The Florida Keys

When we started planning this trip 10 years ago we let our imaginations run wild and thought up all the places in the world we’d like to see. One of Michael’s desires was to go down to the Florida Keys and drive on the 7 mile bridge where the bridge goes to the horizon and beyond. Today, we did that.

The Keys are a chain of coral islands which are off the end of Florida. They have been connected with bridges all the way to Key West (which is closer to Cuba than mainland USA!) We drove down about 2/3 of the way, through Key Largo and Islamonda and dozens of tiny Keys and over lots of bridges. Often the water was on both sides of the road, only a few metres from the edge of the road, the Gulf of Mexico on one side and the Atlantic Ocean on the other. After lunch at a park by the ocean at Key Largo and a few hours driving, we came to our bridge.

As far as the eye could see, it was bridge. It went for ages. A truly amazing thing, and we’re so thankful we were able to do it.

Tonight we’re camped just south of the bridge in an RV park on Long Pine Key. Our 30 ft RV is dwarfed by the other vans here. Most people have their van, also a sports car, a jetski, a full outdoor furniture setting, a golf cart and a boat. Not us! We have lines full of wet swimmers outside our van and not much else. But, we reckon we’re some of the most content people here – we paddled in the crystal clear, blue Gulf of Mexico today, we finally drove over our bridge, and we are so thankful to God who has made all we are seeing.

Karen

History in the Making

I couldn’t believe my ears … “We are green for launch” closely followed by “T minus 4minutes and counting” and everyone around us began to cheer. We heard these words through a man’s handheld shortwave radio that he had obviously managed to tune to the flight control communications of nearby Cape Canaveral. We were standing on the East Side of Kelly Park, Merrit Island just south of Cape Canaveral with about 2000 others (on the beach, in the park, on the roadway and up every possible roadside embankment) all were there to see the final launch of Space Shuttle Discovery.

I remembered being a little boy watching Discovery’s first mission and then spending hours making a plastic scale model of it mounted onto the back of a 747 and now I was about to see it, hear it and feel it from only a few kilometres away ... and then it happened, “we have lift off!” Everyone craned their necks to see it shooting up into the sky, and man did it move quickly. It took about 5 seconds after clearing the tower to come into view for us. We watched it curving up and away to the east and then waited till it shed the two booster rockets and was just a tiny spec of light like a star far above us.

And then came the noise and the vibration, unbelievable! It took almost a minute to reach us but we could clearly hear it and feel it through the ground and through the air – a bit like the rumble of a 747 taking off if you are very close by. Apparently upon re-entry, the locals tell us there is a sonic boom they hear right across the state, which scares everyone silly till they know what it is. An amazing thing to witness and be there for – what a privilege.

Michael

CHAW Dude!

There’s nothing quite so bizarre as having a conversation with an animated turtle.

We were at Epcot for our last day of Disney and went into the “Turtle Talk with Crush” show. For the uninitiated, Crush is a 150 year old sea turtle featured in the Disney film Finding Nemo. Crush swims on a massive screen in front of the audience and he picks kids out of the audience to speak with. He then directs an attendant with a roving microphone who to go to (describing their clothing). That child he either speaks to or gives them a chance to ask a question - which he answers in very funny ways.

Along with some kids who had questions, in this show Crush decided to talk to Aidan and then wanted to meet Aidan’s “parental units” all the way from Australia. Crush asked me how many kids we had and on hearing the answer he said, “Woah, the human race should have no fear of extinction with you around, dude!” … much to Karen’s embarrassment and the audience’s hilarity.

Michael

We've seen this kind of interactive show a couple of times now and each time it is amazing.

An idea for Shellharbour City Anglican?

I was just in the amenities block at this RV park and saw this photocopied sheet on the wall -



Can’t believe we missed it! Although I would feel a bit bad eating Flipper.

Karen

On the road again...

