Who will you vote for?

This Saturday March 24 is the NSW State Election. I've been spending a lot of time thinking about voting, if/why it matters? and can I make a difference?

Someone once said that in a democratic society nothing ever gets done, it makes sense when you think about it, but it also makes voting seem slightly futile, especially when I look at the choice of candidates in my electorate.

Do I vote for the two who don't actually live in my electorate? For the two who represent the two major parties? Or for the guy who doesn't want the National Art School to be amalgamated with UNSW?

As much as I want to walk in to the polling booth on Saturday and scribble something incoherent on my ballot paper, I can't help but remember the millions of people in the world who don't have the freedom to vote. Not only them but also the women who protested and died only 100 years or so ago so that I, a women of the 21st century could help choose those who run our country.

God tells us in the Bible to pray for those in government over us and I think if the early Christians could have voted the Bible would also tell us to think carefully and pray about who we vote for.

I'll leave you with something I learnt long ago in year 12 from "Looking for Alibrandi" one of the main characters in a debating speech says "it's not about voting to put the best guys in but to keep the worst guys out."

Ultimate Mongolian Adventure

We're going to Mongolia!

2 years ago Credo started their first overseas short term mission trip as part of mid year evangelism (MYE). Each year in the July holidays Credoites are encouraged to spend part of their holidays sharing Christ’s love with others at uni, in their community and further a-field.

This year I was chosen to lead the team to Mongolia, we are going to join a Christian organisation called VETnet, who are part of Christian Veterinary Mission , they do a lot of veterinary work and a lot of other stuff as well. We will be teaching English in summer schools that are set up in rural areas for the nomad/herder people of Mongolia. Check out this National Geographic page to see pictures and a description of how they live.

We are leaving on Tuesday 26th June (see countdown timer on right for how many days are left).

Pray that we will prepare well, that we would be a blessing to the people of Mongolia, that we would learn more abour God and rely on Him, that God would provide the extra finances that we need.

Stay tuned for mre updates :-)

Big boats in the harbour

On Tuesday 20/2/07 the Queen Mary 2 and the Queen Elizabeth 2 passed each other in Sydney Harbour.

Rosie had the great idea to turn our annual St Barnabas Terraces Senior residents and Concil dinner into a Harbour Cruise to see the two fine ladies.

The QE2 is in the top picture she was pretty big but not as big as her sister the QM2 below.



It was a major event on the Harbour, there were boats everywhere and people lined up along the shorelines just to see these two cruise ships! I hadn't expected it to be such a big thing for the people of Sydney.

As it got dark there were even fireworks - I have never been so close to fireworks in my life, we were right underneath them and the noise was incredible!

It was a really fun night!

Koliva and bread

Koliva and bread are two very important ingredients in a Greek Orthodox Memorial Service. There are a number of services that can be attended after someone dies in the GO church, a couple of weeks ago I attended the 40th day service for my Grandma. According to Phylis Mensel Onest, the 40th day service is a tradition going back to the Old Testament Joseph ourned is father for 40 days, and the Israelites did the same for Moses.

Being an Evangelical Protestant Christian the world of Orthodoxy is slightly strange to me, it continues to amaze me how many different ways our brothers and sisters of different Christian denominations find to express their love for Jesus.

The service we went to is a regualr Saturday affair at the GO Chapel in Rookwood, I was suprised at how many people were there. There were people like us who had lost loved ones recently but also others remembering the 1st, 2nd, 5th, 10th Anniversary of their loved ones death. The Chapel was packed and there was a large crowd of people waiting outside. Occasionaly someone would push past the crowd and force their way inside to light a candle and watch what was happening... Being timid Australians Stu and I (albeit with Greek descent) waited outside looking lost.

Eventually we found Peter who as he has told me my attendance was compulsary so I could write this decided I needed to be inside the Chapel. So he weaved his way around many small old Greek women dressed in black with me following behind hoping I didn't step on anyone.

We ended up in the balcony seats and so had a pretty good view of the front of the room. There were two tables piled high with Koliva - a sweet wheat mixture decorated with nuts and sugar that represents John 12:24 "Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat. But if it dies, it produces much fruit." Phylis Mensel Onest, says Jesus is talking about His death and resurrection here but on reading the whole chapter I'm not sure if he's talking about Himself or His followers as the next sentence seems to be talking about others. (Note to self - do inductive bible study on John 12 sometime).

