My department has been working on a report for the last couple of months that was released to the media yesterday as part of Anglicare's Christmas appeal launch. It's the first time that I have ever written something for the public, and even though very few people outside of the industry will read it, it was still kind of cool to have something out there that was covered in the news for a fleeting moment.

The report was an update on a larger report my co-workers put together in June. It was an analysis of trends among people who access emergency relief services from Anglicare - the kind of help that comes in the form of emergency financial assistance for people who are really struggling to pay bills and buy food. The previous report identified that

- single mothers
- indigenous people
- people in public housing
- people who lived alone

were massively overrepresented.

It also called for a better emergency relief model. Many single mothers, indigenous people, single person households and people in public housing struggle with many other social and financial issues that can't be addressed by giving them a food hamper or paying off an occasional electricity bill. The government currently only funds organisations like Anglicare for this kind of assistance. When emergency relief staff spend time helping people negotiate centrelink or helping people access counselling services, parenting classes, drug and alcohol programs, budgeting classes or anything that isn't a financial transaction, the organisation has to subsidise it themselves.

Our update happened because we got an extra 5 months of data which helped us see how the global financial crisis impacted on these people. Firstly, there were more of them. The demand for services increased, although we couldn't actually help many more people because we were already operating at capacity. The same sorts of people were accessing services but, they were coming with different problems. Many many more people were coming because they were having trouble securing housing, and many many more were presenting with unemployment.

If you want to check out the report, you can find it here.

If you are more of a visual person, you can look at the wordle instead:




So yesterday, the report was made public, there were media releases and the report was covered by both Fairfax and News Limited with an identical story, although different headlines. I'm not sure how that works. This is my first experience like this, but somehow I wasn't surprised when the reports were dramatically incorrect. I am never complaining about poor journalism in the Sydney Anglican newspaper ever again. It has nothing on this. They just copied and pasted extracts of the Anglicare media release, and then got creative. They changed 'increased' to 'rocketed' and pulled out the biggest stats they could find from the media release. They also made up something about increasing requests for counselling and family services, even though (as I just mentioned) the only data we had was for people coming to financial assistance, and the media release was pretty straightforward about that. It's making me suspicious of most of what I have ever read in the newspapers.

I was off work sick yesterday with a headache exacerbated by allergies. In the morning it was a relief to stay home, but by the afternoon I was missing it and ready to go back.

Despite previously mentioned struggles with writing, I really love my job. I'm feeling it today when the writing has cultimated in completed reports. Two of them have reached some kind of end point today. The first one has been sent off to its stakeholders for review, and the second one is being beautified for public consumption. It feel so great when you can look over completed documents and think: here is the fruit of my labour.

Now that the writing is done, I have returned to GIS to fix up a series of maps so they are pretty enough for presentation. It's nice to be on this software again, there hasn't been any significant project work that required maps for a couple of weeks. But it's taking an awfully long time for everything to load, which is bad news for my fingernails. At times like this, I just sit and gnaw at them absent-mindedly as I wait for the screen to load. So it seems a bit more fruitful now to open up notepad and work at an entry. My fingernails are grateful.

Being a researcher and GIS-pro is fantastic, and it's nice to reflect on all the ways that God has prepared me for this through uni, and my personal interests, and the people who have influenced me. But there are some other dream jobs that I also wouldn't mind having if I had the right skills and I didn't have to go through even more training at TAFE or uni.

I love growing things, and I would love to have an outdoorsy job, like a landscape gardener or a conservationist job with National Parks and Wildlife services. Unfortunately, I have heard stories of the enourmous amount of work that my brother-in-law does as a greenkeeper and I'm sure that I don't have the stamina for it. So my compromise is to wish that I had a more promising green thumb and a little bit of earth (like in The Secret Garden) to grow my own things.

I love making things look nice, and I would love to be some kind of graphic designer. It would be amazing to understand how colour works, and to be a little bit aesthetically sensitive. But I have realised that although I can appreciate things that look good, and I can sharpen up things so they look a bit better, I don't have the streak of creativity that's needed to create things from scratch. So I guess for the time being I will enjoy making things look good in the capacity I have: making maps and charts at work and making icons at home.