We picked up our RV yesterday, and hit the open road after 2 weeks in Orlando. We went east, out to the coast where we saw the space shuttle launch (see Mike’s separate post!) and had dinner with our friends Kelly, Jeff and Wyatt. We even enjoyed pumpkin pie for dessert!
After dinner we decided to make some headway into our trip south so bundled the boys into the RV and set off into the dark. The shuttle had launched 3 hours before yet there was still gridlock – amazing that so many people had come out to watch it. We did some tricky back street driving (especially tricky in a 30 ft vehicle) and avoided much of the traffic.
After nearly 2 hours of driving we were all exhausted so pulled into an all night rest stop to spend our first night in the van. The truck rest stops are patrolled by armed security guards so we felt pretty safe (although the boys were scared of being shot if they went to the toilet in the night!) Not a great night’s sleep – besides a cranky Aidan with temps of 39.2 degrees, we had huge trucks coming and going all night. So an early morning and off we went, on the road again…
Karen

The next few days

Well, sadly (or maybe not?!) this run of frequent posting has come to an end. We have been in a condo in Kissimmee for the past week with wifi which has been great.

Today we pick up our RV and start that part of our trip. We'll head to Cape Canaveral to see the space shuttle launch today and then go south to the Everglades and Florida Keys, then back north, ending up in South Carolina by March 5th to see a Civil War reenactment.

Ethan has been sick for the past 4 days with high temps and coughing - now it's Aidan's turn. He has woken this morning with temps of 39+ and a cough. So the plans may well be modified again! Please pray for our fellas, it's miserable to be sick and especially when you're not at home with ABC kids and your own bed!

Thanks,Karen

Caption Competition

The best caption wins!

For those who don't know this woman in pink, this is none other than Sleeping Beauty herself - Aurora. But what was she doing/saying when we caught her in this pose?

Michael

Luke’s recount of Universal Studios

Ethan, Aidan, Max and Luke in front of Hogwarts

Today we had breakfast early, and went to Universal Studios as soon as we could to beat the crowds. We got there and immediately set off for Harry Potter World.

We walked through the Hogsmeade gates, and walked down the street, looking at all the shops like Zonko’s joke shop, Ollivander’s wand shop, the 3 Broomsticks, Hog’s Head and Honeydukes, the lolly shop. All these buildings were open and you were able to look in them. All the roofs of the buildings had fake snow on them, which looked even more fake today because it was like 30 degrees. The ground we were walking on was all cobblestones, and everything looked like it had come straight out of the movies. At the far end of Hogsmeade was Hogwarts, looming right in front of us. As we went straight towards it, we saw that it had all of the towering turrets, so it looked like the real one. Hogwarts was where Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey (a ride) were, so we went straight to the ride.

A huge line was already starting to form so we got there as soon as we could. The line took us through the dungeons, where we saw the Mirror of Erised. The line then took us out to the Herbology greenhouse, and then into the castle itself. In Dumbledore’s office all of the portrait were moving around and talking to each other, and a very realistic 3-D hologram of Dumbledore himself talked to us, and said that we would take a tour of the school. In the defense against the Dark Arts classroom however, Harry, Ron and Hermione came out from underneath the invisibility cloak, and said they would take you on a proper tour of Hogwarts. After going through the Gryffindor common room, you are taken into the Room of Requirement where finally, you board the ride.

