Final Touches

With a few final adjustments...



All is well.

Sticky Tape and String

Just out of Halls Gap, the bikes started to move around, swinging from side to side.

As it pivoted on the tow bar the handlebars of the bikes went through the back window.

It was raining at the time.  So with some ingenuity...

Sticky tape, garbage bags and string and we limped inyto Maryborough for repairs.

Repairs on the Road

After the bikes dragged along the road for a few hundred kilometres we took the bike rack to an engineer and got it reinforced. You can see the difference as the bikes sit straighter.

Grumps, Gramps and Grampians

Had a great time at the Grampians with Max and Shirley.  Even got civilised, having showers and everything.  I must say the sticky date pudding that Shirley cooked was a nice aspect of being civilised.

Lovely Lunch

We've finally gotten somwehere where we have both charge and coverage so while Meredith's across the road shopping I'm going to catch up on posting some photos.  Then I'll read war and peace, wash the caravan with a toothbrush and grow a beard, then if Meredith isn't back I'll just have to go look for her.  "Just a couple of postcards."

We've been on the road for over two weeks now and it both feels likje yesterday we left and it feels like we've been gone ages.

Our first day we had lunch in Griffith and had a great time saying goodbye to Kevin and Arlene.  We'll miss them, although when we settle down I hope Kev and I will be able to Skype as much as always.

Silver Gull

This is a Silver Gull,commonly known to us an ordinary Seagull.

This one was scavenging for any scraps while we ate our lunch at Port Fairy.

Larus novae-hollandiae

Source: What Bird Is That

Mt Franklin Reserve

Schoolwork around the table while the chops cook on the fire at Mt Franklin Reserve.  What a beautiful spot.

Bike Trouble

Mark McCormack built this beaut extension on the back of the van with a tow bar to put a bike rack on.

Seemed like a good idea at the time, but I should have gotten him to build the bike rack as well.

I think there must just be more bouncing around on the back of the caravan than on the back of a car.  It's not supposed to bend like that.

We limped into Warrnambool with a bike on the roof and a bike bouncing around in the van.

This was meant to be a joke, http://oldmillie.blogspot.com/2010/05/now-if-i-put-bikes-there-where-do-i-put.html but this is how we ended up doing it.

The Disciple Making Pastor - Foreword

This book starts in an overblown way, but this doesn’t diminish the importance of the book’s topic.

“It is no secret that the organised church is in trouble” is a generalisation and an overstatement.

Coleman writes in his foreword, “...ecclesiastical programs and membership promotions have been mistaken for fulfilling the great commission”

My immediate reaction is that this is an overstatement but...

• When we can’t explain why we have to have a youth group (or Sunday School) but we just know we have to...
• When we are glad to see someone coming to church, as if that is enough, or as if it’s a substitute for faithful living instead of just a component of faithful living...

We are already or in danger of replacing programs for living faith.

Smooth As Silk

So, how's the trip going?  Any teething problems?

Sat 12 Conargo Sports Reserve
    Left a really good fire poker behind after cooking the porridge in the morning.  The stake of the rabbit trap will do till we can find another good poker.

Sun 13 and Mon 14  Ayson's Reserve, Elmore.
    After a visit to Deniliquin Baptist (the new guy there seems to be a good bloke who is on track (these two things are different) we stopped at Ayson's reserve.  It was here that we noticed that the four bikes were about ready to fall off the back of the van.  A new spring washer and a few good sturdy kicks on the trusty adjusty and I think we can linp down to Warrnambool.

Tuesday 15 The Stephens Place, Kyabram
    The door to the van doesn't lock now, won't even stay shut.  Believe me, in Victoria you want a door that shuts at night.  (What is it with Victoria anyway, how come the sun reckons it only has o show up for a couple of hours each day??)  This predicament is absolutely nothing to do with the guided tours of the van that their fifty boys wanted.  Some creative work with an ocky strap is a good temporary fix.

Wednesday 16  Mt Franklin Reserve
    What a beautiful spot.  Beautiful trees, lovely rain in the night.  Just discovered leak number 187.  Air the blankets, another job for when we arrive in Warrnambool.  Hope we have some time left over to talk to Ben and Lou.

Verdict of the Trip:
James:  I don't know
Lizzy:  Bendigo was pretty boring
Claire:  pardon, Dad.
Katie:  I don't know
Meredith:  depends who you're emailing, who are you emailing.  Brrrrrrrr but beautiful.
Michael:  wouldn't miss it for the world!!!!!!!!



 

The Disciple Making Pastor - My Intro

There are lots of ways a pastor is like a shepherd. One that is less obvious is that in both occupations there is always work left undone.

A better lambing rate. Less damage from wolves. Just getting that fence done after all these years. Somehow we never seem to get a new fence put in because we are always chasing lost sheep and patching the old fence.

Perhaps the greatest regret of my time in Ariah Park is that I feel as if I never quite got to the meaty end of making disciples.

Now this feeling has been tempered by a new awareness as we were leaving of how much people have grown (it’s easy to be frustrated if you only measure people’s progress against where you want them to be, it’s easier to be encouraged if you look at how far God has brought them)

Nonetheless there remains a conviction that while preaching is paramount (any New Testament book will impress you with the importance of proclamation in the Church) the gospel must be preached in a one-on-one fashion also. The pastors job is to preach the gospel into the lives of the congregation both from the pulpit and from the lounge chair (or tractor cab or office chair)

So over the next few months I intend to read and reflect on Bill Hull’s The Disciple Making Pastor.

Mirrool Creek

Wow, there's the Mirrool Creek.

Hey wait a minute... that's not the Mirrool Creek

What's that silvery stuff in it !?!

Farewell

Farewell to all our good friends at Ariah Park.

Here we go.

Thanks Damo for the last minute repairs (Hey Damo, you do roadside calls???)