People will undoubtedly ask me if I have enjoyed my visit to Australia and the answer will be yes.
Yes for so many reasons. The welcome I have received, the warmth, friendliness and kindness of people has been overwhelming.
Today was another trip out to view a little of this vast country.
Perhaps the one thing that has made an impression on me is the sheer size of this place. I am only in a small corner of this vast country yet even that has given me at least an insight into how massive this country really is.
From where I am staying in the suburbs of Melbourne it takes about an hour to reach the City Centre. I know that where I live in Derryboy 17 miles from Belfast that sometime it takes an hour to reach Belfast City Centre not because of distance just traffic. 4 lane freeways (which are not free because they are heavily tolled) filled with traffic cross the city daily.To travel for hours is normal here, to go to a meeting, to meet friends and drive for an hour or two isn’t unusual.
The other thing that has made me think is my attitude to water. It has rained here nearly every day. Friday 29 October was beautiful and sunny. From then it has rained most days. The rain here has been most welcome as for a number of years rainfall has been low and reservoirs have been low. The daily newspaper gives an update on the water level of the reservoirs.
We visited Cardinia reservoir today. It holds 287,000 million litres of water when full. Even after all the rain it is only 49% full. Water is so precious here that it isn’t wasted and every means is used to collect rainwater and use it.
The beauty of trees , plants wildlife has been a wonder to behold. It is bit unusual to see spring flowers bloom in November but then this is an upside down world. Spring and summer is approaching here and summer holidays are taken between December and February. However it is amusing to see Christmas cards for sale with snow scenes and snowmen on them. Long live tradition!
My daughter keeps reminding me of how many more sleeps I have before heading home. I write this on Wednesday night , one more blog post and 2 more sleeps before I board the plane on Friday for the long haul home. Home to family, friends, work ,cold weather and Christmas cards with snowmen that don’t look out of place!
I arrived safely in Australia on Thursday. Two long flights. Dublin to Abu Dhabi and then Abu Dhabi to Melbourne. Thank you for your prayers.
The most stressful part was waiting at the luggage carousel hoping my bag had followed me. Thankfully it had. However standing beside me was a lady and we got talking. She had just returned to Melbourne from visiting family in Belfast. On asking her what part I learnt she was from the Creagh Road in East Belfast.
She wanted to know why I was visiting Australia and I told her I was over to preach. Her name is Margaret who told me she was a Christian and was so pleased to meet me albeit at the end of the journey. While in Belfast she had visited the Arc coffee shop at Orangefield Presbyterian church and was greatly encouraged by the work going on there
Barry Sprott my good friend at Tel-it had supplied me with some Gospel folders to give out to those people I might have a ‘chance’ encounter with and among the folders was one called ‘Finding the Way in Belfast’ which I gave to Margaret .
On Friday my hosts George and Kathleen Murray who have kindly let me stay with them in their new home took me to Rosebud. We passed through Mornington. Those of a certain vintage may remember the pop song by the Seekers with the line ‘All on board for Mornington, many miles away’
It is many miles from Northern Ireland but I drove through it today
The sun has been shining and I even got to paddle my feet in the water. Life is tough!
Don’t be too envious the forecast is for rain next week. I have been assured while it may be wet the rain will be warm!
At the beach today painted above the door of a beach hut was ‘Life is a Beach’
It seems for so many in this land that this is the ‘god’ who is worshiped.
