Australia: The Journey Ends...For Now, Day 12

Twelve days. That's how long I've been here. That's the longest I've been out of the country or away from home for that matter. It was a struggle to get here. It was long days and anxious nights. It was after a year of expecting to go, to accepting the fact that I was not going a few weeks before, to buying a plane ticket four days later.

For those of you who have been following this blog, you will have noticed that this trip was not for vacation nor for my own pleasure, but rather to follow the Lord. Yes I saw some sights and yes at times it did feel as if I was vacation, but none of that compares to what the Lord did here. In these two weeks 12 lives got changed eternally. People prayed. People told their stories, and people heard of Jesus Christ for the first time. The church here was blessed and we were blessed. It was amazing to see how the Lord moves halfway across the world. There were days I was out preaching the gospel and didn't care about being tired or wanting to stop. There were days where the people here fed me more spiritually than physically. Being here and serving here was not a must but it was a gift.

I stayed for nearly two weeks in the Chen's home. Two weeks is a long time to have people who are not your biological family live there. Yet, this family showered us with so much love and care that it's almost unimaginable. Every night when i returned from the day I felt like I was at home and not in a stranger's house. This is yet another sign that the church is family no matter where you are and the power of the love of Christ is shown through the saints.

So what am I doing on my last day here? I'm with the young people. The smell of a delicious dinner is escaping from the kitchen. The piano is alive with music. People are all around enjoying each other's company.  I don't think I'd have it any other way. This city has definitely rubbed off on me and holds an affectionate place in my heart. One day I hope to return and experience it in a new and different way. A way that includes even more Christ. To see fruit from our labor. To see Christ magnified in this city. To see that the church here has grown. I'm truly thankful for what the Lord has done here, for everything He put me through to get here, for the saints here, for the church and it's testimony here, and for all the love that was poured out. I pray that we all may continue to fight this good fight of faith. Praise be to God! For the last time of this trip and until next time, goodnight from Australia.

"So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God's household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord,in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit."~Ephesians 2:19-22

Australia: The Amazing Race Sydney Style, Day 11

I had a different opening, but I just nixed it because I'm going to use it for my last full day here. I guess you're curious to know what I did today. Well I'm going to tell you. Here we go.

Have you ever heard of the very popular reality game show called The Amazing Race? If you have, great! If you haven't, well basically it is a show where 12 teams of two race around the world completing challenges and solving clues until they have made it to the finish line. Lilly Faulk who has been studying abroad here in Sydney for a semester put together her version of the show Sydney style. The purpose for this was not just to explore Sydney but to bond with the friends who came and to build relationships.

My group was dubbed team three and our first destination was Circular Quay (pronounced KEY). This is a bustling hub right by the harbor bridge, the opera house, and the ocean. Our first stop was to walk around the harbor and find a plaque on the ground that displayed a writer whose initials were MP. This section is known as The Writer's Walk. There are almost 50 plaques that display famous writers from Australia or have ancestry here. Once we found the plaque we had to stand on it and look for an arrow. One of the young Australians in our group spotted it quickly. Before we made our way to where the arrow was, we took a lunch break. We ordered Hungry Jack's, which is actually Burger King, but since there was another franchise here before BK with the same name, BK is called Hungry Jack's here. We found a place to sit, but no outdoor place is safe. Because it's near the water, there are a ton of ibis and seagulls. They are fearless here. They'll approach you really close and make their move when the time is right. I spent have the time scaring them off but they always came back. One managed to get a bite of Ray's burger, and another managed to get what was left of Sophia's sandwich. My curiosity got the best of me and instead of fighting them off I stood straight and held a fry between my fingers and not that far from my head. In a minute or two, I felt a gull brush my head and the fry was gone. He snatched it right out of my fingers. Curiosity satisfied.

After lunch, we walked to the Arrow which was an art museum. We had to go inside and take a picture of the restaurant terrace, a brown horse, and a giant clock. Our next clue led us towards a historic part of town. This next bit gave us trouble because we had an issue finding stuff and the crowds here were massive due to a chocolate festival going on. It was like a can of sardines.

We made our way through a tunnel and found a house with no walls. Then we made our way back to ground level and for the life of us could not find the clue. We wandered like a confused squirrel crossing a road. Finally we asked a Sydney information center for help (twice) and found that what we were looking for had been really close all along. We wasted a lot of time on that one.

