Christmas Time

So it's Christmas now... about one hour into Christmas in Australia. I've just come back from my church's midnight service. I'm going to be moving (again) next year and this time, I'll be changing churches, too. Actually, I'll be living next door to a church. Actually, I'll be living on the church's property... so, of course, I'll be going to that church.

Which means goodbye current church.

Anyway, as much as I'm looking forward to it, I'm going to miss my current church a lot. I have a lot of history with that particular church, way back when I was a kid. Actually, tonight at the midnight Christmas service, I ran into an old babysitter of mine who I haven't seen in years.

I have a lot of friends there. A good community, too. It's very sad. It wasn't that long ago when I had to say "goodbye, possibly forever" to people from TAFE. I doubt it'll be "goodbye forever" to people from church because people know each other within the Christian community and I know I'll see them again in this life and the next. And I know where I can find them. But I basically grew up in that church. Most of my best growing-up memories are at that church. Some of my best grown-up memories are there, too.

I still have the whole of next month at that church, though, so it's not all happening yet. And unlike at TAFE where giving people proper goodbyes may be awkward and not always appropriate depending on my relationship with said people, I know that at church I can give proper goodbyes and they'll send me off with prayers and hugs.

And I believe that this is the move that God wants me to make.

And actually, this was a pretty crummy year in some ways, but looking back at it what overshadows the crappiness is that I can see how God has looked after me and guided me so I didn't have to find my way on my own. This house is part of that, too.

Anyway, goodnight. I'm sleepy and it's Christmas today.

Love Green.

My Weekend

I mentioned in the last post that I had an enjoyable weekend, so I thought I might blog about it in more detail.

Saturday was good because I visited a friend I hadn't seen in a while and we played video games, and it was a lot of fun! And then I went to the Saturday church service.

Then on Sunday, in the morning I went to church. The service was a good one. The plan was to afterwards go out to lunch somewhere with Gem from church, but then Yew* was there and he was trying to gather a few people to go out for lunch as a group, so Gem and I decided to go with them, and then another guy, Meerkat said, come to my house instead and I'll cook a heapload of chicken for you!

So a bunch of us went to Meerkat's house and most of us stopped to buy something to contribute to the meal on the way (Gem and I bought bread) and once we got there, we all had a job to do, chopping vegetables or slicing chicken or whatever... (I was slicing chicken) and we all sat down to eat and talked and it was heaps better than going out to eat because it was cheaper and because we all contributed to the meal it was really cool. There is a lot of significance in sharing a meal together, particularly for Christians, and especially when everyone had a part in preparing it.

But because of all that cooking Gem and I were late for the next part of the day that we had planned, which was to go to the synchrotron open day! (and it didn't really make any difference that we were late because the open day lasted all day, just that we had planned to get there by 1:30 but instead we got there by 2) so after lunch we left to go to the synchrotron, and we did a self-guided tour, and we ran into our friend (also from church but not from the morning service) who works there, and a couple of other people also from church who just also happened to be interested in coming to the open day! All the sciency stuff was cool but don't ask me to explain it to you.

Then after that Gem and I met up with a couple of other friends and we went to the movies and saw Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, which I have to say, I loved! And then again, we went straight to evening church. (Yes, I did go to church three times during the course of the weekend, what of it?) Evening church was good and we had the commissioning of one of our members who is going to go to Spain for ministry purposes, so that was a little bittersweet.

There was also soup and cookies and party pies at church.

So yeah, it was a good day! And when I wrote my last post I did mention dad almost ruining it, but he didn't. Because now when I think about my weekend I don't think about dad being grumpy. I think of all the fun I had.

And now... I should probably go to bed.


*(who I should mention I am no longer infatuated with, I have successfully moved on, and he has started dating this other girl who is a totally cool person and there's nothing about that relationship I can criticise.)

Saturday Service

The church I'm going to has recently just started having a service on Saturdays as well as the three on Sundays. It's designed to be a cross-generational service. Not that the others aren't, it's just that the trend tends to be mostly elderly in the 8am service, families and children in the 10:30am service, and young adults, mostly childless, going to the 6pm service. It's just that the way the different services are run and the times that they are on suit those particular groups the best. This is partly intentional, I think, so that there's a service to suit most groups of people who come to church, but someone must've thought it'd be nice to have a Saturday service and make it cross-generational so the different generations can worship together. It's a good idea that encourages community. So I thought I'd come along and check it out. It was really nice, and fun, and different, and a lot less formal than the usual Sunday services. There were lots of kids but, unlike in the 10:30am service where the send the kids off to Sunday school while their parents listen to the adult service, the adults and the kids stayed in the same service, worshipped, and listened to the same message together. It was really nice.

