The Roaming 5: Day 79 (April 19)

The rain carried on on and off during the night, but we all slept quite well and didn't wake until about 8:00-8:30. No itching from midges, no delightful kookaburras waking us up at 6am after a hot sticky itchy night. Oh, it felt like luxury! Again, I love the outdoors and camping in nature, including with kookaburras in the morning; but after the time we'd had at Buxton Bush Camp this just felt so delightful!

Being Sunday, I took the boys for Sunday School while Mim took Bek. The boys and I went through Solomon's building of the temple, while Bek was looking at the character of Daniel. After our sleep-in, we'd started Sunday School a bit late, around 11, and didn't finish until nearly 12. So we then had some lunch and then did our own memorial meeting.

We looked at the daily reading of Deuteronomy 2, and saw how God provided clear direction to Israel during their journey towards the promised land that they should NOT attack Edom, Moab or Ammon. All these nations were distant relatives to whose forefathers God had promised an inheritance - which inheritance they had now taken. So Israel was not to interfere with these even though they were not Godly nations or friendly to Israel. This showed a good lesson of how God always keeps His promises, and therefore we can be confident in the promises God makes to us about the impending return of Christ and the real option we have for choosing to be part of that glorious time.

After our meeting we all had an hour's sleep, and then, since it was still gloomy outside, decided to watch a DVD we'd bought a few days ago of Born Free. I saw this as a kid in primary school and could still remember the theme song, so when I saw it in a throwout pile at the Childers supermarket a few days ago I decided to get it. We don't typically buy DVD or have movies and videos as a big feature of our family, as we feel there are better habits to be learning than just screen entertainment, but occasionally we find something we feel is appropriate and show the kids. This was a delightful film. If you're not familiar with it, it's based on a true story of an English lady living with her gamekeeper husband in Africa in the 1960's. They have to shoot a lion and lioness who have become aggressive, and then discover they had three cubs which the two humans then take and rear. Two of them are sent to a zoo but one, Elsa, was a particular favourite and they kept her. As Elsa grew into a full-size lioness, it was clear she could no longer stay with them, but they didn't want her stuck in a caged zoo. The rest of the film tracks how they dealt with the moral dilemma of wanting an animal to have its freedom, but having given it such a safe life that it would be unlikely to survive if released into the wild.

Gorgeous sunset along Woodgate Beach

Just around sunset we decided to go for a quick stroll down to the beach. The front part of the caravan park was deserted as we walked through its driveways. Hardly a car moved on the esplanade and the water was quietly lapping across the road. There was a small cafe open nearby selling fish and chips, so we made a flash decision to buy that for dinner. Like most businesses, they were doing it tough but were trying to stay open.

The fish and chips were delicious. They had Barramundi, Cod, Whiting and Flathead varieties, and we got some of each.

We finished with the John reading, well we are slightly behind in fact, so it was John 10 and 11 tonight, but both provided good food for thought. John 10 showed Christ as the Good Shepherd who was prepared to give everything for the sake of the sheep; and John 11 of course showed not only his power to raise Lazarus from the dead, but just how stubborn humans can be when they are fixed on a particular view and refuse to accept the facts (as the Pharisees were, who wanted to have the resurrected Lazarus killed again because so many people believed on Jesus because of him!). There are so many lessons in the Bible, and even though it's so ancient, human nature is the same today as it was then so it is still so useful for helping us learn how we should live before God.

Before bed we just had to do the Calamine Lotion Routine, which we also did last night, i.e. painting Mim, Bek and Judah in what looks like war paint to try to get rid of the itches from the midges!