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Flying Away Again!

Tomorrow I am heading for Sydney to commence a Diploma of Education through Wesley Institute. This is a correspondance course, but I need to go to Sydney for a four day orientation. I am looking forward to commencing this course, as I will be studying topics that interest me. This Diploma will qualify me as a Primary teacher, the career path I hope to follow. Holding this qualification will also help me if I have children, espcially since I would like to homeschool.

On the way back I will visit Dave in Melbourne, Victoria for a day. Dave moved back to Melbourne last week after six months in Tasmania, as his PHD requires him to work at Monash university for part of this year.


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An understandable sadness

Today I enjoyed reading this blog post: The Plight of the Thoroughly Modern Girl - From Where Does All This Sadness Spring. Dean writes:

"the widespread depression among young women seems a thoroughly reasonable and predictable response to life in a secular and sexually unrestrained culture.

This perspective is dangerous of course to those forces, particularly secular feminists, who continue to try to convince us that the world they have helped create is the best one for everybody no matter how high the numbers of divorce, depression and misery climb."

Of the sexual revolution, Dean writes:

"The end result of the revolution has been the pathologizing of what are many women’s most cherished hopes. Instead of realizing this to be true, the forces of the revolution simply push on grinding the souls of millions beneath their marching feet."


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Cultures

I enjoyed the diversity of cultures in South Africa. In Tasmania the vast majority of people are of English or European descent, and I rarely hear anyone speak a language other than English. In South Africa there are many official languages, and I often heard people speaking languages I did not understand. When I went to the ATM, I had to choose which language I wanted to read during my transaction. There were about 10 to choose from! The major cultural/racial groups that I learnt about were Indian, English, Afrikaans, and Zulu*.

Durban has a large Indian population, and I enjoyed looking at their distinctive fabrics when I visited a market.

White people in South Africa generally fall into two cultural groups - English and Afrikaans. English people descend from English settlers, and Afrikaans people descend from Dutch settlers. I am sure there are many similarities between them, but there are also differences. Their accents are different, for example. Dave's ancestry is English. Many South Africans speak Afrikaans, including Dave. I have learnt a few words, which I say very poorly! The main word I am familiar with is "skat" which is pronounced "skut". It means treasure.

Dave also speaks some Zulu. This proved a real blessing when we visited a Zulu village called DumaZulu. At the start of our tour a man spoke to us rapidly in Zulu and expected us to respond in his launguage! I was grateful to have Dave to tell me what to say! This village shows the way Zulu people once lived.


We were treated to some vigorous dancing and singing!



The Zulu people are a major tribal group. I visited Zululand, so this is the tribal group I had most contact with. However, there are several other major groups within South Africa. There are also many black refugees from neighbouring countries. I discovered that if you refer to someone as "African" people assume you mean a black person. I found this interesting considering the fact that everyone in South Africa lives on the African continent and could therefore be described as African! People who are not black do not refer to themselves as African. They describe themselves as South African. When I told a Zulu man that my boyfriend was African, I think he thought I had sight problems :).

I admire the way African women balance pots on their heads.



Visiting this village and being confronted with another culture made me more aware of the challenges missionaries must face. It was difficult for me to be spoken to in a foreign language by a person dressed in an unusual way, and I knew I was going on a tour! Imagine if I had been faced with this and I had to work out how to live amongst these people for years with little outside support.

The week after we visited Dumazulu, we enjoyed a monument to the success of another culture. The Voortrekker Monument is in Pretoria, near Johannesburg. It commemerates the Dutch settlers trek from the Cape to the interior of South Africa.


There are many beautiful carvings on the walls inside the building, showing events in the trek. This one shows the English settlers giving the Dutch people who were about to set out a Bible. This Bible and many others are on display in the museum.


There is a strong focus upon the achievements of women. There is a long tapestry which pictures aspects of this, as well as a large statue outside the monument and many carvings such as the one pictured above.

It was interesting to visit this monument after the Zulu village, because it featured the conflict of the Dutch settlers with the Zulus. The stone carvings of these events seemed much more alive since we had recently seen Zulu people dressed in a similar way.

