One Geek

How is that I can feel so bad after such a pleasant day?

I don’t quite get it.

Post being with people depression. It sucks.

http://thenonist.com/inde…rvice_pamphlet/

Anyone who has ever blogged need to visit this site.

http://www.vinnies.org.au…ion=hych&sub=10

Went to the Compeer Annual Dinner last night. It was lots of fun. There was even some live singing by some of the people and some dancing. It had some elements in common with an Annie Party. The community at these kinds of events is pretty special.

The Compeer program is really cool and I’d recommend anyone to join it. It’s just a simple friendship matching program. It connects volunteers with people who have suffered from mental illness and become issolated. Through these friendships which are rewarding on both sides social confidence can be built up.

My Compeer friend and I just see a movie and eat lunch once a month. Pretty easy.

http://www.thehowie.net/blog/

Happy Birthday Howie.
Hope you have a great day wherever you are in the world!

I find relience on God so hard in a society where it is so easy to at least think you are in control. Much easier when you know your stuffed without His help.

TEAR is definately a place where I fit. It is like a big extended family. Full of odd, crazy and cool people.

India’s draw is still strong on me. I enjoyed talking to people about it. The size of my next project there is still overwhelming me. I wonder if I am skilled enough to do it. It’s hard to keep it all in my head.

I feel a strong desire to travel to South Africa now too. One of the speakers at the conference was from there and she was fantastic. So articulate and humble. The projects her organisation do seem so well thought out.

How I work is also a challenge.

Incarnation ministry is a very intresting concept. It’s all about downward mobility living like the people you are ministering to. I wouldn’t mind getting an upward mobility assignment though :-). In the IT context working behind the scenes it’s hard to work out what to do in terms of downward mobility.

Interesting talk on the language of lament. I should write more about it latter.

Another good one about the church. It talked about how the church was inherintly human and that it is in its weakness that God works. Powerful stuff.

There was no train running to the airport tonight. I had to catch a cab to central that cost $20. I managed to just make an express train to Hornsby where my Dad kindly gave me a lift home. Mannaged to write a lot down on the plane which was good. Helped me process.

South Africa is now firmly on the places that I want to vist in the next few years. So tired.. Winding down is hard.. but I am dead tired. So I think it’s time to get in bed.

At Brisbane airport. Had a bit of an issue when I got back from a nice dinner with Lesley and Jo to find that there were no more trains to the airport at 8pm on a Sunday night. I looked at the buses and there was probably an option but it didn’t seem good. So I ended up getting a taxi. Of course I had to summons a taxi using a vending machine because Brisbane is a hole. I couldn’t even find an ATM. It turns out the Cab driver credited me the price of my taxi fair by mistake ($33). Didn’t know this until I got out of the cab though. Oh well.. My flight is delayed a bit. Should be boarding soon though. I am so buggered.

I had a great time though. Shame I have to be at uni so early tommorow.

Just a quick note to say the TEAR Conference was great. So many good people. So much learning. The vibe was fantastic. That’s all for now.. Off to go on an adventure with Lesley and Jo :-).

Just ran into yet another save the children donor recruiter. This time though I was prepared. I had the truth on my side. I gave a very clear message to the woman. Only 60% of the money spent by Save The Children goes through to the projects. She was quite shocked. Felt very bad and asked me where she could find this information out. I refered her to the Save The Children annual report.

I had another look then. More then a third of donor income goes on the cost of getting donors. What a joke!

http://www.livejournal.co…esblog/2004/08/

I was reading over James’ blog posts from when he was in India last year. It was quite interesting to do. There were some good common memories in there, and a few things I didn’t know about. Partly cause James worked with doctors in the hospital. I working in IT knew very little about the daily medical work, which I was actually quite happy about.

Here is my challenge to my blog readers and myself. When you see beggars, don’t pass them bye, don’t just drop a coin. Stop, sit down and have a chat. See what their needs are and just talk to them. Find out some of their story. If you can help them then do. It’s not something you can do everytime well not without becoming late or whatever.. I think though it’s worth doing.. I can’t help feeling it’s what Jesus would do.

Challenging?

Yes.

Uncomfortable?

Yes.

Fun?

Yes.

Jon is fun. I like Jon. Helen has done well.

I am getting sick of being assulted by Save The Children donor recruiters.. I decided it was time to do some reasearch. I have found that only 60% of the money gets through to the projects Save The Children supports. With TEAR 75% of the money gets to projects and if you include education it’s 88%.

So now I have some ammunition for the next person who tries to stop me!

God bless compulsory public disclosure.

Good film.. So so sad.

Bloody people going killing people based on race. It’s just not good.