So, I went to Black Stump on the weekend! This was my third time, after not going last year due to being overseas. Rather than working on security again this time, I was on the artist support team – basically we provided pastoral support to artists, in the way of prayer and just helping them with whatever they needed.

Photos

There’s a few places you can look for photos. There’s my Black Stump 2006 photo gallery, the official photo gallery, or other stumpers’ photos posted on the Stump forums.

Things I remembered

The first thing I remember about the weekend is hearing from Donna Mulhearn. She talked three times, but I only heard her third talk, last thing before leaving on the Monday (probably why it’s the freshest in my mind). She spoke about Pine Gap – the military facility 20kms out of Alice Springs – and how she and three other people from the Christians Against All Terrorism group broke in to the facility in December last year. They were arrested and their trial started yesterday; you can read about it on PineGap6.org. I’m not too sure I agree with what they’re doing; it’s certainly way out there…

Other than that, the weekend gave me a good chance to have a short but well deserved break from work, and just to sit back to listen to some great music. My favourite bands would have been Antiskeptic and Compliments of Gus, and my favourite venue the Genesis Lounge. The Genesis Lounge was a new venue this year, and it provided a quiet place to sit and reflect, with live acoustic worship every night.

I also received more enthusiam for working on improving our small group at church. I won’t write about all that here, but it certainly needs some work and someone to do it.

Next year

Next year I might try to get into an IT support role. If not, then I still enjoyed security so I may try that again. I much prefer doing something there rather than just being a participant! (And it’s not only because I get in for free )

And that’s about all I have to say for now!

See also

• Korske’s Black Stump writeup