Monthly Update October 2012

COMMUNICATION CAPERS AND OTHER AUGMENTED ARGUMENTS

“Text” – is it a noun or a verb? As our world changes and our language morphs and adapts to those changes, new words appear and old words take on new meanings. The word text is a common place verb these days. This brought about a meaningless discussion the other day with a group of friends as to the correct pronunciation of the past tense of text – i.e. texted. I say it with two syllables, others think that sounds dumb. What do you think? Actually – how important is this discussion?

Two regular areas of conflict in everybody’s everyday lives are miscommunication and arguments about minor details – often a result of a miscommunication.

As a teacher, I want to teach students to communicate well. Not so that they look good in front of others or can win a Pulitzer Prize for eloquent commentary. But because the most important issues in our world are issues of the heart, and one heart needs to communicate with another in a clear and understandable way.

OVERSEAS CONNECTIONS

CENTRAL ASIA

Marie finally made it back to her town in the mountains although her team members have as yet been unable to return. She has only a few days left there, packing up and saying goodbye to friends and family of the past three years and is being hampered by a broken toe.  Please pray for her as she interacts with her friends there. She leaves for Spain in the middle of this month for a conference before heading to Australia for 3 weeks. You can be sure I am counting down the days with eager anticipation.

NEW ZEALAND

I have just returned from a week and a bit in NZ where I helped out.  Ruth and Jon are expecting their little daughter to arrive soon. I felt her kick me – quite a surreal experience.

I STILL CALL AUSTRALIA HOME!

Do I? Who really knows where home is? I still love watching the All Blacks win and win very well in the rugby. I was up at 4am the other day to watch them clean sweep the competition with an impressive try scoring rout over the Springboks.

I am working back at school, casually for the first two weeks and then full time to the end of the year.

This weekend I have the pleasure of attending Tim Watkins wedding to Christine Hazelwood. Tim was in my group many years ago and is a good mate and a really nice guy with a genuine heart – I wish them all God’s blessings in their marriage together.

WATHC YA READIN'?

I am still finishing off Crime and Punishment by Dostoyevsky. I seem to have my reading time taken up by other activities (such as Skyping Central Asia).

THANKS

Dale and Nic for hooking me up with a monitor to keep my aging computer running!