It’s been a very last minute thing – made possible because God worked a miracle through some amazing people getting me a new MacBook Pro (thanks again!), and also having credit card lol – picked up my tickets on Thursday! It’s going to be an awesome trip, totally looking forward to it…it’s going to be busy too: GYC, photo shoot for next years GYC branding and brainstorming for marketing, Weimartians @ GYC (reunion with people from Weimar College), shooting a friends wedding, 400 odd mile road trip up to Grants Pass, then down to Mount Shasta for Christmas with some really cool friends (it’ll be a white Christmas – just checked the weather, -12C to -2C and snowing!), then a week when I don’t know what we’re going to do! I say we because one of my best buddies Kerrod is joining me in Sydney for the trip – we’re going to have a blast…the USA isn’t going to know what hit it.

So yeah, it’s going to be heaps fun! And I’d better get packed ASAP or I will be saying j’ai manqué mon vol!

With my mother in Yosemite National Park

The biggest blessing was having my mother over from Australia for three months! She’s one of my best (if not the best at the moment) friends – we are really close which is great, but it’s made it harder being in two different countries. So it was such a blessing to have her come over here to Weimar and volunteer for almost three months. She worked with Paula, Heather and myself in educational marketing here at Weimar which was great – her desk was right beside mine! She stayed in the girls dorm and by the time she left most of the girls had adopted her – in fact, I’d often feel a little left out because of all the time she’d spend with the girls lol, but that’s OK as I was busy often too. We had some great experiences together, from a weekend backpacking trip up into the Sierra Nevada mountains (with it snowing on us – great fun!), to a trip to Yosemite National Park with the whole college, to always having someone to talk to about the day at meal time. I am so thankful for God bringing here over here as it was such a blessing to me and others!

Then out of the blue a week or so before my mother was scheduled to fly home my dad decided to come over and see the two of us together – which was a total surprise, and a shock in many ways. So my dad few in at midnight on Sunday and flew out again on Friday morning at 6am – that’s what I call a rushed visit! All up it was positive, and prayers are being answered…my parents have been going through some difficult times in their marriage, but by God’s power things seem to be getting a little better. I’m only able to keep on praying and hoping for the best.

WYC08 poster

Work has been very busy. There are a few things going on that I can’t go into detail about yet, but I’m really, really excited about!! Really! I believe that Weimar College’s best days are yet ahead, and it’s exciting being a part of it! There’s also been work for Western Youth Conference (WYC) and a new project that GYC are starting called Army of Youth.

Army of Youth ad for GYC07 booklet

College has been good this quarter, I took 17 credits (took 12 last quarter) and all the classes have been good – I’ve taken Christian Spirituality, Christian Beliefs, Christian Marriage and Family, College English, Outreach, and Personal Physical Fitness this quarter. Challenging in many areas (one of my midterm tests I spent two days memorizing for!), it’s fun pushing my mind and seeing it grow. And now I’m in the middle of finials and am looking forward to the end of it and getting some sleep! This last week I’ve been lucky if I’ve gotten more than 4 hours sleep a night on average…there’s just so much going on! When I reflect on what life was like back home it’s quite a contrast – and in many ways I’m too busy, I’m noticing my health running down a little which I’m not happy about, but anyway, with some rest, nutrition and exercise I’ll bounce back.

Our group of 11 people were from all over the West Coast of the US – and we had a great time (thanks for making a Aussie feel welcome guys!). Below are just a few photos from the trip – I’ll upload a gallery of the photos when I get time.

Weighing our packs before the hike begins – mine weighed in at 21kg and three days later on our return it weighed 15kg!

Starting to climb – it was a total of 17km from the trail head to the summit (34km round trip)

Looking up to the summit from base camp – we camped here for one night before climbing to get used to the altitude (and also on the way back down)

I’m on top of the US!

Our group on the top

Here I am signing the guest book on the top – I was the only Australian in the guest book for over six months!

Our group at the end of the hike – we’re all exhausted, but elated to have made it there and back!

The flight over from Sydney was long – 14 hours. After the first hour it was uninteresting – and the joys of flying United economy (it was ok, but the seats are a bit cramped). Needless to say, I didn’t get all that much sleep and am fairly tired…really looking forward to bed tonight!

Well I’ve got to race as my flight is about to board!

To make a long story shorter, I’m going to Weimar College in California, USA – and I’m going tomorrow! Ok, the cat’s out of the bag now! It?s going to be great – except for being away from family and friends for four years. This last week has been hard saying goodbye to the people that are dear to me – but it’s not permanent, I’m coming back to Australia whenever I can!

