When Surfing is So Much More

This morning Hammer was invited to go surfing with his new mate... he was so excited he could barely walk straight. We thought : great, he can try a new sport  and have a nice morning out with his new friend. Well what we got was so much more.

We turned up at the allocated time to the allocated venue and met our new mates. Then the surfing coaches tuned up. They were three lovely young guys from our church. What Hammer got was not just a surfing lesson but one hour of one on one time with a young guy from church who is worth emulating.

We are constantly told as parents to role model the behaviour we want to see in our kids, but i cannot express my thankfulness for young blokes especially who are part of our church community taking aside young boys and showing them how to live life in this day and setting in a way that does not conform to the patterns of this world but is based on a renewing of their minds through the gospel of grace.

So i suppose this blog post is a big thank you to a lovely lady i will call 'faithful mum' (i hope you know who you are) for raising two of these young people to be such a great example to our kids and a big thanks to her two young guys who came out and their extra attached person for being such brilliant role models for our kids to look up to and emulate.

Journey to the other side of the Universe

Late last year I undertook an epic journey to another universe.... it was big and confronting and left me lost for words... HOWEVER, thanks to a little poke from a precious friend i shall call 'the evil monkey'... i have found the words that were lost.

The epic journey started last January with the death of my dear, eccentric, God fearing mother in Nigeria. As we (my sister and I) couldn't be there for the funeral, we began planning a pilgrimage of sorts to take place in November, to coincide with what would have been Mums' 60th birthday. Now i'm a pretty boring kind of person, i never travelled as a young adult, I just finished high school, went to uni, got married at 20 and had baby Exacto at 21.... this was to be my first big adventure.

LONDON CALLING: The standard route to Nigeria is via London and as I have a hospitable cousin living there i decided to stop a few days. i was not expecting to enjoy it much as I have little interest in Royals and tourist traps.Well... London is THE most beautiful place I have ever seen.... I did see it late Autumn when it was putting on a spectacular show...

I also was Blown Away by a visit to Westminster Abbey for an intimate sung matins service... the history and significance to church history made me feel quite emotional, though i had to stifle a laugh when i imagined our own church leadership team up front in their boardies and flip flops.

OUT OF AFRICA:If London was beautiful, Nigeria was breathtaking. With it's own brand of beauty it was like stepping into an alternate reality. A reality where a family of 8 in a one bedroom shack are thankful for their blessings and the cleanest water source available for locals (those lucky enough to have access to running water) is not seen fit for the consumption of western visitors.
I just don't have the words to tell you how much it hurt to see the streets lined with destitute sometimes skeletal people vying to sell whatever they can find that might fetch a price and feed their family that day. I can't describe the hopelessness in a clinic with 50 destitute Muslim women queueing to see the one white American RN who will provide perhaps the only medical care they will ever recieve...  I can't tell you how my heart weeps for them.

That said I also can't describe to you the beauty of a tall proud Nigerian lady wearing bright (but always perfectly coordinated) traditional dress, with a baby tucked in to her wrappers, carrying an impossible bundle on her head. They weave amongst the roadside stalls as if participants in a choreographed dance, without ever faltering or losing their rhythm. i couldn't bear to photograph one of them as it almost seemed sacrelidge.

As i mentioned at the outset this was not merely a sightseeing tour. i was there for a reason. Meeting some of the people who were so precious to Mum was one of the highlights of the trip. In particular hearing the fond way Mum was remembered by both missionaries and locals was music to my soul. Three precious people who featured often in Mums stories were Kauna and Esther and Buji. The joy of meeting them in person and the warmth with which they recieved me and shared their memories is not something i will soon forget.

one final significant moment in the trip was visiting Mums' burial place. Although i had a bit of a 'moment' as i said goodbye to her there, i am convinved that it is not where she resides now, but only what remains of her earthly life. The anniversary of her death approaches in days, at which time i will wish her a very joyful first birthday as a perfectly healed and restored creation, worshipping in the presence of her creator, saviour and very best friend.

lils' greatest treasure

People are designed for relationships. Without relationships people become sad, angry and lonely.. There is something very innate about humans that causes us to crave intimate lasting relationships with each other. This has been proven through research with babies in a Romanian orphanages, where the babies who were cuddled and loved thrived and survived whereas the babies who were only given nutrition and a clean environment became weak and sickly and many died. If you disagree with this point, i want to hear it because i really do think that the human need for relationship  is irrefutable.

It should not come as a surprise then that my greatest treasure is a relationship.

