Skype

While in Australia I struggled with the fact that it is still hard to stay in contact internationally. My son, Alexander, shared Skype with me. I had used it long ago but found the quality pretty poor. It has improved significantly and can be used for a video hookup. It works on MacBooks and so I tested it in Sydney and it worked. Last night we tested it for a video call from LA to Sydney and it worked perfectly. Julie loved be able to see Alexander as well as talk with him. It is free for computer to computer calls and you need a broadband connection. Check out the software on here

GOOD NEWS

My mother is well enough to return to the Nursing Home. I arrived at Gold Coast Hospital yesterday to visit with her and they were about to put her in a wheel chair to transport here. That is good news. She is doing very well. I spent the rest of the day with her and with arranging for a phone to be installed in her room. Lots of running around. She is very happy to be back with her friends.

Getting on a plane tomorrow night and heading back to LA and the love of my life. 

OR IS IT DAY 4?

This world is hard to grasp. I was talking with Julie just as she was about to walk into church Wednesday night group. Then Andrew called from Sydney and I thought it was Friday. I have traveled through so many time zones in the past few days that I get turned around. So glad God knows where everything goes otherwise we would get really messed up.

Saw mum twice today at the hospital. She is doing better and looks like she is going to recover. Still very frail but her body just keeps on going with a bit of help from the oxygen machine and antibiotics. She is in a special respiratory ward where everyone was some lung problems. People in there are a mess and almost all have pneumonia or worse. I really am averse to hospitals. Thank God that there are people who feel called to serve in them. I know I am not.

Going to Sydney for a while to see my sons. Hope I don't get a call from the hospital because it will only be bad news. I don't think I will.

My son Ben just had to see the Dark Knight at 9:30 last night. I did what most 51 year old dads do and slept through it. Ben said it was awesome and that I should see it with Ali.

Gas is $1.65 a litre here. That's about $6.200 a gallon. Who would have thought that $3.65 gallon gas would look so good?

Later, G

Australia Day 3

My mother has improved but she is still in hospital on an oxygen mask. She loves having Ben and I with her. I gave her a shawl we bought for her in Mexico. She loved it. She can't speak more than a couple of words but you can tell her emotions from the look on her face.

Traveling overseas is a real challenge. Last two days I couldn't call the US on my prepaid cell phone. Today it works and have talked with Julie and my Bank (they had put a hold on my credit card because they didn't like one of the charges I made. I informed them that is was okay and they are let me use it again). However the hold they put on it stopped my internet access working. Anyhow, you know the drill. Whatever can go wrong will. 

Being in town means my brother Andrew can do a business trip to Singapore. I am glad I can help. I can't do much from the US. I will be visiting my other sons soon. Looking forward to that. Alexander gets back from New Zealand this Saturday. Haven't heard any bad news so that means he hasn't broken anything snowboarding (hopefully).

Has been raining for the past two days. Finally got sick of that. Sun came out today and I feel a lot better. I miss my wife and my friends. Why doesn't everybody just all live in the same place?

Later, G

Australia July 16, 08

Arrived into Brisbane yesterday afternoon. Got a rental car after my Mastercard messing up a bit. International travel always has its complications. My son, Ben, flew up from Sydney and met me at the airport in Brisbane. It was so good to see him.

We drove an hour and half to Southport and went to the hospital to see mum. Didn't know what to expect. My brother Andrews reports had got a little better the last day or so. Mum was awake and looking very bright eyed. She is still on oxygen. She is still very weak and has a lot of fluid on her lungs but she looked a lot better than I thought she would. Maybe it was seen her son and grandson. She loves her boys. 

The next couple of days will tell if she is going to recover or if her frail body is going to give. Either way I am so glad I got to hug and kiss her yesterday and talk to her.  If she goes soon I want her to take a message to Jesus for me. More on that later. 

I am in McDonalds on the beach at Surfers Paradise and it is raining and overcast. I am just so glad I have internet access. Coming from Southern California, rain is such a delight. 

going to spend a few hours with mum today and sit down and talk with my brother about getting our family affairs in order. It is so good to have Ben with me. He is such a delight and such a strong and faith filled disciple of Jesus. I am so proud of him and Harrison and Alexander who I hope to see in a few days.

Later, G

Life's Unexpected

Last Friday, I was doing what I normally do. At least as normal as it is for me as a preacher. 11 o'clock my Blackberry reveals an urgent message from my brother, Andrew, in Sydney Australia, to call him immediately. He tells me that my mother is deathly ill with pneumonia and is not doing well. The doctor is very pessimistic. After prayer, conversations with Julie, my wife and one of my elders I decide that I need to return to Australia to be with mum.