PC: Naomi Wu's phone by random stranger

With all the tasks complete, we were now headed to the heart of Sydney. Town Hall. Here we were able to explore a massive cathedral that got transformed into an expensive shopping mall. We had to play the public piano, learn what "four valour" was, examine the spiral staircase, and see how many times in a hour a model ship revolved around a massive clock.

We then left the cathedral, had to find four large vertical signs and make a word out of them that was the name of an Olympic sport (which was GYMNASTICS). With that clue complete, we went to Chatswood Chase mall to finish our third leg. Upon arrival we split into groups and scanned the mall for the Apple logo, a dalmatian painted on a wall, and Captain Jack Sparrow. 

Captain Jack Sparrow

Our next clue I knew right away as the names we were given were names of streets I had walked while door-knocking a number of days ago. We made it to the location, and got the right answer. Our final location was revealed. We could taste victory. Note: When we started, our group wasn't on fire to win, especially after getting hung up in circular quay and missing most of our trains. But once we had the final location, we took off in a dead sprint. As we got closer to the park (our final location) Lian passed me (I was ahead of the rest of my group) and gave me the news that her group had beat us there. Buggers. Well at least we didn't end up last haha. 

The day wasn't done as we still had the young people's meeting. An encouraging thing was that the friends who came for the race stayed for the meeting and some of the new friend who came last week showed up again. It was a good turnout and the signing was really enjoyable with all the ones there. Each of us Americans gave a testimony about how our past 11 days went and the host families chimed in as well. The response on both sides was encouraging and uplifting. Can't believe my time here is almost at an end. It's 11:18PM August 12th Australia time as I'm writing this. One full day left here and then the long journey back to the USA. Goodnight.

Australia: Java and Jesus, Days 9 and 10

Woot! By the end of this post I'll be finally caught up to the actual day I'm at instead of being one behind. Why is the impossible about to happen you ask? Well it's because the past two days have been a single event. There's a huge shopping/restaurant area in Chatswood not far from the meeting hall. On Thursday and Friday, vendors have stalls set up down the middle of the walkway with thousands of people passing by daily as the train station is also right next door. The Church in Sydney rented a stall for two days. What did we do? We were giving away free, yes FREE, coffee, tea, and hot chocolate. Our purpose for this was to use it as a way to reach out to people and let them know who we are, that we are in the area, and to introduce them to Christ.

Thursday we weren't quite sure what to expect, but it was a fun experience nonetheless. We had 2-4 people manning the drinks, 2-3 people out front announcing to the masses of the free caffeine, and a couple people on stand-by to go on supply runs. Anyone else in the morning was either on a campus or passing out flyers in the neighborhoods. I've done similar stuff like this in other church events before, but never halfway across the world. My first job was to stir and place lids on the drinks. As I did this it was fun to people watch. Many passed by going about their day, not making eye contact, and ignoring our very existence. Others noticed but kept on going. Some paused at the word "free" and would slowly walk by or keep stopping debating on whether they would take us up on our offer. The funniest one's were where two people walking together would pass by and one would want to stop and the other would drag them away. In light of all this, people did stop and they stopped often. For most of the day Thursday the breaks between where drinks weren't being made and they were I would say never lasted longer than 5 minutes max and that length of time was uncommon.

Eventually I found myself no longer stirring but out in front of the stall announcing we had free hot drinks. To help attract attention, I twirled an empty coffee cup off the tips of my fingers. That got a decent amount of extra attention. Also throughout the day, saints from the church came by and helped out which was fantastic. They were excited, involved, and a big help. And it wasn't just the young ones, but their parents and grandparents as well. Everyone was involved and I believe the people who stopped noticed that.

People moments of note. On occasion people would stop just to see who we were and would end up taking a flyer with no drink. One lady mentioned she was looking for a church, lived nearby, and would show up on Sunday (whether that happens or not remains to be seen, but was still encouraging). The look on people's faces when they received a free hot drink was that of joy, day changing you could say. My favorite was when the nearby school let out and the kids started passing by. The first wave passed on by, but with a lot of hesitation. It didn't take long for the second wave to see if we were legit. Pretty soon we had a line of 15-20 kids wanting a hot chocolate. Some noticed my Cavs hat and asked if I was a Cavaliers fan. I told them of course I was and that I'm an American from Cleveland. Some cheered being Cavs fans themselves, and some groaned. In response to the groan I would ask "You're not a Warriors fan are you?" One lad said he was a bulls fan and I let out a sigh of relief. Other's were Warriors fans and I playfully gave them a hard time. All in all, those kids day was made and they all had church invitations to give to their parents. Another guy struck up a conversation with me. He was super nice and was the first Aussie this whole time I've been here to ask me where in the States I was from because of my accent. Super cool dude and it's safe to say we made his day.

