What are we like as role models?

I was reading this morning about the miracles performed by Elisha as described in 2 Kings Ch4. They were amazing and demonstrated that Elisha had a very close relationship with God. It was suggested by a commentator that he was simply doing what he had seen his predecessor, Elijah do. The commentator then went on to make an observation about where we find ourselves today. What he had to say struck a chord with me and I have reproduced it below. 

"Elisha is simply following suit. He knows that God can do such things, because his mentor Elijah did it. The same dynamic occurred between Jesus and his disciples: he sent them to heal the sick and raise the dead, and they did.

Why can’t I do these things? These men were normal human beings like me!

What they had, which many of us lack, is a fine example of real godly faith to follow. In the twenty-first century we take our place in a long line of doubt-riddled, semi-secularised, wealth-compromised, power-hungry Christians.

We have been set a poor example of Christlikeness, and we follow it. Then we pass a poor example on to the young Christians around us. This is one of the reasons why we need to read and reread these stories in the Bible."

Second wind!

It's been about 18 months since I sat down to do a posting so I'll probably ease in gradually.

I started a long piece about our recent visit to Bangkok this afternoon but didn't get it finished and then it had disappeared by the time I got back to it.

Maybe I'll start with a few photos from Australia and make BKK the focus of my next post.

The first photo is the Melbourne sky at sunset on the day following the bush fires of 7th Feb.

The second is of sunrise on the top of Mt Separation. During our family weekend we enjoyed many walks to the top of this mountain.

And here we are - or some of at least!

And a nice Melbourne sunset to finish off!

An experience not to be missed!

Recently had a two day stop over in Bangkok and, rather than doing the usual touristy things we went to visit some friends who work in the Khlong Toei slum. In order to give us some exposure to the local community our friends booked us into a Thai cookery school for our first morning.

We were picked up at 9 am by our hostess and her husband and taken to the Khlong Toei food market where we wandered through the hundreds of stalls selling all manner of things. 

Home made Thai soup - made while you wait.

I really liked this lady's hat!

The lady below is our Thai cooking instructor.

Our friends have helped set her up in this very successful little business - and others in a variety of businesses too.

In Thailand you don't go to the supermarket to buy pre-packaged rice - you buy a specific type of rice depending on what you are cooking.

We saw all sorts of interesting things at the market including crabs, grubs frogs and insects!

We stuck to more western-conventional food!

Our hostess took us back to her little home in where, under her instruction, we cooked 3 Thai dishes and a dessert. Of course we had to eat all that we made  - so in the last photo you can see how we felt at the end.

We were given the recipes at the end and have been practicing at home since we returned.

It turned out to be a very enjoyable morning and we became good friends with our cook and her family. We will certainly visit them again when we are in that part of the world.