I’ll be posting things to let everyone know how things are going…

Genoa River – this part of the river goes into a smallish gorge

My mother and Charm on the rocks – Found out later that it was national park
not state forest and we shouldn’t have had her with us (so don’t tell )

Me sticking my head up

Looking down on the river from half way up the gorge walls

The first week

Monday the 28th of August (my birthday) we flew out of Brisbane to Port Vila – it was fun to be flying after 6 years, especially when for about 7 years we were flying every two months or so! Arriving in Vanuatu was different, though it was great to be back in the islands! We arrived Monday afternoon, so didn’t do a whole lot that day apart from drop our gear off at the mission compound, talk to some of the people we were going to be working with and have a walk into town. Tuesday was a full day, here’s my diary entry from that day: “Woke up at 5:30 after a hot and humid night. We had pawpaw, coconut, bananas, toast and baked beans – it was nice to have fresh pawpaw and coconut! After breakfast we went for worship at the mission office and dad told a little about who we were. It’s amazing how many people who are working in the church now are old friends from PAU! We’ve caught up with a lot of them today – though I was only 3 to 6 years old when I knew them, so I don’t remember a lot!

After staff worship we went out to Freshwind – a church about 15 minutes drive from the mission. Dad and I were in the back of the 4WD ute – which was great fun – and it started to rain. We had to go through these muddy tracks to get to this church that was holding a VBS (Vacation Bible School) for about 200 kids. We did a few songs for them and then caught a bus back to the mission as Douw had dropped us off and taken someone who was running programs on abuse prevention to where he was going. We had to walk for about 1km through this muddy road – it was really a mess!

When we got back we went down to town to get some money changed and to see another of my dad’s students from PAU who works at the bank. Afterwards we went to the markets – as well as fresh food, which there’s a lot of – there’s also a large area of tables with people who make food and sell it. We had a large lunch for 250 vatu each (about $3), it was an experience! Lunch was a green coconut drink, fish (which we don’t normally have!), rice, veggies and a bit of salad. All up it cost us about 850 vatu for the three of us for lunch – $10 Australian dollars, which is really cheap!

The next few days where really busy. We did a lot of singing and went out to this program that was being run right out in the bush. Wednesday we helped move around 2 tons of books from under a house to a storage shed – a good workout! On Sabbath we ran a 3.5 hour program for the main church – singing and talking – God blessed and we had a good time. During the week they’d found out that I was a designer and asked me if I’d help them get a newsletter going, and also work on ID cards for the staff and pastors (which including taking photos). So I’d started working on a design for a newsletter.

Week two (in some ways the best week)

This week there was ministers training with all the pastors from the 83 islands of Vanuatu. They only have this every three years, so it was a big thing for them! We where asked to sing to them at the main meeting in the evening – it was good for my dad to give them a vision how his music can be used in worship. I also took photos of all the pastors and staff for the ID cards – I was glad that I’d put my tripod in!

Our friends the Rykers and Kleinke’s arrived on Monday and we went out to the airport to meet them. They’d come to run a 15 night Bible outreach in Port Vila – the main city. We took them to where they were staying – a guest house in a village, it was a bit of a shock to some of them I think! Not your typical place to stay, but it certainly was an experience that I think they’ll remember for a while!

Wednesday I had an interesting experience – one I could’ve done without! We lived in PNG for a while in the 90’s – my parents were missionaries – and security was always an issue. I’ve had a knife to my throat and spear to my chest in a hold-up when my mother and I were coming out of a supermarket – God protected me and I wasn’t hurt, but they took my mothers purse – anyway that’s another story! That’s just background on PNG, which is a dangerous place now. Vanuatu is a whole different country, everyone is friendly, well almost everyone. Here’s what happened as I wrote it in my diary, “I finished working on the newsletter and realised (as I had all afternoon) that I hadn’t had anything to eat! My parents were out, so I went down to the markets to get something to eat and also to go and change some $AUD into Vatu. I got a coconut and some laplap to eat and thought I’d go and eat by the water – it looked nice and it was out in the open. So I went and stepped over the chain that’s on the edge of the water, and sat on the edge of the sea wall. It was nice and peaceful with the sun shining and the water lapping on the wall. I’d only started to eat when I felt someone close by me and out of the corner of my eye I saw two men coming close to me. One came over to my right and stepped over the chain and starter talking to me – straight away I was thinking something was going on – the other man went to my left and was about to step over the chain. The guy on my right was trying to talk to me, but my interest was with the man on my left who had a bag in his hand. I turned to him and said halo, which caught him off guard. I then started to wrap up my food and get up, they realised that I knew what they were up to and stated to say it’s alright friend, but I told them to go. I then walked away as quickly as possible without running! I was praying the whole time and asking for God to protect me, but when I got away from them I my heart started pounding and I was feeling faint. It gave me a flash-back to when I was held up at knife and spear point in PNG – not an experience I ever want to repeat! Thank you Lord for protecting me!”

