2003 in a nutshell
G'day everyone. A year ago I was travelling around the world & emailing regular updates of what I was doing to anyone I thought might find them interesting, and apparently a lot of people did. A year later and a lot has happened and some people might find what's been happening interesting, so I've decided to do the evil bulk email thing.
Please let me know if you don't want to receive these rare but fairly large updates on what is happening in my life. Also let me know if you don't want to receive the also rare forward of something I think is really important. So far I have sent one article about a correlation between breast cancer & anti-perspirant to all the women or married men I know, one report on one of our refugee detention centres to pretty well everyone & one message about a free concert at the Conservatorium of Music on Friday night to anyone I thought might be interested who lives in Sydney in a year that I can think of, apart from letting people know about my change of email from Hotmail to Yahoo.
For those relatives not familiar with the name "Joe" I'm Mithiran's son, Paramasivan’s 2nd cousin (I think - his cousin's son).
Some of you might be wondering why I'm sending it to you when I haven't been in touch for so long or when I haven't had much contact with you. I would like to keep in touch & this is a step in that direction.
If it seems a little disjointed I've included stuff from emails I wrote as far back as September, so not every thought is one going through my head at this time (but they do show how I got here). Current thoughts are in triangular brackets.
I have finished the jazz outreach course for advanced guitar (I was surprised I got in at advanced level) at the Con., the Elijah House Basic Course in Counselling & I've done a one day seminar in children's ministry. I've been playing bass in Church & started helping out in Sunday school. I have done worship for Sunday school & will be writing songs for the children to worship to with stuff from their experiences. In the near future I hope to do stuff with music & children.
The basis of Elijah House counselling is bitter root judgements we make against our parents (mostly, but other important childhood figures as well). For example if an important adult took toys off me to give to a friend and I judged him for this instead of forgiving them, as an adult I will tend to lend my possessions to people unlikely to return them (psychological expectation) & often have my possessions stolen (I'm judged as I judge) until I repent of the judgement & forgive them (& receive forgiveness for judging). I probably won't be very good at returning other peoples things until this as well (because of judging them for doing so). The concept of judgement in Christianity has a lot of similarities with the concept of karma in Buddhism & Hinduism as far as I understand it.
I went on a trip to Dubbo & Western Plains Zoo with a group from my church at Randwick. I'll be hanging out in Crescent Head during Christmas, heading back to Sydney in early January as Greg Beech is retiring as senior pastor of what is now "Gracepoint Christian Church" (we changed our name because of the "out of date & out of touch" stigma associated with Baptists & because grace is our major focus). Also Vivienne is leaving for Qld. & another 2 friend's are having birthdays.
There was a big get together for the church I have been going to in West Kempsey, a Koori (Australian Aborigine) church, on the 7th September & on the 27th was a friend's wedding. The big church get together felt strangely uncomfortable & I realised why. When I was a kid if things became emotional dad would go berserk, & although I have received substantial healing for this, the fact that I went through a very stressful time just before I went up there had stirred things up, so that in the emotional air of the meetings my subconscious was just waiting for dad to go berserk.
They had 3 guys playing guitar for the services, all playing without music, yet when someone came up to sing & they launched into a better key when the first one didn't work, it just took a quick glance at each others hands & they were right. There were no overhead transparencies there, just learning everything by heart.
In the short term I learnt to surf back in April but only got in a few goes because it was too cold & I eagerly got back into it. I can only really surf in waist deep water at the moment & no sooner had I gone back in when I caught flu & was out of the water for a while. Because of the problems with my immune system CFS causes (or is because of), I got a lot of flu's. I have moved my library to Crescent Head this time & hope to finally read my way through it, then start building it up again. I'll have to move it back here to Sydney now.
I kept seeing that all the threads of my life are pointing towards being involved in a bible college in Malaysia or Thailand (or somewhere else nearby) to train people from all over S.E. Asia, Asia as a whole, & even up into Siberia. We will be providing for accommodation, food & travel expenses etc. for many of the people who come. This is far off, though, as I haven't even done anything towards my upgrade from the Diploma of Ministry to the degree yet. My life's ambition is to do good works for the Kingdom of Heaven which will still be bearing fruit 400 years from now (really I will be delightedly satisfied with any building of the kingdom), & I see spreading the doctrine of grace throughout Asia as having this potential.
