isles and as I was sitting one in from the isle I could see the elephants and birds and hyenas that came past. The cast is very talented - especially the kid that played the young Simba. How he can do all that at about 9 years old is amazing.

Buyisile Zama (Rafiki) and Geno Segers (Mufasa) have incredible voices. The opening notes of the show, sung by Rafiki immediately put in the right mood and setting for the story. There's a song that's not in the cartoon called They Live in You. It's sung by Mufasa and with his deep voice and it's so beautiful. The music was great and I can't wait to get the soundtrack - at the moment I'm making do with a promotional CD we got from the newspaper that only has four songs on it.

At one point I was a bit worried that my favourite part of the movie had been left out of the show. Luckily I was wrong. This is the scene:

Adult Simba: I know what I have to do. But going back will mean facing my past. I've been running from it for so long.
[Rafiki hits Simba on the head with his stick]
Adult Simba: Oww. Jeez... What was that for?
Rafiki: It doesn't matter, it's in the past.
Adult Simba: Yeah, but it still hurts.
Rafiki: Oh yes, the past can hurt. But the way I see it, you can either run from it, or learn from it.
[swings his stick at Simba again who ducks out of the way]
Rafiki: Ha. You See? So what are you going to do?
Adult Simba: First, I'm gonna take your stick.

This has come up because of a conversation Saemon and I had. He used this illustration in a sermon. That conversation drew my attention to the scene and has since made me think. I tend to hang on to the past for too long. (Anyone who knows me, knows that is an understatement!) Sure it can hurt me but by dwelling on that hurt it's not doing me any favours. So, this is an important thing for me to remember and it was good to see that once again and acted out on the stage.

P.S. Happy Birthday "Fudgedog"

Birthday Season

October is the month of birthdays. For some people it's August but for me, October. There's a birthday on the 2nd, the 5th, the 7th, the 13th, two on the 14th, the 15th, the 20th, the 21st, the 22nd, the 26th, two or three on the 27th and one on the 29th.

Today is my brother's birthday. So, to quote another Family Guy character Chris, "Happy Birthday little dude!" Actually my brother isn't little, he's taller and uglier than me (if you're reading this Scott I didn't mean the uglier comment!) and just under two years younger than me. Anyway, we're going to the cricket tonight for his birthday. I really don't know a lot about cricket and I've only been once before; this January, when we were Adelaide for NCYC. It's going to be good. I have recently learnt which is the off side, which stump is which and where some of the fielding positions are including the slips, so I will be able to test my knowledge if nothing else! Plus it's Australia versus the World XI so there should be some talented people on that field making for a good game.

Scott's birthday is the second in our family of four. The first was my mother's who turned 50 a couple of weeks ago, mine is in a couple of weeks and dad's is about 6 weeks after that. My dad, Scott and I threw a surprise party for mum with a lot of help from her friends and family. We told her that she was having dinner at a restaurant with her family (which is about 20 people anyway) then we had her friends gathered in a function room off the side of the restaurant. She loved it. We had also had arranged for her aunt and uncle who live in WA (the other side of Australia for anyone who might not know where I'm talking about) to come over and be part of the party. We got her sitting down after the initial surprise and then we brought them out. The look on her face was so beautiful. They had arrived the Wednesday before the party and left again the Wednesday after so we were all able to spend some time together afterwards.

It was a fair effort to put it all together. On the day I was running around picking people up, collecting computers and equipment for the powerpoint in the speeches, dropping other things off, getting balloons and decorating the room all without mum knowing. She was taken out for the day by some of her friends who kept her out of our way (Thanks!). As she was leaving she asked me to pick some things up for her because 'I didn't have a lot on'. It was very funny and somehow I managed to get all my jobs done.

About 10:30am Dad added me to the speeches that were being given. I didn't have a lot of time to think and prepare what I was going to say so I got up with nothing to say. But I manage to come up with something. I say it was 'from the heart' as opposed to me being unprepared! Mum liked it and I spoke at a normal pace so people could understand me for once! I speak very fast so that conscious effort to slow down when speaking in public can be harder than it is for other people.

Anyway, mum's birthday was great and Scott will have fun tonight (I hope). I just need to make it through the rest of the month :)