Anticipation @ MindSay 
love
A little over a week ago, our little group began to pray that God would send laborers for the harvest. We were confident that God would supply them, since Jesus asked His followers to pray this very thing.
Within the last week, three people have contacted me, out of the blue. They are very passionate, dedicated followers of Jesus—who want to be missionaries. I’ve had a fantastic time talking to them, not only about missions, but about a life that is lived, full-bore, in Him and for Him.
So, I laughed about this yesterday. The workers He sent weren’t the workers I anticipated.
Big surprise. God answered a prayer and did something in a way that I didn’t anticipate.
I planned on being at home tonite but got a call from a friend asking if I would be at the local pub. So I wrapped things up and went down to visit with her for a couple of hours. I told her about my Valentine's "Fire Dog" gift and she got a good laugh out of it (or was it my shimmying in my seat immitating the dalmation swiveling his hips and flashing, LOL!).
Not long after sirens went past the bar - not unusual, station 17 is 2 blocks away.
http://www.chattanooga.gov/Fire_Department/78_Station17.htm
She went outside for a cigarette smoke and returned commenting that another engine, some cops, and an ambulance went past as well. I told her it just meant there was either an alarm at an apartment complex or the nursing home or hospital a couple of miles up the road. Any call to a 'multiple occupancy' building results in a full assignment of ladders (2), engines(4), squads(1), and ambulances(2).
5 minutes more passed when a sudden rush of several more fire trucks went past verifying my prediction.
A minute later a customer who had just left called the bar on his cell phone : "if anyone up there lives in Signal View Condos, they might want to know there's a big fire there". The bartender relayed the message and eyes went to me, I live at Signal View. I continued to drink my beer which upset some folk who were now rushing outside to see what they could see from 2 blocks away. I told my friend 1) you came in and said more fire trucks went past but said nothing of smelling smoke or seeing glow in the sky (my thinking being that if it was a big fire, it would require a 2nd alarm resulting in yet another group of fire trucks to scream past) 2) the caller said the fire was in the back of the complex but there's no way he knows that, he could only see the engines turn into the driveway 3) WHAT COULD I POSSIBLY DO?
I'm a fire fighter with no gear. My camera is sitting on the sofa. I can't go into the complex cause if all those engines and ladders and ambulances just turned in, the driveway will be blocked by hoses if not police. If it IS burning down, I'm gonna stand in the cold and watch?
I had 2 more beers and quietly smiled as I heard the rumble of fire trucks returning to the station a half hour later - hardly a sign there was a significant fire.
But when I paid my tab, grabbed my Merv's burger, and headed home, I went via the rear of the complex, and found nothing, each corner I turned, my shoulders relaxed a little more, and when I finally had circled back around to my side of the complex and saw no evidence of water in the streets, no emergency vehicles, and not even any dual tire tracks through puddles from earlier rain, THEN, I was able to to tell myself : "I told you so!"
I have no idea what the accepted method of body-disposal will be during the age in which I expire. However, if it somehow does something to damage the environment, and you do this with my remains, you CLEARLY weren't listening while I was alive.
My friend's dad died last week. Knuter and I went to the service on Saturday, but we'd never been to a Celebrate Life service before. He thought it was kind of weird - I thought it was very cool.
When we came in, it was kind of an open-mike thing...erm, without the mike. Anyone who was in the room would stand up and talk about this man. What they remembered about him. What the last few days with him were like. Who he was as a person. Who he wanted to be like, who he tried to live like.
I know that I'd far prefer this style of service for myself than I would the typical funeral, but I think the part of speaking what we remember about the person is for each other. I know people talk about living a life people wil praise afterwards, but I don't need to hear anyone else praising me. Our own words fade swiftly, and the words I long to hear after my death are more along the lines of, "Faithful servant, well done."
I don't know if we can still see what happens here once we're in Heaven. I don't know if it's considered a distraction from what really matters (it's well-known that this world is temporary, the next is not), or if only angels can see what happens here, or anything for certain. But I do know that if I can see back here, I'll be demanding to know what everyone's upset about.
