It was the summer of 2004 and the time had come for all from near and far to gather again into life groups, after the summer break.
The word had got around that there was this gun leader, Andrea Mason was her name, that was lookin to start a new group. A few of the regulars from the year before, who knew a bit about how good this Andrea was, put their hands up and said:
“Yep, I'll be in it” and added to them was the new blood, the rookies so to speak. And so it was.
There was this bloke and this sheila, Rachael and Brendan were their names, who folks around about reckoned had the gift of hospitality and they reckoned that the shed out the back of their place was just about right for a life group. Fancy that, a life group in a shed, now there's Australian for you.
A few of the people who had seen the shed reckoned that life group in a shed might be allright at that, especially as it was a shearsing shed, and so it was.
They were an interesting bunch that came to the life group in a shed. Some of them were quiet, could hardly get a word out of them, but the word's were worth listening to. Some of them were known to talk a bit, but that didn't matter as they were generally entertaining when they were talking anyway.
One thing they all had in common though, they all loved the big fella up stairs with everything they had, and that somehow made all the difference.
Every couple of weeks they'd get together in that shed. Sometimes they'd sit and talk for hours about the big book and how much it meant to them.
Sometimes they'd ask the big fella for stuff too, not so much for themselves, but for other people and you know what, He always answered them. It was like He knew them, like He was a mate of theirs or something.
Now this leader Andrea was hooked in real good with those who were in the know so every now and then she'd have a quiet word with one of the big guns down at the church, and they'd come down to have a yarn with the life group in the shed. All of them were real good too, left people thinking real hard about what was what in the world and what the big fella upstairs thought of it all.
Sometimes they'd get out and about and let their hair down too. Why one time they even went galavanting round in cars all over the place pickin up all kinds of weird stuff. I don't really know what that was all about and some of em were real keen to get as much as they could but seeing as they were all having a good time I guess we can make allowances.
Every two weeks, rain hail or shine they met in that shed, becoming better and better mates all the time. They were always sayin hi to each other down at the church and callin each other up on the phone. Some of em would even get together over this weird stuff called cabbage eno, specially when one of em was goin through a rough patch.
As the weeks went the rest of the people began to hear about this life group in a shed and a few of em were of a mind to come and check it out. In ones and twos they rocked up and most of them generally stayed, becoming good mates with the rest of em, real quick too. Oh sure there were some that moved on, after the big fella upstairs had a quiet word in their ear but more stayed than went and the life group in the shed grew and grew.
All this time their leader Andrea was encouraging em and asking the big fella for stuff for em and calling them on the telephone and taking them out for cabbage eno every now and then.
Now a round about May or June, can't rightly remember exactly, the big fella upstairs started having a few serious words with Andrea about what he reckoned about Australia. It turned out that He reckoned that Andrea might do alright down amongst them big wigs in Canberra and that now might be the time to have a go. Not only that, but that it was gonna take a real gutsy effort to make people in South Australia see all of that and send Andrea to Canberra to sort all of them big wigs out once and for all.
Bein the great leader that she was she reckoned that it was about time that some of the people in the life group in the shed took a bit of step up, havin been workin on em all this time, makin sure that they were ready when the time came. Having a look around she noticed that the shed was becoming just a bit crowded, even though everyone was good mates and doing great stuff for the big fella upstairs. She figured that there were at least a couple of em who could go and start sheds of their own, so that more people could find out what having life group in a shed was all about, without treading on each other's toes mind.
So Andrea got together with one of those big guns down at the church, Elmendorp was his name, and put together two lists, one for the original shed, and one for a new shed nearby. She got together with a couple of those she reckoned would do a good job and told em real good how she wanted them to go away and do the stuff that she had been doing, the encouraging, the asking the big fella, the callin em on the phone and the cabbage enos, with all the people on the lists but in the way that they thought best, having taught em how to go about it.
Now all of the people were a bit sad, seeing as how they had been meeting together in the shed for a good long while and that they had some really good mates who'd be going to one or other of the new sheds without them. So what they did was decide to have a big knees up, a real flash do in the shed, it was a Wednesday as I recall, to celebrate all the good times that they had. They ate and they drank and they laughed. They gave Andrea a right proper send off too. And when it was all said and done,
Well
That'd be another story now wouldn't it and I'd better not go getting ahead of myself while it's still being written now should I. I reckon that there might be a few people here who might have a hand in telling that new story too so you all might as well ask the big fella upstairs to write you a good bit to tell.