Well I've finally made it back to my blog, it's been too long! There's so much to share about all that's been happening. On January 4th I came down to Kingston Jamaica to work with the Fusion team here and it has been an adventurous two and a half months so far. Having already been here before helped alot with the transition and as you might guess living on an Island the size of PEI next the the equator, could have a lot of differences from living in a wintery country as big as Canada is. Both countries having very different histories and events that have shaped their unique cultures. Being in Jamaica has helped me to see that "normal" is quite a relative term. Each day that I spend here I see and experience all kinds of new things, and slowly the crazy and absurd becomes a bit more normal. And as I've been changing I have seen lots of changes in others as well, in the lives of the kids, teenagers, and adults who I have gotten to know. I look forward to sharing more with you about it all. Please see my new photo and video links and I hope you enjoy them. Bye for now, Dave.

I've made it back to Tanunda and Friday nights are my night to cook... yep... it's a gong show :) Cooking for four people doesn't sound very hard but I'm still learning a few important tricks. Like that it's best not to cook something that you've never cooked before... or to think "That'll be lots of food!" Well last Fridays dinner tasted good but I'm working on keeping things warm. It's challenging but fun, which pretty much sums up things here in the Barossa Valley.

Below is a shot of one of the beaches in Adelaide that we went to which is about an hour and a half away. It's a pretty nice spot and it'd be good to head down there again to relax on the weekends.

On my way from Tasmania to the state of South Australia I had a day to look around Melbourne. A friend and I checked out a really cool art gallery and then looked around at the shops. The weather was awesome and it made me pretty excited for summer and to be heading out of Tasmania which is quite cool most of the time.




Melbourne was pretty bustling and it made me want to check out more of the big city life in Adelaide once I got up there. I think that I'm pretty fond of big cities and it makes me miss driving around Edmonton. It'd be great to be back in Edmonton for Christmas and I'm still working that one out. Well that's all from me, hope to hear from you soon. Dave.

From mid Sept. to mid Oct. I was back in Poatina and it was a busy month that started off with a ten day International Conference. One of the best parts was getting to see the guys from my course again and to hear a bit about what they've been up to. There was a lot of sitting and listening/daydreaming in the conference so I found that a bit difficult. Meals were a good time and one night when all of the Canadians were sitting together (10 of us in all!) we had fun singing "Alouette gentile Alouette..." and other french songs that we half remembered from elementary school. On the expo day we had booths set up telling others what was happening in our area and I roamed a bit between the South Australian and Canadian booths. The Canadians were making Smores in the microwave with real imported "No Name" marshmallows, and then we played a bit of street hockey to make it complete. This conference was good because it was a bit more relaxing than some of the youth conferences and other events throughout the year.

Above are some of the International workers from countries like Ghana, Nigeria, the U.K., Albania, Germany, Thesaloniki, and Canada.

Above is a photo of beautiful Tasmania in Spring.

After the conference we had two weeks of classes and had a bit more time to hang out with people before we headed back to our centres. During the month in Poatina I was pretty sure that I'd head back to Canada quite soon. As I prayed about it and looked at where I was at on my journey it became pretty obvious that now wasn't the right time. So my flight has been bumped back atleast until December and thankfully God has given me a lot of peace with that decision.

Oct 14, 2006 Hey guys, I'm still in Poatina at the moment but I thought I'd send a few photos that I just received from a friend. The photos are from our trip to Uluru which was quite a while ago now. It was an awesome yet extremely busy time so one of my favourite parts of the ten day bus trip was probably the mandatory half hour quiet time each morning. It was the craziest youth event I've ever been on, a crash course in youth work :)

Above - Waiting for the sunrise

Below - My small group

I'll send an update soon, hope you enjoy the pics.... Dave.

Sept 15, 2006 Tommorow is the last day of my six week placement here in South Australia and now I'm off to Tasmania for about a month. It will be a big change for me heading in to the International Conference with three hundred people and their families and I will likely be missing the quiet atmosphere back in Tanunda.

My placement here has been a great time of fun and learning and growing and the highlight has to be last weekend when four of us went camping in the outback. We loaded up our "swags" (which apparently is a sleeping bag with a waterproof cover) and most importantly the Dirt Bikes !!! Although I've been in Australia for eight months I hadn't experienced the outdoors like this before as we had lamb chops and pulled up "Mallee roots" to burn in the fire. Most Australian wood is impossible to chop and these roots are like concrete. As you can see in the photo we found a few groups of kangaroos and I've figured out that they can run about the same speed as a dirt bike going flat out, but I haven't quite mastered their maneuverability, well I can go straight, it's a start :) We saw some Emu's as well, and the whole experience felt a bit like I was in the middle of some National Geographic documentary.

