Mitsubishi Lancer

Here it is!!!! We would like to introduce the Aussie Mitsubishi Lancer that God put into our hands last week. She is a good little car and she already has a few stories to tell about her Alaskan drivers. Before I tell the story I need to insert some information about Australia roads and cars. They drive wrong! Well, actually I think america might be the rebel as far as this goes but here they do drive on the left side of the road and on the wrong side of the car. Fortunately the gas pedel and the brake pedel are still the same. I am still scared to drive though. It's going to be a slower process for me than for David I think. With that back to the story.
It was a lovely sunny day only two days after we bought Mistubishi and we went to bug some friends around noon. As we arrived we heard the noise of college kids planning a beach trip and descided it sounded like fun. Interesting thing about being around college students without cars is that you soon become the taxi cab and friendly transport system. Why not? So we got in the car and headed out for Bondi beach on the other side of Sydney. We didn't have a map but we were following a friend so we swallowed a little nervousness and headed out. David did great and we got to the beach after about 45min of weaving through the crazy road system of Sydney (there is no ryme or reason to their roads). The beach was beautiful but a little chilly considering that it is still winter here. Chilly here is around 70 to 75 degrees F. Then the fun began...We didn't get back into the car until around 4:30 and spent the next 40 min. trying to find some girls that had walked up the street to go shopping. That was fun! Then we tried to head home. The problem was that the girl leading out got lost and by the time we got back on track we were driving right through rush hour traffic in downtown Sydney. It was beautiful as far as the city goes but hold on to you seat as far as driving goes. People here are crazy! ! ! Once again David did great though and we made it though down town, over the Harbor Bridge, past the opera house, and on to our peaceful and very welcoming quite home. It was crazy though and I think God's grace that got us all the way home following a 19 year old college girl with her car full of stduents. We did actually get footage of the whole event though so perhaps we'll be able to show it to some of you reading some day and laugh with you.
Life is interesting isn't it. There is much else to tell but it's late here and time to sleep. Love you all!

Wednesday, 31st, 2006

David started school yesterday. Well, at least orientation was yesterday and he got his class schedule and the low down on how school will work here. He also had a culture shock class where they explained that Australians use a few "off limits" american words very freely here and other american words we use often are considered horrible (off limits)...good to know:) Anyway, it was a good day and he is very excited about school. They had more orientation classes today and will have one tomorrow too. School classes will start next week. I'm glad it's really underway now and that we will be able to get on a schedule.
So, that is what is going on now but let me tell you a little more about our first three weeks in Australia. As I said before the first week we were here we were homeless and living with other people. It was great! We were walking to the school every day more than once though and that was alot of work. It was fun but unfortunatley my feet were not very cooperative and it was a little to much for me. I think the walk is between 3 and 4 miles (that was a little father than we understood it would be from the information packets we got from Hillsong). Anyway, David and I decided for my sake that it might be a good idea to look at cars and see if we could get a good deal. We did!!!!!! It's just a little car to get us to and from school and work but it's kind of cute. I'll put a picture of it on my next entry. It worked out to be about 1,500 american dollars and it will do the trick. I will be able to go to church as many times a day as I need to without dredding the walks to and from. I love to walk and I love the exercize but God hasn't descided to heal my feet yet so...He's got a better plan!
God is good and His love endures forever! Please keep us in your prayers.

August 26th, 2006

More exciting fun! Hillsong Church put on it's annual Exo Day for teens at the Acer Arena (Superdome) and it was incredible. Teens from all over Sydney and the surrounding area came for a day of entertainment put on by the church and we got to be a part of it. We sold tickets! We watched thousands of kids going into the arena all day long. We found out the next day that there was around 11,000 kids there. Inside the arena and outside in a fenced area they had 15 live music stages going, a skatepark, carnival rides, art areas, BMX, motorcross, wakeboarding, concessions, dance teams...it was amazing. I think they were reaching out to everykind of kid out there. At the end of the day they finished with a Hillsong United concert and the father of Rachael Scott, who was one of the victims of the Columbine High School shooting, spoke to the kids. That night 1,300 kids gave their lives to Christ!!!Incredible!!!! It was a blast to be a part of and man, God has blessed this church with resources.

Friday 25th, 2006

Hi! We are now in the land down under. We arrived two weeks ago and you can see the first house we lived in on the left. We were happily house hopping here in Australia for the first week while Hillsong college tried to find a place to put us. During that time we lived with a bunch of awesome girls and were blessed with information we definately were in need of when we were put into our own home last Thursday. Our house was great but there were no appliances; no fridge, no washingmachine, no dryer... and no furniture or kitchen stuff... Thanks to our week of living with others we had an easy time getting ahold of rental agencies and the like to get the house neccesities over to our place and in order. We're still looking for all our furniture but have a bed and we can actually cook!!!!!With plates and all to put food on!!!!!!Insert smile here! God even sent us an awesome lady on one of our bus trips to the shopping center who offered us knives, plates, cups, and lots of other kitchen stuff. After talking to her on the bus she even came by our house the next day with her family and dropped everything off. It was an awesome blessing.

Here's a cute picture from back in Alaska