Mel loves to write …
Over the years Mel has written a wide variety of books, from fictional to informative and every thing in between! Although not specifically related to healthy living, you may find a book that sparks an interest with you. Each of these books can be purchased on Amazon.
20 Tiny Table Talks
that share the good news of Jesus Christ with dinner guests.
If you’ve ever found yourself leading a talk at Dinner Church
and thinking, ‘What do I say?’
Or ‘How do I say it?’
You’re not alone.
Speaking about faith in a way that’s clear, engaging, and meaningful—especially over a shared meal—can feel daunting.
This book is the result of the journey Southlakes Anglican Church began when we launched our weekly Community Dinner Church on Tuesday nights.
Over time, we discovered that sometimes the simplest words can have the greatest impact.
Inside, you’ll find twenty short, ready-to-go table talks—each one highlighting an aspect of the good news of Jesus Christ.
Every talk comes with discussion questions designed to invite conversation, not just deliver information. Whether you’re preparing in advance or picking something up at the last minute, this book is here to help you share the hope, love, and truth of Jesus around the dinner table.
The Pilgrims’ Missional Progress
Sent into the world to present the Kingdom that is becoming
Inspired by John Bunyan’s allegorical masterpiece “The Pilgrims Progress: From this world to that which is come”, The Pilgrims’ Missional Progress retells the story of Christian and Hopeful’s progress when the King sends them back into the City of Destruction to do the work of the Evangelist.
Rather than regarding The Celestial City as the goal of their pilgrimage, the pilgrims join Evangelist in spreading the good news of the King to the citizens of the City of Destruction.
Rather than swamps, castles and dungeons, the pilgrims encounter people at parks, bus stops, libraries, and shopping centres as pilgrims experience today.
The Pilgrims’ Missional Progress weaves the spiritual with the physical, the sacred with the secular, so that The Interpreter’s spiritual presence is recognised in the everyday here and now.
The Pilgrim’s Missional Progress captures the King’s missional heart for the citizens of the City of Destruction, desiring “none to perish, but for all to come to repentance”.
The King’s desire is for the citizens of The Celestial City to be an embodiment of the King’s new heavenly city which is already becoming.
Chaplain Gracey and the Tattooed Teen
Thirty five is definitely way too old to be in high school;
Unless you’re a teacher. Which I’m not.
But … The shock of my brother’s suicide two weeks ago and a harrowing dream changed everything;
changed my priorities,
my motivations,
my whole life direction.
God pounded on the door of my heart. And He made it impossible to ignore.
So, I said farewell to my tidy desk, laptop and business suits, to say ‘RUOK?’ to teems of teens decked out in a black polo-shirt, jeans and sneakers … my self-adopted uniform appropriate for the vague and nebulous role of School Chaplain at my old school.
‘What have I done?’ is the haunting question, following each step through the gates into the grittiness of Boolahra Regional High School.
With only a hazy idea of what a School Chaplain does, I’m swimming in a sea of titanic-sized melodramas, daily drenched by colourful language and crass teenage bantering. Lord, your timing could not be worse.
My younger brother has just committed suicide and there is every indication that the bully-infested playground I stomp around each day is the very territory of my brother’s killer.
What, or more specifically, who drove my gentle, quiet artistic brother to kill himself?
Was it a cruel, menacing teacher, a nasty ex-girlfriend, or a victimizing bully?
I don’t know, but I am determined to find out.