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Category: Our Life

  • The New Year – 2015

    The New Year – 2015

    Well after a big 2014 it is 2015 already, and a ton of things are already looming on the horizon. Firstly and briefly the blog has had a bit of a redesign, to indulge in my Art Deco appreciation phase (revived in no small part from visiting the Hoover Dam during my trip to SBL) .

    We also have Caleb’s first birthday coming up, as well as Gill changing practices for her next GP terms, and I’m hopefully starting further study. All of that though is in the future, so in the first few weeks of the year we will be taking stock and going a bit slower.

    Ill certainly have to be going a bit slower, as the other item of note during the New Years break were 10407523_10152877889130944_7042218840394785802_nliterally some breaks. I spent Boxing Day evening in a fetching neck brace, and have a few arm fractures from a cycling accident. Healing up well though, and it could have been worse, Ill spare the gory photos.

    Expect more blogging this year, I have planned out a couple of series on study and organisation techniques,  plus some on fallacies and biases, along with some work I have been engaged with over the last little while. All of that is to come though. For now, its time to rest.

  • Another Chapter Done

    Another Chapter Done

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    I know I haven’t posted a Wordle for a while, but today I thought I would resurrect the practice. I submitted my major project/thesis for my M.Div/G.D.Theol today (in triplicate).

    In many ways this feels like the stepping stone that my ‘honours’ thesis was so many years ago (in quotes because it wasnt awarded for credit), and hopefully I will be admitted to the PhD program next year. More on that later. But in celebration here is the Wordle of my 16,262 words on the topic of Johannine Christology:

    Wordle

  • Mid-Year Update and Some Changes

    Mid-Year Update and Some Changes

    10415719_10152436496975944_2208083270736219867_nOk firstly a quick mid-year update, Caleb is now just past 4 months old and growing well, his cheeky and gregarious personality is coming to the fore and its great to be able to spend more time with him as he grows up. On a study front last week I finished my last coursework component of my now triplicate of degrees, and am moving firmly into the research phase of the Masters and starting to consider options for PhD candidature. One component of this will be going part time for the next 6 months as I finish off my thesis and look after Caleb while Gill starts back in GP land to finish off the term she began last year. Hopefully this will give me more time to do some writing and thinking, along side the thesis, other research, tutoring and a bit of teaching I’m doing at Ridley with the ESL students there.

    Which brings me to the second point of this post. Those eagle eyed readers (ha) and anyone else who looks at dates, will have noticed that this blog has been pretty silent since the end of last year. A lot of this from my end has been because ive been doing my ‘writing-thinking’ in different forums and on other media. However, in an attempt to revitalise my writing and thinking process I will be reshuffling this blog slightly to include more content that traditionally hasnt been found on here. For example many readers who have come for the theology and study stuff probably have no idea that I am also involved in this:

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    That’s my 1983 Toyota Sprinter Improved Production car, which I have dragged around half of the country for the past 10 years as it has transitioned from a road car to a race car. Or perhaps these few little hobbies:

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    That is mountain biking, 3D printing (and generally making stuff) and beer brewing respectively. I have generally kept all of these ‘garage’ hobbies separate from this blog, but in the interests of providing a rounder picture (and more content) on this blog, I figure that they may as well make their home here too.

    “But what if I don’t know anything about these things?” I hear you cry, well maybe you might learn something, but if you don’t want to see them then we will be fairly fastidious with using the category feature a bit better so that you can subscribe to just one sub-feed of the main blog if you want.

    Expect some of these changes to come in the next little while, and there to be a redesign at some point during that period too. 🙂

     

     

  • A new addition

    MG-8585,largeFor the last few months we have been more than a little slack with updating this blog, for various reasons like moving house, work, busyness etc etc. None are excuses, but all are reasons. However, perhaps one of the biggest changes has been the addition of this little guy to our family.

    Caleb Joseph Porter was born on the 12th of February 2014, weighing 3.57kg. Given the delay to this post he is now over a month old and much larger again.

