Author: Amanda Viviers

Place: My Office

Poison: Long Black

Favourite Things: My shoes I brought with two left feet and Im still wearing them!

I thought I would start a new series of posts to freshen things up a bit.

Called…Random moments!

No very original I know, but totally amanda.

So I was on the computer for 1 hour on skype to one of my nearest and dearest who shifted to Los Angeles at the end of last year.

We are both okay with technology but definatley you wouldnt call us tech heads.

Anyway, I spent most of the time, trying to work out, how to get my new camera working that is on my skype.

We had her husband marcus looking at it, we discussed every way we thought we could get it working. But no avail.

In the last 5 minutes of our conversation I realised that the camera was not plugged in!

SMILE.

Nearly as random as my two left feet story.

I brought a pair of shoes from Kookai in paramatta, when I was in Sydney early this year. I wore the shoes for at least three days before I realised I was actually wearing two left feet.

Hilarious.

Random Stories

Part One.

A

Place: My Office

Poison: Long Black

Favourite Things: my refound favourite mug…whoever had it in the office, I found it in the staff kitchen and was enraptured!!

Over the weekend, my pastor, our leader of Riverview church spoke a message that was so fresh, so vunerable, so real!

Check it out on here… (if you want)

It is all about community and the vulnerability of it.

Phil spoke about his weaknesses and it gave us all permission to be ourselves.

The weakness of community is you and me.

The reason why community often fails is because of you and me.

When we are frustrated with community its often because of you and me.

The weakness in all of our lives, makes community so hard to deepen and widen and lengthen (sorry about the bad grammer!)

My weakness, might be your strength. Your weakness might be mine.

Therefore the strength of community is where we meet each others needs.

Our society has become so independent. What happened to the local neighbourhood becoming your baby sitters…What happened to your neighbours caring about whether your home or not…What happened to the welcome to the neighbourhood cups of tea and scones…

What happened to it? you and me.

Challenged!

A

Place: Office

Poison: remnants of colgate toothpaste

Favourite Things: The rain

I finished reading a book by John maxwell, (leadership guru man) that I have been reading sporadically for approximately three years. I pick it up and read it occasionally.

Its called ‘Winning with people’. Most times I read it, that chapter is so relevant for the day I am in. Love it when that happens.

Some would call it cooincedence, others serendipity, my mum guidance, me God incidence.

Anyway this quote from the end of the book, stopped me in my tracks and I had to send it to a good friend.

‘Oh the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words but to pour them out just as they are, chaff and grain, together knowing that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep whats worth keeping and then with a breath of kindness blow the rest away.’

This quote expresses our deep desire for real and authentic relationship. I pray those close to me feel this way, when they share their hearts, as I do with the circle of trust that I unveil mine too.

Bring on winter.

Hot chocolates (chai latte’s), by the fire, Hot soup, slippers, raincoats, big yummy jackets, longer than necessary hugs, hot water bottles and the like.

Long conversations that unravel perfection…

A

Place: My Office

Poison: Long Black

Favourite Things: the rain dripping down my window…

I am still unraveling the knot inside my stomach, that twisted and dug deep when I visited Wiluna last week.

This Mother Teresa quote sums up some of the tension.

‘I know you think you should make a trip to Calcutta, but I strongly advise you to save your airfare and spend it on the poor in your own country. Its easy to love people far away. Its not always easy to love those who live right next to us.’ Mother Theresa

I met some beautiful people, who daily confront a people group who are living so desperately.

I heard a couple of statistics that shocked me but became very apparrent quickly.

1) 87% of the male population are in jail currently.

2) Also the town has the highest take away alcohol rate per captia in the whole of Australia.

These stats are rumours, but despite this some of the scenes I saw at different indigenous settlements in the town were unnerving.

However there were some town characters who were doing such a super job, despit the crazy town vibes.

People like dave the town school principal, the medical centre, Gayle the larger than life mum who runs the rehab centre and the centrelink office and it seems like the whole town, the art gallery curator who is encouraging local artists to produce beautiful art work and then helping bring money back into the community.

Stand by for a lot of discussion about this trip over the coming days.

Stunned

A