Hi Everyone,
I just realized, that I haven't given my new address out, so I better get on the ball and share it now while I can.
OK, so I know it's not exactly the best time to share the new address out, now that most people may have sent Christmas Cards to my old address, but later is better than never. Also, for those that have sent me mail to my old address, I do keep in touch and visit my old place now and then, and can pick up my mail from there too.
Paul Ross
18 Coorumbene Court (Ct)
Bella Vista, Sydney
N.S.W., Australia
Postal Code: 2153
Thanks for reading, and keeping up to date so far, the year 2007 has been nothing short of incredible, and I can only imagine and look forward to what 2008 will offer!
Remember that next month, from January 2nd, till January 15th, I'll be in another part of Australia, and I should have pictures and videos to share with everyone by that time. Thanks again for keeping updated, and for caring to read my blogs thus far, the adventure thus far has been one I'm very glad to have shared it with so many loved ones.
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Merry Christmas Everyone!
Season's greetings to all, and may the best wishes of the New Year come true.
I'm excited to have experienced Christmas over-seas in Australia, but I will admit, it has been an interesting Christmas to experience without the usual friends and loving family that I would have shared it with from those back home in Canada. My love and best wishes go out to all of you back home, and to enjoy the holidays, to grow closer to each other during this festive and Joyous time of year. All the children are getting ready to open gifts soon, and the parents anticipate the lit up faces they'll have in the morning. The snow outside must be quite the blessing to be comforted by the warm fires inside and the welcoming hearts of family as they dine together in fellowship of Christ's birth. Wow, I really miss home right now. That's OK, I'll have plenty of Christmases again in my future when I return in many years from now. All the more to appreciate them for when I return.
Well, my day ahead of me will be spending Christmas dinner at one of the College leader's house, with several students that have stayed here in Australia over the break. Though we miss our families back home, we have made our own culture of family over the Christmas season, of friends from all over the world. Many with different traditions to others, and different experiences and stories to tell from previous Christmas events from growing up.
I'm not sure if many people back home knew this, but for the past four days I've come down with a bit of a soar throat and a cold that has congested my chest. Its not exactly the best time to have a cold, while it is after all summer here in Australia, but in some cases it was almost needed for me to slow down. I did have the chance to participate in the Hillsong 2007 Christmas Spectacular with mic setups, but as for the last few shows, I couldn't help out, due to bed ridden sickness. It was most unfortunate, but the rest was well worth it. As of right now, I'm feeling much better, and hoping the sickness will have been fully healed by tomorrow morning, and will prepare for the next few days of potential work and preparation for a trip.
I've been offered a trip to visit Brisbane Australia, driving Pastor Phil Dooley's car through the Gold Coast, to drop his car off at the Brisbane Airport, and visit another College friend from Hillsong who lives there. So if you haven't noticed, my videos and photos have been very low recently, but soon that will all change, for another adventure is in the making for everyone back home to see. The trip will be completely covered from basically the hand of God blessing me with favor. Its an interesting story, but I'll fill in the details if anyone would like to ask.
So for now, I'm off to the Christmas dinner and wish all a Merry Christmas again, and be a great blessing to all you meet over these joyful holidays.
I'm excited to have experienced Christmas over-seas in Australia, but I will admit, it has been an interesting Christmas to experience without the usual friends and loving family that I would have shared it with from those back home in Canada. My love and best wishes go out to all of you back home, and to enjoy the holidays, to grow closer to each other during this festive and Joyous time of year. All the children are getting ready to open gifts soon, and the parents anticipate the lit up faces they'll have in the morning. The snow outside must be quite the blessing to be comforted by the warm fires inside and the welcoming hearts of family as they dine together in fellowship of Christ's birth. Wow, I really miss home right now. That's OK, I'll have plenty of Christmases again in my future when I return in many years from now. All the more to appreciate them for when I return.
