Distracting Children in Worship!?

Kids need people who love them -
This is one of our surrogate Aunties.

Children! Oh we love them, but they can be SO distracting! And so messy! Especially when we are trying to have a quiet moment soaking up God's word, or during the prayers in church. Or worse still children fighting with each other in church! And the messes they leave behind! Little sultanas in places that are just so hard to vacuum. Why can't those mothers just control them? 

Kids love to get involved.

Well you know, I know that it's just not possible. I'm not saying that we should have children running around the church and playing races in the aisle, but I am saying that sometimes this needs to be overlooked for their benefit. Even my darlings fight in church...apparently even on Good Friday! So what are we to do with them? Should I take my children out of church at the slightest infraction so that no one else is further distracted by them? What is this teaching them? Unless they are perfectly behaved the church wants nothing to do with them! Whoops...not quite biblical!!

Jesus too had a problem with distracting, noisy children. And like us, the disciples had enough. They told those children where to go. Jesus was angry with his disciples for doing this. Angry. The bible uses the word "indignant" which means to show or feel anger at unfair treatment. Jesus told his disciples: "Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for such is the kingdom of heaven."

In Matthew 18: 3-6 Jesus says:

Being a part of God's family should be a joy.

“Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

“Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea."

Jesus takes the business of the distraction of children pretty seriously. Children have always been messy, unmannered and noisy...but Jesus still commands us to welcome them...just as they are. You know why? Because children know they are dependent on us adults...but we adults forget what it's like to totally dependent, and we need the constant reminder of children that we are to be like this with our heavenly father...totally dependant on him, on Jesus grace, on his forgiveness.

Good Friday Kids Talk

Good Friday wasn't all about Jesus. When he walked the Via Delarosa he wasn't the main attraction. He was just another criminal, just another crucifixion. This was a common place thing. Jesus was getting in the way of the religious people having their special religious festival of the Passover...so people were still trying to get about doing their Passover shopping, tipping the local beggar, making sure they had their last preparations done, and worrying about the Roman soldiers on every other corner.

It's still like this if you walk the Via Delarosa today, except the Roman soldiers have been replaced with Israeli ones with AK47s. Jesus death was messy, noisy and just another distraction. 

Don’t try to over spiritualise...be realistic. Jesus died...so what? For what? For those children making a noise a the back of church. For that baby who won't stop whinging. Jesus died for them! Praise God for his death and resurrection that sets us free from our religious accusations.

Okay, so they are not "all mine"...three families, 6 each.
2 pastors and 1 future pastor. Pray for us.

Please pray for all our children in church.  It's not easy parenting in a world that sees children as little people who should be seen and not heard. We in the church need to be different. Please pray for the parents. Engaging the children in happy conversation before and after worship time builds relationship and trust and then the ability to offer help. We need all the help we can get in bringing our children to faith in Jesus. 

Our Trip To Canberra

Recently our family visited Canberra for a two day holiday. One of my favourite parts about the trip was watching the people we pay to shout at each other, (by that I mean Question Time at Parliament House). It was really amazing to see how our country works and is run. We saw the two houses: the House of Representatives and the Senate. We also saw Australia's Replica of the "Magna Carta" or "Great Charter". While there we drove around looking at the High Commissions and Embassies. The U.S.A.'s Embassy was HUGE taking up a whole block, and it had extra security.

We also visited the Royal Australian Mint where coins are made. At the Mint there was a stair case with 5 cent coins in it. For a coin to be made they have to first come up with a design, then the design is put on to a computer where they add words and numbers before programming a machine to engrave the design onto a stamp. Then they put the stamp into a machine which stamps the blanks (coins with nothing on them) with the design, and then you have a coin!

We had a great time in Canberra and I can't wait to go there again.

By Tiger

A Princess' Morning Tea

A new party skirt that Mama made.

Our Princess turns 11 today. We delighted her with a lovely high tea inspired morning tea with her cousins and dearest friends (actually they are all her dearest friends).

