Kel from xfacta has started a blog here http://www.resources4retrenched.blogspot.com/

bag boy movie download which is quite simply what it says – resources for the retrenched.

It is based on her own personal experience… I hope you never have to use it! ice blues free download download rescued dvd

For anyone who cares and isn’t on facebook…

Danelle & Marleene – this woman can cook!

download driven to kill dvdrip

Danelle & kids Robe River

Me & my ‘little’ girl @ Ashburton River

Sambo makes us laugh! One of his many expressive faces…

Ashburton River – pretty spot – nice pic by the photographer wife

Home scooling

6.15 am at Robe River – the kids were already in the water swimming

‘Greying’ Nomads

(And before you comment – yes I do know how to spell scool!)

santa and pete free

Its been a weekend in Hedland living with an Indian family Danelle got to know while in Butler. He is a doctor and she is a beautiful woman who can cook Indian food like you wouldn’t believe…

We have had curry, curry, curry and it has been amazing. For a food lover this house is heaven – and what’s even better is that you aren’t allowed to do the dishes (I tried to make Danelle do them a few times but she wasn’t allowed…)

We just had a bit of biff after we bought them a gift to say thanks for letting us stay here. It turns out that in her culture you only give gifts like that if someone has done something very wrong – its like saying ‘you have offended me and this is the end of our friendship’. Oops… It really hurt and offended her. I tried to explain how we see gifts, but it didn’t get thru until 30 minutes later when she had time to process. Just another little picture of how different out cultures can be…. We’ve been discussing Hinduism and faith and how we are similar and different. Its interesting because my perception of Hinduism from afar is a little different from what was described to me by someone in the thick of it. I guess it might be the same when people talk to us about faith.

Tomorrow we head off to Barn Hill, a very small campsite around 100km south of Broome and right on the beach, where we stay until Friday. You can see the caravans in the red dirt ‘sandhills’ from where its a 200m walk to the beach. We have been told that this is a beautiful place and one of the ‘must sees’ on the journey around. I doubt there will be any net access so this might be the last you hear from me till Friday night when we arrrive in Broome.

divx tremors

We stay in Broome for 2 weekends as I am speaking at the Baptist church during that time, and the church people have graciously given us a house to live in, so we will be out of the camper for 10 days. Yeeha!

Camping has been fun, but there’s no question it is compact and when fatboy wakes up at his regular 6.00am its all over red rover for anyone who was hoping to sleep a little longer. That boy just can’t do anything quietly!

From Broome we don’t have a set plan where we need to be anywhere in particular, so we will wend our way thru the Kimberleys and stop where we stop and as we need to.

We have been trying to operate on what we feel is a pretty frugal weekly budget of:

Fuel $200.00

Food $200.00

Accomodation $200.00

Spending/fun/incidentals $200.00

So far we about on target, but it is tough to stay to it. In this part of the world everything is very expensive so we find ourselves spending more than we would like.

We are trying to stay to budget without letting it constrain us from either enjoying things or being generous.

I reckon we will go close to the mark, but it will be interesting to see how accurate I have been with my estimates.

For those who may be interested in doing a similar venture, we have worked our budget on

Fuel: 22000 km @ 90c/l average for LP @ 3.5km/l = $5700.00 ($217.00/wk) Its a pretty high average price for LPG and a low estimate for fuel economy so hpefully we will do

Accom: $40.00/night for accomodation @ 120 nights of the 176 nights we are away = $4800.00 ($184.00/wk)

Food: $200.00 wk not inc take away

Spending $200.00 wk – includes everything from clothes to car wash to cable ties!

We don’t have a budget for unexpected expenses, but are just hoping we will get thru – and that pigs might fly… american tail fievel goes west an download download mark of cain the dvdrip field of dreams movie download

From Rocky III

“But then the worst thing happened that could happen to any fighter, you got civilised’ Mick to Rocky

McManus’s book opens with this quote and then goes on to illustrate beautifully the contrast between civilised faith and rugged, raw ‘barbarian’ faith.

Essentially McManus is arguing that the Christian life was never meant to be a life of peace, prosperity and happiness (not that they are bad things) but that it is to be a life of adventure, risk and sacrifice. He uses 4 words to describe a barbarian faith – love, intimacy, passion and sacrifice, but the focus is very much on the element of courage and living on the raw edge.

He begins with a great passage from Judges 11 where Jeptha is expelled for being a son of a prostitute and is not seen as acceptable to the rest of the tribe, but when the people of Ammon declare war on Israel they go and ask him to return – because he is a warrior and can fight. In fact they ask him to come and lead them… McManus makes the point that in times of peace and stability the warrior/barbarian can be a pain in the proverbial, but when it all gets hard and things are looking grim then they are someone you want on your side – in fact in those times you need them to lead.

I wonder if we as the church aren’t living in times that require some barbarian leadership? These are certainly not times when things are going our way and where all is good. These are difficult times and we need these people back in the game. As McManus describes ‘barbarians’, I see them most closely aligned with the apostolic gifting, one that is certainly lacking in many churches today.

I have a feeling that part of the reason church can be so damn boring at times is because the barbarians have either been marginalised and pushed to the edges, or they have opted out because a passive and conservative environment just doesn’t resonate with who they are.

To give you some insights in how McManus describes barbarians here are some quotes:

p. 5 “Christianity over the past two thousand years has moved from a tribe of renegades to a religion of conformists”

P. 5 “A quick survey of the modern church would lead you to believe his invitation was “Come and listen” and his closing mandate would be summarised in the one word “No!”

