July 16

July 16

Hello everybody,

Alright, so here is the latest on my Australian journey.

So on Saturday the 5^th, 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 6^th 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 3^rd 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 12^th 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 22^nd I’ll check into my hostel, and pending notice from a sailing company be sailing the Whitsundays until the 26^th. 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 3^rd(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 7^th. 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

quick update - really quick again

Hi everybody,
I've put more pictures on flickr, meaning there are more photos on the bottom right of this page, also I am doing well in Melbourne, I'll try and post an update in the next week. also I've posted some photos on Facebook!
bye for now
from down under
Adam

july 4

Hello everybody,

So far vacation...i mean journey in Australia has been great.

Ok a quick update on where I have been and what I’ve been doing.

On the night of June 20th I got off the plain in the Gold coast after a 1 and a half hour plane ride and caught a taxi with Daralynne and Tyler C. It was dark and the ground was still wet. I was praying that we would get nice weather during the week. We got to our place and discovered it was a nice resort and our room had a great view. We watched the first half of Boondock Saints but we were too tired so the 3 of us went to bed.

I woke up just after noon on Saturday the 21st and it was Hot! I went out on the balcony and it was clear skies with a beautiful view of the ocean. I sat outside talking to my dad for a half hour and I was sweating afterwards, it was cooking. later in the day, after we had went to pancakes in paradise for brekkie (at 3pm!) more people arrived. Colton, Travis D, Stacia, Kylie, Tamar, Jenn and Mike came in the afternoon and Adam H came after we had dinner. Tyler C, Daralynne and I went with Adam H to get more dinner, he bought us pizza. The 4 of us went to our unit (Kylie also got a unit for the week, but I think ours was way nicer) and we watched the illusionist.
On Sunday the 22nd it was warm again (25ish) and clear skies, we hung out on the beach for a few hours, i went for a swim with Tyler C and Adam H, then sat on the beach. Travis made some Spaghetti (Really good) for dinner.

Monday the 23rd was my birthday. I woke up around 11, it was sunny and hot with clear skies again, and went down to the pool where Adam was relaxing. We talked for an hour, then Tyler C joined us and we went in the spa (hot tub...but not actually hot, just warm) we hung out there til around 2, then they took me out for a little birthday lunch, i had fish and chips. We went to the other unit and watched a bit of tv and some people napped. I went and found an internet place and went on the net for 20 minutes. Later we went up to the rooftop bbq and Travis made some really good bbq chicken. After waiting for the girls, we went to outback jacks for my birthday dinner. I got all you can eat ribs of course, and they gave me a plate of spaghetti first, then I finished off two plates of ribs. After that we got the “death by ice cream’ sundae, it was massive. Chocolate, strawberry, vanilla ice cream, chocolate shell, caramel topping, whipped cream, chocolate sauce, and marshmellows. Hmm. Afterwards we all went back to our place, Adam H, Tyler C, Daralynne, Jenn and I were going to watch a movie, so the rest of them left to go be loud and drink at the other place. We watched American Gangster. It was a great and memorable birthday, 21 in Australia!

On Tuesday I got up and talked to my sister for a while, and to my mom for a bit, while sitting on the balcony enjoying the warmth and clear sky. It was great to catch up with family this week. Colton and I made our way to the beach and hung out there for more then an hour. The others went shopping and then we had lunch on another part of the beach and did some surfing (Travis rented 3 boards for a day). After the sun set, Adam, Tyler, Daralynne and I went to Macdonalds and got some dinner, and watched Charlie Wilson’s War and Awake. Both good movies.

On Wednesday we of course went to the beach again, and it was beautiful again (clear sky and warm). I lay on the beach for 3 or 4 hours, it was cool and I didn’t even come close to getting burnt. Afterwards I went on the net for a bit and found a shoelace for my shoe. Wednesday night we went to a little beachside bar to watch the sunset, then made a great meal of steak, potatoes, corn on the cob, salad and kebabs. Tyler, Daralynne and I watched I am legend ( i think ive watched that about 4 times since I came to Australia.). I said bye to mostly everyone.

On Thursday it was time to leave. After waking up early and saying bye to Daralynne, I walked to the bus stop with all my stuff and with two awesome friends during my time at Capernwray and got some coffee. The bus was coming so we ran outside to the stop and just as Adam got to the door to stop it, the bus driver closed the door and drove away, amid our yelling. It was disappointing but actually good because it gave us the chance to have a last chat and have a good goodbye (or see you later) as I waited for the next bus. I got on the bus and it got to the train station just as the train left, so i waited half an hour for the next one. I took the train into Brisbane where Geoff, Renata and Greg picked me up in their car. We drove about 4 or 5 hours, detouring to see some sights, to meet the Queensland mission trip team in Hervey Bay (across from Fraser Island). We got there and I was reunited with Mark, Cheryl, Lisa, Sean, Kim, Maxi and Melissa from Capernwray. We (including the 3 I came up with) all went to a concert where the African orphan choir group from Uganda that is on tour was performing. It was really good. Afterwards we set up tents in Hervey Bay.

