Kidney Kar Rally

I have waited a while to blog about this one because I was waiting for the photos to turn up on the Kidney Health Australia website and they are now finally up. In August i spent close to two weeks traveling five thousand kilometers across this beautiful country via dirt roads. I was an entrant in Kar 56 in the 2010 Kidney Kar Rally.

The event is a fundraiser for Kidney health Australia and attracts car enthusiasts and more predominately rally enthusiasts from across the country who all unite in raising funds for Kidney Kids Camps which are held for children aged seven to seventeen who are effected by Kidney Disease. Each year this amazing group gets together and competes across the country all in the name of Fundraising for this fantastic cause.

In 2010 the rally started in Swan Hill Victoria in mid monsoonal weather and saw the next two weeks take us through South Australia, The Flanders Rangers, up into Queensland and then back into NSW. The rain made this event interesting and added to the experience of camping in a swag.

The Rally barley touches the asphalt roads and takes us through days of off road, waterlogged, groat trails and country dirt roads. The Rally is taken seriously with many vehicles crashing, rolling braking down or having other sorts of issues all of which add to the experience. Each Vehicle is fitted out for the ordeal with roll cages, navigational equipment (for the co driver) four point harnesses and the beloved orange flashing light to name a few. Teams have to build and fund the vehicles themselves which makes the fundraising that much more impressive as I estimate each teams minimum set up costs to be around $7 Grand per car.

In 2010 the combined efforts of all the competitors and fundraisers raise $500 thousand. And Im proud to say i was part of that.

I Can Take it

I will admit a significant period of time has lapsed since writing on this and that has been caused by many distractions however it has been nice to realise how may people do keep a spare eye on my Blog as at social outings I have heard the question asked "So you have not posted any blog posts in the past new weeks?" Well my friends wait no more here it is the all new and improved Blog post.
Sorry for amping that up a bit unfortunately this post has very little in the way of life or world changing progress to report on at this stage or at least that which i am willing to report on this blog (past experience has taught me that some aspects to my life a best off kept to myself for a while (not that I'm doing a very good job at that))
So I have decided to post a little on the where i am at now and how i plan to take on the challenges to come. The past few months were hard, challenging and immensely rewarding. The Lord has taught me a few lessons I simply did not want to learn however the advantage of Sovereignty is i don't get too much of a say and his will be done. So after months of battling through that, harbouring and releasing bitterness, developing my identity and all the other academically boring stuff that has gone on i am now in a good place which God, my faith and majority of those important to me.

The minor hick up i am now facing is that whilst battling though the more difficult times i assumed in the back of my head "once i get though this little bit it will be OK" and was not expecting to be in a place that i feel is where i am meant to be and still be on the receiving end of criticism. My personality does not handle that overly well I take any form of criticism as a personal attack on me (unfortunately some people know this and deliberately do it in an attempt to hurt to me) One such in counter came a few weeks back where i had laid out what of thought of someones behaviour and challenged them on it. The response i received was the one i expected of hostility and in an attempt to remove the attention from themselves to me, spat out the accusation that i led a meaningless and pointless life. Fortunately others were involved in the in counter and it defused quickly. I am not overly bothered by that comment because i know that at just 25 i have already changed the world and i have many more years ahead of me to do more. God has not finished with me yet.

I have concluded however i do need to work on the receiving of criticism as i came to a very serious realisation this week and it came from my mentor through the Church. He said
"If no one criticises you, then you have not impacted anything" For someone to stand up and have a go at me it means that I must of some how impacted them. The statement in its self "you live a meaningless life" is contradicted by the fact that obviously my actions mean something to my critic otherwise they would not bother to comment. So I am OK with it, I'm no pew sitter, I am changing the world and if you want to have a whinge at me about it feel free.

Back to Battle

I feel i was tricked into returning to the Cube a little but I'm OK with that. It is my mission field. It is however something that at first i was reluctant to do but now with the Task placed before me and a few days to ponder it I'm fired up for it. I have not attended Cube for some time as i am furious at so many of them and the shallow existence they live. People who put on one front for a Sunday evening and as soon as they walk out the door indulge in sleeping with whoever they want, binge drinking, drug use, alcohol abuse and other such self driven bull shit. Sunday nights they announce they are believers in Christ and Monday to Saturday they refuse to live it with no thought for who they are hurting. These same people get together ever week and claim to be a community of love and proceed to bully the younger ones, segregate, bitch and gossip and cause rifts through all the hard work so many have put into it. Well my first week back and i have been handed the sword. I was asked to speak on the issues with the group, the shallowness of it and hopefully get them to take this a little more seriously. Get ready guys i have no intention of holding back, I'm hurt and angry and was just handed an opportunity to tell you what i really think. None of you will like it but its what you need to hear. Sunday night I will unleash my fire upon them.

Something Addictive

You may or may not know that the picture on this page of the tattoo across the back is in fact a photo of my back. The tattoo idea has always appealed to me however i have always maintained that to ink yourself with something that will last for the remainder of your life it should have meaning to you. It should represent you and what you live by or reflect you, make a statement or whatever ever, i feel that a persons reasons for them are not important but also feel its equally important to have a reason for it. so many people running around with tattoos on them that mean nothing. I am slowly stating to understand this now. Tattoos are addictive i started with the one on my back to make a statement about my faith. The ones to follow concern me, will i ever get to a point where enough is enough, i doubt it and maybe one day i will be overrun with tattoos that mean absolutely nothing.