I love the adrenelin of the stage, and I would love to have a job being a part of it in any way - a musician, a set designer, a sound engineer, a director, a stage hand. As long as it was in the background. I have a big problem with nerves! But where do I even start getting skill sets like these?! And the contacts that I'd need to find a job! And similarly to my problem with being a designer - I lack the particular type of creativity that's needed here. I'll be content then with my mum buying me ballet subscriptions (she is fantastic) and trips to see chamber orchestras and gigs and musicals and dance classes at the Sydney Dance Company. Those things are awesome fun in themselves anyway.

I love helping people understand more about who Jesus is, and I would love to do that all the time. The thing is, I already strive to do it all the time. The question I'm only now beginning to ask myself is: Do I personally want to actually do that as a job? (Am I already doing that working for Anglicare?)

For the time being, I am so happy here at Anglicare. I love that my hobbies are my hobbies, and my work is my work, and striving to serve Jesus and the church and his world is a permanent reality that pervades it all. Yeah, I think that is what I have arrived at, and it is good.

I am writing a report for work, and I am finding it difficult. I know the ideas that I want to convey, but finding the right words is beyond me. And then there is the problem of getting the tone just right. It needs to sound academic-y, but it also needs to be easy to read because it will be released to the media and if it is too boring, no one will read it. Ugh.

I feel like this everytime I write a report (this happens frequently in my job). My favourite way to describe it is 'drawing blood from a stone'.

So now I will just return and draw blood from that stone, stare blankly at my screen and then write and then rewrite one sentence at a time until everything comes together.

How come Sam and Toby could write so easily in the West Wing? If only I was like them, but less fictional.

I am no longer a student at Sydney University!

Graduating was a mix of a whole heap of different feelings. There was nostalgia seeing students going to class while I was thinking about never coming back again. There was joy spending the day with Matt and my family, and more joy seeing my friend Susie who came up to see me, and Jon and Ken who were there too. It was so much fun to wear those very old school medieval robes and it was very intimidating to walk up on stage in front of everyone. It was a relief to find out that I did in fact recognise people and that I was graduating with at least a handful of my classmates. It was also a relief to not wear rabbit fur on my hood.



This is a photo of me wearing one of the most old fashioned hoodies in the world.

This is my last installment from James. I've left my favourite passage for the end.

James writing about hearing God's Word

"Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away, and at once forgets what he looks like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer that forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing."

James 1:22-25

This morning involved an early trip to the doctor to get some antibiotics. I hate taking antibiotics, so it's kind of unfortunate. But sometimes you just need to take them, and this morning I realised that I was facing one of those times.

When I try to cram the doctor in before work, I have only one option. I must go to the worst doctors in the universe, the ones at Campsie Medical Centre. Capmsie Medical Centre is like the upmarket fast food restaurant of doctors surgeries. The centre is open from 7am to 10pm. There is a giant waiting room, and up to 8 doctors work at one time so the masses can be churned through at a helpful speed. It's hard to have a regular doctor there. You just go and see the first doctor available to you. So it's a convenient place, although I have had some slightly negative experiences there. Like one time, there was only one doctor working, and it was busy. I had a vaccination and the doctor left me to recover while he spoke to another patient. In his absence I had a seizure, much to the fear of my Dad, who was in the room with me at the time. When the doctor came back in he told me not to worry about it and made me go home. Quality care! Another time I had to get some tests done and the doctor was very busy, so he prescribed my drugs before I did the tests and then told me to go to the nurse for my tests. I'm sure that is a super-unethical thing for doctors to do.

Anyway. One of the nice things about going to Campsie Medical Centre before work is that I get to go to Campsie at 7:30 in the morning. Campsie really is a magical place. I keep joking to Matt that I want to move there, except that I don't think I am joking most of the time. This morning I got to witness about 20 elderly Chinese people doing their exercise regime in Anzac Park. The park is not very big. I think it could be subdivided into 6 or 8 properties. The old people were scattered around teh whole park, and one man stood in the middle and shouted out instructions for the others. They were star jumping, and squatting, and running on the spot. It was beautiful. When I got out of the doctors an hour later, they had been replaced by a slightly younger group of chinese people doing Tai Chi, but I guess that's not that unusual.

