Suffering for the Cause

So I was checking into the cost of getting back to Sydney after Christmas and all of the standard options are expensive. I checked with three travel agents and a number of different web sites and found the cheapest direct flight would be booked online instead of through a travel agent and would cost more than my ticket when I came here the first time; and would have some extra hassles with it. After much searching, I got as creative as my accountant-type mind can and checked two different airlines for separate tickets meeting in the middle. Here’s what I found.

Canadian carrier Westjet has a seat sale from Winnipeg to Honolulu and Australian carrier Qantas has a seat sale from Sydney to Honolulu and back ($150 cheaper to get a return ticket instead of getting a one way from Honolulu to Sydney). As a result of these two seat sales, it’s substantially cheaper to take this option than to buy a direct flight.

Now everyone knows it’s not wise to get tickets with two different carriers without allowing enough time between flights; just in case the first one is delayed (a very real possibility for a flight out of Winnipeg in January) so I felt I needed to make sure I had enough time between the flights. Also playing into the equation is a limited flight selection by the time I had made enough other arrangements to actually buy the tickets; but in the end, the tickets end up leaving me stranded in Hawaii for 5 days in January. The savings in ticket prices will cover about half my costs while I’m there, and as a result of doing this, I could save between $500 and $1,000 on plane tickets next Christmas – and save hassles of changing flight dates around mid-year. All in all, it looks like I’ll be saving money by spending some time in Honolulu.

Now I realize there’s a price to be paid for going to school and getting into ministry; so I’m willing to do this. If any of you has been to Honolulu before and has some good advice for me on what to see and where to stay while I’m there, please leave me a post with that advice or send me an email. I appreciate all the help I can get in minimizing the difficulties I have to endure in spending this time on a small island in the middle of the Pacific.

Harsh weather

I just have to tell you all that yesterday was the coldest November day in Sydney in 100 years. We got down to 8 degrees Celsius and only hit a daytime high of 15. Ouch is that ever cold!

Men's Conference

Just a quick update to let you all know something is happening here. Last night was the start of men’s conference. It was a great evening with around 4,000 men out worshiping God and bettering themselves. It started with half an hour of “fun” which included four men in a competition of some common “domestic” duties like ironing, taking care of a baby, and waxing (their choice of which part of their body). Then we all settled in for some great worship and moved on to an amazing message from Casey Treat about renewing our minds and the need for change in our lives in order for growth and improvement. The place was packed like I’ve never seen this building yet and there were many commitments to change. If my camera would take better pictures, I’d put a few more up here but here’s the best I got.

Saturday continued with more great stuff and then the keynote speakers, Casey Treat and Kevin Gerald, also spoke at the Sunday services. We also took up an offering that is going 100% to mission work in Rwanda and got just over $242,000 for that. The conference was truly great.

In case any of you are interested in coming to the Hillsong Conference next year in July, some of the people coming out for it were announced at men’s conference. Steven Curtis Chapman, Chris Tomlin, Israel Houghton, T.D. Jakes, and Lou Giglio to name the ones I remember. It will be great!




Taken just after the session ended Friday Night










A nice shot of my friend Ryan before the evening began. Even Ryan though this was a good picture.

Time to let it out

There’s something I have not said on this blog yet but I think the time has come. Actually the time has come because I feel it’s time for an update but I don’t know what to write.

I’ve come to the realization that one of the most amazing things about the Hillsong Church is that the church does something well in such a laidback society.

From the day I got here, I’ve noticed poor quality in almost everything and I thought at first that it was just my perfectionist nature coming out. It’s not.

Case one:
I was talking about this with another man the other day and he said he and his wife had started a business when they got here and had a really hard time selling something with quality attached to it. He had actually been told by some Aussie’s not to bother trying to do quality because it wouldn’t sell.

Case two:
In Canada, if you measure one step in a staircase, you can generally tell the size of the rest. Not so here. You might be walking down a flight of stairs and all of them are the same height until the last and then there’s an extra inch on one step. Or this extra inch might be in the middle of the staircase.

Case three:
Driving down the road, every second car has a dent in it. To many reasons to get into why.

Case four:
A million dollar house is built and there are half inch gaps between the door and the frame.

Case five:
Paving stone in used in a lot of places but a proper foundation is seldom laid so the bricks are loose, move freely when you walk, and do not keep their position for long

Case six:
There’s an apartment building being built across the street from my place. When I got here two and a half months ago, there were four floors to it. There are now 4 and a quarter floors to it. Any slower and they’ll have to redo the bottom before the top is finished. Now the problem isn’t actually the speed of their work but I’m looking at it from about 200 yards away and I can see from here that the concrete is not strong. Anyone who’s worked with concrete would know this is a problem. From a few feet away, I should be able to tell; but not from 200 yards!

Well, there’s someone here to check the value of the property I’m in so I need to go. So long

Starting a Connect Group

I met up with the pastor in charge of the people aged 25-35 a couple weeks back and after two minutes of talking, he told me I should start leading a connect group. I wasn’t sure how serious he was until later that evening when I was at my connect meeting and my leader talked with me about it. The pastor had told her to make sure she talked with me and encourage me to do it. Well, one thing led to another and I’ve now been to a meeting for new connect leaders and am working through the process of becoming one. I’m planning to start it after I get back from Christmas. The people in leadership I’ve been in contact with are quite excited about me starting one and as I was talking about it with some other students the other day they said they would like to join mine. I hadn’t really thought about leading a connect group already but when it was suggested to my I realized I had no reason not to and tons of reasons to do it; so here we go… I’m here for two years training for leadership. I may as well put it into practice right from the start.