Long Time Between Drinks

Well, as the title says, it's been a while since I got myself into gear and posted a blog. With Brooke having been away since Thursday and being caught up at work trying to finish off end of year things for different cost centres, it's been a busy time.

It's been interesting these last few weeks. The Oakden Bible group has created some significant discussion on many levels about various topics. Each has been fairly intense. Discussion about evangelism, creation, roles people play in the church, etc etc. With broad ranging opinions and solidarity amongst those opinions, it's made for some intriguing discussion. The only hope is that it doesn't create division. That would be the last thing that we would want, but naturally Satan would be rubbing his hands together at the prospect.

Interestingly, a number of points I have made found themselves weaving their way into the sermon on a Sunday morning. It's nice to know that things I've said are useful, and more importantly that I'm on the right track in my thinking and beliefs. It's more of a confirmation that I'm going down the road that God wants me to lead, rather than that which I have "planned"... and anyone that knows how my life has gone from about 2000 til now will know that my plans, while theoretically sound, always seem to take a dive at the last moment through no fault of mine. What has me concerned, though, is that in each of the plans the only real common denominator throughout is me. So, further confirmation that the path I had "planned" wasn't what God had in mind.

On the Creative Kids Camp topic, I was originally asked to take the Vocal elective and the Massed Vocal core unit, but the person doing Concert Band dropped out and so I was asked to take that role on. Now that the applications in there seems to be another issue. The number of camp attendees that selected concert band as an elective was.... wait for it.... wait..... here it comes....


A BIG FAT ZERO.

So Ben has had a chat with Nathan Rowe, who he had asked to take on Vocal since I was now doing Concert Band, and we agreed that I'd do the Vocal units again and that would free Nathan up to do a few other things, including work on some stuff for his Corps (Semaphore).

Given that the theme is "transformers", I can think of no better song than "Amazing Grace" to fit in there somewhere. A song of ultimate transformation, taking a wretch that was lost and blind and helping them to see and find their way and becoming a child of the Most High, God Almighty. I'll have to have a think about what I really want to achieve out of it so that I can arrange it appropriately, and whether I do it with the vocal elective or the massed vocal.

On another subject, my grandma's piano came on Friday, along with an entertainment unit that dad sent across from Melbourne. The piano is very dear to me, as it is to most people in our family, but it is a long lasting memory of my grandmother. Many a day I sat at that piano in her house, while she hunted around for music that I might try to play, and that she could listen to me plough my way through, sometimes relatively successfully and other times not so much. She would always give words of encouragement and praise and tell me that my grandfather would be proud.

I miss her.