Whilst back at Camp

Whilst back at my metaphorical camp i have found that many of the other warriors in this army are still here with me. They saw me fall and came to my rescue, they have dragged me back to camp and collected my amour on the way back. Now as a team we are rebuilding me. I have now realised a few vital things with this group. The first is that i was battling at my limit. I listened to sermon this morning about not operating at our capacity rather then our limit. I feel there is so much in this world i can do something about, everything from extreme poverty and human trafficking through to fundraising for cancer research and Kidney Health but I took on too much in recent times. I exhausted all of my resources and when a disaster hit with the work i was doing with the Cube i was already working at my limit and had no room to budge so i just collapsed. When I'm ready to head back into the battle field i will pick one thing and pursue just the one thing.
The other realisation i have come too is that whilst i am wounded in this battle i am not the only one. My loyal Christian friends have stuck by me through thick and thin and helped me through this hard time but looking at them and the journey they have walked they also need me.
I look at those who have lifted me up, given me advise and carried me on this path when i could not walk this journey. All of them men and women of Faith, unconditional love for me and i would not swap my team of support for any other. People who i just arrive at their house unannounced and am always welcome people who i can just hang out with, watch the football with and talk through my issues with. They are an amazing team that surround me and i am now stuck with a hard call.
I have no passion left for the Cube. Whilst i felt called to do that at one point i don't any more i feel i have done as much as i can there and my energy needs to be focused somewhere else so it's time to work a few things out. Firstly am i ready yet and if so what one mission do i pursue.

A True Story

CHISINAU, Moldova and CHICO, California — “They brought us to a hotel and led us up a staircase — seven floors.

"I remember … wondering when they would let me go to my sister. The big Russian woman led us into a room with couches against the walls. There were men sitting, talking, drinking tea, laughing on the couches. One girl started to cry silently. I suddenly understood what was happening.

"They made the first girl stand in the middle of the room. They ordered her to take off her top. She hesitated so they beat her. Then it was my turn. I lifted my top for a second and pulled it right down. Then I noticed the curtains fluttering out the open window…. Time slowed. I heard a ringing in my ears and the room faded. I remember that I said a prayer — ‘God give me wings.’ I ran across the room and jumped over the men on the couch and out the window.”

When Marina woke up in the hospital she had shattered one leg and broken the other. She had a concussion and some internal bleeding. It was only then that she discovered that the Russian woman she had paid to take her to Italy had taken her to Istanbul instead and sold her to modern-day slavers. She was one of several women being auctioned to brothel owners when she jumped out the hotel window.

A True Friend

There are a few people in my life i have wronged. Some deliberately and others are hurt by because i fall short as a friend, a son or a husband. Some of these people have unconditional love for me and forgive no matter what. Within a family unit it is assumed and often maintained but many times friends will leave and fail to forgive me and i just write them off as its their loss. Recently someone has reentered my life as a true friend. A woman who has every right within the world to despise me and desire my own downfall but somewhere long the road she found it in herself to forgive my wrongs that i know hurt her so deeply and has stood by me as a true friend. Someone who knows me better than anyone else, someone who once loved me enough to marry me and i betrayed her. Kel has reentered my life recently as a good friend and i can hardly fathom why? im grateful for the amazing friend i have but can't get my head around the forgiveness she has extended to me. What a woman .

Back to Camp

So this Blog has more become my own personal Travels with God rather than actual travels around the country or the world. But its far more exciting this way. So The last post talks of the hopelessness I am feeling on the battlefield fighting for what I believe and I am now starting to come to terms with it. The battle field left me disheartened and exhausted, i felt stranded and useless on the field i was no longer fighting i was probably doing more harm than good so i have decided to return to base camp so to speak.
Whilst maintaining the metaphor of the battle field and the armour of God i need to head back to camp and recuperate refit the armour, grow stronger and learn from this experience so that i can serve my Lord to my full abilities rather than giving the half arse pitiful exhausted effort i was giving.
So i have given up the Cube that was the battle field for me. I pray hard that the troops i have left on that field can withstand the array of attacks that knocked me to the ground but for now i can not serve that ministry effectively so i must take a break from it. I have started looking at other Church's in My local area (Crows Nest) Church's that have strong mature Christians around my own age who can encourage me when i re enter the field. I have removed those from my life who live their lives in such a destructive manner that they not only damage themselves but damage me as well. For Now it seams to be working i just pray that when the time comes I'm not Gun shy and too scared to re enter the battle field.

Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.

And the Second is like it.

Growing up in Christian Circles you will know what the tittle is in relation too. The second commandment "love you neighbour as yourself" the fist of course is "Love the Lord your God with all your heart all your mind and all your soul" Countless sermons have focused on the first and how difficult we as simple mankind struggle to keep the first. Whilst i never claim to be perfect at executing the first recent times have shown that the second is in fact the more difficult to obey.
Still only a Child in my walk with God i still feel i am somewhat of a veteran when it comes to the raging battle for Christ, in the early days loving your neighbour seems so easy and at the surface level still is for me. Every day i give up my seat on the bus for the Pregnant lady who gets on, countless breakdowns, house moving and late night jump starts fill my weeks. I have a heart for people and feel the calling to head out into the world and show the world Christs love. However after years on the battlefield, following the call of Christ and ample weeks and dollars out on the mission field now my Shield is riddled with the fiery darts of the enemy as my knees are kicked in from behind me by those who i believed would unconditionally support me.
Time and time again I executed Patience, compassion and outright love with those closest to me. They came to me for advise and outright ignored it, they refused to acknowledge the weaknesses they face and justify those weaknesses amongst themselves, they wallow in a repulsive lifestyles and tell themselves they are good people for it. "life is about you and what you can get from it" they dont worry about who gets hurt, dont think of the consequences of actions and good honest people of this world get wounded as a direct result of that behaviour yet they care not.
These people are the mission field they are the ones that are so desperately looking for something in their lives, lieing to themselves telling themselves thay are happy. But how long must i battle for them, to change their lives you make yourself venerable you open yourself up to be hurt and rejected and the trouble with the crappy human race is they will pounce on that and rip you to shreds.

Im covered in scars from the battle, my armour lays scattered across the bloodstained sand of the battle field, my flesh exposed and wounded, i have seen no fruit and all i hear is the calling to pick the amour back up and keep fighting for them. Why? to what end? How do i keep fighting? How do i love my neighbour who so quickly turns and attacks me in spite of my love.

