Christmas in Ausralia on a Scorching Summers Day

Last night we had our Aussie Christmas Carol Service at our church. This is a tradition in our church, on the Monday before Christmas each year we have a carol service that is devoted to Australian Christmas Carols that don't talk about snow. That would be entirely inappropriate as we have Christmas in Summer and even in winter most of Australia doesn't get snow.
We usually do have some traditional carols as well but non of the ones that talk about snow. One of my favourites that we sing is called See The Sun.
See the Sun Leigh Newton © 1988

1. See the sun ride high across the blue,
See the summer eucalyptus hue,
See the jacarandas all in bloom,
Signal Christ will soon be here.

2. See the star that points the way to life,
See the kings who travel through the night,
See young Mary riding in her plight
With the child still in the womb.

3. Praise the child we now await to come,
Praise the boy born as the Father's son,
For this baby is the only one
Who can lead us back to God.

Bridge
But the summer knows that life is cruel;
His pain will not be easy.
When the bushfires roar across this land
His life will then be given.

4. But for now our child will soon be born,
Born our brother in the early morn,
Born a servant who will calm the storm

I like this because it uses Australian imagery that I can relate to at Christmas time, and although I have not been personally affected by bushfires I know people who have and it is a reminder to us of the reason that Christ came which we should remeber even at Christmas.

Another of my favourite Aussie Carols is a more traditional one called A Christmas Lullaby or The Silver Stars
The Silver Stars Are In The Sky
Words John Wheeler Music William G James
The silver stars are in the sky,
The red-gold moon goes riding high,
O, sleep my little one sleep!
Once long ago, against her breast,
A mother rocked her child to rest,
Who was the Prince of Heav'n above,
The Lord of happiness and love.
O, sleep, my little one sleep!

The boobook calls across the night,
The brown moths flutter in the light,
O, sleep, my little one sleep!
In Bethlehem long, long ago,
When roads and paddocks gleam'd with snow;
On this same night, that mother mild,
Lull'd into dreams her royal child.
So, sleep, my little one, sleep!
Sleep ...

I like this one because it also brings in The Aussie imagery and it reminds us that Jesus came as a baby like we did and had a loving family like us.

The service was really good we had glow sticks and it was really fun.
God be with you and your family this Christmas and remember the real meaning of christmas.

Gravity

Let’s start at the beginning of this story
I was just a boy with nowhere to call home

There I was building houses on the sand
I could see that I was only running circles in my mind
It just goes on and on and on until it finally catches up to me
Like gravity it takes me round and turns me upside down

That’s when it all came screaming back

Just like gravity, what draws you to me
Someone I didn’t know I needed
It’s like gravity, and it’s stronger than me
I need you here

There you were in your perfection looking on
You see that I can only run in circles for so long
You just press on and on and on until you finally catch a grip on me
Like gravity you take me down and turn me upside down

That’s when it all came screaming back

Just like gravity, what draws you to me
Someone I didn’t know I needed
It’s like gravity, and it’s stronger than me
I need you here

When will you be able to see past your own hands?
I’m taking down, empty pictures that we used to hold close, before you…

That’s when it all came screaming back

Just like gravity, what draws you to me
Someone I didn’t know I needed
It’s like gravity, and it’s stronger than me
I need you here

Here is a song from anothe of my favourite bands The Fold. I think that this song is about how we go about living our lives the way we do and then we realise that God is there and he pulls us towards him because 'like gravity, [he's] stronger than [us]' and we need him to help us through the things in our lives. We don't always know that we need him but he throws us little things to show us that we do so that we don't become self reliant. But he is always there to help us. Remember this because God loves you.

Seven Ways The Hearts Will Break

Last nigh I also watched The Amazing Race. The race that they're showing at the moment in Australia is the one with the families of four. This morning when I was thinking about it it reminded me of a book that I read when I was younger.
The book was calledRowan of Rin. It is a fantasy book about a village another world, in this village strength and physical ability were the most prided things for people in the village. There was one boy, Rowan, who was weak and didn't have the physical ability of the other people in the village and so his job was to look after the herd of bukshah. One day the water supply for the village stopped flowing down from the mountain into the pond. It was decided that the 6 strongest people should go on a journey up the mountain. They were given a magical map to help them find ther way by the village wise woman and it could only be seen if Rowan was holding it and it oculd not be copied. So Rowan went up the mountain with the others. At certain points in the journey a poem would appear on the blank spots in the map. The first poem in the journey was about them setting on their way and the lines that I can remember from the poem are:
"Seven hearts the journey make
Seven ways the hearts will break"

Now you may ask "How does that remind you of The Amazing Race?
Well here's how it does.
In The Amazing Race there is a family that is a widow and her three kids, now the father was killed in a race track accident cleaning debris off the track and hit by a car, one of the tasks that they had to do on the race was to do a lap around a race track (on party bikes) now they children were saying"[Mummy]we can't do it", but they did it they found an inner strength to do it.
The other thing that happened on The Amazing Race that reminded me of Rowan of Rin was that the fast forward was to do tandem bungee jumping and one of the people in the family was scared of heights and he was saying "I can't do it, I just can't do it" In the end he was able to do the jump.
In Rowan of Rin as the poem prophesied each of the people came up against something that they couldn't face and they gave up except for Rowan he found an inner strength to keep going when he felt like giving up he had the strength to keep going - he had a real strength.

Baby Talk.

Last night on Channel 9 there was a program called Look Who's Talking. It was about the Baby Listener who discovered that babies from the time they're born have different cries with differnt sounds to communicate their needs. She said there are 5 main sounds to listen for with different meanings:
NEH = I'm Hungry
OWH = I'm Tired
EH = Burp Me
ERH = I Have Lower Abdominal Pain
HEH = I Am Uncomfortable - cold, hot, nappy change.
It was interesting and lot's of poeple said that it worked. I dont know my self if it works but it might be useful for me in my shild care work.