winter finally arrives

another weekend gone. finally got some 'real' winter weather with a strong icy southerly and storm on saturday night. we didn't get any snow at our place but i'm sure they did 5 minutes up the road at Hilltop, though we didn't go up there and have a look ourselves. we heard they had 4 inches at Bowral, which is just 20 minutes away.
 
my personal 'event' of the weekend was putting the corner of a hatchet blade through the heel of my hand. it was late saturday afternoon, trying to get as much wood chopped as i could before cold and dark forced me inside. i was holding a pretty small piece with my left hand, intending to chop the layer of bark off with the hatchet (the bark isn't very friendly with our wood-burning stove), but got momentarily distracted and hit my hand instead. i was remarkably fortunate, really - the blade went in (and out again) the heel of my thumb parallel to my palm, managing to tread the fine line between slicing off a nice chunk of flesh on the 'shallow' side and hitting any tendons on the 'deep' side. the entrance cut was about an inch long and the exit cut about half that, with an inch or so between the two. another remarkable thing is that i didn't suffer any shock, something i've been prone to in the past. so i bound my hand up, had a bit to eat and took myself up to the hospital where i got properly bandaged up (no stitches thankfully), along with a tetanus jab. as i said, i was extremely fortunate.
 
on sunday morning we went to church (no, it didn't have anything to do with the previous evening's incident). it's the second time we've visited this particular group, in a town about 10 minutes drive from home. the main reason we've gone is because a couple who are good friends of ours are considering/applying for the soon-to-be-vacated pastor's job. there's a very good chance they'll get the position, and if they do we'll definitely commit ourselves to the place as well, but that might happen even if they aren't accepted.
 
this is a scary thought. we haven't been regular 'church' attenders for almost five years since moving to the area. frankly, i haven't missed it much, despite occasional guilt and 'encouragement' from others worried about the state of our faith. i have a host of intellectual/theological/doctrinal issues with the 'traditional' church scene (organisation & heirarchy, church building, sunday morning 'services' with the standard structure, etc, etc, etc.), and had pretty much convinced myself that it was no longer for me, that i'd find (or start) an alternative which was closer to what i believe 'church' should be.
 
so why the change of heart? obviously, our friends being there makes a lot of difference, as we'll start with one solid relationship already 'built-in'. the fact that it is one of the closest 'established' churches to our house is also important, as i believe very strongly that 'church' community and 'world' community (for want of a better term) should be as physically coincident as possible. i'm also aware that there are many advantages in tapping into an existing group (the old 'change the system from the inside' strategy) rather than trying to get something going ourselves - and of course the former doesn't necessarily preclude the latter anyway, and can even provide support and resources that wouldn't otherwise be available.
 
the clincher, though, for me at least, is the way we felt with this particular group of people. it's hard to put a finger on what it is - it's not just that they're friendly or welcoming, though they definitely are, without it feeling creepy or forced. in some ways it was quite a bizarre experience because we felt so 'at ease' yesterday, on only our second visit. they had a luncheon thing going after the meeting and we were having soup and talking to people while running around after freya, trying to feed her something and keep her out of trouble. but there was no stress involved, it just felt very relaxed and comfortable, like we'd been part of the group for a while. it was almost surreal, and had both of us doing repeated mental double-takes, thinking "is this for real?" needless to say, we were quite impressed.
 
so, despite misgivings, i'm pretty happy with the prospect, which is saying something in itself. of course, you won't hear me commit to anything, but at this point it looks like we'll be moving in that direction...  ;^)