Thursday was the highlight of the week for me (and maybe the highlight of the trip!). We (my parents and myself) along with Rykers and Kleinke’s hired a bus to take us around the island of Efate (the main island) – 140km of really rough roads but it was so much fun! It was great spending time with everyone as they’re all kinda like family! Here’s a quote from my diary, “There were so many experiences today; stopping at the church, all the beaches, meeting village people, lunch and snorkelling with all the fish, riding on the roof with Joshua, siting with Joshua, Mikhaela, Riva and Sarah at the back of the bus, playing the game of soccer at one of the villages, the singing in the bus, at the markets, plus lots more. One of the villages we stopped at the people had just lost a family member, and we were able to talk to them about the hope of the Christian and I prayed for them – it was good being able to bless others. And at another village some young guys were about to start a game of soccer (which seems to be the national game), so we stopped and plied out of the bus and joined in! It was quite an experience! For the last hour in the bus we sang songs – choruses, hymns and Bible verses, it was great fun! And isn’t praising God fun? I reckon it is!

Friday lunchtime we ran a program singing and preaching in the markets for an hour and a half – the markets are the centre of Port Vila, with hundreds of people there selling their produce, and lunchtime is the busiest time of day. It was my first time preaching in a market, but I really enjoyed it! Most of the people in Vanuatu are Christians, and it’s great not feeling any pressure when you talk about God! We were also promoting the Final Events of Bible Prophecy program that was starting that night. After the program we had people who were selling produce at the markets give us food – pawpaws, tomatoes, bananas, peanuts, coconuts – saying how much they’d been blessed by what we’d done – it was moving to see how much they love Jesus and also their kindness to us. We might have run the program, but I came away blessed!

The meetings started that evening with over 300 people. We – my dad, mother, Riva, Sarah, Mikhaela, Joshua and I – sang before the meeting, teaching the people some new songs. There was also a few singing groups that sang items. Tony spoke on how the Bible is still trustworthy and it has accurately predicted the future. These program ran from tonight for 15 nights straight.

Sabbath we worshipped at the main church in Vila, had a bung lunch with the pastors and in the afternoon we sang our last song for them – it’d been great working with them during the week! Seeing people so dedicated to sharing Jesus love with people, and doing it on very low wage was inspiring – they’re a very dedicated group of men (oh there was one woman Bible worker there too)!

The last week

Sunday we went out to Mele Island with Rykers and Kleinke’s and had a snorkel – the fish were everywhere and so many colours! Mele Island (also called Hideaway Island) has the worlds only underwater post office – you can get special waterproof postcards and give them to a diver who’s in the post office – kinda crazy, but cool at the same time!

My dad flew out on Monday back to Australia for a few days then up to PNG for a few weeks with his ministry work. My mother and I were staying for another week.

For the first part of the week it was raining most of the time – and the meetings were being run on a stage in a sports field. Despite the rain we still had over 200 people coming – Satan wasn’t happy, but God is stronger!

Wednesday I managed to get really sick, still not sure what is was, but it came on fast. Started with a pain in my stomach then I got a really high temperature with shivering and started to talk gibberish. My mother was so good in her care for me, using natural treatments and a days rest I was feeling almost better! Praise God!

The weather cleared up (well, it stopped raining) for the last few days of the week. And I was feeling well enough to go to the programs on Friday night – it was great to be back at them.

Sabbath my mother went to the mission church, and I went with Rykers to Etaow Seventh-day Adventist Church. I had my Bislama skills pushed with trying to interpret the sermon for Joshua and Mikhaela (though I think they were able to understand “small small, em tasol!”). It was a great sermon on trusting God with everything – the amazing thing is that I’d been going through some issues with my trust of God’s leading right before the sermon began, and it was almost as if the message was for me! I’m constantly amazed at God’s sovereignty and at the same time His individual care for me!

The last two days went too fast! On Sunday we spent most of the day with Rykers and Kleinkes. We walked into town and had a look around the town, then went and played a game of soccer in the park by the water – almost as soon as we’d started, some newspaper boys came running up and asked if they could play (and they sure can play soccer!). After the game of soccer we got some kumala (sweet potato) chips and went out to Erikor (sp?) island. After eating we had a look around the island – there’s a resort on the island, but also a open air church and the graves of a missionary wife and children. Looking at the tombstones I couldn’t help thinking of the sacrifice that the early missionaries gave to share the news of salvation through Jesus Christ – and I wondered if I’d be willing to go to the same length and risk to share the knowledge that I so often take for granted.

That evening was the last night we were at the program – it was sad, but at the same time really exciting to see people responding to the truth of God’s word. After this night the campaign had only five more nights – and at the end over 60 people made a decision to be baptised!

