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Did The Catholics Get it Right?
I’ve often cited one of the benefits of ‘being Baptist’, (or any kind of free church) as the idea of freedom of conscience – the ability to think for ourselves and hold different / dissenting opinions...
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9 Days in Medewi
It was a great time in Medewi over the last 9 days so for those who may be interested in what it was like here is both the short version and the longer spiel. The short version Medewi is awesome – if...
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Why You Should Listen to Your Mother in Law
It was around 15 years ago that we set out as a family to be missionaries in the new Perth suburb of Butler – known better by the estate name ‘Brighton’. You might remember the TV ads… ‘Brighton – Its...
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The Absence of Grace
Recently I was running out of stuff to watch on Netflix (serious first world problem…) so I decided to give Sons of Anarchy a go. I’d tried before but never got past the first episode. This time I...
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Life Threads – Surfing & The Ocean
Lately I’ve been reflecting on the various threads that weave together to form a life and I have realised that surfing and ‘the ocean’ have been a massive thread in my own 53 years on this planet, so I...
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Life Threads – Surfing & The Ocean II
In year 12 I bought my first brand new board – a 5’ 9” ‘thruster’ by a backyard shaper called Wayne Winchester. In 1981 Simon Anderson changed the landscape of surfing with his 3 fin boards so I...
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Life Threads – Surfing & The Ocean III
Getting a job really messed with my surfing! The time I had during the day for surfing while studying Phys Ed at UWA now no longer existed. It was ‘after work’ and weekends now and that meant I surfed...
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Life Threads – Surfing & The Ocean IV
From the hills we moved to Butler in 2003 and suddenly we were within 3kms of the coast yet again. Surfing began to happen with greater frequency and knowing the ‘Alkimos’ was directly offshore I felt...
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Life Threads – Surfing & The Ocean Final
I took this photo the day after we moved into our house in June 2011 and it captures so much of what Yanchep has been for us. The kids looking out to a rainbow over the ocean – a little bit of...
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Driving with the Handbrake On
Last week I read an interview with Bono that enquired about his recent ‘health scare’. (I’m not sure how recent) In the interview he declined to discuss the issue because he felt it a bit rich for a...
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Church Planting 15 Years On
Early last year we began thinking and praying about planting a church in Yanchep, the community where we have lived now for 7 years. It began with the hope that we might get access to...
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‘That Bloke’ and ‘Those People’
Last Friday was one of those perfect, warm, Yanchep evenings and I was strolling past our new surf club with Lucy in tow. As I walked up the hill towards the beach I saw an older...
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A Place to Call Home?…
Once upon a time in a city called Perth (and not so long ago) when a group of people began a church they did so firstly in a home, then maybe a community centre, or a public building...
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The Olive Man
A few weeks back in the middle of the afternoon there was a knock at our bottom door and I went downstairs to see who it could be. An older man probably in his 80’s was standing there and as I opened...
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Because Peace is Always a Win
After a 40km drive down a dusty corrugated road we arrived at what was once the town of Wittenoom – in its day the largest town in the Pilbara region – but now literally a ghost town – a town site...
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Doing it For the Boys
I’ve read it twice now, but I still haven’t really got my thoughts together on Winton’s latest novel, The Shepherd’s Hut. The first read I was in page turner mode and just chasing the story to its end,...
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The Stone of Madness
When I was away over Christmas I read Magda Subanzki’s autobiography ‘Reckoning’. You might know Magda better as Sharyn Strezleckie (from Kath and Kim – she is Kim’s second best friend) or Esme...
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No Escape
I woke at 2.30am on Friday morning with a food hangover. It was my birthday on Thursday and I may have overeaten just a little… or a lot… So at 2.30 I lay in bed unable to sleep and after half an hour...
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Cold Turkey
I wrote a similar post to this one 5 years ago, but this is where life is at 5 years on… Around the middle of 2013 I stopped drinking alcohol – just totally cold turkeyed it. It was a...
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Backyard Missionary For Ever
Some of you have been following this blog since its beginnings way back in 2003 when it was www.backyardmissionaries.blogspot.com, (see the pic above from the wayback machine) where I was deeply...
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