Walkabout

The rest of the week went by extremely fast especially considering last week crept by. There was a lot going on this week, including an apologetic outreach and our Queensland Area prayer day that Emily and I led. Even among the chaos of a hectic schedule I took time to savour what is left of my time here, especially when it comes to the people I care about. I had quite a few opportunities to hang out with Mary this week. We finished the Christianity Explained (CE) course and she is edging even closer to trusting Christ. Please pray that God will reveal Himself to her and soften her heart so she can finally believe. She genuinely has a great desire to know God and loves learning about the Bible. I had her over for dinner on Tuesday and we walked back to campus for Fusion just as the sun was setting. I told her that whenever people marvel at things like a beautiful sunset they are actually praising God whether they know it or not. She smiled and said that the sky was beautiful. At Fusion, I had a great conversation with Jean (China) and Mary together about how to share Jesus with someone, I basically asked Mary what she still needed to know in order to decide to follow Christ. I also asked Jean about Jesus and she said she had a vague idea of who He is, so.... I told her. She appreciated it and later Lauren started a conversation with her about the gospel again. Lauren hopes to start a CE with her in the near future.

Saturday was a much anticipated day. First, Dani and I experimented with kimchi ravioli. Kimchi is a Korean dish of spicy fermented cabbage that is common to have at every meal. It actually turned out delicious. Then people started coming over to carve pumpkins. In Australia, pumpkins are not common so we lucked out that a grocery store was selling them this year but for a very expensive price. It was worth it though as 15 people piled into my furniture-extracted living room to have heaps of American fun. They all loved it and did a very good job for their first time. Roland and Yarn came, which I am so thankful for. Yarn left on Sunday to go back to Korea so this was the last time we saw him and said goodbye. Freda also came, we just met her a few weeks ago and she has come to a couple Fusions. She also brought her friend, Malcolm, who was awesome at Tim Tam slams. After pumpkins were carved and posing on the banister we gave everyone a mug of tea and an Aussie cookie called a Tim Tam. We had them bite diagonal corners of the rectangle cookie and drink the hot tea up through it like a straw causing it to melt. Then they had to slam it into their mouth before it all fell apart, hence, a Tim Tam slam.

Then that night we went into the city dressed like zombies, not for Halloween but for Thrill the World, which is a worldwide event where people dance to Michael Jackson's "Thriller" to raise money for cancer research. It was fun and the first time I have ever danced in public, but I didn't mess up too much. Many of our students joined us including some of our non Christian friends, it was a great way to spend some fun time with them as well as meet other people from all over Brisbane.