This past week we went out to a local primary school to put on some activities for the students as a part of their math week. I was running the Tug 'o War today and at the end of the day my boss asked me "So how did you tie in math with Tug 'o War", all I could think to say was "Uh... I didn't?" Managing twenty elementary kids hanging on to a rope seemed to be enough of a challenge without adding in some times tables :)

Also this week we went out for my farewell lunch and they gave me a big card full of nice notes. It is hard to say goodbye to the friends that I've made and with a fairly small team here I know that they will continue to manage a heavy work load. Wherever I end up it will be great to be able to contact them for ideas and resources and to find out how the work is moving along. By mid October I'll know where I'll be off to next and if you could please pray for direction for that I would appreciate it.

Well I hope you enjoy the photos, I miss you all.

Bye for now, Dave.

Aug 24, 2006
Last Saturday was a monthly Daytrip here in the Barossa and though I'm still recuperating from it we had a great day out in the Adelaide hills. Daytrips are where leaders and young people from different programs go out for a day of high energy activities where we can experience community and continue to help role model Godly values.

From Tanunda we headed by bus to a property ran by Youth With A Mission (YWAM), which was a great location and the weather turned out to be excellent. In the past I have been in more of a supplies/behind the scenes type of role for Daytrips but this time I was able to be a "Small Group" leader which was a nice change. I had a great group to hang out with for the day and it was nice to have some more youth-work experience under my belt to help me deal with some of the challenges that always seem to present themselves. I'm still learning tonnes but it is nice to experience some "wins" to keep me encouraged.

The time here in the Barossa feels like it is quickly flying by as I only have three weeks left before returning to Poatina. In Poatina I'll get to be a part of my first International Conference and then have a few weeks of Diploma training intensives (9 a.m. - 9 p.m.). I'm looking forward to connecting with the other Diploma students who have been placed in other centres around the world.

Tonight we had our weekly Talk 'n Tucker night with the youth which is where we all have dinner together and then the girls and guys break off in to seperate groups for a casual bible talk. The guys and I played hacky sack afterwards for about an hour and it was cool to see how all those hours of playing hack in High School can help me to connect with the guys.

With the chain left over from the Daytrip the boss has decided to implement the new "Lock and Chain" employee desk policy, which you'll see below :)

I hope you're all doing well. Bye for now, Dave.

Aug 15, 2006
Last week was a good one, though by Friday I was feeling pretty beat and was ready for a relaxing weekend. I went pretty much non-stop on Wednesday and Thursday and so was thankful on Friday night to sit and watch a bit of ‘Aussie rules’ football (which isn't as good, in my books, as ‘rugby union’ but is growing on me). One highlight of last week was when three of us stopped by a local seniors centre. I really enjoyed talking about the youth work in the area and chatting with some of the people. All the men were sitting on one side and the women on the other and we had to turn up the microphone so loud that you could feel it in your chest :) but we had a really good time.

On Sunday I took a nice walk through Tanunda to the grocery store and I was so amazed at how beautiful the town is. The combination of the stone houses with all of the green shrubs and blue sky was unbelievable. I have a few assignments that I need to be working on for Diploma, as well as journaling five times a week, so this is keeping me busy. There are also plenty of challenges that present themselves along the way, and we have a daytrip in less than a week so it should be another busy one. I'll try to send another update some time next week. Bye for now... Dave.

<<< size="4">Hey guys, here's a bit about what I've been up to lately.

From the Certificate 4 course I have now begun my next step of training which is a Diploma in Youth and Community work. The purpose of this training is to learn how to lead a group of youth workers and volunteers, where as C4 was more about how to be an effective group member. It's a bit daunting learning how to lead workers when I haven't had a tonne of time to be one myself, but I am quite interested in being a part of the bigger picture and many communities all over the world are asking for trained community workers to support them. In the Diploma course there are about five, one month long intensive training sessions throughout an eighteen month period. Between these training sessions students are placed in established centres to get hands on training in the field.

I was looking forward to the possibility of returning to Canada for my placement but the training staff suggested another opportunity and we agreed that the state of South Australia would be a good spot for the first part of my placement. So I'm currently living in the Barossa Valley of South Australia and learning how they are connecting with people in the local area. In mid September I'll return to Tasmania for a Diploma training session and then my next placement will be negotiated after that. The Barossa Valley is a beautiful wine region similar to the Okanagan in Canada, and Fusion has been loaned a forty acre vineyard property near Tanunda where the office and living space are located. There have been a lot of challenges throughout the past six months, but thankfully God brings about exciting opportunities and great people like those here in the Barossa and I am really thankful for his generosity.

On July first (Canada Day!) I graduated from a six month long Certificate 4 program in Youth and Community Work (Christian). I had a pretty huge pile of assignments that needed to be completed to graduate. I remember falling asleep at about 5 a.m. the day before graduation just to get up at 7 a.m. and head to our last few lectures for the course. It put my "cramming" skills to the test and made for an exciting last week of uncertainty, where graduating on time wasn't exactly a foregone conclusion. I was a bit dreary eyed for the ceremony but it was great to celebrate all that had happened over the six months and the day after graduation I had the chance to share a bit of my journey through C4 at the Poatina worship service on Sunday morning. I loved sharing about how I have grown in my faith and as a person and to share things that are real for me and close to my heart. I'll let you know when I update this site next.