Lower Murray Paddling

Hmmm, it seams like once a year, the BIG water God smiles upon us and fill the Murray River catchment with rain. The weekend gone was that yearly epic trip. The Friday night was the crazy night paddle and the Saturday was the Lower Murray trip. This is the only grade 4 water we ever get a chance to play in. It's amazing.
The photo's dont do it justice - as they are only grade 3, however the pain I still feel from my 400m swim down the grade 4 rapid is still very real!

GRADE 4 - Very Difficult - Long, often violent & powerful rapids, route not always recognisable. Large standing waves, stoppers, holes, whirlpools, pressure areas & boiling eddies. Big drops, violent current, technical turns & many obstructions. Requires precise manoeuvring. Inspection of difficult sections essential and some portages often necessary. High rolling skills essential. Conditions make rescuing difficult.

We are hanging out to find more big water, to further develop our skills and push our limits... Definately the worlds best sport.

Hmm I think I have blogged enough about paddling for awhile! - Sorry for you non-paddlers...

Don't try this at home..

OK, so we know it's stupid...
However paddling the middle murray @ 2meters between the hours of 11pm and 2am does create an entire new level of adrenalin rushing fun... Snapping a paddle is a small cost to pay - Definatly put it on your list of things to do.

Me caught in a stopper - can't see the boat or my body - nice BIG water!
Notice the headtorches and glow-sticks - risk management best practice awards here we come!

The Rain Has Come !!!

Finally, some winter rains have hit Perth!
That allowed a few evenings after work to have a little play
Found ourselves rather rusty after a lack of white water paddling....
However the Black Stallion did learn to roll nicely!




Hello Mr Cartwheel !!

Bring on some Lower Murray Paddling!

Kenny

Hilarious mockumentary – so the best movie I have seen in ages. (Has been ages since I saw any movie)
Go and see it...

The Shaping Of Things To Come

I once had the privelge of listening to Michael Frost speak at a PD session from a previous employer. He spoke as a man with much insight and understandings of the culture that we live in. He encouraged us to relevantly engage people in the community and share life as a journey with them - not to try to make them become like us, nor to try to point out personal wrong-doings, but rather to build relationships, walk together and encourage each other-hopefully in a manner that leads to greater Christlikeness.

At that stage I was very happy to agree with this, but also happy not to consider it a challenge to my life. As I have recently finished reading ‘The Shaping of Things to Come – Innovation and Mission for the 21st Century Church’, co-written with Alan Hirsh I have once again been challenged on my ‘missional’ / ‘church’ stance – challenged in a manner I now want to act upon in my life.

This book considers the place of the ‘church’ in today’s post-Christendom ear. It argues that to not only survive, but also to be faithful to the calling – the church must recalibrate itself. This is not to say it suggests throwing everything away and starting from scratch, but rather to consider contextualizing the Church while still remaining uncomprimising in the gospel message and Christian truths.

They suggest balancing equal commitments to fostering their relationship with God, one and other and to the world. That the essence of Church is relationships, and we must show our love for God in these relationships. Their desire is to see Churches adopt a missional, incarnational approach, to demonstrate messianic spirituality and be lead in an APEPT leadership model. (1) They are both practitioners of the model they suggest, working with others to create FORGE Mission Training Agency. – (Website worth a good look)

I have found sections of this book to be most helpful, it has served to strengthen my thoughts concerning church and ministry, but also offered me some new concepts to wrestle with. – I suggest wrestle as I’m not 100% convinced of everything written, but do see a huge value in the book as a whole. It is obvious from reading and hearing the authors that they do share a true yearning that the Gospel be shared, heard and responded to faithfully.

(1) APEPT leadership –commonly known as the fivefold ministry pattern. It stands for Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Pastor and Teacher – taken from Ephesians 4:1-16 as Paul discusses church growth and leadership with the believers in Ephesus.

The medium is the message

In the 1960's Marshall McLuhan, once referred to as the "Oracle of the Electronic Age", wrote some pretty swithced on discussions concerning technology, media, peoples lifestyles and patterns of behaviour. He coined the phrase - 'the medium is the message'.
This I find interesting if you apply his theories to church practice in our culture - something discussed in 'The shaping of Things to Come' (Frost & Hirsch).

McLuhan believes all technologies, tools are simply extensions of the human body.
Weapons - extension of the hand

Wheels - extension of the foot/transport

Electronic media - extension of the human capacity for thinking

Calculator - extension of the brain etc. Perhaps we have even begun outsourcing the function of our brain to Palm Pilots.

Thus technology is therefore a medium through which we outsource basic functions normally associated with human body.