P. 6 Of barbarians he writes: “They are not about religion or position. They have little patience for institutions or bureaucracies. Their lack of respect for tradition or ritual makes them seem uncivilised to those who love religion”

He spend a lot of time distinguishing between religious people and followers of Jesus.

P. 12 “Perhaps the overwhleming tragedy of our time is that such an overwhelming number of us who declare Jesus as Lord have become domesticated – or, if you will, civilised. We have lost the simplicity of our early faith. Beyond that we have lost the passion and power of that raw, untamed and primal faith.”

P. 22 He describes Jesus as a ‘barbarian in the midst of civilisation and frankly the civilisation made him sick”

p. 43 “The civilised view of Jesus is that he always comes through for us – like superman” whereas the barbarian knows that when you put your life on the line it just might get taken and there are no promises or guarantees.

p. 47 “When religion becomes civilised it moves away from God and oppresses humanity in God’s name”

p. 48 “Is it possible that the transforming power of the church has been lost because we keep inviting people to step into the comfort, safety and security of Jesus Christ?”

As I read even this far my spirit soared because I often feel exactly what he is writing about – that we have (often with the best of intentions) created a systematised and safe religion where we can easily describe the boundaries and where we can keep people in line and make sure they don’t misbehave. Anyone with any strength of will is not going to be attracted to that kind of faith!

Its here where we can learn some stuff from our outlaw friends who ask for your life if you wish to be in the gang – and they ask for it back if you choose to leave… Its an all in commitment and yet it appeals to men who want to be part of something that requires more than a weekend approach.

There is plenty not to like about OMCGs but if we look at why people join them its often because they were outcasts seeking community and purpose… and they didn’t come to us… Maybe if we welcomed the strong, aggressive and firey men we might see the church come alive in a whole new way, but it would scare the crap out of the majority of people already in it!

McManus offers this brief distinction P.78:

* The civilised build shelters and invite God to stay with them; barbarians move with God wherever he chooses to go.

* The civilised Christian has a routine; the barbarian disciple has a mission

* The civilised believer knows the letter of the law. The barbarian disciple lives the spirit of the law.

* The religiously civilised love tradition; the barbarian spirit loves challenges.

* The civilised ares satisfied with ritual; barbarians live and thrive in the mystical.

* For the civilised disciple, religion provides stability and certainty; for the barbarian a life in God is one of risk and mystery, and maybe even a little insanity.

I was asked recently why I can’t be more of a gentleman like (insert a gentlemanly Christian you know of) rather than being the person I am at present. My short answer is that it just isn’t me, but McManus has written a longer answer for me. While there’s nothing wrong with being a gentleman, for some of us there is a different calling and its best not to try to be who you aren’t.

The Barbarian Way is not a scholarly read or a deep book, but its not supposed to be. It is an inspiring and powerful call to live a more adventurous and passionate life. Its a book that every bloke ought to read at least once

(You won’t find any in Koorong as I bought the last 12 in Australia to give to some of my friends!)

cordarone download great buck howard the online outbreak dvdrip

download girl happy

When talking with my friend ‘D’ I was trying to help him understand what it means to be a follower of Jesus. I am discovering that when someone comes from a particular experience of community they have a tendency to overlay that framework on subsequent forms of community. So in our conversations he was continually viewing the church thru the lens of the ‘gang’. In that scenario I would be the Pres and our leadership team, Vice Pres, Sergeant at Arms etc…

It did make it a tad tricky for him to ‘get’ church…

However what he did ‘get’ was that when we follow Jesus he calls us to be ‘one percenters’, not to simply show up and be in the club and draw on all of its benefits, but to be right in the deep end and completely sold out. I told him that if he was a ‘one percenter’ in his old world then the only way to enter this world was as a one percenter – or don’t bother…

If you’re even mildly intelligent you have already figured out the problem with that statement. Churches are full of people who are not ‘one percenters’. Churches are full of hangers on and wannabes who simply enjoy hanging around the gang, or for whom it has become a way of life. ‘D’ is no mug and having been around our church community for 6 months now he asked this question of me:

‘What’s the deal with this lot?’ he asked me one day. ‘I mean I’m more like Jesus than half of them…’ He had observed some passive and indifferent faith and didn’t see that lining up with what we had talked about. What could I say?… For someone who had just jumped into the life of faith he was already disillusioned.

Dallas Willard has said this well:

The leading assumption in the American church today is that you can be a Christian but not a disciple. That has placed a tremendous burden on a mass of Christians who are not disciples. We tell them to come to church, participate in our programs and give money. But we see a church that knows nothing of commitment. We have settled for the marginal, and so we carry this awful burden of trying to motivate people to do what they don’t want to do. We can’t think about church the way we have been.”

When discipleship is optional then we create a culture where laziness is normal and where faith is flimsy rather than muscular and rugged. I have no doubt that part of the reason we struggle to get blokes in the church community is because it is more passive and gentle and doesn’t call out their more primal instincts and passions.

I sometimes wonder if I were not a Christian and instead were a middle aged family man who was quite happy with life, would I bother investigating the life of faith?

I imagine that at some time in my life when there was a crisis I may be desperate enough to turn to churchies, but then I may also look to a form of spirituality that looks cooler – be that right or wrong…

I am not for a moment suggesting that ‘coolness’ ought to be our goal, but I wonder if we approached faith like Mcmanus suggests in ‘The Barbarian Way’ if men might not be inspired and drawn in.

Ok – I should let you know what Mcmanus had to say shouldn’t I?…

Next post…

To be continued…

1st digital camera

• hazing the download