hello everybody,
I figured I should do one last post for the year that has been 2008.
This Christmas season has been great so far. Christmas season started for me at church on the 14th, we sung some Christmas songs (I forgot how much I enjoyed these) and the weather outside was definitly frightful(-20, but sunny).
After finishing up the stressful week and a half of finals, and finding out i have to retake Finance, I flew down to visit my mom and step-dad in Utah. it was a fairly low key visit, but good and relaxing. we caught up, ate heaps of food and did some skiing as usual. It was awesome to see them. I came back home on the 23rd, after a 2 hour delay at the airport. it seems all of canada and almost all of the states have been hit hard with winter (snow in Las Vegas!)
on the 24th I saw Eagle Eye with some friends, it was good, then went to the Christmas eve service. It was awesome, one of my fav parts of christmas is the christmas eve service (aside from time with family, presents, and turkey dinner). that night I went to a Christmas eve family gather at Caleb and Matthias's oma and opas.
Christmas day i slept in and got to enjoy the joy of my niece and nephew getting presents and relaxing with family a bit while drinking a starbucks. we had a turkey dinner too.
on boxing day I went for lunch with Jake then to the Rayner's Oma and Opas for another Christmas dinner. Its hard not to be thankful for friends and family at this time of year.
Christmas can be a stressful time, but once you get through that and just enjoy it, its great. the next week will likely be busy for me too, but I am going to enjoy it.
I went to the lake today to shoot some puck around, but its not cleared yet. very suprised after all this weather we've had, i hope its cleared soon.
Looking back at 2008, it has been quite a year for me. new friendships, going away parties, Travelling to far away places, 3 mission trips (i thought it was 2, but actually was 3), capernwray bible school, snorkeling, sailing, taking heaps of pictures, a roadtrip, discovering a ton of new music, more new friendships, new perspectives, deepening of my faith, a new nephew, spending time with my nephew and niece, relationships, going to the CFL west final, going to rugby and AFL games, Stamps won the Grey cup, first semester at university, new traditions (wing wednesday), moving downstairs, sightseeing, chopsticks, challenges, Hillsong recording/conference, confidence, made a DVD, and countless other things and experiences I have had this year. It has been an amazing year that I will never forget, hopefully 2009 will be just as amazing (but it will probably be in different ways than 2008)
not sure what else to say, Merry Christmas everybody, hope yours was great, and enjoy the new year. thankyou to everyone for the gifts you have given me and thanks be to God for giving us your son.
thanks for reading,
Adam
Saturday, 27 December 2008
Friday, 28 November 2008
November update
Hey everybody,
It has been over a month since my last post, so it’s about time for an update.
I have had a busy month, but a totally enjoyable one. At the end of October, we had a Halloween youth event. It was cool; I was an “identity crisis”, a last minute idea that worked. The beginning of November brought snow (only a little bit) for the first time this winter (the first time it actually stayed on the ground for more than an hour). I watched the CFL division semi-finals with some youth, and hung out with some friends later that night. We also had youth that weekend, and being the long weekend (7-11), it was a great weekend. On the Monday I went to Kevins surprise birthday, and then Tuesday I saw Madagascar 2 and went to the Flames-Leafs game. Madagascar 2 was funny, just as good as the first, and the Flames game was fun, as the Flames won and it was a good atmosphere.
Time continued to fly by, with something significant each day, and assignments due all the time. One of my best buds from Capernwray, Tyler, came up from Colorado to visit his girlfriend for the week. So on Wednesday I hung out with Brendan, Tyler, and Daralynne, it was so awesome to see them again. On the next weekend I went to the West final – Stamps vs. Lions. I got tickets off a guy on a flames message board the day of the game and took a friend. The atmosphere at the Stamps game was awesome, the fans were into it, it was sold out, it was just as good an atmosphere as the two grey cup games I’ve been to, and it was plus 10, which is great for November football. Stamps won of course and went on to win the Grey cup.
On Sunday the 16th there was a young adults lunch, which was good. I also saw the new bond movie that weekend (the 15th) with Shawn and Mike. Quantum of Solace was a great movie, not sure if it was as good as the first, but it was really good. On Monday I went and saw Wall-E with Carlton, Nathan, Matthias, Caleb and Justin in the cheap seats. It was better than I expected, I enjoyed it. I also went and saw Role models on Thursday with Shawn, Travis and Mike, it was a funny movie.
On Friday the 21st we had our small group night; it was a fun time of just hanging out. That Sunday was the Grey cup – Stamps vs. Allouettes. After spending much of Saturday watching pregame for it, I was totally pumped for the game and believed my Stamps would win. Our small group watched it at my house, and then had our study after the game. It was great to see the Stamps win, not the most entertaining game, but it was good nonetheless. GO STAMPS. Wednesday I had wings with the guys as usual and we went to Nicks after. Yesterday I hung out with Jake, Caleb and Matthias; we went for dinner then bowling.
I am still playing soccer on Tuesdays, which has been fun even though we are not that good. We
have our last game this Tuesday. School has been hectic, so many assignments, group meetings and some studying mixed in. I am glad the semester is almost over; I need to do really well on my Finance and Marketing finals so that I don’t have to take them over. Those two classes are way too heavy, I feel like they cram two classes into one. Finance is annoying because it feels like he expects us to learn the textbook then he can review the notes in class. He is still teaching us, but it feels like there is way more material to cover than he has time for, so he skims through it all too fast. Oh well, it’s almost over. One week of classes left. I had two presentations yesterday, they went well. I actually am starting to see the end of it, as there are only two assignments left.
Of course I have also been busy keeping up with friends and the youth and working. At work, they gave me my own office for a few weeks! I was pretty happy to get an office, even if I probably shouldn’t have one (I work 10 hours a week). I’ll take it. It sounds like Nexen is going to extend my contract until the end of April, which is good news.
Christmas is coming up in less than a month. I was talking to one of my friends the other day, we were agreeing that it is too much about gifts, though he takes it farther and just dreads Christmas. While I don’t enjoy the stress of figuring out what to get people, and what I want, the season is a good time. Christmas is a time to spend with family, a time to relax and enjoy life, a time to celebrate and to remember why we have this season. Jesus was the ultimate gift from God to us; he was even brought gifts from strangers when he was born. Anyways Christmas has become so much about consumerism. While it’s nice to receive something, sometimes we spend a ton of money on something the person won’t really use or may randomly buy for themselves before receiving. The problem I often find is: what do I want/need? With the ease of just going and getting something, if I want something, I often go buy it. If I know what I want in October, I don’t want to wait until December to get it if I don’t know if anyone is getting it for me. Maybe that sounds bad, but it’s true, for things that aren’t expensive. For things that are expensive, like a stereo, we may ask for it or do some research, but it’s not cheap to buy a bunch of people expensive things like that, and not everyone needs something like that. When I was a kid, I wanted things like Lego or a movie, if I wanted those things right now I would just go get one. On the expensive side, would I like a car for Christmas, sure, but that is way too expensive for a Christmas gift and I already have one. I guess that’s why it’s nice to surprise people, if you have an idea of what they would enjoy, then that is good. Not to say Christmas or gift giving is bad. It certainly is nice to give someone a something they wanted and see their face light up, or to receive something you never really thought of asking for, or that you wanted for a while but never went out and bought. It’s not about what you receive though, it’s being generous towards others, like God was to us, we didn’t have to do anything for him, he gave us Jesus and through him redemption, love and grace.
I am still reading that book “the story we find ourselves in. I haven’t read it as much as I would like to but I am almost through it. The book has been quite enjoyable, after Jesus the author goes on to talk about community and the church. Then he discusses heaven and time and that sort of thing. He paints a picture of Gods judgement of us. Judgement means having things accurately appraised by God, to be in God’s presence means to be fully seen and known as who we really are. Judgement doesn’t mean condemnation; it means perfect assessment by God. We can’t avoid it. You can imagine God saying to someone – Well done! You have lived well! You helped the story advance toward my creative dreams. You fed the hungry, clothed the naked, welcomed in the lonely, visited the prisoners, and shared your bread with the poor. Wherever you went, you contributed love and peace, generosity and truth, courage and sacrifice, self-control and justice, faithfulness and kindness. You enriched the story, enhanced its beauty and drama and nobility. You have become someone good and beautiful and true. Your unique creative contributions will never be forgotten, and even the smallest act of kindness will be eternally celebrated, rewarded. After naming and forgiving your many faults, and failures, I see so much substance to your character, so much to cherish, so much of value, and it will now be set free, given a new beginning in my new creation. You have an eternal place in my story! You have been harvested from this creation, and now you will enter into the joy of the new creation!
Our story doesn’t end; it opens into another story, a new beginning, a resurrection, not a reincarnation. On the other hand, this is the story he gives if we don’t do so well.
God might say, sadly, your contributions have been neutral or negative. You have added more pain and selfishness, more dishonesty and coldness, more greed and disharmony and clutter into the story. I tried in every way possible to get through to you, but you wouldn’t respond to my grace. Even if I forgive and forget all bad things you have done, is there enough of your character left for you to continue existing in my creation and would you even like living with me in the story you have avoided, minimized, resisted, or subverted all your life what have you become you’ve made money and enjoyed luxuries and seemed like a great success to some of you fellow characters as you pursued your own dreams and desired, but in terms of my dreams and desires, you had your chance to become a good and unforgettable character in my story, and you wasted it. You’ve squandered the time and space you were given. I fell regret about what you could have been, what you could have done, what you could have become, but didn’t. I wish you had given me more to work with, but you haven’t. Your story has been a tragedy of waste and missed opportunities. (McLaren)
The obvious question is what happens to the second person. Maybe we shouldn’t focus on that. We should focus on the first person, what we (or at least I) want to be.
Another story is told of how God is like a parent letting a kid go but is also at the other end and the kid is running to him, God is where we are from and where we are going to, and we influence how long it takes to get back to him.
Anyways there you have it, a little peek at the book.
Not sure what else to say here. Christmas plans are to go to Utah to visit my mom and step-dad and ski for a week. I am looking forward to it. Exam week starts the 8th and I will be done on the 16th.
That was a super long post!
Thanks for reading as usual
Adam
ref:
McLaren, Brian, pg 233. The Story We Find Ourselves in. 2003.
It has been over a month since my last post, so it’s about time for an update.
I have had a busy month, but a totally enjoyable one. At the end of October, we had a Halloween youth event. It was cool; I was an “identity crisis”, a last minute idea that worked. The beginning of November brought snow (only a little bit) for the first time this winter (the first time it actually stayed on the ground for more than an hour). I watched the CFL division semi-finals with some youth, and hung out with some friends later that night. We also had youth that weekend, and being the long weekend (7-11), it was a great weekend. On the Monday I went to Kevins surprise birthday, and then Tuesday I saw Madagascar 2 and went to the Flames-Leafs game. Madagascar 2 was funny, just as good as the first, and the Flames game was fun, as the Flames won and it was a good atmosphere.
Time continued to fly by, with something significant each day, and assignments due all the time. One of my best buds from Capernwray, Tyler, came up from Colorado to visit his girlfriend for the week. So on Wednesday I hung out with Brendan, Tyler, and Daralynne, it was so awesome to see them again. On the next weekend I went to the West final – Stamps vs. Lions. I got tickets off a guy on a flames message board the day of the game and took a friend. The atmosphere at the Stamps game was awesome, the fans were into it, it was sold out, it was just as good an atmosphere as the two grey cup games I’ve been to, and it was plus 10, which is great for November football. Stamps won of course and went on to win the Grey cup.
On Sunday the 16th there was a young adults lunch, which was good. I also saw the new bond movie that weekend (the 15th) with Shawn and Mike. Quantum of Solace was a great movie, not sure if it was as good as the first, but it was really good. On Monday I went and saw Wall-E with Carlton, Nathan, Matthias, Caleb and Justin in the cheap seats. It was better than I expected, I enjoyed it. I also went and saw Role models on Thursday with Shawn, Travis and Mike, it was a funny movie.
On Friday the 21st we had our small group night; it was a fun time of just hanging out. That Sunday was the Grey cup – Stamps vs. Allouettes. After spending much of Saturday watching pregame for it, I was totally pumped for the game and believed my Stamps would win. Our small group watched it at my house, and then had our study after the game. It was great to see the Stamps win, not the most entertaining game, but it was good nonetheless. GO STAMPS. Wednesday I had wings with the guys as usual and we went to Nicks after. Yesterday I hung out with Jake, Caleb and Matthias; we went for dinner then bowling.
I am still playing soccer on Tuesdays, which has been fun even though we are not that good. We
have our last game this Tuesday. School has been hectic, so many assignments, group meetings and some studying mixed in. I am glad the semester is almost over; I need to do really well on my Finance and Marketing finals so that I don’t have to take them over. Those two classes are way too heavy, I feel like they cram two classes into one. Finance is annoying because it feels like he expects us to learn the textbook then he can review the notes in class. He is still teaching us, but it feels like there is way more material to cover than he has time for, so he skims through it all too fast. Oh well, it’s almost over. One week of classes left. I had two presentations yesterday, they went well. I actually am starting to see the end of it, as there are only two assignments left.