Apart from the far future visions of a bible college in S.E. Asia I have had a vision of planting a church in a hippie community for a number of years now & this is in the process of beginning (slowly). There are a couple of friends of mine through Beranghi (the commune mum & I have shares in) who are Christians & interested in getting together for a prayer meeting. I go to church with 2 of them & see a lot of those people (Mirra-Winnie & Cherrie). Some of the Koori's at the church have had dreams of hippies coming & playing guitar in their home & they also have visions of their ministry going into S.E. Asia, so I really thought I was in the right place at the right time!
Mum's place is the central gathering place for many people and there are always people & children getting together. Elsewhere mums are worried about how much time their children are spending playing Gameboy or whatever even when their friends are around, but somehow that doesn't seem to happen much at mum's place. Once there is more than one kid there is always huge amounts of activity & noise. It seems like no amount of happy noise bothers mum. I suppose after going to work where 30 kids were all playing various instruments for over 25 years, everything else seems relatively quiet.
Another run in between one of my friends & one of the local yobs (with the number plate to prove it, 'YOB...') occurred & I sometimes wonder how sensible moving away from the best church I've ever heard of let alone been to, to a place full of red neck racists (highest Pauline Hanson vote, lowest vote to give Aborigines voting rights in the referendum way back when), where once a year an obnoxious illness goes through the community & everyone gets it, & where more children than I can cope with congregate to play rowdy games. I need a rest (which I can get just by visiting), but one of the main reasons is that I'm very aware that for my own sanity, well being & self esteem I need to move out of home & be independent, which I can't afford to do in Sydney. Although rents are sometimes really cheap around Crescent Head, trying to actually find a place is really hard. Most places are just rented out at holiday rates during holiday season & there are a few people on the waiting list for
One reason I have felt a little overwhelmed is we had various people staying at Crescent Head in the lounge. When I am there I virtually never get a chance to talk to mum in private. Sometimes it gets a bit much for me.
After I lost my diary with all my addresses in it, then lost my computers address book, then mum lost her address book, I started to wonder if we were experiencing some spiritual warfare in the area of keeping in contact with people. It's been particularly noticeable with a couple of people.
I HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO BE BASS PLAYER ON A KOORI CHILDREN'S ALBUM! Am I excited? Put it this way: YES! Let me just say that again. YES!
Not only that but I met Colin who runs the Crossroads Anglican Church household behind our place & had a really good conversation for hours & made instant friends. He is teaching Koori men how to be fathers, husbands, responsible & accept the word 'no.' I have the feeling it was one of those divine encounters where I met someone who will be important in my life. That was Tuesday.
Wednesday I met a lady Barbara who runs a Montessori day care & is trying to start a primary school in the area. We talked for the whole morning about education, the Montessori method, Guruganya (my primary school - a free school [educational model, not free tuition] mum helped start), education & other stuff. She also has something to do with letting local kids have access to computers on Sat. mornings, so now I've volunteered to help out from time to time with that & the day care. I felt like this was even more wonderful encounter than that with Colin. Now I will be able to put on my resume that I've been a computer network administrator, instructor & technical consultant and make $100 an hour. Every car window in the area around it has been broken, so hopefully I will encourage them to play games, write games, put out shareware & get hired for more money than you can poke a stick at instead of ending up going home only during the week between weekend detentions.
If the year keeps going like this I'll have written that conflict resolution adventure game which will get used on the manned mission to Mars, AND those 2 novels in my head & a family historical novel by the end of the year; & I'll be put on the roster for the first colony there as pastor since I'll have the pastoral skills, engineering background & computer expertise to make me the right person for the job (just being outrageously unrealistic & mentioning a couple of things I'd like to do before I finish walking this earth).
During the last week of the counselling course I realised that my motives for moving up to Crescent Head were entirely because I might have been able to move out of mum's house and be independent (as per my doubts above from way back in Sept.), and that this was the wrong reason to move and that I didn't want to go and that every other excuse I had used applies more to my staying here in Sydney and continuing at Gracepoint than to my moving north.
I think every major issue I have had (including Chronic Fatigue Syndrome - CFS) has been dealt a death blow recently & over the next few months I'll be walking in health & freedom unknown to me for many years, largely in part due to the Elijah House course (at least getting to issues that have kept me from getting better sooner in the case of CFS).
