Worship Service at Gospel Light Baptist Church

With 8 hours of sleep behind me, I was ready to go on Sunday morning. It’s a good thing too, considering what was ahead of me. Sunday school was at 9:00, and we still needed to practice our music, so at 7:45, Benji came and picked us up again in our van/truck thing. Traveling around Manila this week is going to be interesting – but fun. J We practiced for a while, set up all of our stuff, and then headed to teen Sunday school. That was also interesting. We weren’t sure how the language barrier was going to come into effect. Supposedly, everyone here should understand English at least a little bit as well as speak it some. Operative words here are “little bit” and “some.” I think maybe the teens did understand more than we could tell. It was just really hard to get them to respond to anything. When Mike first asked, “How many of you like free pizza?” Not a single one of them responded. Maybe they are insecure about their English, but it was like that the rest of Sunday school – very shy.

The morning service began at 10:15, and we were supposed to be doing our Amazing Grace theme, sing some songs, and go up to the children’s program. Joel told the children’s workers that we would hopefully be there by between 10:30 and 10:40. That was wishful thinking. The introductory stuff took a really long time. We sang several hymns, which was enjoyable to do with all of the Philippinos. And then, they introduced the visitors. Each first-time visitor has to fill out a card, and then someone reads out each card from the pulpit. It took over 20 minutes to read off all of the visitors. The Philippinos must be very patient, relaxed people – I could tell we were all getting a little fidgety. But we finally got up to the children’s program a little after 11:00.

Joel with one of the kids

The children’s program was held up on the roof of the building, which serves as sort of their gymnasium/basket ball court/ AWANA center. There is a covering over it and some fencing on the sides to keep everything and everyone in. But you could hear ALL of the noise from the streets and smell ALL of the smog rising up from the streets. For me at least, it was a distraction. But the kids seemed to be used to it. We tried to run our program as normal, but I could tell that all of us were feeling everything – the heat, the language barriers, the noise, the smells. Everything seemed to be a distraction. I wondered if it was even worth it to do a children’s program this week. Yet at the end of Joel’s message, four kids responded to the Gospel. You’d think I’d have learned this all by now. I am thankful that God works through smog and car horns and blistering heat. He is definitely more powerful than I am.

The morning service ended up being a little long, due to a baptism – but I’m not complaining. We just didn’t get done until almost 12:30. Afterwards, we spoke with the people for a while and then headed to lunch at a nice Thai restaurant. This was a lunch of experiences. We had several appetizers that were mostly pretty good – spring rolls, which were amazing, and then a Thai soup, which was pretty good, except for the squid balls in it. No, I don’t know what they were, but that’s what they said they were, so I didn’t eat them. I just couldn’t bring myself to do it, even if it does make me a cultural wimp. One of our dishes was chicken wrapped in pandan leaves and served with a sesame sauce. That was delicious! The leaves gave the chicken a really unique, spicy/herby sort of flavor. We also had beef and shrimp, rice and more spring rolls (they were a hit). After lunch, we rolled out of the restaurant and headed back to our house for some really quick power naps.

View of Manila from the Rooftop

When we went back to the church in the evening, I wasn’t feeling so good (could have been the thought of the squid balls – or the continually bouncy riding in the van/truck thing). Either way, I knew that in order to get through the service I was really going to need some spiritual power. And I think that the Lord really helped me to get through the evening. We had a wonderful, worshipful service, and several children and adults again received Christ. We also went over to a lady’s house for a meal after the service, and it was a blessing to talk with these Philippino brothers and sister in Christ. I know that may sound like a cop-out, but it’s become more true the more people I meet overseas. Their striving for the sake of the Gospel in these places continually encourages me. I still have a lot to gain from them.

And so we went back home and prepared for the next day – a Philippino holiday. So no school for us (which is a small blessing in a way, as we will be doing chapels all week long). After another bumpy ride home in the van/truck thing, my stomach was ready to collapse into bed.

