Back in Sacramento

We've made it safely back home. Thanks for all of your prayers and support! We'll try to mail out a post-trip mailer in the next couple of weeks.

Melbourne Day 3

The weather has been quite windy and cold in Melbourne... with a little rain here and there. But its all good. We decided that coming during the southern hemisphere winter was good, since we wouldn't be deceived by warm sunny days.

On Friday morning, we met with John and Kate, a couple working part-time with the Navigators ministering to the International students at Monash University. They had lived a few years in China, and now back in Australia, they are still ministering to mostly Chinese students.

Afterwards, we took a quick tour of Monash University, which is outside of the city. Unlike Melbourne University, it is more spread out and even has a religious center complete with different size chapels and meeting places.

For the evening, we attended a large group meeting of the international students in the Navigators in Monash. It was held at Bruce and Kathy's home, another couple who works part-time with the Navigators. There were about 20 Chinese, Taiwanese, and Malaysian students there for dinner and fellowship.

After dinner, we sat down to watch a video series on boy-girl relationships by Joshua Harris. Then we broke into small groups for discussion questions. Most of the students agreed with the main point in the video, that maintaining purity in a romantic relationship comes from a desire to honor God and be holy. A couple of the students, however, were non-Christians, and were just taking it all in.

Aussie Vocab of the Day: Furphy (very obscure... even in Australia)

So, during WW1 or WW2 (it was a long time ago... I forget), this company named "Furphy" made large water-storing tanks for troops in the field. Much like the watercooler in the white-collar office, these storage tanks served as a gathering area. As the men gathered to get water, they would share stories from the day.

As men tend to do, they would embelish their stories to impress their buddies. And, there is only so much embelishing one can do before the real-life story becomes a tall-tale.

And, that is what a Furphy is... a tall-tale.

Melbourne Day 1 & 2

Well, there is one thing you can thank Hollywood for. It puts out all of theses popular movies with actors/actresses with American accents, which gives Australians (and other peoples of the world) practice processing this accent. So, they can understand us pretty well. We figured we'd watch Crocodile Dundee 84 times to even it out.

On Wednesday we left Canberra for Melbourne. Upon our arrival, we were driven straight to Melbourne University for lunch and to meet a student in the Nav ministry there. Esther (the student) is one of the many international students who come from Asia and Southeast Asia for education at Melbourne University. In fact, there are so many Asian students here that there are times when walking around in the student union that you forget you're in Australia.

We also met with Quek, who had graduated from Melbourne University and now works in the city while working with the Navigators in community groups.

We are staying about 40 minutes east from Melbourne with the Utley's, who have been Navigator missionaries for many years.

On Thursday the Utley's showed us the city, then brought us to an informal coversational English class run by Navigators at the university. There were 5 Asian students there for the first meeting. We talked about all sorts of topics with them, including differences between Australian, Asian, and American cultures.

The conversational English class is a great way to make contacts in the international student body at the university. These students were excited to be there and even wanted to invite their friends in the future.

In the evening we had dinner with Barbara who does work in the Navigators with Church Discipling Ministry (CDM) in the community. It was encouraging to hear about the different ways she builds relationships with other women in her local community.

Aussie Vocab of the Day: Bikki

You may know that a cookie is sometimes called a biscuit in Australia (and maybe even in other countries). We have no feelings about this except that "Biscuit Monster" on Sesame Street just doesn't sound right.

Oh, and the shortcut word for "biscuit" is "bikki".

Canberra Day 2

Well, I (Chris) am feeling tons better... after a day and half of rest. Those Aussie bugs really take it out of you! Thank you for your prayers!

Today we met with all of the American Navigator missionaries in Australia. The Fitzgeralds have 3 daughters and have been ministering at the Australian Defence (Aussie sp) Force Academy for about 3 years. The Johnsons have been here for about 19 years and lead the Australian Navigators. Finally, the Meykolths have just been here for 6 months and are serving the students at Australian National University.

With the Johnsons, we got a tour of the Parliament House, in which we saw the Prime Minister's office. Well... it was just the Prime Minister's Office Door. We also got to sit a while in a question session of the parliament (where we saw the Prime Minister in person). During these sessions, each party takes turns asking questions of any minister they want. Sometimes this will result in a "lively" debate... which is mostly just for show for the public.

