[beanie]

A little poem from my friend Erin...

Beans, beans the magical fruit
The more you eat the more you toot


I love it. (It all comes down to toilet humour!)

[beanie]

This morning, I got on a bus and a gal from down the road (I forget her name) was on. It's always good to have someone to chat to. We only met cos of dumb-ol-but-so-needed public transport. The first thing she said to me was... "Have you been on Big Brother? Cos you look like one of the chicks from last season."

Anyways, I love being on the same bus as her cos we never plan it, and the ride is pretty boring without someone. A couple of times the subject of me going to bible college has come up. She's pretty cool with it and... interested I'd say. Pray for us. We get advertisements on tv telling us how good the public transport is, and everyone is singing and having a gay ol time and then you get on and it's like...

I met up with Belle and we were pretty boring today. I was being really sarcastic, more sarcastic than normal, and sometimes that can really hurt people. I hope I didn't hurt Belle. We went and saw the pictures that were taken from a photo shoot which I won a week or so back. They were awesome pictures, if I may say so myself, but the one we'd chosen for the poster (which I got for free) was the crappiest one and you can't change it. Good thing I didn't have to pay. The photo is not all that bad, but it wasn't the best. I wouldn't have paid money for it.

I could get the whole set framed and stuff for... about 700 buckaroonies. Tell em they're dreamin'! Even just half a page of prints (which is 4 little photos or 2 bigger ones) is 35 bucks and a full page of prints is 70. What a load of bullocks.

This woman was standing on the corner of these streets with a magazine saying something like "the return of Jesus". She would go up to people and thrust it towards them and go "It's important". And that's it. I didn't see anyone take it. What are they gonna do if they do read it anyways? Realise that they can't do anything about the fact that he's gonna come back and just go on with life? I don't think that scaring people into the Kingdom of God is the way to go at all.

Today we had a biblical studies test and... man, I would say that that subject is one of my favourites this semester. I love it. But I love most of them... nah, maybe all of them. How good is it to go to College... WANT to go... and LOVE the subjects? Ah, it's GOOD. I am just learning a whole stack of stuff, like generational things and how all the poeple in the OT (which is what we are studying at the moment) all tie into each other and... today we learned about the nasty piece of work: Jezebel. Nice name... Bad as gal.

I heard not long ago that laughing prolongs life. If that is true... I'm gonna live forever... Oh, that's right. I am!

If you pay out Moslems, it's racism.
If you pay out Christians, it's cool.
Funny that.

[beanie]

God is there for you, Matt. He's always there.


(If you weren't a Christian and I told you that, would that make you wanna be one, or wanna talk to God? What ways are effective when talking to someone about God?)


When I see someone wearing camo pants, I pretend that I can't see their legs cos they are ... camoflaged! It's funny. (Well, I laughed.)

[beanie]

I went to 'work' today and it was FREEZING. And ... because I'm a weirdo and get colder than everyone else, my left hand kept cramping up and I couldn't type. So I went home.

On saturday I'm going to a ball (without a date... oh woe is me... I couldn't care less!) and I'm madly getting stuff organised for that... not that I need to do much, but I'm pretty excited.

I think I have something for Doctrine due tomorrow. I might do it tonight.

A couple of “what the?” situations I’ve found in Adelaide.

- A Thai food restaurant called “Indochina”

- I know a lot of people named Scott. 3 of them are… Scott Perry, Scott Berry and Scott Berry!

- There’s a square/intersection just out of Adelaide City and it’s called “The Forest of Dreams”. Four blocks of lawn and tree’s meet and in the corners facing the traffic lights, each corner has a words “The”… “Forest”… “of”… “dreams”. The blocks are pretty small and I reckon all up there’s only about 20 trees… so not a forest… and definitely not enough privacy to do any dreaming!


Have a nice life. Beanie ....

Romans 8:28... and we know that in all things God works together for the good of those who love Him...

[LoOpY_cHoOk]

Could you pray for me please? I'm sick, and I wanna be able to walk to Tabor tomorrow, and do stuff with people tomorrow, and I'm sick. So pray that I get better, please. Thanks. Youse guys are the greatest.

and btw, Bon, I totally understand where you're coming from with that hand cramp, can't type thing is like...

