Archive - November 2007

We’re only a few days away from deciding who will lead Australia for the next three years. Will John Howard still be the Prime Minister on Sunday morning or will Kevin Rudd and his Labor team defeat the Coalition.

For those outside Australia it may surprise you to know that voting is compulsory for Australians over the age of 18. Those who fail to turn up to a polling booth on election day can be fined.

If you’re an Aussie who hasn’t quite made up your mind on who’s getting your vote you can check out the how should i vote website. You enter your postcode, then take a twenty question quiz and you’ll be presented with your own how to vote card for your electorate. I saw a link to the site on Hamo’s Backyard Missionary blog.

Of course, it is difficult to get a true understanding of all the issues in a simple twenty question quiz but it might help steer you in the right direction.

If you’re a Christian who’s trying to decide who should be our Prime Minister there are a lot of other issues you might like to consider.

Salt Shakers have gone to a lot of effort to help inform Christians on how to vote. You can find a link to their Christian Values Checklist from their website. Unfortunately any such list will only tell the story from the worldview of the people putting it together and I found that several issues that I feel are vital were missing.

The Salt Shakers list seems to focus on legislating morality and doesn’t even touch on how we look after the poor, how we treat indigenous people or asylum seekers. There’s nothing in the list about world aid and ending poverty or even about creating a fair workplace for Australians. I feel that the Bible has much to say on these issues and that they must be considered if we are to get the full picture. Thankfully they have a lot of other resources on their site, apart from the checklist, which may help you towards a decision.

My regular Wednesday morning guest on 98.5 Sonshine FM is Ross Clifford who is the Principal of Morling College in New South Wales and current President of the Baptist Union of Australia. Each week we chat about a range of issues relating to spirituality and belief.

Today we looked at the topic ‘What Would Jesus Vote’ in an effort to equip people to do their homework so that they can discover who deserves their vote.

You can hear our discussion using the media player below.

As I mentioned last week, Saturday was McHappy Day at McDonalds stores across Australia.

It’s an annual event that raises funds for Ronald McDonald House Charities to help seriously ill children live happier, healthier lives. I spent some time helping out at Midland McDonalds.

Jill Bonanno, my regular Friday morning guest on 98.5 Sonshine FM joined me for a fun time talking to customers and raising funds. (That’s us in the photo with Ronald.)

Sarah, who was coordinating McHappy Day for the Midland store, looked after us so well. She is an absolute delight and I’m sure that the owners of the store are very pleased to have her on their staff.

I had a McCheesy moment during the morning. Part of my duties was handing out cake samples from the McCafe. I was trying to keep the atmosphere light and friendly so I wandered up to a couple who had just entered the store and said something along the lines of, “Would you like a cake sample? It’s McHappy Day so we’re trying to make people McHappy.”

I turned around to see Emily laughing. “What?” I asked. She responded, “Making people McHappy? That was so cheesy.”

So there you are. Emily, at age 11, has now come to the realisation that her dad says and does things that aren’t always cool. In fact, some of the things he does are pretty cringe-worthy.

To tell the truth, I think she worked that out quite some time ago. It’s just that sometimes it’s more obvious than others.

Posted by Rodney Olsen

Technorati Tags: McDonalds – McHappy Day – Radio

Have you ever looked at the suggested gifts for wedding anniversaries?

Many of us know that the 1st anniversary is known as the ‘paper anniversary’ or that the 25th is ‘silver’, the 30th is known as the ‘pearl anniversary’, the 50th ‘gold’ and the 60th ‘diamond’, but did you know that the 47th is ‘books’?

Who comes up with these classifications? You can see the list of traditional and modern anniversaries here.

Life Skills Trainer, Jill Bonanno, joined me on Friday morning on 98.5 Sonshine FM for our regular Friday morning radio segment, Simply Living. Jill celebrated her 28th Wedding Anniversary on Saturday (orchids) and so we discussed a range of issues to do with anniversaries.

During our discussion, which you can listen to using the media player below, we discovered some very strange anniversaries.

Once you get up to around 40 years married you can expect some interesting gifts. The 40th is Ruby, 41st is land, improved real estate comes in at number 42. If you’ve been married for 43 years you get to celebrate with travel. It seems that once you’ve been married that long you get to splurge a bit and who am I to complain. Of course it doesn’t end there.

The one that really intrigues me is the 44th anniversary. Apparently, the gift for 44 years of love, care and travelling life’s road together is …. groceries.

Groceries? What is that about? Is that because you’ve already spent all your money on real estate and travel? Is it an admission that there’s no romance left? Is it a case of just giving up? “Sorry my love, but after 44 years the passion has gone. Here, have some two minute noodles and a cabbage.”

The 48th seems very well thought out. If you’ve been married for 48 years you can exchange optical goods with your beloved. I guess by that stage you’d probably need to renew your prescription.

Do you pay much attention to the traditional or modern list of anniversaries? Do you make a big deal of anniversaries with your spouse? What’s the most extravagant thing you’ve done for an anniversary?

About five years ago, on our 10th anniversary, Pauline and I invited a heap of friends and renewed our vows during our Sunday morning church service. It was a great time to catch up with people and to tell the world we weren’t just going through the motions, we were still madly in love. I guess we’ll do the same in another five years.

Have you got any funny or romantic anniversary stories?

I’ll be putting on the apron and selling a few Big Macs tomorrow.

No, it’s not a way of supplementing my income. I won’t even be getting paid.

Tomorrow is McHappy Day, an annual event that raises funds for Ronald McDonald House Charities to help seriously ill children live happier, healthier lives.

Each year local media, sporting, political and community personalities are asked to get involved by serving behind the counter or collecting money from those in the restaurants. I’ve helped out at McHappy Day several times in the past but I haven’t done so in the last few years.

I’m certainly no celebrity but it’s nice to be asked to help out as part of my work at 98.5 Sonshine FM.

From 10 to 11 tomorrow morning I’ll be at McDonalds in Midland on the corner of Lloyd Street and Great Eastern Highway, so if you’re in the area please drop in and say hello. They have a great McCafe if you want to drop in for a coffee.

I’ll be teaming up with my Friday morning guest, Jill Bonanno, so it should be a very entertaining time to be at Maccas. I’ll post some photos here after the event.

Technorati Tags: McDonalds – McHappy Day – Sonshine FM