June 1!!

June 1

Hello everybody,

Welcome to June!!

It is now the 3^rd last week of school here at capers. Crazyness. This week the other 2 prac week teams are back from Sydney and Macai and we are learning about the life of David.

Lets run through the last week and half.

On Thursday we had funhouse and there was a teacher strike, so only 3 kids showed up. There were more of us then kids, but it was a cool afternoon. I had a mission meeting for the trip to Queensland during the semester break and for guys night we went to coliseum for pizza.

On Friday I did my oral on the CFL! It was cool, I wasn’t really nervous and I got a B+. In the afternoon i had a little quiet time with God and nap, it was great. That night 12 of us from school went into Bowral and saw the new Indiana Jones movie. It had some good parts, moreso near the beginning, but was pretty unrealistic. It was alright. Afterwards Daralynne, Tyler C, Kim, Kaitlyn D and I watched Pan’s Labyrinth, which was a weird but good movie.

On Saturday (the 23^rd ) I slept in and it was great, i needed a good sleep-in. I biked into Moss Vale to get some medicine for my chest cough. It was a Loong bike, longer then I expected, but not incredibly horrible. Everything here closes early on Saturdays. So I got to a pharmacist at 1:45 and it closed at 1, I went to a place to drop off some pants to be fixed but they closed just as I got there at 2!! Arghh, I was a little annoyed. I found another pharmacist but they were closed too, so I went to the IGA and got some stuff there. In the afternoon I worked on the semester DVD for awhile and got more pics from people for it. After dinner I went for coffee with Tyler C and we had a great chat. Later 8 of us watched Kung Pow: enter the fist at the units, which was really funny.

On Sunday we had church, a bunch of people left for prac week on Friday so it was only me and Julie that went to our church. It was kind of a disappointing. They brought in a choir to sing the whole time, the choir was great. we sat and listened to them sing for over an hour of the hour and 15 minute service. A maybe 2 minute message and 2 worship songs that we got up to sing. Not my idea of church. afterwards a few of us tried to catch game 1 of the Stanley cup final on tv at the briars but it wasn’t on. I did powerpoint for snac worship that night.

On Monday I still had the annoying cough. We did Old Testament review and had our book review discussion for lectures, and I bought some different cough medicine while in town.

On Tuesday we had quiet day! Yay! Quiet day is a good day. I got a blanket and brought my bible and my mp3 and lay out on the field. I read a verse that said “Be still and know that I am God.” I lay there and read in Psalms, drifting in and out of naps all morning, then listening to worship music and drifting in and out of naps under the hot Australian sun. I also prayed for a good half hour. It was a beautiful morning. In the afternoon I sat by the dock for a bit listening to worship music and then wandered around to various places in the park, still reading from Psalms. It was a great day.

On Wednesday we had work day. Graham, Tyler C, Kiwi, Andrea, Kim and I pulled about 10 trees out of the ground in the paddock. It was a good work day. Wednesday night I went to Thai food in Bowral with my family group, the ones that were here (Graham, Margaret, Kaitlyn P, Ben, Dianne and I).

On Thursday we had book review again. After having a great timeout with God for an hour, I went to funhouse in the afternoon. It was a good funhouse day. We made pizza and the kids were alright.

On Friday Debbie (a staffer) drove me into Moss Vale to see a doctor because my cough was still bugging me and it was something that needed to be checked after 2 weeks. They said to take benydryl, $60 for a little peace of mind and some advice. Friday night I got on the net and then I watched Parent Trap with Tyler C, Daralynne, Kim and Katelyn D.

Yesterday. I slept in til 10, talked to my mom and skype for a while, then hung out in the Hilton and worked on my assignment for book review on the Indwelling life of Christ. I watched Orange County with Adam H and Tyler F before dinner, then worked on the sem dvd. After dinner we took photos of our moustaches for moustache mayhem and then I watched ruthless people with Adam H. After writing this blog and finishing up my assignment. We watched Elizabeth.

Picture count =

Got to 2 cards from people back home. Got one from Merle who I helped lead the junior high boys with in the youth group back home. Thanks for the card and I am still enjoying myself here for sure. I opened the card on Caleb’s birthday, so happy birthday again Caleb. The other card was from Chris on the 29^th. I have had some cool experiences for sure: kangaroo hunting, surfing, mission trip to Hong Kong, feeding the homeless, giving oral presentations and devotions, hanging out with lots of different people, going on a ferry to Manly beach, seeing the sights of Sydney, staying in hostels...and on and on it goes, there will be many more in the next few months I think. As I go looking around in Australia in a few weeks (not very long now) I will see Fraser Island, hopefully the Sydney Zoo and crocodile zoo, Whitsunday Islands, Brisbane, Melbourne, possibly Cairns, possibly go scuba diving, road trip in Queensland and go to the Hillsong conference. Top that off with a full day (2 nights) in Singapore at a hotel to finish the journey. See you in a few months buddy, God bless.

