Things I'll miss

One thing I will certainly miss about Australia is the serving sizes of food. Everything is smaller here, and doesn't encourage you to be gluttonous. It's always just the right amount I need. A standard small coffee is 8 ounces, which for all you Starbucks fanatics is equal to a short. I worked at Starbucks for 2 and a half years and always viewed the short as not enough coffee; after living in Australia for a year I now view it as just the right amount. And I'm now convinced that the venti size should only be drunk by giants :)



Another thing I will definitely miss is the hospitality of Aussies. I always thought that I was a hospitable person, even been told by others that I am, but experiencing Aussie hospitality made me change my definition of the word altogether. We were having such trouble finding housing when we first got to Australia. A family from our team leaders church told them that we could stay with them as long as we needed, and they meant it. We ended up staying with them for a full month, where they housed us and feed us pretty much every night. We had never met these people before and they completely opened their home to us. And the more I got to know Aussies over the year, the more I became convinced that that amount of hospitality is the norm, not the exception.

One completely superficial thing I will miss is a TV show called Masterchef. I don't watch a whole lot of TV, but I became thoroughly addicted to this show. It's a cooking competition , but all the competitors are amateur cooks and have never had any proper training. I think I love the show so much because you get to see the competitors progress in their skills and talent as the show goes on, and because the judges are critical, but it's constructive criticism that the competitors can learn from, not criticism to tear them down, as we so often see in American shows. My absolute favorite was right before we left they had Junior Masterchef, so all the competitors were between the ages of 8 and 12. These kids were absolutely amazing!!

Things I've noticed

One of the first things I noticed about Aussies is that they are very non-materialistic. They might be a bit more in the bigger cities, but in the country town of Geelong they are not concerned with material things at all. They don't really care about what they are wearing, and things that are considered fashionable are very simple and comfortable. It's quite a change from the materialistic world of southern California!

Another thing about Australia is that it's totally culturally acceptable to be 40 years old and working at Starbucks or McDonalds. In America, those jobs are ok for students, but once you're out of school you're expected to get a "real job", but in Australia it's totally fine. There aren't any jobs that are looked down on in Australia, whether it's working at a cafe, gas station, or janitor. It's hard to find a job here that's genuinely disrespected by Aussies. Americans might not say anything to people working those jobs, but our attitudes and how we treat them usually do most of the talking.

Aussies are also very good at keeping up with the news, whether it's local, national, or international. Every hour on the hour there's news breaks on both the radio and TV to give short updates on current news. Most conversations you have with an Aussie will eventually turn to current events. I suppose you could say this about America too, but I think it's mainly with the older generation. In Australia it's every generation, and it's something that they learn the importance of at a young age. I'm amazed at how good uni students are at keeping up with current events, and it's something I certainly didn't see in UCSB students.

Things I've noticed, things I'll miss, things I won't

I have 10 days left in Australia, and it's hitting me like a ton of bricks realizing this. I am so excited to come home and see all my family and friends again, but I am going to miss this place a lot. I love living here, I love the people and the culture and what they're all about. But, like anything, there are some things that I'm definitely not going to miss about living here. So I've compiled a list: things I've noticed, things I'll miss, and things I won't. Maybe if I focus on the things that I'm not going to miss it will make it easier to leave this place :)

And I can't take credit for this, I totally stole it from my dear friend Hillary when she was leaving her STINT in Turkey. But so good for helping me process through leaving!

Gone to Summer Project!

There are so many more stories that I could tell, but we're leaving for summer project tomorrow so my time for blogging during the next weeks is going to be pretty limited. I'll definitely give a full update when I get back from project though!

Please be praying for us as we are serving down in Torquay:
- that God would prepare the hearts of those that He wants us to minister to
- that we would see schoolies make true and honest decisions to follow Jesus
- that our students would grow in their faith and their ministry skills, and that they would come out of this project with a deeper understanding of who God is

Thanks heaps!!!

Rakesh's story

I wasn't planning on telling Rakesh's story, but Campus Crusade for Christ Australia just did a story about him in one their national newsletters. Pretty sweet :)

Here's the article:
JESUS IN A BUCKET OF CHICKEN
by Tezza Brooks on Mon, 11/15/2010

Born and raised in India’s mixed religious culture, Rakesh Kumar was taught everyone’s god is right. It diminished his desire to seek God. When his family took him to the temple, he would ask how anyone could know that the Hindu gods were there. He never got a straight answer. Eventually he was driven toward atheism.

When he came to Australia over three years ago, he attended Deakin University where he met Nandeeta, a girl from his hometown. She was a Christ-follower and spent much of her time telling Rakesh how God changed her life.

One day she needed a ride to church and asked Rakesh to take her. For two months he sat with her in the back of the church, eventually becoming curious. Rakesh remembers: “So just as I did when I was a child, I asked her how she knew God was there. She said it was because she had a relationship with Him, God reveals Himself to her. She said the only way I’d understand is if I asked God to show me that He was real. Only then would I understand.”

A few days later Rakesh was walking to his car after an exam. He began feeling very hungry and weak. Nearly to his car, he became faint and could not walk anymore. Falling to the ground, he remembered what Nandeeta said. So he very bluntly told God: “Look God, I’m hungry, I would love some food. Show me You are real.” He was in one of the most remote places on campus. Hardly anyone parks there, and rarely does someone walk by. Suddenly a friend came around the corner with a bucket of chicken, saying he had been looking all over campus for him. “He wanted to share the meal and thought about finding me. So we sat there and ate KFC on the ground, and I just shook my head in amazement. God had revealed Himself in a bucket of fried chicken. He sure knows how to speak to a college guy.”

The next Sunday Rakesh went back to church very excited. However, he had no clue how to accept Jesus into his life. The pastor talked about repentance and how Jesus gave His life for all. “He told us all we had to do is believe in our heart and confess with our mouth. That’s it. It was that simple? I sat there thinking this can’t be right.” Rakesh thought there had to be more. He was used to doing heaps of good deeds and reciting memorized prayers. “Surely God needed to assess how good I was before He accepted me, right? After a discussion with the pastor and several questions, I prayed to receive Christ. Peace flowed into me, and I felt so light and full of joy. It’s not that way for everyone, but for me, I saw an instant change from that day on. I stopped partying and became more patient with people. That was 2007.”

Rakesh began reading the bible on his own. He did not know how to pray, so he just began talking out loud to God. He searched online and found anything he could to study. “God was teaching me to pursue Him. So I did. I researched bible college websites for downloads and read it all.” He began to have a heart for others who needed Jesus. He shared his story with anyone who would listen, even preaching at McDonalds and getting burgers thrown at him.

Eventually Rakesh developed a strong desire to start a bible discussion group. About that time he met Dave, an American missionary working with Student Life, a ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ. Dave had already done all the footwork to form a small group bible study, so he invited Rakesh to the group. While there Rakesh matured in the Christian faith and learned how to evangelise more effectively. “I’m so thankful for Student Life. I got that bible study I wanted and so much more. It’s awesome to see how God’s hand was on me and where He brought me from.”



Rakesh is now one of our most motivated and evangelistic KVs. Praise God for showing up in buckets of chicken!