A few weeks ago I had the privilege of Preaching at the Aberdeen Street Baptist 157th anniversary. It was a great day because they also inducted two new pastors. Chris Herbert to minister to their existing congregation and Danny Krivan to create new Christian Communities in their local area. It is a great example of a church getting behind a vision of rebirth and new life. During the service in a video greeting to the church BUV President Geoff Leslie talked about how the church in its history had sent out one of their own members to plant churches in North Western Victoria, many of which are still active today. I did some quick maths and decided that when I was 77 years old I would return for the church’s 200th anniversary and talk about the ministries that had been birthed from the faithful church of Aberdeen Street today.

The day before my visit to Aberdeen Street I had been in Traralgon South delivering iPods to teenagers who had lost their homes in the bushfires. I was being driven around the area by Naomi the Traralgon Salvation Army Officer, who is up to her neck in relief work. I asked the question; “what did your church do before the fires?” her response was that she did not know. She and her family had only just been transferred from Western Australia the week before. My first thought was “What an amazing opportunity to make your mark on the community and birth a vital and connected new ministry in this town.”

A few days later I sat in my back yard watching my son on his trampoline and my baby in the swing when a very sad looking little tree caught my eye. It had not fared too well in the heat wave and looked totally dead. So I did the ‘scratch test’, scratching the smallest bit of bark off with my nail to see if there was any green to give me hope that there could be new life. There was a little green left although on the outside there was no evidence of life at all. The only thing I could do with my tree was to prune it back and give it a share of my boys bath water each evening. All I can do is create an environment for the rebirth to happen and wait till spring.

I wonder if we need to do a scratch test in areas that we think have no life; do a little investigating... ask a few questions. If we discover that indeed there is evidence of life then we must employ our efforts in nourishing that environment to encourage new life. If speaking in metaphor is not working for you then what I mean is looking to our community for evidence of Jesus at work and investing our time there. I was part of a community mum’s group when my first son was born and I remember telling them about his ‘dedication service’. The overwhelming response was that it was a lovely thing to do and that they liked the idea so much that they might to a similar thing. Perhaps that discussion was the scratch test and the nourishment should have come in the form of... “Would you like me to show you what we did in our dedication service?” From there we may have seen the shoots of new life.

A few years ago at Albury Baptist the conversation was centred on “should we close?” After doing a scratch test and nurturing the signs of life a massive rebirth occurred. They are now a thriving church community bursting at the seams of their building.

So in conclusion; scratch around a bit and share your bath water. You may be surprised at where the shoots of new life show up.

I have just started an iPod Drive for Bushfire Victims see the details below.

Question: What does a teenager do when they need time out amidst a tragedy?
Answer: Listen to music on their iPod.

Question: What does a teenager do when they want to help another teenager who has lost everything?

Answer: They buy an iPod, fully charge it and load it with songs then pass it on to the teenagers affected by the bushfires.

Imagine if we could put an iPod in the hands of every teenager that had lost their homes in the recent Victorian bushfires.

I am appealing to youth ministries across the state to participate in this endeavour.

How to participate:
1. Communicate with all of your young people and encourage them to use their savings to purchase a new iPod, fully charge it, load it with songs and pack it back into the box. (They may like to work in groups of three or four to share the finances.)
2. Have the re-boxed iPods dropped off to a leader in the church by Sunday 15th Feb @ 12 noon. 3. Have the leader email ipodsforfirevictims@gmail.com with the number of iPods, the location of the iPods and a contact person.
*A collection point will be organised when we have an idea of where they are coming from.

We are conducting this “iPod Drive” over the next 5 days with the aim to put music back into the hands of the young people who have lost everything by the beginning of next week.

We hope you are able to participate in this endeavour and know that your young people will benefit greatly from playing their part is showing the love of Jesus to their fellow teenagers in a sad situation

I look forward to seeing what the Baptist Youth Ministries of Victoria can do to share the love of Jesus.

