Yes I am aware that you are only getting this blog once a fortnight and that is about all I can handle at the moment. Why is that you say? Well I am sure this week’s episode may explain a few things (actually it will be the next episode that explains why life is busy but I want to keep the excitement up for this one).

Unheard of – Part 2

Where we left you last time we had a young couple who were expecting their first child and were on the look out to buy a property in a city that is listed by the Huffington Post as the 7th most expensive city in the world to live. We were also at a junction of what to look for to buy. Do we buy a 2 bedroom place that we can afford now but will be too small for us in 3-4 years; or do we stretch and borrow extra money for a deposit to get a 3 bedroom place?

Now I don’t know what the housing situation is like where you live is but here it is ruthless. Where I grew up everybody owned a house, in fact I didn’t know a single person growing up who lived in a unit. But my Princess who has spent most of her life in Sydney, has never lived in a house. That still blows my mind – she grew up living in a unit whilst I lived in a house. But the even crazier thing is that the units where My Princess grew up in are worth more than a lot of the houses where I grew up.

So we didn’t know what to do. Yes I had just got into banking but I had no idea on investing in the property market. I need to emphasis that – I have no idea about investing. Literally no idea, that is why I have never done any. I don’t have shares, managed funds or even a poker table. Not that these are not a great thing to do, but it has just been that I have had a bigger priority: I find a place to house my family. So not knowing what to do I decided to set a faith goal and I did. When I paid rent online one day, I put as my transaction description that appears on my statement “Rent – 15 to go”.

What was I doing with that little narration? I have speaking in faith that in 15 more payments (30 weeks) we would stop paying rent forever and we would be living in our own place. This was a crazy thing to write as I mentioned before it is not easy to enter the property market in the 7th most expensive city in the world. But I stuck to my guns and every fortnight I spoke in faith as I paid “Rent – 14 to go”.

Now shortly after I started counting down we found the three bedroom place I was talking about last episode. We were torn as this place looked good enough to be able to live there for the next 5-7 years as it would have three bedrooms; but we would of had to borrow money from our parents for the deposit and have a very high loan which isn’t wise for a newly-married couple with a baby on the way (that is the bank manager in me talking now – very good advice though). So we walked away.

This was hard because we thought it was perfect and we had the awful task of continuing to look. And we looked and looked. A month went by, then another and a lot more and we started to feel like it wouldn’t happen. My Princess’ baby bump was getting bigger and bigger and we were running out of time to get that extra government bonus we had already talked about. Then…… we found it.
We sort of knew before we even saw this place that this was it. We took a quick look at it and made a decent offer. I personally don’t believe in playing games when it comes to these things like starting incredibly low and working our way up. So we made a strong offer only $10,000 under the asking price. This was lucky because we only got to make one offer. The real estate agent had a few offers that day and ours was the best so they sold it to us. No one got the chance to make another offer. We had bought our first place.

During this whole journey every time I would pay rent I would still count down “12 to go”… “11 to go”… and when we made an offer on this place we were down to “4 to go”. By the time we moved in I had to pay a final few days rent on our old place and no word of a lie the count had gotten down to “0 to go”. It had been 7 months of speaking in faith and it happened right on time. Totally unheard of.

Now that was 3 years ago and the story is not over.

To be continued…

Have Fun.

Dan

Look I know how you feel. You have only been getting a blog once a fortnight and you have been worried sick as you fear that this is the sign of a dying blog. I assure you, it is not. It is a sign of a very stretched life. Let me fill you in as best as I can but to do that I need to take you back 3 years to the start of this 3-part series called:

Unheard of – Part 1

Here I find myself living with my Princess in a nice small unit in a suburb called Lilyfield which is at the of the start of Sydney’s Inner West. It was a lovely unit, our very first place we lived in as a married couple. I described it before as small but to us it was massive, 100 square metres of fun times. As many people do in Sydney we were renting, as buying a place of our own was an impossible dream. Well it turns out that we are related to a God that likes to eat the impossible for breakfast.

Now I was working in mobile phones earning a very modest salary indeed, whilst my Princess earned over twice as much as I did as a nurse. With a double salary we tried to save and if we could continue down that track it looked like we could afford to buy a house in the future. There was one problem to that plan – we decided to put all that aside for a bigger dream of starting a family.

Having a family is our biggest dream and if it meant renting for the rest of our lives so be it. A small price to pay for the joy of bringing life into this world. With my Princess wanting to be a full-time mother (when she earns twice as much as I do) the thought of buying wasn’t even entertained. But the awesome God I mentioned earlier had other plans.