So they did a lot during the service that was just for the kids, but I think the adults enjoyed watching the kids and playing along, too, I think. It might be easy for an adult to feel like the service was too kiddy, but for the sake of the community and supporting what they were trying to do, most of the adults just allowed themselves to enjoy it, including the ones who didn't have kids like myself. At least, that's what I did, and that's what I imagine most of the adults did. That's what the spirit of the service seemed to be like.

Also, after they had the stuff that was for the kids they got these paper plates and got the kids to draw on them (it was related to what the message was) while the pastor spoke the message to the adults, although still simple enough that the kids could follow while they drew their pictures, but more relatable for the adults than the stuff they were doing just for the kids before, while the kids were kept quiet while they drew. Afterwards they got the kids to come up and show and talk about their pictures, along with their really cute and funny answers that kids always have.

I thought it was really nice how they went about doing this, how they made it so the adults and kids could worship together with their families without sending the kids off to their seperate lessons, and also for the childless people who were there who can also worship with the kids and the parents and grandparents, too, all different people in different times in their lives, together in one community, and I think I'll go back next week, too.

I'm still going to the 6pm service every week on Sundays as I usually do and will also occasionally go to the 10:30am service every now and then as I sometimes do (I've yet to visit the 8am service - a little too early for a Sunday morning!) but I really like what they're doing at the Saturday service and would like to support it!

Just stuff

I feel like updating, but not really sure what to blog about. Well, one thing I could blog about is this game/story-telling program that I'm really getting into. I won't explain what it is, here, but you can check it out at this site. I'll tell you one thing, it's really fun! Also, time-consuming when I should be doing my myths and symbols homework, instead.

Church has become the highlight of my week. I've only really been going recently since the end of last year, to be honest, I went through a phase when I was being really lazy about church for a few years before then, there were a couple of reasons, but not really ones that were "good enough" to not go to church. I have always known that church was an important part of my relationship with God, but it's too easy to get lazy about it. Recently I decided to stop being lazy about it, and I'm glad because that decision has been bringing me a lot of joy.

So... yeah, church is basically the highlight of my week. I remember when it was the highlight of my week before my "lazy period", too.

There is a birthday party I'm going to this weekend, which I'm looking forward to. And then another one a fortnight from then.

I'm trying to not like a certain fellow so much, (not that he doesn't deserve my interest, but that he doesn't seem to share it, and I don't want to go through that whole "unrequited infatuation" thing that has always been my lot in life.) It's hard when he goes around being a remarkable person and then when a group of people decide to go out for dinner after church (it's an evening service) the one person there who knows about my feelings is all like, "Oh, you can sit on the couch bit if you want (metaphorical wink)," which happens to be right next to where he's already sitting. Hmmf.

Lots of people are having babies. Or have just had babies.

I should probably be doing homework right now.

Until next time.

I'm a Winner!

I still remember the first time I ever won something. Or, at least, it's the earliest memory I have of winning something... but I do remember that, at the time, moments before I won the thing, I was reflecting on how I never win anything. Then, I won it... it was a card of the Hamburgler, I think, one of those things that you put in the oven and when it comes out it's shrunk and turned into this hard, thick, plastic thing that, if you wanted to, you could put a piece of string through the little hole at the top and tie it around your neck or something? I even remember how I reacted when I won. It was just like, "Oh, ok, I didn't really expect that to happen."

Considering I was about ten years old at the time, it seemed silly how I lamented how I never win anything, since I hadn't really been alive for that long to have had many opportunities to win a whole lot. Still, I suppose ten years feels like your entire life when you're only ten years old.

Today, I went to this church social event for women, this Women's Movie and Dessert night or something. Brought a couple friends with me and had a nice time. They had a free raffle... now, I never win raffles when I pay for it, but I have some uncanny luck when it comes to free raffles where I get a ticket just for turning up, like at, say, church events. I have an "Admit Two" pass to Pinewood Shopping Centre. I already know what I want to see. I want to see "Bran Nue Dae." The question is, who do I want to see it with?

There's a part of me that wants me to ask Yew again, give it another go, but I already know he's not interested and I'd just be embarrassing myself. I'll probably just ask one of my friends.