INDIA!!!!

I can hardly believe it. I will only tell you bits now because we need to be careful with how we talk about the event I am at, just for safety reasons. Christians in India have been experiencing more and more persecution and they are being extra careful at this event.

Crossing cultures always causes me to look at myself critically and revaluate the world view I function from. Our days here are VERY full and I end up being exhausted from the heat, the input and the strain of interacting with people from a very different culture to my own. The humidity is thick and the heat the first few days was overwhelming. The last few days there has been rain and so the temperature has dropped to a much more bearable level.

I have had the chance to have an Indian suit made. The Indians at the conference were delighted when we showed up looking like this.
The food has been amazing! And so far I have not gotten sick.
I will write more when I am back in Australia.

I am on the move again. Tomorrow I leave Canberra and will take a bus to Sydney. After a night there with family friends I fly out on Sunday morning to India. I will spend 2 weeks in India for training and then come back to Australia. I hope to have time to write and post photos there.
So I am packing once again and getting ready for new places and people. Airport lounges, here I come!

places of meaning

Over my weeks here I have found that places are starting to take on meaning for me.

First there is the church property that holds my house, my office and the church building and hall that are the hub for the community. These places sit at the very centre of my life and work here and that is part of why I got very upset earlier this week when I returned home to find the whole property surrounded by blue police tape. It took me a little while and a few frustrating conversations with police to find out what was going on and for them to let me through the blue tape so that I could go home. I found out that a young man, who had been drinking at a local pub, had been stabbed and had gone through our property before dying across the street. So the entire church property was within a crime scene.









Behind this Greek Orthodox Church, which is at the end of our street, is an aged care facility. This facility became a prominent place in my life over the last two weeks. Right now I live with Jim and Jane, and Jane’s Dad Bill. Jim and Jane were gone for two weeks and so Bill went into care for that time. To help Bill adjust, I walked down every day to take him his newspaper. I would sit with him for a while and hear stories of his life and travels. I got to know several of the staff and some of the other residence started to recognize me. One of the staff had never met a female pastor before and she went around enthusiastically telling the other staff what I did for work.

This is a picture of one of the gardens at the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture (ACCC). Behind it is St. Marks, the local Anglican theological school. I have walked over to St. Marks multiple times to use their library and to meet people. The grounds of the ACCC has a labyrinth and overlooks the lake, so I feel it calling me back again and again.









St. Johns Church is the site of a young adults intentional community that prays together every morning. I have joined them for prayer a couple of times and have gone to them also to find likeminded young adults to be my friends.





There is a walking trail that winds its way through the park and along the shore of the lake. I walk some part of this path almost every day. Walking gives me some fresh air and perspective, as well as clearing my head from meetings and hours in front of a computer screen.












I have found that some days I get much more work done if I leave the office and walk to a local coffee shop. This shop is my current favourite, but I am willing to change my opinion as I explore further.