     

    But he is our little boy, and he has certainly made his mark on our lives.

    Also hopefully this blog will also return to its usual programming eventually. 🙂

  • Second Semester – an Update

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    Well after a few weeks break from updating the blog over the winter holidays, its time to start semester 2 now. So I thought it would be appropriate to give a small update as to where we are at now.

    For my studies its simply the start of Semester 2, which means another swathe of subjects (Luke, Isaiah, Church Ministry and Sacraments, and Ethics), as well as continuing on with preaching, leading at church and the other bits and pieces of life.

    For Gill though things are changing. As she hinted about in an earlier blog post (http://www.porterblepeople.com/2013/05/its-been-a-bit-quiet-around-here/) the plans we had made for 2014 have been up in the air and have changed fairly significantly. Originally we were planning on heading back to Adelaide in 2014 for Gill to continue her GP training, but in God’s providence she has been able to secure a transfer to the Melbourne training provider and in fact starts her first GP term this week, at the start of August. This has opened the door for us to stay in Melbourne for 2014, and for Gill to continue her GP training at the same time. She will still be heading over to India in September and October for 5 weeks, which will fit well with her GP training.

    We aren’t precisely sure what 2014 will look like at this stage, as I’m still intending on pursuing some form of a post-graduate research degree, although what that looks like we don’t quite know yet. But the big news is that we wont be back in Adelaide in 2014, but will rather be staying in Melbourne.

    We hope that we can still keep up with all our friends in Adelaide though, even if we aren’t around physically.

  • Still alive….

    Marino View

    As with a lot of things over the summer we too have gone into a bit of hibernation. But we haven’t disappeared altogether.

    Over the last few weeks we have been able to return to Adelaide for a bit of rest and recuperation, well for me at least. Gill is currently doing an International Medical course called Intermed that will comprise the final subject for her Grad Dip and also a bit of a refresher on some international medicine before starting her Public Health term in late Jan.

    We have been extremely blessed by being able to not only stay with some of our close friends, but to do so up at their family beach house in Marino (see the view above).

    Soon it will again be all steam ahead, with the 2013 CMS Summer Encounter starting tomorrow, and with preparations for the upcoming semester at Ridley to be finalised, and much more reading to be done.

    For now though, the view up here is rather enticing, and the cycling is starting to heat up before the TDU, and reading calls….

  • Being Thankful…

    Today in chapel we had the privilege of hearing from Peter Brain, the recently retired Archbishop of Armidale, speaking on the topic of thankfulness. His brief message struck a chord with me, especially with the degree to which our society and culture is somewhat less than thankful for the things that we have.

    At the moment this is probably best seen with the Australian response to the Olympic medal haul, and the accusations that are flying around in response to the less than optimal results.

    All too often this sort of attitude pervades our churches and our Christian walk as well, rather than being thankful for even the little things that we do have in life. How much does the whinging and negativity of our world spill over and threaten to drown the church. How much would we, and our communities be changed by being thankful for what we have, even things as little as the sunset.

    In all of this I’m reminded of the power of being thankful, and of the transformative attitude which that brings. I don’t think I’ve seen it presented more clearly than in the life of Mary Karr, a poet and essayist. She writes:

    So Tom suggested that I start thanking God as I went through the day. And I said, ‘What are you talking about?’ He said, ‘Well, you know, if your car has a flat and somebody stops and helps you, just say thanks.’ I said, ‘That’s ridiculous.’ But again, over time I started doing it, and I found a kind of quiet core ‘south of my neck’ is the only way I can put it, where I began to get some sense of peace or certainty or clarity or quiet, just a kind of quiet.

    …

    But all of a sudden it was almost like the world bloomed into being. I realised that I had been so focused on complaint for most of my life that I had just missed a lot of the good things that were going on. My world view, which I had thought of as so ‘realistic’ because I didn’t believe in God, was in fact very warped by a kind of naturally depressive state of mind. It’s almost like the world was black and white and it started to bleed into technicolour before my eyes.

