Birthday Blatherings plus Photos

Today I reached the unimaginable age of 52. Happy birthday to me!

When I first became a christian in 1976 and started reading "The Late Great Planet Earth" and its ilk I was convinced that Jesus would have returned by 2000 and I was not likely to be any older than 42.

Now I'm at an age that when I was 18 I believed would leave me old, cranky and probably quite lame.

But I'm well and happy. I think I'm more joyful now (mostly) that at any other time of my life. I am doing the thing that God created me for. I have a lovely wife, delightful children and I am part of an awesome faith community that is growing in depth daily and in quantity more slowly. I also live in one of the most beautiful, peaceful and prosperous regions in the world.

We have just participated in a very powerful prophetic and evangelistic act in planting crosses with scripture verses and works of art around our community. We know that people have looked at these things, stopping to read and think about them (we know this because we saw some people doing this). I took the crosses down this morning and not one of them had been damaged or vandalised in any way.

So I'm blessed and thankful.

I've just been for a walk and saw a pair of Magpie Geese (Anseranas semipalmata). This is the first time I've seen these birds, officially classified as "vulnerable." They like wetlands and this pair was happily standing in the shallows in the lake.



This ibis was all alone, like a shag on a rock.