One of the ways you COULD spend $8 in Australia

You could...but we didn't--many thanks to our awesome housemate Sabrina for spoiling us!!!

Easter Weekend

It is kind of weird celebrating Easter in the middle of fall, and what a shock when we learned that Good Friday and Easter are recognized as public holidays in Australia.  We had a really great long weekend starting with Good Friday services on (obviously) Friday morning.  It was such a great time to reflect on the sacrifice God made for us.  So often I feel like we don't spend enough time truly remembering what those three days must have been like for all those surrounding Jesus.  

On Saturday morning we had a barbecue with our neighborhood we go to for street teams.  We had a great turn out.  We decorated eggs with the kids, made easter baskets and gave out lots of lollies.  When we came home we found that our housemate had made a huge Easter meal for most of the college houses in our neighborhood so we had 23 people over for lunch.  It was so yummy!!!

On Sunday, we played a special at the beginning of the Chinese Extension service.  It was a medley of Easter hymns/choruses.  Matt sang in English and they displayed the words translated into mandarin on the screen behind us.  In the afternoon, we needed rest to keep going.  During the evening services, we had a super powerful celebration service.  The church has started an art and film festival surrounding Easter themes, and they used the short films to emphasize the story of Jesus' death and resurrection.  If you get a chance you should check them out at www.myhillsong.com/artfestival .

We hope that you all had a great Easter! We are so lucky to have developed great friendships here so that we are not sooo lonely, but we miss you all dearly and are so grateful for your love and support. Happy Easter!!

The Moon

Beautiful Lookout Point

After an afternoon at the beach, we went driving around and found Sydney Harbour National Park.  It was a lot of trees as would be expected until we rounded a corner and found this awesome lookout point with a view of Sydney across the water.  We found it right as the sun was setting.  It was beautiful.  Pictures just don't do it justice...I guess you will just have to come and visit.  We have added it to our visitors itinerary.  :) And we are still trying to figure out what a Bandicoot is...more to come on that.

Palm Sunday at the beach

April 2, 2009

Happy Anniversary!  Four years of wedded bliss and we get to spend it in Australia..How wonderful!!!  We had a great day...we spent a little time shopping at Ikea and had swedish meatballs for lunch, Yum!! Tiff had to teach a violin lesson in the evening so we planned to go for dinner after the lesson.  To our pleasant surprise...our housemates called us on our way home and informed us that we were not to make plans for dinner because they were preparing it for us.  What a treat! Francis and Sabrina took the 30 minute walk to and from the grocery store to prepare a feast for us.  For starters we had salad and potato wedges.  Then we had steak, mashed potatoes, corn on the cob, and tomato salad.  For dessert we had fruit salad, chocolate fondue, and  chocolate hummina, hummina, hummina, !!! Of course, we enjoyed all of this with a game of scrabble...We are so blessed to be in this house.  We are so loved by our housemates!!!