Of course I have also been busy keeping up with friends and the youth and working. At work, they gave me my own office for a few weeks! I was pretty happy to get an office, even if I probably shouldn’t have one (I work 10 hours a week). I’ll take it. It sounds like Nexen is going to extend my contract until the end of April, which is good news.
Christmas is coming up in less than a month. I was talking to one of my friends the other day, we were agreeing that it is too much about gifts, though he takes it farther and just dreads Christmas. While I don’t enjoy the stress of figuring out what to get people, and what I want, the season is a good time. Christmas is a time to spend with family, a time to relax and enjoy life, a time to celebrate and to remember why we have this season. Jesus was the ultimate gift from God to us; he was even brought gifts from strangers when he was born. Anyways Christmas has become so much about consumerism. While it’s nice to receive something, sometimes we spend a ton of money on something the person won’t really use or may randomly buy for themselves before receiving. The problem I often find is: what do I want/need? With the ease of just going and getting something, if I want something, I often go buy it. If I know what I want in October, I don’t want to wait until December to get it if I don’t know if anyone is getting it for me. Maybe that sounds bad, but it’s true, for things that aren’t expensive. For things that are expensive, like a stereo, we may ask for it or do some research, but it’s not cheap to buy a bunch of people expensive things like that, and not everyone needs something like that. When I was a kid, I wanted things like Lego or a movie, if I wanted those things right now I would just go get one. On the expensive side, would I like a car for Christmas, sure, but that is way too expensive for a Christmas gift and I already have one. I guess that’s why it’s nice to surprise people, if you have an idea of what they would enjoy, then that is good. Not to say Christmas or gift giving is bad. It certainly is nice to give someone a something they wanted and see their face light up, or to receive something you never really thought of asking for, or that you wanted for a while but never went out and bought. It’s not about what you receive though, it’s being generous towards others, like God was to us, we didn’t have to do anything for him, he gave us Jesus and through him redemption, love and grace.
I am still reading that book “the story we find ourselves in. I haven’t read it as much as I would like to but I am almost through it. The book has been quite enjoyable, after Jesus the author goes on to talk about community and the church. Then he discusses heaven and time and that sort of thing. He paints a picture of Gods judgement of us. Judgement means having things accurately appraised by God, to be in God’s presence means to be fully seen and known as who we really are. Judgement doesn’t mean condemnation; it means perfect assessment by God. We can’t avoid it. You can imagine God saying to someone – Well done! You have lived well! You helped the story advance toward my creative dreams. You fed the hungry, clothed the naked, welcomed in the lonely, visited the prisoners, and shared your bread with the poor. Wherever you went, you contributed love and peace, generosity and truth, courage and sacrifice, self-control and justice, faithfulness and kindness. You enriched the story, enhanced its beauty and drama and nobility. You have become someone good and beautiful and true. Your unique creative contributions will never be forgotten, and even the smallest act of kindness will be eternally celebrated, rewarded. After naming and forgiving your many faults, and failures, I see so much substance to your character, so much to cherish, so much of value, and it will now be set free, given a new beginning in my new creation. You have an eternal place in my story! You have been harvested from this creation, and now you will enter into the joy of the new creation!
Our story doesn’t end; it opens into another story, a new beginning, a resurrection, not a reincarnation. On the other hand, this is the story he gives if we don’t do so well.
God might say, sadly, your contributions have been neutral or negative. You have added more pain and selfishness, more dishonesty and coldness, more greed and disharmony and clutter into the story. I tried in every way possible to get through to you, but you wouldn’t respond to my grace. Even if I forgive and forget all bad things you have done, is there enough of your character left for you to continue existing in my creation and would you even like living with me in the story you have avoided, minimized, resisted, or subverted all your life what have you become you’ve made money and enjoyed luxuries and seemed like a great success to some of you fellow characters as you pursued your own dreams and desired, but in terms of my dreams and desires, you had your chance to become a good and unforgettable character in my story, and you wasted it. You’ve squandered the time and space you were given. I fell regret about what you could have been, what you could have done, what you could have become, but didn’t. I wish you had given me more to work with, but you haven’t. Your story has been a tragedy of waste and missed opportunities. (McLaren)
The obvious question is what happens to the second person. Maybe we shouldn’t focus on that. We should focus on the first person, what we (or at least I) want to be.
Another story is told of how God is like a parent letting a kid go but is also at the other end and the kid is running to him, God is where we are from and where we are going to, and we influence how long it takes to get back to him.
Anyways there you have it, a little peek at the book.
Not sure what else to say here. Christmas plans are to go to Utah to visit my mom and step-dad and ski for a week. I am looking forward to it. Exam week starts the 8th and I will be done on the 16th.
That was a super long post!
Thanks for reading as usual
Adam
ref:
McLaren, Brian, pg 233. The Story We Find Ourselves in. 2003.
Thursday, 23 October 2008
October: bookenit, midterms, sports and other things.
hey everybody,
so midterm week is almost over, only 1 exam left! I had HROD last friday, FNCE monday, OPMA tuesday, MKTG wednesday and i have MGIS tomorrow night. I'll be glad to be done the midterms, but the semester keeps on rolling, a group meeting tomorrow and 2 assignments due next week.
As I mentioned before, i finished up a book called "A new Kind of Christian" by Brian McLaren. one of my friends from Capernwray suggested (on a comment on facebook) that I get another one of his books, "A Generous Orthodoxy". I went to Chapters to buy some new books and use a gift certificate from about 7 years ago (they accepted it). I couldnt find that book, but bought another of his books called "the story we find ourselves in" and another book by Rob Bell, "Velvet Elvis".
In "The story we find ourselves in" the author looks at the history of the world from a slightly different perspective from the bible, but at essentially the same story. the 1st part is creation. talking about how God created us and everything around us, so that the creation creates more, for example: God created us, we create ideas, societies, inventions, stories, new people etc. another thing the character in the story stresses is how we often look at genesis as a textbook, but he believes in genesis as the ancient nomads huddled around a fire listening to the story would have believed it, with its poems and story that forms us inwardly.
he second part of the story is Chaos. God gave us the riegns, and he wanted it to be a real world, where real things happen and can go wrong. one example he gave was that in the story of Cain and Abel, Abel had gone beyond his ancestors, from hunter gatherer to pastoralist, a herder of sheep or animals. its a step up because you have more freedom to wander. cain brought plant crops to God, he had moved farther to a sophisticated agriculturist. he gained more independance from God because he had control over the crops. when you settle down you accumulate things, then you want to protect them from others who will steal. if someone trespasses, you have to do something...and of course cain killed abel in a field.... interesting perspective. basically the idea is that as people became more independant, they developed social structures and as they got farther from God, they found it harder to get along and a flood of chaos and destruction happens.
in both parts of the story, it is still happening, we still create and there is always some form of crisis or chaos.
the 3rd part is "calling". as in, God has called us to be a blessing. we are not here for our own agenda, a national agenda or an economic agenda, but for God's agenda, part of God's ongoing creation in the world.
the 4th part is conversation. in most of the old testament, God gives us a calling, then the people drifted, eventually going to the wrong side, then repenting and coming back to God. the focus is Gods faithfulness and patience through all that happens. in the book, converstation is summed up through priests, prophets, poets and philosophers. one quote ill throw in "sometimes, i think the bible is more of a question book than answer book; it raises questions that bring people together for conversation about life's most important issues."
so whats next? Christ
the need for Christ comes from the crisis part of the story, we make all these choices and the world gets more messed up. if God lets things go, like Cain and Abel, than you have to question Gods justice and love for everyone, but if he intervenes and punishes us, then we are finished, so God sends Jesus. basically you would write alot about Jesus, and trying to see the whole picture is like trying to see the whole sky from inside a hospital, looking through a bunch of little windows. there are different aspects of why Jesus came (the author suggests 6, but I'll let you read the book if your really interested).
anyways, another part of the book talks about following Jesus. paraphrasing here. Christianity started as a middle eastern religion, the word 'guru' is close to the word for 'master' in Jewish. thats where we get the name 'lord'. master was often a name given to a rabbi, master doesnt mean master in reference to a slave, but master in a sense of beign the master of ...martial arts, or a master craftsman or violin master. a violin master can take some wood and wire and horsehair and create music more beautiful than anyone else can play. that would mean that noone else could take the materials of life - skin, bone, blood, space, time, words, deeds, eating, sleeping, waking etc and elicit a beautiful song of truth and goodness, as jesus did. the disciples realized that out fo the self seeking of the collaborators, the judgemental pharisees, isolationist essenes, and violent zealots, Jesus way was higher, more brilliant. when you think about it, who today is studying the teachings of herod or ceasar. lets say you are a disciple, you start following him, but you dont really know what his plan is, he's not affiliated with any partys or groups, but hes doing these crazy signs and wonders. then he gets hung on the cross, killed by the people the disciples thought he would defeat. the bad guys win, its tragic. but then he is ressurected, the best sign of them all. showing us that no matter what hte worst people do, how bad things get, dont be afraid cuz God is going to triumph. God's revolution can be resisted, but never defeated.
wow ok so i wrote alot there, but the author has some pretty cool perspectives, anyways, this is a blog so ill move on and finish this up.
I went to the Stamps-Bombers game on saturday with a bunch of people from my church and youth group, it was a good time, (even tho the game wasnt close) and we got to meet some players and hear thier stories afterwards, also Burris signed my Burris jersey. also went to the flames-Avalanche game last week with my buddy Mac, that was fun. anyways, ive been hanging out with friends, working on projects, watching sports and hanging out with the youth. also on of my best buds from Capers is coming to Calgary in November for a few weeks, so thats pretty awesome. also found out from school when my final exams are, my last exam is December 15th. yay. also already got invited to a turkey dinner on boxing day, way cool.
Ive been putting pictures in a contest on facebook and its been cool to see the talent all the people have in the group and trying to find good pics for the themes.
so thats about it for this post
thanks for reading,
Adam
so midterm week is almost over, only 1 exam left! I had HROD last friday, FNCE monday, OPMA tuesday, MKTG wednesday and i have MGIS tomorrow night. I'll be glad to be done the midterms, but the semester keeps on rolling, a group meeting tomorrow and 2 assignments due next week.
As I mentioned before, i finished up a book called "A new Kind of Christian" by Brian McLaren. one of my friends from Capernwray suggested (on a comment on facebook) that I get another one of his books, "A Generous Orthodoxy". I went to Chapters to buy some new books and use a gift certificate from about 7 years ago (they accepted it). I couldnt find that book, but bought another of his books called "the story we find ourselves in" and another book by Rob Bell, "Velvet Elvis".
In "The story we find ourselves in" the author looks at the history of the world from a slightly different perspective from the bible, but at essentially the same story. the 1st part is creation. talking about how God created us and everything around us, so that the creation creates more, for example: God created us, we create ideas, societies, inventions, stories, new people etc. another thing the character in the story stresses is how we often look at genesis as a textbook, but he believes in genesis as the ancient nomads huddled around a fire listening to the story would have believed it, with its poems and story that forms us inwardly.
he second part of the story is Chaos. God gave us the riegns, and he wanted it to be a real world, where real things happen and can go wrong. one example he gave was that in the story of Cain and Abel, Abel had gone beyond his ancestors, from hunter gatherer to pastoralist, a herder of sheep or animals. its a step up because you have more freedom to wander. cain brought plant crops to God, he had moved farther to a sophisticated agriculturist. he gained more independance from God because he had control over the crops. when you settle down you accumulate things, then you want to protect them from others who will steal. if someone trespasses, you have to do something...and of course cain killed abel in a field.... interesting perspective. basically the idea is that as people became more independant, they developed social structures and as they got farther from God, they found it harder to get along and a flood of chaos and destruction happens.
in both parts of the story, it is still happening, we still create and there is always some form of crisis or chaos.
the 3rd part is "calling". as in, God has called us to be a blessing. we are not here for our own agenda, a national agenda or an economic agenda, but for God's agenda, part of God's ongoing creation in the world.
the 4th part is conversation. in most of the old testament, God gives us a calling, then the people drifted, eventually going to the wrong side, then repenting and coming back to God. the focus is Gods faithfulness and patience through all that happens. in the book, converstation is summed up through priests, prophets, poets and philosophers. one quote ill throw in "sometimes, i think the bible is more of a question book than answer book; it raises questions that bring people together for conversation about life's most important issues."
so whats next? Christ
the need for Christ comes from the crisis part of the story, we make all these choices and the world gets more messed up. if God lets things go, like Cain and Abel, than you have to question Gods justice and love for everyone, but if he intervenes and punishes us, then we are finished, so God sends Jesus. basically you would write alot about Jesus, and trying to see the whole picture is like trying to see the whole sky from inside a hospital, looking through a bunch of little windows. there are different aspects of why Jesus came (the author suggests 6, but I'll let you read the book if your really interested).
anyways, another part of the book talks about following Jesus. paraphrasing here. Christianity started as a middle eastern religion, the word 'guru' is close to the word for 'master' in Jewish. thats where we get the name 'lord'. master was often a name given to a rabbi, master doesnt mean master in reference to a slave, but master in a sense of beign the master of ...martial arts, or a master craftsman or violin master. a violin master can take some wood and wire and horsehair and create music more beautiful than anyone else can play. that would mean that noone else could take the materials of life - skin, bone, blood, space, time, words, deeds, eating, sleeping, waking etc and elicit a beautiful song of truth and goodness, as jesus did. the disciples realized that out fo the self seeking of the collaborators, the judgemental pharisees, isolationist essenes, and violent zealots, Jesus way was higher, more brilliant. when you think about it, who today is studying the teachings of herod or ceasar. lets say you are a disciple, you start following him, but you dont really know what his plan is, he's not affiliated with any partys or groups, but hes doing these crazy signs and wonders. then he gets hung on the cross, killed by the people the disciples thought he would defeat. the bad guys win, its tragic. but then he is ressurected, the best sign of them all. showing us that no matter what hte worst people do, how bad things get, dont be afraid cuz God is going to triumph. God's revolution can be resisted, but never defeated.
wow ok so i wrote alot there, but the author has some pretty cool perspectives, anyways, this is a blog so ill move on and finish this up.