Love & blessings, Joe Krishna Mithiran
Please let me know if you don't want to receive these rare but fairly large updates on what is happening in my life. Also let me know if you don't want to receive the also rare forward of something I think is really important. So far I have sent one article about a correlation between breast cancer & anti-perspirant to all the women or married men I know, one report on one of our refugee detention centres to pretty well everyone & one message about a free concert at the Conservatorium of Music on Friday night to anyone I thought might be interested who lives in Sydney in a year that I can think of, apart from letting people know about my change of email from Hotmail to Yahoo.
For those relatives not familiar with the name "Joe" I'm Mithiran's son, Paramasivan’s 2nd cousin (I think - his cousin's son).
Some of you might be wondering why I'm sending it to you when I haven't been in touch for so long or when I haven't had much contact with you. I would like to keep in touch & this is a step in that direction.
If it seems a little disjointed I've included stuff from emails I wrote as far back as September, so not every thought is one going through my head at this time (but they do show how I got here). Current thoughts are in triangular brackets
I have finished the jazz outreach course for advanced guitar (I was surprised I got in at advanced level) at the Con., the Elijah House Basic Course in Counselling & I've done a one day seminar in children's ministry. I've been playing bass in Church & started helping out in Sunday school. I have done worship for Sunday school & will be writing songs for the children to worship to with stuff from their experiences. In the near future I hope to do stuff with music & children.
The basis of Elijah House counselling is bitter root judgements we make against our parents (mostly, but other important childhood figures as well). For example if an important adult took toys off me to give to a friend and I judged him for this instead of forgiving them, as an adult I will tend to lend my possessions to people unlikely to return them (psychological expectation) & often have my possessions stolen (I'm judged as I judge) until I repent of the judgement & forgive them (& receive forgiveness for judging). I probably won't be very good at returning other peoples things until this as well (because of judging them for doing so). The concept of judgement in Christianity has a lot of similarities with the concept of karma in Buddhism & Hinduism as far as I understand it.
I went on a trip to Dubbo & Western Plains Zoo with a group from my church at Randwick. I'll be hanging out in Crescent Head during Christmas, heading back to Sydney in early January as Greg Beech is retiring as senior pastor of what is now "Gracepoint Christian Church" (we changed our name because of the "out of date & out of touch" stigma associated with Baptists & because grace is our major focus). Also Vivienne is leaving for Qld. & another 2 friend's are having birthdays.
There was a big get together for the church I have been going to in West Kempsey, a Koori (Australian Aborigine) church, on the 7th September & on the 27th was a friend's wedding. The big church get together felt strangely uncomfortable & I realised why. When I was a kid if things became emotional dad would go berserk, & although I have received substantial healing for this, the fact that I went through a very stressful time just before I went up there had stirred things up, so that in the emotional air of the meetings my subconscious was just waiting for dad to go berserk.
They had 3 guys playing guitar for the services, all playing without music, yet when someone came up to sing & they launched into a better key when the first one didn't work, it just took a quick glance at each others hands & they were right. There were no overhead transparencies there, just learning everything by heart.
In the short term I learnt to surf back in April but only got in a few goes because it was too cold & I eagerly got back into it. I can only really surf in waist deep water at the moment & no sooner had I gone back in when I caught flu & was out of the water for a while. Because of the problems with my immune system CFS causes (or is because of), I got a lot of flu's. I have moved my library to Crescent Head this time & hope to finally read my way through it, then start building it up again. I'll have to move it back here to Sydney now.
I kept seeing that all the threads of my life are pointing towards being involved in a bible college in Malaysia or Thailand (or somewhere else nearby) to train people from all over S.E. Asia, Asia as a whole, & even up into Siberia. We will be providing for accommodation, food & travel expenses etc. for many of the people who come. This is far off, though, as I haven't even done anything towards my upgrade from the Diploma of Ministry to the degree yet. My life's ambition is to do good works for the Kingdom of Heaven which will still be bearing fruit 400 years from now (really I will be delightedly satisfied with any building of the kingdom), & I see spreading the doctrine of grace throughout Asia as having this potential.