Manila

After lunch, we all piled back into the van/truck thing and went to a nearby mall to go barong hunting for the guys. Barongs are a Philippino-styled shirt that most of the men around here wear in order to dress up. And if you’re a guy, and you don’t wear one, you have to wear a long sleeved shirt and tie – which is way too hot here. Some of the Barongs are long-sleeved, but they are made of a lighter fabric that breathes easier in this weather. It’s hard to describe one, so a picture will have to do. We went to the SM store, and there were about a billion people there shopping. Black Friday shoppers haven’t seen ANYTHING until they’ve shopped in the Philippines. It took forever just to move from one section of the store to another. But we finally made it to the men’s barong section. I should mention that SM is probably our equivalent of a JCPennys – only about 5 times larger. Supposedly Manila boasts 3 of the largest malls in the world, and this definitely felt like one of them.

The guys in their Barongs

Joel and I picked out two barongs for him – one long-sleeved and one short-sleeved – and then got a shirt for me to wear. We also got him a really cool pair of dress pants. I only mention that, because they were so ridiculously cheap here for us – $9 not even on clearance. It was fun to pay a lot less for everything, but I was more than ready to get out of there. I thought we were going straight back to the house, but we ended up stopping at another mall on the way home so Brother Steve could get a haircut. 5 of the guys ended up getting them, so we had some time there. And that’s when I decided to do what I’d been waiting for the Philippines to do – get a message.

I went to one of about 13 massage places in this much smaller mall and got a really good deal on a wonderfully relaxing massage. I was able to get a back, head, and face massage for only 100 Pesos = $2. That’s the best $2 I’ve spent this whole trip! After the long plane ride over late at night, it was a much-needed and very-much-appreciated luxury that I was more than willing to part with a couple bucks. By the time I got done, the guys were done with their haircuts, so we all went back to the house. Our family had yet another meal for us, which we graciously inhaled. Afterwards, we gathered for a time of prayer together, and then got ready for the next morning. I was once again pretty tired. So I showered and did the collapsing thing again.

Pettit Team at the Leo Palace Resort

It actually felt like we had slept for 8 hours, probably because of how hard we slept. But we got up finally at 10:30 in order to get ready for our 11:30am meeting time. During that hour, Joel and I both Skyped our families and wished them a happy Thanksgiving. Sigh. At least we were both supposed to be getting an incredible lunch (so I had heard). When we met up at Harvest, we all dropped off our luggage and piled into some vans that were to take us to the Leo Palace Resort. I didn’t know what it would be like, but I had heard that it had cost over a billion dollars to build. Should be pretty impressive.
And it was. The Leo Palace resort wasn’t just a large building – it was more like 4 large building complexes surrounded by tons of land and hundreds of small houses for the rich and famous. It was like entering into a secret, secluded empire on the island of Guam – an empire with it’s own city. A man in the church had wanted to treat us to lunch there, and so we planned to do it on this day, as a surprise birthday gift to Brother Steve. And it actually turned out to be a sort of birthday celebration for the three of us – Brother Steve, Amanda, and me. They had a cookie cake there with candles and several gifts for all of us. Our team also wrote a hilarious song for Brother Steve that we sang for him right there in the country club. It probably wouldn’t be funny to anyone else, since it was full of team jokes, but we all enjoyed it thoroughly.

Blowing out the Candles

After the meal – an incredible Japanese-styled meal of fried shrimp, rice, etc. – we got some pictures around the resort. And shortly thereafter, we had to head to the airport for our next leg over to the Philippines. We said our goodbyes to the Herrons and to Kevin, thanking them again for everything. They certainly made our time special. We got to the airport, checked in, and waited to depart. It didn’t seem like there were going to be too many people on the way over – since we had to stop in Palau. And there weren’t. We had almost the entire plane to ourselves, so we enjoyed spreading out during that first part over. However, when we got to Palau, everyone except us got off. And then the plane really filled up. Completely and totally. It was going to be a full flight over to the Philippines.

Our flight over only took about two and a half hours, but it seemed like forever. I was starting to get really fidgety by the end and couldn’t wait to get off. We finally did arrive, got off, made it through customs, got our bags, and went outside to wait for Pastor Dennis Potts. When we met up with him, we had to put all of our luggage in the one van/truck type thing, and then we all piled – literally – into the back of the other one. And that began our crazy ride through the city of Manila.