She is growing up to be quite a special young lady. She is kind and generous. She has a beautiful serving heart, and helps with her younger siblings in a lovely way (I can hear her teaching Joybug piano right now). Sure we have our moments, however she recovers quickly. She is growing in her relationship with Jesus and loving telling others what she learns. I particularly love the way she takes her responsibilities with homeschool and the chooks seriously.

We love our little Princess...who is really not so little any more!

Eric Liddell Book Report

Eric Liddell was born to missionary parents in China in 1902. When Eric and his family went to their home in Scotland on furlough (a break for a missionary) he and his brother Robert  were enrolled in Eltham Collage where most of the missionary's sons went to get an education. Eric and Robert excelled in athletics. When WW1 started most of the older boys went to fight and Robert went to university.

Eric ended up training in the finals for the Scottish athletes in the Paris Olympics. He was amazingly good at the 100 meters. But when Eric got the race timetables he found that the 100 meters race was on a Sunday. So he refused to run the 100 meters race. But he amazingly won the 400 meter race setting a new world record at 47.6 seconds. He had (before the race) decided to go back to china to serve as a missionary, but the boat to China left 15 minutes after the race so he had a taxi packed with his stuff waiting close to the finish line so that he could keep running to the taxi and go to the docks. But as he passed the finish line the band started playing "God Save The King" in honor  of him, so he stopped out of respect and waited for the band to finish but just as he got to the taxi door the band started playing the French national anthem in honor of the man who came second, so he stopped again. Eventually he got to the docks but the boat was already about 20 meters of shore so he tried signaling the captain but the people on board didn't recognize him. Then a wave pushed the ship closer to the docks so Eric hurled his luggage on board and made a running leap to the boat, he made it and a news reporter saw him and the next day he was in the headlines as "The Flying Scotsman".

Eric went to the same missionary station that his parents had worked at. His father and mother now lived in a mansion in the British section of Tientsin. Another interesting story from his life was when he had to get coal to a hospital but he kept on being robbed of the money for the coal, so he hid the money in a loaf of bread. He also had to transport injured people to the hospital because of the war between the Japanese, the Communists, and the Nationalists.

Eric was married to Florence (Flo) McKenzie on the 27th of March, 1934. Eric sent Florence and their kids to Canada because of the war. Eric was taken to Weihsien Internment Camp with some other people. He died there on the 21st of February, 1945, just days before the American GI's liberated the camp. In 1981 a biographical film called "Chariots Of Fire" was made about him.

I got these stories and information from reading the Christian Heroes Then and Now series book titled: "Eric Liddell, Something Greater Than Gold". It's a very interesting and well written book by Janet and Geoff Benge. I liked his remembrance of the Sabbath and his courage in the face of war.

Written by Tiger 

Cat-heads!

Here is a cat-head I found

Cat-heads grow flat to the ground and they have seed balls that have sharp pointy bits sticking out that hurt you a lot when you step on them.

It's important to get them out of the ground because then you can walk outside with no shoes.

The seeds spread easily when they are dead. We try to get them before they seed. We pull them out with their roots on so then they don't grow again.

Cat-heads have yellow flowers that turn into the seeds. The seeds produce more of the cat-heads.

Cat-head seeds and leaves

    I can recognise cat-heads by their leaves. They have leaves like the pepper tree leaves. They are oval shaped and small.

Dictated by Tank

Big Boys Camp - The Man 2015

In August 2015, Daddy and The Man went to the Bogong Mountains. We stayed at Bogong Village in a small hotel for two nights. In the morning, we went up to Falls Creek. First we went tobogganing, which was very fun. After a while we went for a walk and looked around and decided to ski. It was hard at first, but soon l became good at skiing. I managed not to fall on one of the trails. We skied until the lifts stopped. Then we went down to our hotel. In the morning we got ready to go. When we were ready we went the rest of the way down and went home.

While we were away we read a special book together about being a man. In the story the boy went with one of his friends to a museum.

Written By The Man

Our New Studio: Man

Yesterday a truck came with the parts for the studio. Mum said that they were like a big jigsaw puzzle since they were made to the right size before they came.