I'm not really dead. I'm just not here anymore. I don't have asthma, or astigmatism, or even residue of depression. I'm not alone, and we're having quite the celebration here because I finally came home. So, do yourselves a favor - if ever you loved me, have the same kind of celebration. Because I finally came home. And a good number of us will be together again.
Just two weeks until orientation week at the ANU. Amazingly, I'm just excited about it now - most of my fears have gone. Of course, there is still that nagging thought that my subjects don't have practical application, but most people I've talked to have agreed that taking everything into consideration, I have chosen the best option. Also, there is that freedom to change between courses if necessary.
Anyhow, what is there to report from my last week or so?
I've discovered sunburn. Maybe it's nothing new for the majority of people, but perhaps due to Canberra's location and my very few trips to the beach in the past, I was not really aware of what getting seriously sunburnt was like. That was until I went to the coast with some mates about a week ago.
I actually put sunscreen on before I took my t-shirt off. Which meant that the back of my neck and arms were fine, but not so with my back and shoulders.
Anyway, the pain is annoying, but that goes away in a day or two. The really bad thing is when your upper back starts to feel like an old decaying plastic bag left in the shed for way too long. Peeling skin does not look particularly pleasant either, and it feels itchy as hell. But, as I said, this is probably pretty normal....
What is slightly less normal is spending a day at a massive rock concert with 70,000 others. Yes, I went to my first ever Big Day Out on Thursday, and let's say it was an experience I won't forget in a while. Muse was great, as I had hoped. Tool was alright, although it would have helped had I known a single song they were playing. The only thing I really remember about the Butterfly Effect was the mosh pit, which was a little bit of an experience in itself. Peaches was an interesting act, and certainly a change of pace from the rest of the day. The line for the ATM was massive. I spent most of the day with Nikki, and we probably ended up walking several kilometres just trying to find places. I managed to spend less than $20 for the whole day, which I think was something of an achievement (and sort of just as well considering how much I spent on the ticket and the whole trip in total).
We (my sister [Bethany], brother [Paul] and his girlfriend [Cami]) spent the day before the event walking through Sydney. Cami found some Chinese shop that had a lot of fascinating and hard to find DVDs. I left the shop empty handed after a lot of umming and ahhing, which is just as well as a few minutes later I found a Civic Video that was actually closing down. This meant that they were selling everything. I picked up Young Adam and Hidden for $30 put together - a great deal considering that's less than what you'd get for each of them new.
BTW, if you're feeling in need of a laugh, check this site out: http://uncyclopedia.org
Just type some things into the search engine and see what comes up.... well, it made me laugh anyhow.
Here's my contribution: http://uncyclopedia.org/wiki/Pier_Paolo_Pasolini
My sisters tonight, while we were in line waiting at the gate to get into the game, decided that they wanted to eliminate waiting from our lives. So everything is done in "Full Speed Ahead". But what is life without anticipation? Without momentarily slowing down to wait for something, everything would pass by in a blur. All the exciting moments would blend together, without the slight pause to break them up.
Waiting to get into the ballpark tonight, was half the excitement of the game, watching the people stroll by, with their friends and families. Being able to watch the people that walked with a purpose, watching them stride towards their final destination. The waiting made the smells and sounds that much better when we finally stepped into the park to find our seats. Hearing them squeak and bang as people moved about, settling in for the next 9 innings. The stench of hotdog was so overpowering even before the game started. The vendors yelling, and people screaming "BEER MAN!!!" filled the air, as the crack of the bat caused the crowd to hush in anticipation of the play being made.
Without that anticipation the game of baseball would be boring, knowing the outcome of every play before it even happened, of every at bat and pitch thrown. There would be no point.
Even the waiting by the cars to leave the ball park, being able to relive the highlights with the people in the cars around you, hearing " wow what an amazing game" or "damn he should of caught that ball, Lastings really sucks" makes the night even better. Knowing that you really shared an amazing experience with these complete strangers, you bonded through the 9 innings, even if you sat in complete different ends of the park.
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