July 28 - Airlie beach, Whitsundays, Brisbane and Australia zoo

July 28
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

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

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