After leaving Tarunga on Friday, which included a bus ride through New Zealand hills on a winding road, a day in the city and time at an art gallery, and a night in the Auckland airport catching up and praying with Rachael Hurt’s M squad team, we all woke dark and early (at 4 a.m.) to catch our plane to Brisbane, which is located on the Gold Coast of Australia.
My first impression of this massive continent was the ever-present heat, humidity, and sun as over forty M-squaders filtered from the air conditioned comfort of the airport to buses (driven by Steve and Susan, who freely shared Aussie knowledge with all of my questions) that brought us to a suburb, where two of the most gracious people, Jamie and Freya, opened their home and the home of a friend for our group.
So, after being a tad jet-legged and quite exhausted from barely sleeping in the Auckland airport, my Saturday entailed dozens of catch-up sessions with friends from other teams; a few hours by the pool, half-asleep and half-restless, wanting to explore Brisbane, but too tired to; and a great evening of friendship and fellowship over a family-styled dinner.
Sunday was an ideal ‘Hannah-day,’ that encompassed a Ginger Factory museum tour, a hike through the jungle that butted against the ocean in Noosa in which we found our party of 10 in the middle of a rain storm, so a run through the paved, but wild, path was needed. That is, until we decided that it was a lost cause and a few of us dove into the crashing shores after we spotted a kola bear and passed by a medley of surfers before heading back to the suburbs for one last family dinner and worship time before my team and I packed up to spend the night in the Brisbane airport to await our early Monday morning flight to Cairnes.
Our Cairnes flight went well-I sat between two of my friends from the N squad, caught up, and caught up on some sleep. I awoke to a beautiful view of the Great Barrier Reef and the cityscape of Cairnes before we landed, disembarked, and bused out to Manuera (through two coffee plantations and passed countless mountains, views of the ocean, and termite mounds) for a debrief with our contacts to be fed and better prepared for the next 26 days of ministry out in the middle of nowhere and with the Aboriginals. We found out more details about the geographical, physical, and social characteristics in our ministry location up here in the northeast. Details from the nearby gorge to the temperatures (in the 90s and 100s) to over 400 reptiles to the social norms of Aboriginals were all entrusted to us and to say we have a challenge ahead of us would be QUITE the understatement.
