Archive for July, 2007

On Sunday, Jody and I arrived home from our 8 hr drive from Chicago. We were tired, exhausted and couldn’t be bothered cooking dinner so we opted for some pizza. I called and ordered a large cheese pizza with 6 garlic rolls.

I picked up the pizza, drove home and sat at the dinner table to consume the pound of cheese and sauce which dressed a perfect circle of baked dough. Half way through my second slice I felt some plastic in my mouth, I chewed it a few more times to make sure it was indeed plastic and not some hardened cheese. convinced, I reached in my mouth and pulled it out. I assumed it may have been some plastic from the bag of cheese….. no dramas. But, when I saw what the plastic was, I almost vomited with horrific force……. I pulled out a band-aid!!!! Freaking disgusting!!!! It looked kind of clean?? Half a band-aid, not sure if I sucked it clean or it was clean in the first place?? Even thinking about it now makes me wanna puke. I immediately called the owner of the store and told him my dilemma. He faintly apologized and re-iterated how he had no idea how it got there, and asked me if I wanted another pizza….. I told him I’d lost my appetite for pizza.

I took the pizza back and he gave me a refund on the pizza, but not the garlic rolls! What the?? That kind of ticked me off…. the least he could do was refund all my money, especially since I threw out the garlic rolls too, the rest of the finger could have been in the rolls???? Who knows?? Ewwww!

Anyways, I got thinking about this…. maybe there is a spiritual lesson in this story, a parable of sorts? About band-aids……. ‘band-aid theology’:

I think it’s true that many people have a band-aid theology when it comes to the trials of life. We want the quick fix, we want the problem to appear better on the outside for all to see as quickly as possible. No deep surgery, just give me the band-aid and it will look better, kind of attitude. After all, we become a Christian, get plugged into a church, then to rise in the ranks of volunteerdom we must appear to have our lives in order and not struggling with sin in any way…… we must be the ‘example’.

Been there, done that…. Ring a bell for you too? I used band-aids to mask a whole bunch of issues that God was dealing with in my life; self-worth, lack of confidence, pride, anger, lack of faith. I knew the right words to say to impress people, I knew how to act confident and pretend I had it all together…… but, it was all ‘band-aids’.

Ripping off these band-aids has been a process that I’m still walking through. Every time I rip one off, God reveals another area in my life that needs dealing with and He opens another band-aid. I’m now learning to allow God to work through this process and allow Him the time it needs to heal, fix and mend…… for good.
Its about time we say ‘no’ to band-aid! If not, we’ll have so many of them, they’re bound to end up in our food and us eating them.??????!!! Profound?? right?? Maybe not, its the best I could come up with on 5hrs of sleep.

So, what do you think of the new design? I was getting sick of looking at myself in the header image, so I did away with me…….. and I was getting too muck flack about the ‘cultural ambiance’….. thanks Nomes

Here’s a great article with some suggestive insights on what it means to be a ‘missional church’. This is excellent article comes to us from the good folks over at The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.

Q: What is the difference between a missional church and a church with a mission program?
A: A church with a mission program usually sees mission as one activity alongside many activities of the church -Christian education, worship, mutual aid, hospitality and other programs. A missional church focuses all of its activities around its participation in God’s mission in the world - it trains people for discipleship and witness; it worships and practices mutual aid before the watching world. A church with a mission sends others to witness on its behalf. A missional church understands that the congregation itself is sent by God to proclaim and to be a sign of the reign of God. Just as God sent Jesus, now Jesus sends the church.

Q: What’s so new about the missional church? Aren’t we already missional?
A: Many congregations already have begun the journey to become more missional, but have never recognized themselves as such. Some congregations are becoming more missional and are eager to share the story of their journey. Other congregations make a distinction between witness outside the church and the rest of congregational life. The vision of a missional church invites us to see all of the being and doing of the church from the perspective of what God intends for the world.

To read the rest of this great Q&A click here.

Jody, Liam and I made a trek up to Chicago today to join in with family celebrations and reunion. Jody’s Grandad turns 80, and two other birthdays will be celebrated with lots of food, music and dancing. Its always fun when the family gets together, and now even more fun because the cousins get to see each other again. It’s good to have family!

I just read this post from a good mate of mine in Australia….. It wins the award for the worst day in the world!!!! For sure…

This Week @ The Rees Residence

On Friday night Reuben got sick. He has had a fever and has been vomitting ever since. He hasn’t eaten since Friday. He spent half a day at the Hospital on Sunday, but there is nothing they can do for him (if he won’t have water, they will put him on a drip, but he is drinking). On Sunday afternoon Carissa got sick too, fever and vomitting. She’s feeling heaps better now though, well, still sick in the night, but yesterday she started chattering away and being animated in the day. Reuben still hasn’t moved since Friday,apart from when we carry him to the toliet and bath (which always end in him vomtting from the movement.)

I was home with the 2 sick kids going slightly crazy from being stuck in a house all day with neverending vomit. I started cooking rice and forgot about it (as Roo started being sick and I was with him in the lounge room). 20 minutes later Pete came home and started yelling because there was smoke everywhere through the house (not in the lounge room though because the doors were shut), thought there was a fire, just really badly burnt rice, wrecked the pot. Had to open up all the windows.

Pete said he’ll watch the kids, go in the kitchen and make dinner in peace.

So I put on more rice and am making chicken curry and I put oil in a pot to do poppadums (usually do these in the microwave, but Pete likes them better in deep fried, thought I’d try and make in special). Anyway, we have gas, so when a flame got really big it leapt into the oil and the whole thing burst into flames. I yelled for pete.

Neighbour also came out (he smelt all the smoke from the burnt rice, and was coming to investigate when he saw the flames bursting through the window). Pete took the pot and thought he’d put paper towels in the sink and get rid of the oil, paper towels went up in flames, edge of curtain got singed (thank god not whole curtain as we got water blasting). Bad idea. There is so much fire from a pot of boiling oil!!!

For the rest of this horrific story, click here  - Please leave your sympathies….. It gets worse!

My sister and brother in law are in town for a few days, so tonight we went to my favorite ice cream shop in Cool Springs called Maggie Moos. They make a delicious batch of ‘Better Batter’ ice cream which, when mixed with mini M&M’s is like a party on my tastebuds…… with each and every spoonful. It’s seriously grand!!!

Its been three hours and me winning another smackdown of ‘San Juan’ and I can still taste the sweetness! HmmmmmmmMmmmmmmm

I recently came across this awesome website. The Wayback Machine has been archiving websites for about 8 years, you can go on their website and view what websites looked like back in the day…… hours of pure entertainment.

What did my first website look like?? CLICK HERE to check it out…… oh the memories!!
I spent ages checking out what ‘Google’ looked like 8 years ago, my favorite bands and different big businesses. Its quite hilarious. Enjoy!

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