Riding in the van/truck thing through Manila

I had heard that Manila was pretty much a third-world version of New York city, and that’s probably the best way that I can describe it. Everyone here is so poor, and people are all over the streets. But there are tons of buildings and establishments – even Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts. And driving in Manila is probably one of the most exciting things we’ve been through on this trip. Imagine driving in New York city with absolutely no traffic laws – that’s driving in Manila. Everyone honks their horns all the time, dodges in and out of people. I think you have to be pushy to survive the traffic here. All we did was drive to the other side of the city to where we were staying, and it took us an hour and 15 minutes. Despite the noise and jerky driving, the heat, and the fact that there were 12 of us stuffed in the back of this van/truck thing, I was still falling asleep the whole way home.

The entire team is staying this week in one house owned by a man in the church who is a heart surgeon – so they have a huge house. When we got there, we chatted for a while, ate some cookies that had been made for us, and drank some Tang. All of this was going on at midnight. Since we only have 2 bathrooms to share between the 13 of us, I opted to take mine before bed instead of the next morning. So I did, and then I, like never before on this trip, physically collapsed into bed.

Joel and me on the Sky Rail

We rode for about ten minutes, and then got off at the first stop. At each stop, they have a rainforest trail that you can walk around on and see the cool things around. There was a short little tour that had just left in front of us, so we just started walking to catch up with them. As we were walking on the trail, Mike volunteered to get a picture of us on the boardwalk by this huge old rainforest tree. So we stood there on the walkway as Mike took our picture. Right as we got done taking the picture, the tour guide from the group in front of us came walking back towards and said, “Hey, I just thought you might want to notice the snake right there.” As soon as I heard the word “snake,” I instinctively looked towards the spot he was pointing at, which was on the ground right behind where we were standing at the base of the tree. Before I could even notice anything, Joel grabbed my shoulders and moved me away from the tree over to the other side of the boardwalk. I heard all of the team members yelling and trying to get pictures of “that cool looking python.” I never really thought of pythons as cool looking before, but I guess some people are weird like that. Anyway, I was amazingly calm, probably given the fact that I didn’t actually see the creepy reptile – and I knew Joel was looking out for me. Mike reached down and touched it (of course), and it jerked back and hissed at him. I did hear the hiss, and it kind of gave me the creeps. But I just kept thinking about other things. I think the team got some pictures, but I didn’t really care to see them myself. They said it was a brownish-orange 6 ft long python – gross. My mom told me she would pray that God would make the snakes invisible to me, so I guess her prayers were answered – I never did see the snake.

The Roos

We had two more legs to our sky rail trip, with another stop along the way that led to a beautiful, but mostly dry waterfall. And on our last leg of the trip, we went over a large, muddy river that we could see a bunch of crocodiles in. I was really hoping that the sky rail didn’t break at that point. I didn’t want to be stuck hanging over a croc-infested river. When we got off the sky rail, they had a little gift shop with some unique things that I hadn’t seen anywhere else. I saw a really pretty oriental tea set that I liked for a great price, so Joel let me get that as my other birthday gift. What a nice guy! We were only in the gift shop a few minutes before Pastor Mock came in and hurried us out the door to the van/bus thing. Apparently we were in a hurry. We all jumped in and heard that we were going to get coffee at a coffee plantation – about 30 minutes away. We started driving through the Table Lands, the area west of Cairns on the other side of the mountains (the Great Dividing Range) about 3000 ft above sea level. On the way there, we stopped by a dried-up golf course that had a little herd of kangaroos resting there. We all sneaked out and started tiptoeing towards them. I actually got pretty close to them, and Amanda and Josh got even closer. Josh was filming them, and Amanda got this really cool, up-close picture of a mama kangaroo with a baby joey sticking its head out of the pouch.

