Decision Time

Late last year, a pastor suggested I should stay in Australia a bit longer, do another year of school, and do and internship with him. I turned him down. A few months later, another pastor asked me what my plans were for after July and suggested I do an internship with him. I turned him down too. A few months later, yet another pastor made a similar suggestion and I decided it was time to seriously consider it. I spent the next month labouring over the decision and finally made the commitment he was looking for.

After much deliberation, seeking advice from other people and direction from God, recalling memories and thinking of future direction, I’ve committed to staying in Australia another year. Assuming I can get an appropriate visa, I plan to stay here till July 2009 and take on a larger role within the church. I was asked specifically to start doing pastoral care for people aged 25-35; coming alongside those who are struggling and helping them through tough seasons in life. This is precisely the sort of “work” I’ve been training for and this is a great opportunity to get involved, be challenged, and become a better man. I’ll be working with the same pastor with whom I’ve now made two trips to Africa. In short, working with him will surely push me to grow in certain areas of life where I see weaknesses; serving in this capacity will provide opportunities to use my strengths, gifts, and abilities; and being involved with the area I’ll be in will give me great exposure to more of the inner workings of a large and influential church. I debated long and hard on whether to take this opportunity or to move home at this time and ultimately, I believe that by stepping into this role, I will be much better prepared to step into whatever roles await me in my future.

There are still many questions regarding how this will all work out but that’s not really in my hands. I need to do my part to make it work and leave the rest up to God.

So now instead of moving home in July, I plan to take a trip home somewhere between now and Christmas to pay a visit. I don’t know yet when that will be, but it won’t be anything before July 19th because of other plans I have between now and then. I guess for now, I’ll just say “hi” in passing to everyone reading this blog. I wish you all the best; and you now have one additional year to come visit me in Australia!

Curious????????????

Has anyone noticed the countdown timer on my page?

Wondered what it's there for?

Hint, it is not for when I come home......

Air Miles cont...

Well, as has become my custom, it’s been a while again. But this time I have a bit of an excuse at least… I’ve been gone a lot and didn’t have much internet access; and when I got home, I was playing catch up. I’m still playing that game, but decided that since I can’t sleep and I need to get my mind onto other things than trying to sleep, I’d write something for here.

My trip started off with an offer of $400 and a hotel stay if I’d fly the next day but unfortunately I couldn’t accept the offer so I got on a really full plane. Thankfully, it was much better than some planes I’ve been on and the trip went well. We did end up waiting 1 ½ hours for our departure due to strong winds and some planes not being able to land, but we made up some time during the flight and they treated us well.

Upon arrival in Johannesburg, we was met by a really great man who’s part of the church Chris (a pastor I travelled with) was preaching at and were taken to our hotel. What we saw that night was much like any city in the Western world. I won’t go into all kinds of details but will highlight a few things combined with a few pictures. Here goes…


South Africa is dealing with a power shortage and so they have what they call load sharing. The electricity is turned off in rotating areas for a few hours at a time. We experienced this a few times. One of the times without power was during a service so there was some improvising; but it turned into one of the best services ever! Another time was just after this photo was taken. We found out there was a soccer match on when we had some free time so we had to experience it. After sitting through the first half with a dozen people around us smoking drugs, we heard an announcement that the power would be turned off for 20-25 minutes and we should watch our belongings closely. The people we were with are from South Africa and they decided it wasn’t safe for us to stay so instead of watching the second half, we found a restaurant in another area of town and had a good meal. The lights went out as we walked out of the building!


I was able to spend some time with a few friends of mine from college. This is Coral and her family. I met them on Sunday afternoon and we also went to a game park all day Monday.












5 minutes after arriving at the game park, we saw our first elephants. They got quite close!














...But not too close for me to get out and take a picture! The family we were with were quite scared about me getting out of the vehicle, but I hadn’t seen any lions and I was quite sure the elephant wouldn’t charge without warning (sorry mom). Following my example, Chris also got a picture like this.









Elephants weren’t the only animal to get close – this one looked like it might charge so we didn’t get out.













On to Cape town where I got to see a couple other friends of mine. This picture is taken on top of Table Mountain – the pride and joy of Cape Town and much of South Africa. I checked the elevation and found that the top of the mountain is almost exactly the same height as the base of the last ski hill I was on in Canada. I must admit that the view was great and Cape Town is an incredibly beautiful city.







We did some “touristy” type things but also took some time to see a little more of the country. We went to Robbin Island where Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in prison and also spent some time at an orphanage. Here’s a shot of the children at the orphanage together with a few volunteers and those of us who were visiting. I enjoyed playing with the children for an hour or so before we left to see some other areas and people.