Friday the 27th was Fraser Island day. We rented two 4WD Utes (utility vehicles) and took the barge across to Fraser Island at 8:30. We got across and started driving Fraser Island. It is an Island that is made entirely of sand, but it has big hills, trees, plants and dingoes. The roads are all sand and that is why you have to have a 4wd vehicle to drive on the island. We drove across to the east side where the 75 mile beach is. 75 miles=125 kilometers! Thats all one beach, a large section of it is entirely straight. (check it out on a map). We drove probably 30 miles up and explored the beach, doing some surfing behind the truck for a bit until we got into trouble. We explored Fraser Island, then rushed back to get to the barge to take us back at 4. We ddin’t realize how long it would take i guess and we missed it by 15 minutes. It was cool but sucky. We weren’t expecting to be stuck, but it was the last barge going back, so we would have to stay the night somewhere and find food. Maxi booked us into a resort where we all stayed and some of us bought dinner. We swam in the hot tub, but it was wierd, it wasn’t hot. It was barely warm, it was definitely much warmer than the pool though. We ran around in it a bit which was fun. I had to store my contacts in a glass haha.

On Saturday morning we got up and left the place we stayed at by 6:30 and we drove to Lake Mackenzie on the Island. It was a really cool lake, totally clear water, a few of us drank some of the water, tasted pretty decent. We drove back and caught the barge at 9am. When we got back to the campsite where our tents were still set up, Melissa made us some bacon and eggs, yum. We started our trip to Mackay (pronounced Macai) at half past 12. It was a long trip, but we made it to Mackay just after midnight, after a half hour detour just outside Mackay because of an accident. The 8 of us got split up, us 4 guys stayed at one billets house for the night, 3 of the girls went to one and one (Lisa) went to another. It was kind of annoying to be split up on our last week together, but oh well.

On Sunday the 29th we went to Mackay Church of Christ, it was good. Then in the afternoon we went to Barbs parents house for lunch. Barb was student at Capernwray with us, it was cool to see her again and it was a good time hanging out there. Afterwards we had to split up more, Sean and I got sent to another billet, and Kim left the other 2 girls and went to another billet. That night we helped out with youth at Iona west uniting church, it was cool. I shared my testimony at that church’s service that night and our group played two songs. We had sausage sizzles and talked to people after the service. That day we discovered that it is hot in Mackay in winter, 25ish with humidity everyday (well the group that came up here on prac week in May found out it can be rainiy and cooler too).

On Monday the 30th. We did a little shopping, then took Barb out for a picnic and hung out at a beach/grassy area. Once again we had clear hot skies. We went to an internet cafe then went to a music practice. Mark, Cheryl and I just threw a Frisbee around. Monday night we watched the Sound of Music.

Tuesday July 1, Happy Canada day! We went out to camp eagle early in the morning and took down some stuff and helped organize a bit. We ran around town afterwards getting dvds made for the camp Eagle recovery party (reunion party?) that night. The recovery party was at 7, and there weren’t alot of people there, it was good though.

Wednesday the 2nd. One of the guys I talked to on Sunday night, who is just out of youth, said we could use his sailboat, well we ended up using his dads, but we did get out sailing around 11. It was fun, the first time I’ve been sailing I think. We split up into two groups because it was a small boat. Then we had some fish and chips and a group of us (well not me) tried sailing again at the harbour when there was no wind with Latoya. The 2 guys on the boat actually had to get out and swim and push the boat a bit, after they had paddled for quite awhile. Latoya is the 15 year old sister of the flatmate of one the lady’s who hosted us that week, Jonelle. Latoya hung out with us a bit during the week, which was cool. Wednesday night we each had dinner with our hosts, it was interesting, getting to know the couple that hosted us, and discovering that most locals think the summer is too hot and love winter...hmm different mindset.

On Thursday we went to the skatepark to help with a skate tour/competition put on by Red Frog. There were a ton of kids, but not really alot for most of us to do, except Mark and Latoya who are skateboarders, they had fun. the rest of us cooked up lunch and just watched mostly. On Thursday night we went to the youth rally put on by the Red Frog team, it was really good, not a great turnout, but I really enjoyed, i got to go onstage as a volunteer for the illusionist guy, and two guys came up and told great testimonies/ messages. A few kids accepted Christ as Lord, which was awesome, and I felt like God was talking to me a bit that night too.

Today we got up at 3:30am and eventually made it out of town by 4:30am, for a long drive to the Gold Coast. It took about 16 hours but we made it to surfers paradise/gold coast. I have been billeted out with Mark and we are staying at an amazing house. Its really cool.

Picture count = 3700! 1300 to go in the next 4 weeks!

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

Thanks for reading.

From Down Under,

Adam