This is not just any relationship, it is a relationship that gives me my place in the universe and around which everything else is built...this relationship is initiated and maintained by a man who is not only always there, but also always honest and can be relied on unwaveringly and completely. Where do you find such a man i hear you ask? well let me tell you. He is Heaven sent, and so much more than just a man. His name is Jesus (cue the closed minded of you to roll your eyes and navigate away from this page.....now). I met Jesus as a small child but thought nothing much of Him at the time. when i was about 11 i investigated more fully what this guy was claiming about Himself, and decided on that basis that if He wasn't telling the truth then he must be either a lunatic, a liar, or something much, much worse. I understood that the answer to this question would have far reaching consequences in my life.  To make a long story short i have investigated the claims Jesus made and compared various historical texts and other evidence and am convinced that Jesus is who He says He is... on this basis i decided that He was to be taken seriously and i needed to choose to either follow Him or flee Him. I chose to follow and it's the best choice i ever made. Having my relationship with God restored by Jesus has brought me healing, wholeness and restoration that is out of this world.

So that's my greatest treasure. A restored relationship with God.

If you want to argue with me about religion and it's many evils, go ahead, i agree, religion has much to answer for...but this is not about religion. It's just about what God has done for me.


Here is a pic of the best man on the planet showing my two biggest little peeps, Exacto and Hammer how to investigate Jesus' claims for themselves.

Hello World!

So here is a little fact that you probably don't know about me: I've always had a romantic notion of sharing my story in print... I firmly believe that every person on this planet has a story to tell and out of that cacophony of voices i shall mumble, moan, exalt and shout my way though mine... so here goes.

There are heaps of treasures in my life. Let me introduce a few, first there is my husband, the Best Man On the Planet and then there are my four little peeps; Exacto, Hammer, Storm, and Ratbag.


Introducing Exacto!
s from him, a mark of intimacy  them

Exacto is my biggest little peep. She is really nearly 10 and in her usual matter of fact way has informed me that she is soon to be a tween and that her behaviour may be a little harder to manage. Exacto lives in an ordered world where every question has one correct answer, and she usually knows what it is (and if she doesn't then she will give you 10 good reasons why her answer is the only one that makes sense). Exacto has an incredible natural affinity for all things mathematical, and has already surpassed her mothers' lacklustre level of knowledge in that area.
 Exacto also loves to read... no i mean she REALLY loves to read. From age 5 she has devoured books at a rate of around 100 pages per day on average. She reads about everything but her current passion is biographies of children who lived through WWII...
The most impressive thing about Exacto however, is her beautiful heart. She is the peacemaker in sibling disputes, the encourager of the downtrodden and has a superhuman (or at least super 10yo) ability to decide on the 'right' thing to do in a situation and follow through with action regardless the personal cost. She is the calm quiet voice of encouragement and perseverance.


and next....meet Hammer!

Hammer is known for his superhuman pain tolerance.... once he put up with an ear infection to the point where after one calm statement: 'aww my ear hurts', his eardrum burst. Another time, as a two year old he fell backward off his sisters' bunk, collecting a bookcase on the way and all he said was 'ow' as the Dr stitched the back of his head up without anesthetic....
Hammer is an awesome drummer and an amazing cook. One of his favourite things to do on a Friday arvo (when his peers are absorbed with screens) is to look up cooking blogs on the internet and try making something new... the things he comes up with from the measly and unimaginative contents of my pantry are incredible.

My next little peep is Storm (short for storm in a tea cup)

Storm is trouble in a teacup. She's a pint sized power to be reckoned with and the only child i have ever met who is more stubborn than me. Storms' superpower is unwavering optimism. No matter what she is going through, or what difficulties are thrown at her she tackles them head on with a 'this isn't going to beat me' attitude. This girl is a leader of the future and has earned the respect of many for her strength, charisma and tenacity.

and finally,  meet Ratbag

Ratbag is personality plus. She's the first to find mischief while escaping trouble by an inch. She is adventurous and confident and 3... Ratbags' first love is mud, followed closely by food and playdouh. Ratbag spices up shopping trips by starting up conversations with randoms about whatever bug or food morsel she might have stashed in her pocket and her favourite toy in the world is a rubber snake and spider that stick to the roof when she throws them up then cause great hilarity when they fall on her unsuspecting mum 6-24hrs later... *sigh*

i think that's it for tonight.. I'm beat, but please come back soon and meet my most precious treasure of all, which is yet to be introduced......