40 in NYC

They plotted and planned and did all kinds of secret things while I was washing up. When it all came together on the 26th March it was the best day of my life so far. What a blessing it is to have a devoted God fearing wife and 4 boys who adore their dad.

It began with some hugs and souvenir gifts – a Mickey Mouse watch I had admired at Animal Kingdom and a new cap with the number 71 on it were my favourites (along with Bangladesh which celebrates its independence on my birthday, 1971 is significant as the birth year for Walt Disney World). But then the secret project was revealed, Karen had been working with the boys on a book for me with all their thoughts on different things, composed entirely by them (eg. my favourite memory, a lesson you’ve taught me, favourites from Dad’s kitchen etc.). It is not easy to measure your progress as a father, all I can see is my faults, failures, excuses and “if onlys,” however what the boys recorded in the book was the greatest encouragement I could ever have received to press on and persevere in the task of being their dad to raise them in the knowledge and fear of the Lord.

After waffles for breaky it was time to hit the streets of NYC and head for the best burgers in New York. An old friend who had lived for a time in NYC had recommended the Shake Shack and we were totally blown away. Not only were the burgers incredible but the shakes were also. Nb. If this ministry gig falls through I’m going to start a Shake Shack store in OZ just so I can eat these again and again and again.

From there we toured through Times Square and the Toys R Us building, and finally settled in our seats on Broadway to watch the stage production of Disney’s Mary Poppins. What was it like? Hilarious, fun, amazing, overwhelming and heart warming – just what you want from a good musical! We’ve been singing it ever since. After Mary we followed our noses to experience a local flea market and then headed back to the RV for the night.

Dinner was indulgent! My favourite satay chicken followed by a chocolate mousse pie topped with strawberries and cream, with a hot chocolate chaser to finish. Could I be more loved, more fulfilled, more entertained, more tummy filled? Only in heaven when I will see God face to face. Till then, turning 40 in New York with my precious Karen and 4 gorgeous sons will be hard to top.

Michael

No Holiday from Jesus - Part 6

Tonight we finished reading our bedtime story - Pilgrim’s Progress. Finishing a book is always a bitter-sweet moment. Sweet because the climax has been reached and everything to know is now known. Bitter because a wonderful journey has now finished and there is no more to come.

However the entire experience has been a sweet one from start to finish. Every night the boys have asked for more when I closed the book. Every night they have greeted the time with enthusiasm and joy. Every night at least one has remembered what has come before and each has helped remind the others where we are up to. Every night probing spiritual questions have been pondered and glorious reflections of God’s grace have been revealed. Every night they have lamented the struggles of believers, the fall of unbelievers and have rejoiced at every good decision the pilgrims have made. Every night we have considered our blessed place in God’s family and been greatly thankful of his unmerited kindness to us as his children. Every night the prayers have been heartfelt and the following sleep has been peaceful.

What a privilege it is to walk the walk with great ones of the faith like John Bunyan and to share these glorious things with our sons. Bunyan has indeed been the teacher of Matthew 13:52, showing us spiritual treasures new and old with every page we have devoured together. What a joy this has been and yet the journey is not complete. If the Lord should tarry, there are many years to come in which we will be called upon to disciple our Sons, not exasperating them, but bringing them up in the training and instruction of the Lord (Eph 6:4). May he bless all those days as he has blessed these ones, and when they are dry and difficult, may the remembrance of these days give us courage for the task once more.

Michael

Getting around in New York

Last night at dinner (our last night in New York), we went around and said our favourite thing from our time there. Aidan was very definite: the trains. And the buses. And the ferry. For a four year old who loves public transport, Aidan has had a fantastic week!

On our first morning in NY, we had booked into another free city walking tour (with the same company as the DC one we did). We had to meet Derek at 10am in Wall St. We’d been told there was a free ferry from our RV park to the pier at the bottom of Wall St: easy. But, as we were waiting for the ferry, we noticed everyone clutching tickets… we asked a man there if the ferry was free… cue the man laughing uproariously at the tourists. ‘Nothing is free in New York!’ he said. So I ran to the ticket office (we had wondered why that was there… obviously not wondered hard enough) and the lady said, $52. She hadn’t heard the Aussie expression ‘you’re kidding me!’ but worked it out, and no, she wasn’t kidding, it was $52. We had no time for other options so coughed up the money. Welcome to New York!

