Well, as you probably know by now, my time as youth pastor has finished. I am so excited for Bonnie Giles, our new youth pastor in 2009 and beyond. The skills, heart and vision she brings is going to be a real blessing I think. I plan to be her biggest supporter outside her immediate family.

As this was officially a youth pastor blog, I have now decided to leave the building. This blog will maybe get used again in the future, but probably not by me much. So for the new blog, come find me here.

tysarexave.wordpress.com
in case the link didn’t work btw.

God bless, see you there
xx Ty

I have often wondered what taking the virginity pledge was worth. Silver Rings, Pledge cards, great intentions… but are they just that? This study thinks so.

Interested to hear your thoughts or experiences

call me what you like at this point, but I’m gonna say it anyway:

New Years Eve is the lamest celebration of the year. A 1-second event.

The best you can make out of it is to be around friends having fun. It doesn’t redeem NYE, just a good excuse to hang out. The end.

As promised, here is a bit of a montage of things that have happened in our lives over the last month. It has been a busy one and I have not had much time for reflection until now. Here is one which adds to my “last talk at youth” post- another reason I am proud to know Sam.

This is our pool which is in mid-making at the moment. I haven’t thought much about it, I generally think the next-door-neighbour’s pool is a better option coz they clean it and all. But it will be pretty fun to have a pool in our back yard.

This is a place called Yerranderie. Sare found it through Open Road and I gave her a couple of days there as a birthday pressie. It’s an abandoned silver mining town form the turn of last century. It feels like you’re on the set of a movie, but it’s real stuff people used to use and live in.

We had a lot of fun there and Xave loved the “Woos” (kangaroos)

This is a little video walk through the main street of Yerranderie

Xave loves to mow the lawn with me. If you ever want to see his little eyes light up talk about mowing. He will become very animated, and maybe even do the action of shaking the grass catcher for you. He rides on my back when I mow and apparently people think it’s very cute.

So there is a little snapshot of our lives this last month. The Christmas period is now chilling down a bit, we have had a chance to breathe and think. So we hope that your Christmas was blessed, and that your new year may be a good excuse to see good friends and think about where your life momentum will be in 2009.

xx tysarexavier

p.s. congratulations Jenny and Howie, welcome to the world Oscar!

Happy Christmas everyone! It was a goodie for us, and a great Christmas Eve service. I know Christmas is sometimes too commercial, consumerist, busy, all of that… but I see so many good things God can say at this time too.

That he would love us enough to come down and become human, in the way that he did. It totally blows me away. We had a great 11pm service, the biggest ever in terms of numbers and a really special time as some of the overseas Northridge crew were back in the one place.

It was my last official duty as youth pastor, and I had a strange sense of relief as I finished talking. Not that I am glad to see the end of it, but I am glad that I faithfully finished what God asked me to start in 2002.

And on my last night, as on my very first day as youth pastor of Northridge, I had the priviledge of seeing some wonderful youth in the room. Thank you Alex, Steph and Lizzie, I felt so blessed (Matt was there on the 2nd week in, sorry mate, it’s just not the same!).

Photo highlights of our lives coming soon.

You know those times when you have so much whirring round your brain that nothing seems to get done.

well that’s me right now.

Lost my mobile phone… somewhere… in the mess.

So many cool photos and stories to share here… coming

An updated thought about the blog in 2009…coming

Still love youse all though!

Which hand do you do your seatbelt up with when you drive? I know this sounds random, but I have always done it with my right, and never thought to use my left even though I am left handed. But it sometimes feels like I have to dislocate my shoulder to reach the belt.

Which hand do you use when driving to do up your seat belt?