My favourite subject at school?

What was your favorite subject in school?

This is an interesting one as I have been to school twice. The first time for my education and the second time as a School Chaplain.

First time around my favourite subject was sport. I was good at Maths, but sport was always my favourite. I loved to run, play footy, cricket and always be moving. Especially in primary school before I got Rheumatoid Arthritis.

On my second go around as a School Chaplain it was sport again. I found sport was a great way to connect with the kids in an informal environment. It did not matter if it was footy, basketball, volleyball, or indoor hockey.

I can remember I did sport all day one time. I just followed the new PE teacher around on her first day and I joined in with every sport she set up for the kids. I went home exhausted, but it was a great fun day.

So my favourite subject at school was sport. As a kid and a grown up too!

World Introverts Day

Invent a holiday! Explain how and why everyone should celebrate.

My holiday would be called World Introverts Day. You can choose to spend it doing what you love and the only rule is that you have to be alone.

If you love being home, you stay home. If you love being out in nature, go and be in nature. If you love sitting in a comfy chair crocheting, then that is your task. That last one was for my wife who reads my blog!

This day would be a public holiday and it would be a Monday, so you get a long weekend. As Monday is traditionally a work day you would be paid too.

I vote for World Introvert Day!

Everyone should know…

What’s something you believe everyone should know.

Everyone should know the four things on the image above.

  1. It was prophesied for centuries that a Saviour would come. History tells us that Jesus came and was born in a manger and grew to be a man.
  2. The Bible tells us that Jesus died on the cross. He died to pay the price for our sin. He died so we can have a relationship with God for all eternity.
  3. The Bible also tells us that Jesus rose from the dead on the third day and He appeared to over 500 witnesses.
  4. A great promise of the Bible is that one day Jesus is coming back for His people. He is coming back to take us to the place He has prepared for us.

These are four things I have spent more than half my life telling people about Jesus.

Jesus left the glories of heaven to come and save us. He could not stand the thought of us missing out of eternity, so He came for you and me.

If you would like to find peace with God and come in to a personal relationship with Him, you can visit the page below to find out more.

https://passionaustralia.org/salvation.html

I enjoy being alone

What’s something most people don’t know about you?

Most people are surprised to hear that I enjoy being alone so much. Especially where they hear I have worked as a Pastor and a Chaplain.

They automatically think that by having these roles that I have lots of friends and I enjoy being around people all the time. But to be honest before I was a Christian I was a bit of a loner. These days people would call it introverted.

I have always picked sports or activities that I can do alone like weights in my home gym, cycling, bush walking, golf or swimming. Doing these things with other people generally drains my energy. Doing them alone restores me.

Do not get me wrong, I love being with my wife and kids and wider family, but when it comes to the end of the week I am looking forward to being home relaxing. I am not ringing people to arrange activities over the weekend.

Over the years I have tried to be more of an extrovert and spend more time with people. I can do it for a short time, but it does not last long. I just find I need more alone time than most.

Whenever I have worked as a Pastor or a Chaplain I always do it part time. This is so I can do my best in my roles and then have my alone time to rest, recover and reflect.

So what do most people not know about me? I enjoy being alone.

Most proud of in my life?

What are you most proud of in your life?

What am most proud of? It would have to be the way I bounced back from being bedridden with Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) at 18.

I was diagnosed at 12 years of age. It was life changing. Over the next six years it got to the point of being bed ridden. It mainly effected my feet, ankles and knees, but also effected my elbows, neck and jaw.

I can remember after a very bad period I went to see my Rheumatologist. I asked, “If I am like this at 18, what will I be like when I am older?” He told me it was better to accept this is how is it going to be forever.

Looking back I am both surprised and thankful to my 18 year old self. I looked at the specialist and said to myself you are no help to me going forward. I never went back to see him again.

From there I started researching diet and exercise for RA. I found a lot of people had success in European health clinics with fruit and vegetable juicing diets. People went in to clinics in wheelchairs and walked out off all medication two months later.

This gave me more hope than my Rheumatologist. So I dived in wholeheartedly and before long I noticed a big change. The pain reduced. The stiffness reduced. The swelling reduced.

From there I decided to strengthen my legs with cycling. I built up to 50 kilometres per day. Then I added weight training. Something I continue to this day.

Looking back I am so proud of that 18 year old young man. He could have accepted what the Rheumatologist said and stayed on a pension, but he chose to fight for a better life.

What am I most proud of? That I chose to attack Rheumatoid Arthritis and not let it win.