In the year of 2008, when the global financial crisis happened, people lost their jobs and there was heartache all over the world; my salary doubled. Now this is mind-blowing because here I am, only been in full-time employment for 2 years, untrained, unqualified, and yet found myself in the role of an assistant manager……… of a bank! That is unheard of but it happened, now the option of home ownership seemed a bit closer. I started looking for potential places to buy to test the waters.

Well the waters all of a sudden got a bit warmer and things started opening up. My bank offered me a staff loan that allowed me to borrow 90% of a house (instead of 80%) without paying expensive insurance premiums for the bank (called Lenders Mortgage Insurance). The state government offered an incentive of $14,000 cash payment for people to buy their first home, as well as free stamp duty tax that could save us up to $18,000. On top of all that, the interest rates were at an all-time low. The only problem was, we needed to find a place to buy.

They say you need to look for about 6 months until you can find the right place and they are not wrong. We looked, and looked, changing our preferences and potential plans over and over, trying to get a feel for the market. We were totally lost but were giving it a go. Then after 2 months we found a place we really wanted to buy. It seemed perfect, lovely building, a resort-style complex and it was three bedrooms (small ones but still). This place could be big enough for the next 5-7+ years. But it was a bit out of our price range. The bank would lend us the money but we were a bit short on the deposit, plus the levies to keep the place looking that beautiful were really expensive.

We had been looking at two bedrooms and three bedroom places and this was the first three bedroom place that we liked and could possibly afford. We were planning to have a family (we got pregnant during this process) and we have always wanted a big family and a two bedroom place was not going to be big enough in the near distant future. It would last us about 4 years max. Now here is the dilemma, most real estate professionals say you need to hold onto a property for at least 5-7 years to make money on it. This gives enough time to ride out any bad market and soar with the good to have the value of the property go up. So we were stuck. We had the deposit for a 2 bedroom place but had the future plans that needed a 3 bedroom place. What in the world did we do?

Well you will have to wait for part two, but if you are really desperate just contact anyone of my friends that have come to my house in the last 3 years and they can tell you.

Have Fun.

Dan

This part of the movie was enthralling as he waived that flag around and around holding the Samurai at bay. On the outside he had no chance of survival especially when a Samurai stepped forward to take him on, one on one. But Tom kept swinging, he kept fighting, he would not give up until someone finally defeated him. Well that never happened as he took that flag and somehow defeated his opponent.

Well that is how I am feeling right now. We had felt very strongly about taking a step of faith and look to find a bigger home to house our growing family. This involves putting our unit on the market and looking for another to buy. Well we found a new place and it is awesome and really rare to find. It is under priced by about 20 – 50k because the bank is selling it due to a company defaulting on the loan. This has meant to purchase it provided so many hurdles, each we have tackled one by one. Through countless hours of careful preparation, negotiation and seeking expert advice we are ready to sign and purchase this property. But in the 11th hour the Samurai has invaded and has surrounded me only armed with a flag.

I won’t go into detail on what the issue is but let’s just say it is our biggest challenge yet and with the least possible time to deal with it. Just when we thought everything was going to be ok this comes and knocks me off my feet.

But I still have a flag

and I won’t stop swinging.

If this purchase doesn’t happen then so be it but I will continue fighting even if the odds are stacked against me. This Samurai is going to have to rip my flag out of my hands and leave me lying on the floor before I will admit defeat. The promised land was full of giants and it took a war to claim it. Yes this is only a house but I am still confident that God has led me to this property and He is going to help me to claim it.

But now, I must sleep because tomorrow I have a lot of flag waving to do.

Have Fun.

Dan

So that means all I have to say to you all in my state of exhaustion is Happy Easter. I pray that these holidays are really special for you.

Talk next week. I have so much to tell you

Have Fun

Dan.

So here is the deal. It is very very very late and my car blew up and it took me awhile to get home after filming tonight because my car blew up. I called the roadcare service but they kindly let me know that because I hadn’t registered this car (my other car had been a member for 10 years) that the cost of joining was double if I wanted them to come out tonight.

What in the world was I to do. I could still drive the car but it was smoking a lot and I really need to talk to my mechanic to work out the best way forward. So I gave Dave a call.

Now let’s think about it, Dave had left the same time as me to drive home. The way home is you drive for 2 km then you turn onto a freeway for the entire trip home. Calling Dave was almost a silly thing to do as he would for sure be on the freeway, halfway home by now and even if he wanted to, he could not turn around. But I called anyway and of course he had stopped for petrol before the freeway and of course he was just around the corner and of course he had one spare spot in the car for me.