The doctor meant I was late to work this morning even though I drove in. I missed out on getting good parking, so I had to park on the distant side of Harris Park. It wasn't that bad really. Parking over there means I get to walk to work via the Harris Park Heritage walk, which takes me through the old farming estates that were established 200 years ago. There are still original buildings standing, and original trees. It was a beautiful walk to finish off a hectic morning. I will walk it again another time and take photos to share.

James writing about 'true religion'

"If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their afliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world."

James 1:26-27

If you are interested, I have made some icons of some period films (Northanger Abbey, North and South and Much Ado about Nothing) and also some icons from Top Gear - the episodes where the Stig catches a train across London and where they sail some cars across the English Channel. You can find them at my other livejournal over here.

James writing about oaths and promises

"But above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth, or by any other oath, but let your 'yes' be yes and your 'no' be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation."

James 5:12

Saturday was brilliant! I did three new things.

Firstly, I went to my very first craft group with some girls from my church. In fact, it was the first craft group that we have ever held. That sounds very old-lady-like, but it was actually very fun. Everyone had a different project going: knitting, patchwork quilting, card making, beading, embroidery, crochet. It was all so pretty.

Secondly, I went to my very first tap dance class at the Sydney Dance Company. I know that pretty much no one who reads this tap dances, so you may not know the absolutely awesome feeling it is to make music with your feet (to quote George from Play School). Well, it is an awesome feeling, and it had been almost five years since feeling it! I'm looking forward to going again.

Thirdly, I went to my very first football match. It was the Socceroos vs the Nederlands, and no one scored any goals. So pretty much we watched a game for a couple of hours and at the end, nothing had actually changed. It was kind of like watching an episode of the Simpsons, except a tiny bit less interesting. But still fun.

James writing about wealth

"Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure in the last days. Behold, the wages of the labourers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts."

James 5:1-4

James writing about good things and the constancy of God

"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures."

James 1:17-18

I have started reading James, a short letter towards the back of the bible, and I'm really enjoying it. James is very fiesty. His letter comes after a long list of letters from Paul. Sometimes when I read James, I feel like he has been waiting for a very long time for Paul to finish what he is saying. It's as though he has been bottled up for so long that he just lets loose! He says what is on his mind and he doesn't hold back to protect the pride or nice sensibilities of his audience. He just gives it to them.

To share the joy and challenge of James, I've decided to put up a short series of posts with my favourite bits of James as I read it. There will be no commentary at all, just the slabs of text that I find thought provoking. Please read, reflect and enjoy. Even if you've never picked up a bible in your life, it's good to read, if just for James' ecclectic writing style and amazing metaphors.

Enjoy!

__________________________

James writing about the tongue

"...We all stumble in many ways, and if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body. If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well. Look at the ships also: though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things.

How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set amoung our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell. For every kind of beast and bird, reptile and sea creature, can be tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.

With it we bless our Lord and Father and with it we curse people who were made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water."

James 3:2-12

My friend Jeremy has interviewed me for his blog, Michaiah Sells Out, and asked me some questions about the work I do for Anglicare.

Check it out over HERE!

In a bid to not let my journal fall asleep in these frantic days, I have specifically taken some time out to write out a few of things that have been occupying my thoughts and time.

Old People and Computers
I have been slowly writing a report at work about a project in one of our nursing homes where some high school kids volunteered to teach residents how to use computers and the internet. While writing it has been slow, for a multitude of reasons, it's been a really beautiful project to reflect on. The stories that have come out have been very inspiring. One lady had not spoken to anyone for 10 years, but then she was introduced to the Nintendo Wii and played Wii sport, and started interacting with people again. The connections made between the students and residents became so strong that some of the students returned to the nursing home to visit in their own free time, and have formed real friendships with the people that they worked with. It's tear jerking stuff. Hopefully I can write this evaluation well enough for all of that emotion to come through.