During the next part of our trip, we went through the poor areas of Cape Town. I didn’t see nearly as much poverty as I saw in Uganda, but it was still appalling. One thing that amazed me was that most buildings in the poor area were shacks at best, yet the majority also had TV antenna’s on their roofs. Apparently, it’s very unusual for someone in one of these communities to not have a flat screen TV and a cell phone. They can hardly put a roof over their heads, but they can watch the boob tube under it! This picture is one of the poorest churches I’ve ever seen.



After a trip that went very quickly, I made it home in time to have 10 minutes at home before heading off to church for the evening. I pulled off 4 meetings before church, one church service, and someone at my place for a couple hours after church before going to bed and attempting sleep. Making the mistake of not taking a sleeping pill, I didn’t manage any sleep till 3AM and was completely shot the next morning as I went to church after sleeping through my alarm for an hour! When I did wake up, I managed to get ready in 10 minutes before someone I had promised a ride to church showed up at my door. Another busy day and late night, then came Monday…



slept in like I haven’t in my memory, then got up and did some much needed unpacking and laundry











…as I talked with a certain special someone back in Canada…

Air Miles

Well, 12 hours from now I'm in a car on my way to the airport...again! This time it's off to South Africa. Two days from now I can say that in the last two years I've been in 2 1/2 times the number of countries and 4 times the number of continents, and flown somewhere around 20 times the amount of miles as in the 30 years before. Quite a change! I'll post some details of the trip when I get back...

Thanks

A friend of mine had a little problem the other day. Today, she doesn’t. Two weeks ago, she slipped while walking some stairs and ended up in hospital where x-rays were taken, confirming a break near her ankle. Sporting a new cast, she started using crutches and had other people driving her around in her own car (very much like I did when my knee was damaged).

A short while later she had another slip and thankfully didn’t break anything but the slip happened close to some water and she fell in. Since casts are not meant to get wet, it had to come off.

Three days after the cast was put on, she was back to see a doctor who would tell her if she needed surgery to fix the break properly. She went in with her sister and as they walked in, the doctor asked which one was the patient. He was busy looking at the x-ray and saying that it was definitely a bad break; giving the name and location of the break. After figuring out which girl had the break, he examined her leg and where there should have been pain, there was none; where there should have been a broken bone, there was a completely healthy bone. He looked at the X-ray again and asked her when it had been taken (I guess the fine print on the X-ray was too small or something so he didn’t just read the date on there) and upon realizing the bone was broken only three days earlier, was left speechless – giving her the chance to declare to him that it was simply a miracle.

She had a three hour dance class the next day and four days after the break was back to functioning completely normally with even the bruising around the break gone.

Thank God that he still does miracles today!

Procrastinators philosophy

Why do today what you can leave tomorrow?

Random Ramblings

Welcome back! I got an email from someone commenting on me disappearing from the face of the earth… well, the email wasn’t that far off.

I spent last week helping out at the women’s conference where I took on the same role as I did for Hillsong Conference last July. We had somewhere around 14,000 women out this year (my guess only) and as every time before, it impacted many lives. I had a couple of interesting situations; like two women who tried to convince me that I should let one of their friends into the resource center when it was closed – they used the argument that she was pregnant and I had no idea what it’s like to be pregnant (REALLY??? What gave that away? I’m sure it wasn’t the facial hair J) All in all, it was a good week. I struggled a bit with the physical side of things because my knee has not yet fully recovered from surgery in October and spending 14 hours a day on my feet while walking 20km on a concrete floor can be hard on a bad knee. One day was enough that I couldn’t walk up a flight of stairs without using the handrail to support my weight; but that too is settling back into recovery mode again. A few weeks ago, I thought my girlfriend might make the trip to conference, but she couldn’t get enough time away and I was going to be really busy so we wouldn’t see each other much anyways so we decided to wait for now. So after a busy week, I now have two days off to recuperate and clean house before starting back to classes on Wednesday. My connect group meets again tonight so I also need to get a study ready for that…and so goes the life of Larry.

Before I leave you again, I’ll just mention one more thing. I have some big decisions to make in the next couple of months. I’ve been asked to take on a much larger leadership role within one age group here at church but some of that leadership depends on me staying here for another year. So I have an incredible opportunity here in Australia for another year, but I know great things await me at home in Canada as well. Please pray for wisdom in the decisions I need to make.

A brilliant plan from the government!!!!

Just for old time’s sake, I need to say something about finance…

Exciting isn’t it!!!!!!!

For those reading this page who have no idea why I say it’s for old time’s sake, before moving to Australia, I spent a number of years studying business and finance and working in the finance industry. Dealing with finances is something I enjoy, and keeping current on the subject not only interests me but has also been highly influential in me making thousands of dollars and saving thousands more.

And it’s on that note that I decided to write something. Even from across the world, I’m able to keep up with current news from my beloved homeland and I just recently read through some documents regarding the budget set out by the Canadian federal government this week. One thing in particular caught my attention and I had to find more information on it. What I read is really exciting because people who properly use this particular provision stand to save many thousands of dollars of income tax in their lifetime. I plan to be one of those people.