A dark Place

You plan your life out
you live your life to the standards you feel are right
you take on everyones advise and filter it
you decide what you think is best and walk down the road you feel is right
then like a kick in the chest the road beneath you falls away
you can still see where you were aiming
there is no way you can make it there
Life must Change but before you get to that realiseation
you have cried on a daily basis
you have screamed at God on hilltops
you have lost all self worth
you have lost you drive to live.
You have watched you veins pulse
you have driven a syringe of a deadly concoction into your forearm
you have faced death without fear and begged for it to come
you know only a few short moments of vomit and seizure will be the last pain you could ever feel

Then God steps in a smacks you in the lip
"learn the lesson you fool
i don't plan for your destruction i have something better for you"
You don't believe it
How can there be any light
That is the beauty of Faith You can only see darkness
you can only feel worthless
you can only hand it over to God and trust he will build you up again.

I am worth something
I am Gods child
I am a good person
I do not come up short
I am worth my weight in gold
I am a gift to this world
I am the way i am because God made me this way
I will achieve greatness
I will be happy again
There is someone out there who will love me for me
There is someone God has chosen for me.

How much do i believe this.
I'm still working on it

Age is No Barrier

Twenty plus people jammed into the sheering quarters for more then a week and you are bound to get all sorts of rubbish going on. People farting in confined spaces, inappropriate comments and of course walking in on someone of the opposite sex is bound to happen. The South Australia trip was no different, people saw and said things they probably should not have, and all the while we laugh and giggle and just get on with what has to be done.
I stopped for a moment and cast my thoughts back to one particular incident on the farm involving a Young teenager in our church community and a young woman who is relatively new to our Church community. Dylan a fourteen year old boy happens to walk in on Bree in the shower. Any other combination of people involved in this innocent accident could have resuled in shame full and embarrassed people feeling awkward for the rest of the week.
Care free Bree is not even slightly bothered by the incident and laughs it off. You would think this would have been to Dylan's relief but again another person who lives life by the whatever goes, goes motto.
The rest of the team laugh and joke about the incident around the camp fire that night and both parties get involved in the joke recounting their own humours rendition of the event.
Dylan just fourteen years old is easily mistaken for a young adult and handles the whole thing better then some adults would. Sometimes I wish I was more like Dylan, I can already see the Warrior for Christ he is becoming and at just fourteen I can see this guy will change the world. I am proud to say that I am part of this kids life and can't wait to see the awesome things that will come from him.
The image shows Dylan (on the right) with Chris (a 19 year old Cube member) in on a hysterical joke out on the farm.

South Australia Madness

I have become a little slack with this blog recently. Moving house and heading back to work have become distractions but not nearly as big of a distraction as the work I am doing with the Cube. Whilst this Blog has remained untouched the Cube blog is on fire so if you wish to keep up with some of what I am doing visit the Cube Blog.

So now I'm blogging about South Australia just days before I duck off on the Kidney Kar Rally. Not to worry it will all come it will just be a little late.

Upon returning from Make Poverty History I had ample opportunity to sit down, unwind and gather my thoughts, way up the pros and cons and just get back to normal life. The trip to South Australia was completely different. I hit the Ground running, I returned home unshaven and smelly to find that in a few short weeks I was out of a place to live. Not a huge drama just a massive change to my plans for the rest of the year. So it was house hunting, bond paying and ultimately back to work for me. This hopefully will not stop my travels however in recent weeks I have come to the realisation that this blog is not so much about my travels as it is about the journey I am going on with the Cube guys.

So the South Australia trip. This was a particularly negative experience for me in some ways and in other ways it was fantastic. I struggled with this trip and I believe the issues with it were my family members. My old man was head goon on this trip and I have very different leadership skills and methods to him. Whilst both works, I believe my fathers care free she'll be right mate approach is far to stressful. Coupled with some relationship conflicts I had with some of the Cube guys and my sister. All of which become magnified when sharing confined quarters. So avoiding staying on the negatives what was the highlight of this trip.

I have many experiences from the land and the way of life that i will blog about in weeks to come. But my number one highlight was the relationships i developed with some of the younger crew on the trip. A relatively small team comprising of mostly Cube members (over 18 years old) however there were a few of the high school aged guys from Neon on the trip too. These guys are rapidly approaching Cube age and when they get there I am pleased to say that I have already got strong Friendships with many of them.

One such relationship that thrived on this trip and the direct effects of that have been seen since is Sara. Sara is seventeen (although her height does not show it) hanging out with her mainly due to her trying to avoid a few who she was not so comfortable with, meant i got to know her well. She has no issues playing the rough boy games and had no issues with the blood and gore that comes with farm life nor with many of the unsavoury tasks we had to carry out. She opened up over the week about issues in her life and since returning we have become good friends. although she continues to hide my pillow when ever she visits and fling confectionery around my house.

Summery of the trip to South Aus

Soldiers Point

The next stop around the port was Soldiers point. Probably my favourite stop on this trip. The point is set up mainly for fishermen to drop thier boats into the port some of which are huge. We spent a while here talking photos and looking around the picnic area. Soph quickly found that the lack of shoes and a large population of pointy plants in the grass were not a good combination. The pelicans here were not at all bothered by us as they clearly were used to human activity and allwed us to get only a few meters away for some of our photos.

Corlette

Looking back through these past few posts I have realised that not a great deal happened on the trip to port Stephens, granted it was a holiday and not a mission run so to speak but except for some photos of beautiful places there is very little to tell. I can assure you the trip I am about to embark on to the center of the country will have far more story to it and maybe just as beautiful imagery. Stick with it there are a few more locations from the central coast run to come however I will not be posting for the next ten days as there is no internet access where I’m going, no TV reception and no mobile phone coverage. So a few more posts on the Central coast will come when I return followed by a heap of Australia outback stuff. This picture is taken from Corlette beach Port Stephens on the Third day of our trip. The rain finally left us with a beautiful day and some great photos of locations around the port.

