Category: Travel
Pouring water into the ocean
Why do we travel to other countries to share our lives? Is it because we think our way is better than theirs? Or because we are driven by guilt or obligation?
In fact relationship is the key. God works through relationship and in today’s world, relationships can take us anywhere on the planet.
The beauty of a relationship with people and communities in other countries, particular where there is a crossover from developed to developing, is that we learn that our way of life is not the only one, that material benefits are over-rated but yet a privilege, and that putting ourselves in another person’s world is often a pre-requisite for sincere love.
While waiting for a friend on a Bali street, a driver came and chatted with me, hoping I needed his services. When I explained I didn’t, he accepted this politely and we continued to talk.
He pointed out his little blue van, slightly battered, that was his source of livelihood. As a taxi stopped and picked up some Europeans (“Dutch”, my Balinese acquaintance informed me), he pointed to the car which was part of a very large taxi company.
“If you spend money with a big business like that it’s like pouring water into the ocean. If you spend money with a family business like mine, it means we can cook tomorrow.”
We shook hands and parted company. Who assisted who?
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Beach and the blind in Bali
Take a few Aussies with faith and give them a chance to build relationships with people in another country and culture and God can do great things. Sharing our lives is as simple as searching for shells at the beach and as supernatural as praying for sight to be restored in a church service in a children’s home. We Sydneysiders have been here under three days and have experienced so much already, even blue Fanta… Maybe a post on that later.
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Bali team enjoys lunch at Pili Pili
Next to a rice field, with Kekrobokan prison in one direction and Jeff and Virginia’s brilliant home a short walk in the other, our Bali team shared their first meal together. Next, to pick up the kids from the children’s home and off to the beach!
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Bag man heads to Bali
After re-stashing breakfast cereal in our hand luggage (we are taking a fascinating array of Aussie goodies to our workers in Bali) our check in luggage avoided a fee and we headed for immigration. Josiah nominated himself the hand luggage king and moved off with seven pieces…
Anyway, Eternity’s Bali team is looking forward to an amazing time… that is if we can get these immigration cards completed. ‘Pass me another one, Bek!’
[tag laugh, Bali, ]
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Off to Bali with strings in tune
Tomorrow I join a bunch of young people from our church community, and later from other churches, on a short trip to Bali where we partner with local people to run a very special children’s home.
We go with great humility to encourage, support, learn from and, hopefully, contribute to an awesome team of people – Indonesian and Australian – who make Eternity Blessed Children’s Home a reality.
We’ll take the kids to the beach; visit disadvantaged rural families; paint a wall; share in church; listen, laugh and cry with the workers and hopefully get a few moments to soak in the beauty of Bali.
We are taking a guitar because music is a universal language and some of our team are gifted in this area. For years we’ve just tossed our acoustic in the back seat, no case, and never thought twice. Suddenly we realised this would not be good on a plane!Read More »
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Short time to the timeless
- A gate, tombstone and surprisingly modern clock on the cathedral at Hawkshead, Lake District, England. Taken about 4pm in July 2009 on my E71.
Hawkshead is said to have a ‘timeless atmosphere’ but it would seem time has a fair grip in this beautiful part of England, as it does everywhere. Guarded by a squeaky gate, and touched by a tipping tombstone, the clock face reminds us that time, and perhaps death, waits for no one. No wonder we are invited by the Maker of time to ‘number our days aright’ in the sense of being aware of our frailty and brevity. At the same time… sorry… on the other hand… sorry, can’t avoid the time puns… In another sense, it is the very scarcity of our days that makes them so rich with meaning as we seek to ‘reedem the time’ and live fully and purposely. It is when we fool ourselves that time is not moving, that we are not changing and that we have all the time in the world, that we waste this most precious of commodities. Likewise, if we try and save time, as in cutting corners, rushing or skimping, we tend to waste time just as profoundly. Anyway, the best news is, that our times are in His hands. Our time to live, to die, to love, to let go. Give him your time and He’ll give you yours. Now that’s truly timeless.Read More »
utterance 