Merry Christmas!!!

For the past few weeks I’ve been wondering what that something is that’s keeping me from getting into the Christmas spirit. Then I realized it’s not a specific something but a lack of. No Christmas lights! No Christmas music on the radio stations! No overabundance of high fat packed Christmas desserts! And…… no fat Santa’s! Not to mention I have a sunburn. And I’m sleeping in a 94 degree house (only once or twice) Hot houses and a blaringly hot sun are not the first few things that come to mind when one thinks of Christmas. But as somebody famous once said, I don’t think I’m in Kansas anymore. Or Texas. However, with Christmas only one day away I think I’m finally getting into it and I’m ready. I’m pretty excited to experience Christmas in Australia. Even without the proper amount of Christmas lights I still find it great. Just yesterday we went to a huge Christmas concert in Melbourne were all the famous Australian singers performed. It was great fun except for the fact that we had to wait in line for two hours during the hottest part of the day just to get in. The sun never gave us a break and it was absolutely the hottest, craziest, most resilient sun I’ve ever experienced. We walked right by a girl who had passed out ahead of us from heat exhaustion. Then the other day the youth and I went all around to different nursing homes and got to sing Christmas carols. In short, I’m ready for Christmas! Oh and the best thing about Christmas in Australia is that it comes a day earlier!

One great thing about the hot weather here is that I can finally go swim in the ocean. Unfortunately the ocean harbors many sea creatures that are not my friend. Especially the Australian ocean. I learned this the hard way. A few days ago a friend and I wanted to see how far we could swim in the ocean even though the waves were really bad that day. Normally the water is almost crystal clear which make it great for spotting the sea creatures that I would like to avoid. However, since it was very wavy that day we were not able to see any of those unfavorable water villains. Then I got stung by a jellyfish, caught a cramp, started panicking, and kept choking on the waves. I eventually regained my composure and swam the 10 minutes back to shore. I think that’s how people drown. Why is it that the first time I go swimming in the Australian ocean I get stung by a jellyfish whenever my friends here have been swimming for all their lives and have never gotten stung? Good thing I can swim with one leg. Ha!

The other day I had to do a “children’s talk” in front of church which consisted of getting in front of the church and talking to the kids during the Sunday morning service. It would have been great except for the fact that I got silent stares whenever I asked them questions. Tough crowd. I wrapped up a plastic baby Jesus and then told them that the best present God ever gave us was under the wrapping paper. Upon opening it they just stared at it. Then I was like “a plastic doll! God gave us all a big plastic doll for the entire world to have! How exciting!” Of course I explained everything later but I couldn’t resist.

Not too much else has gone on except for work, Christmas shopping, babysitting, teaching RE and youth stuff. All youth programs are officially over for a whole month. Stephen will be here tomorrow so I have a feeling I might not be writing in my blog as much. Sorry! I’ll do my best though. The church just hired a new, official youth minister. It’s a great thing because we’ve needed one for a long time. So it’s been a big prayer answer for the church. Other than that I’m just ready for Christmas tomorrow with friends and….. friends! Merry Christmas!


Funny Moment of the Month: I had to do a sermon a few weeks ago in front of the church. It all went well except for the barrier in communication that sometimes happens. One of the points I was trying to make was that Jesus was so perfect that when you think of a dart board he would be in the "center". His example is hard to follow much like hitting the center of the dart board. It's almost impossible at times. This was all great and fine except for the fact that throughout most of the service everyone thought I kept saying that Jesus was the "sinner". "Everybody Jesus it the sinner. We can't ever be like him." Eventually they got it and we all had a good ol' laugh afterwards.