Friday 20 June

Instead of having a formal we thought we would do something different! All money raised goes to the great work in the Bluehouses. It will be different! Leave me a comment if you want a golden ticket!

Awake

One of the best Bible teacher's I have ever heard is Dave Johnson. He is Senior Pastor of Church of the Open Door (check out website and sign up for podcast here)

On Sunday morning Dave spoke in Newtownbreda Baptist. He is over for 2 weeks. What gets me is the way he opens the Bible and talks about what it says. If got me thinking though about the responsibility of the hearer.

I arrived early to church. I had a note book and pen. I was genuinely excited to hear what Dave had to say. On a normal Sunday morning, I arrive late (if at all), I feel guilty if I don't go and would go just to show my face to show I am still alive. How I prepare myself is so important to receiving the word.

What was intersting in Jesus' day, the rabbi's or teachers sat down. The hearers stood up. They were active learners. Now the roles have been reversed. The hearers come to be entertained and demand to be fed. We are lazy. The speaker does a song and dance routine, trying to keep the attention of the hearers.

So anyway back to Dave's talk. He spoke from Matthew 9 were the young girl was raised from the dead. Everyone thought she was dead, but Jesus siad she was asleep.

Dave explored the concepts of neing awake and asleep, being dead and alive. He challenged us if we were asleep/dead and awake/alove in certain areas of our lives. He went on to say that we talk about eternal life as something we have or something that happens to us after we die. Dave doesn't use the term eternal life anymore but 'an eternal kind of life'. Life in the kingdom is now, not just life after death.

So not focussing of whether I am saved or not, what areas in my life am I asleep/dead?

What areas in my life am I awake/alive?

Live the dream

please sponsr my wife!

Katrina is doing an abseil of the Europa on Saturday. I was thinking of maybe sponsoring her not to do it, but she is a dare devil and an adrenlin junkie, so I just have to support her!

u can donate on line here - thanx

The beautiful Bride arrives

SO here is the late Katrina Boucher...who was in fact early!

All I can say is stunner!

I feel so blessed to have Katrina in my life now. She gets me. She knows how to handle me. She laughs at me and she builds me up. Katrina has taught me to let things go and most importantly to not cast things up. She is so forgiving and kind - she needs to be married to me!

So may I present to you the new Mrs Patterson...

Great is thy faithfulness

What do you choose as an opening hymn? I love the words to this song. Its a declaration of God's goodness. Nowadays songs are mostly written from our self centredness, it's all about how we feel and what we are going thru. This tune lifts the spirits because of who God is.

So glad to have Rick leading the praise at our wedding. We didn't know how this song would go down, cos it is kinda slow and there is normally an organ playing, but the voices were raised in adoration. So thanx to Dave, Buff, Rick pictured with 'Little and Large'. Also to Sarah for doing powerpoint!

The big day

Here I am. Tuesday 22 April 2008. I got my best man, Charlie and my grooms man, Phil by my side. 2 amazing guys. What an amazing day. This was taken by the very talented Andre Alves Areias. Nice one Dr Dre!