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.