Luv ya!

[beanie]

Kez you silly gal. I've been trying to call you all night to scam some stuff for Doctrine, but don't worry about it anymore, cos I'm not gonna do it. I'll buy the text book tomorrow and tomorrow we'll ride the train to Gawler. Hey Matt... wanna come with us? It'll be fun. I'll be praying for you Kez. I love you my pancake maker. If it's not raining tomorrow morning, give me a call early (on my mob) and I'll come and walk with you also!

[Flyguy]

Hey Beanie,

You posted in my blog, so now I'm posting in yours. Wow, what a rip-off for photos. Their way too expensive. I'll take 26 pictures of you for $15.95 including development! Just run down to Wal-Mart, buy one (1) disposable camera, press button 26 times, take back to Wal-Mart, pay money, get pictures. On a very unrelated note - NEVER take apart a disposable camera with a Dremel, and then touch the flash-engage button without the plastic covering over it (when the battery is still installed ). The results will shock and amaze you.

Love the camo joke by the way. That's good classic humor. Or is it humour?

[beanie]

Friday 22 August 2003.

Well, we didn't end up going to Gawler yesterday, cos we had a meeting. Then, after the meeting, Kez and I went and vegetated in Radio Rentals and watched TV and laid on the lounges. We were being really stupid and pushing each other around and doing summer-salts off the furniture. This guy came and asked us if we'd like any assistance, but I just said we were hanging around and he said "go your hardest". So, we'll definitely go there to kill time again one day.

Tom - thanks for visiting. And it is humoUr! Thanks too for your warning. I can't say as I'll be buying a disposable camera from Wal-Mart, cos we don't have them. Perhaps Woolies. But, I have my own camera, so I could just buy film. Good idea! I'll also refrain myself from opening a disposable one. Cheers for the warning. Come again sometime.

Matt - well, you can come to Gawler with us another. I think you should invest in a mobile phone. I'm not heaps good friends with Brandon. Just quietly, he annoys me, but I tolerate him. And golf is boring.

I went and saw 'Sinbad' with my brother today and it was so good... well, if you are a fan of that kinda cartoon-like movies, which I am. Next week, I'm going to see 'Finding Nemo'. Matt, Kez... wanna come?

I just got a fake tan for the ball tomorrow night. They sprayed me with a spray gun and it was freezing, but I survived. Then I had to stand there for ages just drying off. Now I smell funny. It's one of those smells where you don't know if you love it or hate it. And I can't have a shower till tomorrow and I'm going out tonight. Heehee... that'll be fun.

[beanie]

This is my journal. This is my heart.


Yesterday, in our Ethics lecture (with that American guy), we learned about sin and ... I don't know what else, cos in all honesty, I wasn't listening too much in the first half and I totally skipped the second half.

Anyways, the one little bit that I did listen too, Mark (the lecturer) talked about how some people feel the strong hold of the sins that, for example, a church has committed. For some reason, the church, as a whole, doesn't see or doesn't want to see what it's done, and the sin is just festering under the surface. The people who see this mistake really feel for the congregation, cos they are a part of it and it effects them as well, and leads them to intercession, asking forgiveness on behalf of the church for what they've done.

(That was in the first half.)
After the second half was finished and I went back inside, I went up and asked Mark this question. "What is the point of asking God for forgiveness, when the church doesn't know (or doesn't want to know) that the sin is there? Don't you have to recognise the sin to be able to change it?"

He reminded me that a sin of a congregation effects everybody in it - from young to old, even if they didn't have a direct part in it. When you recognise it and start to interceed on behalf of the church. Cos you've recognised it as a sin, you work with God to change for the better. He said that when you do that, people will notice your actions (cos preaching it to them in words sometimes doesn't do all that much) and through your life will realise the hurt that is being thrown around (indirectly) because the whole church hasn't taken responsibility.

Well, my church back at home, where most of my family attend, have done some pretty rotten stuff and yesterday in lecture when he was talking about this stuff, I just started crying. It just breaks my heart that my church is so stuffed up and my pastor is so naive. It scares me that there are PASTORS like this!

