Leaving it Behind

I'm going to start posting a bit of my journaling from the trip so people can get a general idea of what I did while I was there. There's going to be a lot of cutting though because I have over 50 pages of journaling from there and I can't be bothered to type it all out, just as I'm sure no one would be bothered to read it all. So here's the first edition, cut to bits I'm sure, but at least it's something.

Monday, July 28
Thursday/Friday was the longest day of my life. 3-4 hours of sleep, up at 5:15 and off to the airport at 5:45. My flight to LAX was flawless, as well as my transfer to the Intl terminal... A person can only watch so many movies, play so many games and eat so much food. The first ten hours went really well. The last three sucked. But I made it, eventually got my passport stamped, grabbed my luggage and went through the red line at customs... There were probably close to 100 people waiting where we exited, but I spotted Mel at the end when she jumped up and down. Leah drove us through the city and over the Harbour bridge before we headed for Mel's. We hung out a bit but I went to bed pretty quickly because I was so exhausted. Unfortunately I only got 4-5 hours of sleep. Jet lag was killing me.

Friday Mel and I bummed around the area. She showed me Hills and we got some exotic lunch at a local shopping center. Leah and I went to Powerhouse, Hillsong's College group, that night... It was cool but definitely different... I got a lot more sleep that night, though still not great.

The next day (sat) was Leah's birthday. Mel and I hung out in the morning and Leah came out about 1:30. We went to Leah's first where I met her Mum for the first time. Then we walked down this path by her house to a place where the ferry would pick us up. Coming into Sydney was incredible. I just starred at the Opera house in disbelief. Leah laughed. I couldn't believe I was there...We got back to Leah's house where I met her sister for the first time... I also met some of her friends and her Dad.

We went to dinner at 7:30, and it was a VERY long night. We ordered late, and the restaurant was slow in general. The waiter teased me about asking for water and not having wine ("what, do you want to do the washing?")...

Leah drove us home that night and ended up staying the night at Mel's. We hung around and talked a lot. We sung a bit as well. I'd had the song "I see the Lord" stuck in my head since that morning, so we sung that. It's been so cool to worship alongside my friends. I am amazed by their love for God, and the connection we have through him. The night ended a bit less serious though, as we sung Shout to the Lord "like Darlene" with a dramatic key change (into B!) at the end.