THEY WENT TO THE GARDEN

1. They went to the garden, one less than before;
he tried to prepare them for what was in store.
Maybe they suspected and maybe they guessed
the soldiers were coming to make their arrest.
They went to the garden, they sang an old song;
last orders were over, last supper was gone.

2. We hear how it happened, again and again,
do we try to step back from now into then?
How would we have acted? What would we have said?
Would we have been Peter or Judas instead?
each one by the fire, just warming our hands,
we hear ourselves saying, ‘I don’t know the man’.

3. They went to the garden, how could they have known
we’d still tell the story two thousand years on?
They said they’d defend him, they promised to stay,
but sleep overcame good intentions that day.
They went to the garden, of course he was scared —
he knew death was coming. He prayed to be spared.

4. Betrayed for some money that never got spent,
no angels to save him from Pilate’s consent.
And though we would never have done it this way,
God reclaimed the world from the Devil that day.
They went to the garden, the day had begun
when evil was beaten, and goodness had won.

5. O Jesus, we act as if nothing has changed,
like heaven and earth haven’t been rearranged;
pretend that we’re better, and bigger, and more
— we seem to forget no-one’s keeping a score.
Help us to love bolder and freer like you;
to see and to hear and to speak and to do.
May all that you’ve given us keep coming through.
Goodbye to the old world — hello to the new.

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.