New member to my family

Introducing Jettison (Jet) Finn Barker. My early Christmas present from Cler. It's a Siamese Fighter fish and from my research I think it is a crown-tail breed (or possibly delta). It has beautiful colours and it is very difficult to take a picture of him. But here are my poor attempts anyways:

He's blue and red... and has a sometimes shiny silver colour.

Keep still I'm trying to take a photo!!!

Oooo nice silhouette.

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lets go fly a kite

Yesterday on the 20/12 I went to Newport Beach with the young adults from church. We had a fun day of making sand castles, flying kites and swimming. The kite flying was an awesome idea (thanks to me). It's a wonder how something so simple and cheap can give so much enjoyment and fun. And all you do is hold a string and look up into the sky. Anyways... I'm on a photo-taking roll so here are some pictures for your enjoyment:

The sand castle that we made together. I made the awesome footbridge first... then we decided to turn it into a moat... so then it was only natural for us to build the castle in the middle.

Look at the kite!!! I was fortunate enough to get this image with the kite flyer and the kite in the same photo... afterwards the kite was so high that they couldn't fit both flyer and kite in the same picture.

It was a lovely day for kite flying. Lots of wind and a lovely blue sky.

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garlic goodness

Just had to upload another photo. It tastes gooooooooood!


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promised photos

Hooray! Here are the promised photos of my lemon cakes:


And the promised photos of the Christmas cards I made:




Today I made "Garlic Lover's Bread." It was cool roasting the garlic, making the paste, kneading the dough and watching it rise.

This is the start of the second rise

Slowly rising :)

Ready for the oven now!!! :D

Hooray!!! Fresh home cooked bread!!! MMMMMMmmmmmm!!!!

Cooking is fun.

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suGAH! :O

Today I made lemon cupcakes with lemon icing and hundreds'o'thousands. They were quite tasty. I made them because some of the arts girls (and their friends) from CBS went to the chaplaincy to hang out, eat and make Christmas cards... I made 5-6 cards I think. It was fun. What am I going to do with them? (Especially considering the last post I wrote). I gave the nicest looking one to my parents and they liked it.

I took photos of the cupcakes and I'll take photos of the cards but at the moment my camera batteries are getting recharged. So the photos will come up in another post.

Last night I was reading back on some of my old posts... and quite a lot I've written something like "I'll write about last week in another post later" and then I never post about that event. How sad for you all. My deepest apologies.

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P.S.: I ate way too much sugary foods today and now my head feels like it's about to explode.

Christmas cards...

What are they for? Who do YOU send them to?

I find that Christmas cards are a waste of paper. In the past I sent Christmas cards to everyone... people I saw everyday. But now I'm starting to think that they are more for sending to people who you don't see often and want to wish them a merry Christmas. So what is the purpose of a Christmas card?

And what do you write on a Christmas card? Do you write a long spiel? Or do you just write a simple greeting. Or do you write a special Christmas letter update from your year with your card? I guess it depends on how many cards you are going to send.

And will you get offended if you don't get a Christmas card? I'm sure there are people who send me Christmas cards because I sent them one last year. Will you be offended if I don't reply with one?

Is there a history to Christmas cards? When was the first Christmas card sent? Why did they send it? What country do Christmas cards originate from?

Do you not send Christmas cards? Why don't you send Christmas cards? How did you decide that you weren't going to send them? Do you do something in place of sending Christmas cards?

What do you do with your Christmas cards after Christmas? Do you recycle them straight away? Do you keep them for a few years before you recycle them? Do you keep them forever and put them in a scrap book?

Is it ok to give a really good friend a Christmas present without a card attached?

Could you give someone a gospel of Luke instead of a Christmas card? Would it be the same as giving a Christmas card?

This year I'm giving hugs and smiles instead of cards... although I'll send some cards. I'm pretty lazy and usually feel compelled to write long messages in cards (yet I'm never sure of what to write) so it's easier to not write cards.

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SPRTE and a sewing machine

This blog is dedicated to Elsie... my most faithful blog follower.