Now re-read that last sentence I just wrote. How many times have we said a similar sentence but all with negative outcomes. Of course I missed my train, of course I was late for work, of course an important client called and we couldn’t help them because I wasn’t at work, and of course…….. Stop and compare these two sentence. One is thinking negative and the other positive, which would you prefer?

I know positive thinking doesn’t guarantee that nothing negative doesn’t happen; but it does make it seem to happen less. I am not surprised when things work out my way because I expect them to, and I am shocked when things don’t’.

So that is my quick fire life lesson and of course you really enjoyed it, and of course it is going to help you and of course you are going to share it with your friends and of course this blog is going to continue to be awesome. If none of this happens, I will be genuinely shocked

Have Fun.

Dan

So there is a lot happening in my world at this moment and just when I feel like I have it all under control something comes to try and wipe me out. When that happens, I always get tempted to:

Do everything but trust God

hi

It is funny, even though I am not the manliest man I still feel the need to be a man with a capital M. Sure I am not a fan of the sun; hate getting wet; and DIY (do it yourself) projects for me mean DDIAA (don’t do it at all) or WAC (write a cheque); but there are some times when I feel it necessary to be the rock of all rocks and carry my family and solve all our problems. Well the other night I was incapable of solving anything.

We had just had a fun Sunday spending time with my sister from Tasmania who came up to Sydney for the Colour Your World Conference. Then that night my Little Beauty of all of 12 weeks old (Mya) began wheezing (she already had a cold). We called the after-hours doctor and we talked it through with them and decided hospital was the best idea just in case. So for the 4th night in a row I stayed at home with my Little Princess and did our night ritual, which begins with dinner and finishes with bed a couple of hours later. I was being strong, tough, and a rock for my family until 1 min after putting my Little Princess to bed I ended up in my bed in the foetal position with intense stomach pains. This rock had become a marshmallow and was hurting bad.

So we called the after-hours doctor again and they sent someone around who gave me an injection for the vomiting & pain, and we hoped it would go away by the morning (otherwise it was gastro or appendicitis). I was very down for I couldn’t do anything to help my family. But here is the thing – I could have done something very useful that I didn’t think of doing. I could have prayed and trusted God to help us.

Isn’t that funny that I wished I wasn’t sick so that I could look after my child who was sick, instead of believing God to get us both better. In the end that is exactly what happened, we were both much better in the morning and I could even go to work (though my daughter took the day off). That would have saved a lot of stress and heartache if I had just trusted God even when I had all the options.

I caught myself out again today trying to do everything except trust God, when I received a letter to do Jury Duty. I have been called to Jury Duty 3 times in the last 4 months. The first time I got an exemption due to having a baby on the way; but the next time I didn’t. It came at a really really bad time. I had just got back from a 4 week holiday (due to Mya being born), and I was called for Jury Duty for another 2+ weeks. I had only been at my job for 3 months and I had a lot of work to do with my team so really couldn’t afford the time off. I put in for an exemption but it was knocked back. I had to go and I thought this would really have a negative impact on my work.

However the night before I had to call up a message service to see if my group was needed which it was not; it was just on standby. The next night I called and we were excused. I had worried for nothing when I could have just trusted God that He would look after me.

Now I have been called again, and again it is not great timing but much better than before. Today I was thinking about all my options to try and get another exemption. What could I do in my power to make sure I was looked after? Finally I stopped myself and relaxed. I simply have to trust God – If going to Jury Duty is going to impact my work I will be excused; and if I do serve (which I don’t mind doing) then things at work are going to be fine.

Some may say that that is a scary decision but I beg to differ. It is not scary, but releasing. Now I don’t have to spend a single bit of energy plotting, scheming and worrying, and I can use that energy praying………… and writing this blog.

Have Fun.

Dan

*So a man walked into a hospital with a tree growing out of his arm and the doctor said………………….
…………………please insert $5 dollars to continue.

Ok, Ok. I missed last week. I was sick. Some would say missing a week is the sign of a blog that is slowly dying but the fact is all blogs are dying; because this little thing called the internet is simply a fad.

But until that day comes, this blog will burn in a flame of glory….. figuratively not literally. If it does start to flame please consult a firefighter.

So let’s jump into today’s episode that is titled:

The one laugh that counts

Before I start I need to let you know that the one laugh that counts is not the last laugh therefore making this an episode about how to plot and seek out revenge. For great tips and hints on that topic please visit my friend’s blog at www.howtogetbackatthatmanfromworkwhocalledyousillybyhidingafroginhisdrawer.com

Now onto the episode. Recently I had the privilege of watching the master copy of Crazy Noise DVD. Crazy Noise is Hillsong Kids Jr’s first album for early childhood and it is awesome. The album has been released in Australia for about 2 months (finally we get something before America) and it is due to be released soon worldwide. The DVD on the other hand will be released worldwide at the same time as the album. When is that you ask? The answer as always is ‘Soon”.

