This is fishing

Bonito (tuna family) 47cm

4 large sized Bonito

Our family holiday in Avoca (NSW Central Coast) provided an opportunity to do some rock fishing at Avoca Beach. I've never been rock fishing before. The first day was a complete failure. I just got snagged on the rocks nearly every time. Most other fisher were using bobby floats so I made a note of buying some before coming back. The second day, I caught one slimy mackerel of decent size, probably around 40cm. The biggest fish I'd ever caught anyway. By the end of the week I was getting better and I caught a Kingfish about 55cm (which I had to let go as the legal size limit is a whopping 65cm) and plenty of large sized Bonito. We had plenty of fish for sashimi and pan fried.

It was so much fun with plenty of fish to be caught. The real fishermen were catching up to 30 Bonito a day. I don't know whether I can be content with the undersized bream I normally catch now and have release on the rivers I have been going to.

First sermon in 4 years

This morning I preached my first sermon in 4 years I think. I didn't preach at all in our first term in Thailand and I'm glad I didn't in one sense as my Thai really isn't good enough, though it would have stretched my Thai a lot in doing it. I can't actually remember the last time I preach before this, though I do remember the long nights in preparing sermons. Not preaching week in week out, each sermon probably took more than 40 hours at least in preparation time. Thankfully, this sermon took less than 40 hours (not that I was counting but it deal feel shorter than previous occasions). Next month I will be preaching twice at Ashfield Presbyterian so will have another opportunity to preach.

Opinions differ amongst missionaries as to whether it is a good thing or not to be asked to preached at a church because of the amount of time it takes in preparation and the lack of response in the congregation. Some think that going to Bible Studies and sharing to a smaller group which can interact with you is much more effective.

I know some missionaries with 6 or more supporting churches and they are preaching to all 5 congregations on a Sunday and I can imagine how tired they must be if they had to do that a couple of times.

Anyway, I don't preach that often so it was good to be able to spend several weeks thinking over Luke 8:40-56 (Jairus' daughter and the bleeding woman) which was a passage which was very helpful to me in Thailand.

I'm working on my next sermon on Romans 12:3-8, and what it means for a church to be a community.

Bee sting therapy

I hurt my back again just after Christmas (but not as badly as before) and while I was at my uncle's house for New Years he introduced me to his bees which he keeps in his back yard. He uses the bees for his back pain. According to him, a bee sting is 100 times stronger than morphine as a pain killer. I have never been bitten by a bee before so I hoped I wasn't going to have an anaphylatic reaction. He stunned the bee first which apparently reduces the pain of the bee sting and then put the stinger against my back. It hurt but was bearable. My uncle recommended one more. This time though the pain was extreme. He didn't stun the bee this time and so I felt the full force of the sting. The pain lasted for around 10 minutes. I still had swelling from the bee sting a week later. I don't think I'll do that again.

On another note, we are itching to get back to Thailand. Home assignment has been great to catch up with family and friend, but we feel a little bit in limbo here.

Last week I was in the city meeting up with someone and on the way home I happened to hear some Thai behind me. I slowed down so that this Thai couple went past me and then I followed close behind them listening to their Thai. They spoke such beautiful Thai.

We've also had emails from our neighbour and friend in Thailand. I'm getting up the courage to write back in Thai. Even a short email can take over an hour so I've been putting it off.

Fishing - a new evangelism idea

Is this a Luderick?

Lately I've been really getting into fishing. I did a little bit of fishing in my childhood (probably less than 10 times) but haven't been fishing for at least 15 or more years. However, our oldest son wanted to go fishing when we were in Thailand and we made it an aim to take him when on home assignment in Australia. Then on our holiday we went again a couple of times after buying some cheap kids fishing rods. Since then I've made a few trips to Brooklyn on the Hawksberry River and Bobbin Head with the kids.

I've found fishing to be one of the few activities which I can take the kids and be with them for up to 4 hours without going crazy. A great father and son activity which is very enjoyable.

But I have been starting to think about how effective it would be in evangelism in Lampang. I'm pretty sure that Thais are into fishing. It is a great way to meet new people and start a conversation with them. Normally you are fishing for hours at the same spot and if you are by yourself it is good to have company (and also show off your big catch). I'm eager to try it to out when we return.

I'm booked in for some fishing lessons in coming weeks to so that I'm not such a novice.