McLuhan also says that the message of any technology is the change of pattern/pace is brings into human activity. Thus technology creates new social structures, patterns and behaviours - it accerlerates and increases the scale of human functions. So obviously technology has massive impacts and introduces new messages on the way we perceive ourselves and our world.
So the meaning behind the phrase 'the medium is the message' is this: we shape our tools, and then they shape us.

Now thats not rocket science - But if you consider the 'tools/methods/technology' of churches - its does make us stop to think how are they shaping us and those around them - believers and not alike. Some of these tools include the actual buildings, the equipment inside, the sermons, the courses, the practices/traditions and the training provided - both on a grassroots and professional level.
Sometimes I think our tools are helping to shape us well - to grow in and act on the Gospel lovingly, other times I shudder to think the message they may give out. If the medium really is the message, and the tools really change human structures/activity then this might indeed be scary. Our actions, as manifestations of our total being, speak louder than words - this means we are our messages. Individually and corporately this is a sobering fact.

'Shekinah'

So, I came across this word for the first time recently. I quite liked its meaning however you might know more about the meaning of the word than I do - if so enlighten me!
From my limited understandings - it's a old-school Jewish mysticism word used to describe the Glory of God. Rather than try and describe 'what' the glory is, the focus is shifted towards where it can be found - logically everywhere.
It was usually expressed in a playful manner (not literal truth) that God and his glory are 'semi'-seperated through the fall - this seperation was a cosmic crash that scattered the glory into millions of sparks caught up in all of creation. Everything from the highest to the lowest of creation has these specks of God's glory to the wise observer.
So shekinah is the process of seeing God's glory in everything around us - it also encompasses the idea that actions - filled with holy intent and directed towards God free these sparks to give the glory back to God in a manner visible to others. It suggests all things can be sacred and directed towards God... That's a lot of concepts all in one word. Any other people know more about this ???

Wood Show 06

So today was a pretty special day - I got to go to the annual Perth Wood Show! Sure, I know for many of you that wouldn't be all that interesting - but for me its well wicked sticks! Not only did I get to see some outstanding works, look at new tools/machinery and learn some new techniques - I was also lucky enough to buy two nice figured red-gum slabs pretty cheap. I have come home all energised to go and make more projects - as usual more ideas/dreams than time will allow. Also on a happy note, one of our students recieved a High Commendation for his piece - it is an outstanding occasional table - amazing design and brilliantly constructed - well done Callum!

Seeing Christian Truth as a Whole

Last night I began a 6 week course entitled - The Framework, Seeing Christian Truth as a Whole. It's a night course ran by Trinity Theo College with Marty Ford lecturing.
The aim of the course is to construct a spiritual 'map' and the best navigation techniques - following bibilical principles to help shape our life activites and decisions.
We begun by looking at some basics, the concept of doctrine, (what are they, common objections and why use/have them) We then looked at systematic theology and considered how the central doctrines to Christian faith are tied together (The Gospel, God, Knowledge of God, Sin, Salvation, Escatology etc)
An interesting discussion was the split between private and public life in western society and the impacts this has had on Christianity. I personally see this secular/spiritual division working with negative effects in Church activites, structures and beliefs, something I need to be more mindful of.
A quick glance over the next 5 sessions looks promising - more comments to follow in future weeks.

The BIG Weekend

I guess all those rain dances just didn't work... A record dry winter, the lowest Avon Descent in 34 years caused pain and misery to many competitors.
Not wanting to smash our better boat we had decided to only race our kevlar K2 if its was 0.5 or higher. Once we knew the river level was closer to 0.35 we entered the race individually in plastic kayaks.

The positive of this was that we didn't damage our K2 and the plastic girls are very strong and forgiving - the negative is that they are also very slow and heavy!
Our plan to stay side-by-side and cruise along enjoying the company and laughs went out the window 30mins into the 16hour race as my mate raced off.
I was left in the middish of the 700 paddlers, chatting to anyone and everyone. I met some interesting people, had some interesting conversations and a few laughs.
It was a long and slow race, hoping out over 35 times to carry and pull a heavy boat over shallows, sand and rocks, the rapids - althought amusing - were small, less challenging and worst of all provided no current!
I did finish, glad to have achieved that goal, but still didn't enjoy the weekend as much as hoped. I feel especially sorry for the many who were pulled out due to cut off times - very hard if stuck in the last grids in a short plastic. Im keen to go again in 07 - hopefully in high water, in a K2 and racing hard.
A special congrat's to 2 friends - Matt C - 4th in K1's and Josh S - 1st in short plastics! Well done on these amazing efforts! Plus a big thankyou to all the hardworking support crews.