Now as mentioned I got the rare privilege of getting to watch the master copy of the finished product that has been sent off to be made. I was very very excited when my friend Eva handed me the DVD. It was after Sunday morning church and we had to get home, have lunch, then put my Little Princess down for her afternoon nap. When she woke up her and I had a Daddy Daughter Date to watch this special ‘Family Movie’. It was a tough gig waiting the 3 hours from after church to after nap but I waited patiently for my Little Princess to wake up before sitting down with her to watch the DVD.

Now this album and DVD all came from the genius mastermind of my partner in crime Dave Wakerley. Not only does Dave let me come on his adventures of breaking the law (hence the partners in crime reference); but he also involves me some way or another in his projects. For this album we co-wrote 2 songs and the film clips were both on the DVD. Plus I pop up from time to time on the DVD to do a little funny bit to camera. So here is the thing. I am now sitting down in front of a television screen watching a DVD that I am in for the early childhood age-group, with my very own daughter who is in our target audience sitting next to me. This was incredibly nerve-wrecking.

Now my daughter has seen me perform before but usually she is in tears. Generally because one moment she was hanging out with me, the next moment she has been given to one of the kids leaders to watch whilst I jump on stage. She wasn’t a big fan. I also haven’t shown her any of the other DVD’s I have been involved in because they were aimed at primary school kids. Finally I had something I could show her and I was very nervous.

She sat and watched the whole DVD, not giving me any signal if she was enjoying it or not. Then I came onto the TV and a very strange thing happened. She moved closer to me and snuggled right into me. It would of been a surreal experience as the people on TV like Murray Wiggle or Mickey Mouse are not in real life; but there was daddy on TV (with a slightly lesser budget than the previous two mentioned). I asked her if she knew who that was and she simply said “Daddy and Dave” and kept on cuddling.

The 56 minutes flew by and just when I was running away from the monkey’s (you will have to watch it for that to make sense), she looked up and me and said “Again”?

I have never had this experience before. For years I have been making other people’s children laugh and I haven’t had the joy of it being my own. In fact if no one else in the world likes this DVD (not possible, it’s awesome); I won’t mind in the slightest because there is only one laugh that counts – the laugh of my family.

It is a simple thought but very powerful. There are a lot of things we do in life to please lots of people but in the end only a few matter. First my God, then my family. All the rest will kind of fall into place.

Have Fun

Dan.

*Personalised health program for ________ (insert name): Snack on grapes

Copyright The Thursday Blog

For us, the world is changing and that is a good thing. No longer can we live our lives completely sheltered by the 4 walls of our homes, our street, our suburbs and our cities. The world has arrived on our doorsteps and into our living rooms via the computer screen.

For them, those not in the 1st world, the world is changing and that is an amazing thing. No longer will they live their lives with no protection or support, where anyone can do anything they like if they have power or weapons and no one can hear their cries. Their world is now connected to ours and we can hear them.

And now, the tables of power are being turned as us the people can have a say in what we want done. No longer do we vote once every 4 years for a man or woman and hope they have our best interest at heart; and then sit powerless to react to the world’s cry until the next election comes. What is happening is people peacefully can say when the time is to act and support our leaders to do so.

The Kony2012 movement may have some criticisms. It may not be the most efficiently run charity or may be proposing a very simple solution to a complex problem; but who honestly cares!!! What they are trying to do is see what can be accomplished with the power of a global community of people, who can say justice needs to be served. Imagine how this could start a pattern of change for the future.

Now is the time to see what power you really have. Let me hear your voice.

Have Fun.

Dan

Here is the video, have a watch, pass it on.

Well it is a Thursday and for once the blog will be posted on the day that it should. A Thursday!!!! Insert cheers from crowd.

Now what to talk about. I have one topic in mind but it is a bit too deep. I have another topic in mind but that is a bit too depressing. I guess all I have left to talk about is:

Cheese

You may be wondering where in the world is Dan going with this topic. Is he going draw comparisons from our everyday lives to the humble block of cheese. Will he go as far as saying that life is like a block of cheese, you never know what kind you are going to get……. unless you read the packaging. Sadly no I am not going to draw such conclusions.

Do you know how cheese is made? If so feel free to email me because I have no idea how they do it. All I know is that it tastes good and that is the main thing.

Ok…… this has to stop. I have got nothing to say about cheese. In fact I was hoping that something amazing would come out of it but I have got nothing. I think I am beating around the bush and not talking about what I really want to talk about. I am a little bit down.

