Category Archives: Announcements

Usually when we have a visit from our Bishop, we have a whole parish service in Swan Hill.  This time for a change, the focus was on our other centre, Nyah West.  Swan Hill had their usual 9.30am Eucharist, but after greeting the people there Bishop Andrew continued to Nyah West for a second Eucharist.

The service was followed by a Congregational Meeting and a wonderful lunch – wedding cups, and passion-fruit sponge to name but a few of the delicacies. This gave the Nyah congregation a real chance to catch up with Bishop Andrew and his wife Jan.  Bishop Andrew was very impressed that the small country town congregation still boasts an organ and an organist.  The said organ had chosen to misbehave on the previous Sunday and needed some major renovations to get it going again.  We gave a huge vote of thanks to Brian who fixed the organ, and Thelma who plays it.

Before heading off Bishop Andrew was able to have a quick look at the renovations going on at the Nyah West Op Shop which are so magnificent it is well on its way to becoming the Men’s Palace.

The Swan Hill Service was very special too.  The Bishop’s address centered on the contrasting readings for the day from Isaiah and Luke in the light of the election results in the USA. The Christian faith reminds us not to be anxious about the future, that each day is our gift of a new beginning, and our death gives us the same promise.

The service continued with Sue being officially admitted to the Anglican Communion.  Congratulations Sue.

All welcome at our Workshop hosted by MU Swan Hill.  The workshop is conducted by Dr Ree Bodde, Senior Partner at Kempster Consultant.

Wednesday 23rd November at Christ Church Swan Hill, 46 Splatt Street.

Registration 1.30pm, Workshop: 2 – 4pm

Full time employed – $10.  No charge for others.

The workshop aims show us how to motivate men and women to work together to end family violence and violence against women.

For more information phone 0417585380 or for more information about the program generally visit www.thinkprevent.com

Nearly all our volunteers and a few extra people enjoyed our Op Shop Workshop today.  Our presenters were Debra Saffrey-Collins
General Manager for Chaplaincy and Diocesan Partnerships, Brotherhood of St Laurence and Archdeacon Jan Crombie coordinator of ‘Parish Partnerships’ between the Melbourne Diocese, Anglicare and the Brotherhood of St Lawrence.

They have been developing two particular programs – The Pastoral Listening Project and the Good Neighbour Project. They used the principles of both with our team, to address community context and community relationships as well as looking at ways to develop effective listening tools, and developing an understanding of the importance of hospitality and care of customers.

It was a very positive and encouraging day, as well as challenging us to continue to develop.  Well done.

The All Soul’s service in our memorial garden this year was beautiful with tea lights among the greenery.  Shirley brought the roses.  It is good to remember.

Blessed are you, Lord our God, lover of souls:
you uphold us in life and sustain us in death:
to you be glory and praise for ever!
For the darkness of this age is passing away
as Christ the bright and morning star
brings to his saints the light of life.
As you give light to those in darkness
who walk in the shadow of death,
so remember in your kingdom your faithful servants,
that death may be for them the gate to life
and to unending fellowship with you;
where with your saints you live and reign
one in the perfect union of love, now and for ever.  Amen.

Friday 21st October. I have discovered adding to the one post has become a little complex after a week, things don’t stay where I want them so this is for our last 5 days.

Yesterday was a very full day.  Our guide had left us with instructions for taking the subway train to the people’s park.  In this place people can be seen doing tai chi and writing notices to find marriage partners for their children.  And we made it there, in fairly miserable weather.  We met a group of ladies doing a dance, and decided to gate crash.  I don’t think they minded.

Then we took a taxi to the Tibetan Neighbourhood where Judy had stayed on her way to Tibet 6 years ago.  We found Holly’s Hostel where she stayed, and A Re Tibetan Restaurant where we had momo’s (dumplings) and Yak milk smoothies.  We also went over to the Tibetan Temple but my photo doesn’t do it justice.

View from our hotel window. The place is known for its limestone peaks.

In the evening we flew to Gulin and our guide brought us here to Yangshuo, an hour and a half drive.

We found a lovely cool place to enjoy our mango smoothies, down a side street.

We are still recovering today.  It would be a beautiful place to stay longer and really get to know.  After asking for Mango drinks in every place we have been without luck we have found them here.  Perhaps they ripen earlier here as we are further south.

Tomorrow we have a full day tour to the rice terraces, which have just been harvested so we don’t get to see the rice.

Monday 24th October in the Riverview Hotel Shanghai.  This time tomorrow we will be headed for Hong Kong and on our way home.  The days have slipped past.  I have lots of photos to sort and post.

It was a 4 hour trip to the rice terraces so we stopped half way at a tea plantation to learn more about tea.

Then we had a tea ceremony. One of the teas was Osmantha, from the tree that Guilin gets its name, meaning Osmantha forest. The treas were flowering for us, tiny fragrant yellow flowers.

8.24pm Shanghai Airport, waiting for our plane that is delayed…….after the original one was cance

We arrived at the village for lunch and looked around while our bamboo rice was cooking. The rice farmer’s houses have 3 or 5 floors. The first is the barn where the animals live. The second is storage, you can see the newly harvested rice drying on the veranda of the second level. Then come the living and sleeping levels.

lled.

Today we went for a meal on the Bund (Shanghai Waterfront).  There were restaurants underneath the walkway.  We sat down

This is the traditional way a rice farmer cooks his lunch so he doesn’t have to trek down and up the mountain. The rice with some meat and veg is packed into bamboo and cooked over a fire.

at a table and a lady came and sat down at the same table.  She was an elderly cleaner and I had a feeling she had commandeered that particular table as her own, and everyone else knew to s

The rice was delicious, and the other dishes.

teer clear of it.  I said Ni Hao (hello) and must have said it reasonably well because she smiled and launched into Chinese.  She certainly didn’t understand “Sorry that is the only word I know.”  So I showed her photos on my phone and she enjoyed them. Thumbs up for the ones she particularly liked. When our meal came she wandered off.  We bumped into her again later on with lots of smiles.  Lots of fun.

Then we took the cable car up to the viewing platform. It took about 20 minutes and the views were magnificent. You can make out the other villages among the rice terraces. The smoke is from burning the stubble.

A tiny bit of the crop was not harvested and some tourists were having a photo shoot there. We were so lucky with the weather, sunshine but not too hot.

This shows the viewing platform. It was one of three viewing platforms in the area. It is very much set up for tourists.

The next morning we left early for Guilin to catch our plan to Shanghai. On the way we learned our plane had been cancelled and rather than flying out at 10.30am we would be flying out at 8pm. So we walked around the square and joined a group for Tai Chi.

Four Pagodas. (Caption given by our guide Daniel who took the photo.)

While we spent our unexpected day in Guilin we could use the foyer of the Waterfall Hotel. We went and had an iced coffee in the cafe there and they were getting ready for a wedding reception including light and sound show.