The Big News

Themes: Personal

It’s been close to a month since my last post! Aaaargh…
There is so much to say.
Let me start with the truly Gigantic News that Emma has been offered a job in Sydney, with the Royal Flying Doctor Service, commencing on Monday 16th October!! … !!!!!!

(wait…)

!
that about sums it up, but you probably want some background. Let me go back and pick up the story from where I left off.

Last Sunday night after Church, we headed back home and Emma got stuck into a job application she’d been working on for a couple of days. It might be that you’ve never applied for jobs, or it might have been a while, but it is a mammoth task. Emma’s applications probably take 20-30 hours of work to complete – admittedly she writes brilliant job applications. She was up until 2.00am that night working on it. The following day I pick her up from work at lunch time to give her a little more time to complete the application before it was due at 5pm. She rushed back to her office and lodged it before the cut off. But like always, she was unsure how she’d gone.

The next morning at about 9.30 she got a call from the Royal Flying Doctors in Sydney saying that they really liked her application and could she come to Sydney on Friday for an interview! I don’t know how they even managed to read the whole application in that time!

About half and hour before Emma got the call, I received an email from a mate who was doing MTS at Wagga with the UniChurch there, and is now studying at Moore College. He wanted to know if I was interested in the possibility of a Student Minister position while at College. He is a Student Minister at a Church in the city and they might be looking to take on someone else in the new year. It turns out that the Church and Emma’s work are only a couple of blocks apart.

The next couple of days were difficult, I’ve been finding it a real struggle to keep my head and my heart in the ministry here, while thinking, planning, and praying for next year.

We left at 6am on Friday morning to get to Sydney for Emma’s interview at 11.30. We stopped off at her parents place for a shower along the way.
I dropped Emma off and then went and sat in the pub, conveniently located across the road with a view of the front door. Her interview went for 1 1/2 hours (that’s long, which is good) and she had a positive feeling afterwards, but you never can tell based on your own impressions. They told her they would decide on Monday.

We spent the afternoon walking around the city, had lunch in the David Jones’ Food Hall – I love that place…
We decided to go for a walk past the Church I’d been told were looking for a Student minister, we walked around and then went to Starbucks for a coffee – Emma was trying to talk me into ringing the Church and letting them know I was interested in the position, but I was too chicken. Eventually she talked me into it, I rang but only got an answering machine, I left my details and why I called.

That night we stayed with our dear friends Michael and Julie Morrow. They seem to share a lot of our most anxious times (and others I think). I think we spent time with them when I went for my college interview… It was great to spend time eating spinach pie, talking ministry with Michael, and playing with Alicia.
At 10.30 that night I got a call from the Rector of the Church in the city asking if I’d like to catch up sometime. I told him we needed to be back in Canberra by 12pm the following day, so he suggested that we meet at 8am for a coffee at the Church.
So we were up early again, had breakfast with the Morrow’s then headed back into the city. We meet with the Minister and his wife, who are lovely people. They told us a lot about the situation of the Church and the plans and hopes that they have for its future. It sounds like a very challenging place to minister but also very exciting, it sounds very like the kind of training position that I have been looking for. I won’t know what will happen in that direction for quite some time. The minister there is confronting a number of different situations that will affect whether he is able to take on a student minister and under what conditions. Please pray.

We flew (legally, at the speed limit) back down the freeway to Canberra to get back in time for the FOCUS graduates day, and Emma’s netball grand final. I was a little late for the start of the graduates day, but Emma made the grand final ok.

The FOCUS grads day is a time when we get together all the students who are leaving at the end of the year, to talk through some of the challenges and opportunities they will face in the work force. We invite back a few past grads to talk, and spend a while looking at the Bible together. And eats lots of food….
It was a good afternoon. I was flustered from being late, and pre-occupied with stuff in Sydney, but God spoke to us through his word and challenged the students, and me – I’m graduating too…

The following day was atrocious. I was soo grumpy from the stress and lack of sleep, and too many people. I went into my cave for pretty much the whole day. I’m still struggling to cope with people and leading, I always get this way if I push too hard… Pray for that.

On Monday lunch time, Emma got a call from the RFDS to say that she had the job. She starting in Sydney on the 16th of October. This means that she’ll be moving up there for the weeks and coming back on the weekends for about 2 months. It will be a hard time for us, I’m already anticipating being lonely in our house on my own. Pray for us in that, and praise God for his wonderful provision, Emma is really excited about the new work and looking forward to starting.

So there is our news…

I’m working on some talks from 1 Corinthians 15, I’m doing a 3 talk series at Church in a couple of months. It’s a chapter all about the resurrection, but which is applied directly to work. I spoke from it for the Grads Day. The resurrection, and the new creation being brought by the Father, changes utterly our perspective on what is valuable, and thus, what is worth working for. It is a great reminder that in our work, and in our ministry, that we must love and treasure those things that will not crumble into dust, but will be planted like a seed and grow into God’s new creation garden. Ultimately that is people.

1Cor. 15:50   I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. 53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. 54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:
“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
55 “O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”

1Cor. 15:56   The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

1Cor. 15:58    Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.