Coffee World

At the coffee plantation, we only had 10 minutes to get out, look around, and order a drink if we wanted to. Joel and I picked up a couple of bags of their whole bean coffee for Brother Steve, since his birthday is tomorrow. When we got back in the van/bus thing, I wasn’t sure what the plan was the rest of the day, but I figured we would stop for lunch somewhere. What I didn’t know was that the rest of the day was going to be filled with tons of driving and little stops along the way. Here came a long day. We did eventually stop for a 17-minute lunch break by a lake, of which I am not sure of the significance. The only exciting thing that happened there was Josh pulling a dead turtle out of the water. It was pretty nasty and bloated. We kept driving and driving along all of these hills and ridges, stopping for two minutes every here and there to look at the scenery. I was pretty amazed at the diversity of the different regions within such a short distance of Cairns. We went from tropical, to the kind of drier, African-looking Table Lands, to these volcanic regions that reminded me of England with its lush, green hills. It was incredible. Our last little stop was at a waterfall, coming from a mountain spring. The water was freezing, but it was still right in the middle of a more tropical region.

Driving back to the church took about an hour and a half, and it was grueling. We had to take this road through the mountains again that had a recorded 270 turns in it. My poor stomach was about commit mutiny on me. It was also really scary driving on those ridges, because they really don’t have a lot of guardrails at all. It felt like a trip to the WILDS, only twice as long and three times as scary. But we finally, FINALLY made it back. We only had an hour and half until the service, and it took that whole time to just get my innards feeling normal again. Joel and I quickly got ready for the service, ate some supper, and went back to the church.

Children

Tonight was our last service with the church, so in a sense it was kind of sad. At the beginning, we were going to do a short children’s program for the parents. I was looking and looking for Emmy, and I didn’t see her for a while. She finally came, right before we were supposed to go in, and it looked like she had been crying. I told her to go ahead and get in line, since she already knew the songs and verses, and she seemed pretty happy with that. The children’s program during the service concluded well, and we had 2 more kids get saved. I think there were also some adults that came forward to. I have really appreciated the totally evangelistic approach that we have been able to take this past week. In most church in the States, we end up having half of the week geared towards the Christians, since only a few people tend to bring visitors. With all of the work that the people of Cairns have put into these meetings, there have been at least 5-10 unsaved visitors every night – and every night there have been salvation decisions made. I have been more excited each night about the work of the Gospel and more motivated to live with that purpose in mind.

When the service was over, we had another “supper,” during which the team played their bluegrass songs for the Aussies again. I’m still not sure what the Aussies think of our “folk music.” It seemed like everyone enjoyed themselves though. We were all there for a long time just talking and saying our goodbyes. I talked to Emmy just a little bit more, trying to get in one last admonition. I really encouraged her to come to the church on Sunday mornings and evenings, and it seems like she could probably do that if she remembers. She doesn’t seem to have any restrictions from home. A part of me wishes I could just take her home with me, to give her some restrictions and give her the opportunity to grow in a local church. I know I’ll be praying for her, and I hope so much that someone will look out for her in Cairns.

We got back home again rather late and collapsed into bed as soon as possible at the prospect of another early morning.

Breakfast with the Birds

When we walked through the door, we were suddenly outside on a wooden walkway through some very dense, tropical growth. The path wound through a number of trees, and there were birds flying everywhere. Yet everything was closed in with this large, high, small-fiber, see-through net thing – so the birds were kept in. We finally ended up in a large café area that was covered with a huge canvas top. Just no walls or anything. Our breakfast was set up in this café in a buffet line while the rest of the area was filled with picnic style tables. So yes, this eating area was totally open to the rest of the rainforest area with the enclosed birds. I think the canvas above us was to keep anything nasty from plopping on our heads. But the birds did walk around and beg for our food. There were all sorts too – all different colored, tropical birds, flying around and above and beside us. Our breakfast was incredible too! There were over 2 dozen different varieties of fruits laid out, and that was the main part of my breakfast. I couldn’t get enough of it! My favorite fruit now is the passion fruit. I love those tart little crunchy seeds with the orange stuff around them. I also tried dried figs, lychees, pomegranates, and mango, along with some melons, strawberries and super-fresh pineapple. Amazing! They also had freshly made croissants, bacon and toast, and eggs made to order. I had a delectable breakfast with the birds. ☺

