Dayspring

Last sunday I visited a penticostal church in Castle Hill called Dayspring.
I guess i was just visiting because i was curious. I have been to Hillsong before and i just wanted to see what it is like at Dayspring.

I was surprised to bump into a few people i already knew from Mac uni and also CCC milson's point. These are some generalisations and impressions so they're a point of view or opinion.... if you are reading this then understand that it is from my point of view and that it may be different to what you may think.

I thank God for the experience because it actually was what i needed at the time and God really did speak to me.

First thing i noticed when i got there was that the layout was cafe style - tables and chairs around... with coffee and biscuits. Very casual. They start their service with singing. I must admit that the singing really did blow me away. I think it's great to sing praise to God and sing fervourently (is that a word?) from your heart. I think that sometimes at more traditional churches we dont clap and really sing with passion. I looked around and thought... "wow... this is a slice of heaven, God's people singing His praises - singing loudly and passionately..." i'm looking forward to that!!

The message was in a format a little different to that which i am used to. I guess at evangelical churches... we describe it as exegetical where we have a passage explained (sometimes we have topicals too). Dayspring emphases the role of the Spirit in our lives and that came out in the message. The speaker talked about living our lives according to the spirit. That as humans we are mind, body and spirit. Dont discount the guidance that the spirit gives in our lives. There were points i didnt agree with... i could understand his point but didnt totally agree or didnt agree with the way it was put.

Why the sermon hit me... I guess i've been feeling very exhausted in ministry at my church. I felt like i pour my heart and soul into what i'm doing but i guess i was getting quite discouraged by the fact that people really didnt seem to be affected in their lives. I guess i just felt so ineffective in encouraging people and that's just been so draining.

What Dayspring made me realise is that God is sufficient for me. God's love is sufficient for me. There are many missionaries overseas who never see the fruit of their labour. God's spirit and word sustains them... not the people they're ministering to or the people who are supporting them.

I guess it's given me courage... to go back to my church and just keep going (cos over the past yr i'd been looking at changing churches) . I know that God's spirit is with me and his grace is enough to fill me. When ministry is exhausting or church is lonely then i know that God is enough, dont need to look anywhere else for encouragement.

I guess my overall thoughts on Dayspring is that i dont think it's a church i'd go to regularly. But... their singing time is absolutely awesome and i wish we could do that at church... i wish people could be passionate about singing praises to God. I think the teaching is good at my church... it's easier to listen to as i felt at Dayspring i had to listen to everything very very carefully and critically (not that i dont critique or think about the message at my church). I'd definitely go back to Dayspring and it was really great encouragement at a time when i think i needed it. God is gracious!

Been a while... Part #3 Snowboarding and more exciting... my new ANGEL 134 wakeboard

well u can tell i'm sick... and very bored in bed... although i should sleep soon cos i have to work tomorrow!!

i'll just write about my ski trip... or rather snowboarding trip.
the week before going to the snow... i was out shopping for so much stuff... eg ski pants, socks, beanie... was too tempting to visit some ski shops...

cant actually believe it... kinda an impulse buy but i fell in love with a wakeboard!! and figured since it is still winter, i can get a 2006 board for cheap before the 2006/7 season starts again. so... after shopping around for the best possible deal (i knocked $600 off last summer's price!!) i bought the Liquid Force Angel 134 with Minx bindings!! wow... love it... although the 134 is bright orange... i was looking originally at the 130 which is blue but... after talking to the shop assistants, i was told not to go below 132 for me cos under 132 is apparently kids boards... *shrug*... thought it safe to go for 134 board cos i'm riding a 135 atm... it's around the same size...

itching now to take it out...

but... back to snowboarding... well i thought that since i can wakeboard, snowboarding should be ok to pick up.... no way....
argh after 5 days i was still landing on my knees or my butt...

it's quite interesting tho... with snowboarding... ur weight is square and evenly distributed on both feet... something i couldnt do... call it a wakeboarding habit...
u use ur hips to pivot to the direction u want to go.
argh 5 days of lessons and i still cant do it very well...
came home all bruised... think i should stick to skiing...

Been a while... Part #2 TWIST

well... it's been a month since twist... i'm actually home in bed sick at the moment... have been sick all week... so this is my time to write about what's happened in the last month!!

the day after the wedding was TWIST... which is a church musicians' conference. i have to say that it was absolutely AWESOME!!!

was chatting with a friend recently and talking about the place of music in our church services... in some evangelical circles the theory is we sing to encourage each other... my thinking is that we sing to praise God AND to encourage each other as we do it together.

as i reflect on why twist was so awesome... like what made it memorable... i guess i put it down to the encouragement that i did have playing music and singing praise to God... it was great to have so many people there together worshipping in song!

bass workshop was a bit bassic! loved the band workshop... very practical with how we can play together and build the song to help people sing.

free time was excellent as it was JAM time!!! whooo hooo... so much fun... i would like to have been able to learn more from people who play guitar or bass in that time. but... i wouldnt have traded the jam session we had... there musta been 20-30 people in that room... cos nobody really had anything to do... so we played and sang our hearts out!

ps 96 says to sing to the Lord a new song... i feel excited to praise God through music... sometimes i think we lack so much passion in our church services... we sing as though we're dead... how do we get congregations to really look at the lyrics and sing with passion?? i'm challenged!

Been a while... Part #1 the wedding...

It's been a while... gee July... since i blogged...

A lot has happened since then...

Daph and Russ got married at the beginning of August. Was a very busy time... Was tiring, stressful and a lot of fun!
The tiring bit started really the day before... getting up at like 5am to go to flower markets to get flowers for the table decorations for the reception...
I was impressed that Mark and Russ' auntie managed to get up considering they'd flown in from Perth the night before and 5am is like 3am perth time...
And they didnt get to sleep all day...

Was very funny cos i had to learn to dance for the wedding!! The day before the wedding!! suffice to say on the day i stepped on the best man's toes... ow... i'm not very good at this...

Wedding day was fun but also so rushed... started by picking daph up and going to chatswood for hair and makeup. Took like 3 1/2 hrs for all of us to get hair and makeup done. Took like nearly an hr to get daph's dress on and then.... we were nearly running very late... but we made it...

Then photos before, during and after the wedding... smiling for 5 straight hrs... owww cheeks are sore!! We froze to death on the beach whilst taking photos. Was strange posing for so many photos... firstly just standing in the background of daph and russ' photos... then we had to do stuff like hold hands and walk away from the camera... then turn around and look at the camera... it was a lot of fun!!

Reception... think we were all pretty tired and hungry and then we got to Curzon hall for the reception and it was time for more photos...
It's interesting sitting there in a bridal party looking out at all the people at the reception. Feel very self conscious. Food was great... thoroughly recommend the venue.. the chef even had a special dessert for the bride... mmmmm

I could write heaps on the night... prob dont want to bore you... fun but tiring!!
if you want to see photos email me and i'll send u the link for the photo album.