GordonMoyes.com

The Major Mitchell cockatoos arrived and started eating all our persimmons. The tree is too big to net, so we picked about eighty of the best. The tree looks like a large orange tree covered in oranges, but they are persimmons. They will go through their final ripening inside without trouble.

When Beverley and I were married, we were given a few pieces of crystal which were highly prized for times when we would be entertaining guests. That would be a regular part of our lives during fifty years of ministry, of which more than half of that time was spent leading Wesley Mission where entertaining visitors was the norm. Over the years, other pieces of crystal were added as gifts. I came to know something about crystal from a most unusual source.

A few months ago I wrote on the theme “A Cup of Tea” about fine bone china. Nearly everyone who spoke to me told me the same thing – that that article meant so much to them because it reminded them of their dear old mother, now deceased who valued so highly the dinner set/tea set/cup, saucer and plate set that she was given for her wedding. This fine china was used at every important family occasion, celebration, anniversary and funeral, and for important visitors. The fine china, which had been left in mother’s estate, was now still in the owner’s crystal cabinet. Fine bone china reminded them of their dear mother.

This week it will be the winter solstice, June 21st. The sun is at its lowest point. I would like to go that day to Elizabeth Bay House. One of my favourite historic places in Sydney is Elizabeth Bay House. In the 1980’s when I was making some historic films, I received permission to film in the basement and wine cellars of this remarkable building, as this is the closest original building to a cell for convicts in early Australian history still in existence.

I have recently drawn readers’ attention to the consequences of the Miscellaneous Acts Amendment (Same Sex Relationships) Bill 2008 coming before the Parliament. I was the only person in the Upper House to send out this warning to churches, CDP members, and to ten thousand Christians who read these pages.

We are all conscious of the personal cost to so many of our farmers of the continuing drought. Although many parts of our state have received some rain, one area in particular is in desperate need of water. This week’s TIME Magazine features a story by Daniel Williams entitled “THE BIG DRY – a savage drought has hit Australian grain growers hard. Some won’t survive.” He writes “The driest continent on earth is in the grip of the worst drought in its recorded history. Beginning in 2002 and spanning, at times, the breadth of the country, the dry spell has pushed farmers to the limits of their ingenuity and patience. Some have cracked. In this hot land, the suicide rate in rural areas is 20% higher than in the cities.

Many people, including journalists, believing what they read in the papers, see all the conflict being created in many areas of the world – Sudan, Middle East, Indonesia and the Philippines – and assume that Islam is becoming triumphant. They are pessimistic about the future of Christianity because some Christians constantly harp on Muslim aggressiveness and persecution in some areas and terrorism in others.

Recently, Beverley and I spent a delightful weekend in Ulverstone, Tasmania. It was a few years since we were last there, and over thirty years since I spent a great deal of time conducting evangelistic missions in every one of the Churches of Christ churches in that state. Now every one of the score or more churches came together for their annual State Conference, ministers meeting and also to celebrate the centenary of the lovely, fairly new Church at Ulverstone. Not far away in Devonport is a historic house where once I stayed in most unusual circumstances.

On one of the walls of our home, where Beverley does her sewing and ironing, hangs a magnificent wall hanging made by one of Australia’s top artists. It is easy to see that this is a professionally made and expensive piece of art. It did not cost us a cent. Beverley has been my girlfriend since she and I were both thirteen. She is my wife, the mother of our children and my partner in full time ministry for fifty years.

There is a ledge round the windows of my study with bookshelves underneath. On the wide ledge are various mementoes of fifty years of ministry and travels. There is some scrimshaw, a carved whale’s tooth depicting a whale being harpooned from a sailing vessel in 1840, given to me when I had an evangelistic mission near the old whaling station in Esperance in Western Australia. There is a decorated aboriginal flint knife and other artifacts given to me by indigenous people following ministry among them.