Finding balance

Life is starting to find its pace without me racing along. This past week I have felt more at ease in my work. The month after I got back from India felt like I was flailing myself head long at work and was left shaken. The last few weeks I have had time to read my book, walk the dog at the house I am house sitting, make food and generally think about my life here. I am trying to find places to meet people outside of the church. This is a slow process but I found a farmers market last Saturday and I have signed up to usher at a local theatre so that I get my theatre fix and also meet people. Don’t get me wrong, I am not sitting around twiddling my thumbs. I am teaching Sunday School, leading two Bible studies, and still coordinating youth group as well as attending to church meetings, admin and pastoral care. But I think the balancing act of my life is starting to shift in the right direction.

This picture is of me at a youth group event.

news from this month

I am writing from my little flat just across the lake from the church. I moved here about a week ago, a day or two after I returned from India and then a music festival. Little blogging has happened as of late because I have hardly stopped for the last month.

Working backward...I am now living in a little flat behind the house of some of the members of the church and loving having my own space. It is great to be able to make a mess or not and cook for myself. I love living in community but there are times when I just want my space. I may still be moving around a bit before Irene’s Place starts next year but for now I am cosily settled and pleased to be so.

I spent Saturday through Tuesday this last week as part of a conference called Voices For Justice run by Micah Challenge. Micah Challenge is an international ecumenical group that is working with Christians across the world to raise awareness of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) to halve poverty by 2015. The central verse of the Micah Challenge is Micah 6:8 – “What does the Lord require of you, but to do justly, love mercy and walk humbly with your God.” We spent the first two days learning more about the MGDs and how to get our message across and then the next two days at parliament house talking to politicians, asking them to put policy in place to help achieve the MDGs. Not only was it informative, it was inspiring to see 230 Christians from all over Australia and from many traditions and denominations all gathering and speaking out for the poor. We presented the government with 4550 letters asking for increased international aid. A group rode their bikes down the eastern coast to raise awareness and raise money for this cause.

The weekend before last I was at Black Stump a larger Christian music festival outside of Sydney. We took a group of 11 from our church, mostly the older youth from the youth group. The long weekend was spent listening to music and teaching. We camped and I spent part of my time trying to raise awareness of Irene’s Place and to see if I could connect with any possible participants. It rained parts of the weekend but this didn’t drag down many spirits. I think we all enjoyed ourselves but returned slightly sleep deprived.

In between these two events I tried to get my head around my experience in India and sort through the work and e-mails that I had not attended to while in India. I managed to get out and enjoy some of the beauty of spring in Canberra. There is a tulip/flower festival that is put on in one of the central parks every spring. I wandered over one bright afternoon and drank in the beauty and the glorious perfume.


I realise I have written very little about my time in India. It was an intense experience. It was lecture based with long days of input. Because of the bombings that happened the day before we arrived and a few days before we left and the persecution of Christians going on right now in India, they were very protective of us. So between this and the packed schedule we got outside of the walls of the compound rarely. My window into India seems very small yet I learned much from those I met at the conference. Being a young woman in the ministry of discipleship with more liberal theology made me an anomaly among the participants. Out of the 110 or so people involved there were 6 westerners and 5 Nepalese with the rest of the participants being Indian. Whenever I travel to another culture my biases and understandings of life are thrown in my face. The way I see life and the world and thus the way things “should be” is not internationally held, imagine that! While it is good to think about this and to have my mindset challenged it is also exhausting. Many of the participants work in Hindu and Muslim areas as evangelists and church planters. This is so far from the work I do and some days the divide seemed extreme. I tended to feel continually on edge and thus worn out emotionally, physically and spiritually. I was so grateful to see my parents when I arrived back in Sydney. I told them story after story.

A surprise met me when I opened my bag in Sydney as well. I tried to turn on my phone and discovered that the battery had been stolen. I think that it was taken on one of my flights flying home to Australia, I never thought about my bag not being safe in the overhead compartment. But at the same time I am so thankful that my computer and other things were not harmed.

Now I am trying to get into a pattern of work. This term I take over full supervision of youth activities at the church. I am teaching Sunday School this term as well as helping out with Bible Studies, youth group nights and pastoral care. It will be a time of learning how to balance the work of the church and Irene’s Place without letting one dominate the other (as well as trying to have a life beyond church and work). I look forward to staying in one city for a awhile even if I will not be staying in the same house the whole time. Living out of a suitcase is a rush for a while but the thrill has worn off.