I went to the Stamps-Bombers game on saturday with a bunch of people from my church and youth group, it was a good time, (even tho the game wasnt close) and we got to meet some players and hear thier stories afterwards, also Burris signed my Burris jersey. also went to the flames-Avalanche game last week with my buddy Mac, that was fun. anyways, ive been hanging out with friends, working on projects, watching sports and hanging out with the youth. also on of my best buds from Capers is coming to Calgary in November for a few weeks, so thats pretty awesome. also found out from school when my final exams are, my last exam is December 15th. yay. also already got invited to a turkey dinner on boxing day, way cool.
Ive been putting pictures in a contest on facebook and its been cool to see the talent all the people have in the group and trying to find good pics for the themes.
so thats about it for this post
thanks for reading,
Adam
Monday, 6 October 2008
Fall is here
Hey everybody,
With the Leaves turning yellow and falling, the temperature dropping from highs of 25 last week to highs of 10-15 this week, its definitly fall here in Calgary. luckily the snow hasnt fallen yet and its still sunny all day it seems, not a bad start to fall actually. another sign of fall hockey starting up, times getting busier (youth, school, soccer etc) and the turkeys at the supermarkets. hmm turkey. thanksgiving is now less than a week away, a time when we are thankful for all that we have been blessed with. I am thinking as I write this, but for people who don't believe in God, when you are thankful for something (like being born in a safe enviroment, free from the worries in third world countries, for example) who are you thanking? i mean, you're probably glad, but if there isnt God, your just lucky or something...anyways i digress. I am thankful that God has blessed me with the people in my life and everything I have (or have access to) including my health, and the experiences I have been able to have so far in life, and probably more I can't think of.
a little update on me. Ive been busy the last few weeks, going to youth events and 4c, doing wingnights with the guys, playing poker with friends, doing homework and a saturday morning quiz (really!?!) watching football and hockey with friends, listening to music, working... you get the idea. last week I had my first soccer game with my team in the Calgary sport and social club indoor soccer league, it was lots of fun. I realized how out of shape I am, but I did manage to score a goal and we won 3-2. fun times.
I bought a new mp3 last weekend, out of necessity, kind of (like when you want something and get used to having it, when it goes away, it almost becomes a need). After going to see a movie (Get Smart, funny movie) with Caleb and Matthias, I was at home and couldnt find my Mp3 player anywhere, I bought it in November last year (oddly enough, out of necessity after the previous one fell out of a pocket, needing some music for the 4 hour plane ride to Toronto for the Grey cup). anyways that mp3 lasted really well, making it to Australia, being dropped several times (benefits of a flash mp3, harder to break!) and some more drops back home. anyways this one must have fallen out of my pocket, the next morning (a friday) i looked everywhere and retraced my steps, no luck. went to school, came home, no music, which was actually fine. some good thinking/reading time on the train, and some prayer time as i walked home. that night I went to youth, we had a good time. saturday morning i did some research and decided to buy a new one. I ended up going for a Microsoft Zune, 8gb. it has a touch pad (better functionality than a scroll wheel, imo) and its own program, like itunes. its pretty sweet, ive been enjoying it. hopefully this one lasts me a little longer.
also I have updated my Sports blog, link on the right.
a few pics for ya from September
thanks for reading,
Adam
Wednesday, 24 September 2008
randomness
Hello everybody,
Here are some of my thoughts from today as i made the hour long trek home from school. sitting on the train, i was listening to my favourite music, Switchfoot, and some of the lyrics made me think/reminded me of Capernwray. its been a few weeks since i really missed it, but I was thinking about what would have happened if I had stayed there for the next semester. It would've have been interesting, but I can't know what would have happened, plus thats not the way it happened, so its kinda pointless.
I was also thinking about career/jobs. I don't know what i want to do, but thats ok. I could do one thing but change after a few years. as much as I want to be done with school (believe me, I do) the thing is that taking all the courses for my B.comm means that getting further degrees in other fields wont take as long, which is great. My business degree will help me get jobs in other areas if thats what happens, but we'll see what happens in business first of course.
I decided to finish off the book i have been reading "A new kind of Christian". it was a great book, and the end has a readers guide with discussion points. anyways a few things that stuck out to me(from the discussion points and other random thoughts): we focus sometimes too much on "conversions" (stick with me here), when maybe we should be more focused on conversations. people coming to christ is great, but there is more to salvation and being right with God than saying a little prayer at the end of a book. As we seek to know God better and walk with Jesus, having discussions with people is what has an impact. we can't force someone to accept that God is there, we shouldnt be just focused on trying to "market" God or Jesus to others. We should inspire others to evaluate what they believe and hope they see the Holy Spirit working through us.
In the move from modern to post-modernism (the focus of the book here is that the world is moving into post modernism and Christianity in effect should do the same, not necesarily becoming overly worldly, but being relevant to the time) the focus on things is moving from the view of being on a line (to the left of where you are is conservitive, the right is the liberal, for example) to somewhere hovering the line, if that makes sense. not stuck on a point on a continuim, but having a view of everything, going who knows where from that...
One of the great things about a book is it can get you thinking
I read a preview at the end for another book by the author, and it got me thinking about people falling away from God. when someone says they are falling away from God, are they really? I mean, when you are falling away from God (letting God slip out of your focus, mind, not giving God control) it is when you stop trying etc, when you say "i think i'm falling away from God" it means you are looking at where your faith is at seriously and reevaluating it. true, you could still be walking away from God, but often it leads to questions, and more genuineness, as well seeking God out more. so by that you are actually falling back into God. hmm, so yea those are some thoughts.
I need to stop procrastinating and catch up on school, but hopefully this has given whoever is reading this some insight into what I was thinking today. you may or may not agree with everything I said, feel free to add your thoughts, and keep seeking God (for those that are!)
As for day to day stuff, i have been super busy lately, went to a Stamps game saturday with some guys from youth and work, and yesterday went to the flames preseason home opener with my buddy Mac, its been a fun couple of days. the next month will be a little wild with soccer starting and assignments and midterms in october. thats the deal, off to wings for guys night tonight.
thats all for now,
Adam
Here are some of my thoughts from today as i made the hour long trek home from school. sitting on the train, i was listening to my favourite music, Switchfoot, and some of the lyrics made me think/reminded me of Capernwray. its been a few weeks since i really missed it, but I was thinking about what would have happened if I had stayed there for the next semester. It would've have been interesting, but I can't know what would have happened, plus thats not the way it happened, so its kinda pointless.
I was also thinking about career/jobs. I don't know what i want to do, but thats ok. I could do one thing but change after a few years. as much as I want to be done with school (believe me, I do) the thing is that taking all the courses for my B.comm means that getting further degrees in other fields wont take as long, which is great. My business degree will help me get jobs in other areas if thats what happens, but we'll see what happens in business first of course.
I decided to finish off the book i have been reading "A new kind of Christian". it was a great book, and the end has a readers guide with discussion points. anyways a few things that stuck out to me(from the discussion points and other random thoughts): we focus sometimes too much on "conversions" (stick with me here), when maybe we should be more focused on conversations. people coming to christ is great, but there is more to salvation and being right with God than saying a little prayer at the end of a book. As we seek to know God better and walk with Jesus, having discussions with people is what has an impact. we can't force someone to accept that God is there, we shouldnt be just focused on trying to "market" God or Jesus to others. We should inspire others to evaluate what they believe and hope they see the Holy Spirit working through us.
In the move from modern to post-modernism (the focus of the book here is that the world is moving into post modernism and Christianity in effect should do the same, not necesarily becoming overly worldly, but being relevant to the time) the focus on things is moving from the view of being on a line (to the left of where you are is conservitive, the right is the liberal, for example) to somewhere hovering the line, if that makes sense. not stuck on a point on a continuim, but having a view of everything, going who knows where from that...
One of the great things about a book is it can get you thinking
I read a preview at the end for another book by the author, and it got me thinking about people falling away from God. when someone says they are falling away from God, are they really? I mean, when you are falling away from God (letting God slip out of your focus, mind, not giving God control) it is when you stop trying etc, when you say "i think i'm falling away from God" it means you are looking at where your faith is at seriously and reevaluating it. true, you could still be walking away from God, but often it leads to questions, and more genuineness, as well seeking God out more. so by that you are actually falling back into God. hmm, so yea those are some thoughts.
I need to stop procrastinating and catch up on school, but hopefully this has given whoever is reading this some insight into what I was thinking today. you may or may not agree with everything I said, feel free to add your thoughts, and keep seeking God (for those that are!)
As for day to day stuff, i have been super busy lately, went to a Stamps game saturday with some guys from youth and work, and yesterday went to the flames preseason home opener with my buddy Mac, its been a fun couple of days. the next month will be a little wild with soccer starting and assignments and midterms in october. thats the deal, off to wings for guys night tonight.
thats all for now,
Adam
Friday, 12 September 2008
so it begins...
Hi Everybody,
I have now been home for over a month and have now completed one week at the University (actually I am at the university as i write this).
The first week has gone alright. my courses are Finance, Operations Management, Management of Information Systems, Human resources & orginization development, and Marketing...all 317 courses. Finance should be the most work, marketing and Operations management may be the best and MGIS will probably be the worst...but its only been one week. who knows. The only person I have recognized at the U of C has been my bud Andrew, on the train and today as I wandered around during labs. Im sure there will be more but otherwise its been all new people.
so thats a little picture of my first week, of my 3rd year of my commerce program. (im majoring in Operations Management).
I have also been working at Nexen part time after school some days (mon, tues, thurs) which will pay for expenses (including school). not only am I working at Nexen again, but I'm working with pretty much same people as before, which is great. I've been mostly helping out in Oil Accounting lately as part of my job.
Another thing that is starting is Youth. I am going to be a leader in the youth group again this year, helping out on friday nights and co-leading the gr 7-8s on sunday nights. I'm pretty excited for that, the first youth event is tonight.
Also starting in a couple weeks is indoor soccer. I joined a co-ed league with the Calgary sport and social club, and will be playing soccer on tuesday nights.
of course the rest of my time will be hanging out with friends (incl. wing nights), homework, football/hockey watching and ...whatever else comes up. should be a busy, but not too busy, and great fall. aside from midterm week in october, 5 midterms, one week, one of them on a friday night!
Hmm what else? I've been listening to mxpx, pillar, grits, skillet, switchfoot (of course) and sanctus real lately.
its been almost 3 months since capers ended, still miss it a bit, mostly the community it was. so as a question i always get, does it feel wierd to be back? it feels a little wierd going to uni, but thats to be expected, it depends what wierd is. I mean, any time something changes you could say its wierd (and possibly awesome...like going to capers) but those changes are a good thing. God is adjusting the footsteps, we are learning how to deal with things and see differently, and they often provide a challenge we can learn from.
So I've been reading a book off and on lately called "A New Kind of Christian" by Brian McLaren. It is a good book and I would reccomend it.
I was going to include some stuff from it, but then thought I shouldn't. So if you want, check it out. anyways thats all on that.
hmm well i think thats all for today,
thats all for now
From Calgary,
Adam
I have now been home for over a month and have now completed one week at the University (actually I am at the university as i write this).
The first week has gone alright. my courses are Finance, Operations Management, Management of Information Systems, Human resources & orginization development, and Marketing...all 317 courses. Finance should be the most work, marketing and Operations management may be the best and MGIS will probably be the worst...but its only been one week. who knows. The only person I have recognized at the U of C has been my bud Andrew, on the train and today as I wandered around during labs. Im sure there will be more but otherwise its been all new people.
so thats a little picture of my first week, of my 3rd year of my commerce program. (im majoring in Operations Management).
