SYDNEY!

Hello again,

It's been a while since my last travel update so I figure it's time for another one, especially since tomorrow is my last full day in Oz and you probably won't get another one. :-)

I left Jess' sheep farm last Tuesday and arrived in Sydney on Wednesday morning (the 24th) after 8 hours on the bus, an hour stopover at 11PM, and another 8 hours on the train. It was crazy long and not very comfortable so I didn't get much sleep and so I hit the hay as soon as I arrived at my next host's house.

I've been staying with an Adventist family here, the Gilmores, that my old pastor Matthew Gamble hooked me up with. They are so amazing! I have my own room, my own key, and they've been feeding me every meal and even insisting on paying for some of my excursions. Irene, the mom of the house, is wonderful and has been telling me some incredible stories about her life and I have learned so much about "life" since I've been here.

I've also met a lot of cool people just traveling about on my own. Last week I did the tourist thing and went around the Sydney city center. I saw the famous Opera House, the Harbor Bridge, I took a ferry across the harbor to Manly Beach and saw people playing volleyball and surfing. I took a city tour around to all the other famous sites, I went up to the top of Sydney Tower (their version of the Space Needle), went on OzTrek, which is a virtual ride across Australia. Then on Friday night I went with all the Parramatta Adventist Church young adults to Canberra, Australia's capital city. One of the guys is a coach bus driver and so we got to ride in a comfy bus for the 3 hour trip. We slept in the church that night and the next day, Sabbath, we put on the entire service. I even preached for the first time and pray that the people there heard what God wanted them to hear. Then we went to a flower show in Canberra, followed by a quick tour of the city and a stop at the ANZAC Memorial. Sunday morning I went to airport to meet up with Matthew Gamble and Jesse Ferguson, who were flying out that day. It was so good to catch up with Matthew and also to see J-Ferg again. Sunday night I went to the famous Hillsong Church for their nightly service and the Christian rock band, Hillsong United, happened to be leading worship that night and they introduced some new songs, which were amazing!

Today I went to the #1 attraction (or so I'm told), the Sydney Aquarium, with the underground glass tunnels where sharks and manta rays swim overhead. After that I went to the Wildlife Park where I got to see koalas and kangaroos and wombats and wallabies, and every other Australian native animal you can think of. (By the way, last week on the sheep farm I actually saw two wild kangaroos hopping across the road!) It was cool because standing in line I heard an American accent and these two girls were behind me. It turns out they are both students at Hillsong College studying ministry and so we got to talking and spent the entire duration of our visit at the Wildlife Park together and hanging out. When I got home Irene drove me to the site of the 2000 Sydney Olympics and tonight we're going out to dinner at some Chinese restaurant.

So I pretty much have done all I ever thought of doing in Australia. I even saw the new movie "Eagle Eye" a day early and for free because my host's son is a manager at the local cinema. :-)

Tomorrow I'm meeting up with some of the Parramatta Church young adults for a last goodbye dinner thing, then on Wednesday I'm on my way home, including 4 stopovers (Manila, Seoul, San Francisco, then Seattle), which will be insane.

I miss you all and can't wait to be back home, as amazing as this experience as been.

I'll see you all soon.

With love and prayers,

Steph