"He who plans on making it to Heaven had better read the map."

Just found this quote on my irish buddy's bebo - classic!

EXPLANATION OF GOD

This was written by an 8-year-old named Danny Dutton, who lives in Chula Vista, CA. He wrote it for his third grade homework assignment, to "explain God." I wonder if any of us could have done as well?

"One of God's main jobs is making people. He makes them to replace the ones that die, so there will be enough people to take care of things on earth. He doesn't make grownups, just babies. I think because they are smaller and easier to make. That way he doesn't have to take up his valuable time teaching them to talk and walk. He can just leave that to mothers and fathers."

"God's second most important job is listening to prayers. An awful lot of this goes on, since some people, like preachers and things, pray at times beside bedtime. God doesn't have time to listen to the radio or TV because of this. Because he hears everything, there must be a terrible lot of noise in his ears, unless he has thought of a way to turn it off."

"God sees everything and hears everything and is everywhere which keeps Him pretty busy. So you shouldn't go wasting his time by going over your mom and dad's head asking for something they said you couldn't have."

"Atheists are people who don't believe in God. I don't think there are any in Chula Vista. At least there aren't any who come to our church."

"You can pray anytime you want and they are sure to help you because they got it worked out so one of them is on duty all the time."

"You should always go to church on Sunday because it makes God happy, and if there's anybody you want to make happy, it's God! Don't skip church to do something you think will be more fun like going to the beach. This is wrong. And besides the sun doesn't come out at the beach until noon anyway."

"If you don't believe in God, besides being an atheist, you will be very lonely, because your parents can't go everywhere with you, like to camp, but God can. It is good to know He's around you when you're scared, in the dark or when you can't swim and you get thrown into real deep water by big kids."

"But...you shouldn't just always think of what God can do for you. I figure God put me here and he can take me back anytime he pleases.And...that's why I believe in God."

Cute huh :)

Relationship advice??

Ask Dr Joy -Yes I am such an expert...hmmm... (I've never had a relationship last more than um...ah... 7 weeks!) but I love reading relationship advice books! Soooo I found it hilarious when i came across a book called "Fit to be tied" on a certain persons bookshelf the other week, so took it upon myself to read it and get informed on what makes you "Fit" to tie the knot. And all I can say is it is quite scarey! Don't let this put u off marriage tho - i don't want to be the one to blame!

Some interesting quotes I'd love to share with you:

"The most miserable people in the world are not single people. They are married people who realise that their marriage was a mistake. Think how frustrating it must be to spend years trying to make an impossible situation work. Think how much energy it must take to keep a doomed relationship going" eeek! Ok I am scared!!! I hope that never happens to any of us! Choose carefully who you marry, make sure you don't marry for the wrong reasons!

The writer noted at a conference they went to where there were many couples in their 50's and 60's, that many of the men were unusually attentive towards their wives. So he asked a guy who said "This is my second wife. During my first marriage I was too preoccupied with climbing the corporate ladder to pay attention to my wife . I hurt her deeply for many years, and finally she couldn't take it anymore. Now i'm doing things differently. I may have forfeited my first wife, but I'm not going to foul things up again." ....hmmm interesting huh? He goes on to say that men don't mean to hurt their wives.

And then they add a quote from Dr Cloud from the Boundaries book "As an adult, you have choices. Take responsiblity for them and own them. If you are giving something, you at some level are making a choice to do it; stop acting as if others make you give to them. If you are working somewhere that you do not like, take responsiblity for finding something else. If you are criticised by a friend, take responsiblity for the fact that you agree to meet with him or her. You are responsible for what you choose to do. You can change your life by refusing to play victim" Interesting huh! I'm sure we can all apply that one to our lives.

Crazy New Zealand Summer - Parachute 07!!


Just arrived back at the crack of dawn on Monday morning - eek! It was so great! Fabulous weather - stinking hot infact - and a line up of world class bands - i can't believe the sunday night line up was Shaun McDonald, Magnify, Darlene Zsheck/Hillsong, Joyce Meyer, Third Day and then... Dave Dobbyn!!!!

It was fantastic, espec since we were right up the front - and it was sooo crazy because there was so many people there, people were queuing before they even opened the gates to Mainstage! Darlene started off by singing "Mighty to save", which was really great, Joyce Meyer spoke for about 45 mins and it was so good i think i'll buy the DVD of it, she's really inspiring, then Third day came on - well Darlene came on with Mac Powell and sang "Worthy is the lamb" - it was sooo powerful! Anyway then Darlene went off stage and Third day rocked it up singing "Set this place on fire", "I wanna sing a song for you Lord", "I believe in Love" and all the favorites that we all knew off by heart :) Really love that new song "There's a light at the end of this tunnel, there's a light at the end of this tunnel for you, for you..." ahhhh ....

Then Dave Dobbyn came on and the crowd stayed strong, he belted out Loyal solo with his guitar (no backup band at all infact) and everyone sang along at the top of their voices, then he sang Whaling...ahhh... and then it suddenly started bucketing with rain - torrential downpour, so everyone in the grandstands left and us hardcores stayed in the rain to hear our fav kiwi star... he ended the set with "Welcome Home", then let us go back to our tents saturated - and i'm sure many people found their tents flooded so they went and camped in the Palladium (this huge indoor arena like the Events centre in Wellington) - which i'm sure was a great nights sleep! Thankfully our airbeds kept us from sleeping in a puddle and Rach and I had a great nights sleep and I got up at 5.30 am to get my early morning flight.

The wakeup team! (go awaaaaaay!!!!)

Worship at the mainstage on Saturday morning

Tent city - we were somewhere to the top lefthand corner

Rach setting up the tents