A pirate to remember

Whilst in Shoal bay this shop sign caught my eye. Unfortunately the Shop had gone out of business prior to my arrival yet obviously the sign remained. The sign caught my eye due to my love of Movies and in particular my love of the Pirates of the Caribbean series.

Shoal Bay

It was during our stop at Shoal Bay that we managed to catch up with a small amount of history on location we were visiting and treaking around. Port Stephens is larger than Sydney harbour and has a narrow entrance between two striking hills of volcanic origin. The harbour is mostly shallow and sandy but contains sufficient deep water to accommodate large vessels, the Queen Mary docked there during World war 2.

Port Stephens were named by Captain Cook, when he passed on 11 May 1770, honouring Sir Phillip Stephens who was Secretary of the Admiralty and a personal friend of Cook. It seems Cook's initial choice had actually been Point Kepple and Kepple Bay, but instead he used Kepple later.

The area surrounding Port Stephens has mostly rather poor soil, and had limited agricultural potential. For this reason, no large towns developed there historically and it was never developed as a significant port.

This is why it remains unspoilt to this day by industry.

The major city and port of Newcastle developed at the mouth of the Hunter River , about 50 kilometers south of Port Stephens. A number of small towns developed around the port as fishing, holiday and retirement communities. Since the 1970s, with improved road access from Sydney, and the increasing popularity of coastal retirement lifestyles, there has been major expansion of these towns.

Tomaree Head

Whilst the rain remained we visited a few more locations along the eastern end of the bay. At the furthest eastern point on the Sothern side of the bay is Tomaree Head. There is a timber walkway to guide you from a muddy pothole riddled car park through the native bush land and down onto the white sandy beach. At each end of this relatively short beach stand some impressively sized mountains as if guarding the beach, they block vision to anything beyond the beach you are standing on.You can however see the small Islands off the eastern coast that are used by local sightseeing businesses along with fishermen, whale watchers and diving expeditions. Our visit to the beach saw only two other people, this I would put down to the poor weather rather than the beach itself.

Fingal Bay

As previously stated the rain made the first few days of this trip a little average. We did still pop out and check a few of the nearby sights out. At the point of Port Stephens is a beach and a lookout known as Fingal Bay. Fingal bay, whilst quite small has a few beautiful sights. at the point of the headland stands a Whale watching perch with a few rocky islands in front of it. We did not stand in the pelting rain for too long as the numbing sensation that was coming over our skin due to the rain coming in at sixty degree angles prevailed over the desire to wait in the vain hope that maybe we would see some form of aquatic life. Even through mud, rain and what felt like hail i still found the location somewhat amazing. It may be worth my while to return when the weather and marine life behave a little more favorably.

Four day Get Away

Another trip just competed with no official cause or need, I received a four night stay in a resort located in Nelsons bay on the banks of Port Stephens as a Birthday gift and ducked up mid week to take full advantage of it. Throughout the duration of this trip we traveled to several locations around port Stephens however for the first half of the trip the weather was mildly miserable yet we still made the effort to get out see the places and get some great photos.
I will add a heap of images and some details about where we went and what we saw over the next few days.

Wicked

Today I depart for Nelsons bay and had thought I would be Blogging about the up coming trip but I find myself distracted. Several weeks back I committed to buying a ticked to the Broadway musical known as Wicked.

The last time I sat in a live Musical performance that was not held by my high school was over twenty years ago. I distinctly remember as a small child not knowing what was happening, simply displaying behavior similiar to a small kitten, clapping and cheering and loud noises, gleeful songs and bright lights. As a result I had this misconception in my mind that I struggle to keep up with the story line of musicals. In hindsight this is mildly ridicules as keeping up with a Gilbert and Sullivan performance is hard at the best of times but when your five years old its dam near impossible.

I was pleasantly surprised as I sipped on a twelve dollar cocktail and ate my six dollar packet of M&M's that I not only was able to keep up with the story line of the Musical but that I really did enjoy it.

I enjoyed this for two reasons. The first was the number of people attending. My sister had organised this event through the church and had over forty people attend. A combined event with people from all aspects of the church community came together, People from Cube, Neon, Musical School and the church congregation. This was fantastic to see.

Secondly was the musical itself,without spoiling the plot or the sheer awesomeness of the show I will try and do it some small form of justice here on my blog.

Any form of entertainment is successful when you as the viewer are sucked in, your subconscious believes for a small period of time that you as the viewer are there experiencing what the characters are experiencing. I'm no professional in the arts but I feel this is done by by playing on your emotions and senses.
I believe that a musical is even harder then a film to get the audiance to that point of believing they are there experiencing it but this musical does it. You walk out of the theater and you find yourself shocked that people aren't breaking out in song or leaping around the room like idiots.

An amazing set that would have taken hundreds of man hours, costumes, hair and makeup that would cost a fortune, visual effects, life size dragons and surround sound all made this performance amazing, coupled with an amazing story line, brilliance comes in many forms but to think up a story line that surrounds a childhood classic as solid in history as the Wizard of Oz yet does not damage the classic story in any way is pure genius and I would highly recomend it to any one, even if your not a musical person, its well worth it.

A past trip recalled

Several Months back I travelled south with many members of my Church Community, I touched on this trip briefly with a few posts a while back but did not give the trip too much air time on the Blog. The trip was only a few short days but was fantastic for getting some of the tuff questions out and the nitty gritty for some of the cube members when it came to getting past the sugar coated side to Christian Faith and really got down to what its all about. In two short days I’m off on another trip and am hoping for more of the same in depth questions. Here is a shot you tube clip of the trip to Shoal Haven put together by my father.

Manly Food and Wine Festival

A hazy Friday night with Vish resulted in the consumption of a large amount of beer and a two am Taxi ride to MacDonald s. The night was planned as a catch up with a mate I met on road trip and turned into a bit of a bender. The night ended up watching a variety of stand up comedians and lying around at home feeling overly bloated and significantly pissed.
The following day was planed to duck into Manly for an all day breakfast at about one in the afternoon. Upon arrival we realised not only that manly Councils parking rates were obscene but that we had chosen the most populated place on the North Shore that day.