We kept the stall running to a bit after 8pm and the people kept coming the whole time. The only part of me that was tired was my legs because of all the walking I did in the morning and all the standing I did the rest of the day. Thursday was a blast.

Friday. We were slower getting set up because our power strip for the coffee and hot water was missing as well as some other things were in different cars that arrived at different times. Pretty soon we were up and running and just like Thursday, people kept stopping. There were less passersby because Thursday is payday in Australia and so they treat it sort of like how Friday is treated in the US. But we still had a similar amount of foot traffic to the stall. We also added an extra element this day as well. We added music! We had a guitar, a cajon (box drum), and our voices. This definitely helped the atmosphere and more people noticed us and some stopped to listen.

Throughout the day I rotated between making drinks, being an announcer, and singing. Each was as enjoyable as the other. not once did I feel like I was doing a job or that it was and arduous task. The saints were also back helping and supporting the church. The school kids returned and some asked if I remembered them from yesterday. Some other strangers who stopped by yesterday came back today as well. There was a guy who pulled up in a wheelchair and boy was he a fun character. He loved talking to us (well mostly Tim) and is a radio voice on a contemporary radio station. He talked with us so long, he kept ordering more drinks. It was all good though as he said he would make mention of us on his 6am show on Sunday morning.

In the two day total, we went through approximately 1300 cups so an average of 650 people a day! If you put that into perspective, that's almost 1300 people that learned of the Church in Sydney, that received an invitation, that had their day changed by a free hot drink, that may now have an opening for Christ. For the cost of the supplies, that was totally worth it. Hopefully some fruit of our efforts will show up on Sunday.

Some more Australian fun facts: If you want lemonade here you better be prepared to drink it carbonated because they don't sell it without the fizz. McDonald's tastes the same as it does in the US, and their presentation is similar, but their bun quality is much higher. It takes at least four years to get your full drivers license here! You have to work your way up through a few sets of restricted licenses before you can get your full license. That's all for now. Cheers!

Australia: The Devil Fails, God Wins, and a Beautiful View, Day 8

Fresh off a day of gospel on fire, we decided to bring Christ to a third campus in Sydney.  Macquarie University.  Smaller than UNSW and USYD, but still plenty of people to present the gospel to. The weather was beautiful yet again and the people were everywhere. I was paired with Anthony and we made our way to a smaller part of campus. Most of our conversations were quick, but one mattered greatly. Why? Because we prayed with a young man to receive the Lord. God is awesome.

The devil was heated because of what we were doing. As Anthony and I parted from that young man, a security guard asked us if we were lost or looking for something.  I politely told him no and we continued on our way. I could hear him following us as his keys were giving him away. We can decided to continue anyway. Then I saw a student sitting alone and we decided to preach the gospel to her. As we did so, the security guard circled the area and spied upon us through the bushes. Eventually he came over an interrupted us. He asked us if we were students and told us that what we were doing had to be done through the university website. I told him we weren't students and he asked us what we were doing and told us again to go through the website. I explained and he told us we had to stop and for a third time he told us we had to register on the website to hand out flyers and talk to students about organizations not campus related. I apologized and we headed back to our meeting point. The funny thing is that even though Anthony and I were shut down, the rest of our group wasn't approached (thankfully) and two more people received the Lord making the total count 12 salvations. Sorry devil, you lose...again.

Once we were done at Macquarie, the rest of the day was a relaxation day. We took a ferry across the harbor to Watson's Bay. As mentioned before, the weather was fantastic and I was able to stand on the open part of the bow. It felt so good to be darting across the Pacific, feeling the sun on my skin, the wind in my hair, and the salt water kiss my lips. The entire boat ride was a blast.

