CRYING TREE

1. Beneath a crying tree, sometimes I lie,
torn by my wondering: Why, God, O why?
Why all this hurt within? Why such an empty sky?
Why all these senseless wrongs? Why, God, O why?

2. Christ on the crying tree, waiting to die:
why, God, forsake me now, why, God, O why?
God, can you now forgive? God, will you help me die?
God, do you feel my pain? God, can you cry?

3. Christ, if I wound myself under your tree,
will all the pain escape? Will I be free?
Christ, help me find within faith in myself again.
Help me discover you under my pain.

4. Is love the only way someone survives?
Is love the blood that heals wounds in our lives?
What if I took the leap, claiming my painful cries
were simply God’s deep love, helping me rise!

5. Beneath the crying tree, Christ knows my cry,
feels all the hurts I feel, knows how I die.
Deeper than bleeding wounds, deeper than hidden veins,
deeper than death itself — Christ feels the pain.

ALWS 5/10/23

To say I've been inactive on my website is a serious understatement! I've written nothing here since early 2021. 

So, does this mean the world has stopped for us, that nothing is happening?
A major event for us in 2022 was moving house in October. We had been in Modbury Heights since July 1993.Now we're back in Klemzig.

In May we travelled to the Mentawai Islands in Indonesia, seeing work supported by Australian Lutheran World Service. Dorothy and I are Ambassadors for the ALWS programme, Lives You Touch. We are encouraging people to leave money in their will for the work of ALWS. We committed to leave a third of our will many years ago and hope many others can touch lives in this way.
Since then we have visited Box Hill & Loxton with Jonathan & Julie Krause as part of the Asante presentations, promoting the cause of ALWS. Still to come this year are Asante events in Toowoomba & Rochedale (Nov 26 & 27) and Perth (Dec 10)

Looking forward to seeing many people on these occasions.