[Kid Inspiration]

Check out the podcast for Episode the Fourth!

My journalistic instinct may have been a little off from an earlier post… it seems that the US is allowing Vegemite to be sold on its shores! A victory for the free world!

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced today that recent media reports that the agency had banned imports of Vegemite — a yeast spread popular in Australia — are false.

“There is no ban on Vegemite,” said FDA spokesman Mike Herndon, who said he was surprised by the media reports on a possible ban.

Read on at News Target.

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Final Artwork — Supernatural Cover

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A woman was at work when she received a phone call that her small daughter was very sick with a fever. She left her work and stopped by the pharmacy to get some medication. She got back to her car and found that she had locked her keys in the car. She didn’t know what to do, so she called home and told the baby sitter what had happened.

The baby sitter told her that the fever was getting worse. She said, “You might find a coat hanger and use that to open the door.”

The woman looked around and found an old rusty coat hanger that had been left on the ground, possibly by someone else who at some time had locked their keys in their car. She looked at the hanger and said, “I don’t know how to use this.”

She bowed her head and asked God to send her help. Within five minutes a beat up old motorcycle pulled up, with a dirty, greasy, bearded man who was wearing an old biker skull rag on his head.

The woman thought, “This is what you sent to help me?” But, she was desperate, so she was also very thankful.

The man got off of his cycle and asked if he could help. She said, “Yes, my daughter is very sick. I stopped to get her some medication and I locked my keys in my car. I must get home to her. Please, can you use this hanger to unlock my car?

He said, “Sure.” He walked over to the car, and in less than a minute the car was opened.

She hugged the man and through her tears she said,”Thank You So Much!
You are a very nice man.” The man replied, “Lady, I am not a nice man. I just got out of prison today. I was in prison for car theft and have only been out for about an hour.”

The woman hugged the man again and with sobbing tears cried out loud, “Oh, Thank you God! You even sent me a Professional!”

A special treat for your next kids camp

Several months ago I was visiting my grandmother in Kingsport, TN and discovered the most delicious food ever! I awoke one morning and found her frying a Krispy Kreme donut. My immediate response was, “that’s disgusting!” She told me to hold off until I had tasted it. She was right, it was the most delicious heart-stopping food I’d ever had. After one bite, all of the fancy desserts I’d eaten before had completely disappeared from my memory.

Read on at Family Resource.com

A great option if you make videos in your children’s ministry, if you make one, let me know how it works!

Steadycams (or camera stabilizers) are attachments used to capture smooth looking video even when the camera and camera operator are in motion. The camera operator may walk (or even jog), move through tight hallways and doorways, and even climb up and down stairs without shaking the camera. Unfortunately, professional steadycams cost around $1500. Even the cheap 3rd party ones cost $600+. Not exactly a bargain considering many of us use cameras in that price range.

$14 Steadycam

Wow.

…

Crazy.

Local newspaper coverage of the recent Kidsfest event…

The Hills Shire Times sent a reporter to cover the story… nice of them.
The picture that accompanied the story in the paper had a picture of Kirsty Thornthwaite (one of our awesome worship leaders) incorrectly labelled as Julia.

Plus a couple of other technicalities in the story that aren’t quite correct (Ms A’Bell?? Mrs, I think).

But nice of someone to show up for a positive story.

Oh the humanity!

If you are an expat Aussie or even a Kiwi living in the good ole’ US of A then prepare for a shock. The US Gov has banned Vegemite.

The bizarre crackdown was prompted because Vegemite contains folate, which in the US can be added only to breads and cereals.

So in a world gone mad with bureaucracy we all lose a little more freedom. No longer can you spread Vegemite on a piece of breakfast toast.

NOTE: For international readers, if you have no idea what Vegemite is, then I encourage you to try it out if you can… preferably spread as thick as possible (Eaten by the spoonful is best).

So the new top secret elmo toy was released world-wide last month. Here are a couple of vids, a classic clip with Robert De Niro and a clip of the new elmo toy.

So episode 3 of the podcast just went up online. Click HERE!

Only one week after episode 2! I know, shocking!

So Nathan and I got our butts into gear and recorded another episode of our critically acclaimed podcast. This brings the total to an impressive two episodes. So cancel the baby sitter, call over the neighbours and sit around the fire with the Childrens Ministry Podcast.

Episode Two “A New Beginning – of sorts”

Enjoy.

We are deep in the mixing process for Supernatural all this week, and it is sounding amazing. It was great to be able to record in our own convention centre rather than an outside venue like the last two years, and we have really captured a fantastic live sound!

Below, some pic’s from the day!

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One of my favourite church bloggers is Mark Batterson. Mark Batterson is lead pastor of National Community Church (www.theaterchurch.com) in Washington, DC, blogs @ www.evotional.com.

He has just finished writing his first book all about an obscure yet courageous act in 2 Samuel 23:20-21. This dude is a great blogger and I cannot wait to read the rest of this book. My life right now requires me to chase down some lions so I am pumped to get my hot little hands on this book!

Pick it up here at Amazon.

“Your greatest regret at the end of your life will be the lions you didn’t chase. You will regret the risks not taken, the opportunities not seized and the dreams not pursued. Stop running away from what scares you most and start chasing the God-ordained opportunities that cross your path.”

In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day is inspired by one of the most obscure yet courageous acts recorded in Scripture (II Samuel 23:20-21): Benaiah chased a lion down into a pit. Then, despite the snow and slippery ground, he caught the lion and killed it.

This post may have a somewhat formal title but the contents will be anything but formal. God pretty much exceeded our entire teams expectations and blew us all away!

This past Wednesday the whole of Hillsong Kids for our two main worship centres and our extension services got together for a huge kidsfest and to record our third album. We had been working hard to get as many kids there as possible to make it a fantastic day and most of all did not want our church kids to miss out on the recording.

Long story short… on the day, hundreds of extra parents and kids turned up and registered for the day that morning! We had over a thousand ‘extra’ people at the event, which caused a number of things to happen:

1. We ran out of sausages for lunch and had to go out and buy more.
2. The atmosphere in the auditorium was electric!

You will see it on the DVD when it is released in early December (Australian release date, Feb 07 worldwide), but it is the most humbling and awe inspiring sight to see thousands of children worshipping Jesus.

As a team we really feel this recording is significant. Churches gathered from all over Sydney and the State of New South Wales, and thousands of children were there representing a generation of children that, by the grace of God will be followers of Christ for the rest of their lives.

Yes, the album will most likely be called ‘Supernatural’, which makes a trilogy of ‘Super’ albums. ‘Jesus is my Superhero’, ‘Super Strong God’ and now ‘Supernatural’… No this was not planned But is a happy coincidence as the first track on the album is called Supernatural, and none of the other songs really stood out as a album title!

So now we have the ‘Super Series’, signing of the first chapter in our journey to resource the church with praise and worship music written for (and even by), God’s children.

Coming up in report #2, maybe some pictures and stuff…