Thats about it, having good times here (other than being sick), spending time with friends, making the most out of my opportunities and learning more each day.

Thanks for reading.

From Down Under,

Adam

sidebar post

ok, just to let you readers know, i have updated the sidebar of my page, as you scroll down on the right side, after the last fm stuff, i have a link to my youtube videos where you can find a video i made from hong kong, and a slideshow of pics below that.
thats all for now
from down under
Adam

May 22 entry on may 23 - one month til my birthday

Hello everybody,

Its update time!

Well I am back from prac week and it was great. it was tiring and challenging but also a great time. yesterday we had a day off and i got to sleep in! Awesomeness.

Before I get to that though, some other things. God totally blessed me again in the last week. On my University of Calgary application, I found out a few days into May that I needed to apply for my coop program by May 1. Yikes, even to send it in late would mean i need to send in a resume (which I don’t have here in Australia and write a letter). So I worried about it of course, but I shouldn’t. Still I didn’t know what to do. I prayed to God to help me to work it out because I still want to do the coop program. While on prac week, I was emailing back and forth with my mom, she called the university and found out that I can still apply for the program in December, awesome...hallelujah.

Another thing has to do with the church (not necessarily my church back home). Alot of people go to church just to do the Sunday thing and thats all they do. We are called to be Jesus to the people around us. Being in Pendle hill was a cool eyeopener. Working with people who were living in homes that were the churches, outreaching to feed people in the park twice a week in another community. At the park in Paramatta that where we fed the homeless (“our friends in the park”) on Sunday, Wednesday and Sunday, there is a catholic church across the street. Huge church with big steeple things, im sure its beautiful on the inside, they have huge ceremonies, classes etc within...but do they reach out to the poor across the street??? No they don’t. I know not everyone is gifted to go and do that, but as the body of Christ, we should be Christ to people. There are churches that don’t get involved in the community, they spend money on the church, which is fine but we are the body of Christ, not the physical church. One of the guys we worked with in Pendle Hill had been working as a youth pastor in the blue mountains, he was talking about the Holy Spirit there and the elders started slandering him and told him not to teach about the Holy Spirit. Eventually he got kicked out because of it, and it was a mainstream Baptist church. The focus of Christian teaching should always be on Christ. more could be said on this, but I think I am done for my rant...for now.

On Saturday (the 10^th ) I slept in and it was great. Forgie and I went to Bowral and got subway for lunch. We got on the bus and 17 of us students and 2 leaders went to Pendle Hill where we got to Williams cottage where we would stay for the week. I was in a room with 4 other guys and we slept on mattresses on the floor. Saturday night we hung out in the church meeting people and playing pool, ping pong and foosball.

On Sunday we got up early for church (we ran both 8:30 and 10 services) and Jonny made us coffees. I ran powerpoint for the services. After the services, we packed up the van and went to Paramatta park to feed the homeless there, which is done every Sunday at lunch and Wednesday at dinner. It was hard to go and talk to people. I always find it hard to go out and talk to new people, so it was a challenge, but i talked to a few people. After hanging out at the park for an hour and halfish we went to happy jacks for some more food (happy jacks=burger king).

On Monday, after our morning coffee, 6 (Forgie, Curtice, Tyler C, Katelyn D, Margaret and I) of us went to a place in Blacktown and scrubbed some grease on some cafe parts for a new cafe some people are starting. We did that for most of the day, I was a little sore after that.

Tuesday we went to an old folks home (Shaw House) by the church and put on a church service. Tyler C, Forgie, Maxy and I took some garbage to the dump before lunch, after lunch we put on a concert for the old folks. The concert was dramas, music and worship, it went alright but was not very organized. After that I ran and mailed a letter, then we hosted kids club at the church from 3:30 to 5, which was fun.

Wednesday we had a church service in the morning at another old folks home and a concert again in the afternoon, which went much better. Wednesday night we went to the park and fed the homeless again. It was good, I went out and talked to some random people and had some good chats, I also felt more comfortable then Sunday. Afterwards we went to macdonalds and got more food.

On Thursday we split into 2 groups and my group did a concert at a nursing home while the other group did one with some retired people. In the afternoon some people went to tea, while Forgie, Colton and Maxy went to fix some walls in a house two places down.

Friday we had a day off. Most of us got on the train at Pendle Hill station and went to central station (downtown Sydney). I went to Paddys Markets and checked out all the deals and things, but I didn’t buy anything, I’ll go back before flying back home for sure. Sean and I left after awhile and walked around to find some places. Tyler C and Katelyn D came with us and we went to Darling harbour and got Starbucks, chilled out there for a few hours. Eventually Daralynne, Kim, Curtice and Tyler F met us there and we wandered around Darling harbour for a bit before heading to the RSL club in Sydney to meet with everyone for dinner. We went to the movies after that, a bunch of us saw 21, which was good, but not great.