I have also been working at Nexen part time after school some days (mon, tues, thurs) which will pay for expenses (including school). not only am I working at Nexen again, but I'm working with pretty much same people as before, which is great. I've been mostly helping out in Oil Accounting lately as part of my job.
Another thing that is starting is Youth. I am going to be a leader in the youth group again this year, helping out on friday nights and co-leading the gr 7-8s on sunday nights. I'm pretty excited for that, the first youth event is tonight.
Also starting in a couple weeks is indoor soccer. I joined a co-ed league with the Calgary sport and social club, and will be playing soccer on tuesday nights.
of course the rest of my time will be hanging out with friends (incl. wing nights), homework, football/hockey watching and ...whatever else comes up. should be a busy, but not too busy, and great fall. aside from midterm week in october, 5 midterms, one week, one of them on a friday night!
Hmm what else? I've been listening to mxpx, pillar, grits, skillet, switchfoot (of course) and sanctus real lately.
its been almost 3 months since capers ended, still miss it a bit, mostly the community it was. so as a question i always get, does it feel wierd to be back? it feels a little wierd going to uni, but thats to be expected, it depends what wierd is. I mean, any time something changes you could say its wierd (and possibly awesome...like going to capers) but those changes are a good thing. God is adjusting the footsteps, we are learning how to deal with things and see differently, and they often provide a challenge we can learn from.
So I've been reading a book off and on lately called "A New Kind of Christian" by Brian McLaren. It is a good book and I would reccomend it.
I was going to include some stuff from it, but then thought I shouldn't. So if you want, check it out. anyways thats all on that.
hmm well i think thats all for today,
thats all for now
From Calgary,
Adam
Saturday, 30 August 2008
brighter days
here goes
Directions:1. Put your iTunes, Windows Media Player, iPod etc. on shuffle.
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS
1. IF SOMEONE SAYS "IS THIS OKAY" YOU SAY?--- something beautiful
2. HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOURSELF?--- my glorious...lol
3. WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?--- 50 mission cap....uhhh
4. HOW DO YOU FEEL TODAY?--- you ain't seen nothing yet (haha)
5. WHAT IS YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE?--- summertime - haha ok
6. WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO?--- black betty (ah no)
7. WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?--- original prankster (i doubt that)
8. WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?--- foreverandever etc
9. WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?--- magic carpet ride (bwahahaha)
10. WHAT IS 2 + 2?--- she's not there
11. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR EX?--- favourite things (what? no)
12. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE PERSON YOU LIKE?--- whats my age again (pfffft, lol)
13. WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?--- shout unto God (hm, cool)
14. WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?--- blessed be your name (that doesnt make sense)
15. WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE?--- diverse city???no
16. WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?--- your so damn hot (haha i dont think so)
17. WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?--- st. anger (errr no)
18. WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST FEAR?--- out of me
19. WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET?--- accross the earth (God is not a secret)
20..WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?--- sweetness (haha perfect)
Now press Next one more time and use it as your title.
Directions:1. Put your iTunes, Windows Media Player, iPod etc. on shuffle.
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS
1. IF SOMEONE SAYS "IS THIS OKAY" YOU SAY?--- something beautiful
2. HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOURSELF?--- my glorious...lol
3. WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?--- 50 mission cap....uhhh
4. HOW DO YOU FEEL TODAY?--- you ain't seen nothing yet (haha)
5. WHAT IS YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE?--- summertime - haha ok
6. WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO?--- black betty (ah no)
7. WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?--- original prankster (i doubt that)
8. WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?--- foreverandever etc
9. WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?--- magic carpet ride (bwahahaha)
10. WHAT IS 2 + 2?--- she's not there
11. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR EX?--- favourite things (what? no)
12. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE PERSON YOU LIKE?--- whats my age again (pfffft, lol)
13. WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?--- shout unto God (hm, cool)
14. WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?--- blessed be your name (that doesnt make sense)
15. WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE?--- diverse city???no
16. WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?--- your so damn hot (haha i dont think so)
17. WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?--- st. anger (errr no)
18. WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST FEAR?--- out of me
19. WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET?--- accross the earth (God is not a secret)
20..WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?--- sweetness (haha perfect)
Now press Next one more time and use it as your title.
update...ish
ok so its saturday night here in calgary. aaaaand im bored. hmm.
so an update
i got a job at nexen, doing mostly stuff for the finance department like excel macros and accounting type things. ive worked one week full time and im working with a bunch of people that i worked with before i left. (before i left for aus, i worked at nexen) so that has been great. im thinking my fall will be pretty busy though. working part time 3 afternoons a week, 5 days of classes (5 core classes), soccer one night a week, and youth on fridays and sundays, plus time for friends etc in between, its going to be a little busy. oh well, ill manage, with God's help of course.
as the aussies say, "no worries mate".
i was organizing stuff in my room that i left when i went to australia, and found like $100 in change....wow, awesomeness. that doesnt change the fact that im going to have to borrow money from my parents to pay for school though, unfortunatly.
as far as pictures go, my flickr account has reached its max, so if you want to see more pics, i have more on facebook!( and on my computer of course).
ive been listening to more random music lately, which has been good. right now i am listening to MXPX, always good. my top 3 artists on last.fm in the last week are Sanctus real, switchfoot and mxpx. for more check out my charts on the right side and click on one to to go my profile page on last.fm (and get last.fm if you dont have it).
hmm i think thats all for now. im super pumped for the labour day game on monday, get to see some friends tomorrow at church that i havent seen in a long time and have the first youth sponsor meeting of the year on friday!
sweet deal
alright
bye for now and thanks for reading
Adam
so an update
i got a job at nexen, doing mostly stuff for the finance department like excel macros and accounting type things. ive worked one week full time and im working with a bunch of people that i worked with before i left. (before i left for aus, i worked at nexen) so that has been great. im thinking my fall will be pretty busy though. working part time 3 afternoons a week, 5 days of classes (5 core classes), soccer one night a week, and youth on fridays and sundays, plus time for friends etc in between, its going to be a little busy. oh well, ill manage, with God's help of course.
as the aussies say, "no worries mate".
i was organizing stuff in my room that i left when i went to australia, and found like $100 in change....wow, awesomeness. that doesnt change the fact that im going to have to borrow money from my parents to pay for school though, unfortunatly.
as far as pictures go, my flickr account has reached its max, so if you want to see more pics, i have more on facebook!( and on my computer of course).
ive been listening to more random music lately, which has been good. right now i am listening to MXPX, always good. my top 3 artists on last.fm in the last week are Sanctus real, switchfoot and mxpx. for more check out my charts on the right side and click on one to to go my profile page on last.fm (and get last.fm if you dont have it).
hmm i think thats all for now. im super pumped for the labour day game on monday, get to see some friends tomorrow at church that i havent seen in a long time and have the first youth sponsor meeting of the year on friday!
sweet deal
alright
bye for now and thanks for reading
Adam
Monday, 18 August 2008
home and randoms
hello everybody
so right now, im waiting on a call from Nexen to find out if I have a job. ive been waiting a week, they said on tuesday they would call me on Monday. so hopefully there is a job available, if not, I need to do some job hunting, or go back to Marks work wearhouse. I need a job to pay for my tuition and textbooks for the fall at the University of Calgary. school starts on the 8th, so i do have a little time.
so I've been home a week and a half and have caught up with a bunch of people, which has been great. spending time with friends and family and somehow filling up a week where i only worked on morning (helping move a fridge) and obviously didnt have school, with random things. it was actually pretty cool, but i do need to start making a little money.
went and saw Hulk on Saturday with Caleb, Matthias and Justin, that was a good movie, better than the first in my opinion. I saw it at the cheap seats which is always good and then we hung out at Timmys til they kicked us out. I went for wings on wednesday with Kevin, Josh and Justin, that was a good time, we went to Kevo's after and played Halo. the wednesday tradition lives on.
on friday I went and took pictures downtown with Jake, more good times. hung out at the mall with Rachel last saturday and went for coffee this week. watched a movie with Shawn and Chelsea last week and we went to Boston pizza. so yea its been a week of random stuff like that.
Jake and I went biking on saturday from Bonavista up the Bow river pathway to Prince's Island park, that was fun, then we rushed to center street church and met up with Bart.
on sunday the guest speaker at bonavista church talked about community and how we treat others. it was a good topic, we can never fully understand how much we affect other people when we do or say little things, but if we let the Holy Spirit work in us and we act in love than friendships and that sort of thing always go better.
yea this post is kinda random.
the last 7 months i really got into Switchfoot. they just have such good songs with awesome lyrics. like "Gone". it clicked for me on a saturday as I walked around in Perth, it said "today will soon be gone, like yesterday is gone, like saturday is gone.....dont spend today away" basically dont waste the day, once its gone its gone. so many songs with great sound and great lyrics. ive been listening to alot of sanctus real, thousand foot krutch and jack johnson lately.
thats all for now, maybe I'll go play with my niece or something.
thanks for reading
Adam
so right now, im waiting on a call from Nexen to find out if I have a job. ive been waiting a week, they said on tuesday they would call me on Monday. so hopefully there is a job available, if not, I need to do some job hunting, or go back to Marks work wearhouse. I need a job to pay for my tuition and textbooks for the fall at the University of Calgary. school starts on the 8th, so i do have a little time.
so I've been home a week and a half and have caught up with a bunch of people, which has been great. spending time with friends and family and somehow filling up a week where i only worked on morning (helping move a fridge) and obviously didnt have school, with random things. it was actually pretty cool, but i do need to start making a little money.
went and saw Hulk on Saturday with Caleb, Matthias and Justin, that was a good movie, better than the first in my opinion. I saw it at the cheap seats which is always good and then we hung out at Timmys til they kicked us out. I went for wings on wednesday with Kevin, Josh and Justin, that was a good time, we went to Kevo's after and played Halo. the wednesday tradition lives on.
on friday I went and took pictures downtown with Jake, more good times. hung out at the mall with Rachel last saturday and went for coffee this week. watched a movie with Shawn and Chelsea last week and we went to Boston pizza. so yea its been a week of random stuff like that.
Jake and I went biking on saturday from Bonavista up the Bow river pathway to Prince's Island park, that was fun, then we rushed to center street church and met up with Bart.
on sunday the guest speaker at bonavista church talked about community and how we treat others. it was a good topic, we can never fully understand how much we affect other people when we do or say little things, but if we let the Holy Spirit work in us and we act in love than friendships and that sort of thing always go better.
yea this post is kinda random.
the last 7 months i really got into Switchfoot. they just have such good songs with awesome lyrics. like "Gone". it clicked for me on a saturday as I walked around in Perth, it said "today will soon be gone, like yesterday is gone, like saturday is gone.....dont spend today away" basically dont waste the day, once its gone its gone. so many songs with great sound and great lyrics. ive been listening to alot of sanctus real, thousand foot krutch and jack johnson lately.
thats all for now, maybe I'll go play with my niece or something.
thanks for reading
Adam
Sunday, 17 August 2008
looking back at travels in aus
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Hi everybody,
Alright so here is a little summary of my thoughts on the time between the end of Capernwray and arriving home in Calgary.
I went to many places in Australia, saw some of the things I wanted to see, hung out with friends, met random people and had random discussions.
In Coolangatta (6 nights), I hung out with 12 of my friends from Capernwray, mostly with my buds Tyler C, Daralynne, Adam H and Colton. It was great to hang out with them and relax, also celebrating my 21st birthday in Australia!
On the Queensland mission trip(11 nights), I went camping, went 4x4ing on Fraser Island with friends and a few people from the area. Fraser Island is the largest sand based island in the world, and has a 75mile beach that you can drive down. It has forests, a shipwreck and beautiful lakes, including Mackenzie lake, which has water so calm and clean you can drink it (Sean and I drank some, it was like bottled water haha). That included the funny experience of getting stuck on the island because we missed the barge, we had to stay overnight even tho none of us had anything with us to stay overnight. Then we drove up the coast to Mackay and did some work up there a few times, staying at billets places, and we got to spend a day with Barb, who was a student, that was cool. We then trekked down the coast to Surfers paradise and ran a church service. We drove another long way and made it back to school.
After repacking I made it to Sydney(6 nights) and got to do the Hillsong Conference, which was amazing. Great speakers, great worship, great sessions and hung out with 2 girls from Capers in New Zealand staying at my billets place there in some community in Sydney (Toongabbie). Hillsong was great, thanks Rachel for pointing it out to me early on. I also got to see the outside of the Hillsong – Hills church (the conference was at Olympic park, not the church).
Next up I went to Melbourne(4 nights), where Missy ( a girl that joined us for the Queensland trip) hooked me up to stay at her parents place way out in the suburbs, which was really cool. We went to the Eureka skydeck and the next day we drove out to Phillip island to see the koala sanctuary, the seal lookout and the penguin parade, a great day. In my time in Melbourne I also checked out the downtown (or CBD) area which was really nice and did a tour of the great ocean road, which was pretty nice. I also took a tour of the MCG stadium which can hold up to 101,000 people for a game, woulda liked to see a rugby game there. Also I went to the Melbourne acquarium, which was good, I’m not really an acquarium type of guy but I wanted to see one in Aus, to see the sharks, jellyfish and stingray type of stuff.