Charlie the Crocodile

When we had all finished stuffing our faces with fruit, we wandered around some more of the habitat. There were 3 main sections to the habitat – the rainforest, the wetlands, and the grasslands. We explored the rainforest section with all of the different varieties of birds. I’ve never seen so many that I didn’t recognize. We also got to glimpse some koalas, but it was a pretty canned view, as they were in koala pens. At 11:15 was a demonstration with a crocodile, so we all headed to the appropriate spot to catch a glimpse of the scary reptile. Charlie, the crocodile, turned out to be a rather small one, with maybe a total of 20 inches to his length. But she was pretty gross to me. Most reptiles are. They had her mouth taped shut, and the guide held her the whole time. But she did get unnecessarily close to me.

When the croc demo was done, we explored the grasslands first. Mainly kangaroos inhabited the grasslands. There were no fences blocking them off, so we were able to feed them if they came up to us. There was also a section (that was blocked off) where we walked on a bridge part that went over some croc-infested water holes. Right about the time I was noticing all of the menacing looking crocodiles, I also realized that above me in the trees were about 2,000 fruit bats. They were huge and were screeching and fanning themselves – and so I sort of freaked out. All I could think about was getting bat nastiness on me and accidentally falling into the crocs. So I got out of there as fast as I could. The rest of the trail had bats hanging all over it, so it was time to be done with the grasslands.

Rachel McCluer and me hanging out in the gift shop

In the wetlands section, all I saw were birds and more birds – but all I could think about were bats and more bats. They are just gross! I got some pretty pictures of the birds, but after a while, birds are just birds. They cheep and fly and eat food. End of story. I realized how much cooler the wetlands section was, because earlier in the day, I had been sweating absolutely non-stop. I was still sweating the wetlands, and all I could think about was water and air con. Water and air con. Since we had seen everything, we went back then to hang out in the air con gift shop. Once everybody gathered, we were able to leave for the return trip home.

On both the ride to the habitat and on the way home, I got to talk at long length with Jessica Blake. My mission was to pick her brain and get any wisdom I could, since I’ve admired her since I met her. And I hit a gold mine. She just shared a lot of things about life on the mission field, how she and Pete have raised their kids, what things she struggles with, what areas of victory she’s had, what she wishes Americans would realize about the mission field, etc. It was so good for me to hear and to learn from a godly lady who, of course, has struggles, but has been faithful in her walk with God. I need much more of this.

Jessica Blake

We had a few hours in the afternoon before the evening service, so I spent some time writing, reading and praying for the meeting. Emmy Charlie, the girl I led to the Lord, came back tonight, and I was so excited to see her. She loves being here at church! After the service, I found a Bible to give her, and we talked for a long time about reading the Bible and talking to God. I wish I could just take her home with me. She is so needy and is absolutely swallowing up anything she can get at the church. I hope someone here will undertake her as a ministry and help reach out to her family. By the time we got home (after ANOTHER supper and fellowship), I was exhausted. I tried to wait up for Joel but ended up collapsing in bed.

The Aussie Children

After having a wonderful 8 hours of sleep, I was glad to get up and ready to serve the Lord on a beautiful Sunday. The sun looks so much more “lovely” from the inside of an air-conditioned building. I was so grateful that the church building did have air con. We had a wonderful song service in the morning. But then we got to take the kids out for their morning program – and when I say out, I mean “out.” As in, outside. In the heat. In the humidity. With the birds and the bugs. And it was great! This is a mission trip, right? So what are a few bugs and a little bit of heat? Just because my dress was soaked through from sweat doesn’t mean it wasn’t a good morning. We only had about 8 or 9 kids out in the program, but I’m praying for more throughout the week. The Australian kids are definitely more reserved and don’t really get into the whole “stand up and sing out really loud and we’ll see who can sing louder” gig. They outdo one another in silence. We’ve got a little work to do before the children’s program on Wednesday.