You get strapped into a chair with 3 other people next to you, and thanks to Hermione’s genius we were whisked away over the Hogwarts grounds. Shortly Harry and Ron were zooming along next to you on their broomsticks; doing dare devil stunts and dives. Our tour was all going fine until Hagrid revealed that a dragon was on the loose, and from then on the entire ‘tour’ went a bit pear-shaped. The huge dragon flew in and started attacking us, and following Harry and Ron we dived and dodged, trying to get away from it. After a chase scene and the dragon blowing hot, red steam in your face, (very unpleasant) we were in the forbidden forest, Aragog and his spider friends were jumping out trying to get you. After a couple close calls, we got onto the Quidditch pitch, where a match between Gryffindor and Slytherin was taking place. We followed Harry racing after the snitch, doing breathtaking moves to get it. Just when you thought that everything was going to be okay though, dementors attacked. We were taken by them and were about to be caught when Harry swooped in and saved the day. The final part on that ride was when we soared through the main hall doors and landed, and all the characters were there, from Harry to Neville to Fred and George Weasley and even Dumbledore, applauding your efforts on your adventure. The ride was then finished, and Max and I rode it again. Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey is the most technologically advanced ride in the world, and after that I believe that every bit. We then exited Hogwarts and went back into Hogsmeade, to do stuff there.

We went into Ollivander’s where Max was chosen for a wand to be picked for him, and the way the wand chose him was amazing. After that spectacular show went into Ollivander’s store, where you could buy wands. Max and Ethan both bought wands while Aidan, Mum, Dad and I looked around the store. After exiting Ollivander’s Max and I decided to face the dragons from the Triwizard Tournament, on a ride called Dragon Challenge. There were 2 coasters, the Hungarian Horntail and the Chinese Fireball. We chose to do the Chinese Fireball, because the line was heaps shorter. We got strapped in at the very front, and we shot off. The 2 dragons were set off at the same time, but luckily they were on 2 different tracks. The 2 tracks intertwined though, so at some points the 2 dragons were only 1m apart. The ride was crazy, and the Fireball did about 4 barrel roles, 10 crazy swerves and one humongous loop the loop, right next to the other dragon doing the same thing. It was absolutely awesome!!!! The dizzying ride eventually stopped, and we hopped off.

Back at Hogsmeade we then tried Butterbeer which was delicious, and Pumpkin juice, which wasn’t so nice. Then Kelly arrived, and she had brought us all fastpasses for the whole day, which was very nice of her. She then told us that she was a big fan of the Dragon Challenge, so using the fastpasses she had given us Max, Kelly, I and a very reluctant Dad went on it again, this time going on the Hungarian Horntail. The Horntail was so much more wild and awesome, and it became my favourite roller coaster on the trip so far. After we finished that, it was time to leave Harry Potter World. We had a last minute look inside all the shops, (I bought a keychain) and we sadly left, wishing that we could have stayed forever.

After leaving Harry Potter land we rhymed our way through all the rides in Dr Seuss land, and swung through the city on a Spiderman ride. Then, to finish it all off, we went on a Popeye river rapids ride, and we got absolutely drenched with water. After a soaking wet finish, we went back home, said goodbye to Kelly, had dinner and went to bed.

Max at Ollivander's Wand Shop

Walt Disney World part 4

Although we had done heaps of reading and planning for the WDW section of our trip, not to mention a lifetime of Disney brain washing (join with me... 'M-I-C -see you real soon - K-E-Y - why? because we love you!-M-O-U-S-E'), there were some surprising and delightful highlights.

Some of these -

the Kilimanjaro Safari at Animal Kingdom- where you get in a jeep and tour the re-created plains of Africa. Despite the somewhat corny subplot about chasing poachers, we were very close to many amazing animals.

Also at Animal Kingdom, Ethan was chosen from the audience during a bird show to go to the front and have an addition competition against a macaw. Needless to say, the bird won!

At Hollywood Studios, we went to a talk and presentation by a Disney animator and then to a drawing class with another Disney animator. We all drew the chameleon from 'Tangled', with varying degrees of success!

Max and Ethan went to Jedi training school at Hollywood Studios (the age range to participate was 5-12, much to Aidan and Luke's disappointment!) They joined 10 other Jedi padawans on stage and learned some lightsabre moves, then Darth Vader appeared and they had to battle him. The photo is of Ethan and Darth fighting, with the Jedi masters in the background.