Our event clashed with the Manly Food and Wine Festival. The overcast weather did not keep the punters at home, three weeks of monsoonal weather, followed by the first hint of a partially dry day seemed to attract everyone to Manly. Rather then lodge a formal complaint that this event had distorted our planned hangover remedy of scrambled eggs in the early afternoon, we just got into the atmosphere and drunk up. All sorts of Wine samples from across the state were on sample for a small fee along with some fantastic cuisine from local business. Adopting the theory that the longest lines were for the better products we managed to get ourselves a feed of Thai and some somewhat impressive deserts and the long waits were well worth it.
The Festival attracts people from all across the state and the local area of Manly was absolutely packed with people, a brilliant event for the local businesses and as fate would have it we both stumbled across it by accident. I did have a 21st to attend latter that day, It was a very long weekend.

The Most Spectacular Woman in the World

I was reluctant to throw the title in here, as i felt the opinion may be somewhat bias it was at this point i came to blatant obvious that blogs are bias and in fact only really operate on bias opinions of the author. So as the author of this blog I can safely say that she is the most amazing woman in my life (with the exception of my Mum, I think that’s assumed)
Sophie is currently the woman I love and recent relationship matters have shown me just how much crap she quietly puts up with. In a manner similar to a love sick school boy I want to tell the whole world (well ten blog followers, one of which is Sophie) how wonderful I think she is. People of many faiths claim to be able to converse with the spiritual realms and interact with angels, I have no desire to do so I already have Soph.
She is a woman who stood by me when I announced I was planning to quit my job, volunteer and travel. Many of my travels have included her as she packs and heads off with me, I don’t think this is such a huge sacrifice for her as she seems to enjoy the places we have seen and worked in together. She has unconditional support for all the church programs I adopt or create and is always the first person to participate in any of them.
Without divulging to deeply into the personal sides of the relationship , I have fortuitously fallen in love with someone who has the patience to cope with me and has the ability to keep up with the demands a relationship with me has and seems to have the time of her life doing so. Who could ask for more?
It has now become apparent when writing this that I do not actually tell her any of this, that’s something I shall remedy.

Our Eyes Keep Telling Lies

One of my favorite music groups who seemed to be a little unknown. The group is the Ells, you will recognise some of the music from the Shrek soundtrack but here is one of the pieces i like performed live.

A Visit to Black Sunday

A cold and damp Tuesday night in Sydney is as good a reason as any to pop down to one of Sydneys spectacular sights, Bondi Beach. Our planned route proved useless as Sydney council works seemed to have blocked off multiple lanes on the Harbor Bridge to sit, drink warm coffee and smoke rather then actually repair anything so we diverted through the city center. Arriving in Bondi with hoodies pulled tight to reduce the windchill factor, we wandered up across the walking bridge and took a glance up the main drag. Approaching ten in the evening on a weeknight, the area was still very alive with people sneaking a late night feed, sheltering from the rain on the way from the bus stop or just enjoying the coffee and ice cream available from the beach front shops. We ducked into a pizzeria for my lady friend to use the facilities and whilst I waited I ordered what would turn out to be an average cup of coffee (at that time of night you don't complain).

The pelting horizontal rain had temporary subsided so we scurried across the footpath attempting to dodge puddles and small streams that had formed across the pavement. We paused on the kerbside to wait for the passing traffic when I was taken back by the effect the lights from the shops behind us were causing in the water pooled across the road. As uncomfortable and annoying as winter and torrential rain for weeks at a time can be there is some amazing sights caused by it at the same time if you take a moment to take them in.
For the next half hour or so the rain held off, so some quick photos of the landscape and the downpour recommenced so we scurried back to the car to head into the CBD for some more photo opportunities.

Upon returning home I did a little bit of research on the area. My research consists of Wikipedia however I did find out that on Bondi Beach on Sunday February 6th 1938, 5 people drowned and over 250 people were rescued after a series of large waves struck the beach and pulled people back into the sea, a day that became known as Black Sunday. Just a little bit of History there for you.

The Ball Keeps Rolling

I'm not one who understands or has the patience for politics. People who argue and state things that they may not actually agree with yet feel the need to state in order to keep favour with the general public are not worth the air they breath in my view. I am well aware of the need for politicians in our society but throughout my time I have had dealings with several over multiple issues in the past and have not once had one come forward with the goods promised. I was pleasantly surprised when the link to this video arrived in my in box. It was titled

"Last night, at 9:15pm, the Act to End Poverty was moved through the House of Representatives!"

Of the hundreds of politicians the road trip came in contact with three seem to have the courage and voiced up for our cause. The video is the three politicians moving the motion (i believe that's the correct terminology) through the house of representatives. After these three finished speaking the motion was passed. The motion has now passed in both houses of parliament. Whilst this does not equal the completion of the campaign it was such a massive steeping stone. Its difficult to lay out in words my feelings right now but as Vishal Sood said to me last night.

"I was an active member in a campaign that was passed through both houses of parliament"

That's got to be worth some form of bragging rights.

The Act to End Poverty is moved through the House of Representatives from Peter Willis on Vimeo.

God Made No Mistakes.

"At the heart of racism is the religious assertion that God made a creative mistake when he brought some people into being."