Our experiences led us into several discussions about race and culture. While it is wrong to discriminate against people on the basis of their skin colour, it is not wrong to seek to evaluate cultures from a Biblical perspective. One race is not inately better than another, but some cultures are more conformed to a Christian worldview than others are. The Zulu culture still encourages polygamy, which is not God's plan for humanity. The Afrikaans culture has historically oppressed other groups, and this is also a perversion of God's plan. These two examples illustrate that most cultural groups have areas where they need to be transformed through an understanding of the gospel and of the fullness of God's word to us. If one culture is much more conformed to God's word than another, it can justly be said to be a better culture.

*As I write about the cultural groups I encountered, I keep having an uneasy feeling that I am going to get an email from a South African who will tell me I am wrong. I am sure I do have much to learn and I am open to any correction of my facts!

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Beaches

Dave and I enjoyed the warmer weather in South Africa. Tasmania tends to be cool most of the time, even in summer. The almost unrelenting heat in South Africa was a pleasant contrast! We enjoyed swimming at several beaches. Here we are in a tidal pool at Ballito, where Dave went on family holidays as a child.


Now I am back in Tasmania I am finding it a little challenging to re-adjust to cool weather!

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Durban views

Dave and I spent most of our time in South Africa in the city of Durban in the province of KwaZulu-Natal. We stayed with Dave's friend Mark in his 14th floor flat. If you look closely at the top of the building in this picture, you will be able to see a window open. That is the room where I slept (Mark gave up his bed for me - thanks!). I don't think I had ever slept so high up before! Durban contains many blocks of flats.


This is the view from the flat . . .


Durban is a coastal city, and you can see the ocean in the distance.

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Dave's family

One of the reasons I visited South Africa was to meet Dave's family. It was a blessing to spend time with them on several occasions. One day Dave's Mum kindly cooked us a yummy lunch and we had a late-Christmas-present-opening time!

Dave with his father William and brother Christopher.



Dave with his Mum, Dianne.

I think it is an important part of any courting relationship to meet one another's family. I don't think the insights it gives into a person's character can be gained as effectively any other way. I am grateful for the opportunity to meet Dave's family, and for the kind welcome they gave me into their lives.

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Defiant Birth: Women Who Resist Medical Eugenics by Melinda Tankard Reist

If you are anything like me, you come back from overseas holidays inspired with little resolutions. I have been totally jetlagged, but also determined to throw away clothes I never wear, re-arrange my room, and write about books. For someone who reads an enourmous amount, I have very few entries under the "books" label on my blog.

So today I want to draw your attention to one of the best books I read last year: Defiant Birth. This book contains many stories of women who chose to give birth even though the medical profession advised abortion. There is a lot of pressure in Australia and other Western countries to abort disabled babies. There is also a lot of pressure on disabled women to have abortions. I cannot explain the book better than the author does at the start of her long introduction:

"It is about women who were told they should not have babies because of perceived disabilities - either in the child or themselves."

"This is a book about women who have resisted the ideology of quality control and the paradigm of perfection."

Melinda Tankard Reist ably exposes the limitations of the testing used to diagnose babies before birth, and the way women are "being forced to make agonising decisions on the basis of inadequate - even inaccurate - information."

I have a long term interest in working to reduce the number of abortions, as I see abortion as a tragedy for women and children. A tiny baby, recognisably human, is destroyed in every abortion. Many women carry the scars of this choice, often a coerced one, for the rest of their lives. In an abortion done for reasons of disability, the woman often carries the extra grief and guilt of the late abortion of a baby she originally wanted.

It is impossible to attempt to combat abortion for long without realising that our society presents to women a huge number of times when it is "wrong" to have a baby. You can be too young, too old, too busy, too ill, not educated enough, too poor, or have too many children already. If you have a baby at such times, many people deem you unwise or just plain stupid. Couldn't you have planning things better? With such thinking, the majority of time in a woman's reproductive life is defined as the "wrong time".

As I have realised the pressure this places on women who are pregnant in less than perfect circumstances, I have become an unashamed pro-natalist. This means I am positive about people choosing to have children! I object to the basic idea that their are lots of bad times to have babies. Usually, the bad times are socially created and with the right support women can get through their pregnancies and even thrive. Children should be welcomed, even in difficult circumstances.