After the service was over, we all gathered for lunch. Lunch is typically served outside, so I grabbed a few minutes in the air con, and then headed outside to eat. I really enjoyed fellowshipping with everyone again. Joel and I had an intriguing conversation with a Polish man named Karol something-stky (I can’t remember and couldn’t spell it anyway). He moved from Poland to the U.K. a few years back to learn to speak English. While he was there, he was led to the Lord, and then shortly after, married an English-speaking woman. He said they had moved to Australia to have more room (and more Christian opportunities) for their kids to grow up in. He didn’t feel like England was really offering those things. Karol and his wife have been married 4 years, have 3 children, and just do what they can at the church and in the neighborhood to share the Gospel. Karol said something interesting that I don’t want to forget. He was talking about how he was out one day and, “of course, he had to share the gospel with the man he met and was talking to.” Then he looked at me and said in his broken English, “I mean, if I don’t share the gospel with everyone I meet, then why should I bother being Christian?” That really hit home. I know I don’t witness to everyone I meet, and I try to salve my conscience by reminding myself of the times I have witnessed and of the children and teens I’ve been able to lead to the Lord. Karol has never been to Bible College, never been to American, and never even been in Greenville! Yet he lives the true Christian life. I think that God used this simple Polish man to prick my heart and stir my soul up about why I’m even still alive.

Emmy Charlie and me

Joel and I rested a little in the afternoon and spent the rest of the time preparing for the evening service. I spent some good time in prayer, and I’m thankful that the Lord is teaching me to be more focused in this area. I need it so much. We did our Irish concert in the evening service, which went just fine. And then it was back to the children’s program. This time, it was hot, sticky, buggy AND pitch black outside (since the sun sets at 6:30). But we had a lot more children, including several first-time visitors. I think we had 17 total, so praise God for that! The whole time outside was one distraction after another – the PowerPoint didn’t work, there were bugs ALL OVER Joel, it was still eternally hot, etc. Yet God did a work in the hearts of at least 2 kids last night. Both Amanda and I were able to lead girls to the Lord. I talked to Emmy Charlie, a street girl, who wandered into the Irish concert on her own tonight, not knowing anybody. She just left when the kids did. And God saved her! What a special privilege we have, to fight through all of the heat, bugs, and humidity for the cause of Christ! I spoke with one of the ladies afterwards, and she knows Emmy from school (where she teaches). So she’s going to do some follow-up with the rest of the family.

just like Burger King

We had a “supper” after the service (meaning snacks), so more food and fellowship. These people love to be with each other! No running out as soon as the service is over in order to get the best place in line for lunch. They’d stay all night if we did. Joel and I didn’t eat anything though, since Steven Mock wanted us to go out on a date. Boy, it’s been a while. He gave us his car and sent us to Hungry Jacks, which is the Australian Burger King. I think what I heard is that when McDonalds came to Australia years ago, they bought both the name McDonalds AND the name Burger King (just to be spiteful). So when Burger King came over, they had to rename. It’s all the same stuff though – same great onion rings. ☺ We didn’t stay too long though, since we had to be up early for brekky (“breakfast”) the next day. I got home, got showered, and collapsed into bed.

The Camp Lodge and our Van/Bus/Thing

Once again, I awoke to the blazing heat of the early morning in our little caravan. I was extremely sticky and couldn’t wait to get up to the bathhouse and turn on some cold water. We were supposed to meet for breakfast at 8:30, and I thought I was doing fine. But somehow during the night, our clock got bumped, lost an hour or something, and we were behind the whole time. I got there as breakfast was finishing up at 9:30. Oh well – just in time to grab some toast with bacon (ham) and an egg on it.

After breakfast, I was going to meet that girl Claire for a voice lesson. She, Jessica Blake, and I all went down to the Blake’s bungalow to do our work in the cool Air Con. Claire has a very nice, clear voice, and I was so glad to have this time to work with her. We went over some things like having good support and breathing and going for the end of the line instead of one note at time. All that good music stuff. I was hoping to just be a good encouragement to Jessica as she works with her. I also challenged Claire at the end to keep the purpose in mind of why she has any talent – to further the Gospel.