Dust and Cars
If you don't live on the East Coast of Australia you may not know that we had a freak giant dust storm on Wednesday, when millions of tonnes of dust from the outback was dumped on the cities and coastal towns. It was intriguing and gross simultaneously. Now the air is clear again, but I am noticing the red dust in crevices on footpaths, in gutters and in the corners of windows. It looks very strange. My favourite activity that has engrossed me since yesterday afternoon has been mentally approximating the proportion of cars that have already been washed (my greenie inclinations make me feel like washing your car with lots of water isn't that important). It is much higher than I expected. How vain we Sydneysiders are, that we feel like our cars can't wait even one day to be clean and shiny.

Stuff
I keep finding myself teetering on the brink of consuming way more than I need to. Having a proper income means that now I have money to spend where I like, and I'm finding it was too easy to justify spending on things that I don't need. I'm aware of it, which is helpful, but I feel like I am battling with consumerism on an even deeper level. I am starting to look forward to the 'buzz' I get when I get something new or set up a budget for something I really want. I know in my mind that I will never be content this way, that consumerism will never satisfy. I can quote to myself endless bible verses, social commentators and theologians to tell me how insubstantial this all is, but it's still hard, because of the feelings caught up in it. I really feel like I need to think and pray through this problem, and maybe work out a way to discipline myself better.

North and South
Elizabeth Gaskell is so hot right now. I devoured North and South and then got lost in the BBC miniseries, which Matt got me for my birthday. The book is, as always, much better, but I can live with the miniseries. It's very beautiful. Of course there is also Cranford, which has been a favourite since the start of the year. I have recently made friends with two sisters, who have moved here from Canada and are new to my church. They are die-hard North and South fans (the miniseries more than the book). We have planned to have a handful of girls nights and work our way through several period dramas. Whoo! It will be awesome.

High School Musical
Speaking of movie nights, my never ending quest to seek out people who would probably appreciate High School Musical continues. Mark is next on the agenda and I am very excited about watching HSM2 again, although not as excited as I would be if it were HSM3. Does anyone else want to indulge their inner mindless child and watch some Disney fluff with me?

Other People's Holidays
The next couple of months at work will be weird because everyone is taking leave except me and another person (who is only here one day a week anyway). My boss in in Europe for 6 weeks, the senior researcher is at a conference in New Zealand as I type, my supervisor will be in Cairns all next week for a geography conference, and my other colleagues are going away multiple times - honeymoon leave, study leave, personal leave, etc. I made a poster to put up in the open plan part of our section where I work. It says 'Policy Unit's fantastic springtime adventures'. Everyone who goes away has to send a postcard back to the office, where it will be attached to the poster. Already we have one from Townsville, but I am expecting many more, from France, Germany, Italy, Cairns, New Zealand, Tonga, the Hunter Valley and anywhere else that the policy unit happens to find itself between now and the end of November.

The end is practically here!
In a couple of weeks I am graduating! I am so so very excited. Also I am graduating with distinction. I'm not really sure what that means, but it sounds awesome. The best part of graduating is that I can take a day off work, and spend it with Matt and my mum and dad. I hope the weather is nice! I will be sending the policy unit a postcard of Sydney Uni (yes, they are available). My graduation is at 11:30. If you are around Sydney Uni on a Friday (Mark?) feel free to come after the ceremony and try on a square-shaped hat.

Congested American Roads
Sufjan Stevens is releasing a new CD/DVD inspred by the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway in New York. It sounds very quirky and exciting. Matt and I are looking forward to hearing it.

Matt was cleaning out his inbox and found an email I sent him in mid 2006, after we'd been going out for a month or two. It was an alphabet. It was so much fun to read again and bring back lovely and hilarious memories.

I have hidden it behind a cut, to hide it from people who don't want to read anything soppy.
( A present for Matthew )

I am going to go now and write a report about old people using computers.

I must be getting old.

