This weekend I spent Friday and Saturday with the blokes who organise the Mighty Mens Conferences around Australia. It was a praying, sharing and visionary time. We met at the small rural town in South Australia called Balaklava.

We talked about how many men are taking their lives, living with shame, making really unhealthy choices in their lives, forgetting God’s place and generally living empty lives. So many blokes in Australia are doing it tough and being less than what they could be. Particularly when it comes to suicide, we really feel we need to do something. Men living with shame may be a contributor.

We have to do something. The Mighty Mens Conferences are about gathering men together to work through in a meaningful way the issues that confront their lives. This is our vision. Not to grow a movement, but the see Australian men find hope.

We are praying about and organising regional meetings, particularly in rural environments all over Australia. Pray for us. It is only one piece of the puzzle, and many others are doing just as valuable ministries. But we have to do something.

Mighty Mens Australia

In the news recently is the couple from the UK who have won 222 million dollars. That is a lot of money! This post is not a commentary on them, but it did provoke me to wonder, how would I spend 222 million dollars if I won it.

Each person will have their own bias, and that is good because God has made us all different, with all types of desires, wishes and passions. So your list might be equally valid as mine. You might also think that my list is not as good as it could be, for some reason. So this is not about justifying what we spend money on, that is each persons own choice. God has given us that choice. But feel free to comment and post your own thoughts.

What would you do with 222 Million dollars if you won it? Honestly. In no particular order..
1. Buy a new church (Church is the answer to the worlds issues, it is Jesus’ body on earth)

2. Buy some houses for people in need

3. Pay off our home and buy one for each of our kids (We are called to care for our family first)

4. Invest wisely and start a major fund to help children in need (You could change so many lives with a significant amount of money, why wouldn’t you)

5. Help some indigenous churches (Something on my heart, a deep passion which might be expressed one day)

6. Buy a Engel fridge, snorkel and bullbar for the Zook (Why not….I’ve just won 222 million dollars for goodness sake)

For where your treasure is, there is your heart also….

I have been meditating on some of the later Psalms in my daily devotions.

This verse from Psalm 116 struck me.

“¹⁵ The Lord cares deeply  when his loved ones die”

Notice that this does not say that the Lord will prevent an untimely death, or cure all our ills. We know from experience that even when we pray in faith, God does not always heal, or answer prayers as we would always ask.

Sometimes awful and truly tragic events unfold in our lives, and the lives of people we care about and love. Despite our heartfelt pleas, God does not answer with a miraculous intervention. Sometimes He will, and He still does, I believe in that.

So what to do, how to react, when He doesn’t. I can’t give cliched or succinct answers. I can only quote the above verse, which I believe to be true. The Lord cares….deeply….when His loved ones die. He does not always stop it, but He does care.

Recently someone said to me that even though their boyfriend is treating them badly, they go back to them time and time again. I don’t know the person well, but I do wonder what makes women allow men to treat them badly.

I wonder this particularly in the light of having a daughter to raise. The last thing she should ever be doing is begging a boy to treat her well, go out with her….put up with her. What is going to give her the self esteem that she will realise she is of great worth, and should be treated well by any boy?

Well I believe in many ways that is my responsibility, as her father. Her sense that she is beautiful, worthy, lovely….will in a large part come from how I treat her. So I resolve to speak words of life, encouragement and exhortation to her. It means she will receive appropriate touch, hugs, cuddles and kisses from me. It means I will take her out sometimes and speak to her well, treat her like a lady.

It does not mean I will be unrealistic with her, or spoil her, or make her think she is the centre of the universe. She will also see that I treat her mother entirely different to how I treat anyone else. She will learn how a woman should be treated by how her mother is treated.

Thats a lot. God give me grace, wisdom and strength.

It has been a while since I have posted anything Docker related. Following the extraordinary Derby on the weekend, it seems a good time.

As regular readers of this blog will know, my view (for what it is) on Ross Lyon has been one of indifference, antagonism, begrudging acceptance.

Obviously the way he was appointed was wrong, but that is not his fault. I continue to maintain the rage at the administration of the Fremantle Football Club. But that is another story.

Ross Lyon has begun to see his game plan be successfully implemented after a season of oscillating form. The last five weeks have been 5 wins for the Dockers. Four of those wins were lesser teams, but we still won. This weeks game against a West Coast Team needing to move into the top four was the real test. It was a test we passed with flying colours. I sat there and chatted with my wife after the game in stunned surprise. How did we so comprehensively beat that team I asked her. It was not enough to suggest Pavlich stellar form, and 8 goal haul was the answer. Nor could the absence of a truly great Fullback (Darren Glass), be enough for the 60 point margin.

No. It was the gamestyle. I thought all Ross cared about was defense.  You don’t win games unless you kick more goals than the opposition. But what was clear on the weekend as I watched the game up close, was that Ross divides the field into 3 parts. Our defense, led by the magnificent Luke McPharlin, have stymied the opposition, frustrated them so much, that by the time it comes out of there, the midfield find space, and get it into Pav, or Ballyntyne or Son Son, so quickly, their defense is already scrambling.

I am now a believer in Ross Lyon. I reckon he is an intelligent, contemporary and focused. Scarily so. Almost psychotic.

The other day me and a good mate went to Jarrahdale to get some wood for our pot belly fires. He had his Navarra and I had the Zook. You don’t need a 4WD but it helps a lot if you don’t want to be lugging wood over the forest.

Apart from being a great day out, it was also a cheap way to get a tonne of wood. You pay $15 at the Jarrahdale General Store and are on your way. There is loads of wood lying around out there, but you need a chainsaw.Next time I am going to get a lot more kindling!

I recently downloaded this excellent app/program for my MacBook.

It allows you to listen to virtually any music you want, as long as you have a net connection, for free. They put ads in every 4-5 songs, but that is a small price to pay. Another nice feature is the ‘new’ music. It allows you to see what is current, what people are listening to. Another good feature that I like is that based on your listening habits, it suggests artists you may like.

There is a paid version which allows you to store offline the music you want, and has no ads.