Smoke makes things clearer

It's 3am and I am wide awake. My family is sleeping soundly but the state is in turmoil.

I walk outside and my back yard is flooded with instant light; a lightening bolt flashes following distant thunder. The strong and frightening smell of smoke fills my nostrils. I stand up on the trampoline in my yard and scan the surrounding region for the usual view of lights and hills but the smoke haze is too thick, I cant see much at all. I can hear a distant siren. I pray.

News radio streaming on the web tells me there are lives lost and that there are many fires. There is a constant update of what towns need to remain on alert and reminders that people are not to travel as there are so many roads closed. People call in and report what they have been doing, what they are going through and what they are feeling. It is a part of the coping strategy.

One text message is read out on the radio: "we live in the path of one of those fires but we are away on holidays. We may have lost our home, our town may have been devastated. But our two daughters are here, in their beds, safe and sound. We fear for our neighbours and our friends. We can rebuild our homes but we can not replace the lives lost."

There are at least 10 major fires burning. Again I pray. I hear that the town of Kinglake has been devastated and lives have been lost. we had our wedding reception there years ago and I feel a sense of connection. I know people who live there and worry for them. People ring in to see if there is anything they can do, they feel hopeless and want to do something. There is not much many of us can do. Another person tells that he has opened the cricket club rooms so fire fighters can have a shower and sleep in shifts. He tells us that the local butcher has arrived with food ready to feed the hungry. Locals arrive with blankets and drinks, ready to comfort.

I go outside again and the smoke haze is still lingering, not bad enough to sting my eyes but they are teary with emotion. Despite the smoke I can see things so much more clearly, not my neighbourhood but my belief in our need to cling to each other as a community. The things that really matter are the people; our loved ones, our friends, the people we don't even know. It is in times like this that we are together as a community, we care for people that we have never met, we cry for the lives of strangers, our hearts break for those in distress. We need to talk about it, we need to listen to people tell of their situation.

There is a line in a song of worship to God, "Lord, break my heart for what breaks yours." Tonight God's heart is breaking for people in distress, so does mine.

One of my boys wakes, he is thirsty and wants a drink. I have never been so willing to get up to him. I give him a drink and reassure him. I draw him close and I tell him "you are all right, go back to sleep."

He can, but many cant. My heart and my prayers are with them. For the rest of us: draw your loved ones near you, tell them you love them. Reconnect with those that you are dislocated from; forgive and forget. Reach out to people in your community; do life together in love at all times not just when there is trouble.

Rose coloured glasses.

I wish I could find a shop that sells rose coloured glasses! Not real ones but the ones that adults are often accused of looking though when the see the best in things and expect things to work out. I think all kids are born with them and life slowly fades them out or even rips them off.

Today my oldest son Jack went to kinder. He got half way through the morning and said, "Mum you go home, I want to do kinder all by my self." Today he took on the world to the largest degree that he ever has in his life, and he thrived. I wanted to know if the other kids liked him, I wanted to know if anyone pushed him. I wanted to know if he was brave enough to ask the teacher to help him open his play lunch. All he reported was that it was fun and he did it all by himself. "I think I might go again Mummy" he said.

Later in the day he asked me if we could go to the moon. He said we would need a rocket and that it would be fun. I am glad that after day one his wonder and vibrancy for life are still intact.

I heard a story about a mum and her boy on the radio the other day. She was showing him what their new dog could do. Sit Milo, sit" she said and the dog sat. "Lay down Milo, lay down" and he did that too. She turned to her son and said "go on... you try it" so he said "Fly Milo, Fly".

I hope that it takes many years for Jack to loose that innocent, belief in life, that happiness and unstoppable expectation that anything is possible.

Jesus once said that the Kingdom of God belonged to the children that came running to him in the street. I don't believe that this is because they had not yet made mistakes, but because they believed and acted with out looking for proof that God would accept them and that life was indeed good.

After dinner Jack asked me to bounce on his trampoline. I left the dishes and we bounced and bounced. Life is good!