PC: Tim Watkins

Once we landed at our destination, we took a short hike to reach the top of the cliffs and get a gorgeous view of the ocean and the city. Even though I've seen many amazing views before, just looking upon God's handiwork still puts me in awe.

Once we had our fill of the scenery, we had to head back. During this trip I have seen Sydney up close, from the water in early afternoon, and at the dead of night, but never at sunset...until now. I probably took 10 pictures because it was so incredible to see.

Our day came to a close with dinner and the prayer meeting. I was really excited when dinner arrived because it was 30 Domino's pizzas. I love Dominos; it was a taste of home. My mouth and stomach were once again in food heaven.The funny thing was that they were larges,which are the same size as a small in the U.S. of A. I'll save that pic for the album. I've been here over a week now and it's been a week and a half since I left (1 day of travel and you jump forward a day traveling here). Time flies and waits for no one. What an experience it has been so far and I'm loving every minute of it.

Australia: There's No Lie You Won't Tear Down Coming After Me, Day 7

Why is this title so long you ask? Well it's a lyric from the song Reckless Love. Give it a listen if you haven't, it's powerful. Day 7 was a heavy gospel day and was round 2 on the USYD campus. I was paired up with Ray and we went to the part of campus where the castle-like building was that I took a picture of when we were last here. After being so discouraged with door-knocking the previous day, I felt that the Lord tore down a lot of lies while we were on the campus.

Ray and I began on one patch of grass and in 3 hours we didn't leave it. The first two people we talked to were pretty awesome Christians. One was an local and the other was a missionary from the USA doing gospel work in Sydney. That encouragement came like a flood and never stopped. The next person we talked to was a deist studying theology. The guy was very open and was so happy we talked to him. He wasn't ready to receive the Lord but he did pray that God would make himself real to him. The third person spoke little English so Ray did all the talking, but in the end this person gained Christ and Christ's salvation. The fourth person was a Muslim girl who wasn't particularly  strong in her faith. We spent awhile talking to her and as we did, saw a change in her. Just as we were about to ask her if she would like to receive Christ, she realized she had to be at a class in five minutes and took off. The seed was planted, however. The fifth was a girl who had former ties to Christianity, but left when her brother came out. We showed her John 3:16, but before we could go any further she too had to leave, but told us we had given her something to think about. We talked to about 7 more people and of those 7, we gave a Christian girl confirmation that she was saved, had a Buddhist pray that God would prove Himself to him, met another two Christians, and talked with a tour guide who had to leave, but wanted to talk to us more.

The last person we talked to for the day shocked me. Our conversation with him wasn't going so well and I thought after all the Lord had done that we were going to end on a sour note. Then a feeling deep inside me told me to stop answering questions and to go to God's Word, the Bible. We showed him John 3:16 and took him through the Roman's Road. By the end of our conversation, he prayed as two others had that day that God would prove Himself to him. My soul was happy and my spirit soaring. Not one single person we talked to rejected us talking to them, 3 prayed for Truth to be revealed, and one was saved. As a group, four total received Christ through our going out and as of day seven, nine have received salvation here in Sydney.

Like most other days, there was still one more thing for us to do. We all made our way over to Yu-lin's house where we were joined by a handful of University students. And for the first time since we've been here, all the Aussies who visited the US were in one place. Chris, Elsa, Nelson, Christine, Vasya, Angela, and finally Hannah. We spent the evening eating more delicious food and singing the night away.

"There's no shadow You won't light up
Mountain You won't climb up
Coming after me
There's no wall You won't kick down
No lie You won't tear down
Coming after me"

Australia: The Gospel Must Go Out, Day 6

I could barely eat all the food Nelson's mom was feeding us for breakfast because I was recovering from the previous night. But it was fine because I had a long day of walking to burn it all off.

Our first quest for the day was to distribute church invites throughout the neighborhood by the meeting hall. I've always enjoyed doing this especially when the weather is good. I love walking through new neighborhoods and seeing the picture-esque houses and the cute mailboxes that I'm allowed to drop invitations into. I enjoy walking the hilly streets, seeing the blue sky above and the houses on the hills in the distance. Plus it's a perfect opportunity  to pray and spend time with the Lord. This combination of things made time fly rather quickly.

We reconvened at the meeting hall to eat lunch and prepare for the afternoon. During this time, Ray and Anthony disappeared into the fellowship room to eat something from their secret stash. This drew the ire of curious souls who pondered what the delectable treat might be (turned out to be mint chocolate Tim-Tams which were shared the next day).