After not getting the hostel I wanted in Perth(4 nights), I kinda went on a booking spree of booking everything in advance as I made it to Perth. The hostel actually worked out well that I stayed at and it got my attention to book a bit in advance. Also had some really nice dormmates, my first dorm experience in Aus with people other than friends from Capers. So in Perth I saw the swan bells, checked out the big shops area in the CBD, went to Fremantle and biked on Rottnest island, which was pretty cool. Perth was a nice city to hang out in, and they had Dome coffee, which was awesome.
From Perth I had to fly overnight to get to the Whitsundays(4 nights) and it was rainy there. But after a cancelled sailing tour I got on a tour and it was awesome. My hostels there were ok and actually had a great conversation with a guy from Israel for almost 2 hours in one of the hostels. The sailing tour was amazing, met some cool people there and had another conversation about God and faith with a nice girl from Israel. Made some friends on the boat and I got to do snorkelling twice (including seeing reef and beautiful fish around the island) and went to famous Whithaven beach, which was great.
Brisbane(2 nights) was mostly a stop so that I could see the Aus zoo, Aus zoo was pretty cool, saw all the aussie animals I had wanted to see, including the crocs. I had some interesting dormmates there, the zoo was cool and i did checkout Brisbane CBD, walked along the river.
Surfers paradise (2 nights) was a cool place, probably really good for surfing, but it had one main area that was nice but it was pretty touristy. My hostel was good though, tv in the rooms with movies always going, nice dormmates, and I went to dreamworld with 4 girls from my room, which was great, a fun day. Also I went up the Q1 building, which is a huge residential building, at night, great sights (apparently you can see all the way to Byron bay and all the way to Brisbane)
In Byron(2 nights) I just kinda chilled there and hung out with one of the guys from my room. I heard it was a relaxed place and it was true. The hostel I stayed at (arts factory lodge) was really cool, and I spent a day walking up to the lighthouse (quite a walk).
It took all day but I made it to Sydney(2 nights) and stayed in a hostel that was nice, but way to expensive. I went to Paddys markets in the morning, then up the centerpoint tower, then to Circ. Quay and the Rocks, then across by the Opera house, the bay, then the parks, Botanic gardens, the Dominion and Hyde park in a full day of exploring and more picture taking. The next day I tried to get to Hillsong church but that didn’t work out, then went to Bondi beach (had to see Bondi, and it was awesome) and took a bus back to school.
After arriving at school(2 nights) and seeing all my buds again(11 second sems from my semester) and meeting the 1st sems (5 new ones), I repacked my bags and got ready to head home, after spending a day catching up, walking and then watching a movie and catching the sunrise my last morning at Capernwray. It was a crazy short time back at Capers.
I flew to Singapore and on the plane it hit me I was leaving Aus. The eyes were watering. My Aus journey was officially over. The friends, the sights, the nervous excitement, the new people, the experiences, God blessing me with all those sunny, hot days in places it wasn’t supposed to be sunny or very warm (and things working out somehow for the best when it wasn’t sunny), the freedom, the learning so many things to miss, after all, it was 7 months of my life that I will never forget.
So in Singapore (2 nights – a bit of a pattern eh), it was hot, 28 and humid 11pm at night. Singapore was nice, went on a bus tour, had a relaxing quiet time in the botanic gardens, paying too much for internet and checking out the harbour front.
My flights home were not amazing, but alright. I flew on a packed plane to Tokyo stuck between 2 people, but the plus was that I got talking to the guy next to me from India for an hour near the end. From Tokyo (a 2 hour stopover) we had a 10 hour flight to LA, that was also packed (and I once again had a middle seat), and the food was pretty pathetic, but I talked to the guy from India for over an hour again, and a bit to the girl beside me from Tokyo (well, a student in LA). Interesting to hear stories from the Indian guy and talk a bit about God, parents, school, culture and travelling. I got to LA and had a 4 hour layover, with heaps of security then a 3 hour flight home to Calgary as the sunset with tons of legroom (emergency exit window seat, sweet).
After getting my luggage, my dad picked me up from the airport, good to see him. Got home and saw Nat and Ryan, and watched the Stampeders hold on for a win on our new big screen TV.
So my travels were great, lots of experiences and I spent a ton of money. Travelling alone was an experience like no other. At times it did get a little lonely as you’d expect, but it pushed me out of my comfort zone, having total control of my trip, and it forced me to meet new people. If I was with friends already, I wouldn’t make that effort to interact with others. And I wouldn’t have the freedom to decide at the moment, what I wanted to do. I could do what I wanted.
It was a little weird being home, but after coming home to a house full of love, friends that I missed, and the same sort of setting that I left in January (aside from the awesome heat!), the adjustment wasn’t too hard. The jet lag wasn’t that bad either. Though I still am in need of a job and money to pay for Uni (my 3rd year of a bachelor of Commerce degree) and more time to spend with everyone haha. It has been almost 2 weeks since I left Aus, and I do miss it (and all the awesome friends I made there), but that was to be expected.
Ok so here are a few of the things I would do if I went back to Aus and had some more money and time to burn (and possibly a travel buddy):
Broome (donkey rides)
Darwin (different city and kakadu national park)
Tasmania (great place to hike and beautiful apparently, but solo would prob be boring)
Ayers rock ( a big rock, but a famous big rock, this is not at the top of the list, maybe someday with family or something, camp out at the rock?)
Snowy mountains (go skiing or snowboarding in Aus, my buddy Mark did just that)
Experience more of the little towns in western aus and Victoria.
Scuba diving in the reef would be cool (but expensive, just to say i did it i guess, but i did snorkel already...)
See the top end rainforesty area and islands.
New Zealand (of course gotta see new Zealand, apparently really beautiful, home of Lord of the Rings and another place to Ski/snowboard)
other places in the area (island countries)
drive in the outback.
and im sure there are others to see that would be cool, also doing most of the things i did again would be good.
Anyways,
Thanks for reading,
Adam
Alright so here is a little summary of my thoughts on the time between the end of Capernwray and arriving home in Calgary.
I went to many places in Australia, saw some of the things I wanted to see, hung out with friends, met random people and had random discussions.
In Coolangatta (6 nights), I hung out with 12 of my friends from Capernwray, mostly with my buds Tyler C, Daralynne, Adam H and Colton. It was great to hang out with them and relax, also celebrating my 21st birthday in Australia!
On the Queensland mission trip(11 nights), I went camping, went 4x4ing on Fraser Island with friends and a few people from the area. Fraser Island is the largest sand based island in the world, and has a 75mile beach that you can drive down. It has forests, a shipwreck and beautiful lakes, including Mackenzie lake, which has water so calm and clean you can drink it (Sean and I drank some, it was like bottled water haha). That included the funny experience of getting stuck on the island because we missed the barge, we had to stay overnight even tho none of us had anything with us to stay overnight. Then we drove up the coast to Mackay and did some work up there a few times, staying at billets places, and we got to spend a day with Barb, who was a student, that was cool. We then trekked down the coast to Surfers paradise and ran a church service. We drove another long way and made it back to school.
After repacking I made it to Sydney(6 nights) and got to do the Hillsong Conference, which was amazing. Great speakers, great worship, great sessions and hung out with 2 girls from Capers in New Zealand staying at my billets place there in some community in Sydney (Toongabbie). Hillsong was great, thanks Rachel for pointing it out to me early on. I also got to see the outside of the Hillsong – Hills church (the conference was at Olympic park, not the church).
Next up I went to Melbourne(4 nights), where Missy ( a girl that joined us for the Queensland trip) hooked me up to stay at her parents place way out in the suburbs, which was really cool. We went to the Eureka skydeck and the next day we drove out to Phillip island to see the koala sanctuary, the seal lookout and the penguin parade, a great day. In my time in Melbourne I also checked out the downtown (or CBD) area which was really nice and did a tour of the great ocean road, which was pretty nice. I also took a tour of the MCG stadium which can hold up to 101,000 people for a game, woulda liked to see a rugby game there. Also I went to the Melbourne acquarium, which was good, I’m not really an acquarium type of guy but I wanted to see one in Aus, to see the sharks, jellyfish and stingray type of stuff.
After not getting the hostel I wanted in Perth(4 nights), I kinda went on a booking spree of booking everything in advance as I made it to Perth. The hostel actually worked out well that I stayed at and it got my attention to book a bit in advance. Also had some really nice dormmates, my first dorm experience in Aus with people other than friends from Capers. So in Perth I saw the swan bells, checked out the big shops area in the CBD, went to Fremantle and biked on Rottnest island, which was pretty cool. Perth was a nice city to hang out in, and they had Dome coffee, which was awesome.
From Perth I had to fly overnight to get to the Whitsundays(4 nights) and it was rainy there. But after a cancelled sailing tour I got on a tour and it was awesome. My hostels there were ok and actually had a great conversation with a guy from Israel for almost 2 hours in one of the hostels. The sailing tour was amazing, met some cool people there and had another conversation about God and faith with a nice girl from Israel. Made some friends on the boat and I got to do snorkelling twice (including seeing reef and beautiful fish around the island) and went to famous Whithaven beach, which was great.
Brisbane(2 nights) was mostly a stop so that I could see the Aus zoo, Aus zoo was pretty cool, saw all the aussie animals I had wanted to see, including the crocs. I had some interesting dormmates there, the zoo was cool and i did checkout Brisbane CBD, walked along the river.
Surfers paradise (2 nights) was a cool place, probably really good for surfing, but it had one main area that was nice but it was pretty touristy. My hostel was good though, tv in the rooms with movies always going, nice dormmates, and I went to dreamworld with 4 girls from my room, which was great, a fun day. Also I went up the Q1 building, which is a huge residential building, at night, great sights (apparently you can see all the way to Byron bay and all the way to Brisbane)
In Byron(2 nights) I just kinda chilled there and hung out with one of the guys from my room. I heard it was a relaxed place and it was true. The hostel I stayed at (arts factory lodge) was really cool, and I spent a day walking up to the lighthouse (quite a walk).
It took all day but I made it to Sydney(2 nights) and stayed in a hostel that was nice, but way to expensive. I went to Paddys markets in the morning, then up the centerpoint tower, then to Circ. Quay and the Rocks, then across by the Opera house, the bay, then the parks, Botanic gardens, the Dominion and Hyde park in a full day of exploring and more picture taking. The next day I tried to get to Hillsong church but that didn’t work out, then went to Bondi beach (had to see Bondi, and it was awesome) and took a bus back to school.
After arriving at school(2 nights) and seeing all my buds again(11 second sems from my semester) and meeting the 1st sems (5 new ones), I repacked my bags and got ready to head home, after spending a day catching up, walking and then watching a movie and catching the sunrise my last morning at Capernwray. It was a crazy short time back at Capers.
I flew to Singapore and on the plane it hit me I was leaving Aus. The eyes were watering. My Aus journey was officially over. The friends, the sights, the nervous excitement, the new people, the experiences, God blessing me with all those sunny, hot days in places it wasn’t supposed to be sunny or very warm (and things working out somehow for the best when it wasn’t sunny), the freedom, the learning so many things to miss, after all, it was 7 months of my life that I will never forget.
So in Singapore (2 nights – a bit of a pattern eh), it was hot, 28 and humid 11pm at night. Singapore was nice, went on a bus tour, had a relaxing quiet time in the botanic gardens, paying too much for internet and checking out the harbour front.
My flights home were not amazing, but alright. I flew on a packed plane to Tokyo stuck between 2 people, but the plus was that I got talking to the guy next to me from India for an hour near the end. From Tokyo (a 2 hour stopover) we had a 10 hour flight to LA, that was also packed (and I once again had a middle seat), and the food was pretty pathetic, but I talked to the guy from India for over an hour again, and a bit to the girl beside me from Tokyo (well, a student in LA). Interesting to hear stories from the Indian guy and talk a bit about God, parents, school, culture and travelling. I got to LA and had a 4 hour layover, with heaps of security then a 3 hour flight home to Calgary as the sunset with tons of legroom (emergency exit window seat, sweet).
After getting my luggage, my dad picked me up from the airport, good to see him. Got home and saw Nat and Ryan, and watched the Stampeders hold on for a win on our new big screen TV.
So my travels were great, lots of experiences and I spent a ton of money. Travelling alone was an experience like no other. At times it did get a little lonely as you’d expect, but it pushed me out of my comfort zone, having total control of my trip, and it forced me to meet new people. If I was with friends already, I wouldn’t make that effort to interact with others. And I wouldn’t have the freedom to decide at the moment, what I wanted to do. I could do what I wanted.
