so so so so so so so much has happened since I last blogged. It'll take me forever to write it down... and I'm looking forward to enjoying my holidays... so I'm going to KISS (keep it simple, stupid).
Beyond the Line:
is a program where the DET pays for a trip to a school in western NSW... in the hope of encouraging us to teach in a country school. I went to Nyngan High School. It's a town with the population of 3000, and there were about 170 kids in the high school. The kids are basically the same as Sydney students, just with a bit of extra baggage (family problems, etc). It was fun to go there. The teachers were really nice and also really skilled. I picked up a lot of things by watching their lessons. In conclusion to the trip, I would consider going to teach in western NSW because I can see that it can be a very satisfying job and that you can make a real difference to the kids there. One thing that worried me was the lack of Christian teachers, or Christians in general - their values and behaviours are quite different to mine. In a sense it would be good to go there for that reason... to build up the community and spread the gospel. We'll see what happens.
NTE Canberra:
National Training Event. Rob picked me up from Central station with Becky and we drove to Canberra, arriving at 11:15pm... and staying at the YHA (which was very snazzy indeed). Warren, Erin and Dan were there too. So it was a very long day... because I had been in the coach from Bourke for 12 hrs... then straight back in the car to NTE.
NTE was awesome. Good teaching from God's word - Hebrews was preached on and Hebrews is like the best book in the Bible. I love it that Jesus is our great High Priest. And I was very happy when we sang "Before the Throne of God Above" which is like a reinforcement of Hebrews... very moving. We were also taught about the Bible... sounds vague... but we saw that the Bible is (in my best rapper voice):
"Receiving God's word, written for his people, written by his Spirit, about his Son" - WORD!
I also was in strand 4 - Ethics of Work. We discussed a definition of work (and non-work), asked questions on whether it is better to do secular or gospel work, and debated what the Bible said about work. For the first four days we were basically putting out lots of questions, without getting answers. And then on the last day, we wrapped everything together and it was so satisfying!!! We covered a lot of things... and I think it would be pointless for me to write everything I learned there... it's really something that you have to go through yourself and wrestle with from reading the Bible and asking the questions yourself.
NTE Mission - The Lakes Evangelical Church Central Coast
We travelled from Canberra to Tumbi Umbi, Central Coast. Spent a whole lot of time in the church office with the lovely ministry team of the church. Ate so much BBQ but also had many tasty salads and veggies. Some of the things I did was letterbox drops, door knocking, scripture to the yr 7s and kids church. We were go-go-going for the whole week. We went to church on Sunday morning which was really cool. It was a very good experience. We were encouraged to think about how we can be supporting church plants (like the possibility of moving there to help build up the church).
So overall... the past 2 and a half weeks have been really awesome, and challenging too. I've been challenged to use my teaching skills in a western NSW school. I've been challenged to make my work decisions based on what God and his words says, and I've also been challenged to take part in church plants in the building of God's kingdom in Australia. Lots to think about the future.
From Car-O-Line
p.s.: this has been a very short and crappy blog about events where I've learned heaps and heaps of stuff. talk to me in the flesh about it to find out the full story.
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