At the start of each of our days at Magic Kingdom, we were there before the park opened and saw a 'welcome' show where there were singers and dancers and then Mickey and other characters arrived on the steam train and declared the park open. As we then walked in all the employees from Main Street were out on the sidewalk waving and welcoming us as we walked up towards the castle.

And each day as we arrived back from our outings, 'mousekeeping' (the Disney version of housekeeping) had been. Not only was the kitchen and bathroom clean and the beds made but the towels were folded into the shapes of Disney characters and the kids' stuffed toys were doing funny things. The classic was when we arrived home to find the tv on and the toys with the remote, all lined up and watching!
And of course we loved all the things we expected to love - rides, stunt shows, characters, gardens and scenery. All in all, a magical time!

Karen

Walt Disney World part 3

One of the fun things about Walt Disney World was trying some of the food. There is food for sale everywhere, and we sampled the usual popcorn (good), coffee (not so good), hot dogs (with chili and hot cheese), nachos, and of course burgers (yum!)

Some of the more unusual things we ate there...

- dole whip - this is pineapple flavoured soft serve. My sister in law Linda recommended this one and she was right, it was awesome! On our second day at Magic Kingdom it was very hot so I had a pineapple dole whip float (above). A new favourite!

- while I was drinking the above mentioned float, the boys were drinking/eating soda floats which were larger than their stomach sizes, I'm sure! See the photo of Aidan below - that was a regular sized drink!

-funnel cakes. I think they're donut batter put into hot oil via a funnel rather than in a circle, then covered with powdered sugar (icing sugar), cinnamon sugar or whipped cream and strawberries. We could all share two cakes and be full. And all that sugar was enough to keep us going for another few hours!

- smoked turkey legs - these are for sale everywhere, and we resisted until our last day there when curiosity got the better of us. Once again - huge, I would hate to meet one of these turkeys on a dark night. But they were a hit with the boys, and one leg fed all of us!

Karen

What is that?

Can anyone guess correctly what this is ...

When I took the shot I had no idea whatsoever

Michael

Of Hats & Lightsabers

How could these possibly be related? Trouble, that’s how!

Let’s begin with the hats. As I write we’ve just returned from Disney Lost & Found, which thankfully exists. Yep we’ve been losing hats everywhere. To date only Luke and Karen haven’t lost their hats. Mine turned up the next day (hidden under a seat in the car), Aidan’s turned up 5 days after it was replaced (behind the TV), Ethan’s is still not found and has since been replaced (we think it’s somewhere in L.A though it had had an earlier escape attempt on the plane just as we came in from Aus), and Max’s brand new L.A. cap came back to us today (after spending at least 5 days at Hollywood Studios). Will we return to Australia with any of our original hats? If anyone out there is a “bookie” I reckon there’s money to be made on taking bets per hat, per person … any takers?

And then there’s create your own lightsabers. For a bargain $22 you can create your own by screwing and/or clipping together 7 different sections (each with multiple options). They light up and a 3-way duel on a dark night in the camp ground is quite the spectacle. Now this has got to be a big money spinner for Disney – except when the Williamson’s show up! Two of our sons managed to build one each and they worked perfectly. Another son (who will remain nameless) put his together and then 30 mins after leaving the shop it stopped working. So we returned and they replaced it willingly as this apparently never happens. Yet it did this time and it did again later that same day, then again, and again, and again, and again. A total of 6 trips back to the same shop and their basket of rejects was growing alarmingly. A mini staff conference followed the last transaction, but with typical Disney smiles, apologies and enthusiasm they offered to keep on swapping whilst ever we kept returning. How many more? Only time will tell.

Michael

No Holiday from Jesus - Part 4

Our first Sunday in the USA.

After the disasters of the previous day attempting to navigate, we decided the safest bet was to stay home and do “Family Church” rather than try and find one anywhere locally. This has often been our pattern when we’re on holidays and it has come to be highly favored by the boys when we’re missing out on our home Church.

