mountain masala

it might get loud

lack of posts here is mainly due to still being crook on and off. a week ago i felt better than I do today. i'll write soon about the visit of diana butler-bass, but for now, let me celebrate the coming movie "it might get loud" - a film that explores the art of the guitar, featuring a meeting of jimmy page, dave evans and jack white (of course that means led zeppelin, U2 and the white stripes).

i found about it from electro-harmonix, some of whose guitar fx pedals i own and such feature in the film.

in might get loud

electro-harmonix

culture with a k

we're delighted to have steve taylor back in town for a week. he's the keynote speaker at our biennial, national in-service gathering for children, youth & family workers.

while steve is in town we've asked him to speak at our next [re]generate (see previous post).

steve will also be running a day seminar/workshop on culture-making as mission - namely how Christian might reshape culture rather than act as victims of culure.

hence "CULTURE WITH A Kiwi"

its wonderful that steve will be back in town. it is so refreshing to have someone who is actively, openly and humbly trying to participate in God's mission. and he almost talks like us (which is deep code for saying that we hear steve as a local, not as a pom or a yank... its a good thing!)

download info here:

Download Culture with a k

[re]generate - august 3

growing disciples

speaking of our "growing disciples" project - the website is here. it's a group project...

plan be

dave andrews' recent book, "plan be" - on the beatitudes - has been turned into a study series, DVD and daily devotional guide.

more details here.

i really like its focus on living differently - "be the change you want to see in the world"

"Growing Disciples" is a new Uniting Church SA site that I'm managing as part of our "future church" initiative. we're launching it at the end of this week at our synod/presbytery meeting.

coming events

details of some coming events:

in a few weeks time we have a visitor from Oxford, Revd Henry Kirk here to lead a couple of sessions on using are in preaching, teaching and pastoral care. monday 27 and tuesday 28 july.

Download Henry Kirk brochure

we have several topics in for aged care chaplains and volunteers starting at the end of july.

Download Aged Care brochure

Steve Taylor will be back in town for a week in early August as the keynote speaker at "breathe", our national in-service for children, youth and family workers. we'll be taking the opportunity for these:

"Culture with a K(iwi)" - a day seminar on mission as local culture-making - Sat 1 August. Brochure out later this week.

Download "Culture with a K" poster

[re]generate with steve will be monday night 3 august. postcard out soon!

there'll also be a coaching session for those who participated in steve's coaching series last year. we know who you are - you'll be contacted shortly.

also a reminder that mark pierson will be in town 14-18 september, son we'll have a [re]generate mon 14 september. more details soon!

a remarkable afternoon

since being crook, i haven't posted regarding my time on the sunshine coast. during our meeting, a couple of people ducked out one afternoon to visit 'a local artist'. i found out when they returned that in fact they were visiting the widow of renowned indian christian artist frank wesley. i have known of frank's work for years, through asian christian art books, the "imaging the word" series and "seasons of the spirit". i had always assumed that frank lived in india!

it turns out that in the early 1960's a young nurse from meadows (near where we live in SA) went to india as a methodist missionary, to work as a nurse with dr geoff pike, another local from SA. her name was athalie brown and she ended up marrying frank wesley. then in 1973 they moved with two young kids to the sunshine coast, where they had to cope with the reaction to a mixed-race marriage (in Queensland in the 70's!). so while I was visiting my grandparents at caloundra, going to camps at Alex Headlands, etc, this world-renowned artist was making a meagre living in nambour! frank would paint all year, they would have an exhibition in the Anglican church hall, and that would give them money for the year. they didn't feel welcomed by the methodist church in the area. in recent years dr gerry wheeler, (now retired) UC minister in Nambour and herself an artist, became a great friend and support for them.

of course, i had to go and visit athalie (hence this story), along with alison whish who tagged along. this remarkable woman walked us through their very humble old queensland weatherboard house and showeds us painting after remarkable painting in every room in the house, then took us to frank's small studio where he had painted for years and years. (he died several years ago).

the dark night of the sardine

we  should have been out last night with a bunch of friends, celebrating the long night of the soul (solstice), making and eating pizzas and talking about 'fresh church' stuff. but i was still far from healthy and realised that i needed another night or two to get over the flu, so we stayed home, lit the fire and watched tv.

i had been making pizza toppings for the night at michelle's place for a couple of days, though unwell... and not surprisingly the fridge is now full of pizza toppings. (we'll be having pizzas for  a week i suspect - so good that they're now multigrain and low cheese or no cheese ...)

yesterday on the way home i bought some cheap prawns for the 'emerging pizza' night, and got cheap sardines as well. we had a few sardines last night for tea, and tonight i cut up the rest and made theo's (very simple) sardine pizza. we nearly died, it was so good. really....

... the usual bread machine pizza base, leggos herb/garlic tomato paste with a tbsp pesto sauce (sorry, i hadnt made it from scratch!), mozarella (sliced from a ball, not the usual gratey stuff, but it didnt matter), tomatoes (theo had sliced ones, i used halved cherry tomatoes that i fried for a bit), sardines - had been marinated in olive oil and thyme and then quick fried), topped with parmesan.

marvellous pizza and and I still feel bad about missing the group pizza night. here's this afternoon's sardine photo to add to the not-quite-donna-hay photo food collection!

apple pages templates

now that we have a new Mac in the office, I'm planning to wean the staff off the hideous MS Publisher..... I don't use Apple's Pages a lot (tend to use inDesign), but for a quick flyer its great, apart from the fact that most of the templates don't match what I want to do. i know that our staff will need good templates if they're going to use Pages, but i rarely come across good 'free templates'.

so i was pleased to come across the jumsoft website which has all kinds of stuff to go with Pages and Keynote. Most of it didnt interest me a lot, but the Pages Templates did! For US$40 I consider this money well spent. It gives lots of great starting points for funky advertising (50 design bundles).

And the Goodies page has some interesting stuff on it too.

stop child labour

a week or so ago the twins were part of a flashmob in the city to raise awareness about child labour and its implications. you don't get to see them in the video as they were on the other side of the 'silver balls'.