Another week away

Last night at about 10.30 I arrived home from yet another week away - that made three weeks in a row! It's good to be home.














I went to Melbourne to take part in Crossway Baptist Church annual leadership conference. I think this is the third Crossway Conference I have been to. Again it was a great week of inspiration, insight and learning. There were three speakers this year - Gordon Moyes of Sydney and Canberra fame, and then two overseas speakers who I hadn't come across before - Leith Anderson from the USA and Edmund Chan from Singapore. Whilst I found the endless stories from Gordon Moyes about what a marvellous fella he is somewhat tiring - the other speakers were marvellous and had much to offer.

Of course whilst I was in Melbourne I stayed with Dad and Mum. At the end of the conference I enjoyed a day out with Dad and Mum down at Sorrento. After a wild walk on the back beach we settled down to lunch in a little cafe overlooking the water. The food was a little overpriced and ordinary, bu the view was magnificent.







Let the final picture go to one who who has never made a blog page before - Grandad's little dog, 'Monty'

Karina's 21st Birthday

It was a special treat last night to attend Karina's 21st birthday. We were told to dress in movie star attire and walk the red carpet upon arrival. After clocking up my 102 laps at Bike for Bibles, I scrubbed up ready to head off to the big event.


It was a great delight to see Aunty Audrey and Lyndel had come over for the big event. They drove their car and came on the ferry. Then it was a further surprise to see David and Rosie arrive. It seemed like a real Holt family reunion.

A highlight of the night was a presentation by Karina's three sisters. It was all made possible by the live video link via the internet to Nat in the USA. Brenda the IT wiz had connected a laptop to their nice new big screen TV and it seemed just like Nat was right there in the room as the three girls took turns in telling the most amazing stories about Karina.


Karina looked sensational and all in all a wonderful night of good friends, family and of course some amazing supper to top it all of.

Back in the saddle

Well it's been nearly two years since I have been on the bike. It was a bit dusty and covered in cobwebs - the bike that is! Bike For Bibles invited me to participate in a half day event at a local bike track in Hobart. I managed to round up another six riders from our church and off we set. I took it fairly slow for obvious reasons, but managed to clock up 102 laps - a distance of about 46 k's. Of course there were some young super fit riders there on nice bikes just to let you know how far you are from your better days - but it was all fun.

Magnetic Bruny

Just come back from almost a week at Bruny Island - I'm almost tempted to call it Magnetic Island. Jo and I ventured over last Sunday afternoon and enjoyed a night together with just the two of us. On Monday afternoon Jo returned alone to Hobart whilst I stayed on and was joined by my pastor's retreat group. Seven of us spent five days sharing, praying, walking and of course eating and drinking together. Once again it was a real privilege to be able to share at such a deep and significant level with such a great group of guys.

It's hard to come up with new photos of the beach at Bruny as I have posted so many in the past, but here are a small sample of this weeks selections.




I'm only home for the weekend and then on Monday I am off to Melbourne for the annual leadership conference at Crossway Baptist church.

Breakfast with Phil Pringle

This morning Jo and I have been on the go early - early that is for a Saturday. We had two invitations on the one morning. The first was to a pastor's breakfast at local restaurant where the guest of honor would be Pastor Phil Pringle from Oxford Falls in Sydney. Best of all it was all free. I have said for many years if you want to succeed in getting a group of pastors together for something - offer them a free feed. It always works. This morning was no exception. About 40 pastors crammed into a relatively new north Hobart restaurant simply called 'Fish'. As the name would suggest they seem to serve a lot of seafood, but today they excelled themselves in supplying cooked breakfasts for all the pastors.



After a hearty meal Phil spoke to us and was his usual colorful self. He had plenty to say about quite a number of subjects and I noticed that as he spoke more of the staff seemed to be moving closer to listen in. Phil spoke of some of the horrible things churches do to men. He spoke with great passion about the need to engage men in what we do. He called us to a deeper level of prayer saying that without much prayer ministry will soon be pretty dull and dry and be devoid of power.



After our breakfast Jo and I headed straight off to the Jam Packed Cafe down on the waterfront. This was another free feed compliments of our churches Eating With Friends ministry team. Lib Cooper who leads this ministry invited her whole team along for a special treat. Maybe my constant urging of people to take time to appreciate and honor one another is getting through. I was delighted to be there and share in a wonderful morning and watch a ministry team just enjoy being together. I reckon if we did this sort of thing more often in our churches - maybe we would keep our volunteers longer.



After much deliberation I settled on a selection of Pecan Pie and coffee

London Bridge

Last week we were back in Warrnambool. We were invited back to take a wedding for a couple of good friends. The whole family decided to come along with the exception of Simon who chose a trip to Sydney instead. We enjoyed a great week and whilst we were there Jo and I took off for a night down at Port Campbell. We scored a wonderful unit just a short distance from town.



We spent some time looking at some of the sights along the Great Ocean Road and then returned to our unit where I cooked a delicious steak dinner for two and then enjoyed a candle lit spa (no photos I'm afraid!!) The only problem we had with the spa was that Jo decided to use a whole bottle of bubbles and so we were both lost in the bubbles. At least all the bubbles meant you had some added privacy! The other problem we encountered was that the mountains of bubbles also flowed over the candles and put some of them out and so it got darker as the night went on!



The day we left for Warrnambool I snapped this photo in our front yard. It's a good reminder that spring is here.

And they said I killed the tree

Last year I took to the tree out the front of our house. I hit my head on it once too often and gave it a savage pruning. All my family thought the tree would never survive and that I had killed it. Well look at it now!

Father's Day Lunch

Well breaking with a long standing tradition we actually did it. We booked! Our family always goes out together for both Mother's day and Father's day lunch each year - but we always forget to book. We then have the arduous task of walking the street looking for some restaurant with room to spare for just six of us. This year we booked in advance. We chose a table at the Waratah Hotel, just up near Simon's school in Elizabeth Street. The advertise regularly in the paper each week and each Sunday they do a roast dinner for the bargain price of $6.00.

All the foody details will be left for a very stimulating article on my food page - 'Coffee Food and Wine in Hobart' You can check it out. There is a link to it on the side bar.

It was a delight to have Simon's friend Liz join with us for the occasion.













Our lunch followed our morning service conducted by our children's ministry team - and what a marvelous job they did too. They took the theme, 'God's Wise Guys' and presented lots of fascinating insights into the book of Proverbs.

We also got to see John Kingshott, our chairman of elders as we had never seen him before.











I also happened to get this great photo of Enoch and Bunmi together. Enoch is also an elder of our church.

Emily is on the road

Congratulations to Emily

This week she passed her learner's permit test on her first attempt. The interest now is whether she will actually have a drivers licence before the boys - every chance we think. Well done Em. Come for a drive in an XR6.