Sorry to be so lazy in blogging, my parents have reminded me of the absence of my blogs almost on a weekly basis. Lots has happened since HK. Kids Camp went really well, despite some challenges associated with the change in teaching styles (we had no camp speaker). Highlight of camp was definitely the worship on the final night. Everyone in their PJs sitting/lying on the floor worshipping without restriction and fantastic prayer as a congregation and in small groups later. Great way to start the year as always and we definitely want more leaders for next year so if you're interested, let me know! Mum and Dad visited NZ for Dad's conference and a holiday for 10 days in Jan so me and Stu ran the house and borrowed an XBox360 to accompany our new sound system in the lviing room. Great times playing Halo 3 (brought the pwnage to Stu & Dave B!), Gears of War and Oblivion (massively huge game). Big Week Out Summer 08 featured at the end of January and it a fantastic week! I spent the week visiting all the bases about twice each in mornings and evenings, then planning and running the final closing celebration on the Saturday at Concordia Chapel. We saw so many young people's attitudes and faith deeply impacted by the Big Week Out and I'm looking forward to Winter 08 in the North East region. Jerry arrived on that Friday and stayed with my family in the back room until this Wednesday when he moved out to an apartment on Angas St, conveniently next to Affy's place and a stone's throw from Amanda Lim's next townhouse.

 

Around the time of my last blog I felt like God was giving me a new year motto of 'A New Year -  A New Faith' and now I'm adding to that 'A Year of the Spirit'. With the small group we're doing a series of messages with notes based on The Empowering Spirit from my Uncle's church in Perth. I've also started improving my daily devotions by going out with God almost everyday. I'm looking forward to seeing where the Spirit will lead me and my small group during this year. Also, I joined AACC in January and feel so welcome and comfortable there every week. With Aaron's 6 month trip to England they were in need of another drummer so I was able to step into the music team straight away which I'm loving. I get to play with Dave and Neil once a month in the morning and we're getting close to launching our evening youth service in partnership with a few other smaller youth groups so there's a lot of potential for that.

 

3 weeks ago I got a job at the Haematology Clinical Trials Office doing admin/office work but I haven't been able to start yet due to the hospital's HR department being so slow! Fortunately this will be a flexible job I'll be continuing through term-time and holidays during the year. I've also picked up a new drumming student who will be starting next week. Wednesday I'll be going into CMAX in the hospital for 2 nights, 1 day and they'll be trialing a new drug, Anti-Interleuken 6, on me and some other males then doing weekly check-ups until April. Fortunately I am being reimbursed handsomely for the inconvenience. Should be an interesting experience anyway. 2 weeks until O-week and my friends are slowly trickling back to Adelaide. Looking forward to starting 2nd year and seeing my family again