So many people have been kicked out of our church or been abused. One guy was told he couldn't sing up the front cos he wore a singlet (yet, it just occured to me, that the eldest son of my pastor wears them... BUT, he's not up the front, so that doesn't matter).

A couple who were engaged move to town and couldn't find seperate accomodation. They were told that one of them had to move or 'we' didn't want them in our church anymore.

A single mum was told that her clothes were too immodest. (Never mind her past.)

An older couple move down from Queensland, and they are too 'filled with the Spirit, and too enthusiastic to have some changes to lives'. They have to go too. (The only thing our church wants is a bigger facility, which puzzles me cos it's not growing, and warmfuzzy preaching, which its getting on overload.)

Another girl (we'll call her Michelle) was told, basically, that she was a slut and was totally responsible for leading the engaged youth pastor on and thus, destroying his relationship with his fiance. (Never mind that she'd come from a broken background and had only just become a Christian.) It wasn't the youth pastors fault cos he was so good at his job and was bringing lots of kids to the church (none of them are still there). So, they broke up and the gal (was fiance)...

We'll call her Jane. She practically gets told that she's not a good Christian cos she didn't 'forgive' the guy for what he did and get married to him anyways. Never mind that she'd forgiven him once before. Never mind that it wasn't what God wanted for her life and she knew that!

3 weeks later, she's going out with another guy and they're talking marriage. He's a new, radically reformed Christian. All of a sudden, she's also a slut and was going behind the first guys back all along (which was not true) and their relationship is condemned. A whole lot of God stuff happened in their lives and they've now been married for 3 years (almost), having an incredible impact for the Kingdom all over town and also in China.

Michelle is now living with a guy (who was coming to church when the youth pastor was in his height) and has just had a baby with him. She's not in a fantastic state.

It seems to be a thing in my church that if it's uncomfortable or in any way detrimental to our image, we'll deal with it quickly and sweep it away and pretend it was never there. My pastor loves to do stuff and then, weeks later, the church will say, "where is so and so...".

He doesn't believe in the baptism of the Holy Spirit, revival, pre-tribulation rapture and spiritual warfare. Well, hello. Does he not read the Bible? So, a couple of boys (his 2 sons and one of my brothers) have been found out to have looked at porn quite a bit. He thinks, "gee, if they stop, that'll be the end of it". He doesn't reckon that the Devils got a part of their lives or that it wont ever effect them. We'll just pretend it never happened. It's too embarrasing to deal with, the Pastor's sons can't have looked at porn cos they are supposed to be good, we'll just smile and nod.

Well, there are a couple of ladies, maybe 3, in the church that have come to realise and feel the pressure of these mistakes building up... one of them is my mum, another is my sister in law (and my bro), my dad (they aren't ladies) and me... even though I'm no longer a part of the church cos I moved. They interceed. They are still friends with those we've ostrasized. These people who've been hurt come to our house for tea (cos we're like a half way house/free caravan park/come and eat Beth's yummo food and get fat kinda farm) and they say, "You're the only ones who understand and care."

So, my family (and one or two others) react to this revelation of the sin. O Lord, may our lives bring the whole church to it's knees. Forgive us for what we've done and repair us. Sift us. My heart breaks. Renew us.

[meenaghk]

hey beanie.

just read that stuff about your church. thats mad! i cant believe that sort of stuff is coming from a church. of all places! to be right, people should feel encouraged when they belong to a church, and feel welcome regardless of their background.

ive mentioned a couple times in my blog that our family are talking about changing to a different church because of all the stuff that goes on behind the scenes that we disagree with. only reason we know about it is coz dad on the kirk session and hes the sunday school superintendant.
anyway, for the past few sundays, we've been going to a different church each sunday, basically to see if we like them, the way they treat people, the way they preach and stuff like that. its bad that we even have to consider that, but mum and dad really feel unsettled there now. and theyve been members for.... ooooooooooh.... must be near 30 years now. we all want to find somewhere that we're all happy, that preaches the truth, we feel welcome in, and it would be nice if they had something for young people too (there is a serious lack of young peoples things on over here

anyway, b, im praying for your family's church. its good that your family have recognised the wrong-doings of the church, and are praying now for forgiveness and change within the church.

keep looking up

[beanie]

Thanks Kathy. It's a tough call, to change churches, especially when you've got such history. Thanks for praying.