It was a little weird being home, but after coming home to a house full of love, friends that I missed, and the same sort of setting that I left in January (aside from the awesome heat!), the adjustment wasn’t too hard. The jet lag wasn’t that bad either. Though I still am in need of a job and money to pay for Uni (my 3rd year of a bachelor of Commerce degree) and more time to spend with everyone haha. It has been almost 2 weeks since I left Aus, and I do miss it (and all the awesome friends I made there), but that was to be expected.
Ok so here are a few of the things I would do if I went back to Aus and had some more money and time to burn (and possibly a travel buddy):
Broome (donkey rides)
Darwin (different city and kakadu national park)
Tasmania (great place to hike and beautiful apparently, but solo would prob be boring)
Ayers rock ( a big rock, but a famous big rock, this is not at the top of the list, maybe someday with family or something, camp out at the rock?)
Snowy mountains (go skiing or snowboarding in Aus, my buddy Mark did just that)
Experience more of the little towns in western aus and Victoria.
Scuba diving in the reef would be cool (but expensive, just to say i did it i guess, but i did snorkel already...)
See the top end rainforesty area and islands.
New Zealand (of course gotta see new Zealand, apparently really beautiful, home of Lord of the Rings and another place to Ski/snowboard)
other places in the area (island countries)
drive in the outback.
and im sure there are others to see that would be cool, also doing most of the things i did again would be good.
Anyways,
Thanks for reading,
Adam
Wednesday, 6 August 2008
one journey ends, but that only means a new one is beginning
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Hello everybody,
Alright so my journey to Australia and back is essentially over, I’m in Singapore right now, the night before I fly home, sitting in my hotel relaxing and listening to some Hillsong and Leeland. Here is the recap of the last few days
So on August 2nd I had my last full day to enjoy Sydney. In the morning I went to paddy’s markets, and above, cool. After that I walked to circular Quay and got a starbucks. I was tired of walking, but wanted to make use of my last day. I walked into the rocks (not actual rocks) and explored the first settlement of Sydney. Checked out the bridge, the markets in the rocks, and walked back to the opera house. I walked along the edge of the harbour/bay along the parks for quite a while. After getting some nice pics, I relaxed on a bench in the botanic gardens. After that I walked through the dominion (and the art gallery) and Hyde park. Did some internet, had to pull some cash out to pay for dinner. Ok quick rant, Aus is so annoying with places not accepting credit/debit, even central station, you have to spend $21 to use credit! Heck what the!? This happened in many places, but it was really annoying this weekend cuz I didn’t have anymore cash, just planned on using credit, so I ended up pulling out money a few times in the few days, probably paying sick fees on my debit. Ok so I went to the rugby game at Olympic park in ANZ stadium between the South Sydney Rabbitohs and the New Zealand Warriors. It was a really good game, I enjoyed it, only 9400 fans though. Anyways afterwards I caught up on some internet.
On Aug 3rd I woke up and checked out, planning to get to HIllsong church, and possibly Bondi beach if I could. Going to Hillsong would be way cool. I took the train to Paramatta station to catch a bus to the church. the website said where the bus would be and what time it left, I didn’t realize how many platforms are at Paramatta, and the website didnt say a bus number and I couldn’t find where it said the bus would leave from. I looked for a like a half hour (I purposely got there a bit early), but I couldn’t find it. Sigh. So I didn’t get to hillsong church, but I did see it from the outside a month earlier, so no biggie. I got to Bondi beach and spent a little time there (and paid way too much for ordinary fish and chips). Bondi was a beautiful beach, and it was pretty busy, it was a sunny, hot day. I went back to Central and had to use cash once again to buy a ticket to Bowral. I took the bus to Bowral, and I missed dinner so I went to subway, of course I had to go to the atm again cuz Subway is behind the times. Stacia, Colton and Julie picked me up. We caught up and rented some movies while in Bowral. Got back to the school and saw my other friends from Capers (the ones there for a second semester) Mark, Barb, Kim, Sam, Carla, Jenn and Grahame. It was so good to see all of them again. And I met the new first sems (the ones my age anyways) Jessica, Marina and Angel. We had snac, then I talked to Jessica for a bit, then we played the invisible ball game. It was wierd being there and everyone played the one game. Later I spent some good time with Marky and Colton and stayed up late.
On Monday the 4th I went to brekkie, then went to classes (2nd Timothy) with Dave, it was good. Before lunch I did some laundry and repacked my bags, that was an adventure haha. Then I went to lunch at the Moss Vale services club with Jessica, Stacia, Colton, Jenn and Debbie (and her 2 kids). Afterwards the 5 of us students (not Debbie) went to Bowral and did a little shopping. After we got back the 2nd sems had a breakthru meeting. I hung out with Jessica and we went for a walk before dinner. After the evening lecture (my last at capers!) I watched a movie with Jessica, Kim, Marky, Jenn, Stacia and Colton.
We played some uno afterwards, then I hung out with Colton and Mark and finalized my packing.
We played some uno afterwards, then I hung out with Colton and Mark and finalized my packing.
On Tuesday after devos it was quiet day so I said bye to everybody (sad, goodbyes suck) and Niel drove me to the train station. I took the train to the airport, talked to my mom and my dad and got on an 8 hour flight to Singapore. Lots of time to think on that flight. Also I watched a movie called “Son of Rambow” and it was really good, I was impressed. I got to Singapore and took a taxi to my hotel. It was hot, 28 degrees and humid, at 11pm! Wow. Then my hotel was really nice, I had a room on the 13th level and it is pretty central. Thanks so much to my mom and stepdad for organizing that for me.
On Wednesday I got up and after meeting with a guy named Ron from Nexen Singapore for coffee, I explored Singapore. I got on a hop-on hop-off bus and stopped a few times and walked around the river. Then I went to botanic gardens and chilled there, having a great quiet/prayer time for an hour in the sun and heat. I was sweating all day. Then I took the bus to Orchard street and explored the big street and all the shops etc along the way. I walked back to my hotel, then to the bay and explored that area. Had a disappointing meal at burger king (shouldn’t be surprised) then went back to my hotel room and did some internet, which brings me up to now. I leave tomorrow for Canada. Crazy, its over. But thats just one journey in my life that has come to an end. The next few years should be interesting, and I imagine I will have even more great experiences and joys and difficulties in the time to come. As long as the changes in me over the last 6 months (whatever those are I’m not exactly sure, but I think they were good) don’t disappear, as long as I keep progressing and growing in my relationship with God, and knowing who I am, and all that sort of stuff, I’m looking forward to it, while remembering all the things that have happened since I last stepped foot in Calgary.
Picture count =5470. Well that’s how many I got. That number may shrink by a hundred or two after I edit a little. Heaps of pictures, heaps upon heaps.
Well I spent my money, I saw beautiful places, I met wonderful, awesome, uplifting, challenging, joyous, loving, caring, interesting people. I learnt things, I saw new perspectives on things, I was challenged, I made new friendships, I discovered a bit more about who I am, I grew in ways I can’t put into words, I overcame, I served, I worshipped, I photographed, I ventured out on my own and I had unforgettable experiences...with God at my side.
Boom
Thanks for reading.
From the closest capital city to the equator on earth, Singapore,
Adam
Saturday, 2 August 2008
Live one last time from Sydney...Adam with an update
August 1, 2008
Hello everybody,
Alright, so here is the latest on my Australian journey.
So I took the train and then a bus to Surfers Paradise on the 28th. I got to the bus terminal and tried to call the hostel, but the number didn’t work, so I went inside and as soon as I walked in I saw the backpackers info desk and they had my name down already and called the hostel so they could pick me up. Cool. I got to my hostel (not a huge hostel) and got a little tour, it had a nice atmosphere to it. Once in my room, I met some of the girls in the room. I ended up having 4 girls (2 from Ontario) and a couple from Alberta with me in the packed little room. They were all really nice. I went and wandered around Surfers (first priority was finding food) and went up the Qdeck, which is a huge residential building (77 stories). I walked around the main shops area and bought a hoodie. That night we watched movies in our room in the hostel (all the rooms had tvs with connection to the main tv which could play dvds from the hostel’s 300+ dvd collection.
On the 29th after realizing two of the girls, Marie and Rianne, were going to dreamworld, I decided to go with them (since I wanted to go there anyways) then Ashley and Julia decided to come to. Cool, always more fun with people, and good people to talk to at that. so after grabbing some food we took the half hour bus ride and started doing rides soon as we got there. There weren’t huge lineups so we got plenty of rides done in the morning. The best ride was wipeout in my opinion(the only one we did twice). In the afternoon we did some more rides (like the big drop) and checked out the big brother house (not my idea haha) and went to the wildlife experience and fed some kangaroos). We came back and chilled in the hostel for awhile afterwards. At 8 Marie, Rianna and I went for $10 all you can eat pizza across the street. We watched some more movies afterwards. Oh it was sunny and warm all day, beautiful.
On Wednesday the 30th I said bye and checked out of my hostel. Jumped on a train to Brisbane to catch a bus to Byron(kinda backwards but it worked). I made it to little Byron Bay and got a shuttle to my hostel. I stayed at the arts factory lodge, which is a really big place that is pretty cool. I wandered into Byron and walked along the main street, then the beach and saw the sunset. I walked back to my hostel (10 minute walk from the main street) and met a few of my roommates. Ended up talking to Andy from Melbourne and we hung out, went to the Buddha bar, played some pool, then we went to a fire on the beach with a bunch of people from our hostel.
On the 31 I slept in and relaxed. Had some $4 banana pancakes from the cafe in the hostel and then walked into town and hung out for a bit, then walked all the way up to the lighthouse, which was way farther than I expected and it was super warm and sunny. My backpack was wet from the sweat when I got to it. It was a nice view, and now I have been to the most easterly point on the mainland. I walked back down and saw the sunset at the beach and had a steak sandwich.
Today (August 1) I got up at 7am and caught a shuttle, then a bus then a train, that got me to Sydney at 10pm. And checked into YHA Sydney central.
Picture count =5100 ....that is a ton..too easy. And about 400 videos. Im going to have to go through and delete a few when I get home...maybe haha.
So I’m in Sydney for my last weekend in Australia. Tomorrow I'll explore Sydney again and possibly go to a Rugby game, On Sunday the 3rd I’ll head to the school (hopefully after going to Hillsong church)and stay two nights, before flying to Singapore for two nights on the 5th. Then I fly home to CANADA on the 7th.
Thats about it, getting excited to head home, while seeing the last few things and spending the little money I have left.
Thanks for reading.
One last time From Down Under,
Adam
Hello everybody,
Alright, so here is the latest on my Australian journey.
So I took the train and then a bus to Surfers Paradise on the 28th. I got to the bus terminal and tried to call the hostel, but the number didn’t work, so I went inside and as soon as I walked in I saw the backpackers info desk and they had my name down already and called the hostel so they could pick me up. Cool. I got to my hostel (not a huge hostel) and got a little tour, it had a nice atmosphere to it. Once in my room, I met some of the girls in the room. I ended up having 4 girls (2 from Ontario) and a couple from Alberta with me in the packed little room. They were all really nice. I went and wandered around Surfers (first priority was finding food) and went up the Qdeck, which is a huge residential building (77 stories). I walked around the main shops area and bought a hoodie. That night we watched movies in our room in the hostel (all the rooms had tvs with connection to the main tv which could play dvds from the hostel’s 300+ dvd collection.
On the 29th after realizing two of the girls, Marie and Rianne, were going to dreamworld, I decided to go with them (since I wanted to go there anyways) then Ashley and Julia decided to come to. Cool, always more fun with people, and good people to talk to at that. so after grabbing some food we took the half hour bus ride and started doing rides soon as we got there. There weren’t huge lineups so we got plenty of rides done in the morning. The best ride was wipeout in my opinion(the only one we did twice). In the afternoon we did some more rides (like the big drop) and checked out the big brother house (not my idea haha) and went to the wildlife experience and fed some kangaroos). We came back and chilled in the hostel for awhile afterwards. At 8 Marie, Rianna and I went for $10 all you can eat pizza across the street. We watched some more movies afterwards. Oh it was sunny and warm all day, beautiful.
On Wednesday the 30th I said bye and checked out of my hostel. Jumped on a train to Brisbane to catch a bus to Byron(kinda backwards but it worked). I made it to little Byron Bay and got a shuttle to my hostel. I stayed at the arts factory lodge, which is a really big place that is pretty cool. I wandered into Byron and walked along the main street, then the beach and saw the sunset. I walked back to my hostel (10 minute walk from the main street) and met a few of my roommates. Ended up talking to Andy from Melbourne and we hung out, went to the Buddha bar, played some pool, then we went to a fire on the beach with a bunch of people from our hostel.
On the 31 I slept in and relaxed. Had some $4 banana pancakes from the cafe in the hostel and then walked into town and hung out for a bit, then walked all the way up to the lighthouse, which was way farther than I expected and it was super warm and sunny. My backpack was wet from the sweat when I got to it. It was a nice view, and now I have been to the most easterly point on the mainland. I walked back down and saw the sunset at the beach and had a steak sandwich.
Today (August 1) I got up at 7am and caught a shuttle, then a bus then a train, that got me to Sydney at 10pm. And checked into YHA Sydney central.
