A new way to feed

"After today, we won't need to worry about how to get fluids in you" we said to my little man as we tried nearly in vain to inject one 5ml syringe of water into his mouth at a time. "you need to drink lots for your surgery. We're going to put a special tube in your tummy so we can put the water straight down there and then you won't have to do this." Truely it has been so very difficult to get my son to drink anything at all. He drinks around 500ml a day of a special kids formula, and that's it. No water, no solids. That's his entire nutrient and hydration input. For all guesses he should be malnourished by now, but somehow, by the grace of God, he's still fighting on and still looking relatively healthy - if not a little thin.

PEG stands for percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy, a procedure in which a flexible feeding tube is placed through the abdominal wall and into the stomach. PEG allows nutrition, fluids and/or medications to be put directly into the stomach, bypassing the mouth and esophagus.

We've been waiting for this surgery for over a year now, having been pushed back multiple times by waves of COVID infections shutting down elective surgeries in hospitals. Partly that's because we've gone with the public health system because of our belief in such things, but honestly I don't think we could have gained much in this instance by going private. As I write this, I'm sitting in the waiting room in The Children's Hospital at Westmead, passing the time while his mother accompanies him for the last bit of prep before the surgery. It's a quick procedure and older kids and adults go home the same day, but he'll be here under observation for a few days while he heals up.

We're very excited about this change because it means that we can always give him the nutrition that he needs, even when he's unable to cope with eating it orally, but also it means independence from the very specific brand of formula that's the only thing that he will drink and, coincidentally the only thing that will meed his needs. With the tube we have the option to blend real food super smooth and feed that to him instead. Some dieticians in this country are concerned that you can't guarantee your own cooking will give him all the nutrients that he needs, but that isn't really any different from feeding our other two kids. On a rare occasion they've been known to survive solely on chocolate cereal and chicken nuggets, but on the whole we manage to feed them a nutritious diet - so why not apply the same effort to blended food.

As I round out this blog post, his procedure has been completed successfully and now we're just waiting on him waking up and beginning his recovery.

Spiritual Maturity

I just read the passage in Hebrows 5:11 - 6:3. It talks about beleivers being spiritually dull and being immature in that they need to keep going over the same basic Chrisitan principals over and over again. I don't want to be that kind of Christian that is always needing to be spoon fed basic teaching on salvation and repentance from pastors and church leaders, I want to do as Paul suggests and go on to spiritual maturity, consuming the solid food of Christian teaching, feeding myself instead of expecting it from pastors and teachers. I want to read the word more than I do at the moment and I want to be basing my life on what I read in the bible. God help me to live that kind of life of spiritual maturity.

New years LAN

I'm really keen to have a LAN party this December and January. I'm a gamer and I love computer games, there's no two ways about it. I don't like all the same games as other people, but that's fine. I'd be keen for Kelly to join us and also for Leigh's boyfriend Paul to come along as well. It's a good environment for friendships to form, and we know that from there, God makes his way ino conversations and people are saved. Relationships are key to salvation.

What does it mean to be a Christian?

What does it mean to be a Christian? Is it about doing good, living by the rules of a religion? Is it about filling in time here on earth while waiting for our ascent into heaven? There must be something more. Surely we have a purpose in this life beyond making money, sleeping, working and dying.

Something we really need to understand about the world is that, yes God loves us – but it's not about God loving us at all. It's about God. Everything is about God. He is the Alpha and the Omega, The beginning and the end and without him nothing that exists has come into being. The story the universe and therefore the meaning of life, the universe and everything is all about God, and we are his treasured creations.

We have been given life by God's breath and whilst we have made a mess of our world, He has given us quite an amazing planet to live on. God is worthy of worship, it's quite simple. He created the stars – do you have any idea how massive the universe is, how complex every star and planet, how intricate the human body? God is amazing! And every person on this earth should give him the glory for the great things he has done.

God's desire

God is really keen to make contact with the rest of the world, but he's not about to force himself on people like a dictator. Check out Ezekiel 36:22-23: “...It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am going to do these things, but for the sake of my holy name... I will show the holiness of my great name ... Then the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Sovereign LORD, when I show myself holy through you before their eyes.” (my emphasis added). And Habakkuk 2:14

“For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.”.

Abraham

His plan to reach the nations through people started with Abraham: Take a look at Genesis 12: 2-3:

I will make you into a great nation
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.

This promise of God to bless Abraham and his descendants is given with the intention that Abraham and his descendants would bless all the peoples of the earth. We see also in Ezekiel 36 that God wants to use Israel to make his name known all over the earth, even though they had not done so well so far.