Well, my day ahead of me will be spending Christmas dinner at one of the College leader's house, with several students that have stayed here in Australia over the break. Though we miss our families back home, we have made our own culture of family over the Christmas season, of friends from all over the world. Many with different traditions to others, and different experiences and stories to tell from previous Christmas events from growing up.
I'm not sure if many people back home knew this, but for the past four days I've come down with a bit of a soar throat and a cold that has congested my chest. Its not exactly the best time to have a cold, while it is after all summer here in Australia, but in some cases it was almost needed for me to slow down. I did have the chance to participate in the Hillsong 2007 Christmas Spectacular with mic setups, but as for the last few shows, I couldn't help out, due to bed ridden sickness. It was most unfortunate, but the rest was well worth it. As of right now, I'm feeling much better, and hoping the sickness will have been fully healed by tomorrow morning, and will prepare for the next few days of potential work and preparation for a trip.
I've been offered a trip to visit Brisbane Australia, driving Pastor Phil Dooley's car through the Gold Coast, to drop his car off at the Brisbane Airport, and visit another College friend from Hillsong who lives there. So if you haven't noticed, my videos and photos have been very low recently, but soon that will all change, for another adventure is in the making for everyone back home to see. The trip will be completely covered from basically the hand of God blessing me with favor. Its an interesting story, but I'll fill in the details if anyone would like to ask.
So for now, I'm off to the Christmas dinner and wish all a Merry Christmas again, and be a great blessing to all you meet over these joyful holidays.
Monday, December 17, 2007
Season's Update & Prelude
Season's Greetings to all!
Merry Christmas everybody, I'm sure in Canada it definitely feels like the Holidays are in full tilt with one week left to Christmas day, but I can honestly tell you that it doesn't really feel like Christmas in my end of the world. It has been an interesting past month since my last post, so I'll share my details as best I can.
Immediately after my birthday message on this very blog site, I had the busiest week of work I've experienced here in the land of Oz. I worked off a ten hour shift on a Saturday, went to a busy Sunday church service, then went full gear again on Monday with an eleven hour shift, and had two more days worth 13 hours combined. It was a blessed week, but I have to admit that the taxes on students in Oz aren't as friendly as they should be!
After the busy stretch passed, it was moving time for me to the new house. All my previous American house mates had shared a car three ways, and they were all back home in America for the Christmas break, so they allowed me to use their car as a blessing to help me move my belongings to the new house. The unfortunate part of this move was that moments before the car was fully packed, we had some interesting weather patterns strike up, and experienced all four season in 20 minutes time. It was extremely sunny, hot, and muggy one minute, the next minute it started to cool down rapidly, than winds started picking up violently, and large flashes of lightning followed with extremely loud cracks of thunder following shortly after each flash. It immediately started to rain, from literally nothing to all out flood rains. It was then followed by small bits of hail, randomly falling, down to golf ball size hail falling frequently, then to almost baseball sized hail falling rapidly. It then completely stopped all together, and became sunny again as though nothing happened. After that experience I was lucky enough to have the car parked inside the garage, protected from the randomness of the weird weather. The worst part of this weather wasn't the weather itself, but the aftermath of the weather. It left large "gum trees" and palm trees in pieces all over streets and downed power-lines for blocks near the Old Northern housing, right next to the main mall of the "Towers." Castle Towers is the name of the mall in Castle Hill where I used to live. So with that being said, I had to drive to the new house. It normally takes me 10 minutes to drive from Old Northern rd to the Hillsong area or Bella Vista (where I live now), but because of the traffic lights being down, and the police directing traffic as best they could, it took me over 50 minutes to get from Old Northern rd, to Bella Vista. The lesson learned for the day was definitely "patience."
The next week following is the experiences I've had here in the new house with the new house mates in Bella Vista. I have to say, that God led me to this house as a stretching point for me, to learn and grow. The truth is that He was right on the money about the growing experience! The guys I'm living with in this new house are great men of integrity and great men of God. We're all on the same page, we love life and share many things in common. On the plus side, I'm living with another Canadian from Ontario, and he has a great Canadian sense of humor that we as Canadians can truly enjoy and laugh about.