Picture count =5100 ....that is a ton..too easy. And about 400 videos. Im going to have to go through and delete a few when I get home...maybe haha.
So I’m in Sydney for my last weekend in Australia. Tomorrow I'll explore Sydney again and possibly go to a Rugby game, On Sunday the 3rd I’ll head to the school (hopefully after going to Hillsong church)and stay two nights, before flying to Singapore for two nights on the 5th. Then I fly home to CANADA on the 7th.
Thats about it, getting excited to head home, while seeing the last few things and spending the little money I have left.
Thanks for reading.
One last time From Down Under,
Adam
Sunday, 27 July 2008
July 28 - Airlie beach, Whitsundays, Brisbane and Australia zoo
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July 28
Hello everybody,
Alright, now for an update, so here is the latest on my Australian journey.
Hello everybody,
Alright, now for an update, so here is the latest on my Australian journey.
Ok so as I mentioned previously, it was raining in Airlie beach as the shuttle took me to my hostel (Airlie beach YHA) on the main street on July 22nd. So I wandered around a bit and checked in at Oz adventures. It continued to rain most of the day. I went to bed early that night.
On Wednesday the 23rd Prosail called me to let me know that my sail that was supposed to leave that day was cancelled because of gail winds and rain, but I missed the call (I was still asleep) and I didn’t have phone credit, so I couldn’t call them back. I checked out and went across the street to the office (pretty convenient!) and they gave me the option of going on the same tour on a different boat the next day. That would be good, but I had to check if it would work out timewise and I needed to find a place to stay for the night. I went on the net, talked to Mattias and Joshua on skype, found out I couldn’t change my flight to Brisbane, and went back. They found me a hostel down the road (backpackers by the bay) and got the shuttle to pick me up directly after the sail trip was done. So the rest of the day it was still raining and pouring, I wandered around, had some coffee, put more money on my visa (yikes) and just tried to kill time. I went for steak dinner after having a good chat about God with a Jewish guy in my dorm room, it was interesting.
On Thursday the 24th, I woke up and, thank God, it wasn’t raining. I checked out and walked down to the main street, they hadn’t called me so that meant the trip was a go! Awesome. After talking to my Mom on the phone, I walked down to the harbour with all my gear and got to the boat. The sailing trip was a 2 day 2 night sail with about 30 of us, going around the Whitsunday Islands, doing some snorkelling and going to famous Whitehaven beach. I met lots of new people on the boat that day. On the trip there were quite a few people from the UK area (Ireland, Wales, England), some people from Germany, a group from Spain and some people from Holland, along with 3 Canadians including myself. We got to an Island and stopped for snorkelling, we were outfitted with stinger suits (for the unlikely event of a jellyfish in the middle of winter) and the standard snorkel gear. I was nervous about going in, I didn’t think it would be that good, I had not enjoyed snorkelling in high school (in a pool haha) and I am not a good swimmer. But I’m in Australia, so I jumped in, and almost everyone was jumping in, also I had paid for it. It was cool, I got used to it, but ended up a ways from where I wanted to get to (I had no direction while snorkelling), after seeing a little bit of reef and swimming around in a circle, I came back in. We had chicken for dinner (they joked it was seagull, maybe it was, no worries) and basically at night talked to people and most people played drinking games....interesting, not suprising, too bad there wasn’t anything else to do.
On Friday it was sunny all day, we had a morning snorkel after brekkie and motoring to the dive spot. I was a little more excited this time, and they dropped us right over the reef this time. It was beautiful. The water was so clear, the coral was so close, I was swimming alongside colourful fish while watching the coral sway back and forth in the water like trees in the wind. Green, yellow, red, blue, purple, pointy, rocklike, bushy, antlers, leafy...all kinds of things, it was pretty cool, swimming around over the valleys, trying not to hit the coral, for over an hour. Afterwards we sailed for almost 3 hours to get to the access point to Whitehaven beach. It was a good sail, really long, we went super fast, tacked a few times and saw whales and big turtles, and of course had some good chats. The whole area just felt so tropical. We docked in a bay and they brought us to the Island in a little boat. We hiked up to a lookout point to see the 4th most photographed thing in Australia from above. It looked beautiful and huge. Afterwards we walked down to the beach and the 99% silicone white sand, and the uber shallow clear water. A few of us wandered around in the water and I was amazed by how far we would go out and still be able to see the bottom and stand on it. Not really sure how to describe it, but it was pretty cool. We had a few hours then went back to the boat. After just hanging out and talking to each other (had another good chat about religion with a girl from Israel) we had steak and mashed potatoes for dinner, yum. That night everyone played drinking games and listened to music again, I played with my solo lemonade and a big bottle of water.
On Saturday we woke up to the sun yet again and sailed back to the marina. They rushed me back after saying goodbye to everyone and I ran from the dock to the Marina street where I got to the shuttle pickup just in time and then flew to Brisbane from the beautiful tiny tropical Whitsunday airport. I got to Brisbane and it was sunny and warm. I brought my bags and checked in at Chill backpackers (love the name). Then I set out to explore Brisbane and find some Starbucks and some food (hadn’t eaten since brekkie at 8). I wandered around the Queen street markets for awhile checking everything out before everything would close around 5. I had a good chicken wrap at Red Rooster and went back to my hostel. After going on the internet for awhile I looked up Starbucks, then walked to it only to find it closed at 4:30. Oi, Australia can be a little frustrating, everything closes earlier here, even on Saturdays. So I went to coffee club and relaxed for awhile with an expensive coffee, and typed up my thoughts on Capernwray.
On Sunday I woke up at 9ish and took the train to the Australia zoo, getting there around 11, its an hour and a half train ride, crazy. I walked into the zoo and right away realized how huge this zoo is becoming, by the way it wants to become the greatest zoo in the world, it has 75 acres developed and it owns i think 1500. I wandered around the zoo, walking with the Kangaroos, petting them, and then a ton of other animals, pet a koala, finally saw a Tasmanian devil, and saw the famous crocodiles, and a bunch of others like dingoes and echidnas. I took the super long train back and hit up a Starbucks that was actually open at 5ish and went down to the riverfront and walked along the river for about an hour. It was really nice, too bad it got dark and started raining. I went to Queen street to find some food, ended up going to Subway, and spending like 10 bucks for just a 6inch sub and a drink (at home the same thing would be about 7 bucks, but then I went into Krispy Kreme and they gave me a free donut! Sweet as. Went back to the hostel and did some laundry, got ready for surfers.
Today is the 28th, and I checked out of my hostel and walked along the Brisbane river parks before heading out to Surfers.
Picture count =4948 ....that is a ton, only 52 more to reach 5000...too easy. And about 420 videos. Im going to have to go through and delete a few when I get home...maybe haha.
So I’m off to surfers for a two nights, checking out the theme parks and the beach, then to Byron bay for a day and 2 nights, then to Sydney for my last weekend (fri and sat night). On Sunday the 3rd(i think) I’ll head to the school and stay two nights, before flying to Singapore for two nights. Then I fly home to CANADA on the 7th.
Thats about it, getting excited to head home, while seeing the last few things and spending the little money I have left.
Thanks for reading.
From Down Under,
Adam
Saturday, 26 July 2008
thoughts on my time at Capernwray
Thoughts on my time at Capernwray.
so this isn't an update really, one will be coming sometime this week hopefully, I was sitting on the plane from Brisbane to the Whitsundays and just started writing, this is what followed.
Capernwray was an unforgettable 5 months of my life, at time when I went from excuses to reasons, worries to peace and doubts to understanding/faith. As one of my good friends from Capers put it, its more of a time of personal growth/development in faith then a time of learning to get a degree. Of course I did learn many things, such as parallels between Old Testament things and Jesus life, application of the lives of Abraham and David, church history, prayer, abiding life and many more topics. As for the other side of it, Maxy asked me a good question a week after school was done, he asked what I gained from being at Capernwray.
The first thing that came to mind was self confidence. Confidence in Christ working through me in situations and being able to rely on him in situations. I had to rely on the Holy Spirit for courage as I did things like public speaking and missions/prac week. I think my understanding of grace was hugely impacted as well, knowing that I can’t achieve heaven, eternal life, the Holy Spirit or Gods love and forgiveness, everything we receive is a gift of God’s grace. No matter how hard we screw up we aren’t condemned, we are just loved and forgiven.
Adding to that, assurance of salvation seemed to be a theme for me early on in the semester. I know my faith and believe it, I see God in so many places, movies, nature, circumstances, friends, worship music (hmm I think that was more just a thought that popped into my head at the time then adding onto salvation, but its true more now than ever). Anyways just understanding that I am saved no matter what...so why do I do anything you may ask. Because I am committed to Jesus as Lord of my life and why not? I mean He has done so much and God is Love, nothing is greater or more powerful than God. It is not a matter of doing things against my pleasure (life doesn’t always go our way though, we have trials and tough times to grow in areas like patience, and our faith is often proved in the dry times when we are struggling). It is more a matter of doing things against my sinful nature, and as my heart is transformed by the Holy Spirit, my will becomes his will, but still with my character and gifts, his joy becomes my joy, as the Holy Spirit works in me. Its Jesus working in me to create something greater, to bring out the fruits of the spirit in me and as I choose to let him flow and have control in my heart, be led by the spirit, be the change, be the light, be the influence, spreading God’s love (harder than it sounds I know, thats why we can’t do it on our own, it can’t just be in the head, it has to go to the heart).
Letting the Holy Spirit lead me...being faithful in prayer, which involves quietness and patience, not just a one way convo, and listening for him to speak to me in different ways (like pictures and moments and tongues when I was in Hong Kong). Quiet days at school were always good, spending the day in prayer, silence, in the word and in reflection. Also being in the word, not just speed reading to see how far you get (done that haha) but reading and absorbing and understanding and applying it to life. Side note applies here from, a journaling tool for doing daily devotions from Hillsong conference: SOAP-Scripture, observation, application, prayer. Bringing things to God in prayer has been an idea that has had its importance reinforced in my in the last 6 months. Prayer is so powerful, and it really does things.
Hm oh and Peace. Peace is another thing that has been solidified in me, trusting God with control. Presenting a devotion on Peace revealed to me how God has given me peace, even early on in my walk with God, at a time when I didn’t realize the Holy Spirit could do that. My other devotion was on God’s faithfulness and I definitely gained from that too.
Another area I enjoyed was God’s will, which was a major topic for a number of us students. Generally God’s will is that we embrace Jesus and share God’s love through Jesus to the world, ie spreading the Gospel. But as for God’s will for my life and whether or not I am in God’s will, one way of explaining it was that God’s will is like a pilots silence zone. A pilot has a flight path that is a parallel zone that if he goes off either side of it, warning lights go off. God has bells for us to, that interrupt our peace, anther explanation is the red light green light. It is simply to keep going til you hit a red light, then change/stop and go again. Or another explanation is that we are on a chessboard, we have certain parameters and can move anywhere on the chess board, forward or back, right or left.hmm while I don’t know what God wants me to do with my life, ie a calling, I know God has things planned for me and I just need to trust him and listen for the alarmbells or red lights or opportunity to grab. I memorized a verse last week, from Proverbs 3:5-6 “trust in God in all ways and lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.” Cool verse.
Adding on to the Peace topic, A verse my sister Natalie gave me the night before I left for Australia is Phil 4:6-7, its all about peace and we had to memorize it in the second week of school, its a great verse and I definitely relied on it, and it was the easiest to memorize. There were many things I learned, too many to mention, I’ll have to have a look back in my big binder and review that stuff. Some of the things I mentioned here are things that I knew somewhat but just got a better understanding of, mostly through experience. I am thinking of more things as I type this, so I'll just post this before it gets too incredibly long, let me know if you enjoyed reading this. Faith is nothing until its put into action.
Another big thing this semester was friends, again not necessarily a big learning thing (although I think I did learn some things, as happens). I made a number of friends, some closer than others, some differently than others. Of course there were some that were more dependable than others also. More importantly I discovered that some really did show me Jesus’s love, and one of the keys to getting along with everyone was accepting and forgiving others and my own shortcomings. Love looks past that and cares about the person, I made friendships that I hope will always continue, even though there are differences. I can’t say how important those friendships were in the time at capers, and I hope and pray to see everyone in the future, and of course I have to do my part (as in any friendship) to keep those friendships going. The staff were also great, they were there for us, and we could tell.
Now I move onto the next chapter, back home with family and friends, and for now enjoying my last weeks and days in this beautiful country called Australia.
thats all for now,
thanks for reading,
from down under
Adam
Tuesday, 22 July 2008
post Melbourne and Perth update
July
Hello everybody,
Alright, so here is the latest on my Australian journey.
On July 17 I took the train to downtown, then a bus to the airport, talked to my dad for a bit, and flew 4 and a half hours to Perth! That was a long flight. I got to Perth and it was raining, yikes, and no pickup. I had a bad feeling about the hostel and realized i booked the wrong hostel, oh well. I took the airport shuttle and after an almost 2 hour drive I arrived at my hostel, and then went and got a pizza in the rain. Not a good start to Perth. I did have two nice roomies which was good.