The new provision allows Canadian to set aside up to $5,000 per year into a special account in which they can purchase all the same investments they can currently purchase in an RRSP. Like an RRSP, there is to be no tax on growth in this account. Unlike the RRSP, there is no deduction for money put in, but also unlike the RRSP, there is no tax on the money taken out.

Over the years, it has bothered me that financial institutions, governments, and most of the general public has pushed RRSP’s as a great investment for every Canadian earning income. The fact is that for some people, RRSP’s are great options (if the right investments are chosen within the RRSP account) but for many of us, they really aren’t that great. In my case for example, I have had one year in my employment history when RRSP’s were a good option. In every other year, there were better investment options.

With the new provision, the options just got a whole lot better. Starting in 2009, I can take $5,000 per year out of my other investments and transfer that money to this new account. After that transfer, I need not pay tax on that money or its growth ever again. For me and the majority of Canadians, this is a great opportunity to save for the future without paying tax on that saving. Personally, I think this is the most brilliant idea a government has come up with in my lifetime – thus my desire to post something about it. I could get into details of how it will work but I know most people don’t share my passion for great financial ideas and details so I’ll spare you that, just hear that the new plan is wonderful for many millions of people and I don’t think the press has given it enough coverage. Hopefully financial institutions will. I also hope that people will develop the discipline required to actually make use of this new benefit. To give you a taste of what’s possible with the new plan, by simply placing $5,000 each year in this account instead of an RRSP, at my current return on my investments, I can look at buying a really nice new car every second year in retirement and giving the two year old car away instead of selling it or trading it in. Other options (at today’s prices) include taking a Caribbean cruise every second month, flying first class to Australia twice per year, buying two homes in Uganda every year to provide shelter for one widow and eight orphaned children, replacing my bed every second week, eating out at high class restaurants every night of the year, taking a trip to Disneyland ten times in a year – and staying at the Disneyland hotel, buying three Super bowl tickets (or one sideline ticket every 4 years), traveling (economy class) around the world 10 times (flight cost only), or paying 80% of the cost to send a child to any top university in the States. Are you getting the idea??? It’s a simple thing for me to do and I shall reap great rewards.

Now with all that being said, I’m not holding out too much hope that I truly will benefit from this great idea; reason being I don’t trust that the program will stay around. We can reasonably expect the current government to keep it as long as they are in power but nobody knows how long the current government will be in power and we have no guarantees they still be our government come 2009 when the plan is to be implemented. Governments have a tendency of making changes to things the previous government set up so if we end up with a change of government in the next year, I would hold out little hope that the program will actually come into place. It also seems governments like to change their minds as often as some men change their underwear, so while I’m excited about the program, I’m not overly confident it will actually happen. I’ll wait and see. But as long as this program is in place, I plan to take full advantage of it.

Air Miles???

In case the last post didn't raise enough interest, I won't give you more on that topic just yet, but on another topic, I just booked a couple more flights yesterday. It almost seems as though my blog title "Larry in Australia" should be modified to include other places :) I'm now scheduled to fly to South Africa on April 3. I'm travelling with the same pastor I went to Uganda with. He’s been asked to preach at Ray McCauley’s church in Johannesburg so we’re going there for a while, then to Cape Town where we’ll be spending time with some people at the new Hillsong church starting there. I’m also looking forward to spending time with a good friend of mine who moved back home to Cape Town in December. Like I said about the other trip, I don’t think I’ll grasp the significance of it for a while but I’m sure there is something very significant about this trip.

So how’s that for news? Something worth posting on my blog???

Don't know what to say

I’ve been thinking about this blog and the fact that I haven’t posted anything recently and I feel bad because I know there are people who check it faithfully; holding onto every thread of what I say and longing desperately for the day they can see me again (ok, maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration). Then I remind myself that there are others who check it once a month or less so for those people it can be overload to have a new post every couple of days.

Is there something happening that is significant enough to put up here? But then again, why should I need something really significant? Why can’t I just tell people how life is going, what the weather is like, what I ate for lunch, and how long I slept last night? After all, if that’s what life is, shouldn’t that be enough?

So I came to a conclusion that I would write something here but still wasn’t sure what – actually, I’m still not sure. I’m just rambling with the hope that something will come to mind before I’m done; sort of like an impromptu speech.

Now, there is something in my life that is significant enough to post here but I’ve been waiting a bit with posting it because there are people I wanted to tell personally rather than have them find out through the internet or their friends who found out through the internet. Now that all those people know (and a lot of others) it may be time to tell the world – or maybe not. I also enjoy keeping people in suspense sometimes… So maybe I’ll just go with this for now… someone has posted comments to my blog in the past and although it’s been a while since I’ve seen comments here from that person, I’m sure that person is still reading the blog once in a while. Maybe I can ask for another comment telling people who you are…Would “GB” like to identify yourself….???