Sorry, no pictures... we forgot the camera!! :-(

Aussie Vocab of the Day: A Fair Go
Is your "mate" on the track for failure in his phone-cleaning business? Well, don't warn him or persuade him to stop. Everyone deserves their "fair go". The best teacher is failure.

Canberra Day 1

Sorry we have not posted in a couple of days. We arrived in Canberra last night on the shortest flight ever and had a nice evening with our host family. Today and Saturday we have been resting because Chris has been fighting a cold all week and he can't seem to shake it. His fever was back up again last night so he is spending the day in bed taking drugs and vitamin C. Please pray with us that he gets better soon--it's a shame to be here and not able to see or do anything.

We did stop and see some kangaroos last night (from a distance). Apparently, they are quite prolific here--almost like deer in terms of car and animal interactions, if you know what I mean...

Sydney Day 5 (Video) & 6

"Jen, how come we can't have kangaroo for dinner at home?"
Though we probably won't see a kangaroo, we did eat one tonight. It was a very tender red meat with a nice aftertaste.

Today we returned to the university to meet with some more students, and the Navigator intern who works with Grant on campus. He will be trying to start up a bible study on John with some students in the dorms for non-Christians this semester.

Afterwards we met up with a Nav staff couple who are doing work with the People Resources Team (PRT). The PRT are support staff and counselors for the Nav staff who are working in the field.

Aussie Vocab of the Day: Hit the Frog and Toad
Sounds violent, huh? What did the frog and toad do to you? And, why couldn't you leave it at the frog? Apparently, parts of commonly used phrases are replaced with words that rhyme to make them sound funny.

So, "I've got to hit the road." changes to "I've got to hit the frog and toad."

Sydney Day 5

Well, today we provide evidence that we are actually in Sydney, Aus. We got a "day tripper" ($15 each) to ride the train (45 min.) into Sydney and then catch a ferry (30 min.) to Manly Beach. We took these pictures after we got off the train and walked around on The Rocks, which is the historic area of Sydney. Strangly, we also got a free mini meal from the massive red lunch box parked outside the train station. Inside was a small can of Coke and some nasi goreng!

It seems to be some sort of marketing scheme put on by Coca-Cola. Not sure why they would feel the need, but we're not complaining...

So far this week we have met with about 14 students: mostly one-on-one but also one group of four. Tomorrow we have our last full day of meeting with students in Sydney. This has by far been the highlight of our trip. We have really enjoyed being able to watch and participate as Grant disciples these students. We are amazed at the interest and faithfulness that the students have shown. It is exciting to see God at work!

Aussie Vocab of the Day: bubbler

What bubbles up from the ground in a refreshing spring? Water, of course! If you want to quench your thirst in a public place, you would look for the bubber, or drinking fountain. The tap water tastes quite nice in Sydney, actually.

Sydney Day 4

No new pictures for today, since we returned again to Macquarie Univeristy and met with quite a few students. Most meetings were one-on-one, but one was a group of four students.

Topics ranged from another study on Ephesians 3, to how to bring up God in conversations with non-Christian friends, to the existence of God. One of the students we met with was a self-proclaimed agnostic, but was still open to discussing Christianity with Grant in the weeks to come.

So far we have seen quite a spectrum of spiritual maturity among the Navigator contacts at Macquarie. The variety definitely keeps one on his/her toes.

Aussie Vocab of the Day: Footie Match
We all know that when you travel to another country and start talking about how good you are at football, everyone thinks you're really talking about soccer. In fact, you talk such a good game, that the local boys challenge you, then you quickly discover that there was a misunderstanding.

Well, in Australia soccer is also soccer, but football can mean a number of things...
1. Rugby League (this is the rugby that Chris learned to play)
2. Rugby Union (slightly different rules than above)
3. Aussie-Rules Rugby (but the Outback Steakhouse guy always says "no rules, just right"...)
4. Soccer (the Aussies are sensitive to the other use of the word, unlike the rogue Americans who just *have* to use Farenheit and Standard measurements...)

So, a Footie Match is a game (match) of any of the above.