Apart from the far future visions of a bible college in S.E. Asia I have had a vision of planting a church in a hippie community for a number of years now & this is in the process of beginning (slowly). There are a couple of friends of mine through Beranghi (the commune mum & I have shares in) who are Christians & interested in getting together for a prayer meeting. I go to church with 2 of them & see a lot of those people (Mirra-Winnie & Cherrie). Some of the Koori's at the church have had dreams of hippies coming & playing guitar in their home & they also have visions of their ministry going into S.E. Asia, so I really thought I was in the right place at the right time!
Mum's place is the central gathering place for many people and there are always people & children getting together. Elsewhere mums are worried about how much time their children are spending playing Gameboy or whatever even when their friends are around, but somehow that doesn't seem to happen much at mum's place. Once there is more than one kid there is always huge amounts of activity & noise. It seems like no amount of happy noise bothers mum. I suppose after going to work where 30 kids were all playing various instruments for over 25 years, everything else seems relatively quiet.
Another run in between one of my friends & one of the local yobs (with the number plate to prove it, 'YOB...') occurred & I sometimes wonder how sensible moving away from the best church I've ever heard of let alone been to, to a place full of red neck racists (highest Pauline Hanson vote, lowest vote to give Aborigines voting rights in the referendum way back when), where once a year an obnoxious illness goes through the community & everyone gets it, & where more children than I can cope with congregate to play rowdy games. I need a rest (which I can get just by visiting), but one of the main reasons is that I'm very aware that for my own sanity, well being & self esteem I need to move out of home & be independent, which I can't afford to do in Sydney. Although rents are sometimes really cheap around Crescent Head, trying to actually find a place is really hard. Most places are just rented out at holiday rates during holiday season & there are a few people on the waiting list for
One reason I have felt a little overwhelmed is we had various people staying at Crescent Head in the lounge. When I am there I virtually never get a chance to talk to mum in private. Sometimes it gets a bit much for me.
After I lost my diary with all my addresses in it, then lost my computers address book, then mum lost her address book, I started to wonder if we were experiencing some spiritual warfare in the area of keeping in contact with people. It's been particularly noticeable with a couple of people.
I HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO BE BASS PLAYER ON A KOORI CHILDREN'S ALBUM! Am I excited? Put it this way: YES! Let me just say that again. YES!
Not only that but I met Colin who runs the Crossroads Anglican Church household behind our place & had a really good conversation for hours & made instant friends. He is teaching Koori men how to be fathers, husbands, responsible & accept the word 'no.' I have the feeling it was one of those divine encounters where I met someone who will be important in my life. That was Tuesday.
Wednesday I met a lady Barbara who runs a Montessori day care & is trying to start a primary school in the area. We talked for the whole morning about education, the Montessori method, Guruganya (my primary school - a free school [educational model, not free tuition] mum helped start), education & other stuff. She also has something to do with letting local kids have access to computers on Sat. mornings, so now I've volunteered to help out from time to time with that & the day care. I felt like this was even more wonderful encounter than that with Colin. Now I will be able to put on my resume that I've been a computer network administrator, instructor & technical consultant and make $100 an hour. Every car window in the area around it has been broken, so hopefully I will encourage them to play games, write games, put out shareware & get hired for more money than you can poke a stick at instead of ending up going home only during the week between weekend detentions.
If the year keeps going like this I'll have written that conflict resolution adventure game which will get used on the manned mission to Mars, AND those 2 novels in my head & a family historical novel by the end of the year; & I'll be put on the roster for the first colony there as pastor since I'll have the pastoral skills, engineering background & computer expertise to make me the right person for the job (just being outrageously unrealistic & mentioning a couple of things I'd like to do before I finish walking this earth).
During the last week of the counselling course I realised that my motives for moving up to Crescent Head were entirely because I might have been able to move out of mum's house and be independent (as per my doubts above from way back in Sept.), and that this was the wrong reason to move and that I didn't want to go and that every other excuse I had used applies more to my staying here in Sydney and continuing at Gracepoint than to my moving north.
I think every major issue I have had (including Chronic Fatigue Syndrome - CFS) has been dealt a death blow recently & over the next few months I'll be walking in health & freedom unknown to me for many years, largely in part due to the Elijah House course (at least getting to issues that have kept me from getting better sooner in the case of CFS).
Love & blessings, Joe Krishna Mithiran
posted by Joe at
Thursday, December 11, 2003