Today was just an evil day. Everything that could possibly go wrong went wrong today from important equipment not working, to short-staffing, and all the other things that rarely happen but all decided to happen today. I won’t go into the finer details but it was a really challenging day that I had no control over and felt helpless. This is not a good feeling. So I get to the end of the day and all I want to do is not think about what happened because it depresses me but all I can think about is my depressing day.

Now it is not all doom and gloom and tomorrow will go back to a normal enjoyable day. Like I said everything that happened was rare and by themselves wouldn’t matter but when 10 of them hit you it really takes it toll. But I don’t want to think about it and I definitely don’t want to talk about it, so I would rather talk about cheese.

Now here is my problem that is a lot bigger than a bad day. There is a lot of cheese in my life. Whether it is listening to a podcast, watching some Seinfeld or mindlessly surfing on the Internet looking at the same things over and over, all of these are giving my mind a chance to forget. But is forgetting the same as moving on?

So today’s episode has been a bit of a psychology session for me and thanks for listening. I will send you your $405 an hour electronically. My take away from this is that I need to take some steps to stop myself retreating and actually talk and think through why I am a bit down and move on.

So I have to stop talking about cheese and camembare myself, only then will I be brie…….. I mean free.

I will now send you another $405 to apologise for those two puns.

Have Fun.

Dan

* To view star look up at night. It is the one over there and a bit to the left.

Now let’s call a spade a man who has neglected his social contract with the people. It’s a Saturday and I have just realised that I haven’t blogged again. I do apologise and I hope if you can’t find it in your heart to forgive me I can at least distract you enough to forget about the pain I have caused.

SQUIRREL!!!!

That should do it.

So without further grovelling I present this weeks episode:

Irrelevant Sales

We had an in-home demonstration of a product that we are thinking of buying. It is called the “Thermomix” : 10 cooking appliances in 1 – and if you call in the next 15 minutes we will give you something extra that everyone gets anyway with the purchase!!! No it wasn’t like that at all.

The demonstration was quite impressive. The consultant came to our house, brought all the ingredients and cooked 6 courses for us and our friends, in front of us. We marvelled at its’ features as it chopped ingredients in seconds, then cooked a meal by itself by using the timer, then did a back-flip just to show off. At the end I was very impressed (if you have one please let me know if you like it). The other thing that impressed me was the sales process.

Now I have worked in sales for a long time and I can pick a sales process from a mile away. This was very structured and calculated. At the start we were asked questions about what benefits of the product appealed to us the most (ie) saving time; health; avoiding additives and preservatives etc. Then at specific points in the presentation the consultant would check in and refer back to those benefits. This was very cleverly written.

Much like companies such as Tupperware, this company relies on two income streams. Sales being the obvious one but the other stream is from recruiting consultants. Instead of buying a Thermomix for almost $2,000 AUD, you can host your own parties and after selling 6 you get your own for free. After that you are free to leave or you can continue doing parties and earn a commission every sale. So this means a large majority of their consultants who are out there selling, are not sales-trained people. This was the case with our consultant.

I could tell from the start that he was not a sales cowboy but rather someone who loved the product, used it himself, and was trying to make some income off it. That is not a bad thing, rather a positive thing as it is nice to see someone who is a fan of what they sell. Plus it is always awkward talking to a sales cowboy if you don’t want to buy. Sales cowboys are trained that a person cannot say ‘no’ more than 5 times so they keep on asking for a sale in different ways. So a little tip for the future, if you don’t want to buy something and the sales person is going hard, just say ‘no’ 6 times and watch their training go down the drain.

As much as I appreciated that our consultant was not a cowboy I did pick up one flaw in his presentation. He didn’t adapt to his audience. Let me explain. At the start when he talked about the benefits, not a single person said they were worried about additives and preservatives. In fact one of our group even pointed out his view of them was that there was a lot of hype about them but some research showed they aren’t actually bad. I could tell he hadn’t had this response before. Well the funny thing is when he was going through the list of things it can make and the benefits, he made the point a number of times that these were great to make because there were no additives and preservatives. This is obviously in his standard presentation and he didn’t think to adapt to his audience.

The challenge for us, especially those readers who are in Kids Ministry, is to adapt to our audience. We can’t sit in our office of solitude and think of the best program or message or activity to do with the children and then just do it and hope for the best. How many times have we done things that just don’t work and we don’t know why. Maybe it’s time for us to ask some questions and then adapt to the answers.

Have Fun.

Dan

*3D option available if you film the contents of the blog with a 3D camera and then play it on a 3D television.