Saturday, April 24, 2010

Soon to move south...

This day has been long in coming! Too much of life got in the way, at least from my perspective... Since God's perspective tends to be rather different to mine this move is right on schedule!!

My house is finished, just awaiting connection of electricity and final inspections. So the first stage of a place for spiritual retreat is almost ready. The next stage will see the building of a couple of cabins (a 2-bedroom & a 1-bedroom) and a prayer room/prayer chapel. The whole project was totally impossible. Yet here I am on the verge of moving into a house that God has made possible. I have great hope that the next impossible stage of the project will soon be coming to reality.

The place where I'm building is a little village in the southern tablelands of NSW, a place called Majors Creek. It's an old gold mining area (and it seems as if there's still lots gold in the hills that may cause considerable unwelcome development).

The vision I have for this retreat is a place for the rekindling (restoration) of hope in a person's life, a place to connect with God and spend time alone with him, a place to address whatever may be getting in the way of knowing Jesus.

Some pictures of the building process may be found at my website Hope-Today.

Tuesday, April 06, 2010

Earthquake in Chiang Mai

Interesting! An earthquake in Chiang Mai, Thailand about the same time as the earthquake in Mexico/California... opposite sides of the world. Makes one wonder if our earth is having indigestion!

I was in Chiang Mai when the earth quaked in 1995. It frightened a lot of people and broke the umbrella up on the temple on Doi Suthep. Many saw this as a bad omen. However, it didn't make much difference to how people lived their lives.

Chiang Rai, 5 April 2010, [PDN]: Chiang Mai was gently rocked by a magnitude 3 earthquake, today, at 6.45am, with its epicenter in Muang district. Although the quake only lasted 5 to 10 seconds, the quake was sufficiently significant to cause people to dash out onto the street in alarm; however there were no reports of any damage or casualties. There are nine active fault lines in Thailand, the one near Chiang Mai being the Mae Tha Fault, about 30 kilometres away from the city. About 55 kilometres long, this fault has generated 23 quakes during the past 28 years, the most severe having been a quake of magnitude 5.2 on the Richter scale in December 1995.
Pattaya Daily News