This statement was made by Friedrich Otto Hertz and I stumbled across it when I was looking for a tittle for this post. The quote struck me for a few reasons. Firstly it is no secret that I am a believer in God but even more so I am a believer that God has absolute and complete control over every tiny and enormous aspect of our lives. The quote backed me up in my already solid belief . All people are equal made and loved by God equally so who are we as mere men to decide that one race or nationality is inferior in any way shape or form. God made as all the way we are and mankind has the nerve to discriminate over such issues. That's why I liked the quote.
So I went looking for the quote because with most of my posts I have pre planned them and this time I planned to introduce to you two awesome people I met on road trip. These two guys were amazing people doing awesome stuff with their lives and I will value them as friends for years to come but the reason they are worthy of blogging is they helped me through an issue I have had in the back of my head for many years.
In my early high school years I had a small issue with racism and fortunately it never became a huge aspect of my life however I never found myself in a friendship with any one from a different race and always questioned myself as to weather I truly did rid myself of my racist streak.
Dilshan and Vishal are two guys from very visually different nationalities and I became good mates with both of them over Road trip. Looking back when I met both of these guys the colour of their skin and where they came from never raised an issue. I became friends with both these guys the same way I had befriended all my mates in the past. I guess a small amount of pride has come into play here, I am proud of who I have become come. I am proud that I gave these guys equal opportunity.
As for the complete uselessness of racism I am blessed to have met these two, they are truly brilliant guys and if racism stepped in it would have been me who lost out.
(top left: dilshan bottom right: Vishal with Robbie)

Second city of sights

The stop at Canberra resulted in most of the unpleasant experiences of road trip occurring in one place. At the top of this list was camping in temperatures that reached as low as -3.7 degrees followed by sharing showers with one thousand other people which resulted in semi regular hygiene practices. Canberra also tops the list for new and strange experiences. So many people sharing one camping ground resulted in the private act of going to the toilet was no longer so private. Blokes will blokes and so we just got too it. This meant that for the first time in my life whilst taking a crap i had an in depth conversation with the bloke in the cubical next to me. This is how I met Dilshan. (I will introduce Dilshan in a latter post)
Common belief is that Canberra is a hole and many people say that it is probably out of simple rivalry for another capital city rather then any actual educated opinion. Whilst its minimum temperature has something to be desired I did actually quite like Canberra and some of the sights we saw. So my opinion is canberra is not so bad. I did not get much time here only two days to be exact but what i saw and some of the places I saw were amazing. However on this trip i spent more time in Universities then all my years combined and I feel that of the ones I saw ANU (Canberra university) can not compete with Sydney universities when it comes to architecture and beauty. Sydney wins every time. Once again these photos are not mine but are borrowed with permission from Sonia Preisser.

Hip to be a Square

Road trip was full of events that pushed me out of my comfort zone. I have already discussed this a little in an early post where I talked about Terrigal beach and Camron but there were many more events that pushed me out of my comfort zones, chanting in Manly, running down a tunnel in central station making that huge scene I discussed earlier and leaping around Gosford dressed in pink are all things that I struggled to just "go with the flow" of but none of them matched up to the Martin place stunt. Planned to be a massive media stunt with both the New South Wales team and the Western Australia team resulted in over three hundred people trying to perform a choreographed dance we all learnt the night before. It looked like a disaster waiting to happen.
Three hundred young people filtered down into martin place in an attempt to look natural and not draw attention to ourselves. (I don't know how well that worked)
With every one in place two large speakers started to boom out a song through Sydney CBD and four of the team started the dance. The dance was a square dance with the same ten moves repeated over and over each time rotating to a different direction. As the starting four turned to face a new direction people joined the dance, and it continued with each time the dance changing direction more and more people joined until all three hundred of us were doing the dance. When it all finished all dancers fell to the ground to represent the dieing people across the globe, while an announcement was made about the Make Poverty History campaign. It all went like clockwork and I believe was highly effective.
Latter in the day we performed the dance again down in Circular Quay. The photo here shows the end of the dance.
I somehow got past my fear of worrying about how stupid I looked and I'm glad I did. I would hate to look back on the event ten years from now and say I did not have the courage to be part of something that changed the world. This photo is stolen with permission from Sonia Presser.

Maiden Warrior

Day one of road trip training revealed to me that I was one of the older people involved. This is due to the Oak Tree Foundation having the policy that you must be under 26 years old to be involved. (This rule allows young people to get involved in world changing activities and lead them). For the first time in my life I answered to someone younger then me. It was not such an odd feeling and when I think about it everyone I answered to on road trip were younger then me.
One such person who made this experience feel so natural was my group leader Eleanor who was latter dubbed as "Boss". Other group leaders could hardly measure up when it came to how they handled their groups. They were either too controlling or too focused on themselves. Ele kept us inline without making the whole thing like school camp.

Several people lost their cool on road trip and the pressure from the administration roles they had taken on had clearly taken a toll on some of them. This is understandable but a few of the crew organising the trip, never raised the tone, never spoke out of anger and kept the frustrations to themselves. Elie was one such person she made it fun and the few times a hint of stress popped through it was tame and did not retract from the experience or the atmosphere.

The key aspect to Eleanor that stuck with me was that whilst we had only a limited time together she took the time to get to know each of her team members personally. In a week full of timetables and deadlines there was limited time to do this with any one so most road trippers only got to know one or two people really well. Eleanor had additional rolls to play in the campaign as well as a group leader and still managed to have all of her team call her friend.

Admittedly I had a soft spot for Eleanor for reasons i don't really know. She represents everything I stand for, a firm follower of Christ who acts on her words and gets out into the world to make a difference. She is achieving wonders with her life, both personally with travels across the globe and with her faith. I had the amazing experience of sitting in on a conversation where she shared her faith with other road trippers and I hope I was there to back her up with it. This conversation took its natural course and nothing was forced onto people, she shared my views on when its appropriate to discuss such issues and when its not. Whilst on the war path for Poverty she happily took up her sword and battled for Christ at the same time.

I pray that in years to come that our church will be filled with young people as active in their faith and as passionate about injustice as she is. What an awesome force they could be, our churches and the world need more maiden warriors like Elie. My road trip experience was something that will stick with me forever because of the people I now call my friends, none more so then Eleanor.