For the second half of the day, we went door-knocking. That was an interesting experience.  Pretty much every door that answered rejected us. But unlike the US, many wished us luck and said goodbye as if they were happy to have us. One guy in particular gave me a good laugh. I asked him if he would like to come to church on Sunday and in the thickest Australian  accent, he said something along the lines that he couldn't get to the bus because he couldn't make it past his gate and he was stuck there. Then he said "Better luck next time!" And shut the door. I felt like I had just lost a game.

Now that my feet were dead, it was time to travel even further. We took a train to Epping. Nelson picked up half our group and drove them to the house we were headed to. The rest of us took a bus. It was a long bus ride, actually too long because we missed our stop by four stops. We left the bus and called Yu-lin. He and Nelson came to rescue the six of us standing out by the roadside where no one else was around in the dark. We were easy to spot since we were the only group of six Americans standing in the cold. Once we were "rescued" and had made it to the house, we were greeted by a lot of friendly faces and the scent of good food.

We had the privilege of meeting more of the Chinese speaking saints and were welcomed by their gracious hospitality. One of the little girls we entertained during the YP meeting Saturday night was there and she had my name down pat. She's a cutie. After dinner we sang some songs in English and Chinese and then swapped testimonies of things the Lord was doing in our lives. It was a great encouragement. As the night wound down, we Americans and a few Aussies crowded around the piano and began a jam session with some of our Christian songs. The saints who were still there sat and enjoyed the singing and some took video and shared it with other saints who weren't there.

That wraps up day 6. I didn't really take many pics this day so here's the pic of a magpie that stared me down realizing I wasn't from around these parts.

Australia: The Fellowship and the Sights, Day 5

Sunday rolled around and what was supposed to be a more relaxing day turned out to be a action packed one. We started off with breakfast at the meeting hall where it felt like a mini Jubilee meeting. What that means is in Cleveland on the first Sunday of every month, all the metro churches gather for one big meeting and we have breakfast together. There was a lot of delicious homemade food and what I didn't yet realize was that this was only the beginning.

Next came the meeting where we shared the Lord's table, sang some wonderful hymns, and enjoyed the Lord together. Then, during the second half, all of us from America shared our testimonies with the saints here (I found out tonight that some were moved to tears by our coming and sharing). It is truly something spectacular to experience Christ in another country. Once the meeting concluded, lunch was prepared by the saints and oh my goodness was there a lot of delectable dishes. During this time I met some people and talked with them about the differences in Australia and the USA. I also met Vasya's mom and was also the first time I saw Vasya since arriving here in the South Pacific (she was one of the one's who came to the US back in December of 2015). 

Around 2pm, Raymond, us Americans, and 12 or so other young people left the meeting hall and made our way to Manly Beach. It was over an hour travel, but I didn't mind as we took a ferry across the ocean. Arriving at Manly was a sight. There were throngs of people, stores as far as the eye could see, and a long walkway between it all. Our main destination was the beach, but we had to make an ice cream detour first.

The beach, when we finally made it, didn't disappoint. The sand was soft and cool, the Pacific waves kissed the shore, and the setting sun made for a picturesque view. There was a nice section of beach that was clear of people, so naturally us Americans busted out the Frisbee and began throwing. We attracted a small crowd of onlookers from the wall. Eventually we started an actual game and as we were flying high and diving low, all the locals sitting on the beach wall were engrossed in our fun. We could hear them ooh and ahh at incredible plays and the sound of disappointment at failed ones. Doing something I love (Frisbee) on an Australian beach as the sun set made it a whole lot sweeter. 

Unfortunately, time was not on our side and we had to leave. I wish I could've stayed and explored more, but that's for another time. We rushed our way back to the ferry, which ended up arriving 15 minutes late, but that turned out to be a blessing in disguise. When we boarded, I managed to get on the upper deck by the bow. I could smell the sea and feel the night breeze blowing through my hair. But what was truly magical was the ride back. Seeing the city of Sydney lit up at night filled me with mirth. The closer we got, the more alive I felt. This place is really beautiful.