Next on the agenda of news would be the Hillsong Christmas Spectacular. Its a long title for the word "play." Anyways, Hillsong hosts this amazing production of a Christmas play that really is driven by excellence and has amazing theatricals and great everything really. I was involved with their setup in the City campus for a good 14 hours of volunteered work, and then on the performing night of the play, I helped one of my house mates with mic setups for all the main stars of the play, and switch ups with packs and communications during the Spec. It was a huge hit, and on the Sunday afternoon spec, Hugh Jackman, who was the lead actor in all three "X-Men" movies as Wolverine, was in the audience of the Christmas Spec and had a great time. It was really awesome to be part of the Spectacular, and I'm hoping for next weekend, that I'll be able to video tape a bit of myself in action working behind the scenes of the Christmas spec for all you lovely friends and family members back home. The Christmas Spectacular was a hit in the City campus, and now for next weekend, we'll perform it again in the Hills campus for its finale. It was definitely a blast working behind the scenes during the Spec, they provided us all with great food and kept us hydrated and "well groomed" so to speak during the production and action of the Spec. So thank God for those amazing blessings courtesy of Hillsong Church!
As for the end of this post, is to share my struggles in finances for this coming stretch of the 4 months ahead of me. I'm currently on my break working one job as much as I can, and am in search for job number 2 to help my end of year one at Hillsong International Leadership College. I would ask that as many people as possible that reads this very message would please pray on my behalf for finances to help my well being here in Australia. I'm not asking for donations, I'm asking for the faith of many people to unite and help trust in God's providing hand in my life for this time I have here. This past month has been a bit of a struggle, and the truth is that I have been too proud to admit it. Though I completely have faith in God over this situation, I still have worries about finances during my time of studies. Its an interesting balancing act, but I pray that I have the strength to not only carry on, but finish extremely well, and leave Australia in the right timing with no regrets.
I also would like to express how interesting it is to have this Christmas season as the first of many things. They include a Christmas without snow and friends and family. Though I will experience Christmas with great friends here in Australia, but without family is a big adjustment to the norm. I'm left with thoughts of well wishes over the holidays to everyone back home in Canada, with warm houses and love of Christ and family and friends in the air. Please remember the reason you celebrate the Christmas season, it was never intended to be a time off of work, but for generations and generations, it has always been a time to reflect why you celebrate this season. The birth of Christ is so crucial, that it even rests the soul reason why I'm in a foreign country. Do not forget, please, as my final request for this post, and to remain faithful in the Christmas spirit, with or without family and friends.
Love,
Paul
Merry Christmas everybody, I'm sure in Canada it definitely feels like the Holidays are in full tilt with one week left to Christmas day, but I can honestly tell you that it doesn't really feel like Christmas in my end of the world. It has been an interesting past month since my last post, so I'll share my details as best I can.
Immediately after my birthday message on this very blog site, I had the busiest week of work I've experienced here in the land of Oz. I worked off a ten hour shift on a Saturday, went to a busy Sunday church service, then went full gear again on Monday with an eleven hour shift, and had two more days worth 13 hours combined. It was a blessed week, but I have to admit that the taxes on students in Oz aren't as friendly as they should be!