It was a little lacking without the crayons, butchers paper, lego modeling and drama we’d normally resort to, but it was rich none-the-less. We sang Colin Buchanan’s version of the Fruits of the Spirit making up our own sound effects using toys purchased the previous day. Then followed 3 rounds of arrow prayers 1. thanking God for things 2. saying sorry for things and 3. praying for one another in which fruit of the spirit we wanted to do better with. We began our John Life For Kids devotions and read John 1:1-18 and marveled at many things: Jesus’ identity in the first 3 verses as wonderfully revealed as Aidan did a terrific job of replacing “the Word” and “him” in the first 3 verses with “Jesus” right on cue, God revealing himself in the person of his Son was delved into and finally the wonder of his promise in verse 12 was gratefully received.

How good it is to share the majesty of God with one another as we meet around his word in two’s and three’s.

Next Sunday we’ll be visiting a Lutheran Church with some old friends out near Cape Canaveral.

Michael

The Great Commission - Part III

Paul the BMX rider.

I sat with Paul on the flight from L.A. to Orlando. Paul is 16 and was on his way to compete in the BMX Nationals. He is prepping his run for the Olympics in 8 years time. After the usual life story chat it became fairly clear that he was not a Christian. Two things gave this away – 1. He answered all of my questions about him and asked nothing in return (a person entirely disinterested in anyone other than themselves is rarely Christian). However the clincher was 2. I asked him about the origin of his name – “Is Paul a family name or were you named after that famous man Paul in the Bible?” A family name it was and he’d never heard of Paul in the Bible. "Really?! well let me tell you about him." I then prayed constantly as I retold a brief synopsis of Paul’s life but sadly BMX Paul was not following. My final effort was to open the Bible to Romans and read it slowly in a position that he could easily see on my tray table (real close on an aeroplane considering I could read another guy's book who was on the other side of Paul). In the end he was steadfastly cold and merely grunted at our parting when I suggested he look into Paul in the Bible some time. Was a seed sown that will bear fruit 30, 60 or 100 times what was sown? We'll know in heaven, my prayer is that it was not snatched away.

Please pray for me Colossians 4:2-6.

By the way, we also met a lady called Kerry and her family. Kerry is a volunteer worship leader in a little church plant in Daytona. We had seen her perform the previous day at the American Idol Experience in Hollywood Studios. On this day we found her in a long queue at Epcot and said gidday. It was really great to meet fellow Christians who wanted to talk about our common faith and spur one another on to obey Jesus.

Michael

What we miss

As much as we are enjoying this cultural experience, here are some things we miss...

Mike - coffee
Karen - a washing line outside
Luke - weetbix
Max- breakfast
Ethan - his bed
Aidan - ABC kids

and, of course, all of you!

Karen

whew! We survived a week at Disney World!

We are now in our condo in Kissimmee (the suburb next to Walt Disney World). We arrived last night and are here for a week. We have wifi here so hopefully some more blogposts will appear!

We had a magical week at WDW but boy, are we tired.We did 6 theme parks in 7 days. We finished off our week at Magic Kingdom yesterday - left home at 7am, arrived back at 9pm. It was a great day though - as we had been there last week we knew the layout and our older two boys could go off together to ride Space Mountain (numerous times!) while we did gentler rides and then fun things together when we met up again.


We stayed for the electric light parade which was floats covered with thousands of fairy lights, and then as we caught the boat back to our resort we saw the fireworks over the lake. Very pretty and a lovely way to finish off our week!

Karen

Plumbing Pandemonium

Not only does the water go down clockwise here in the northern hemisphere, there are numerous other plumbing “issues” to contend with.

Automatic flushing toilets are terrific in theory, but when a 4 year old mounts the loo the sensor doesn’t always register his presence and/or departure and when he arrived or left. So what happens when it sometimes does and sometimes doesn’t? Mid stream the cistern fires and then we have one terrified little boy screaming for dear life and refusing to ever go again.