I would appreciate prayers for an upcoming event at the church that we are running trying to do some long range visioning and planning around christian formation.

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.

two weeks in

So much has been happening over the last few weeks since I have arrived here and I have not been keeping up with writing. I just got my computer so I am hoping that I will be able to write a bit more now.
I wanted to at least put up a few photos from the highlights of the last two weeks since I arrived in Canberra.

This Sunday was my induction at the church. It went well and I feel very welcomed here.

I spent my day off this week wandering around Canberra and was delighted to come upon the first kangaroos I have seen since I came back to Australia.

It was good to get out and see Canberra again, but I did feel like a bit of a tourist.

We are still working on getting my office together and both the administrator and one of my fellow ministers helped with moving a lot of things in and out.

We still have to do some painting and I will try to put up photos when it is finished.

Youth group had their own Olympics on Friday night with one of my highlights being the swimming races without water or a pool.

We also met and have given the Peace House a name.

From here on out it is called “Irene’s Place: a house of discipleship and peace”.

“I will sing, I will sing…”

Rarely do I not have a song in my head. Regular church and chapel services over the last few years have helped cement hymns, spirituals and songs of praise in my brain. Events cause songs to spring to mind and my prayer life is rich with texts and music. The theme song at the Missions Seminar this year was “Lord Jesus you shall be my song as I journey,” which is fitting for me, especially in these last few months.

“God is so good, God is so good”
This song came to me again and again as I got on and off public transport over this summer. On almost every trip I found a friend. Sometimes it was an old friend from College. A few time it was a friend of a friend who was going my way. Once or twice it was a stranger who I smiled at and started conversation with. But on almost every leg of my journey these past two months, I was not alone. I had someone to help pull my many bags on and off trains, friends to sit and chat with, or just someone to empathise with when there were delays or strange occurrences. I would find myself humming “God is so good” as I showed up yet again at a station or terminal and found that out of the crowd walked a friend.

“We will take what you offer, we will live by your word. We will love one another and be led by you Lord.”
The passage in my devotional book this week has been Matthew 14:22-33, Jesus walking on water. This is a fitting text in several ways. This was the first passage I ever preached on. My first sermon was 7 years ago at a church in Melbourne where I was working as a pastoral intern. My supervising pastor from that church has been asked to come and preach at my induction service here in Canberra. My main point in my first sermon was that Jesus is already standing in the middle of the impossible, inviting us on. Before we are asked to swing our leg over the edge of our comfort zone, Jesus is already there in the midst of what we are called to. We are followers, invited beyond our fears.

“Don’t be afraid, my love is stronger. My love is stronger than your fear. Don’t be afraid, my love is stronger. And I have promised, promised to be always near.”
My journey has ended and has just begun. After 2 months of travel following graduation, I am in Canberra. A week ago my parents drove me and my stuff to my new home. I’m coming back to a place I’ve lived but I’ve changed and so has this place. Walking around this week I’ve been struck by how familiar things seem, yet I still get confused and miss what I have known for the last three years. I have points of joy and bewilderment at my own emotions and reactions to my new life.

“Lead me, guide me, along the way. For if you lead me I can not stray. Lord, let me walk, each day with thee. Lead me Oh Lord, lead me.”
In that first sermon I preached, I noted Jesus’ need for prayer even though he was part of God. I have been reminded of my need for prayer and a grounding in something beyond myself as I started my first week of work here. Things feel so right and so overwhelming. I have had moments of pleasure realizing that I will be able to stay here for a few years and at the same time terror thinking “oh no, what have I done!” Yesterday afternoon I walked over to the Labyrinth at the local Christian Center. As I walked the circles in and out crying to God, I asked for guidance and found comfort in the fact that I am not alone. I don’t need to have things all figured out as I commit myself to this place and people, but I do need to remain strongly committed to a mysterious and creative God. This is a big task I am walking into but even though many of my friends are far away God is close.

“I bind my soul this day to the neighbor far away, and the stranger near at hand, in this town and in this land.
I bind myself to peace, to make strife and envy cease. God, knit thou sure the cord of my thralldom to my Lord.”
Sing with me God, in this new day.