I email one of the sisters in the church who is a travel agent and the end result is that by Saturday morning we had a return ticket for me to Australia for Sunday night. Didn't have the finances to pay for it so we took out a loan. Only just got back from vacation which consumed most of our funds.

Sunday morning I begin a new class called 3:16 and preached the second in a series on the Holy Spirit. Oops forgot to upload the sermon to the church website or mine for that matter. The world will just have to wait a couple of weeks for my pearls of wisdom (yeh right!).

Sunday night we have the young adults group over for a Stump the Preacher session. I love this group and was determined not to cancel on them. Great questions on prayer, free will, judgment of the lost, denomination issues. These guys and girls ask great questions.

Julie drives me to the airport and I get on an Air Pacific flight to Fiji and that where I am now. 7 hour layover which is just short enough to keep you at the airport and just long enough to drive you crazy. And so what do I do? Start writing my blog. 

I saw a family on my flight with 3 young boys. Reminded me of the days when Julie and I and the three boys used to travel together with our 11 suitcases. Within the space of 20 yards each boy had slapped the back of each others head and pushed and tripped each  so much that I lost count. I wasn't really counting. I was just smiling. Ah, those were the days. 

I think I will blog a lot on this trip. It is going to be a bit of a journey for me. I am not speaking of the travel. That's laborious. But the journey of life. Please pray for Julie while I am away and if you are nearby, look after her a bit. Not too much. She has been known to bite. Only joking. I think the humid and tepid air of tropical Fiji is getting to me. 

Later, G

Journey (1)

They call life a journey and what do you know? They are right. I was talking to someone recently and it occurred to me that my spiritual journey within Churches of Christ has actually been a journey of turns, changes, reversals, the whole nine yards. I have never put pen to paper about this journey because I didn't have enough perspective. I probably still don't but I feel like it is time for me to try to write down where I have come from. It may give me some idea of where I am going. If not, I am sure it will be good therapy.

I became a Christian in 1972. I was forced to go to a summer bible camp. I have never been to a summer camp let alone a bible one. This was scary and repulsive and I put up a good fight but mum pushed and pushed until I went. Who knows I might meet some girls. I had very little time for Christians. I had a lot of time for girls. They came across to me as weak minded conformists who really didn't think very deeply (Christians that is). My mind was changed over the next week as I met many Christians my age who were genuine, open minded and full of faith. Within a few days my faith in Christ grew to the point when I requested to be baptized. No baptistries. We were up on top of Mount Tamborine in the Gold Coast hinterland. There were plenty of streams and pools and so late one day I was immersed in one of those leech infested ponds. It was a personal experience. I had personally come to believe in Jesus and heard the gospel in its simplicity and purity. The Christians who taught me were not denominational in any way. They were simply Christians. Nothing more and nothing less. 

In looking back on this I notice that my coming to Christ was not within the experience of a local church. I had never attended the local Church of Christ. I didn't even know where it was or even care for that matter. I was 16 and I wanted to give my life to Jesus. The church thing didn't enter into my experience until the following Sunday. I didn't know anything about all the church stuff. It was this stuff that would severely mess with me over the years but it didn't really kill off my faith as my faith was not based on my church experience. It was based on my personal experience with Jesus.

It is a sad observation but it is true. So many times the church really gets in the way of a person's spiritual development. I don't say this to indicate that I resent the church. I have learned to love the church and have dedicated my life to serving Jesus within the church. I just long for the day when the local church will be a place of genuine Christians whose primary concern is their love for God and their love for each other.  God blessed me with rebirth into Christ. I didn't know if there was a true church or if it mattered. My journey would take me through a long conversation of the position of church in my Christian experience. It would be a difficult journey during which I would move from one pole to an almost opposite pole.

More later

Vacation

Back home in Australia we calling it going on holidays and we do it in December January. Here in the US it is called going on vacation and you do it on July August.

This year we went on a cruise to Mexico. Everyone we knew had been on a cruise and I was feeling left behind so Julie worked to earn the money for the big cruise. It was great. Very relaxing. We went with friends who had done a lot of this before and so they helped with the locals and the land based stuff. The highlight was lunch at the Nogalito in a rain forest near Mazatlan. Steamy hot with butterflys every where. Delicious seafood and a couple of gigantic iguanas joined us for dessert.

Back in LA and on my last day of vacation and we score tickets to the Dodger game. They decided to win while we were away. Thinking seriously of jumping on the band wagon. Kuroda almost had a perfect game, at least a no-hitter, ended up with a one hitter shut out.

Back to work tomorrow. Looking forward to it, except everyone will probably be going on vacation.

Updated the Glendale Church website. Check it out.