And then there is the very full bowls. Now we understand why American movies feature the regular joke about the dog drinking from the toilet, it really is possible, and head flushing, and … let’s stop there. Even still this is confusing for little ones who are now astounded at the volume of what they’ve just passed.

Getting back to the sensors, these are also attached to the hand basins. Highly entertaining when you can repeatedly walk the length of 10 basins firing them all off without getting your hands wet. We could spend all day in there doing that.

Then there are the showers. One pressure setting with a pull on/push off knob. Turn it left and right to change the temperature. Lots of screaming somehow seems to help in getting this right. Lessons in shower curtains are also required. Step 1. If you want to flood the bathroom whilst showering, leave the shower curtain hanging outside the bath. Step 2 Don’t listen to the lecture your brother received about it and then you can do it too.

Somehow the bubblers are also back to front, how this could be I’m not quite sure, but the gymnastics required to operate them are quite the show to be seen.

Michael

Walt Disney World Part 2

A large part of the Disney 'product' is their characters. They are everywhere! Mickey, Minnie, all the Disney and Pixar movie characters, the princesses, Donald and Daisy, and heaps more. They are the subject of rides, parades, meals, merchandise and 'character greetings'. This is where you can line up to have a photo and get an autograph from a Disney character.

This is a dream come true for our 4 year old. He has loved it! He is entranced by the characters and has loved waving, hugging, photos, so much so that if we see a character with a long line we distract him til we are past! But, I have to admit, it isn't just the 4 year old... the 41 year old has enjoyed it too! Here are some photos from the past few days:


Aidan, Woody and Jessie

Ethan and Karen with Mary Poppins - she had a perfect accent and mannerisms and even said to me, 'spit spot'!
Ethan and Karen dancing in the street parade with Mr Incredible
Buzz - a family favourite!
Aidan with Rafiki, from 'The Lion King'

Karen

Walt Disney World part 1

We have been here at Walt Disney World(WDW) in Orlando for 4 days now. There are 4 main theme parks here: Magic Kingdom (the classic Disneyland), Animal Kingdom, Disney's Hollywood Studios and Epcot. There are also 26 different resorts to stay in (ranging from expensive to very expensive!), 5 golf courses, an internal transport system and numerous shops, restaurants, water parks and merchandise. It's an amazing place to be.

The employees (called 'cast members') are an incredibly friendly group of people. I was chatting to a cast member the other day and he said that WDW employs 60 000 people. To put that in perspective, Shellharbour City has 65 000 people.

We have had a very fun (but exhausting!) time here so far. In future posts we'll tell you about it!

Karen

No Holiday from - Part 3

STOP THE PRESS!

We’ve just arrived back from our first proper food shopping trip and we can’t believe what we found next to the Deli counter in between the fruits and the breads - there was this tiny rotating stand of all sorts of books. Whilst having a curiosity look, we found a … we still can’t believe it … a Bible! In a supermarket! Unbelievable! Yet even better than that (better because we are already travelling with 6 Bibles) there was a copy of “The Pilgrim’s Progress” by John Bunyan - amazing.

Our excitement was for two reasons:

1. you can buy Bibles and fantastic Christian literature in a supermarket

2. because I had failed to pack an easy read copy of Pilgrim and we were going to have to use my Olde English Version on the laptop instead; fine for me and Karen but not so great for the boys. A Pilgrim’s Progress is our planned story book reading, out loud each night, once we pick up the RV.

The greatest travel story of all time will be perfect for a travelling family desiring no holiday from Jesus.

Michael

No Holiday from Jesus - Part 2

Is it possible to stick with Jesus on holiday?

We know that he will never leave or forsake us and man cannot hurt us (Hebrews 13:5-6), but what will we do to ensure that we remain in him (John 15:1-11)?

