The Story So Far

Hello Everyone 

It's been a little more than 6 months since I came to Adelaide and about 3 months since I last put up a blog post. 

Things have happened in the past few months that have made life more interesting and in some ways exciting too. 

As some of you may know, I enrolled to begin studying towards a Graduate Certificate in Creative Writing at Tabor College. Tabor is a college that offers nationally accredited, HECS and AUSTUDY approved courses right from VET level to Nationally recognised Postgraduate and Doctoral studies in various fields including Education, Counselling, Philosophy and Creative Writing (among others). Being a college run by a conglomeration of Christian Organisations, their entire curriculum is based around a christian perspective and this is where they set themselves apart from the traditional University setting. You still have the freedom to write and discuss contentious issues (and I have taken advantage of this in some of my poetry), but there's also an encouragement to self sensor i.e. to determine for one's self the audience being written to and censor accordingly. 

I was doing two subjects in the first semester but due to work issues and lack of focus, I had to drop one subject to be able to focus more on one subject at a time. The fact is, I could have finished both and passed with mediocre assignments handed in. I've done in for the last 8 years and I could do it again, but I wanted this time to be different. I wanted to finish each subject knowing I had learnt something important and applicable to life and my future. 

As a part of my assessment I have also just finished my FIRST ever short story in classic Arthouse style. Though it has a tragic ending (tragic in the sense of a sad ending not in the sense that someone died, though they almost did). 2300 words worth the effort. :D

Speaking of Arthouse, I finally found the local arthouse cinema in Adelaide. It's called Palace Cinemas on Rundle Street. They even have cheese platters that can be taken into the movie! (I think? Well that is what the website seems to suggest. Will find out when I finally get there). It's going to be awesome to finally get to watch arthouse movies rather than the happily ever after fairy stories that is churned out by hollywood. Yes there is a place for happily ever after but there are also lessons to be learnt in the pain. The last movie I remember watching at an arthouse theatre was "The Help" and it was amazing. I need to watch a lot of those to catch up over the last few months of non-viewing. 

I was also baptised in May at Edge Church. My "Mommy and daddy church". I'm labelling churches now. :P

Edge was my "mommy and Daddy" church because it was where I was "Born" (baptised), it's where I got my foundations by listening to Danny and the team speak about life's challenges and how to live out my faith. It's where I have my big brothers and sisters who I can tease without getting beaten up. I have my uncles and aunts too who speak into my life and give me encouragement when I feel like life's beating me down. But then there's Empower Adelaide that's like my lover church :D I walked into the church and one look made me fall in love with the place. :P 

Up till now I've been able to serve both like any man would be able to love both his mother and his lover at the same time. But it's in this season that I have to decide who get's the preference. Am I going to be a momma's boy or will I go with the one I love. I do feel really at home with Edge but I also feel that I get easily lost in a big church like edge which is a bad thing while I am going through a phase of my life that requires  constant contact with people who would encourage me and speak into my life on a constant basis. I guess in a way I am saying my decision for now is to be at Empower Church. I still love Edge and the people there. They have spoken into my life a lot and made me think seriously about my decisions and life choices but I need a small group of people to build my life up and who I could speak into to build them up as I begin to grow and be challenged. Hopefully in a few months Empower might become a big church too here in Adelaide and I would easily be able to juggle both churches again because my responsibilities will be reduced but for now I will keep visiting Edge when I can to catch up with people that know me or that I know and keep contact through social media with those who are in my contact list.

  

I decided to write this blog to procrastinate though because I have a research essay due in a few days and I have to begin writing 2000 words on the state of Creative Writing/ Fiction Writing from an Australian perspective and it's implications on Australian writers. Wish me luck. :D

Changing the subject: 

I recently spoke to a young woman from a different country who I told about things like answers I have received to prayers and the people that I have met that seem so strategically placed in my life and seem to be the right people for the time of my life as I have committed my life to following the direction that God takes me. 

Her response was that people don't come into your life because of God or your commitment to church. It was a harsh response but understandable. She did explain later that God doesn't control every day or second of our lives and I agree. 

What I meant was that as we commit our lives to being more like God in our actions and attitudes, he directs peoples paths, people who are of the same mind or who are looking for the same thing or are going in the same direction so that they end up meeting at a strategic location to be able to do life together. 

In that way, I came to Adelaide and began living in the southern end of the city of Adelaide, but instead of going to the southern campus (which is closer) I still went to the campus in the city where I met a different group of people and grew and got "fed" spiritually and physically as well the way I NEEDED to be filled and grown. 

In the same way God encouraged one of my friends to invite me to a small church that had started up at one of the university campuses in the city and got me introduced to people who were encouraging and empowering. Through that I even got the chance to meet and spend time with and learn from the current leaders of one of the christian movements in Australia WHILE eating curries at an Indian restaurant. 

So yes God doesn't control every second of our lives. That I do appreciate because otherwise I would not have any free will to decide anything for myself and that would make my beliefs null and void because if God controlled everything then all my choices would be predetermined and I wouldn't actually have a choice in the first place. 

On the other hand when we ALLOW God to direct us through the Bible and through people who have also submitted their lives to God to be directed, THEN our lives are in a sense predetermined to the point that God has a plan for where our lives will go and he brings people alongside us to help grow us and build us and prepare us for something much more than what we could imagine. 

Anyway, that's it for now. Signing off. 

Vman