City of Sights

When you live in an area for an extended period of time you slowly grow numb to the awesomeness of the local sights. I feel i am no exception to this, growing up on Sydney's Northern Beaches the sights from North head, Manly or Palm beach are now the norm. Even the local shopping center Warringah Mall is fairly impressive for an open aired shopping mall. Seeing these things semi-regularly, you lose appreciation for the splendor of them which I am sure happens to everyone within their own communities and we are pleasantly reminded of how amazing some of our local sights are when a visitor pops in and reminds us of it. This also seems to apply with the spectacular sights of my home city which are known globally. Sights such as darling harbor, the opera house and the Harbor Bridge have also slipped into my field of everyday sights that I'm tired of. Departing from my home for a small period of time and returning again I thought I would possibly appreciate these sights more, however I did not. That is until I came across some photos from a fellow road tripper who was more then willing to share these photos with me. These are the photos I am sharing in this post and the photos were all taken by Sonia Preisser who does use her photos in competitions so I am thrilled to have been given permission to publish them in my blog. The photos caught me with the beauty of the locations shot just as much as some of the engineering involved in building some of these structures. As I'm sure you will agree I do have some awesome sights in my home city its a shame i have grown a little numb to them.

3 of 3 Highlights

The third highlight was a attention grabbing stunt the New South Wales team tried when walking through the tunnel under central train station in Sydney city. A large Congo line with a bongo drum i the middle was all that was planned. To describe the out of control chant and uproar that actually went down as epic would be a gross understatement. The stunt echoed across the streets of Sydney and drew all sorts of attention including police. How effective was it? who knows but it made everyone stop for 150 adolescents charging through a public walkway chanting and clapping. I pray someone filmed this as I would love to share it with the world. I am very proud of this photo as it not only captured the magnitude of what was happening (look how far back it goes) but it caught everything in one shot, the girl with the bongo drum in the right hand lower corner and the chant going up through the tunnel, in addition to this I was running backwards and holding the camera above my head. Not a bad effort if I do say so myself.

2 of 3 highlights

After bombarding uuniversities we were released for lunch just outside the gates of Sydney Uni. A quick glance at a few of my fellow team members and we knew we were all thinking of the same thing. We quickly scurried off towards the uni quietly praying that one of the other two with me knew where they were going. I already knew that one of my companions was from Newcastle so the chances of her having any idea where we were heading were slim. Once out of earshot we established that the third member of rebellious trio was a student at Sydney Uni and led us straight to the watering hole. Uni bar was a very impressive sight for what I imagined would be a grubby pub. Sneaking in lunch time beers was not the highlight, the highlight was returning to the group early whilst the rest of road trippers were still making sandwiches for lunch and having three of Sydneys homeless approach the trio.
The first two were men who politely asked if we could give them something to eat from the table set up to feed 150 people, it was a fair enough request. A few fellow road trippers happily set about making them several sandwiches and they were very grateful and were on their way. The third, a lady who wanted to sign the petition and eagerly reached out to sign. I noticed things my companions did not on the lady's arms and quickly realised that the person in front of us was a Ice addict with severely disfigured skin from picking and scratching at it. She stop mid way through writing, when the petition asked for her postcode (it did not require her full address) and announced "I don't have a postcode". I don't recall how I felt at that moment but I do recall her face and i think it will stick with me for ever.

1 of 3 Highlights

Road Trip day three was a much needed boost in many of the road trippers confidence including my own. After day two at Manly the team set out to hit the universities in the Sydney area to raise awareness of our campaign. We were received far more positively here compared to other areas in both Terrigal and Manly. The general consensus from most road trippers was we were received far more graciously by university students for two reasons. One: we were similar in age to most of them so they seemed more willing to listen to what we were saying. Its always easier to discuss this with your own generation. Two: University students are generally open minded and at a point in their life where they are willing to listen to rational argument or are already thinking of such things. This was was the first of three Highlights and this is visually displayed by five road trippers including myself up a tree.

Thank You Mr Philip

Captain Arthur Philip named Manly Cove after witnessing the masculine behaviour of the local aboriginals in 1770.
Day two of Make Poverty History Road Trip was filled with an assortment of things all taken in very quickly and rushed through. Thankfully the second stop of the road trip was close enough to home for me to refer to it as my home town. Manly Corso was the destination for us and i felt a small amount of pride when i stepped off the bus and took in an area i had spent many hours of my youth in. This feeling of pride quickly diminished when reports came back from fellow road trippers of verbal abuse and in one case physical abuse towards ambassadors on the road trip who were on a mission to raise awareness about poverty.
I was troubled by these reports as i had only had positive experiences of the place both on the day and in the years past. A high income end of town seemed to lack the compassion for fellow human beings in dire need of help. Fortunately latter in the day some more positive feed back came back to me, yet in hindsight Manly was at the top of everyone's list for the most negative stop on the road trip.

Latter in the afternoon I wondered off to the beach and sat on the cold concrete steps and thought through the days scrambled events. Why was I so proud of this place? Why did it let me down so much to the point that many fellow road trippers now despised the place. The people of Manly had let me down and I felt a little hint of shame creep into my mind. I concluded that I am not responsible for peoples attitude and behavior, I am responsible for myself and my behavior, I represented those people on road trip and weather they liked it or not I feel I did them proud. People can change and my home tribe so to speak needs a lot of work but those with the most need to change are those who need the most attention. People who are self absorbed and selfish are those who most needed to hear our message. So I concluded that whilst Many may have become the most negative stop on the road trip it was possibly the most important.
I still love Manly if for no other reason then it is Beautiful. Give the people time I will change their minds.

Diamond in the Rough

One trip, one week and one thousand people and at the top of my list one small stature little girl who fought harder then any other on the Make Poverty History campaign. Whilst she may be short and was often treated like the child on road trip she is in fact twenty years old and currently studding at the University of Sydney. I surprised myself when i wrote out the lists of positive and negative things that happened on road trip when Robbie Diamond was the first thing i wrote down on my positive list. I made some friends for life on that trip and whilst i felt Robbie was probably one of them i did not think she would have topped my list but she did. Robbie kept our team sane and sticks in my memory for two reasons.
The first is that she called it how it was. If a team member was out of line they were politely told and the matter dropped but just as frequently she would praise others for things that most would not bother to mention. She treated all her team members with love and gave them all an equal chance, i never once heard a negative word from her mouth and she raised the spirit of the group, she was fun and bubbly and made the entire experience that much better for everyone who came in contact with her. A valued team member that took the time to get to know each of us. I had the opportunity to spend some time getting to know Robbie and watching her fire up for the cause.
This is the second reason she sticks in my memory, She was easily the driving force behind our group when it came to approaching strangers and talking about what we were doing. She had so much courage and showed the rest of the state how it was done. She even raised the questions surrounding my faith and my Tattoo which opened up a lengthy talk.
Road Trip was that much better because of the contribution Robbie Diamond made.