In the general run of daily life there are always be lots of settings where teaching one another to obey Jesus’ commands is very appropriate – at the dinner table with manners, in public with consideration of other travelers, the fruits of the Spirit in the queue at Disney World (what are they again?), talking to strangers about Jesus, not coveting other people and possessions, avoiding self pity when uncomfortable on the airplane, in the car, in the queue, etc. etc.

However, along with these incidental teaching moments that come up every few seconds, every day without warning, we are also planning to teach the commands of Jesus to one another and pray for one another’s obedience as we travel in a structured way as a family together (separate to our normal Christian routines).

To do this our plan is to focus on one book of the Bible together and get to know it really well through reading it, talking about it, praying through it, and using a family devotional book to help us. We will start on the first Sunday and go on from there. The book we’ve chosen is John’s Gospel and the devotional guide is called, “Life 4 Kids: Reading John’s Gospel Together”. Our hope is that we will return with many wonderful memories as a family from the trip and central to them all will be our growth as obedient disciples through John’s Gospel.

Michael

LA photos

At Griffith Observatory

Look whose star we found on Hollywood Boulevarde!

Hooray!

Luke preparing for yet another very fast, gravity defying ride

Aidan meets Snoopy

Our boys and their new friends at Knotts

The Williamson, Parrish and Toyoshiba families

No Holiday from Jesus - Part 1

Having a holiday at any time is usually a real challenge to our Christian walk, a holiday this long … hmmm! We’re out of routine, nothing is quite the same, and every excuse in the world not to pray or read our Bibles or to meet with other Christians … and with no accountability, no one would ever know. When we return no one will ask about that anyway, all the holiday stories are far more intriguing than a story about how we went with Jesus. The spiritual danger we’ve potentially put ourselves in is significant.

On the other hand there is a great opportunity before us in this same area: Family time with no one else around to disturb our discipling of one another; & what about all those times in the Bible when God pulled his people aside from the normal situations of life, for a significant period of time, to teach them knew things about following him (Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Moses and their families; individuals like Samuel, David, Elijah; the nation of Israel on numerous occasions; Jesus and the disciples always heading off on wilderness expeditions with teaching in mind; Paul & John just to name a few)!

So then, which will it be for us?

A holiday from Jesus … or … a holiday full of Jesus?

Michael

more LA

Well, this blog is either a famine or a feast, hey?! We have had irregular internet connections so have been saving up our blog posts for one massive dose!!

We had 3 wonderful days in LA with our friends Connie & Chuck Parrish and Minda & Joey Toyoshiba (and their 3 lovely daughters). In 1985-6 I lived with the Parrishes (Connie, Chuck, Heather, Minda and Kelly) on a school exchange and we have seen them occasionally over the years since then. My family (the Lamberts) and the Parrishes have become firm friends.

Connie & Chuck generously offered to host our family (not a small thing - in 1985 there was one of us, now we're 6!) It was so lovely to see them and be treated to true American hospitality. They had gone out of their way to welcome us and help us adapt to the US way of life! In our 3 days there we ate Mexican, Country Fried Chicken, burgers, pizza, cooked breakfasts and all sorts of snacks (our boys loved it!).

We also had a day at Knotts Berry Farm where Joey works which was a day where our boys started our nervously on the roller coasters and by the end were unstoppable! (Well, all except Aidan - he and I braved the giant swing and both nearly didn't survive! After that we stuck to small trains and cars!)

Our third day there was a trip to Hollywood with the Toyoshibas. Hollywood was seedy but a drive to the Griffith Observatory was lovely - to see the Hollywood sign and a view over the city, also to go in the observatory itself.

And it was a delight to be able to celebrate Connie's birthday with her! An added bonus!

We are now at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. More to come tomorrow!