SPRTE Canberra!!!
WOO! SPRTE (South Pacific Training Event) was very awesome. Because it was of the South Pacific... there were people from Vanuatu, PNG, NZ and Fiji (I hope I didn't forget a nation). Every night one group gave a presentation on student work in their country. They all sang and danced for us and it was very good. Aussies were totally put to shame for our lack of cultural song/dance... and also because of the cost (or lack of) we are willing to pay for the spread of the gospel. All the islanders told us stories of how they had been so affected by the cross of Christ that they were willing to go through sufferings (to the point of death) for the proclamation of the gospel... and we complain that we don't get funding from our student unions. So yes... they were all very encouraging. I also went to a Fijian sing-a-long where they taught us how to sing a song in Fijian and it sounded so beautiful.
Other highlights:
-taking a walk with the desire to get lost so that I could work my way back. I walked to Lake Burley Griffin by myself... no map or anything. I got there in speedy time... and made it back to uni via a different route. It's fun to go on walks without maps and just to wander around.
-Me, Kathy and Christine had a party in my room on the last night where we talked and painted our nails wacky colours. Ellen would of come but she had to sleep because she had to drive the next day.
-Strand group was hard... I was doing Strand 5. It was hard work. We were looking at Titus and planning a sermon series on it. Kudos to all the pastors out there who do it every week! We spent the first 4 days looking at the themes, theology, ethics and flow of the book, thinking about how to split the book up along the way. On the last day we sorta started to write a plan on one talk... but didn't really finish anything. So that was kinda sad because there wasn't any closure. But I've now got a framework for planning a sermon series. I can see that it's gonna take a lot more than a week to plan a series (let alone write the talks for that series!).
-The talks were awesome too. In the mornings we looked at sin, wrath and the cross... then in the evening we looked at Jesus' approach to the cross. It was really helpful spending time thinking about sin and wrath in order to realise how important the cross is and how great God's love is for us. Listen to them if you can get a chance.

SPRTE misssion THE LAKES!!!
Mission was so good and it was great to head back to the Lakes church to see how they are going. We did heaps more leafletting, doorknocking and contact with the community. We did a BBQ one day to tell people about stuff happening at the Lakes... and it was the hottest day which sucked majorly. But besides that... it was cool to see people from the church like the ministers and families that I had met last year. And the fellowship with the team from UNSW was really cool too. It was a very fun (and funny) team.

Sewing Machine!!!
A while back I bought an Amy Butler pattern for a dress... and the other day I went and bought fabric to make it. So I made it!!! It's the first dress I've made and I'm really proud of it. But it wasn't all easy... there were the usual dramas (like sewing the wrong thing and having to unpick everything) but there was an even bigger drama...
I had been sewing all day and was giving the sewing machine a break. Then I heard this bang... like something had rolled off the table. So I went to see what it was... and I saw all this yellow smoke pouring out of my sewing machine!!! So I quickly removed all the plugs. I was freaking out because it smelt really bad... and I didn't want the house to catch on fire. I was so close to calling the fire brigade. And I couldn't put the machine outside because it was raining. Luckily there was no fire... but the smell was bad... and I was mid project. So I was very sad that my sewing machine blew up (it was 20 years old... and I think it was its time). Thankfully I got to borrow a sewing machine from a church aunty... and I finished my dress!

(Apologies for the super posed photo)

Gosh this was long... I must blog more frequently. It's the least I could do for Elsie.

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swim swim :)

Ok... so today turned out to be very cold and very rainy... but I still got to go for a swim because it's an indoor heated pool. I swam 1.5km... which is really awesome because last time I only swam 1km (and it was not a particularly easy 1km). Everyone should take up swimming and if you want a swimming buddy let me know!

I started doing regular quiet times again. I'm reading through Psalms, and I have a devotion book on Psalms too. I chose Psalms because people always rave about it, and Rob is doing it at his youth group and he's always talking about it, but I don't know that much about it (at least I don't think I do). The first chapter was quite appropriate... because one of the challenges of that chapter was to delight in the law and to meditate on it day and night.

This evening I went back to choir. I've rejoined it to be in the Christmas concert. The songs we are singing are quite lovely... a lot of them are lullabies. We were singing them all so beautifully that it was making me feel a little drowsy! Tomorrow I'll be back in uni again for a handbells practice.

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remember remember the 5th of movember

donate!!!

In other news... I've finished uni! No more assignments or exams or anything. It's all done. It hasn't really sunk in yet. Plus I'll still be able to go to uni because I have choir rehearsals and handbell rehearsals. But I wont be able to see everyone all the time now which is kinda sad.

The weather has been really uncomfortably hot. I hope I'll be able to go swimming tomorrow... do some laps of the pool. Swimming has got to be the most fun and enjoyable exercise ever. I really like it.

At church we've been doing a series on Matthew 24-25 called "Are you ready?" I never realised how jam packed the second half of Matthew 24 is. It's been really awesome. It's also been cool to see that my youth group girls have been challenged by the sermons, they ask me questions and talk about it at youth group on Fridays. I've been really enjoying leading them this year and seeing them grow.

Someone lent me the book "Faithful Women and their Extraordinary God" and said it was a really good book... but I haven't found it that great. It was also on the Equip book list. I feel like the language is a bit strange and it doesn't flow well. And I haven't seemed to have reached the point where it talks about how God is extraordinary (which I thought I would have got to by now). Maybe I just have to keep on reading.

I just finished reading "Guidance and the voice of God" and thought it was awesome. Biblical, easy to understand and challenging. Read it!

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All rising!