Out of the Zone

Road trip was only eight days of a seemingly unscheduled existence yet will be eight days that will stick with me for the rest of my life. Upon returning home I sat down and wrote out everything I could remember from the week. I created columns and listed my positive experiences of the week followed by my negative experiences. The positive outweighed the negative ones tenfold. So much has occurred that I had no idea how to document it and do the events and the people the justice they deserve.
Stepping onto Terrigal Beach from a twelve seater minivan dressed in florescent pink super hero costumes was a little unnerving yet in hindsight was possibly one of the easier things asked of me over the road trip. All road trippers were dressed up in many different colours and let loose on Terrigal to unleash the awareness campaign. Bight colours zipped up and down the beaches, across the parks, through the coffee shops and down side streets asking strangers for their support whilst dressed up brightly and with their underpants on the outside of their costume. The young people were passionate and full of energy and I was suddenly faced with it.
A huge hick up from my child hood is the worry of what people would think of me. Why am I so caught up in judgement from other people? I’m not sure but the comfort of not pushing that issue too much was thrown to the wind when I signed up for road trip. I knew it was coming but here I was faced with it and I don’t think I was prepared.
The exact same issue of having others judge me forced me to refrain from informing my team members I was worried about it. The brave face on out I went. That day was a stepping-stone for me when it came to breaking through problem firstly as I had little choice other then to get into it. But more so because I saw people who I knew battled with the same issue man up and take it on and come out successful. One of my team mates, Carmon was a little shy and kept to himself for the first few days of the trip he latter demonstrated to the entire New South Wales team that he was a nervous person and that he had massive courage. Cam was an inspiration to suck it up and face your fears.

Operation Red Fox

Stupidly I choose to wear my fathers old military issue pants over the top of my thermals this morning. Multiple nights camping in temperatures around the minus three mark meant that for three days I was wearing thermals under my normal clothing. This was highly effective at keeping my body temperature up with the exception of toes and fingers. Returning home I failed to add up that the close to freezing temperatures in Canberra in the early morning were somewhat opposite to the crisp autumn day Sydney was experiencing. I stepped of the bus into Sydney central station, said my goodbyes and carried out the line up of required tasks to get a heavy pack and myself on a train. It was here I realized that the heat of thermals and a lack of necessity for them was causing my body to shed liquid very rapidly and made the train ride somewhat uncomfortable for both myself and the Chinese lady sitting next to me. Someone did tell me this past week I was rubbish in the forward planning department.

Saturday afternoon I wrapped up a massive, massive week on the Make Poverty History Road Trip hosted by the Oak Tree Foundation which has taught me many things. I have yet to sit down on my own and really pull apart the week in my own mind. I still have to look at the events, what I learnt, who I met, what mistakes I made and what the campaign achieved but felt the need to get something up on the blog quickly and to give you a heads up there will be many posts to come in relation to The Road Trip.

Whilst I do still have to have a serious look at the past weeks happenings I am certain that one thing I truly value out of any style of event like this is the networking of people with common interests. This was no different, I seemed to bond very well with one particular individual who had an equally relevant common interest in bourbon. This event was intended to be alcohol free so the term red fox was developed between us when ever discussing the sneaky off to a pub for a quick drink. Before long others on the trip seemed to have the same idea and by the end there were an assortment of colored animals spending money in pubs in Canberra.

Peter Harris

Primary school was a painful experience for me, for reasons unknown to me i became the kid they all bullied, i can't work out why as my self assessment says i was pretty awesome but none the less i coped it in primary school. Fortunately my family moved from Canberra to Sydney and a new start was in order at my new high School Covenant Christian School.

I have very specific memory's of a few of the early days at Covie and one that stands out more than any other was the day these new kids in my life tested the waters when it came to seeing if i was potentially the picked on kid. This is just the rigmarole we all went through when starting at a new school and Covie was no different.

Day three at the new school stands out for me, an olive skinned kid by the name of Peter Harris repetitively lined me up with harmless fun at my expense. He sat behind me and flicked things at my ear for what felt like hours. Why not? it seems humorous. I had lived with much worse in years past and remember trying to ignore it but as a child i struggled with my temper and remember hitting the snapping point. I had an apple in my entourage of food for the day, a very large apple (i don't know why, as i was not overly fond of apples)

I may be playing this up a little in my mind and Pete may tell the story differently, if he even remembers the event, but I distinctly remember the stunned look on Peters face when he relised he had just been taken out by a flying apple. I had taken enough and clicked. Not exactly lining up to join the Schools baseball team but on that day i had good aim and threw my apple square at Petes head and it found its mark. From that day on i never had another bullying problem at School.

Later in high school Peter and i became good friends and got sucked into some of the undesirables of life. Skipping Business studies to smoke cones was a semi regular occurrence and if you assessed us and our attitudes at the time you would be forgiven for predicting we would both end up in prison.

We are rapidly approaching ten years since i left high school and almost as many since i have seen Pete but i ran into him with a few other guys from high school earlier this week and was severely encouraged by his story.

Pete has, sometime in the last seven years turned his life around and has a new found inner fire for God. What an awesome God. Two guys walking a thin line between citizen and delinquent in mid high school have hardly seen each other for seven years, yet both discovered the calling of Christ in their lives and are passionately fired up for him and his callings in our lives. Pete represents the men of Faith we need. Real, down to earth, level headed Christian men who will change the world for God. He inspires me to keep fighting for my Faith and battle through the crappy times.We need more Peters.