Saturday we had a mostly free day. After a slow wake up and a hot brekkie, some of us headed out to a mall in Paramatta called Westfield, a huge mall. We walked around the mall and shopped, I bought a pair of jeans. We (Sean, Kim, Tyler C, Katelyn, Daralynne and I) went to Macdonalds and headed back to the church to be there for 3:30, but Jonny wasn’t there to open it so we waited outside for almost an hour. Saturday night Bruce and Lynn (they hosted us at the church, Bruce is the Pastor) made us an awesome dinner, 4 types of pasta and 2 deserts. We ate by far way better food there then we get at capers. We watched I am legend on the big screen at the church.

On Sunday we did the two services again. Afterwards we went to the park to feed the people there. I talked to 2 people i talked to the first Sunday (Gary and RJ) which was cool. After the park we went back and cleaned up and packed the vans to head back to the school. After being nice and hot in Sydney, it was cold back at the school. We had supper, then snac and caught up with everyone. I had a great talk with Sean after going to the Briars.

Monday the people on the two prac week teams (Pendle Hill and Triple care farm) had a morning off, so I slept in til 10:30. Sleeping in was great, the sore side I had since Tuesday (from scrubbing and my mattress) went away, thou i was still super tired and still sick. I went to Mittagong and Bowral with Forgie and Sean and got some lunch and groceries. I went to bed early because I was super tired and still felt sick. I managed to get 2 loads of laundry done even though we only have one working washing machine for 43 students, so thats good. Im still feeling a little tired and weak today but I am getting better.

Tuesday was an alright day. I didn’t feel great, nasty cough. Didn’t really do that much, I wrote most of this blog (hoping to post it that night but the internet wasn’t on). Wrote a letter to a friend and worked on the capers semester dvd a bit. Tuesday night we didn’t have sport, some of us had a little fire.

Yesterday was work day, I finished putting songs into powerpoint (319 songs) and chopped some wood. We had combined family night and had a fire/barbeque.

Picture count = 2737

Got to open a card from a youth back home (Carlton!). I am learning more and more about God and I am fulfilling the goals I wanted to accomplish, it’s been amazing. I feel like I’ve changed and grown but I can’t really tell, and there are still 2 and a half months left until I get home. Happy birthday in 5 days bud. Hello to everyone back home

Thats about it, having good times here (other than being sick), spending time with friends, making the most out of my opportunities and learning more each day while trying not to look forward to the future too much and make the most of the 4 weeks we have left

Thanks for reading.

From Down Under,

Adam

May 9 - time for prac week

May 9
Hello everybody,
A short post to keep you up to date as i head out on Prac week.

On Saturday (the 3rd) i went to Macarthur on the Capers bus and saw Iron man with Sean, Tyler C, Daralynne and Kim. It was a great time and an awesome movie. I would definitely recommend seeing it, not your average superhero movie, i would gladly see it again. We came back to Bowral on the train and went to a resteraunt in town for food, it was good. I didn’t feel great after tho.

On Sunday i went out for lunch at someones house after church with the group that goes to my church here, and then did powerpoint for snac.

On Monday we started on Church History. Ken Legg has been good this week teaching it. He is organized and has involved the class, but the note taking has been a little difficult. It has been more interesting than i thought it would be. I went to town and spent some more money, and Tyler C, Daralynne and I bought tickets to get to Brisbane for June 20, where we will be for a week after school is done. Sweet deal.

On Tuesday i worked on my bible study outline and went to dance lessons again, we learned the cha cha cha.

Wednesday we had work day. Before it started though, i got a letter from a friend (Rachel) from home, who is now at Capers in England, it was great to get mail, cool stuff. I did powerpoint songs in the morning (while listening to music over the sound system of course), then tried to fix a laundry machine, then tried to install a lock in a door. Wednesday night we had family night, so we had a fire and hung out, having hamburgers and pop, it was a good time.

On Thursday i had funhouse. It was kind of crazy but not unusual. One of the kids needed a time out after about 2 minutes, then halfway through (about an hour) we were going to take him home, then he cried and there were other kids acting up so we got distracted, his mom showed up and picked him up early. The kids are hard to deal with there sometimes, grade 1-4 ish age, swearing, talking about stuff they shouldn’t know about, not listening. Oh well. We had another meeting for the Queensland mission trip, should be a go and i would be able to meet up with them after my week in Brisbane.

This past week i have felt a little sick (runny/stuffy nose, sore throat) and really tired – 6 hours of sleep a night will do that to you. Im hoping to have a great sleep in tomorrw before opening a letter from my youth and then heading out to Pendle Hill in Sydney.