Blessings today

This blessing extends to us today. In Galatians 3:8-9 the author states “The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: "All nations will be blessed through you." So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.” and in Acts 3:25-26: “You are really the ones God told his prophets to speak to. And you were given the promise that God made to your ancestors. He said to Abraham, "All nations on earth will be blessed because of someone from your family." God sent his chosen Son to you first, because God wanted to bless you and make each one of you turn away from your sins.”

That's fantastic! The blessing is given to us non-Jewish follows of Christ as well, but why? So that we may be a blessing to others. We cannot simply accept that God has blessed us without accepting the second part of the statement in Genesis 12:2 that commands us to be a blessing to others.

Our mission

So how are we to be a blessing to others and make God's name great thought the earth. Jesus makes it clear in Matthew 28: 19: “Go and make followers of all people in the world. Baptize them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.”. Our mission is clear, we need to get about the business of sharing the great news of Jesus Christ with people from all over the world. Not all of us need to go overseas and preach, but all of us need to play a part in this task. For this is both the desire of God and the revealed destiny of the church.

And they sang a new song:
"You are worthy to take the scroll
and to open its seals,
because you were slain,
and with your blood you purchased men for God
from every tribe and language and people and nation. (Rev 5:9)

Timeless hymns

I heard an ad on the radio today that said "When it comes to worship, do you think of Charles Wesley before Chris Tomlin, is worship music more pipe organ than iPod to you?" Which started me thinking about timeless hymns of old like "How great thou art" and "Great is thy faithfulness". I know that that ad was directed at older people who would prefer the older songs to the newer stuff, but how do I feel about hymns and modern worship music?

First let me say that my parents took me to church since I was born and in that church we would sing an even combination of old hymns from the baptist hymnal and a selection of songs from the late 20th century, particulary the eighties from a number of sources such as Hillsong Australia (in the form of Geoff Bullock) and Vinyard. As a teenager I became very dissatisfied with this music in the light of my secular music tastes, experiences with a local youth group and churches I visited from time to time, and Christian music CDs I purchased from a local Christian bookstore. When I eventually left that church and joined the aforementioned youth group for other deeper and more positive reasons, I was also glad that I had left those songs behind me.

Nowadays, however I feel somewhat disappointed with the songs that I loved a few years ago and uninterested in the popular Christian worship songs being produced today. I feel a special connection with the timeless hymns of old who's lyrical and musical genius are insignificant compared the the anointing that God has placed upon them. In a few years the world will forget "How great is our God" and "Here I am to worship" but I doubt we'll ever forget "Amazing Grace" or "How great thou art". Something about these songs helps them to endure the tides of popular music as if unlike all other music they simply do not depend in any way on the musical taste of the culture or the listener.

So am I saying that modern worship songs are a waste of breath? Or that if you like them better than my favourite hymns you're a bad Christian? of course not. God's word is living and active, and part of that truth involves the writing of new songs. God is always speaking to His people and songs are a great way to cut past the intellectual barriers we put up. If Churches today sung only the old hymns then think of the many thousands of men and women who would not respond to the Gospel message and the many more who, though saved would struggle to connect with God. I am glad to live in an age where Christian music is being produced that helps ordinary people like me connect with God on an intimate level. On top of this, new songs often reveal something to me I hadn't considered or help me believe in my heart something I already agree with in my mind.

Just don't ever throw out my favorite hymns.

Mysterious Orbs

In the midst of a church service at a holiday camp this year someone exclaimed that the photos on their camera had little floating glowing orbs everywhere and that these orbs are actually angels. I was taken aback at how strongly they presented their case. I believe that angels do join us sometimes when we worship God, so I'm not trying to say that there aren't any angels present. I am saying that these glowing orbs are simply lens flares and all the photos that have been presented to me thusfar have been taken with the camera's flash on.

To create the photo below I simply placed a reflective piece of material just out of shot on the bottom left, the result - these lens flares.

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Ideas

I’m trying to get the old idea factory running – a.k.a. my brain. It seems to be a slow process and so far I’ve not come up with anything particularly funny.
Amos and I tried to do a follow up to this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjWf2chqMXY
That video was scripted (though we didn’t take the time to learn the lines, which was probably more funny than the actual jokes), but Amos and I just improved bad jokes about the wii. We said that a yellow wii would be the way to go because a red wii just isnt right and using someone else’s wii just doesn’t feel right.
Mainly the ideas are still in the tech department – such as: Syntara could have an awesome search page that searches all your database tables for something you want.

See more progress on: Make a movie