A Good Quote from 'East of Eden'

As I mentioned, I am reading 'East of Eden' by John Steinbeck. An interesting read. Here is something that struck me.



"When our food and clothing and housing all are born in the complication of mass production, mass method is bound to get into our thinking and to eliminate all other thinking."



Save Mart

Jono and I have been to Save Mart twice this week. Go second hand clothing man! It's great. Dad reckons I'll never find a wife with my second hand clothes. Haha! Well maybe not one that's going to fritter away precious money on clothes eh?! No but seriously, you can get some nice as clothes very reasonably.



Finally

I'm real busy with preparation for the Japan missions trip. I will be away from 5 December to the 26th, so feel free to steal and borrow the Alfa if you are over 25. Please make sure it has a full tank of gas when I get back. Man it's real stressful, trying to get everything sorted before you go. Aaaarg! Greek has fallen by the wayside. Make sure that you do not totally dessert this blog site. I will be back, and this is not my final post before I go, and neither will my final post before I go be my final post, if you understand what I mean. Finally I must go to bed.

Car Battery

My Silver Nissan Pulsar's Battery went flat today, because I left my lights on. Your Nissan Pulsar you ask? Yes I say. An email went round at work today saying that a silver nissan pulsar had left it's lights on. Anyway at the end of the day I went down to the carpark and attempted to start my car, and found that I had left my lights on. The lights of my kinda silver Alfa Romeo 33ie! Jono being the kind and wonderful person he is did not hesitate to come in from Manurewa and jump start my car. Jono you are a legend of a friend. Thanks.

Affirmation

Pete has been at C.I.A teaching us about relationship building, and how to get to deeper levels in conversation. All very good stuff. He also showed a way of telling a two minute story from your life with a lesson point to it. Everybody did one in front of the youth group, and we all 'affirmed' the person who had done it with clapping, and mentioning bits we found enjoyable. I know it probably sounds a bit weord , but it seriously is a good teacher to young people to be encouraging to others. It is also noticeable that they have become more encouraging in other areas! Yay!



A Wise Father

Well I was gutted for my Dad. His letter was cut and edited and stuck in Saturday brevities. Well I shall now unveil them in ther entirity.



1. Happy Families

For the Social Development Minister, Steve Maharey to claim that sole-mother families are just as good as the traditional 'nuclear family' of mum, dad and the kids is to deny logic and the overwhelming body of evidence to the contrary.



I am surprised that the ex sociology lecturer from Massey University has allowed his research skills to become so rusty. A study entitled "Why Marriage Matters" co-authored by 13 leading social science scholars conclusively demonstrates that the 'nuclear family is more successful than other 'family' forms'. This is just one of many such reports and studies available to the minister.



Mr Maharey's assertions are both untrue and dismissive of the evidence. International research is clear that the two-parent married family remains society's greatest weapon against poverty, depression, child abuse, crime etc. No amount of politial correctness or spin doctoring can change the facts.

S M Kennedy



2. Take your Partner

So glad that Charlene Aplin has found another partner. I hear she wants to complete a hairdressers course and then train to be a social worker. What I'm not so ecstatic about is how the Charlenes' of this world and our dopey government expect the taxpayer to pick up the tab for their 'loose' definitions of what constitutes a family. If Mr Maharey and his government mates continue in their PC stance that all family forms are equal, then Charlene and her newly aquired social worker skills will be in hot demand in the future.

S M Kennedy



Nice work Dad.



Quote of the Week

Winnie you get it mate. I was almost rolling on the floor with this one. I know I quoted it before but it's classic.



Mr Peters, well known for his late-night socialising, replied most of her [Turia's] Labour colleagues would be "three sheets to the wind on a wine biscuit".



Person of the Week

My sister Lou! The bestest sister in the world! You are a real legend! A great encourager, a loyal friend, and the occasional kick up the bum when I muck up. Very good.

So much to tell you!

I have had some cool thoughts recently about what I want to post, but it is late, so a few at a time eh?



Defence

Ok I just watched the Aussie NZ game. Defence seemed to win the game. Ok I am pretty rugby illiterate, but from my perspective the Aussie defence was impregnable. Defence is so important. You might be an average team with offence, but if you have superb defence, you are going places. Well tis a thought anyway. May not be true.