[beanie]

THE IRRESISTABALL WAS AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sunday 24th August 2003.


Oh my goodness! What a fantastic night. Not only did I look like a goose, but I also acted like a goose. Nah, that’s not true. I was me and I had a stacks fun night.

First, I went to Belle’s house in the early afternoon and she did my nails, which turned out weird so that was cool. We just chatted and sat around waiting for the other girls to rock up. The girls were getting ready at Belle’s and the guys were getting ready at Meg’s. It was pretty mad but we weren’t all air-heads so it wasn’t as bad as it could have been.

So, there was… Belle, Me, Suzy, Jill, Megs, Karen (but she didn’t get ready with us), Lynette, Garth (Megs boyfriend), Wozza, Ian, Stephen, and the guys who came from Melbourne: Dion, Terry, Craig & Shaun.

The ball was “black tie with a splash of red”. My splash of red was my knee-high toe socks, which Renee and Reuben brought for me from London! I wore my Doc Martens under my dress, cos I would die (seriously) if I wore heeled shoes cos they are… deadly.

At 7, the boys came around and took stacks of photos in the lounge room, then got in our cars and drove. We got there at about 8. There were quite a few people there, but I don’t know how many. It kinda sucks that it finishes at 12am, because it just goes so quickly and it just ends and that’s it. I get annoyed with the fact that awesome nights like that don’t last forever. They just go – quicker than a normal night and you’re thinking, ‘what the?’

Well, I got there and aside from running into stacks and stacks of people that I knew (Adelaide really is like a small country town!), I danced. First, I danced with Amy, who wore a wicked dress that she picked up at the op-shop for $4! She’s the op-shop queen, I’m telling you. They teach you how to dance, so that the whole room is doing the same thing. Ames and me fumbled around and improvised and it was rad.

Next I danced with Dion. That was nuts cos he knows how to dance and I am a dork. I would always go the wrong way and I would laugh – he must have had great patience. As soon as the song was over, he ran away. I didn’t talk to him for the rest of the night. I didn’t even say goodbye to him, come to think of it. Hoho!

Then I just hung around and talked to people. It was cool to see what peoples “splashes of red” were – and see their reactions when I yoink up my dress and reveal big maroon boots and rainbow coloured legs. Then I made my way upstairs to have photos with people from YITS and then photos with people that I came with and… I had a heck of a lot of photos taken. I can’t wait till they’re up on the net and I can show them to you all!

More catching up with people and running around like a chicken took place. Then, Terry and I striked up this conversation and went out into the foyer, away from the noise and the stuffyness, sat on the tiles and yabbered away. It was so cool. We talked for ages, about all kinds of things. Just so things are clarified here: there was nothing romantic going on.

The weirdest bit was when I said something, and he agreed and goes, “high five for Jesus”. I just high fived him and stood their with my mouth gaping. If you met me in real life, you’d know that not a day goes by when I don’t say “high five for Jesus” and now it’s kind of an YITS thing – and I hadn’t met Terry or spent any time with him ever before in my life and my eyes nearly fell out of my head.

The funniest bit was when I was trying to pull him up from where he was sitting on the floor and I stood on the hem of my dress and went splat on the ground. Farout I’m so elegant.

We had a rad talk about relationships and God and boundaries and all the stuff that goes along with that. It was so cool to meet a guy who actually gives a crap about boundaries and marriage and long-term kinda stuff and has the same kinda standard as me. He’s been going out with Stephanie (who couldn’t make it cos she had to work) for 7 months and they aren’t kissing… ever – well, unless they get married.

Terry is one of about 5 guys that I know who agree with this kinda stuff (and I’m not saying it’s gospel: it’s just personal conviction, so I don’t mind if you don’t hold to it)… ironically, none of them live in Adelaide… or even my STATE!

So many times, Belle and I sit around realising that even though we hold to standards, guys who hold the same are scarce (perhaps that’s just Adelaide?). It was such an encouragement to know that those kinda guys are out there. They are few and far between, but, mate, one of them God has picked for me and I’m so insanely excited about that.

