There is hope ...

Dare to Be a Daniel is a program created by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) to train 9-14 year olds how to tell their friends about their own Christian faith. The program has recently come to Australia and the BGEA Australia has been running free training courses aound NSW for pastors and youth group leaders so they can then train the 'Tweens' in their churches.
I know this because I was contracted by the BGEA to film one of the courses held at Parramatta.
A couple of things impressed me:

1. The depth and thoroughness of the course. It has been well tested.
2. It has resonated with Australian youth leaders and churches
3. The material is well put together and professional
4. There have already been some remarkable stories from leaders and participants as to its effectiveness.

If this is an area you'd like to get involved in, contact the BGEA in Sydney.

Ageing ...

No, this is not a post about this bloggers age, but rather one about dealing with the ageing of parents. They say that baby boomers have problems at 'both ends' of the age spectrum.
They have children who are leaving home, getting married and establishing their own homes while at the same time their parents, who are living longer, are moving into retirement and care villages.
We love having parents still around and they in turn enjoy being great-grandparents, even though its hard to get them together.
The dilemma comes when you can see your parents ageing but because they're your parents its uncomfortable to start telling them or even suggesting what they should do. After all, for the first 16 or so years of our life, they told you what to do.
One of the realisations you soon come to is you do need to let them manage their own lives, provided they are medically able to do so.
Our parents have a good circle of friends who look out for each other, which is comforting.
We know that the day will come when we will need to make decisions for them, but like we do with our children, we need to let our parents continue to live their own lives.

Flying ... A wonder that still fascinates

I love that moment at the beginning of every flight as the aircraft stops at the end of the runway, ready to hurtle down the tarmac, engines roaring. As the turbines spin faster and faster, there's a very slight hesitation as if the huge lump of metal is asking, "do you really think I can fly?"
Then it all kicks in and we're underway. This morning we took off to the north and then banked right over Sydney's Eastern suburbs.There outside the window was the Sydney Opera House, Harbour Bridge and the whole harbour glistening in the morning sun. Beautiful.
Flying south you see the beauty of the south coast beaches as the aircraft climbs to cruising height and speed. Flight never fails to be a source of wonder to me.
When occasionally some of my fellow passengers close their window shade I want to shake them and say, "don't you realise the beauty and wonder that's outside - don't block it out."
You'll be pleased to know I never do.

A personal note ...

As some readers of this blog may know, Janine is overseas on a two-week mission trip with our church to Cambodia. (see my post, January 31). This is the fifth trip our church has done and each year, around 15 people pay their own way to connect with our partner organisations in Cambodia.
I've traveled there five times. (To read about the trip, click here)
The thing I wasn't prepared (for as the partner who stayed at home) were the feelings of loneliness in an empty house. Quite caught me by surprise. Work helped and as a self-employed contractor, it helped that I had some clients to meet with and then complete web, PR or video productions.
I have a new appreciation for the many times that I went away and Janine told me that the worst time was at night with no one to talk to.
For some reason, we can't regularly connect with SMS, something to do with network incompatibility I think, so we have had to rely on using a friend on the team's mobile phone to share messages. (I hope they get deleted before her husband sees them)
I sure have a new appreciation and understanding of what it is to be the stay at home partner and maybe I won't be so willing to hop on a plane next time.

Really - who writes this stuff?

I recently had a problem with some software which I downloaded and the author of the software suggested I contact the on-line store I bought it from. The contact was all done by e-mail and what amazes me is the convoluted and ungrammatical replies I received:

Greetings from (name) Store! My name is J*, and I will be your (name) Store Advisor for today!.Before I proceed, I would like to apologize for the length of my email. I wish to provide you with all the information you'll need to reach a resolution.
Thank you for your interest in the (name) Store. I see that you are having incompatibility issues with the (software) you have downloaded. 
Martin, as much as I would like to further assist you on this, (name) Store account and billing Advisor like us is not technically trained to answer inquiry with regards to this. This is why I would like to point you to the ** Developer Relations, so we can get you the best possible support available. Please contact (name)

And then as the issue continued unresolved:

Thank you for your effort on following what I have suggested. I am not sure if that should be the response you should be receiving. Anyways, I tried my best again to research on this and got another article you to troubleshoot this issue.
Martin, below is the article you might be able to try to troubleshoot this issue by restarting your device then trying again. If restarting your device doesn't help, you can go ahead and reset it then try again. Please refer to this article for instructions:

Given the size of this company and that it's based in an English speaking country (with local offices) why is it so hard to write in clear, concise English? Sadly this same problem often occurs with local, Australian business or corporations. It's as if they think that writing convoluted, long sentences will make you think they really, really care.
Unfortunately, it has the opposite effect.