After the busy stretch passed, it was moving time for me to the new house. All my previous American house mates had shared a car three ways, and they were all back home in America for the Christmas break, so they allowed me to use their car as a blessing to help me move my belongings to the new house. The unfortunate part of this move was that moments before the car was fully packed, we had some interesting weather patterns strike up, and experienced all four season in 20 minutes time. It was extremely sunny, hot, and muggy one minute, the next minute it started to cool down rapidly, than winds started picking up violently, and large flashes of lightning followed with extremely loud cracks of thunder following shortly after each flash. It immediately started to rain, from literally nothing to all out flood rains. It was then followed by small bits of hail, randomly falling, down to golf ball size hail falling frequently, then to almost baseball sized hail falling rapidly. It then completely stopped all together, and became sunny again as though nothing happened. After that experience I was lucky enough to have the car parked inside the garage, protected from the randomness of the weird weather. The worst part of this weather wasn't the weather itself, but the aftermath of the weather. It left large "gum trees" and palm trees in pieces all over streets and downed power-lines for blocks near the Old Northern housing, right next to the main mall of the "Towers." Castle Towers is the name of the mall in Castle Hill where I used to live. So with that being said, I had to drive to the new house. It normally takes me 10 minutes to drive from Old Northern rd to the Hillsong area or Bella Vista (where I live now), but because of the traffic lights being down, and the police directing traffic as best they could, it took me over 50 minutes to get from Old Northern rd, to Bella Vista. The lesson learned for the day was definitely "patience."
The next week following is the experiences I've had here in the new house with the new house mates in Bella Vista. I have to say, that God led me to this house as a stretching point for me, to learn and grow. The truth is that He was right on the money about the growing experience! The guys I'm living with in this new house are great men of integrity and great men of God. We're all on the same page, we love life and share many things in common. On the plus side, I'm living with another Canadian from Ontario, and he has a great Canadian sense of humor that we as Canadians can truly enjoy and laugh about.
Next on the agenda of news would be the Hillsong Christmas Spectacular. Its a long title for the word "play." Anyways, Hillsong hosts this amazing production of a Christmas play that really is driven by excellence and has amazing theatricals and great everything really. I was involved with their setup in the City campus for a good 14 hours of volunteered work, and then on the performing night of the play, I helped one of my house mates with mic setups for all the main stars of the play, and switch ups with packs and communications during the Spec. It was a huge hit, and on the Sunday afternoon spec, Hugh Jackman, who was the lead actor in all three "X-Men" movies as Wolverine, was in the audience of the Christmas Spec and had a great time. It was really awesome to be part of the Spectacular, and I'm hoping for next weekend, that I'll be able to video tape a bit of myself in action working behind the scenes of the Christmas spec for all you lovely friends and family members back home. The Christmas Spectacular was a hit in the City campus, and now for next weekend, we'll perform it again in the Hills campus for its finale. It was definitely a blast working behind the scenes during the Spec, they provided us all with great food and kept us hydrated and "well groomed" so to speak during the production and action of the Spec. So thank God for those amazing blessings courtesy of Hillsong Church!
As for the end of this post, is to share my struggles in finances for this coming stretch of the 4 months ahead of me. I'm currently on my break working one job as much as I can, and am in search for job number 2 to help my end of year one at Hillsong International Leadership College. I would ask that as many people as possible that reads this very message would please pray on my behalf for finances to help my well being here in Australia. I'm not asking for donations, I'm asking for the faith of many people to unite and help trust in God's providing hand in my life for this time I have here. This past month has been a bit of a struggle, and the truth is that I have been too proud to admit it. Though I completely have faith in God over this situation, I still have worries about finances during my time of studies. Its an interesting balancing act, but I pray that I have the strength to not only carry on, but finish extremely well, and leave Australia in the right timing with no regrets.
I also would like to express how interesting it is to have this Christmas season as the first of many things. They include a Christmas without snow and friends and family. Though I will experience Christmas with great friends here in Australia, but without family is a big adjustment to the norm. I'm left with thoughts of well wishes over the holidays to everyone back home in Canada, with warm houses and love of Christ and family and friends in the air. Please remember the reason you celebrate the Christmas season, it was never intended to be a time off of work, but for generations and generations, it has always been a time to reflect why you celebrate this season. The birth of Christ is so crucial, that it even rests the soul reason why I'm in a foreign country. Do not forget, please, as my final request for this post, and to remain faithful in the Christmas spirit, with or without family and friends.
Love,
Paul
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