When we had landed, it seemed like the night might be drawing to a close, but I was in for one last surprise. Dinner was to be handled by each person's hospitality as a way to spend quality time with them. Nelson's parents took us to a Brazilian BBQ. Now I've had Mongolian BBQ and Korean BBQ, but never Brazilian BBQ. Let's just say I had been missing out for too long. It was an all you can eat style meal where the servers came back and forth to your table with a different stack of meat each time on a large spear, fresh off the grill. And it wasn't the low quality kind either. That night I consumed Beef: Flank, Ribs, Rump, Tri Tip; Pork: Belly, Sausage, Chorizo, Scotch Pork; Chicken: Thigh and Wings; Lamb: Rump and Ribs, and more I quite can't recall. But it was cooked, braised, smoked, and seasoned to perfection. Remember a few posts ago where I mentioned Nelson "forgot" he was feeding Americans? Well he out-ate me that night in an impressive feat. My mouth is watering recalling that delicious excursion. I'm very afraid to see what the scale will say when I get home. 

Goodnight from the South Pacific.

Australia: Walking Life's Path and New Friends, Day 4

I decided I'm going to add a phrase for each post because it's much more colorful than just listing the days. Saturday morning began a little different then most other days. I was unsure of what time I had to wake up and apparently when I did I was 5 minutes late. So I rushed through breakfast, and our driver, Nelson's mom, was flying all over the house trying to get everyone out the door. Then we flew down the streets to get to the train station and boy what a crazy car ride that was. Once we arrived the train was docking and the trains here wait for no one. Because of this, me, Tim, and another brother ran up and down a flight of stairs to board the train on time. This was way too much physical activity before 8AM.

After a short train ride, we ended up at the Harbor Bridge. Since we were early (don't ask me how that happened), we walked onto the bridge and took a bunch of scenic pictures. The view is breathtaking. "I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams,"~Red: The Shawshank Redemption. This is the first time I've seen the Pacific and I can say Red would be pleased. As 8:30am rolled around, we headed back to the train station to meet up with the rest of the group. So what exactly were we doing this beautiful, sunny, morning? A group of saints does a 10k walk in Sydney. This isn't any normal walk, however. The terrain changes, the location changes and the scenes are stunning. We started beneath the Harbor Bridge, which took us a while to get going due to all the photos being taken. Then we followed a public trail alongside the Pacific. We passed by many exotic plants I don't see often or ever in the US. At one point we came upon a park with these massive palm trees. Ray took this as a good opportunity to take out his Frisbee. While everyone else was taking a break, a handful of us were throwing the disc. Beautiful day for it too.

We continued the journey and eventually wandered through the rich neighborhood where the houses were over a million dollars to own. It was a nice thing to see, but I was glad when we ended up on a narrow trail with the ocean on our right and the Australian Bush on our left. Our walk took us by view after view and my goodness they were breathtaking.

I was so relaxed and happy to enjoy this journey. Our travels led us to an overlook point where you could climb down the rocks onto an old lighthouse and a view that engulfed a large portion of the harbor. All the Americans and a few Aussie's climbed down the rocks to get close to the ocean. Ray went the farthest as he scaled the walkway to the edge of the lighthouse. I thought we had reached our end, but we still had a bit to go. Our trekking took us on a jungle like path where a wild bush turkey appeared. The birds here are in higher variety than what they are back home. Yes they're louder, but they're bigger and prettier. Finally after such an enjoyable walk we made it to the end where we hopped on a ferry and took it straight across the harbor. This gave us an awesome view of the Harbor Bridge, the skyline, and the Opera House. I've always enjoyed riding sea vessels and when you add in spectacular views, that takes the cake.

Lunch was had in one of Sydney's busiest shopping areas and it was Japanse Ramen. Remember how I said I'm fed well here? It gets better and better. After slurping down a massive bowl of noodles, we took public transportation back to Yu-lin's house. Even after we had walked all day, we were now going to pass out flyers. The nice thing about doing that here is that your are allowed to put them in the the mailboxes which allows you to cover more ground in a faster time. However, a good number have "No Junk Mail" stickers on them so unfortunately those were off limits. 