Sydney Day 3

As a pedestrian, the fact that Australians drive on the left side of the street is very important. When you cross a street, which way do you look first? Left. That's because the nearest car to you is on the right side of the street.

Well, this is deeply programmed into your brain. So deep, that you don't even look to the right and almost step immediately into traffic in Australia. Now, this didn't happen to us, but it is an important tip when hoofing it everywhere here.

During the first part of the day, we returned to Macquarie University and met with another student who is a leader in Student Life (Australian Campus Crusade). Grant Dibden has been discipling him for the past 2 and a half years. This is one of the ways the different Christian groups on campus are connected and work together to train these college students.

We also toured the rest of the university. Both of us had nostalgia for our college days, and there were many physical similarities between Macquarie and Cal Poly.

For the rest of the day, we went to the main city to get the lay of the land. One of the highlights was a war memorial, which housed many artifacts from the military conflicts Australia was involved in.

Aussie Vocab of the Day: Bubbler
Sometimes it dispenses freezing cold water that makes your teeth numb.
Sometimes it has old chewing gum stuck to it.
Sometimes it just barely squirts out water, and you'd have to put your mouth on it just to get a sip (and your so thirsty, you're tempted to actually do it).
Sometimes it has water that tastes metallic, and you wonder if you're going to be sick later that night.
And they are strangely missing from Macquarie University.

Yes... it is the Drinking Fountain.

Sydney Day 2

One night's sleep is all you need to get rid of the jetlag! We'll just see about the return trip...


The chill greeted us this morning, but we fought back with the warm winter coats that we had buried in our closets at home. July is the coldest month in Sydney.


Our Hosts

Our host family is Grant and Jeanette Dibden, Navigator missionaries in collegiate ministry. They have 3 boys: Michael (9th), Luke (8th), and Owen (6th)... and one dog named Bella. Bella is slowly warming up to us even though she knows we're cat people.


We spent today at Macquarie University, where Grant meets weekly to disciple 25 students. Today we met with 4 young men, all at different points in their walks with God. With Andrew, we began a video series on Living Proof, a book about lifestyle evangelism. With Johnno and and Johnny, we discussed recent messages given by Jerry Bridges. With Dave, we studied through Ephesians 6.


It was a great encouragement to see the motivation to grow and the desire to learn God's word in these university students. We also had the chance to pray with them about things in their lives and the work of God at the university.


Aussie Vocab of the Day: Casual Teaching
Are you a high school math teacher who shows up to work with your hair messed up and your shirt untucked? Are flip-flops your shoe of choice before you explicate the causes of World War 2 to a classroom of teenagers?


... Well, in the U.S., you might be called a "casual teacher".

... in Australia, you would be called a slob. A casual teacher in Australia is merely a substitute teacher!

Sydney Day 1

We rolled into Sydney around 6:30am wondering what happened to the Saturday we lost. Confounded International Date Line!

Since we were able to get some sleep on the plane, we were ready for our first full day in Aussie territory. We started off by getting our hosts out of bed at 8am and dragging them off to church. They were very gracious and even introduced us to many fine Aussie Christians.

We spent the rest of the day at "home" getting to know our host family, and Chris even learned how to play rugby, as seen above. As you can also tell, he pondered the mysteries of hat levitation and reached new strides in his kicking skills.

New Aussie vocab for the day: tea

Is it a midafternoon snack? Is it lunch? dinner? a simple cup of boiling caffinated leaves? or something else altogether? Any of the above seem to be acceptable, no two people can agree on the matter. Oh well, it's always nice to be invited for a "cuppa."

See ya later all you Bruces and Sheilas!

Heading Out

Our plane takes off out of SFO at 10:40 pm tonight, so it's a day of packing for us!

Our theme verse for this trip is Proverbs 3:5-6. With our trip to Ukraine as well, we've been earnestly seeking God's guidance as to where he would have use work full-time. Please help use pray though this passage during our trip.

Below are a few other prayer requests as well.

1. That we would be a blessing and a help to the missionaries in their ministries at the universities.

2. That God would give us a clearer vision for our role in missions, and that we would know if He would have us do full-time missions in Australia.

3. Safety in our travels to and from Australia and in-country.