Good Byes or Gone to Glory

Sometimes you just have to say goodbye, death is a reality in my community. In the past month I’ve had to say goodbye to two friends in our church community, and it, well leaves me a bit numb. It is to be expected, I suppose, if you live on the streets and drink 15 litres of wine a day it is going to kill you eventually!

That’s something that I can’t change, and lot’s of my friends do stuff like that, and I accept them for the people that they are. In saying that, it doesn’t make it any easier to say goodbye. Knowing that Deano died this passed weekend, and having no info on how He died doesn’t help.

In remembering Deano I pinpointed a recent memory that well encapsulated the joy that he lived with, Happy Birthday….

Kitchen renovations, Five weeks on.

So the kitchen has been getting worked on for a while now and it’s very hard to see any headway. Basically we are in the middle of a building site, but it’s really hard to explain so I’ll put a few pictures up for you to look at. Note well I had to take these on a saturday when no one was around because we aren’t allowed in these areas at the moment.

 

Obviously that’s the carpark full of scaffolding, more after the link!

The Challenge! Change is good?

Coming to terms with change, disruptions or any deviation from your personal routine can be hard. Today, the builders took possession of the kitchen, and we are in coping with what we’ve got left mode.

I will admit, that I’m a bit, little, accustomed to a routine, and the work that has started today offers me a cornucopia of things to stress about.

I know God’s looking after it

Easter at 61:4.

Easter seems to have come upon us quickly, very quickly this year. So much so, that I haven’t really been able to keep up with the news. So what’s been happening?

Firstly, Order 61:4 members are now firmly ensconced in the daily workings of Project 61:4. Scott, Lee Lee, Dane, Phillip, Jeremy, Allie, Amber, Ness, Sarah, Peter, Tom and Carly. They are rostered on to different areas, which varies from day to day. Hospitality, Life Center, Supermarket [emergency relief], Kids Court and the Youth Bus. Of course they have to study as well, which also comes into the roster quite heavily this year. What can I say, it’s been about five weeks since they started and it seems to be going well.

We are about to start major building renovations, which will be quite an upheaval, even getting ready for it to start has been a trial. The first part of the renovation process, is the kitchen, hopefully starting on the 31st of March. It’s been put off since the 10th, but we were ready for it to happen. Food will keep happening from the basement, we’ve set up in what was the laundry and have tweaked the menu so that we can keep it up for what will probably be the next two months, God willing.

The Youth bus has really picked up speed, now going out four nights a week. which is really having an impact. Now on Thursday’s we have youth worship, that is really starting to pick up. Another program focused on youth, that has been in the offing for a while is the retail training program. It’s now started and great to see some enthusiastic learning going on around the place.

Technorati tags: easter, order, project, kitchen, renovations

Well they’re here!

Ok, that might be a bit dramatic, but participants in order 614 for 2008 arrived yesterday. So they settled in to the college, I think and they had a day of training today, which included them all having community lunch. Not in the sense of it, they sat together and got the lay of the land. I’ve only met a couple of the boys, so far, so I can’t say much more than that. The only analogy I can use, is rabbit in a spot light, I find it hard to relate now to being confronted with our regulars for the first time.

If you remember Geoff and Melissa, there little boy Alex was dedicated last weekend, it’s really beautiful to see them with Alex, Geoff is such a proud Dad, and Melissa seems to be revelling in motherhood.

If you remember Peter Lewis, Peter has been singing in the worship team for a while. He signed up as an adherent member of the Salvation Army last weekend, with news that He’s going to Tasmania to live. It was awesome to see him happy, there’s some Holy Spirit action going on there!

This weekend we’ve got some visitors from New York. I don’t know the extent of the territory in the states that they command, but the Territorial Commanders for New York are coming to Church this Sunday at 614, as well as our TC’s, The Knaggs. It’s a Yank Fest. I’m looking forward to it actually.

 

Technorati tags: peter, lewis, geoff, alex, melissa, order, visitors

Michael Russell, joins the Blogosphere!

Had an email from Mike this morning, and he’s now a fellow blogger! He started his blog off with a great post about child like faith. It’s always a big question, whether we approach God as innocents, remembering that we need to ask for forgiveness at just about every step!

So check out Michael’s Blog,

Childlike Faith of a Big Kid

Give him a shout out or post a comment, it’s a great way to keep on sharing our community experience at 614, and keep it going. We’re always family you know.

 

Technorati tags: project614, order614, Michael, Russell, childlike faith of a big kid

The Start of another week, and February!

Scott and Lee Lee, officially started back today, and the first year Order 614 members will be here next monday. Ouch, where did those couple of weeks go? First Tuesday/ Community Lunch tomorrow, not really expecting heaps of people, it’s been rather quiet all round actually! Only 75 meals on Sunday, and about 50 today, well below the numbers we were doing at the end of last year.

We’ve changed things up a bit with the Life Centre food, we use the kitchen crockery and cutlery, it seems to be appreciated and is definitely much more dignified.

WooHoo, Looks like the kitchen renovations are going to happen in March, a big upheaval for what from the plans I’ve seen now, will be a huge improvement! Lot’s of shiny new things for Order members to keep spotless, or beware my wrath! Muhahahaha! (evil laugh). Oh and the Girl’s house now has it’s full complement with the inclusion of Curtis this week, today he was looking for a job as a checkout chick!

Technorati tags: order614, project614, curtis, life, centre, kitchen, renovations

The end of another week!

WooHoo, another week gone, and a big one it was as well! We had the Pasadena Tabernacle Youth Chorus in for dinner tonight, they are on a whirlwind tour having just arrived from a congress in New Zealand. They made me come out so they could thank me for dinner, I hate that! They sang a couple of songs for us, beautiful!

In even bigger news if you haven’t heard already, Michael Russell has become an Uncle, He emailed me today and it sounds like He’s chuffed!

There are more photos at this link if you want to have a look, Little Noah Benjamin, is very cute!

 

 

 

Technorati tags: pasadena, youth, chorus, michael, russell, uncle, project 614, order 614

Well, things are going well, What’s New at 61:4

Well we managed to survive our first week back, and it was great to catch up with a few people we hadn’t seen for a while cause of the break. Good news, Katie.S found a place to live in Preston for her and the girls (Carly and Curtis) to live. It’s funny how things work out just in the nick of time. It was a great surprise, Wednesday to see Carly and Scott, they both are helping out until this years Order members arrive and get up to speed. I hope that’s a bit quicker than the 2007 crew. Scottie of course is participating in the Order again this year, and is free loading over at the training college already. PJ is well, PJ. I had some cryptic sms messages from him on Monday,  indicating some sort of injury  they may impede his capability to work.  Guess what, He and Hannah  were skateboarding and of course they both had a big stack.  PJ’s a bit banged up but he’s  OK.  Now this is one for every one to keep in mind, Pommie is back in rehab and is doing well for now,  and I’m hoping if this continues, I can get him back in the kitchen later in the year. Anyway, just some bits and pieces for now!

Well We’re Back!

Well it’s late and I can’t sleep, and the Life Center is opening up again today, a whole new year is an again. It’ll will be good to see everyone again and find out how they faired over the break. It’s an exciting time, four weeks to new order members as well.