Beind the tables was a Priest reading names of all those whose family were present one by one, this took a long time and members of the congregation started to get restless, at one point he stopped and told them to shut up or go outside! (in Greek of course)

We missed the beginning of the service which included communion so it seemed over very quickly. When the names were all read out it was time to dish out Kolivia and bread to everyone in attendance, again the Priest reminded everyone why they were there and asked them to do things in an orderly fashion but I'm not sure anyone was listening. A torrent of small Greek ladies pushed their way to the front of the church where they proceeded to take their dish of Koliva it was amazing how quickly it disappeared. Especially as I didn't think it tasted all that nice anyway...

I'm not sure what I think of the whole thing, it's good to remember those who have gone before us but that's hard to do in an unfamiliar environment. I think I struggle with the fact that in all the GO services I've been to there seems to be no opportunity for the congregation member to interact with others or with God, the Priest does it all for you. This is very different to what I've grown up with and what I experience every Sunday.

Well Peter, not sure if this is what you were expecting I'd write about but it's done :-) Thanks for making me go and thanks for lunch in the park too.

Why I need to learn how to drive and have my own car... Part Two

Read Part 1 first...

So I got up early and head out on the train to Lidcombe, it was rather a pleasant journey and not too long but then... After getting off the train I discovered that regular streets don't really look like the streets on whereis.com, it looked like I would have to walk down a long stretch of busy road beside the graveyard with no footpath to be seen anywhere. I phoned Stuart who looked at a map and confirmed that I was heading in the right direction.

Half an hour later, hot and sweaty and still recovering from a nervous dash across the busy road without the aid of a pedestrian crossing I arrived at the repair place. I handed my laptop over and was told it would be ready to pick up in 3-5days (nb. the words "pick up" are very important to the rest of the story).

Just in case I asked Mr Acer-repair-man if Lidcombe was in fact the closest train station, to my dismay it turned out it was not, Flemington was much closer... It was also a much nicer walk, there were footpaths and pedestrian crossings and everything!

6 days later, I phoned to find out if my laptop was ready yet, it had been 3-5days and I had heard nothing. The lady on the other end of the phone assured me "yes, it had been finished yesterday" "so," I said, "I can go and pick it up?" again I was assured, yes.

The next day I once again began a trek to the Acer repair place, this time getting off at Flemington station and walking . It was I knew going to ake 2-3hours out of my day and although I had many things to do before staff retreat the next day it would be worth it to have my laptop back.

The nice man behind the desk looked up my laptop on his computer "oh", he said, "it was couriered on Monday" he didn't seem like such a nice man after that. After more investigation it turned out it had not infact been couriered on Monday (3days ago) but in fact had left the warehouse just 20mins before I arrived. It would be delivered to my work sometime between 3-5pm.

I headed back to the train station feeling more than a little bit grumpy...

At the office I waited... 2pm...3pm...4pm... At 5.05pm I phoned Acer, who could phone the courier company but they would be closed right now, I could try and call them if I wanted. I did want so I got the necessary numbers and phoned. Someone answered the phone so I assume they were open... It turns out my computer was stil in the couriers warehouse, there was something wrong with the package and they would send it back to Acer in the morning! I asked if instead it could be sent to me, she said she'd try so I gave her my details and hoped for the best.

It did indeed arrive the next day and now the whole drama doesn't seem like such a big deal after all...

Why I need to learn how to drive and have my own car...

Yes it's true, I'm 28 (almost 29) and I still don't have a drivers licence. Last year I sat for my L's and passed so now I have my third Learners Permit, although the last one I had expired in 1999. Learning to drive is just something I haven't really gotten round to doing yet.

I also have a lovely little Acer Aspire 3620 Laptop, not the most sophisticated piece of technology but it does all I need it to do and recently I've discovered it's kind of hard to do my job without it.

How are these two things related? I hear you ask. Well, Ihave had my laptop for about 8 months and for most of that time it has had a small gray splodge on the screen (aka an abnormal block of colours), it's speakers also made a high pitched buzzing noise whenever there was nothing playing through them. As I have a 12 month warranty policy I decided I should ring the Acer support people and see if they would be kind enough to fix my computer. They said they would, however...

The Acer repair place is located in Flemington, opening hours 9am to 5pm, and it was my task to get my computer to them. This is where the whole drivers licence plus car thing would be helpful, my usual chauffer (aka Stuart, aka husband) was unable to asisst me as he has other regular commitments between 9-5 on weekdays (aka full time employment).

