Loose ends

I thought I'd tie up a few loose ends from previous posts as well as mentioning the stuff I am or will be doing.

If you read the stuff about a home group (bible study etc.) for prisoners on day release in About Me, it fell through months ago because not enough of them wanted to continue coming (I think the main guy converted to Islam).

I have not moved to Crescent Head & have decided definately not to do so (although I'll still be visiting it a lot).

I didn't get the job playing bass on the Koori children's album because I couldn't get the phone number off the person who told me about it.

Michael moved back around the corner to the Crossroads church behind my house (we almost share a corner of the back fence). We ate so much in the week we were walking that I'm now the 2nd heaviest I've ever been in my life & we were to tired to keep up that amount of walking, so that didn't work out too well.

It turns out the February and March are the slowest months of the year at the Randwick Ritz, where I put my first job application in in 17 years, so I have almost no chance of getting hired; and anyway I've been getting so tired lately I probably couldn't work at the moment.

OTOH (On The Other Hand, other common abbreviations used on the internet are BTW - By The Way, LOL - Laughing Out Loud, ROTFL - Rolling On The Floor Laughing, IMHO - In My Humble Opinion [is anyone on the internet humble?], IANALB - I Am Not A Lawyer But [never actually seen this one], ROTFLMAO, Rolling On The Floor Laughing My A-- Off):

I've made it out to Villawood Detention Centre in an attempt to visit some of the refugees there, but failed to link up with the person who was going to show me & a friend in, but I know how to get there now & what the procedure is & that I can get there by train. I'm sure I'll keep up the visits.

I've written a letter to the premier & Clover Moore (my local State MP) about the comments made by the leader of the State opposition after the riot in Redfern. I also emailed it to them, Tanya Plibersek (my local Federal MP, whom I got a reply from within a couple of minutes talking about talks she will be having with the community soon - I hope to be there), John Brogden (the State opposition leader), The Australian, The Sydney Morning Herald, the Daily Telegraph and the Koori Mail, which I'm debating whether to post hee or not. BTW I and all I know are alive and well and I doubt there was much exciting footage apart from what was shown on TV. I had a friend who was searching around for 10 minutes for someone she was supposed to meet at the train station at the time it was supposedly set on fire & the only thing she noticed was the large number of police cars. Both my mum & another friend were at the station (the friend twice) & they didn't see anything except Everleigh St being blocked off by police cars.

Also I've penned another letter to a refugee I've been writing to out at Port Augusta. I believe these things are important because we live in a world of evil (eg. Australia's treatment or refugees & it's indigenous population) & things like those go a small way to changing things for the better, which isn't much but it's the best I can do and considering the limitations CFS imposes on me its bloody amazing I can do that much.

Also I'm organising a worship conference at my church (8-10 Soudan St Randwick NSW Australia) for the 27th & 28th of March. Peter Stacey is doing it, Breath of Life. The topics are:

Sat. 27th March
2-3:30pm session 1 (song writing)
3:30-4pm afternoon tea
4-5:30pm session 2 (nuts & bolts)
5:30-7:30pm dinner
7:30-9pm session 3 (more nuts & bolts & the start of a heavily abbreviated practical workshop)
9pm supper

Sun.28th March
10am service Peter plays sax with the worship band & does a couple of items
12:30-2pm lunch
2-3:30pm session 4 (practical workshop & Peter's experiences along the way)
6pm service Peter plays sax with the band & preaches.

Also there will be some teaching on Improvisation if Peter has time. Cost is $20 or $10 for participants in the worship ministry of Gracepoint Christian Church & includes lunch on Sunday but not dinner on Sat. for which I'll be doing a group booking at the Chao Praya restaurant around the corner. Email me on joe@alphalink.com.au if you're interested.

Following this my next project will be to get a group of musos from my church to do an outreach in West Kempsey for the (mainly Koori) local youth, working in with a church I go to there when I'm visiting Crescent Head.

Love & blessings,
Joe :-)