The Hottest I have ever been in my Life

When we got done, I walked back up to the main camp area to find the team playing Cricket – or at least trying to. I still don’t think I understand the game very well, but I got a chance to bat and didn’t do too badly. The sun was getting amazingly hot by this time, and I was sweating beyond all reason. So then it was time to go in for Smoke Ho. Smoke Ho is another term for Morning Tea (since most people usually have a smoke then too). However, we opted out of the smoking and just had tea, scones (pronounced “Scons”), and cold prawns (or shrimp). The prawns were actually meant for supper the night before, but they forgot about them. So we had them for Smoke Ho. I couldn’t believe anyone would want to eat, what with breakfast just being finished up. And drinking hot tea when it was 95 degrees outside! Unbelievable! But I love scones and shrimp, so I couldn’t say no. The prawns were actually still including the heads – aka eyes, antenna, etc. The first part of eating them involved tearing the heads off, then peeling the shell off, and THEN eating them. It’s a process, and not one I really want to dwell on. All this squishy stuff would come out of the head when you tore it off. Gross!

After the Smoke Ho, it was time to leave for Cairns, which meant that Joel and I had to go back to the caravan and pack up. That trailer was so hot! We were only in there maybe 7 minutes packing up, and by then I was sweating more than I ever have in my whole life. I can’t even describe how hot I was (because of the humidity). We loaded up the van, and I was so glad – so glad – to get inside of the air conditioned vehicle. And even more, I was extremely glad to be leaving the land of the deadly reptiles. A huge feeling of relief overwhelmed me as we drove away. I would have been sad to leave Peter and Jessica, but they are coming up to Cairns for our meetings.

The Great Dividing Range (and some cane fields)

As we drove along up to Cairns, I was finally able to see all of the incredibly beautiful scenery along the way (that I missed at 2 am coming down). The mountains are amazing! I only wish I could have captured their beauty on my camera – I did try. Just about an hour after we left, the driver, Lumpy, wanted to know if we were ready for lunch yet. Lunch? I couldn’t believe it! I was stuffed! These Australians must be part Hobbit. All I could think of was that part in Lord of the Rings where the hobbits are asking, “What about second breakfast? And elevensies? And onesies?” Yeah, so anyway, they must really like to eat. None of us were hungry, however, and so we drove on. An hour or two later, we finally did stop for lunch at a Fish ‘n Chips place, which was, by the way, incredible. Fresh mackerel batter dipped and deep-fried with fries – nothing better!

Lumpy (our amazing bus driver)

And finally we made it to Cairns. We unloaded at the church (Stephen Mock’s church called Trinity Baptist) and everyone immediately went home with his or her people. Joel and I are staying with the Mocks, and they only live about 5 minutes away in nice, new neighborhood – with Air Con!! It felt So Good to stand in front of that air conditioner. We had a delicious supper of chicken curry with them, and then we all sat down to watch the Rugby game. It was the World Cup Final in Rugby, and Australia was playing New Zealand – so this game was huge! I’ve never really understood rugby before, but I think it’s finally starting to make sense. Those are some tough guys out there. No wonder they make fun of the NFL! They just play with no padding on the whole time, and it’s brutal. The whole goal of the game is to wear the other team down. So when they tackle, they just ground the guy into the field for as long as they can. I think it’s the game of savages. But apparently they think it’s civilized.

I spent some time getting ready for the services the next day and enjoyed having the opportunity to get to bed early – in a nice, cool bedroom. I slept long and hard after I collapsed into bed.

Our little

I awoke this morning to feel several small creatures crawling on me. I was relieved to find out that they were just bugs and NOT the little gecko that had stuck his tongue out at me the night before. And besides the bugs, I was sticky all over. The sun was out in full and so our little pop-up “caravan” was becoming quite the oven. A humid oven. All showering had to be done up at the bathhouse, so Joel and I yanked some clothes on and headed up. As humid and sticky as it was, all clothing had to be literally yanked on. I wasn’t quite as fearful of the snakes now that the sun was out and I could see all around me. However, I was pretty skeptical of the bathhouse. At least all of the other girls were in there with me. Hopefully they scared everything away first. Talk about real-life missions.