Bible Society Touch Tournament

Jono and I went and played for Trinity (yay go Trinity!) at the Bible Society Touch tournament. The team played quite well, but were thrashed in all games we played. We weren't bad at all, just struggled putting things together at times. It was all good fun though.



Person of the Week

Steve Farrar author of "Standing Tall - How a Man Can Protect His Family". I will quote some extracts from this wonderful book for men. In fact I will do it now. I can do it. I will do it nine times. Actually I will just do it once.



Quotes of the Week

From the book mentioned above:-



"... a community that allows a large number of young men (and women) to grow up in broken families, dominated by women, never acquiring any stable relationship to male authority, never acquiring any set of rational expectations about the future.... that community asks for and gets chaos." - Patrick Moynihan as quoted by Steve Farrar.



"A society cannot survive without male leadership. For when male leadership ceases to be a reality in the home, we are only one generation away from anarchy in the streets. This is the direction that our nation is going. If we lose male leadership in Christian families, then this country is finished for sure."



And lastly:-



"I believe that when you look at every major pressing social issue in this country; whether it's teenage pregnancy, child abuse, drive-by shootings, teenage suicide, or the divorce rate, and reduce each of those problems down to their lowest common denominator, you will find in each case the same root cause. That cause is a lack of male leadership."



Men

Men, we really need to put our heads up and start being leaders. But to be leaders we need to be worthy of following. Let's get to it! It's our God given role, let's fulfill it in a godly manner, and start to reverse the social chaos we find our country in.

Frazzled and Frustrated!

Just finished a hard day at Tip Top. Started at 2, but things got hectic, and thus finished late. I hate finishing late on the late shift, because it puts my sleep patterns funny. I know that if I finish at 10, and get home soon after and go straight to bed, I can continue pretty much as normal. But on hectic days, brain won't slow down when I come home. Oh well.

Tip Top Touch Team

Well we got thrashed. 6 - 0. We had heaps of subs which was good, but most of us only got 5 - 10 mins max. One of our real dumb moments was subbing when the opposition was on the offensive. Oh great! Give them a hole so they can score. But we weren't the types to let one failure stop us from repeating the same mistake! Oh no!



I had 5 minutes of glory on the field. My first minute on, I gave away a penalty, and in my last, I scored the try that wasn't. Gutted. I had cut through the defence, and got to what I thought was the line, and touched down. But no! The cones did not mark the try line! No way, they marked the 5 metre line. But on the whole quite a positive outcome. It means there is only one way we can go..... well; here's hoping anyway.

So Much To Do

There are so many things I want to do, but I just keep getting put off by the big list, because I can't ever see me getting it done. I'm intimidated by what I want to do. I feel like I am achieving next to nothing at the moment, and at the same time being so busy I am physically drained. It's very weird. I want to be useful/have an impact on society, but feel powerless in the face of such evil. Perhaps smaller targets or at least smaller projects are easier to attain, thus giving more satisfaction and sense of achievement when they are attained. I think investing time in people can pay huge dividends. I've already seen this in a small way through leadership in C.I.A youth. Not only this but I have seen God's power and his faithfulness in answering prayer. It is easy to become despairing as we see the battle raging and being lost on all fronts. But there are pockets where truth is being upheld and is winning. And it needs to be remembered that truth cannot fail. In the end there will be victory, for God cannot be shaken, and he scoffs at evildoers.











(I just re-read that paragraph, and there is a lot of hopping round in it; but that's ok. I'll leave it like that, because it explains exactly how I feel.)

Here's a Goodie

Suppose you were an idiot and suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.

Mark Twain



Congress and parliament could be switched perhaps?

Trogdor

Trogdor seems off his tucker at the moment. Perhaps this could be to do with the fact that I am missing four fish? I don't know but he seems to be more active chasing others round but less hungry.



Quote of the Week

Hard work spotlights the character of people: some turn up their sleeves, some turn up their noses, and some don't turn up at all.

Sam Ewing



Speakers in the Alfa

The speakers that were originally in the Alfa I just bought are 'lacking........at best'. This intolerable situation will soon change. Instead of two 'Ark class speakers' I have purchased four speakers off the blogger (or is non-blogger more appropriate) Jono, and will probably install them at some point in the next week. Jono has already installed my Blaupunkt CD player. Cheers Jono. Soon Brahms' Clarinet quintet will be pumping in the Alfa! Yay!