Church Camp

We had a great church camp over the weekend. I have felt like my church is my family (not to the exclusion of my blood relatives) until now, but I feel like that even more so now. It feels very much like my extended family on my dad's side, and reminds me that both those writing Scripture & those to whom the letters in the NT were sent were in cultures with extended families. We in our Western society with it's mum, dad & 2 children (& increasingly single parent families) don't get the full meaning of what the NT writers meant when they talked about church as a family. On my dad's side I don't have dinner every night with thousands of my relatives (one of my relatives had 3000 people at her wedding & there were 800 people at one first cousin's wedding I attended), but they're still there, wishing you well and helping you out when the opportunity arises. As one friend of mine SMSed to me once, "Friends are like stars - they're not always seen but they're always there." They're always shining on us even when we can't see them, & so it is with family & church.

Unfortunately I got a bit of a cold on Friday so I wasn't at my best for the camp, although if someone is not at their best when they're tired it's not often (& previously rarely) that I am at my best. I believe I set a new record for Gracepoint snoring on Friday night, although apparently it was quite musical & I hit harmonic fiths. At least 2 people were cracking themselves up laughing at the sounds I was making. I'd rather make people laugh than grumble at their loss of sleep. Saturday we had all the supposedly big snorers together but it was a very quiet night.

Saturday afternoon I was in a bad mood & feeling pretty angry at God & a friend listened patiently & let me do a bit of venting. It was one of the things where I realised I really am part of a big extended family at Gracepoint. Although I know this person quite well it made me realise I have this huge body of people I can turn to and lean on a bit when I need help, not just a handful of close friends. Sunday afternoon a couple who lead a housechurch who I don't know very well spent ages listening to the story of my CFS & family history & then praying for me. During the course of the weekend I ended up feeling much closer to a lot of people I hadn't really had much to do with & whom I might not get all that much opportunity to have a lot to do with, but whom are nevertheless part of my big extended family, such as the youth.

Blessings,
Joe :-)

Trip to Melbourne & catching up with old friends

A friend of mine was going to drive to Melbourne last week & wanted someone to keep them company on the drive. I started thinking about catching up with Jon & Liz & their family and Helen & Tom & their family, the former of whom I hadn't been in contact with for years & the latter I hadn't seen for years, but they found a cheap flight on the 'net & flew down. I started thinking about cheap train fares & catching up with people and I will be training it down there for the first week of May to stay with them for a while.

In the meantime I've been catching up with a lot of old friends on the phone & I've almost exhausted my list of people I haven't been in touch with for ages. I have to say the last few weeks have been pretty good, and things just keep getting better.

On another note I've decided to keep trying for a job at the Randwick Ritz because I know they are good bosses & after being out of work for so long I really need to work somewhere with a good boss for a while to get my confidence back before I could even think about working somewhere else, but I don't really want to work anywhere else as a job there would suite my lifestyle so well for the next several years.
Blessings,
Joe :-)

Brackets & Jam

At 2pm Wednesday Simon, Bowson, Mark Eliott & myself had a meeting with Beth & Anne Marie from the Redfern Community Centre, Hugo St. Chippendale. We (B&J) will be providing the entertainment for a monthly markets to be run at the Centre to showcase local talent (that is, the market will have an emphasis on local talent & culture rather than the same earrings found in every other market). There will be an emphasis on showcasing local talent with the entertainment but this will not be exclusive of outside performers (& initailly might rely on non-local performers until enough locals have heard how to be involved). We will also be running a weekly workshop called 'Jam Sills/Skills Jam.' This will be to help people develop the skills to express themselves creatively & play with others (the Jam Skills) and will eventually involve help with recording (including learning how to run a sound desk) & development of music industry skills and knowledge. No doubt some of the old B&J faithful will want to get involved and this might be expanded to acting & theatrical skills. It will also be a place for locals to pass on their knowledge without having to go through all the formalities involved in setting up a workshop (the Skills Jam).

Both B&J and the people of the Redfern Community Centre are aware of the concern that we could come in as an organisation & book time in the Centre while a lot of locals have not been organised enough to do this, but hopefully we can be the interface between those artists who aren't all that organised & the requirements of the Community Centre as Brackets & Jam has been so good at in the past. People at the Centre are making an effort to get the details of all the locals who have come along with ideas for things they could be doing & a couple of people have been charged with the job of getting in touch with each one and working out how what they want to do can be fitted into what the Centre is doing (and for that matter what one another are doing & where they can be helping each other), & B&J is looking forward to providing one outlet for some of this.

Everyone is pretty excited about the whole thing. Workshops are something that has been part of our vision from early days but is something we've never managed to make happen before. This venture with the Redfern Community Centre will allow us to do part of our vision we have never before been able to iplement. Also pretty well everyone involved in B&J has a burning desire to pass on what we've learned and a keen interest in learning from locals. Actually living 2 blocks away from the centre I fit both of those categories & this will be the easiest venue for me to get to we've ever been at.

"Something good is going to happen, something good is in store..."

Also we start at Club 77 on the 10th of May at 8pm.
Blessings,
Joe :-)

Worship Conference & Brackets & Jam

Well we got through the worship conference on the 27th-28th of March & I received heaps of feedback about how good it was, including comments such as "Peter Stacey would be great to have as a speaker at one of our worship camps" (a worship camp is where everyone on the worship team gets together and has a weekend retreat somewhere about once every two years). People want more of him. Well there's plenty more topics on his web site to choose from.

Personally he did more of what I wanted than I thought of hoping for.

On another note, on Sunday night (all of 4 hours ago) Simon, Bowson, Mark Eliott, myself and a few people not on the Brackets & Jam committee checked out Club 77 in Kings Cross (77 William St) as a potential venue for Brackets & Jam. All of us were delighted & excited by the possibilities. We also really want to get something happening at the new Redfern Community Centre in Hugo St Chippendale. Between the 2 events we would be accomplishing everything we really want to do as Brackets & Jam.

I also got something on the web for our site this morning and added the sound waves page to my site. The meagerly offerings you have seen so far are only the beginning. Next thing you know I'll have OpenStage Productions site up and running, be working at the Randwick Ritz and finnishing off my upgrade to a degree. I'm back baby.

Blessings,
Joe :-)