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