Melinda Tankard Reist explores the way movements promoting birth control, genetic engineering and selective abortion have been fuelled by eugenic ideas. Eugenics can be defined as the idea of improving humanity by encouraging the strongest and most intelligent to reproduce and the weaker and less intelligent to prevent reproduction (page 304).

I object to the eugenicist idea that women "ought" to surgically (sterilisation, abortion) or hormonally (the pill and other hormonal birth control) alter their bodies to prevent children. Women have no duty to do this. Some people wrongly interpret my pro-natalism to mean that I oppose all birth control. I find myself needing to assure some people that I am not on a campaign to ban condoms! I do oppose any birth control that acts to prevents the implantation in the womb of an already conceived human being (hormonal birth control such as the pill is included in this). I also hold the view that welcoming children is generally preferable to preventing them, largely because I believe the Bible presents fruitfulness in the context of bearing children as a blessing.

Defiant Birth rejects the idea that women "ought" to prevent themselves from giving birth under circumstances society deems unacceptable. It does so in a way that is intellectually satisfying. Tankard Reist's exploration of society's attitudes to reproduction, disability and difference is brilliant. Reading this book was also a powerful emotional experience. I found myself uplifted as I read about women who had chosen life under difficult circumstances. If you have read Melinda Tankard Reist's Giving Sorrow Words, and wept as you read the stories of women's grief after abortion, you will find that this book is an opposite experience emotionally. You might want to cry with joy as women choose life!

This book was also personally encouraging in the context of my own minor disability. I have chronic back pain, and this often causes me to fear pregnancy, birth and raising children. Will these seasons in my life cause my pain to get much worse? Will I have less children than I would like as a result? I cannot know my future, but after reading this book I was encouraged. I realised that many women who suffer from much worse disabilities than my own have children. Johanne Greally's story particularly impacted me. Johanne chose to have five children despite a back problem which was far more severe than my own. She wrote: "All of them have been worth the pain. Pain is finite . . . set against the cherished beauty of each of my babies - each of them so totally different but so infinitely loveable - the pain is forgotten. Each child has compensated me tenfold for all I've been through."

I found myself passionately identifying with Defiant Birth on nearly every page. Read this book. It will make you aware of where our society is headed. It will challenge your eugenicist assumptions about who should reproduce and who should be born. It will inspire you to encourage and support pregnant women. It will empower you to believe that having babies is really OK. Giving birth is what women have been doing since Eve, and it is not a disability.

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South African wildlife

I arrived home yesterday from South Africa. I thought you'd enjoy these pictures Dave took (I have not yet uploaded my pictures to my computer).

We enjoyed the signs about wild animals that are dotted in various places. This sign was off a road we drove along to go to a beach. I am attempting the unconcerned look.

At the beach, the danger was even more frighteningly displayed . . .


The next day, we went for a cruise on a lake where we saw crocidiles, and came close to hippos.


After seeing their teeth, I was somewhat more frightened the next time I saw a sign of danger, this time at a State Park, Hluhluwe-Imfolozi.


This park is filled with bush land and lovely mountain views. Visitors drive about, scanning the bush in the hope of sighting various animals. I think this could become addictive if I lived in Africa, as it is exciting to think about what we might see down this road . . . or this one . . . or this one! We left later than we intended, because we kept hoping to see elephants. Providence did not bring any across our paths, however!

It was great to have Dave with me in many ways, and one of those was the fact that he could explain to me the animals we saw. Wild dog, for example, don't look particularly exciting to me but Dave let me know they were very rare. There were only 32 in the entire park, and we had three running along beside our car for quite a distance!

One of my favourite animals is the zebra, so it was a great bessing that we saw several groups of them during our day in the park.

I love giraffes too, and we were very close to this one.

We saw this rhinno in the distance, and Dave zoomed in with his camera.

These little animals were beautiful, and we saw many of them. I have trouble remembering the names of the various deer-like creatures, but I think this is an Impala.

Our day at the park, driving about with the windows down, the smell of African bush around us, and the prospect of facinating animals around every corner, was our most relaxing day during our trip. Six months ago I could not have imagined doing this, and it is a great blessing that God brought it about.

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Still having fun!

