Happy Father's Day!!!

Happy Father’s Day!

I believe there comes a time in every person’s life when they realize, at that particular moment, that they must look completely ridiculous. However they fail to do anything about it because they are having so much fun. I must admit that I’ve had more than my fair share of these moments in my own life but one particular instant came up just a few days ago. It involved me being taught an Australian dance by a few 12 year olds while trying to imitate the Australian accent, failing miserably, with icing spread on my face like Indian war paint. I had that moment. You might ask how this comes to be. All I can say is you might be in the same boat if you volunteered to make dessert with a bunch of 12 and 10 year olds. Kids don’t just make dessert and go home. Nope. Kids make dessert, lick the beaters, drop icing all over the floor, have a food fight, spread the icing all over face, learn new dance moves with icing on face, coax double left footed youth leader to learn the same moves, spread icing all over neighbor’s face, attempt to drink raw eggs, make a cooking show and take 108 pictures of the experience. If only I had this much fun every time I cooked. We made a popular Australian dish called “Pavlova”. Everyone was completely amazed that I’ve never even heard of the dish much less tried it. After trying it I decided that I have to move it to my famous "Wagley's top 10” favorite dessert list. It melts in your mouth and contains zero calories. Just playing. But it really does melt in your mouth.

The big expo night went smoothly. We had a turnout of a little over 100 kids. They all seemed to enjoy it. 90% of the kids responded to the “alter call”. I call it “altar call” because I honestly feel like the well intentioned speaker did it in a very deceiving (not intentional) and vague way meaning that most of the kids had no idea what they were doing. It went something like this “and now if you would like to throw away all the baggage in your life to Jesus come to the front and we’ll pray for you. Please Lord accept their baggage.” Since I’m in charge of follow up my main goal will be to clarify a few things and explain what a Christian is and how one becomes a Christian. My job with follow up is to have a weekly session for the kids wishing to know more about what they did and to help them grasp a basic understanding of Christianity. I’ve had the first session already and out of the 80+ kids who came to the front only 3 came back the following week. This might seem like a failure but I have to remind myself that numbers are sometimes an inaccurate way to measure success. Sometimes it’s about sincerity of heart and if we have even one new, serious believer out of our efforts on expo then it’ll be worth it. Plus I’m the type of person to do better in a small atmosphere and frankly I was a little intimated and freaked out about leading a session with 80+ kids. Yet now I’d say that I’m about 90% inspired and 10% overwhelmed about leading this. A great place to be I must say. So I guess we’ll continue to have the sessions once a week and hope and pray that it’ll grow.

~I’ve been having such a great time with my new bike. However, I find it a bit daunting when I continually get passed by old men on mountain bikes that seem to be out on a midday stroll. They smile at my out of breath and sweaty self and say “g’day” as they slowly pass by me. Grrrr

~I’m leading a skit for the youth to do on Sunday morning church. Yes yes I know please don’t laugh. I’ve had absolutely no experience with drama much less leading a team of overly energetic and caffeinated 14 year olds. But all has gone well so far. C’mon what’s the worse that can happen?

~“What are S’mores”? Yes I was actually asked this by several people in response to an idea I had about roasting marshmallows over a camp fire. This question might actually be even more surprising than the “what are hershey bars” question. I thought everyone knew! Yet this time I was more prepared and gave a much better response. It went something like this: “S'more appears to be a contraction of the phrase, "some more". The informal nature of this term reflects the environment in which s'mores are traditionally served and its meaning hints at the desires of campers who are not satisfied by just one s'more. Some have jokingly surmised that the name originated from people who were so busy eating the tasty treat that they did not have time to speak in complete sentences” Just joking. But I did explain it much better.

~I can’t believe that my classes are almost half way over. I’ve really been enjoying them and find that it’s been such a learning experience for me. All my classes consist entirely of essays. This is essentially a good thing because that means there are no late night study sessions but at the same time I feel like half my life is spent writing away (essays, emails, blogs, facebook, etc...) I bet I’ll become quite good at it in the end.

~Happy father’s Day dad! I know we’ve already celebrated it in America but Australians celebrate it today. Sorry mom (or should I say mum?) but mother’s day is the same day in both places.

~If I’m having a phone conversation with an Australian there’s a 90% chance that there will be a miscommunication in one form or another. To be honest, I have trouble understanding Australians as it is but on the phone I don’t have the benefit of reading their lips and smiling sweetly. There’s only so many whats, huhs, and pardons that I can do before I give up. Texts messaging has helped me tremendously.

~I have just returned from the ever popular AFL game. AFL stands for Australian Rules football and everyone here is absolutely crazy about it. September is the most intense month and I can’t go anywhere without hearing about it or seeing both men and women decked out in appeal. The best way to describe it is to say it’s a mix between soccer and football. They do not wear padding or helmets and it’s often called footy for short (Australians shorten everything). The first few days I was here in Australia I kept referring to it as “footsy” instead of footy. Needless to say that’s been taken care of.

~Australia is so stinkin' expensive

~Sometimes it’s not about the things you marked off your list that day but the relationships that you formed or the time spent with someone else.