Jesus and Jack Black

For my 22 birthday my New Zealander host family threw a “barbeque” for me and I got to invite my friends. So basically New Zealanders threw a party for an American who invited a bunch of Australians. Go figure. It’s been a while since I posted but in a nut shell I turned 22 and Stephen got to visit me for two weeks. This had to be my favorite birthday too. I got a super huge stuffed gorilla, soap, raw kangaroo (which I did in fact eat), camel poop (I did not eat!), 2 cakes, and a box of cereal. They literally sang happy birthday to me 3 times throughout the day which meant that I blushed 3 times that day. For the program that night some of the youth showed a video we had made together. It featured me asking one of the boys to pass the ketchup. Since they don’t have ketchup here they pretend to be confused and agreed that we should catch up. “Ketchup!” I say and they then pick up a cat and say oh “cats up!” “No kethchup!” I continue and they proceed to put the cat in a bowl saying “oh cat soup” Quite clever I must say.

The youth seemed to enjoy Stephen quite a bit. Because of his beard many of the kids thought he looked like either Jack Black or Jesus. I tried to throw in George Clooney but they weren’t too keen on that. Together we got to go to the Mornigton Peninsula, an Australian zoo, a ruby game with the pastor, the Victorian market, Frankston, Australia, the beach, and unfortunately the airport as well. I even took him to my classes. The next time I see him will be in four months and I’m not too excited about that fact.

I’m beginning to feel more settled in now. Australians are great at making you feel welcome and they’ve all gone above and beyond for me. I’ve been so thankful for their kindness over these few weeks. I actually remember most people’s names now! I’m learning so much from my classes here and I’m starting to get more involved with everything. I’ve been asked to do several devotionals since I’ve last written and I feel much more comfortable doing them now. I might be teaching Sunday school soon and in the near future I’ll be teaching bible in the schools to 3rd graders. We’ll see how that goes. I find that I grow more when I’m forced to be put out of my comfort zone at least once a day. If you would have told me that I would be doing this kind of stuff a year ago I would have freaked out. But I find that I have the most fun, make the most impact, and grow the most when I agree to do things that are difficult for me to do at first.

Randomness (as always) :
~It never ceases to make my day when I hear an Australian imitate the ever popular Forest Gump. They tend to do this all the time and it sounds nothing like Forest Gump. I’m not too sure what it sounds like actually.

~I don’t understand that 90% of Australians can’t distinguish what type of American accent I have. They don’t hear the twang or the draw. It’s just an American accent to them and they can’t tell a difference from me and a guy from New York city. I find this highly puzzling.

~I’ve just received my new road bike! I got to test ride it today (first sunny day in a while) and it was amazing. Except for the fact that I continued to get passed up by teams of old men and women.

~ Apparently spitting outside is illegal here. At least that’s what the youth told me. But then again they’ve also told me that an elephant is buried under the church and that it’s illegal to not twirl your umbrella.

~However I might believe it because there does seem to be a few weird laws here. You’re not allowed to cut trees down in your own yard! There’s a $20,000 reward for turning in your neighbor who does so. The ironic thing is there was only a $2,000 reward for turning in a dude who heavily assaulted another person. You can’t own a gun except for a few minor exceptions. If you injure a person who breaks inside your house you have a high chance of being sued. I can’t carry maze. If a burglar comes into your backyard and gets bitten by your dog then its big trouble for you.

~ Remember when I said if an Australian invites you over for tea that means dinner? Well it gets even more confusing. Sometimes if they say we’re going to have dinner and it’s 10 at night then that means they want to have a snack. However, if they say “we're going to have dinner tonight at 6” then that most likely means an extremely nice meal with many courses. Yet if they want to have dinner but it’s breakfast time then I have absolutely no idea what they’re talking about.

~ I’m going to have a very exciting and busy week due to an important event called “Expo”. This is a huge youth rally that our church puts on twice a year. The majority of attendees are unchurched kids. The goal to get them through the door and show them that church isn’t as scary as they though it was. It’s a night of games, food, bands, and a short but hopefully effective talk. We’re all working hard to make sure it goes as smoothly as possible. I’d appreciate it if you’d keep it in your prayers.

~ As always thanks for reading my blogs. More to come soon.

4 days or less

Sorry guys! So Stephen came to visit. I therefore have not had the time to sit down and post. I'll get one up here in 4 days or less. Keep looking and thanks so much for reading.