I am still enjoying South Africa. So much so that I won't be spending much time here. I'd rather be out in the African sun.

I have now met many more of Dave's friends, and like them all so far.

Today Dave and I visited a Zulu village. We have also been to a lovely beach (last night). The place where we are staying has beautiful birds and a fish.

Today I bought some lovely African art work on material, as well as some stone animal carvings (including an elephant).

For all those desiring pictures, I just want to let you know I have taken over 100 so far!

Tomorrow we are going to a National Park where we hope to see some very exciting animals!

I must go, as Dave is sitting here looking very resigned about my compulsive blogging habits! I just had to drop over to Susan's blog after she left a hint about exciting developments in her life. Check out "An Old Fashioned Girl" in my sidebar if you want to know more!

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Hi from South Africa

I am just logging in to say "Hi"!! So far I love South Africa. It is a beautiful place. Yesterday I had a swim in the Indian Ocean. The sand is much coarser than at home. The waves knocked me right over and I didn't stay in long.

We arrived here on Thursday night (South African time, Friday morning in Austrlaia) after a very long and tiring trip. We have spent two nights here so far, and this is our second full day.

We are at Dave's parents house right now. It has been great to meet Dave's family (Mum, Dad and brother). We had lunch together yesterday, as well as spending time together today. I have just been oohing and ahing over Dave's baby photos!

Other events on the trip so far have included staying with Dave's friend Mark who has only just moved into his house and is having plumbing trouble. He is a great person, a wonderful example of generosity and hospitality under difficult circumstances.

I have also visited a market and some stores here. The shopping possibilities look very positive, but so far I have been very self controlled!

I am grateful to God for what has happened so far on our trip. It is a wonderful opportunity, and I hope to make the most of it! My back pain has not been too bad most of the time, but I'd still appreciate your prayers in that regard.

This place is different to anywhere I have visited before, and it is a great blessing to see more of God's earth and meet his people here.

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Starting the New Year

I am on the Vison Forum email list. Recently Doug Phillips sent out an email titled "How to end 2006" which is available on his blog at this link. I found this email very helpful. I am not planning to follow all the advice it contains this year, but I do want to incorporate more of these practices into my life.

As Mr. Phillips notes: "If we don’t take the time to chronicle the providences of God, we forget them. If we don’t take the time to say thank you to those who have invested in our lives, we actually cultivate a spirit of ingratitude in our own hearts. If we don’t stop and make sure that we have a spirit of forgiveness towards others we grow bitter, we lose the capacity to move victoriously into the future, and our prayers are hindered."

I particularly enjoyed what Doug Phillips wrote about expressing gratitude to those who have invested in our lives. I want to grow in this practice. Last year I held a Christmas party, and one of my aims was to express gratitude to the various people in my life. This year I did not have time to organise an event like this. However, it was a blessing to somehow find the time to write a card thanking the people I have worked with this year. I am very glad I was able to do this.

What Doug Phillips wrote about bitterness was also very helpful.

"Here is my recommendation: Think through every grief, minor and major, caused by others to you in the year 2006. Now add to the list any other personal offenses that continue to linger from past years. Write these down as bullets on a sheet of paper.

The first thing you will likely realize is just how many offenses are polluting your thought life, and, probably, your spirit. This is a sign of latent bitterness. Bitterness will kill you. It renders you completely ineffective.

Now prayerfully walk through the list — bullet, by bullet. With each offense remind yourself that the most despicable action taken against you by another, utterly (and infinitely) pales in comparison to the least of your offenses against the Lord Jesus Christ."

I will probably not have time to do this before I head off to South Africa, or while I am there. However, it sounds like a useful thing to do. I know my own tendancy to become hurt and to find it hard to let go. I am very aware of the dangers of bitterness and I pray that God will spare me this.

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Small things remind us of God’s character

After I wrote my post on the desires of our hearts, I began to think about the fact that it is often through small things that God reminds us of large and important truths. It is as though in our finiteness we need some context in which to grasp and realise anew truths that are otherwise abstract. My friend Felicity shared experiences from her trip to New Zealand in an email to me. This was another reminder that small events in life can help us to focus on God’s character.