The last event for the day was a YP meeting and BBQ at Yu-lin's house. Now when I say BBQ, it was more than a standard BBQ that I was expecting. First there was sausage. Then came chicken. Then lamb. Yes you read that right. Then kebabs. Then prawns. Then steak. It just didn't stop. But I wasn't complaining. Before the YP meeting, some of the younger kids took a liking to us, especially Tim, Anthony, and I. They attacked us with pillows, laughed at our jokes, and basically never left us alone. During the meeting, we taught the young people some songs from Junior High Camp and Mountain Top. I'd say they liked them. Ray, Naomi, Jenny, and I each gave them a simple testimony about why we came. It was a privilege to experience a YP meeting on this side of the world and seeing the great group of kids they have here as well. That's all for day four, come back for day five because it was incredible.

Australia: Day 3

I woke up to the smell of bacon. Which is amazing as it combines with the vast amount of sleep I've been getting. It's quite wonderful. Nelson (the mate I'm staying with) who is a fly dude and one of the ones who visited the US with the other Australians nearly two years ago, quipped he felt so bad when he saw our clean plates and thought he hadn't cooked enough. "I forgot I'm feeding Americans!" he lamented. We laughed and told him between him and his mom we are well fed.

Our day began at our second college campus visit and gospel preaching trip. The campus we ended up on was USYD. My gosh it is beautiful. There is a magnificent  building that has a nice view of the skyline. I set out with Jenny from Indy. In four hours we talked to a lot of people. One thing I found that's massively different here than in Cleveland when it comes to gospel preaching is that almost everyone I talked to down here so far are very mild atheists.  Meaning they don't believe in anything but won't fight you on their non-belief. They were also willing to talk for the most part and listen to our whole gospel message before rejecting us. Thankfully our day wasn't a total bust as three of the people Jenny and I talked to prayed to receive the Lord and between the rest of our group, two more did as well. With that in mind, if nothing were to go right the rest of this week, five people being saved is worth it.

After our day of spreading the gospel ended, we took a small food tour of Sydney. Our first stop was at a small cafe where we had a piece of watermelon cake. It was a layered cake with actual slices of watermelon in it. Quite good. Next we ended up at an Asian cuisine which managed to fit the 20 or so of us that were there. Our table ordered three different types of dumplings, a beef noodle dish, and pork belly. The dumplings had soup and meat in them, the pork belly was rich and delicious, and the noodles disappeared rather quickly. Our next stop took us to a place that serves a dish similar to Canadian poutine, but in this case it wasn't slathered in gravy. It was a giant meat pie on top of french fries and slathered in cucumber/bbq/and hot sauce and it was amazing!

A few observations. Kenny Chesney has a song titled Be As You Are and in it he sings the line "I wanna go where I can lighten up the load, drive a little while on the wrong side of the road, get this laying low off to a flyin' start." Well I'm definitely in a place where they drive on the wrong side of the road and I have been in these cars as they drive. It feels absolutely weird to be sitting in the front left of the vehicle and not have a steering wheel in front of me as well as my brain going bonkers when turning left onto the left side of the road. Also their public transportation is well done here. They have a card you put money on called an Opal card. For every bus/train/ferry you must push that card against a scanner and then do it again when you get off so it knows how much to charge you. Some train rides I have taken cost less than $0.50 Australian. The trains are triple deckers and have clean, comfortable seats. Also the money here is very colorful. The paper money stops at $5. Their coinage is $0.05, $0.10, $0.20, $0.50, $1, and $2. The $0.50 coin is the biggest and more than double the size of the $2 one. Carrying a $2 coin makes me feel like it's a penny and if I lose one it's the same as losing 200 pennies. That pretty much does it for day 3. I know I'm a day behind so I'll try to catch up as I can, but right now with these full days I'm beat by the time I get back to hospitality. Time to catch some zzzzzzz's. 

Australia: Days 1 and 2

My intention is to blog every day for this trip, but I may not post every day depending on time/tiredness/rogue kangaroos...joking ( I haven't seen one yet). My journey began flying out of Cleveland to San Francisco. Longest flight I've taken in my life which was 5 hours. It didn't feel as long as it should've because I was able to watch the Indians game and then I watched Beauty and the Beast (Emma Watson version). I also managed to spill OJ on myself and my laptop...it still functions. After landing in Cali, I had an hour layover. So I met up with the rest of the group and we boarded the plane. This plane was massive. Nine seats across. On this flight they supplied small pillows, a blanket, and you could choose from a lot of digital entertainment for free. Remember how I said my previous flight was long? Well this one tripled it. Fourteen long hours. What made it worse was we were chasing darkness the whole time. I tried to sleep on the plane, but I don't sleep well (or at all) in moving vehicles. I faded in and out of consciousness for an hour only to be woken up by the staff serving dinner at 12:30am PST (3:30am EST). The lady next to me was going to ask for a meal for me, but it was past 3am my time and I wasn't hungry. I tried to fall back asleep, but I it was another battle. All told I maybe got two non-sequential hours of shut-eye. I watched two more movies on this flight.