From there, we arrived in Wall St with 10 mins to spare. We needed subway tickets for our walking tour and had worked out a weekly pass was the best option. Michael disappeared down a set of stairs into the subway…we waited…and waited…and waited…finally he emerged with 5 tickets (thankfully Aidan was free) – apparently the machine was temperamental and so he had to use a combination of credit cards and cash. But he had the tickets!

the Willo boys ride the subway

We met Derek and the tour was terrific. It was meant to go for 6 hours, it went for 8. We walked and walked and walked! (and took the subway a few times too!). Our group was made up of a couple from Ireland, three couples from the US, a group of girls from LA and a couple from Cairns (who were even colder than us!) He took us to lots of non-touristy spots in Little Italy, Chinatown, the Financial District, World Trade Center, Soho and Greenwich Village. Along the way he told fascinating stories about the people and places, and of course the movie and tv locations we were passing. (but, I digress: more about this day from Luke’s journal account, to be posted soon!)

After that we had to find our way home. We worked out (with help from lots of kind people!) the combination which would become our regular pattern: subway to World Trade Center, PATH train under the Hudson River to New Jersey then light rail to Marin Boulevard. We then walked about 100m to our van park. The first time we successfully managed to get where we intended to go we felt like we had won the jackpot!

waiting for the light rail

So, each day (bar one*), we went to Manhattan and back again by light rail, PATH train and subway, then walking to our destination. It took between one and two hours each way (depending on the connections). By the end of the week we were experts. Lots of turnstiles, ticket swiping, stairs (tricky with the stroller!), crowds. But for a four year old: bliss.

Karen

*the only day we didn’t do that was the day we went to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty: light rail, a long walk and three ferries instead. Still exciting for Aidan!

Aidan's other form of transport

A Palace Beautiful

For the uninitiated, the Palace Beautiful is one of the places described in John Bunyan’s “A Pilgrim’s Progress” where some of the pilgrims stop to rest and are greatly refreshed. Not all stop here, for not all are called to be members of every church that God has established. Yet there are some times in our Christian walk when we are privileged to stop for a time at such a gathering of believers and to be refreshed and re-envisioned once more. It was my privilege to stop at just such a Palace Beautiful whilst in Washington D.C.

Capitol Hill Baptist Church was not always such an encouraging God focussed Church and sin being what it is amongst us humans it may not remain such a place till Christ’s return. But for now, at least for the time that I was there, God made it such a respite for my tired Christian heart that I can have nothing but praise for Him who has made such a gathering for me and others to be so nurtured and spurred on in our Christian walk.

I was there from Thursday afternoon through to Monday morning, visiting with 100 other ministers for a “Weekender” (essentially a guided tour and a fly-on-the-wall view of an 800+ member Church in action). During this time I was billeted at a member’s home and then together with the other ministers attended closed pastoral & member’s meetings, open Church services & teaching seminars, specialised exposés of the inner workings of the staff and life of the Church, and had countless hours and opportunities to question them on what they do, why they do it, and what are the results. During this time the staff and members of CHBC showered us with food, books and Christian hospitality. Their desire was to comfort and bless other Churches with what God has comforted and blessed them (2 Cor 1:4), to urge us to follow them only in-so-far-as they are following Christ (1 Cor 11:1) and asked our forgiveness and patience for all errors we might find along the way.

In all my experience as a Christian I have never yet been amongst such a large group of Christians who were seeking so transparently, earnestly, humbly & honestly to follow Christ in unity together. I commented on this to one of the leaders at the end of the 5 days, adding that I had expected such good Christian behaviour from the leadership, but that I had seen it amongst the body of believers where ever I went. Firstly he was greatly surprised by my report for he knows his own sin and the sin of many others. Second, his response was a tearful request for me to pray for them, for if this is indeed true in any measure at all, then it needs to continue and to deepen and they must never stop striving to live to the praise of God and that they must remain teachable for all errors that are present now and will arise later. Such a heartfelt humble response is proof of the pudding. Strive to live for God’s glory and a holy & godly life will be the result. And when a whole Church full of people are transparently helping each other to do it together … then a holy & godly Church is the result.

Not only was I amazed by such an experience of God’s grace in his Church, I was spurred on to continue my own place in that same race – not to try and remain there at this Palace Beautiful called CHBC – but to take all I have learned and then strive longer to make God’s palace in Shellharbour City beautiful also, beginning with me and my own family; with God as my helper.

And what did I learn through all this? Actually nothing new at all in terms of technique or professional churchmanship, rather I was reminded that the right things done the right way over a long period of time are still right, irrelevant of how hard it feels or what results are seen. This dovetails well with a comment that impacted me, which came from one of the older members, “A young man always overestimates what can be achieved in a short period of time and underestimates what can be achieved over a long period.” Godly perseverance is the order of the day leaving the results to Him who is over all and through all in all.

To God be the glory for all he has shown me at this palace beautiful.

