Australian Thoughts At The Weekend. 25th July 2009

Australian Thoughts At The Weekend. 25th July 2009

These days I work at two jobs. The main one is as a Hospital Chaplain Coordinator. I coordinate a team of 15 Chaplains in a hospital with 575 patients. I do that four days each week. One day each week, I am a part of a team researching and writing background information on industries. These two tasks are quite different as you imagine. In one I am bound to a computer. In the other, I meet different people and hear quite a lot of interesting stories.

This week a patient and his wife who are church members spoke with me briefly about their story which highlighted their love of the Lord which they were so glad their adult children shared. Another patient told me of his terminal health difficulties and the fact his wife had died the previous week. Two other patients were ready with their bags packed ready to return home and resume their normal life as soon as the doctor dropped the starting flag.

It is great to meet people and hear their stories. Most of my working life has given opportunities to do this. I was reflecting on this recently as I sat and did some research on an industry. I remembered I had written about one day when I met some interesting but very different people who lived quite near to each other. At the time I was working as a Bequest officer and Major Donors Liaison Officer for a major church. I spoke to people thanking their for their gifts and spoke to them about how they could give in the future.

Some Days Are Different.
(Written 11th February, 2006).

Some days are different. In fact, during this last week I have found a few different days. I set out to knock on home doors and thank people for their regular and generous donations to the home nursing and aged care section of the Uniting Church, I work for (http://www.bluecare.org.au). I was successful in finding many people home and I was warmly welcomed when I stated my business.

During this week, I have inspected gardens, patted pet dogs, joined one lady and her guest in a lovely morning tea, and listened to many stories. One lady only a couple of years short of ninety told me stores of when she was a nurse working in remote country areas. She also shared the joy of her church membership with me.

Another fellow about the same age told how his wife, a School Head Mistress and a published educator, had encouraged him to study when he retired. He told me of studying the 13 original States of the United States before the War of Independence, of studying the British monarchy, all the United States Presidents and Napoleon. He showed me his wood carvings which showed his skill with wood. He took me to his garage where I looked at a huge collection of hand tools, a belt sander, a bench saw and a planer, and a band saw. I ended up with a few pieces of timber for my son who shares his enthusiasm for shaping pieces of wood.

At one door the lady told me that I know when to come and took me in to join a visiting friend and herself in a lovely morning tea. These two friends told me how they had enjoyed a lovely sight seeing tour of the remote areas of northern Western Australia and particularly enjoyed the area known as the Kimberleys (http://www.westernaustralia.com/en/).

At another house, the retired home owner was working with a remote control WW2 Mosquito plane he had built. He told me of the complaint from a neighbour about the noise of the engine. He said he had only run it five times and at least one of those times she was not home. While he and his wife could laugh about it as they told me, it was obvious the neighbour could not find reason to laugh.

At another house, the owner was on the roof clearing the guttering of leaves. I did not offer to join him on the roof but his wife said she would pass the message.

Yes, some days are different. On Friday, I found an address and walked through the front gate towards the door. Immediately, I could see that this house was different. The whole area between the house and the front fence was paved and a huge Poinciana tree (http://iaphomepage.org/int402/poinciana.jpg) covered the whole area. Unfortunately, it had finished flowering. I noticed coconut trees each side of the gate bearing coconuts and a heap of coconuts on the ground beside the gate.

As I looked around I could see a yard full of trees. Some of these trees had staghorn ferns (see: http://www.totaltravel.com.au/photos/cairns-holiday-homes/staghorn-large.jpg) attached to them. Some of these must have been a metre across and more than a metre and a half from the highest upright frond to the end of the lowest hanging ones. These ferns which are native to Australia grow on trees and in the rain forests they are often very high overhead. They are not parasites like mistletoe but while hanging on the tree remain independent of the tree. Now this garden was “tropical”, there was not a rose, petunia or pansy in sight. It was bromeliads and ferns and other shade loving tropical plants.

I knocked on the door and it was difficult not to turn my back on the door and take in all the beauty of the various plants in the garden. However, I concentrated on the task in hand and prepared my little introduction. Soon Mrs J opened the door and when I told her why I was there she told me to come in. Mrs J and her husband are significant donors to our organization and I was there to thank them for that. The house was as beautiful inside as the garden was outside.

Mrs J invited me to sit down and she called her husband to join us. When he had joined us, Mrs J told me she had a very soft spot for our organization and told me she did some voluntary work at one of our aged care centres. Mr J made the comment “I don’t know how much we gave but it was not enough”. He told his wife to write another cheque.