My only option then was... Public Transport!

On the map it looked like the place I was going to was very close to Lidcombe station, convieniently located on the Inner West Line, as is Stanmore where I live. I packed all I would need for such a long intense journey and set out.

What will happen next? Will Bec survive her trek to Lidcombe? Wil her computer be repaired? Stay tuned to find out more...

The Gym is Flooded!

As some of you would know, for the past year and a half I've been going to the Fernwood Fitness Centre at Broadway at least 3 times a week if not more.

Usually I enjoy being at the gym, especially boxing and belly dancing classes! Although sometimes it can take a real effort to get me there. The last couple of months have been months where I've had a less than optimal gym attendance record - ok so I went twice after NTE and havent been back since...

However last Tuesday I was really excited about getting back into a routine and taking my new shoes to the gym for a break-in workout. I left work early, met up with my brother and left him early to head to the gym. Alas, when I got there the doors were shut and the lights were off! Due to the recent construction work at Broadway there was a servere pumbing malfunction which caused major flooding. Apparently water was pouring in through the airconditioning vents!

Since then the gym has been closed and I've really missed going (sounds strange after choosing not to be there for 4 weeks I know).

To top everything off, this afternoon I got a phone call from Pearly (one of the Personal Trainers and my boxing instructor) to say that she is leaving and so won't be able to train me.

Oh well, I have still managed to give my new shoes a workout - I've walked home from work a few times in lieu of my gym workout.

Isis Despinidic - My Grandma

These are pictures of my grandmother Isis Despinidic, she was my Dad's mum. She died two weeks ago on Christmas day, we held her funeral today.

My grandparents are Greek and so my grandfather wanted her to be buried in the Greek Orthodox section of Rookwood Cemetery.
This meant she had a Greek Orthodox funeral followed by a memorial service at the Baptist church in Landilo, where she was a regular attender.

The GO ceremony was very formal, all the liturgy was sung by the Priest and another man (not sure what his formal title is). It was also mostly in Greek, although the priest translated some of the most important prayers etc. into English, his sermon was also in English as most people there were not Greek speakers.

It was rather strange as there was no sense of who grandma was at this service and no mention of her life, rather all the prayers were for God to look after her soul now that she was dead. At the end of the service family and friends walk to the coffin and say goodbye by kissing it or in their own way, then the coffin is carried to the graveside. Those attending the funeral follow the coffin and at the graveside there are more prayers and then the coffin is lowered into the grave and flowers and dirt are thrown into the grave.

The memorial service at the Baptist church was very different, it was all about celebrating grandma's life, how she affected the people around her, thanking God for her life and for the fact that she is now with Him.

It was great to hear the different stories of how Grandma has influenced her family and her friends at church. I realised that I really didn't know her very well, but I was proud to be her Granddaughter!

Please pray for my Grandpa, who has lost his wife of 56 years and for my Dad's family that they wll know God's comfort and love.

Sydney NYE 2007

Happy New Year everybody! This year Stu and I went to Polly's place after church to watch the fireworks (thanks Ang for driving!). She lives on the 24th floor of an apartment block in Darlinghurst and has a great view of the Harbour, it was a really nice relaxing night and this is what we got to see (thanks Brad for the photos).

The Tricky Thing About Blogging

Ok, so blogging is usually a fun thing for me, it's really just an excuse to write random stuff on the internet and see who reads it... Until something happens that is a really a big thing and you don't really want to write about it, but then, if you don't write about it and write about other less important stuff, it seems as though you are being disrespectful to whatever it is that has happened.

So, perhaps I won't write about it just yet, but now you all know how I feel, and if I write about other trivial things then I won't feel as though I'm being disrespectful...

Gingerbread House

I Just finished my gingerbread house!

The Wedding Planner

No, this is not a post about the movie (which I haven't seen) but about me! On Saturday I was Line Producer for Katherine and Kimseoun's wedding, for those who don't know much about movies (or weddings) the LP is the person who pulls all the different elements together and makes it work - which it did!

After many meetings and emails to plan who was doing what we turned up at 9am to make it all happen - thankyou so much to Kath's 945 Homegroup and others who worked really hard.

