Amanda’s Musings

This is A4 size, pastel on paper.

The PF theme this week is ‘boy’. There’s only one ‘boy’ in my life and that’s my nephew Malachi so here he is:

I don’t know if any of you noticed but there’s a link on my sidebar that says ‘vote for Keziah’. I’ve entered her photo in a silly online photo comp on an Aussie online baby shop website. If you would like to vote for her too, all you have to do is go to this link:

Baby Express Competition

and register (scroll down and click the ‘register’ button). You will need to fill in a few details, name, address etc and an email address and password BUT I didn’t tick the box for receiving emails from them and they’ve been true to their word, I’ve not received any except the confirmation email.

At the moment Kez is number 5 on the list with 155 votes. The leader currently has 439 votes and counting! If you would like to help me out and vote for Kez I would be very grateful BUT if you don’t want to that’s fine too. The photo I’ve entered is the one at the top of this post (and yes, I’m showing her face on here…..just this once) : )

Thank you in advance if you do vote….oh and you can vote ONCE A DAY till the end of September. It’s her first birthday this month so it would be great to win!

If you are in Perth and are interested in a missions type weekend for young adults then this is for you. In it’s second year, Go! Reachout is connected to and modelled on the NSW ‘Reachout’ conference. It’s on this weekend starting tomorrow night and runs until late Saturday night. Michael and I will be there and we are part of the organising committee. It’s at Camp Wattle Grove in Orange Grove (around the Forrestfield area). You can register online by going to the official website:

Go! Reachout

This is the blurb from the website:

As part of our time in Niger we attended the yearly conference where all the SIM missionaries in the country get together for a time of catch up and fellowship. As far as I know it’s held in different locations each year and while we were there it was held on the property of Galmi Hospital.

We were quite glad that it was held out there and not in the capital Niamey where we lived as it gave us a chance to see the famous (in SIM circles) hospital and experience a bit more of Niger. The drive to Galmi was about 8 hours (if my memory serves!) and the road was very similar to the Aussie Nullabor, only rougher and with bigger and more frequent potholes (see pic, left).

All the Sahel singles and Michael and I were put into a house together. They all bunked in two rooms together and we had our own of course. It was a basic missions house, mostly concrete and very barely furnished. It was fine for what we all needed. I think it wasn’t quite finished which would explain its ruggedness. That would also explain why there was such a big gap around the tap in the bathroom shower that we heard screams from the singles when they discovered hundred of earwigs (or toebiters) pouring out of the hole and into the recess! This was only added to when one of them discovered that there was a typical Niger lizard cooling off in the toilet! Ahhhh, missions life.

We did get to tour the hospital and it was a real eye opener (pic: The waiting room with concrete seats). Galmi hopsital has been around for many years and it’s a SIM run missions hospital. That doesn’t mean that it’s anything like a lovely clean ‘western’ hospital . It’s not air conditioned and the staff are overworked. There are so many needs there all the time. Currently SIM is looking for the following positions there (clicky the links to read more):

General Surgeon for Galmi Hospital
Doctors/Surgeons for Galmi Hospital
Hospital Pharmacist for Galmi
Pharmacy Assistant or Nurse with Pharmacy Experience
AIDS Project Coordinator
Director of Family Medicine Training
Anaesthesiologists/Anaesthetists
Medical Student Elective
Midwife or Midwifery Tutor
Nurse or Nursing Tutor
Nursing Student Elective
Obstetrician & Gynecologists
Ophthalmologist
Pediatrician
Radiologist
Surgery Subspecialists (Orthopaedic, ENT, Plastic etc)
Bio-technician at Galmi

Finance Manager/Accountant
Guest House Ministry at Galmi
Administrative Support
Pastor for Personnel Care at Galmi
Outreach and Discipleship Ministry
Teacher for Galmi Private Primary School
Information Systems Administrator/Manager
Maintenance (Mechanic, Electrician, Electronics)
Workshop Supervisor

Acrylic on canvas, 60cmx75cm.