Mr J said while she is organizing that come and look at my shells. He took me into an adjoining room which had glass display cabinets which were absolutely full of the most glorious collection of shells you would wish to see. Mr J explained that he was getting his entries ready for the Sydney Shell Show in March. He showed me the entries which were from miniature shells of less than 5mm up to large ones which must have been at least 30cm across. It was very interesting to see the delicate design of some shells and the shades of colour in others. Some of the shells had interesting stories as to how they were obtained from various places around the Pacific Ocean.

After we had finished looking at the shells we returned to Mrs J who was writing a cheque. Mr J said to me “don’t sit down Mrs J has more to show you”. I was ushered into another room which was dominated by a Conn electronic theatre organ which had 3 keyboards and a full width set of bass pedals. Right next to it was a grand piano. Mrs J played two of my favorites, Crimond (The Lord’s My Shepherd) and How Great Thou Art. She played a number of other enjoyable tunes from old shows and the classics.

Mr J said I will get my musical instrument. He returned with what looked like one of those souvenir key rings. It was a key ring but on the end was not a souvenir but a miniature mouth organ. It only had four holes. He played an excerpt from “Scotland the Brave” and asked me to name the tune. I did that and said I think that is the first time I have heard it played in tune.

Mrs J told me she was the organist and choir leader at her church and when she purchased this Conn organ, she had taken her Wurlitzer to the church and the Lowry from the Church to the Blue Care Aged Care Centre where she plays it and entertains as a volunteer. As I left this house I felt I would return again. I am sure they have much more to show and tell me.

As I drove around, I was becoming aware of beautiful and generous people. Here I was a stranger. Yet I was welcomed as a friend and taken into their confidence. Some shared their Christian faith with me. All shared something of themselves with me. I remembered our previous Corps Officer speaking about living and giving extravagantly. Many of these people were doing that. They were giving people with their hospitality, their time as volunteers and of their wealth. Some appeared not to have very much to give financially, but they still lived generously. There are a lot of
“widows giving mites”. They might not know the song but their spirit says “I have not much to give you Lord but all I have is thine”.

[Listen: Songster Mrs Jacqui Proctor:
http://www.salvoaudio.com/audio/music/mus_1139.mp3 ]

And is it so? A gift from me
Dost thou, dear Lord, request?
Then speak thy will, whate'er it be:
Obeying, I am blest.

Chorus
I have not much to give thee, Lord,
For that great love which made thee mine:
I have not much to give thee, Lord,
But all I have is thine.

And dost thou ask a gift from me:
The talents I possess?
Such as I have I give to thee
That others I may bless.

And dost thou ask a gift from me:
The gift of passing time?
My hours I'll give, not grudgingly,
I feel by right they're thine.

And dost thou ask a gift from me:
A loving, faithful heart?
'Tis thine, for thou on Calvary
For me with all didst part.
Author: Richard Slater (1854-1939)
The Salvation Army Song Book: Song Number: 475

Romans 12 (The Message)
3 I'm speaking to you out of deep gratitude for all that God has given me, and especially as I have responsibilities in relation to you. Living then, as every one of you does, in pure grace, it's important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God. No, God brings it all to you. The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him.
4 In this way we are like the various parts of a human body. Each part gets its meaning from the body as a whole, not the other way around.
5 The body we're talking about is Christ's body of chosen people. Each of us finds our meaning and function as a part of his body. But as a chopped-off finger or cut-off toe we wouldn't amount to much, would we? So since we find ourselves fashioned into all these excellently formed and marvelously functioning parts in Christ's body,
6 let's just go ahead and be what we were made to be, without enviously or pridefully comparing ourselves with each other, or trying to be something we aren't.
If you preach, just preach God's Message, nothing else;
7 if you help, just help, don't take over; if you teach, stick to your teaching;
8 if you give encouraging guidance, be careful that you don't get bossy; if you're put in charge, don't manipulate; if you're called to give aid to people in distress, keep your eyes open and be quick to respond; if you work with the disadvantaged, don't let yourself get irritated with them or depressed by them. Keep a smile on your face.
9 Love from the center of who you are; don't fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good.
10 Be good friends who love deeply; practice playing second fiddle.
11 Don't burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master,
12 cheerfully expectant. Don't quit in hard times; pray all the harder.
13 Help needy Christians; be inventive in hospitality.

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