Today we had some more great orals and then I went to Briars after lunch with Steph G. After that i worked on getting pictures together for the semester dvd and hung out in the conf hall.



Thats about it, having good times here, spending time with friends and learning more each day while trying not to worry about the future.
Thanks for reading.
From Down Under,
Adam

May 2 - time keeps on ticking

May 2 blog entry

Hello everybody,

I am now 2 weeks into term 2 and there are only 7 weeks left in the semester (one of which is prac week and one that is grad week).

On Tuesday the 22nd i hung out in the afternoon and played soccer at night. We won all 3 games, it was lots of fun as usual.

That Wednesday was a busy day. We had work day, so Sean, Lisa and I fixed a drawer and worked on the sound booth in the conf. Hall. After work day i talked to my dad for a half hour and got some stuff worked out for U of C, then we had a prac meeting. My prac team of 17 of us is going to Pendle hill in Sydney on May 10 for a week. Prac week is when groups go out for a week on a mission, a practical ministry. We are going into a poor community where we will be running 2 church services, a kids program and a student lunch time ministry among other things. Its going to be great. There are also groups doing work with the Salvation army, triple care farm, up in Macai, and a few others.We had family group that night and we played ultimate uno, it was actually a really fun time.

On Thursday we had more great lectures on abiding life, Gods will, the self and a little on relationships, from Ray Andrews. Everyone was supposed to get a half hour meeting with Beck (who came with Ray Andrews) to find out more about ourselves and why we are the way we are. I missed mine by half an hour, i was quite disappointed because that meant i wouldn’t get my meeting. After that i worked on my devotion for a few hours and went to town with Kiwi and Forgie. I deposited a cheque at the bank (where i shockingly discovered the exchange rate is .985, meaning instead of getting $200 on $2000, i got about $25!). after dinner i went to the dock with Stacia, Daralynne, Kylie, Gabe, Nick and Lynden. Later we had guys night where Woodsy and I talked about Hong Kong, then i worked on my devo a little more.

Friday morning went great. I presented my devo on peace and it went really well. I hung out for a bit in the afternoon then worked on some computer stuff. We had guys night again and we played rugby for over an hour. It was awesome, and i was pretty sore afterwards. We had burgers and watched Casino Royale after. A few of us came back to the Hilton and watched Naked Gun later on. It was a great day.

Saturday was great too. I used the internet for a while in the morning after sleeping in til 10:30!!!. After spending the afternoon figuring out what everyone was up to, Sean and i went to Bowral and saw the superhero movie. It was funny, but not great. Then we got pizza and talked to a cabbie on the way back that was a former student 10 years ago, it was really cool and we had a great conversation actually. Later i watched Primal Fear with Kiwi, Andrea, Ian and Jenn. It was a great movie, but a little awkward with 2 couples watching (....5th wheel?). later i went to the fire for a bit before bed.

On Sunday i did snac powerpoint in the afternoon and i said my testimony during the snac service. I watched last semesters capernwray dvd with Kiwi later, im going to do the one for this semester.

Mon Apr 28 i got up and it was cold, it was 10 degrees in our room! We had a new speaker for the week, Peter Thomsett, he was a good speaker and had lots of cool stories, teaching on Evangelism, but i didnt feel like i got much out of it (along with a bunch of others). After lecture i went to Moss Vale with Sean and Forgie. I had fish and chips for the first time! they were Really good. After getting back, i went to Bowral with the bus to bring my glasses in to get fixed (Mark jumped on them on the weekend and they were flattened). i tried to work on my bible study outline that night but couldn’t make progress and i was getting a little annoyed with all the assignments.

Tuesday we had a guy come in from Hillsong to talk to us about Youth Ministry, but he wasn’t great, i was looking forward to hearing from him but he didnt teach us much. I woked on my bible study for about 4 hours in the afternoon and finished it. I went to briars that night with some people and we were going to play soccer but Maxy couldn’t find the keys for the gym, i was disappointed. I hung out with Forgie and Mark for awhile later.

On Wednesday i sent out some postcards. Then we had workday, i put some worship songs into powerpoint for the morning, then i cleaned up a fire pit and worked on a Hong Kong video for church later. We had a bible study on God’s strength later and i shaved off my beard for moustache mayhem. (so that picture above is of me before shaving off my beard)

On Thursday we had a meeting for Pendle Hill planning and then we had funhouse. We also had a meeting for a mission trip to Queensland which would happen the two weeks after the term. I would join them late after spending a week in Brisbane.

Today there were some awesome oral presentations and we had dance lessons, a Pendle Hill meeting and i went to Briars with Tyler C, Sean, Kim and Daralynne.

Thats about it, having good times here, spending time with friends and learning more each day while trying not to worry about the future.

Thanks for reading.
From Down Under,
Adam