We're Here

We are finally in Newcastle and settled. It has been a good trip so
far, but very busy and tiring.

We spent a couple days in L.A. for briefing. It felt somewhat like
like a retreat, digging into the Word and bonding with my team. We
have two leaders - Joe and Tammy. The rest of our team consists of 3
guys and 8 ladies. The first night together was awesome; there was no
scheduled team bonding activities but we did a good job just hanging
out and talking. I learned names very quickly. We have a good mix of
personalities and we laugh a lot. It is wonderful. We also spent some
time seeing L.A. While out, Matt, Dyar, Jillian, and I had gone down
to the beach to take some sunset pictures. God brought a few
Christians into our path. Somehow we ended up talking and before we
parted they prayed for us. It was a sweet divine appointment. They're
names are Luke, Jennika, and Danielle.

The international flight was ok. It was about 14 hours. The plane
wasn't as nice as last year, but the timing was great. We left San
Fran at night and arrived in Sydney in the early morning, so if we
slept most of the flight our body clocks would be pretty well adjusted.

We spent a couple days in Sydney as well, doing the tourist thing.
Some may know that it is/was World Youth Day. Because of that there
were tons of people, internationals, in the city. The majority of them
are Catholic, so the presence of people on fire for God was just
overwhelming. We crossed the bridge and it was so quiet and peaceful.
It was a good break from the multitudes. One lowlight is that
Jester's, an amazing pie place, closed down and isn't there anymore. A
highlight is that Pancakes on the Rocks was still open, so we had
amazing pancakes for dinner. We went to the zoo, which was nice.

So we finally made it to Newcastle and settled in. We walked around to
see the sights one day and the second full day we went to campus for a
tour. I'm on the first dinner team so we have been busy shopping and
cooking. Everyone has loved the food and Tim Tams have become our
staple dessert.

I can't wait to finally get to work on the whole reason we are here. I
feel I often get slightly side-tracked and just don't think about our
mission. But I pray for God to continually burden my heart and I'm
sure once we start praying, studying God's word, and going to campus
things will change.