a chapter in my life has closed
During the past month, I packed my survival bag. My bag is very big and it weighs probably 13 kg!! Perhaps I need to cull it.
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| Our worldly possessions headed off in a Removal Truck for Queensland's Darling Downs |
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| 'Fifi' was hitched to Mr Tow to go to her new home, as she is not yet registered to be driving on the road. |
Weeding in the Garden
While I was weeding I got to thinking about this blog - three months have now passed since I began writing daily posts, and I am thrilled to welcome readers from Australia, USA, Germany, South Korea, UK, Ukraine, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia and Canada. Thank you for sharing with me my passion to live and learn.
So, what is it specifically that I am so passionate about that I am willing to research, experiment and write about? The passion comes from the fact that I am a Christian with an awareness that the last book in our New Testament is the only prophetic book in the bible which comes from the LORD himself. God spoke to John, telling him to write down the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ... with an announcement that anyone who reads these words or who hears these words from God, recorded by John, and takes them to heart, will be blessed!
The prophetic words in the book of Revelation, interpreted differently by different scholars at different times, is quite clear in letting us know that a disastrous time will come to the earth. Since I became aware of a time that would one day arrive when the people on this abundant earth would not be able to trade without receiving an evil "mark of the beast" as the prophesy calls it, I have wanted to learn to be more self-sufficient. And now, I have a passion for others also to learn along with me - together learning how to live happily in our homes, in our families and in our communities, knowing that God's story has a final "good" ending with a glorious triumph over evil.
How do we trust in God, and not trust in our job, our money or Woolworths for our essentials. Recently I attended a Lutheran Church in Dalby with Daughter-Number 2, and heard just the best sermon on the Last Days. The sermon was so very un-adorned - the minister simply instructed the people to trust in God. God knows our needs, and ultimately He knows how to meet our needs as we trust in Him to do this.
And so, I carry on, learning to grow food and hopefully being responsible within my family and community. For me, this includes home-making and food-provision, as well as working out my own salvation with fear and trembling.
Indeed we have an awesome God who is all-powerful and majestic. He is the One who covers the sky with clouds, sending rain to the earth to make the grass grow on the hills, supplying the cattle with food. He reveals Himself to us, and together we know our living God as our provider.
I look forward to next month, when I will take one of God's names each day, so that we become more aware of who this amazing God is -our God who wants us to meet with Him and know Him!
I will also show my Blog Readers the singing birds who live in and around our new home.
Our Guest of the Month is Col
Have you ever experienced a situation where you
felt that physically you had reached the
end of your strength and that there was nothing left in the tank?
Let me take you back to May 1958. I had been off work for 2 weeks with a bad
bout of flu. But the Australian army said I had to get out of bed to
participate in a training camp on jungle warfare in the Atherton Tableland.
We began by marching the couple of miles from the
depot in Gladstone Here
Col
God does
intervene in human affairs, and often He
comes to our aid when we are at a point of great physical or spiritual need or
distress. I can recite with confidence,
“God is the strength of my heart and my
portion forever”. Psalm 73:26
My emergency "kit bag" is heavy for me, but indeed it would not have been as heavy as Col's army gear, equipping him for jungle warfare. His recollection reminds us that others are there to help us in times of need, and indeed, we are here to help others! May we never become independent to the extent that we forget that we are all brothers and sisters, each one of us on the same 'life journey'.
History: 16 years prior to Col's story
Australian Army in the Atherton Tableland
In late November 1942 General Blamey ordered a survey of the Atherton Tableland with the intention of developing facilities for a rehabilitation and training area for Australian troops recently returned from the Middle East. Known as the ‘Atherton Project’, the scheme had three key purposes–recuperate troops in a cooler climate while engaged in jungle warfare training; provide suitable hospitalisation for malaria and tropical disease cases; and locate personnel and maintenance installations close to the New Guinea frontline with access to railway and port facilities. From December 1942 the headquarters of the Australian Army in north Queensland transferred from Townsville to the Atherton Tableland with the main administrative base established around the town of Atherton and the nearby settlement of Tolga. A huge schedule of construction work commenced in January 1943 involving the building of tent encampments, hutments, stores, bakeries, mess kitchens, entertainment halls, hospitals, sewage plants, army farms and a war cemetery.
Units of the Australian 6th and 7th Divisions arrived on the Tableland in January 1943 and began establishing tent encampments around the settlements of Wongabel, Wondecla and Ravenshoe. The 9th Division returned to Australia from the Middle East during February and the following month moved into camps around Kairi, Tinaroo and Danbulla. Jungle warfare training took place in rainforest country near Tully Falls, Longland Gap, Mount Bartle Frere and on Rainy Mountain in the Kuranda Range.
Following the capture of Buna and the end of the Kokoda campaign, Australian operations on the north coast of New Guinea continued with the advance towards Salamaua, the capture of Lae, the subsequent advance up the Markham and Ramu River valleys, the landing at Finschhafen, and the taking of Sattelberg. Cairns replaced Townsville during 1943 as the main port of embarkation for Australian troops engaged in the New Guinea campaigns. Amphibious landing exercises were carried out in Trinity Inlet and on the northern beaches. With the departures for Borneo in March and May 1945 of the 7th Division for the capture of Balikpapan, and the 9th Division for landings at Brunei and Tarakan, army activity on the Atherton Tableland scaled down until the war’s end in August. Even before the Japanese surrender many units had begun returning to their home states. However, in some cases it was several years before the last units were finally sent south and disbanded.
He ain't heavy, He's my brother!
Please pause and click on the following Youtube
to know that he ain't heavy;
to know that no-one is too heavy a burden
when love is there to help us carry our load.
to know that he ain't heavy;
to know that no-one is too heavy a burden
when love is there to help us carry our load.
May we each share our brothers' burdens
from Robyn
painting of robin by Brenda, my mum.