    You can read more of her story here: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/encounter/unlikely-catholics-addiction-conversion-and-poetry/3255234 it is certainly a powerful testimony to God working through thankfulness.

    Personally its a challenge to me as well, all too often I find myself beset with a complaining spirit, rather than stopping to give thanks, and in talking to the people around me I don’t think I’m in any way unique in this.

    Perhaps we should all be stopping more often to give thanks in life, and how much of a difference would this make in our walk?

  • Holidays and Travelling… and the Reformation?

    It seems very strange that an entire semester has passed already, but indeed it has, and we have marked the end of semester with the usual venerable exam week; then it will be holidays.

    One of the great opportunities which Ridley offers is the chance to get a hands on experience of various sites and places which have helped shape the Christian faith, such as Israel, Palestine and Jordan; or Turkey Greece and Italy; and even the heartland of the reformation: Germany and Switzerland. The reformation tour is of particular interest to us through the various readings which we have done, and also my interest in Reformed history. However, unfortunately, the Ridley tour, while it would be great, is out of our budget as a couple.

    So then, what is this holiday that I have seen on the Book of Faces, and written about here on the blog, you ask? Well, in lieu of actually being able to join in on the Ridley reformation tour we have decided to go on our own tour, courtesy of all of those pesky frequent flyer points that I’ve accumulated over the years of having to fly for work. So, while saying thanks to all of the jobs that have flown me around in the past, we cashed in most of our points and got extremely cheap flights to Europe. In addition seeing as this year will probably be the only time in the foreseeable future that we have a whole six unencumbered weeks free at the same time, we decided to make the most of it and go for pretty much the entire holidays.

    Over the next five weeks, leaving on Saturday, we will be travelling around Europe and the UK roughly following an extended Reformation tour. I have plotted our rough itinerary in Google Maps below:

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    Along the way we will be catching up with some family who will be there at the same time. My dad will be in Heidelberg for a little while before a conference in Spain, and so we will be catching up with him there. Its a great opportunity to be shown around Heidelberg as my parents spent several years living there while studying at the university.
    In the UK we will be meeting up with Gill’s parents as they are currently there for the Queens Jubilee celebrations, and some other family gatherings; as well as meeting up with Gill’s family who live in the UK.

    As we travel we are hoping to be able to update the blog with things we are learning and a few photos. We will be trying to document our travels in the same fashion as the Ridley students have to for the assessment for their course, and we will be taking some reading material on the journey. The first two books on the reading list are a pair of biographies, firstly Calvin, by F. B. Gordon and secondly Luther by Kittleson.

    Keep an eye on this space for updates from Europe, and our thoughts on the books. We are very grateful for this opportunity to be able to travel and learn more about the reformation as we do so, and many thanks again to all of my previous employers who have had a hand in making this happen 😉

  • Unpacking the container

    As most of you would be well aware, we have been moving to Melbourne over the last few weeks in order to study at Ridley college. One of the biggest stages in this move has been the packing and subsequent unpacking of the container at the other end.

    What took us 4 days to pack, in a giant game of Tetris, into the container was unpacked in a mere 2h30m with our merry band of unloaders. Furthermore, through the powers of modern technology I have compacted that two and a half hours down into a nice couple of minute video for your viewing pleasure.

    [tube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHU5cjp6CLQ[/tube]

    However, there is still so much more to do, for the last week since the container was unpacked we have been slowly setting up house with the Urmstons who we are house sharing with (their blog is here: http://urmstons.blogspot.com/).

    For now though Gill and I are down at Victor Harbor for CMS South Australia Summer Encounter 2012, and being heartily encouraged by the speakers: Bishop Mouneer of Egypt and the Middle East, Lindsay Brown from Lausanne and formerly IFES, and the incoming CMS Federal Secretary Peter Rogers.

    It has been a great day and a bit of break from the unpacking, and we pray that it will rejuvenate us for what is yet to come, before college starts.