Terry and his brother, Craig, who joined us for a lot of conversation, did YITS in Melbourne. First, when it was just Terry and me, he tells me to not get into a relationship with anyone in YITS while you are doing YITS. (It’s so good to have people who agree with you on this…) Then, Craig comes in and Terry goes, “Bon does YITS.” And Craig goes, “Don’t get into a relationship wi-”… Terry says, “Yeah, I told her.” And as I was explaining that I made a choice before the year began to not go out with anyone (inside or outside of YITS), Lachi, from YITS, just happens to walk past and goes, “Yeah, Bon, but what about me? What was that thing we had going on?” Kodak moment. (Which I think is what a lot of these moments are.)

I didn’t leave with the group I came with, but went home with Lachi and Carly (2 YITS kids who are going out!) We stopped in at Hungry Jack’s on West Tce which is where all the tools in their hotted up cars and their massive amounts of drugs hang out late at night (and this was about 1:45am) and try and pick up chicks or whatever they do, I don’t know. Carly and I were fruzzing cold, cos it was indeed, showery and windy, so I had my fluffy long brown coat on over my dress and Carly put on a red jacket and we hung out in there for a time and ate. A bunch of guys came in and they’d just been to the ball as well. We didn’t know them personally, but the ball is such a community thing so that if I saw someone from the ball down the street, I would go and say hi. So we just smiled and laughed at how funny we must have looked amid all the dero’s and wogs.

Carly came and stayed at my house. Even though it was late and we were stuffed, we stayed up talking till 3:30 and then she left at 8:30 this morning. Carly is another good friend from YITS. I really am so honoured to have so many rad friends from YITS: Kez, Carly, 2 of the 3 Ben’s.

Well, I’d just like to say a big thanks to…
- My mum for buying me my dress (for my grad last year)
- My brother for buying my tiara (for my grad last year)
- The chick at the beauty shop who spray tanned me with a spray gun
- Ren and Roob for the rad socks that went off like a frog in a blender
- Garth for driving
- Karen who also wore boots under her dress
- Terry and Craig for the awesome chats
- The photographers for being so friendly
- The Tea Tree Gully Lutheran youth who went to a big fat effort
- Belle & Suzy for just being so cool
- And most of all to God for letting me have such incredible nights and giving me such awesome friends and making my life so full and abundant and so incredible and I’m at a loss for words at the majesty of You.

<<-- this kinda looks like me when I was about 12, before I got my braces...

[beanie]

Some websites that I'm a bit of a fan of...

A nice story...

Gush

Sonfest

Sons of Korah


<- I just like this face

Encounter Schoolies

Tabor

YITS

Hmm... don't do the YITS one cos it doesn't work.

Planet Shakers

[meenaghk]

Originally Posted by beanie

Thanks Kathy. It's a tough call, to change churches, especially when you've got such history. Thanks for praying.

no probs at all

sound like a cool/mad day!! nice

[beanie]

Later on sunday night... 8:52pm.

Well, I am wasted. I went to a SWOT camp meeting which was pretty funny. We have fun. It's gonna be an awesome camp. I'm pretty excited.

Then, during our ending prayer time, my phones ringing away... well, it was just kinda buzzing cos it was on silent but shake, displaying "private number". I run out into the hall and answer it and tell them to call back in 20 minutes. It was Jonathan (souldog18ca). Well, that was pretty nice in itself and then it just got better. He called back and we had a four way chat... me, him and 2 gals (Hannah and Nicole) from his college and that was insane.

One of the girls, I can't remember which, was in Arizona, another was in her dorm on campus, Jon was sitting in his car on campus and during the phone call, I was outside some guys house, then in the car going home, and then in my bed! It was funny having 4 voices just rattling off. It was funny when Jordy (who was in the car) told me to tell them that we sell dope legally in Australia... not only did they believe it, but they said they were coming over right away. We had some quite humorous times - but they were kodak moments, so I wont explain them to yas.

Then, I went to church and got there in time for the sermon. Luckily it all went rather quick and now I'm on my way to bed. Have a great evening. I'll catch yas all another day. Well, Matt and Kez, I'll be seeing them tomorrow. I can't believe its monday already.