We finally landed in Sydney a little after 6:30am August 2nd (4:30pm August 1 EST) which by this point I had been awake 26 out of 28 hours since my last full sleep and now I had a full day ahead of me in Sydney. After getting off the plane, our luggage was sent off to the meeting hall so we could explore Sydney. We stopped for breakfast near the Opera House and I had a fruit salad with actual honeycomb on it. We then made our way over to the Opera House which looked so awesome in person. The whole area looked massive because there was a giant cruise ship in the harbor and the Harbor Bridge in itself was an awesome sight. After doing a bunch of touristy things and getting our fill of the sights, we moved onward towards the gardens. We decided to take a break and a handful of us tossed a frisbee while walkers and joggers went by. One local stopped and watched us for a bit. i couldn't tell if he was wondering what we were doing or if he was intrigued by us throwing a frisbee.

We then wandered through the nearby gardens and saw a slew of trees and birds that we don't see often (or ever) in the US. One of them is a long-billed bird called the Ibis. It's a funny looking bird and apparently it's a nuisance here. I also saw seagulls with red beaks and feet and well as wild parrots. Our next stop was lunch at a Korean Karaoke place where you could rent a room with a karaoke machine so that you could sing while you ate. We just wanted food so we got a normal table though. The pork and kimchi was delicious.

The rest of the day was spent at the meeting hall for some rest, some delicious homemade ramen, and the prayer meeting with the saints. By the time I got to sleep, I had been awake for 26 hours straight and 38 out of the last 40. I slept 10 hours straight through the night that night and did I ever need it.

Day 2: This was our first full day in the gospel. We set out from the meeting hall and took public transportation to get there. Two things I noticed along our way. You almost never see an American brand of car here. I see a ton of Japanese, German, and Korean cars, as well as Australian and some French ones I never see in the US, but I maybe have seen only 5 Fords since being here and nothing else. No Chevy, no Chrysler, no Dodge, nada. Almost every pick-up truck here is a Toyota Hilux. This vehicle is not sold in the US due to America's extremely high tariff on imported light trucks. Don't get me wrong, I love Chevy trucks and their durability and would buy one before I bought a Hilux, but this truck is one of the best you can own. It'll probably out-live you. Don't believe me? Go watch the Top Gear episode where they did these things to a Hilux: Top Gear memorably took a modern Hilux to the North Pole, and later to the mouth of an active volcano. They also hit an older one with a wrecking ball, crashed it into the ocean, set it on fire, and blew it up in a building demolition. It survived." (Quote taken from https://www.cheatsheet.com/automobiles/america-classifies-the-toyota-hilux-as-an-enemy-combatant.html/?a=viewall). 

It was also very weird to sit on the left side of a car and not have a steering wheel in front of me while being on the left side of the road. They even walk on the left side of the sidewalk down here and that has caused me to almost run into a few people. After taking the bus and trains through Sydney, we eventually arrived at UNSW campus to spread the gospel. There was a Foundation Day fair going on in celebration of this being the day the university was founded. That gave us plenty of of people to talk to. We started after lunch and talked to people for four hours. Most of the people we attempted to talk to were willing to talk and listen, but at the same time, they were content with not thinking about God, life after death, and such. There were some people who were interested in what we had to say and three in particular were quite open. So that's a start. As a group we managed to get 16 contact cards which was one more than our goal.

For dinner, we went to a place on campus called The White House. No it doesn't look anything like where the president of the US lives, but they do have a pizza called The Wall and in the description it explains that it is based on the 45th president of the US. It wasn't the best tasting, but it was indeed creative. One person that was met on campus did join us which was encouraging. I also learned that you don't have to tip here, especially since the minimum wage is over $17 Australian. 

So that wraps up days 1 and 2 and they have been awesome. Oh and for you Pokemon Go players, I did catch a Kangaskhan...two as a matter of fact. Until next time.