Summer School's over but summer's not " I'm back at home in an afternoon storm preparing to leave for a second year serving in South Africa.

But it was a great week " after day after day of weather jokes, main speaker John Woodhouse finally found new respect for the science of meteorology and was given a barometer.

I feel like I know Saul a lot better after a week in 1 Samuel " his abrupt rise to prominence, his tragic mistakes and his rejection as king.  I think I've got to spend a lot longer reflecting on the implications this stretch of Scripture has for me " what treaties do I make with kings like Nahash the Ammonite in 1 Samuel 11 " popularity, sex, power, money " who only wish to oppress me?  What kind of a leader do I imagine myself to be in church and society?  Will I obey God or simply make excuses?

I've witnessed with my own eyes in South Africa the seismic shift of Christianity from Europe to, basically, everywhere else - there's as many church goers in South Africa as people in Australia - but hearing Scottish missiologist Rose Dowsett expound the implications of this at a Western missionary conference brought it home.  I wonder sometimes if we're ready for the answers that our brothers and sisters in the developing world have to the affluence and atrophy of much of the Western Church.  Talking with my South African colleagues about what a pastor should earn, for example, is always a heartfelt (and intimidating) topic.

Watching a couple of thousand Australians following Mark and Carol Grieve singing Uthando lwakhe (His love, a Zulu song), seeing Alison Colliss play three convincing Frenchwomen and Geoff and Robyn Cushieiri's hijinks will be hard to forget.  The evening missionary sessions were alternately hilarious, moving and excruciating.  The sight of the Cushieris wearing about six layers " as they explained their forthcoming work in Malta, he and Robyn discarded flannelette shirts, winter jackets, and a Maltese flag " had me in stitches.  At one stage, he looked a very muscular western Sydney minister in a shirt and tie.

One of my friends commented that the week at Summer School was a taste of heaven " eating good food, worshipping God in song, standing along our brothers and sisters of different colours and cultures, and having our perspectives refreshed by God's.

I agree. Not quite heaven, but it was a good week.