It was a fun wedding with a mixture of Cambodian and Aussie bits and pieces. The groom, his mum and friends arrived amidst fruit procession and presented Kath's mum with many platters of fruit, tea and other fun Cambodian food. Then the bride arrived and walked down the aisle with her Dad in the traditional Aussie way.

I was a bit nervous that it wouldn't come together but Kath and Kimsoeun got married, there was enough food at the reception and everyone was happy so I think it was officially a success!

A few people have asked if I'd be interested in planning weddings professionally... Hmm, as much as I like organising I'm not sure I could handle the pressure of having to make every couple's day 100% perfect but if in the future you would like someone to help plan your wedding, let me know :-)

Below are some pics of Stu and I with K & K and K & K cutting the cake

Fish Sitting

Stuart is a bit confused by the title of this post, and while it is true that fish don't sit (apparently they don't have chairs) we are currently sitting (minding) Evie Winch's goldfish.

Everything was going well until last Friday when we arrived home to find a very lost fish lying on the floor under the fish bowl :-( It was obvious due to his dehydrated state that he had been there for a very long time.

There's something rather disconcerting about phoning your boss to let him know his daughters pet fish committed suicide while in your care...

AFES National Training Event

Stay tuned..

Two more sleeps!

Just two more sleeps until the biggest event in the Credo calender - NTE!!! 3.5 days of learning about Eschatology (amongst other things) in Canberra and then 3.5 days of mission with a local(or not so local) church. As a staff member I also get to go to the pre-nte ministry expo.

Every year I get to this point and can't decided if I want to go or not - it sounds like a good idea but there never seems to be enough time to organise transport or finish my strand prep and 10 days of not sleeping in my own bed is such a long time! However by then end of NTE I'm always amazed at how much God has done, what a great time the team has had and how much we have all learnt that is seems to be worth all the effort :-)

Stay tuned to hear all about NTE 2006! www.afes.org.au/nte.html

Happy? Birthday Nemo

Yesterday my goldfish Nemo turned 1 :-) We named him Nemo because he was the only baby to survive in the batch of 40-100 eggs that Georgette laid. Since then Georgette and Marlowe have been busy and laid eggs about 3 times. Unfortunately none of the others survived either.

I had high hopes for about 40 eggs that I saved and watched most of the fry grow until they were a few months old but slowly some began to disappear (Nemo got hungry) and others became ill and died...

There was one fish from that batch that made it - Cheeky Fish... Until today... He hurt his tail on the weekend, he got stuck in a rock and pulled half his tail off, it got infected and this morning he was dead :-(

So now Georgette, Marlowe and their son Nemo (above) will continue swimming happily in a tank that is getting less and less crowded!

Stuart's Words of Wisdom

"Sharing a house with a flatmate is like going on holidays it's fun and you get to experience new things. Being married is like moving to a different country, there's a whole new culture that follows you around"

The Spires are Moving

Yes, it's official, in three weeks time we will no longer reside in Ultimo. Instead, we will move a few suburbs west (I think it's west- geography has never been my best subject) to Sunny Stanmore.

We will join the gang who live in the MAC building out there, I'm very looking forward to having an extra bedroom, a dining room and maybe even a study! No longer will our lounge room try to do 3 things at once (4 when people come to stay). It will be weird not being able to walk to work though, it's been so long since I relied on public transport... hmmmm...

Back 2 School

Yesterday at uni was Back 2 School day - the plan: convince a bunch of uni students to collect sponsors who will pay to see them wear their school uniforms to uni...

It's fun seeing everyone looking like school kids again, we also took over the concourse with stalls of fun schooly things to do (I learnt how to write Re-be-ca in Japanese) and fairy floss!

Why? to raise money for HEED (Health Education Economic Developement), specifically establishing slum schools in Bangledesh.

Here is a picture from last year (I didn't wear my uniform this year- chose to donate instead).

RIP Bob Catfish

My fish Bob died on Friday night :-( We've had him for almost 3 years and watched him grow from a baby...

I don't know what is happening with out tank, we're doing everything right but the ammonia and pH levels just won't stabilise! Which means stressed fish that get sick and drop dead unexpectedly...

I went to Oceanworld at Manly on Sunday, not as nice as Sydney Aquarium at Darling Harbour but they still had lots of cool fish. I do not know why I like fish so much, but I do...

When I find a photo of Bob I will post it... I'm pretty sure there's one somewhere, although he was pretty good at hiding so it may not be a great one.