can't think of a creative title tonight...

...but this is a picture of the mountain we have in our back yard. We are on a hill 300m above sea level, maybe 100m above the surrounding farmland, the mountain is around 1300m and beyond it is a high plateau and the Great Lake. Water from there powers the Hydro-electric scheme, waters this town, and tastes great straight from the tap!
As you enter Poatina, my house is one of the first you come to. This, however, means I have the furthest to travel of all my classmates as the Training centre is at the opposite end of the town. I'm up here in Poatina Heights and have to travel through the Central Business District to get to school down in the northern suburb of Poatina Links. It's next to the Golf Course. The only further suburb is the new development at Valley Vue. This walk can take in excess of five minutes! Longer, because you stop and pass the time with everyone you meet. Of course I take my lunch every day because there is just no time to get back up here to eat a sandwich, because, by the time you do, you have to turn around and head back down again. If only they would extend the lunch hour beyond 75 minutes...
We are now studying the tragic doomed love story of Hosea. Fascinating insights.

splash

Just a short note to say hi. Last week we started our look in Ecclesiastes (All is Meaningless..) and Victor Frankl's reflections on his life as an Auschwitz resident (Man's Search for Meaning). It's interesting to see how all these things tie in with each other. Even having just studied James, and before that, Haggai we are making all these wonderful connections.

Speaking about making connections, here is young Tim, from Tasmania discovering the meaninglessness of Human Flight, and about to make connections with the deep end of the Poatina Pool...

Life's pretty good here, don't have much time to get bored. Just been for a walk down to the creek through the bush with Sara, my Thessalonikan class-mate, and Layne, a young guy from Broken Hill, via Adelaide.

I have a great group of guys in my class, unusually for this course, two thirds are male, but all excellent people, including three Greeks (one half English, one half German) and three Ghanaians (all African!) and assorted Aussies.

More photos soon!

poatina and Potaroos...

This place is invaded by wild-life every night; from dusk on, the potaroos roam the streets, looking for what they may devour... there are also reports of echidnas and wayward wallabies, a few nights ago one of the boys in my class was accosted and harrassed by a Tasmania Devil. Well, he says he was, it might have just been a sabre-toothed possum.

Yesterday we had a fusion Expo day where people were able to come from al over Tassie to learn how to run Community Festivals as outreach events to build connection and comunity in their areas. Mal Garvin gave one of his famous Key Note addresses, and there were stories of past successes and the chance to learn a few festival skills or explore further how to do these things or discuss issues, network, play a few games, juggle, face-paint, eat a potato or just meet people. There will be one next week in Victoria. http://www.fusion.org.au/vic/Pages/Training/expoday.html

If you have a day to spare, and are interested in ways of reaching your community, check it out.

Like to thank my English/Greek classmate Patrick for the loan of his internet connection, but his computer is bi-lingual, and much of it is in greek. Do you know the greek words for cut or paste?
Anyway, he's been quite happy lately, now that the English cricket team has started to win...

Well, back to Studying the book of James, Quiz first up tomorrow. Consider it all joy...