Actually, there are some blessings that we have now that we had not anticipated which kind of make things better in some respect. Being able to buy a house for instance would be an example of this, and of course being given the opportunity to get started on a vision that, at least on my part, has been 15 years or so in the making (namely planting a church). So, in a lot of respects things are better than what we planned – God is good.

But what I was more referring to was being happy – like Paul says in Phil 4:11 that he has learnt to be content whatever the circumstances. If it had been God’s will that what we had a orginally planned had actually materialized then I’m confident I would still be happy. This is not say I don’t think there are things that could be better, for instance my work situation is a little more stressful then I would like, but although we tend to think of life as a journey we often forget what the eventual destination is and we get hung up on reaching or not reaching certain milestones and in doing so we miss out on the joy. For me, I believe my destination has already been set and is secure, not because of my own merit but because of what Christ has done. What I don’t know is the road God will take me to get to its eventual end, in the meantime I would do well to keep taking each step as my path is lit and to pay attention to the scenery as we go along.

It’s not so much that I was worried or anything, and it’s not as if I haven’t been up in front of that particular group of people before but like the day I got married there was a whole new life to look forward to, one that I was excited about; but at the same time filled with quite a few unknowns. In the lead up to the wedding Gorgeous and I prepared for our new life as best we could and for the most part we were as ready as we were ever going to be (It’ll be 10 years in December so we must have done something right). But what single person really knows what they’re getting themselves into? All you really have is your commitment to each other and to God and the rest you sort out as you go along.

I draw some parallels to our current new adventure. We believe God has called us to this ministry and we’ve done our best to prepare as best we could, but in the end all we have is our commitment to Him and desire to serve.

I‘m still in New Zealand waiting for a police report from Papua New Guinea. Today, I put a plan B into action since plan A seems to be on the go slow. I appreciate the many people praying for this situation and well admittedly it is VERY frustrating for us we are confident that God is in control and He is using this situation for His purposes.

It just goes to show that it’s a matter of timing. Waiting for the right person to come along who recognises the value of what you have on offer and clicks on the button. One of the great things about online auctions is you significantly increase the pool of people browsing through your stuff and there by increase your chances of catching that willing buyer. For us though time isn’t something we have a lot of at the moment so everything is being listed for $1 reserve. This means that some items are going for rock bottom bargain prices. From our perspective though it’s one more “thing” that’s been disposed of to a good home and turned into cash (albeit less than what we hoped but still more than what we had with it sitting unsold)

We were then ushered into separate rooms where we were going to do some more tests. These tests involved looking at various pictures of women and rating them along with whether or not we would be interested in having a “relationship” with them. Anyway, before I started doing this one of the graduate students conducting the experiment came in with the results of the first part of the experiment. It turns out I come across as a very shifty person because the other three guys rated me very low in the trustworthy stakes in all situations. Needless to say I was mortified and I was trying to figure out how they all could have formulated such a low opinion of me????

After we had finished the second part they came clean and said that they had fabricated the results of the first part to try and manipulate our self esteem! So while I was the unlucky one to pull the “everyone hates you” straw, one of the other guys got the “everyone thinks you’re a star!” straw. The whole idea was to investigate how feelings of self worth effect choice of partners. The hypothesis was that someone with lower self esteem would see relationships with “the beautiful people” as being unattainable and set their sights lower. I don’t know whether the results I produced backed that theory up or not but thinking about it today as I drove along with Cutie in her car seat in the back made me think about and PRAY about her future husband.

Obviously I want the very best for her, but there are things I can be doing right now that help ensure that she doesn’t end up falling for some “dead beat”.

It never ceases to amaze me what comes out of any kitchen under her control, especially when you consider we have 3 children under the age of 4 and the limited budget she works with especially when you consider that today hasn’t been very good with the children and the ongoing delays with the documentation for my visa. I know many of you are praying for us and I thank you heaps for that. Please pray a special blessing for Gorgeous (and if you want to be specific please ask for that blessing to be in the form of Little Buddy sleeping more than the current 2 -3 hr stretches) Thanks to you all.

This one was written about 10 years ago. I don’t recall the circumstances surrounding how it was written but the sentiment ten years on hasn’t changed. All sorts of things can befall us in life, good things and bad things, some as a result of our own actions, some because the sun and the rain fall on everyone (Matthew 5:45). All these different experiences can be used as an excuse to move away from God OR to come before once again and put Him in His rightful place and offers ourselves to Him (Romans 12:1).

What a wonderful hope we have, it makes me wonder whether we truly live with the hope or do we at times slip into “grieving like the heathen”. 1 Thessalonians 4:13 And I mean that no just in the sense of people dying but also in our attitude towards the things of this world.

Like I said, I think labeling the behaviour as outright lying is a bit sensationalist but it certainly shows that right from very early on people will try a manipulate their world so that that everything revolves around them.

Self-centredness is essentially sin by another name so there you go “scientific” proof for Romans 3:23 :)