My parents are coming out tonight to hang out with some of my friends and I am excited at the though of introducing them to each other. What is happening to me!?

Ode to casual Friday:

My shoes hug my feet up to my ankles.
My feet feel fine.
A long walk through Harris Park today, but my feet feel fine.
A long walk to the river today, but my feet feel fine!

A look of disdain from a lady in high heels -
but it's casual Friday!
It's OK,
There's a guy over there in runners and jeans.
He's talking to his boss, and she's OK.
His name is Darren.
It must be OK!

Here comes Maria with a box for coins
A small price to pay for the freedom of my feet.

Right now I am feeling a little bit restless and I am definitely not in the mood to sit down at my desk.

It's called Disciples and Citizens and it presented a vision for Christian living that incorporates both genuine Christian worship and radical community involvement.

I once did a geography subject called "Cities and Citizenship" and I think it was one of the best subjects I have ever taken. Our lecturer Kurt took us through a range of issues linked with citizenship in urban areas - social capital, social norms, everyday life - and applied them to different communities - the homeless, children, queer people. It was everything I wanted in a course, and ever since, it has got me thinking about how I should respond to all these issues as a Christian. Disciples and Citizens summed it all up in 190 pages - a fantastic fusion of Kurt's geography courses, second year sociology, every teaching I've ever received from 1 Corinthians and Philippians and a beautiful argument for the Christian hope as a bodily resurrection rather than an escape to an immaterial 'heaven'.

I wanted to share the following quote that was quoted in the book. It's long but so so good. It's a translated segment of a second century Christian manuscript, the Epistle to Diogenetus.

For the Christians are distinguished from other men neither by country, nor language, no the customs which they observe. For they neither inhabit cities of their own, nor employ a peculiar form of speech, nor lead a life which is marked out by any singularity... But inhabiting the Greek as well as barbarian cities, according as the lot of each of them has determined, and following the customs of the natives in respect to clothing, food, and the rest of their ordinary conduct, they display to us their wonderful and confessedly striking method of life. They dwell in their own countries, but simply as sojourners. As citizens, they share in all things with others, and yet endure all things as if foreigners. Every foreign land is to them as their native country, and every land of their birth as a land of strangers. They marry, as do all [others]; they beget children; but they do not destroy their offspring. They have a common table, but not a common bed. They are in the flesh, but they do not live after the flesh. They pass their days on earth, but they are citizens of heaven. They obey the prescribed laws, and at the same time surpass the laws by their lives... To sum up all in one word - what the soul is to the body, that are Christians in the world.

My challenge after reading this is to live a life that is true to this description, and to pray that the whole church will live like this. We need to be the salt of the earth, a city on a hill, and we need to be a vibrant and change-affecting part of the community. Don't hide the light of the gospel under bushels in church buildings!!

So, Christians out there, as yourself the following questions:
- Have you ever written a letter to a politician about an issue you are concerned about? Why not?
- Do you think that we don't need to look after the planet because is gets destroyed when Jesus comes back? Wake up! Jesus' resurrection has affirmed the goodness of creation, so we'd better look after the good things God made.
- Do you get overwhelmed by the needs of the socially excluded? We have a fantastic role model in Jesus, his own Spirit empowering us to work here and now, and the promise of a future where justice is completely restored.

In the late 18th Century, a group of Christians from Clapham in England got serious about praying and bible reading and giving to the church. But it wasn't just an inward looking thing to build up their personal spirituality or build up the church. They also were super actively involved in the life of the London community, in sharing with the poor and getting super politically active. How politically active? The Christians from Clapham:

- Encouraged education and supported the Sunday School movement for people with poor schooling
- Supported the Factory Act to get children out of inhumane working conditions in factories
- Founded the RSPCA
- Fought against blood sports, gambling and dueling
- Helped to establish the Church Missionary Society (Matt works for them now!)
- Encouraged better administration in India and Sierra Leone
- Led the movement to abolish the slave trade
Read this book! I will lend it to you, even if you live in Western Australia! Even if you live in the USA. Let me know and I'll mail it.