1,426 words of ketchup

Blogger’s dead and I’m sick.

I’m writing on Word at the moment. I woke up this morning at 8am with that horrible feeling that my stomach wasn’t going to behaving for me today. The pain of, well, many unpleasant visits to the WC. I think the thing I was most disappointed about was that it was 8am. I hadn’t got up before 8am at all in the previous 5 day and I was camping. Why then, when I finally get to sleep in, in my own damn bed, do I have to wake up at 8-“flippin’”-am? I went to bed at 4 in the morning knowing that I had plenty of sleep-in ahead of me. Oh well.

After a day of un-pleasantness I’m emerging on this side of it not feeling too bad. I at some pasta and watched my Best of U2 dvd, and it was good.

I got the feeling I was going to get sick on Tuesday night. I was standing in the main meeting, my throat was sore, and I was pretty sure I was going to loose my voice. And then I get that pain in my stomach. It’s been going around the house, and I was sure I was going to get it during Soul. And there it was. Tuesday night. “Oh no God, please not now.” I pleaded “Anytime but now.” And it seems He heard my desperate prayer and the pain went away and I forgot about it. Till 8am…

Well, that don’t matter. I’m glad God did hold it off. I don’t think I would have made it through Soul having to spend half my days in those wonderful toilets. At least with a cold all you need near by is a hanky or a box of tissues.

But to back track…

Friday

I got to interview Tim H on Friday night. I wasn’t sure how it was going to go. I wasn’t sure if he was going to “play ball” so to speak. When he and Donny climbed into the ring, would it be a good fight? Would Tim punch well? Would Donny have it in him?

We played a game of the Orange-Under-the-Chin Game as our “Inappropriate Youth Group Game”. That was fun. There was a woman who posed for a photo with me and said her last name was "Jaffa". Earlier that night someone had asked me to sign their program. I even got a piece of fan mail. Ahh, fame.

The Tim interview went well. Tim played. He got a few good punches in. I ended up storming off stage when it was suggested that I was a bad singer. Pretty good laughs I think. I enjoyed calling him “The Justin Timberlake of Worship Music”. I’d been itching to do that for weeks, as many people well know, and people laughed so it was good.

The main meeting was good. David and I had a good chat afterwards. And I met two of Rach’s friends in Macchiato afterwards and debated theology. I love a good bit of theological talk.

I was on "Shut-Up" duty at night. After midnight we had to get the kids to be quiet and eventually go to sleep. I managed to get them quiet (mostly) but I was too much of a soft touch to get them to sleep. We ended up going to bed around 2:30am. But it was very nice to sit and talk till the wee hours with friendly young people I don’t get to chat much to.

Saturday

I woke up too early. I went to a seminar with Jo, Kaye, Helen and Rach on Women in Leadership. When we arrived I was the only guy in a shed full of women. One other guy turned up. I felt a little out numbered, a lot more than usual, and I seem to live a quite gender out numbered life. I think it’s a bit sad that only two guys turned up to a Women in Leadership seminar. Perhaps they thought it was only for women (I did). I probably wouldn’t have gone if I wasn’t encouraged. But it does give me the feeling that only women seem to care all that much about the women in leadership thing.

The seminar was mostly good. It confirmed a lot of what I thought. There were a few dodgy arguments, and the woman seemed to give the impression that people who believed that women shouldn’t be in leadership in the church hadn’t studied the Bible well enough, and had come at their studies with an agenda. I disagree with that. I think there are probably plenty of people who have come to their ideas that there is a biblical precedent for not allowing women into positions of leadership within the church with complete integrity.

At lunch I got asked for another Donny autograph. The girl said she wanted “something to rub in the noses of the people back at church”. I was very flattered but I’m not sure how many people back at her church would be impressed by the signature of some fictional character that they’d never heard of. But who am I to know?

After lunch Jo and I went to Hornsby, it was Jo’s Birthday (Happy Birthday Jo). I got some lunch from Little Modern, and burnt a DVD. Hannah and Dad had just arrived home so it was nice to see them. I drove back and picked up Howie and David along the way.

Back at Soul I went and found my interview subjects for the evening. It was a band. The band were pleasant enough to talk to. But they seemed a little like a "rock band". And I was worried they were taking the interview a little seriously. But I left them to it and hoped for the best.

I played a game of Frisbee on the oval with Howie and David and a collection of youth who turned up later in the piece. I had fun. I do love the youth. How good it is to be a youth minister so you can spend your days hanging out with young people.

Donny’s last night.

Donny sang “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” in response to Tim’s criticisms the night before. I think Tim’s criticisms were perhaps well founded, but I had fun running around with a microphone.

People laughed at many of the right places and I had some shockers. I tried to make funnies out of the survey that was being handed around, but that fell flat on its face.

The band failed to materialise for the interview. Only the singer made it at the start and some friend he had with him. He wasn’t really wanting to play ball. He was hard nut to crack. He was right into the blocking (as in theatre sports blocking) and not accepting my offers. It wasn’t the best. The drummer joined us halfway through the interview and he was a bit more fun.

In the end I wrapped up the show, thanked the necessary people (and probably forgot a few) and walked off stage not sure whether to feel relived that it was over, or down because the night’s show didn’t seem to have gone all that well. I didn’t make a decision and felt them both.

The Main meeting was a goodie. Mike spoke well about being generous and making sure that we were concerned for the poor. I went forward at the ministry call because I was sick of being concerned about the poor and doing nothing about it. I was frustrated at myself. I want to change. So I pleaded with God to show me how.

I talked to Matt afterwards about that fact that so often we make commitments to change, but we don’t. We commit to helping the poor and fighting injustice, but nothing changes. There’s a high chance that will happen to me, but I hope to God I change something.

In the evening I went and watched Blind play their set. They did good. I enjoyed their music. Good on them I say.

The evening ended up at Maccas till 2am with Helen, Rach, Kaye, Jo, David, Howie and I, sitting around doing the Maccas thing. Fun, fun.

Right now I should be in church, but as we know, I’m sick. I always miss church when I don’t go. At least it still runs when I’m not there.

Now I will go away and live my changed life. I wonder what’s on Foxel?