Today carpenters came to do the frame of the studio that we are making. We took pictures of them putting up the frame. Soon after they had done the frame the windows came. They used tools like angle grinders, cement drills, nail guns, power saws, drills, hammers, and chalk lines.

They used the chalk line by lining it up, once it was in line one of the men flicked the line and that put the chalk in a straight line. They didn't have to use a ruler. The chalk line is an ancient tool that was used in ancient Egyptian times.

Written by The Man

Christmas 2015

The Pastor's Family - taken at Sovereign Hill

What a whirlwind of a year 2015 has been!

Homeschooling, Renovations, Christian and Tiger going to Germany, Pastors Conference, tornado, repairs and insurance dealings, General Synod, a visit to Sovereign Hill, and then toping it off with extended Fandrich family for the week before Christmas.

And yet in all of the busyness there is so much to be grateful to God our Father for!

Grateful for a steady, but slow recovery of Christian's mother's health in Germany.

Grateful for a tornado that has allowed us to fix things that we didn't think we would be able to do (Look for further updates on this in the future, we should be finished by Easter).

Grateful for wonderful friends to spend time with when we went to Sovereign Hill and Adelaide this year.

Grateful to my parents for the wonderful rest they gave me during General Synod.

Grateful for our 6 beautiful children, all growing in God's grace, wisdom and stature. And grateful for the wonderful friends we have made homeschooling this year.

Grateful to be living in the country, raising our own veggies, orchard, sheep, ducks, geese and now 18 chooks! Yes, some of these will be dinner in the future. We really are living like "Little House On the Prairie", except as the kids say, we have internet, electricity and running water.

Grateful to Christian's brother and his family and Christian's Dad for the delightful memories we made over the time they were here.

And we are also grateful for a wonderful church family here in the Burrumbuttock Parish who support us in our work sharing the Gospel with the people here. They continue to be a great source of encouragement to us both, and are so generous with us.

Lamentations 3:22-23 (ESV)

 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
    his mercies never come to an end;
 they are new every morning;
    great is your faithfulness.

Christian and Sarah Joy

First Communion

Princess and The Man had communion for the first time this last week. It has been something they have both been looking forward to for some time, but most particularly over the last two months.

Making their confession of faith

Being welcomed into our congregation

Hot and happy after church.

We were privileged to be able to time it at the same time that Christian's father and brother and family were with us. Christian's brother was the one who remembered to take pictures for us on this big milestone. When they arrived at our house a day earlier someone asked The Man about what he was up to and his excited reply was: "I'm having communion for the first time tomorrow!!"

The Man is currently expressing a great desire to fly planes in remote places and tell others about Jesus. He loves the work that Missionary Aviation Fellowship are doing and would like to join them. This all came about from watching The Wild Brothers and an SBS show about the world's most dangerous places to fly.

The morning of their first communion I gave Princess a cross to wear and The Man a silver love heart with a cross in the middle and the Lord's Prayer in German on  it.

Princess was amazed that her visiting cousin didn't know that it was a cross she was wearing (she kept calling it the letter T). Because of this, she determined to buy a bible for her cousin to read that she may know about Jesus love and forgiveness for her. We are always astonished at how easily Princess talks about her faith with her friends.

Remembrance Day

Remembrance day is held on the 11 of November. On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month 1918 a peace treaty called The Armarctice was signed and the fighting between the Allies and the Central Powers stopped.

A moment of silence is held each year to remember those who fought and those who lost their lives in World War 1. 10 million people were killed and 20 millionaire wounded. The war had been on for 4 years. It has been 100 years since that dreaded war but we still remember it.

We should remember Remembrance Day because it is apart of our heritage, and it is part of our nations story. Many people died in that war and just forgetting them would be terribly sad, it took human lives to win that war and neglecting the fact that people died for you to live (like Jesus) would be horrible.

If we keep on remembering this day we will know what happened and what it cost for you to live free.

Lest we Forget.

Written by Tiger