At 10:00 am, we had breakfast in the lodge, which consisted of several different cereals and toast with vegemite on it. What is vegemite, you may ask? Well, I’ll describe it as best as I can: it’s basically like a beef bouillon cube mixed with some water that makes it into a paste – and then you spread it on toast. Not exactly American. But I just pretended that I had toast and was dipping it in beef stew – and that helped. We also had hot tea at breakfast, but I couldn’t drink anything like that. I was still so hot! They don’t have any Air Conditioning (or “Air Con,” as they call it) anywhere on the campsite, so there wasn’t exactly anywhere to cool off. And I’d even taken a cold shower! Oh well. Breakfast was still good.

Rail Cars full of Raw Cane

Following breakfast, we all piled into our van/bus thing and went for a drive around the greater Ingham area. Ingham is best described as a few houses surrounded by fields and fields of sugar cane – the main industry here. And what we got was basically a tour of all of these cane fields and factories. My favorite part was definitely when we stopped really fast next to a train car that was filled with sugar-In-the-Raw. Kevin, our tour guide, got out and grabbed a handful of it and shared it with us all. It was so good! It had a really sweet molasses-like taste to it. I just wanted more and more, so it’s a good thing I only had a pinch of it. We also stopped at a pier just for a little walking break. There was a small beach, and along the beach we found dozens of small little sand dollars. I think we’re going to try to dry them out and bleach them – if we can keep them in one piece.

An Aussie Meal

When we got back, Peter and Jessica had prepared for us a truly Aussie meal. We had sausages and fried onions on pieces of buttered bread. Then you could put ketchup (“Tomato Sauce”) on it if you wanted. I opted out of that one. We also had a variety of meat pies, which reminded me more of a quiche with lots of crust. Mine had egg in it though, and the others just had a meat paste. Everything so far was very yummy. For dessert, I chose to try the Pavlova, which turned out to be AMAZING. The main part of it, which looks like it might be white cake, is actually more of like a meringue substance – extremely sweet and sticky. Then on top of that is a small layer of freshly whipped cream (not quite as sweet as ours). All of this sweetness was topped with fruit – strawberries, kiwis, and passion fruit seeds. I got addicted to the passion fruit seeds. They’re citrus-tasting on the outside, but then really crunchy when you eat them (kind of like kiwi seeds only bigger). So good!

By the time we finished our lunch, we only had about an hour before we had to leave for the church to prepare for our evening service. Joel and I just hung out at the Blake’s bungalow (which had air con) until we had to get ready. It was the first time the whole day that I finally stopped sweating. But then I had to go into our little caravan and change. So much for that. We got to the church around 6:00pm and began practicing for our Irish Concert of sorts. We didn’t have any microphones to work with, but the room was fairly small.

The Irish-Aussie Concert

Our concert and service went very well, and 4 people (out of a total of maybe 80 or 90) responded to the Gospel. How exciting that was to see God work in this small ministry Down Under. I really enjoyed talking to the Aussies afterwards when we had our “supper” (which is a light snack before bed). The team ended up playing some bluegrass, and one of the teen girls told me sounded really weird. I’m sure it did to most of them. ☺ I told her it was weird to a lot of Americans too (unless you were from the South). I had a great conversation with one girl named Claire, who is a junior in high school and also likes to sing. She takes lessons from Jessica Blake, but they both actually wanted me to meet with her the next day and have a lesson. I’m excited about working with Claire, as it will hopefully be another good opportunity to connect more with her.

When we got back to the camp, I was pretty tired. But I became wide awake at the thought of having to walk back to our “caravan” (camper) again – in the dark. It didn’t help that on the way home, one of the guys was a relating a story of how Jody, a worker at the camp, was walking back one night and got bit by a snake in the dark. Obviously she survived. I just didn’t relish the thought of the unseen. I tried to be brave as we walked to the caravan, but the farther we walked, the more sounds I could hear all around me. My imagination got the better of me, and Joel ended up practically carrying me the rest of the way. What a nice husband! I was actually glad to make it to the stuffy caravan, and I collapse into my little bed.