Monday the 18th of September, one day I wasn’t looking forward to! We went up for staff worship at the mission and said good-bye to everyone. After getting the bags packed we went down to the markets and caught up with Chris, Joshua, Paula, Maliza, Sarah, Riva and Mikhaela (Tony was getting ready for the meeting that night). We got a green coconut each and had a picnic lunch together. Then it was time to say good-bye and go catch the plane – when we got to the airport there were three of the pastors that we’d gotten close to. It was really touching to have them come and say good-bye, their service and dedication to spreading the gospel was a real inspiration to me!

And then my mother and I caught the plane back to Brisbane, Australia and drove 1700 km’s home! Then after a few days we drove another 1700 km’s back up to Brisbane for the family camp at Numinbah – but that’s another story…

Here we are before heading out on the ride. Left to right: me, Joshua and my dad

The pines are about 35-40km from where we live, and are a pine forest plantation of – I’m guessing – 50,000+ hectares. There’s a river with a large waterfall and swimming hole going through it too, so in summer it’s great fun swimming there (though I have swum there in winter, but that’s another story). We go riding on the logging tracks – which are great as they have water bars (or rollovers) that we get a bit of air on going over on the bikes. This time we did a 7km ride that started with a really steep climb for 1km then dropped down through a tunnel of dense pine trees, followed by a few km’s of easy riding (well almost easy ) then another down hill run with lots of ruts. We then came out to the main road where we left my dad (he had a walk with my mother who also came along), after riding down the road for a few hundred meters, we went down track 300, a great track that’s mostly downhill, and has lots of water bars! At the end of that track is the waterfall where we were meeting my parents (they were driving in from another track). While waiting for them to turn up we were riding around on the large expanse of rocks that are in the river – lots of rock slabs to drop off of! I had a bit of a crash here too – was going over a ledge, and miss-judged my peddle stroke, next thing I found my self going over the handlebars! Wasn’t really hurt (praise God!), just a bit sore – though it gave Joshua a laugh, as normally he’s the one who crashes…

By this time it was starting to get dark and cold, and my parents hadn’t turned up yet. So Joshua and I had the bright idea of lighting a fire. I had a flint/magnesium stick in my camelbak, so we tried to build a fire – if you’ve ever used a flint stick to light a fire in the cold you’ll know what I mean by “try,” and if you haven’t, you should try it! On the 4th attempt – on the third attempt my parents turned up – we had a fire going! Now we could relax around a warm fire while we ate – nice!

Long exposure of us sitting around the fire singing.

After eating we sang a few songs and praised God for the amazing beauty that was all around us – Psalm 148 sums it up really well: “Praise ye the LORD. Praise ye the LORD from the heavens: praise him in the heights. Praise ye him, all his angels: praise ye him, all his hosts. Praise ye him, sun and moon: praise him, all ye stars of light. Praise him, ye heavens of heavens, and ye waters that be above the heavens. Let them praise the name of the LORD: for he commanded, and they were created. He hath also established them for ever and ever: he hath made a decree which shall not pass. Praise the LORD from the earth, ye dragons, and all deeps: Fire, and hail; snow, and vapour; stormy wind fulfilling his word: Mountains, and all hills; fruitful trees, and all cedars: Beasts, and all cattle; creeping things, and flying fowl: Kings of the earth, and all people; princes, and all judges of the earth: Both young men, and maidens; old men, and children: Let them praise the name of the LORD: for his name alone is excellent; his glory is above the earth and heaven. He also exalteth the horn of his people, the praise of all his saints; even of the children of Israel, a people near unto him. Praise ye the LORD.”

All up it was lots of fun! Joshua and I had a really good time – he’s a great friend! And it was good to have my parents company too!

After coming through a rough section Joshua’s rear derailer’s guide wheel came off – we spent a while looking for it, but the parts of the guide wheel are small so we didn’t have much chance of finding them, plus it was getting dark. So, what do you do when things like this happen? Well, you ask your best friend to help! And that’s what we did, we had a prayer and started looking again and within five minutes we’d found all the parts and were on our way again – praise the Lord!

Only problem was that it was now dark and we still had 5-km to go – well, that’s no problem when you have a head-torch in your Camelbak lol. It was fun riding in the dark, though a bit challenging as we were on a rough track, which ends in a right-of-way going through a farm. It’s fine when it’s dry but we’ve had a whole lot of rain this winter, and the ground was a bog, mud was spraying up all over us as we came flying down the hill. At the bottom of the hill is a small creek which had risen from the rain, and we came down the hill and straight into the creek – wet shoes and pants! After that it was just a relaxed 2-km ride on a dirt road to Joshua’s place. It was great to have a decent ride, as I haven’t had one since summer!