How many pastors have I seen come and go? Personal friends need two hands to count them……People I know of…in Baptist circles….in the dozens.

People in churches do not realise the pressure on pastors….and sometimes they dont care.
Just yesterday I heard of a church sacking a young guy…sure he is young, no doubt he in imperfect…but he was giving it a go…and a good go….Part of me hopes that somehow they learn their lesson….but I wonder if this side of heaven they will realise the significance of decisions made…things could be so different.

Without my peer group of mates…who tell me the truth…and care for me…and we pray together…such strength in prayer with real blokes.

There is no need for pleasantries….we get stuck straight into it…What a blessing.

Cooked up a beautiful piece of steak tonight. Fresh, not frozen.

Used a nice grill fry pan, one with ridges on it.
Nice and hot sizzling olive oil. Cooked medium rare rare…..

Some fresh mushrooms, coated in olive oil, lemon and thyme….fried with the steak.

A baked potatoe which I fried a little, and smothered in garlic sour cream.
Cold Tooheys New….and the meal was complete.

We had a great service today. I had someone step up to the PC to do the multi-media..which was good.

Eliot and the crew had a good time during the singing….with our trumpet player doing a beautiful job of his solo…really good moment.

The theme was “Fresh” dealing with freshening up our relationships with our kids…
I showed a clip from “cheaper by the dozen” where Steve Martin gives up his dream job to embark on a more important dream, raising his kids.
Q gave a practical and good message on parenthood…online soon.

Then to finish it all off…Eliot and the crew did an excellent version of “Cats in the Cradle”…this song is not originally by Cat Stevens…as many think, and a remake was not done by Guns and Roses…as many think. Rather the original version was by Harry Chapin, and the excellent remake by ‘Ugly Kid Joe’.
I did up a multi media presentation to play while they performed the song live. In it I showed pictures of a lot of kids from church and from our community programs.

It was a great service in the sense of all the elements working together. Afterwards we had soup and bread together in the hall….and it was great to see everyone hang around for some real fellowship time.

Well today is not a complete loss…..Tim just read out my email on the “Western Front” and I have won a prize…woo hoo!!
(just a bag filled up with some small prizes)

Just play the same way every quarter…and we will beat more sides than lose to them.

Fremantle should beat Carlton this week…but I am not holding my breath.
Carlton have not beaten us for years, and they dont play the Telstra Dome well at all…..but I am not holding my breath.
Despie only being 1 and 7…Fremantle have played some great 3 quarter football, taking sides like Geelong and the Western Bulldogs right to the edge…but I am not holding my breath.

On Saturday at about 12 noon…I will be holding my breath. Can we play four good quarters?