“ I have really found it comforting it understand how God is in control of every moment of our lives and to rest on the truth that what he has determined before time to happen no man can change. It has been a real comfort to me these last few days. I went for a 6 hour bushwalk last Thursday on a track that promised to have wonderful views and was disappointed that on our way up the mountain to start the walk it started to rain, and throughout the day the weather only got colder and reduced visibility except for a few moments when the clouds lifted and a spectacular view was revealed. But as I started the walk it struck me that while I hadn't wanted it to be cold or cloudy God had known long before I got there what conditions I would face and he had prepared me for the trip and knew what I would face. While God held off the rain until the last 2 hours of the walk, and I know that he could of provided a fine clear sky, sunny day. It was a tremendous comfort to know that whatever happened he was in control and that his plans can't be thwarted.”

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Always poor?

The man who covets is always poor.
Claudian.

Our rich societies abound with people who imagine themselves to be poor. Many people who belong to the middle class complain about being poor when in reality they are richer than most people on earth. Even the poorest in Australia are often richer than most people who have ever lived.

Their perception that they are poor is a result of comparing themselves to those who are richer. Yet having food, clothing, shelter, and even a small amount of disposable income with which to buy consumer goods that are not essential for life is an indication of wealth in world and historical terms. Until last century the money to buy nonessential goods was out of the reach of most people. Now nearly everyone in Australia, even single mothers, can afford to buy many toys for their children. Most people have at least some furniture, and even the “poor” often own a car.

When people look at all the products available in the enormous number of stores, or think about the house they would like to have, they realise they cannot have everything they want and conclude that they are poor. No matter how much their situation improves, they always note the things they do not have. This perception is a result of covetousness, and it is an exercise in ingratitude for what God has given. With this mindset, people are always poor.

I pray that God will spare me this mindset, which I often catch myself displaying. Every time I say I am poor, I am expressing ingratitude for the abundance God has given.

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Excitement and more excitement

Happy New Year! The past couple of weeks seem to have been a whirl of excitement for me, and the whirl will not be ending any time soon!

As if Mike and Christine's engagement BBQ was not enough excitement, the next day our friends from Texas came to visit Tasmania for the first time in ten years . . .

Dianne, Mum, Bethany, me.

The Bewshers used to live here, but moved to the USA ten years ago. I visited them in Texas three and a half years ago. It was good to meet with them and have them come around for dinner.

A couple of days after that I had to go up to Launceston (two and a half hours drive) to the school where I worked all year. We had a Presentation Night where the children performed and certificates were presented . . . a chance to say last goodbyes!

Later that week John Dekker and some other friends came for dinner and games. I invited John months ago via his blog after he posted about some of the unusual games he enjoys. We played a card game called Citadels and it was fun . . .


The next day it was my friend Christina's concert as part of the trio Eden. They played a beautiful variety of music.


Mike and Christine were there, and their adoration of the baby was obvious . . .


Afterwards we enjoyed going out for dessert.

Before we knew it, Christmas arrived. I spent a lot of time preparing for Christmas, as I decided to make Dave a scrapbook as a present and it took me longer than I expected! I kept having to put it away and get it out as well, because he kept coming to visit :). I couldn't wait to give it to him until Christmas day, Christmas eve afternoon had to do! Dave gave me a lovely necklace, which I am looking forward to wearing a lot.

We spent Christmas eve with our friends the Downes family.

Christmas day was made much more joyous by the presence of three small children . . .


and Dave . . .


One of my presents was a picnic hamper, and we recently took if for a picnic beside a river . . .

On New Year's Eve it was fun to go to church. We had an unusual service outside and we brought our dinner . . . another chance to use the hamper! It was a blessing to think about the New Year from God's perspective and pray together. Dave and I stayed up to see in the New Year, overlooking the waterfront near my home with the moon shimmering brightly.

I am now trying to have a couple of day's rest before we set out on our South African adventure. The last week has been full of lots of travel considerations! On Thursday we will be there. I do not expect to be able to post any more pictures until after we return on January 19.

Soon after arriving back I will be leaving again, this time for Sydney. This year I am commencing a Diploma of Education by correspondance, which requires an orientation session in Sydney in late January and early February. I expect the Diploma to take up much of my time this year.

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