Counselling Intensive

I spent a few days this week at what is called an Intensive in Counselling. We were shown by the instructor some of the techniques of counselling. Some of it was intense as some who acted ajavascript:void(0)s clients were talking about real issues in their lives. So thats why there were some tissue boxes situated around the room. Three quarters of the students were women. One of the men was working in an organisation which was contracted by the Federal Government to help long-term unemployed. Others dealt with women who were escaping abuse. The assessment is a bit scary. We have to have our own interview with a client, showing our use of the techniques we were supposed to have used (paraphrasing, summarising etc. Should be an interesting task, now to find a volunteer.

Obama and McCain

I am Australia and yet have been following the US election so much that my wife thinks I should get a life. The campaign, primaries and post-nomination are sooooooooo long. After watching FOX it is easy to see where their support lies. I think Murdoch has made it known he supports McCain. The blogs and Internet newspapers like the Huffington Post give you so much information. What happens to the American economy is important to me as I have a few years before I retire and the superannuation fund has taken a hit.
I have seem some nasty comments from so called religious people like Wright and James Dobson. The Australian media is more polite and you would never last in Australia if you ranted on like Bill O'Reilly.Well I better sign off and watch the debates.

More Bonhoeffer

A Journey around my Daughters - The Coleslaw

We attempted as the girls grew up to have at least Sunday lunch together as a family seated around the main table. I obtained a reputation for making a great coleslaw, described by one daughter as "yummy". First I cut the cabbage really fine, almost like straw. I then addded onion, carrot. celery, apple, red peppers and added a nice mao. Not to much as it makes it too sloppy which you find sold in some fast food outlets but enough to give a nice taste.Place a lettece leaf on the plate and add the coleslaw. Around that add chicken/ham beetroot, tomatoe etc.Generally there is usually none left at the end of the meal.
Nowdays the family meal seems to have disappeared, with families too busy with extra-curricular activities to have time to sit around the table for dinner. I found when our TV broke and we never had TV for months, we did more talking and playing games than any other time.

Mormonism - My Experience

When I was a young man (19) I came in contact with the Mormon church in Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia. I had had problems as Lutheran with the doctrine of the Trinity and Mormonism seemed to offer a better explanation. Sometime later when I left the college I was enrolled in, my sister brought me to live in Brisbane. She found me lodging of all places two blocks away from the Mormon chapel on 200 River Terrace, Kangaroo Point, Brisbane. I was baptized a week later.
Years later as part of a youth activity we got together with some Seventh Day Adventist youth and I got to know a guy called Terry Sheehy. He was an avid collector of books like I was. He had some books published by Tanners who ran a ministry for Mormons in Salt Lake City. I read some of the material, especially on the First Vision of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. One writer who was really involved in research in early Mormon history was a Reverend Wes Walters. Joseph Smith mentions on his account of his visitation by God and his Son Jesus Christ that there was a huge revival going on in his neighborhood and this motivated him to go and pray in a grove of trees and he then received the visitation. Walters decided to research as to whether there were any revivals in the area and in his opinion there were none in spring 1820, the time Smith alleged there were but some did occur in 1823-24.
This started me on to the exit out of the Mormon church. There were other doctrinal and historical issues which I will leave to later posts. There were good things that came from my association with the LDS church. I never took up smoking or drinking. While after leaving the LDS church I did drink sometimes, I found it easy to stop.

Importance of Family

Helen and I have 4 daughters and two grandsons with another due tomorrow (3rd Marh 2008). Life seems to go so fast when you get older. I am really aware of making it a priority to spend time with my family and tell them I love them frequently. Men assume women always know that and don' realise they like to hear it from us.

My interests in Blogging

Having read many a blog I am interested in what many people think about different issues. I have made a goal in my later years (now) to make an effort to gain as much knowledge as I can about the lives of J S Bach, G K Chesterton, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and C S Lewis. A sublist I will study are the lives of three importantAmerican religious leaders/founders are Joseph Smith (Mormon), Ellen G White (Seventh Day Adventist) and Russell (JWs).

The last year I have been reading material on C S Lewis. a biography by Michal White , who I met personally during Brisbane Writers Week last year. I also have a dvd put out by PBS (US) called the Question of God which compares the lives and work of both C S Lewis and Sigmund Freud.