On Friday the 18th I wandered into Perth CBD and it rained on and off, so I walked around in the market streets for awhile and took advantage of the free cat busses to explore even more. In the afternoon it stopped raining so I checked out the Swan Bells. It was interesting, not great though. That was pretty much my day.
On Saturday the 19th I found my way to Kings park, which is huge park, bigger than Central park in New York. It was a really nice place, I spent most of the day there checking things out and relaxing. In the afternoon I went to a little coffee place called Dome, Really good coffee. After buying a few things, I went back to the hostel and watched the footy (rugby, Aus vs South Africa).
Sunday I went to church at the salvation army church, it was nice to go to church, and it was a good message, worship was different. In the afternoon I went to Fremantle and wandered around in the markets, and got some fish and chips. I took the ferry back and it was as the sun set so it was chilly. Did some laundry back at the hostel, which was an expensive pain, cost 7.5(yikes) and the machines were in a locked ‘room’ around the back corner of the building through a door that half opened. Oi.
On Monday I checked out in the morning. I walked down to the dock to catch a ferry to Rottnest Island after talking to a nice lady on the way, and found out there was one leaving from Fremantle, so I ran to the train station and made it just in time. the ferry took a half hour and we made it to Rottnest Island. I walked around the settlement area and rented a bike, I biked around part of the Island for almost 2 hours, and then sat around waiting for the ferry going back. I got back to the hostel and killed some time until my airport shuttle picked me up.i flew overnight to airlie beach
Picture count = 4500ish....wow + lots of videos
Im now in Airlie beach, where its raining! Going on a sailing trip, Then I’ll head to Brisbane for a day, then to surfers for a dday or two, then to Byron bay for a day and night(2 maybe), then to Sydney for my last weekend. On Sunday the 3rd(i think) I’ll head to the school and stay two nights, before flying to Singapore for two nights. Then I fly home to CANADA on the 7th.
Thats about it, new adventures every day, as I plan things out day by day.
Thanks for reading.
From Down Under,
Adam
Wednesday, 16 July 2008
July 16
July 16
Hello everybody,
Alright, so here is the latest on my Australian journey.
So on Saturday the 5th, my billets (Angela) woke me up and made us some omelettes and gave us toast and cereal, then we got to the church (southport Baptist) and got ready for the service on Sunday. In the afternoon we went to a big mall where it took forever to find a spot, and I did some shopping with Mark, Cheryl, Lisa and Kim after some lunch. We went back to our billets for dinner, they made us spaghetti and curry, it was really good, then we had some ice cream. Mark and I played some pool, and then Chris (our host) played pool with us. Mark and I watched Bad Boys later in the night. Chris and Angela said they would love to have us stay again sometime, they were pretty awesome.
On Sunday the 6th we led the church service, I shared my testimony, we did a skit with everyone and Sean shared the message. The girls along with Maxi did worship. We stuck around visiting with people and had lunch at the church, I played some pool with Mark and Caleb (a former capers student) in the church. we left southport in the Gold coast at about 1. We had some dinner at Red Rooster just north of Port Macquarie. We went through Sydney and got to the school at about 2am, the guys slept at Maxi’s flat, girls in the Hilton.
On Monday we woke up at 9 and cleaned out the van. In the afternoon we (Sean, Kim, Mark, Cheryl, Lisa and I) went into Bowral for a nice lunch, I had a steak. After forgetting a few things and having to run back to the school, and getting my mobile that I left in Maxi’s car, I got on the train to Melbourne and said bye to my friends, sad saying bye. I called my billets but they weren’t home so I went to Olympic park for the Hillsong conference with my two backpacks. They held my big bag for me there, so I went into Acer arena for the 7:30 evening session, which was great. there was some HIllsong worship and then Judah Smith spoke on embracing grace. Basically he was saying that God’s grace is like a hug. We might as well accept it, a hug is better if you embrace it, that may sound kinda funny but true. Judah Smith was one of my favourite speakers during the conference. Afterwards I made my way to Toongabbie station, which is actually one station away from Pendle Hill where I had prac week...interesting. after missing a train, I got there at 11pm and had to call Mr. Southcombe to pick me up from the station, as it was dark, and I had no idea where his house was.
On Tuesday morning I met Fiona and Miranda from Capernwray New Zealand, who I had connected with so they could have somewhere to stay too, and discovered it is a 15 minute walk to the station, good thing I didn’t try walking the night before! The morning session was again really good, Brian Houston was the first speaker, he said we need to be the unapologetic Christian. Hmm, well basically we can’t be tied down with insecurities, thinking we or our idea isn’t ready or good enough. He looked at Luke 19 from vs 28 relating to Jesus using a little unproven colt. Tim Cummins spoke shortly after about the heart of God being freedom, mostly speaking about the poor and oppressed. Joel Houston came out after and he was really honest and said he had no idea what to say, so he would let the Holy Spirit guide him. He talked about the I heart revolution being about a desire for hearts to come as one and resonate with God. He talked about being the light in the darkness.
Next it was off to the youth leaders stream (the one I was in). Sanga talked about lots of things to do with youth ministry, and one thing that stuck out to me was that Jesus chose Peter to shepard the flock of the new church, but John was the disciple he loved. Interesting. Anyways, that was just one thing, I don’t think I’ll go into detail with the rest, but I do have notes for all of them. At 4:30 there was the first evening session, Paul DeJong spoke about confidence, Hillsong opened with worship then Isreal Houghton led worship. Mike Pilavachi, another of my favourite speakers, in the second evening session spoke about worship, evangelism and justice being intertwined, at least that they should lead into another. I got back to our billets place around 10:30.
On Wednesday Paul DeJong spoke again in the morning about enlarging expectation, not limiting what God can do, and that our faith is evident in the tough times. The second speaker was Darlene Zcsech, she talked about our hearts. Robert Fergusson was our next speaker, talking about bridging the Gap between the believer and God, reflecting the heart of God. In the youth stream, Chrishan spoke more about youth ministry and mentioned that youth often have a public passion but not private devotion, and some other things. For the evening sessions HIllsong and Micheal Gungor led worship. Joseph Prince was the 4:30 speaker, he talked about Jesus the servant, grace, peace and power. The 7:30 speaker was Joyce Meyer, she was really good. She talked about a dog named fred, relating to us. The dog lusted after legs to bite, when a muzzle was put on him, he was miserable, he was still lusting but he couldn’t even get them. The idea was that it needs to be a heart change, thats grace, Jesus didn’t die so that we could have a religion. Dying to the law is essential to our faith, which is something God has been teaching me the last few years. Relating to salvation, its hard to get in a chair we are already sitting in...just think about it. Ok moving on.
On Thursday the 10, Joyce Meyer was up again (awesome) and talked about having peace through change and transition. Later, Brian Houston came up and talked about God’s heart for the house (the church), and Bobbie Houston followed and added to it. For the youth session, Mike Pilavachi talked about his experiences in youth ministry, like with Matt Redman, and he was hilarious. He talked a few youth related things. For the evening sessions, HIllsong did worship followed by Leeland, awesome. Marcos Witt was the first speaker, he talked about the mystery of the power of God. The second speaker was Joseph Prince, he talked about this being the Benjamen generation (in relation to Joseph in Genesis), he went through a ton of stuff and it was a little too much haha. The girls from New Zealand had two friends out for the conference that night and they came back to our place for the night.
On Friday Judah Smith spoke again, and he was really good, his session was called whats your point?. He was talking about our perspective and how it influences the way we think about the kingdom, the bible and God. Sometimes we need to get out of our little tents like Abraham when he was upset with God and wanted more.(Gen15:1-6). Gary Clark spoke after him about getting from where we are to where we want to be. In the last youth stream, Judah Smith spoke about youth ministry of course and talked a bit about David. Joyce Meyer was the speaker for the 4:30 session, she talked about only having one life to live. We need lead spiritual lives live by example. Showing God’s love by what we do, going into a 3rd world and talking about Jesus doesn’t fill their belly. Another thing was that love is the highest form of spiritual warfare, love is the way. Say no to self centerdness. So the last session of the conference (7:30) was a worship session, it was pretty sweet. There was a little break in the middle, but it was pretty awesome. Before I knew it, 9:30 hit and after we were prayed over, they left the stage. But the crowd still wanted to worship, all 20,000ish of us, so we sung for 5 or ten minutes, and all of a sudden the lights went off and the band came back on. we worshipped again til almost 10:30. It was amazing. It seems like everyday through the conference I had a moment during worship that I could just feel God around me, I’m not sure how to explain it. Overall the conference was really good, I was separated from the girls quite abit so I was on my own, I talked to whoever I sat next to for the night sessions, which was cool, and one lady I spoke to was from the church in Southport, Gold Coast where our group had been last Sunday, cool.
On Saturday the 12th my billets took me to see the Hillsong HIlls church, which is super big, but I didn’t have much time so I’ll probably go back on my last weekend here. I took the train to the airport and had to go to the international terminal to fly to Melbourne, wierd. Missy, who was on the Queensland trip, organized for me to stay at her parents place in Melbourne, so she picked me up from the airport and we went downtown. We went to the Eureka skydeck and checked out the huge views, and walked along the waterfront, as well as checking out the Crown casino building. She took me to her parents place, which is in a suburb called Belgrave, a long drive to the edge of the city, in the hills of the Dandenong ranges on the east end. They live at the end of a road, in a nice old fashioned and isolated house. Its cool.
On Sunday I slept in (yay) and went to Phillip Island with Missy. We went to a Koala habitat and saw lots of koalas, then to a seal lookout, then to the penguin parade, where you have to sit out in the cold at sunset to see tiny little fairy penguins come in from the ocean. It was a slow night, most of the penguins mustve stayed out at sea for the night, but we saw some. We stopped and had some fish and chips on the way back.
On Monday I went to Melbourne to explore. I took the train at 9 from Belgrave and it took about an hour and 20 minutes to get to Flinders street (the major downtown station). I got there and went to the Melbourne Cricket Ground(MCG) and it was huge. They play AFL and cricket inside. I did a tour which lasted just over an hour, seeing all the parts of the stadium, the best parts being going to the top (seeing all 97,000 seats) and seeing the view of downtown, beautiful. It would have been amazing to see a game at that stadium...someday. then I walked back to downtown and had a look at federation square, then walked down the waterfront and checked that area out. My next thing was to get on the tram, I took the city circle tram to the aquarium and had a look around in there, it was cool, not amazing but cool. Then I took the tram around to central and had a little look around the area, and went in the mall. I took the train back and had a great steak dinner, and a relaxing night, also went on the internet.
On Tuesday I had to get up early to get to the corner of Spencer and Flinders streets for my great ocean road tour at 7:30am. The train is free til 7, so I thought I would be ok, I ended up being rushed for time, so I got off at parliament station, thinking it might be faster to run, bad decision. I jogged across downtown (Melbourne is like 4 million people, so big downtown) and made it, but I was sweating in the cool morning air. The tour was alright. We went to Bells beach first, which was good, some big waves on the northside, but it was chilly and cloudy, not too much happening, but now I’ve seen Bells beach. Other stops were at a lighthouse, then Apollo bay for lunch after a Koala spotting time, then we went on a rainforest walk called Maits rest. Later in the day we went to the famous 12 apostles, all 8 of them...they were pretty cool. After that we went to Lochard Gorge, which was cool, one of the guys, who is from Miami, jumped in the bay there. I ended up talking to the girls beside me who were from Ireland some of the time. our last stop was London bridge, which was alright. It was an interesting tour, I’m glad I did it, but I wasn’t blown out of the water. I got back to my billets place at about 10.
Today I caught the 9 train to Melbourne CBD, then took another train to the zoo. I checked out the zoo, it was a nice zoo, saw some Kangaroos, wombats, emus, monkees, platypus and lions. After that I went back to the CBD(central business district) and had a wander around, checked out Southern Cross station, and sat at a Starbucks and relaxed for awhile. Later I wandered around a bit, went to the mall, and checked out the Library and the parliament building.
Picture count = 4200ish....wow + lots of videos
As for my next 3 weeks, I am heading to Perth tomorrow, where I’ll check out Fremantle and relax, while staying at the Billabong resort (hostel) until Monday the 21, when I fly to the Whitsundays via Brisbane at 11:30pm. On the 22nd I’ll check into my hostel, and pending notice from a sailing company be sailing the Whitsundays until the 26th. Then I’ll head to Brisbane for a day, then to surfers for a dday or two, then to Byron bay for a day and night(2 maybe), then to Sydney for my last weekend. On Sunday the 3rd(i think) I’ll head to the school and stay two nights, before flying to Singapore for two nights. Then I fly home to CANADA on the 7th. Also, happy birthday dad!
Thats about it, new adventures every day, as I plan things out day by day.
Thanks for reading.
From Down Under,
Adam
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