Michael

A New York State of Mind

We survived! 8 days in New Jersey/New York. There were times when I wondered if we’d make it, but…we did.

As I type this I’m sitting in our van at an RV Park near Newport, Rhode Island. It’s 6.30pm, dinner is in the oven, Michael has taken all the boys for a shower and when I look out the window I can see grey trees covered with moss, a pond, leaves on the ground and deer wandering around. We are the only campers here tonight. It’s lovely and quiet. God must have known we needed this after a week in the big smoke!

Now that the week is over we’ll blog all about it. Hopefully we’ll have internet from tomorrow night and we’ll start putting them on our blogspot. Enjoy!

Karen

News from the Big Apple

Greetings! We have not dropped off the edge of the Empire State nor disappeared down a manhole in the road, rather our RV park doesn't have wifi - so we are out of internet contact whilst in NY (except for when we find free wifi like now - we're sitting next to the ice skating rink in the Rockefeller Center!)

A brief overview so far:

-our rv park is Basic (with a capital B!) - a gravel carpark - but it does have a view of the Statue of Liberty and heated bathrooms!

- we have successfully negotiated public transport - to get from our van park (in NJ) to Manhattan we take a light rail, the PATH (train under the Hudson River) and then the subway to whereever we want. Not too hard (although over 5's are adult prices - ouch!)

-Mike had a great 40th birthday - gifts, burgers,shakes, Mary Poppins on Broadway, cake and lots of love

-it is very cold - the highest temp so far has been 5 deg C

-we did an 8 hour walking tour of the city

That's enough for now! We're here til Friday (today is Monday) so more trip reports after that!

Karen

The Fabulous Fresh Family

Rippling Brook Drive, Sewickley (the Fresh's house is the one with our Rv in the drive!)

We have just spent 6 days living with our friends Jim & Stephanie, Aaron & Jeremy Fresh in Sewickley, Pittsburgh, PA. They lived in Shellharbour for 5 years (from 2004 til 2009) while Jim worked at Bluescope in Wollongong. Steph, Aaron and Jeremy came along to Toddler Time at our church and that’s where we met. When I told Steph of our travel plans (back in 2009), she invited us to come and visit them.

Michael had a conference in DC at Capitol Hill Baptist Church from Thursday 17th March to Monday 21st March. We drove to Pittsburgh on Wednesday 16th then Mike flew to DC on Thursday while the boys and I stayed with the Fresh’s.

They welcomed us with open arms! They were so generous to us. Luke, Max, Ethan and Aidan loved having some other boys (and Bertie the weimaraner puppy) to play with.

Some highlights of the things we did while staying with them:

- when we arrived they had a birthday cake and gift for Ethan

all the boys and the awesome icecream cake

- lots of homework (much to our boys’ disgust!)

- a day at the Carnegie Science Centre – a fun, interactive place. Our faves were the robotics floor and the real submarine in the river that we went in

Max playing air hockey against a robot


in the submarine

- we went to their church with them – an amazing experience – 2000 people attend each week, the facilities are amazing (including a rock climbing wall in the kid’s church room!), a fully robed choir sang at the service we went to – and the bible was taught well – engaging and challenging

- dinner out at a restaurant with an amazing view down over Pittsburgh to where 3 rivers meet

dinner, high above Pittsburgh

- walked Bertie, played with Bertie, fell in love with Bertie

- Steph took me shopping to the most amazing craft shop I have ever seen – in 3 hours there I only saw 1/3 of the shop!

- the boys all had a movie night and sleepover in the toyroom

- Max, Ethan and Aidan went to a lego club Steph runs at the local community centre

- a cub scout hike and baseball game

- played basketball, bikes, cricket, rollerblades and scooters outside each afternoon with all the neighbourhood kids

l > r Aidan, Bertie, Jeremy, Aaron, Ethan, Max, Luke

- played Wii

- heaps of eating! Stephanie is a fantastic cook!

- Steph and I did heaps of chatting, remembering, crying, encouraging and catching up – a very special time.

Also, Max and Ethan went to school one day with the Fresh boys… but I’ll let Max tell you all about that.

And, when Michael finally returned on Monday night (after his plane was delayed many times), Jim and Steph looked after our boys so we could go out to dinner – an early birthday dinner for Mike – and possibly (probably!) our only child free time in 14 weeks! We went to The Cheesecake Factory and tried to eat typical American foods – deep fried mac and cheese balls, bbq’d salmon with corn succotash, Salisbury steak and banana cream cheesecake with hot fudge. A great night.

We are so thankful to God for the respite and normality we had for those 6 days. Feeling recharged and ready for the next stage of this odyssey!

Karen