Karen

LA Story

Some stats from our LA stay:

Number of hours in LA 70
Number of hours to clear customs 2
How long since Karen has been to the Parrishes 21 years
How long since Mike was last in California 27 years
Number of meals we were here for 9
Number of meals we ate out 6
Size of soft drinks(sodas) at Knotts Berry Farm 20 fl oz (591 mL)
Number of times Luke rode a roller coaster at Knotts 13
Largest road we drove on 18 lanes across
How many yellow school buses Max saw a lot
How many hours sleep we had on Wednesday night before flying to Orlando 4

Karen

Formation Willo

Two adults, Four children, umpteen bags & personal items, you should have seen us getting through customs! Last week we joked about the need to walk in Willo Formation while we were away. In fun we devised 6 Willo Formations each with its own call sign and practiced them at home:

Willo 1 – single file;
Willo 2 – two abreast in three pairs each with a designated “buddy”;
Willo 3 – three abreast in two rows (like on the plane over here);
Willo 4 – arrow head one, then two behind, then three abreast in the rear;
Willo 5 – one adult in front and one at rear with two rows of two in the middle;
Willo 6 – 6 abreast strolling arm in arm – quite a formidable sight this one!!

What began in fun became necessary the moment we walked into Sydney airport – those rope lines are very hard to negotiate in Willo 6, not to mention the x-ray machine and the automatic doors! Willo 1, 2 & 5 have all become immediately useful, praise God we practiced.

Michael

Monday journal entry by Aidan aged 4

"We went on a big airplane. We watched some tv. We had a sleep. When we woke up we were in America.
I had a sleep at Grandma Connie's and went to the park. She had made some cookies for us. They were yummy."

(dictated to Karen!)

Flying is for the BIrds

So, I was awake at 3am, trying hard not to think about hurtling through the air in a tiny metal tube. I love getting places, but for me flying is strictly a means to an end. My nervousness about it has increased as I've got older!

After tossing and turning for the next 3 hours, I finally decided to get up and do my bible reading. This year I'm trying to read the whole bible in a year and so one of today's readings was Matthew 10:29-31 where Jesus says

"Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don't be afraid, you are worth more than many sparrows.'

So comforting! To know that not a single sparrow (or plane) falls to the ground apart from the will of my heavenly Father. Thanks, God.

Karen, Monday 7th Feb 2011

Adios Shellharbour City Anglican Church!

Today was our last church service at our church til May 15th. It was also the first of our new 9.30am service. The sermon, music and general vibe were fantastic. Our kids had a very happy time at kid's church too! We will miss our church family very much.


As part of our long service leave we will be visiting our link missionaries Shane and Ruth Sparks who live in Gijon, Spain. We will be taking greetings from our church to theirs, and so we thought we'd take a photo of us too. This is some of our church family saying, 'hola'!

And to the saints of Shellharbour, we say 'adios'!

Karen

The Great Commission – Part II

It seems that the first step in carrying this out is to work out whether a person is already a follower of Jesus or not. How can you tell? Relationship, relationship, relationship; working this out begins and ends with relationship. So I guess we’re going to need to be friendly with people we meet: friendly, welcoming, caring, kind, and interested in them more than ourselves.

In any relationship it comes out very quickly where people stand with Jesus. So from there, either we get to share the good news and have the privilege of lovingly introducing them to the Savior of the world or we get to share in our common faith together and encourage one another to follow Jesus with all our hearts.

Michael

The Great Commission

I preached on the Great Commission 4 times last Sunday. The Great Commission is another name for Matthew 28:16-20, which says

16 Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

I spoke about living this out, which begs the question: how we are planning to do this with everyone we meet while we are away?

Any ideas? Tomorrow I’ll post my thoughts so far.
Michael

another reason we'll be happy to go!

Our ducted airconditioning broke down last week. The repairman came this morning, and this is what he found:

The alternator had melted and burnt out (which would account for the burning smell we had last week!) It will take 6-8 weeks to get the parts and have it fixed.

Today is supposed to be 34 degrees, it's very hot here, but in LA? Tops of 19 degrees. My kind of weather! I can survive 5 more days in heat knowing I'm heading to winter on the other side of the world!

Karen