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.
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment