Blessings in Brisbane

This past week in Brisbane was filled with good things and blessings. We stayed with a couple named Auntie Lorrene and Bill in their lovely little Queenslander style home. The walls were papered and the dark wood furniture and shelves displayed any number of curios from world travel and antiques of all kinds. Pictures and aged photographs and portraits graced the walls. Doilies sat on tables and buffets and embroidered tablecloths spread over the table in the main room. Only seeing it in person would do it justice. 

Auntie Lorrene and I chatted many mornings as we seemed to be always the first two awake, and many nights as we were often the two not watching tv or music videos. I also cooked with her a few different times and it was a wonderful chance to find new recipes and have yet another chance to talk to her. 

She is a beautiful woman. So wise. So full of stories. She has three children and a few grandchildren. She has traveled the world doing missions. Her home is open and she is a gracious and generous hostess. The love that spilled from her was amazing. This is what I want people to be able to say of me. I want to be like Lorrene. 

It was a huge blessing to me to be welcomed as I was into her life. 

Relationships was the subject of our lectures this week. I learned so much from them, and also so much from Auntie Lorrene. It's always hard to put into words what exactly I took from it... Maybe I will know better later. Something simple and good is that all problems in the world are relationship problems, whether between God and man, man and other men, or man and himself. If we took Jesus' new commandment to love The Lord your God and love your neighbor as yourself then most of our problems would likely dissolve. Loving is as simple as choosing the highest and best in all situations. 

Food has been delicious... I love food, honestly. So many recipes collected, so many new things tried. For those of you who know me, this may be interesting... I ate a bowl of ice cream last night. And I feel fine today. Praise The Lord. I am also beginning to understand the authority I have in Jesus' name and I have been claiming that over my stomach and my migraines. Bless The Lord. 

Pennies and tulip trees... I found an American penny in my backpack, a Euro-cent coin in the washroom, and a brown colored five cent Aussie coin today. God still finds ways to remind me that He is hanging around and blessing me. Even as we drove to the airport I saw an African tulip tree--basically another sort of penny for me. 

Yesterday afternoon the skies opened and poured buckets of water on us. When I stood under the spray of Victoria Falls in Zambia I did not get wet and soaked as quickly as running through that downpour. It was wonderful. I wished that I could have had extra clothes along so I could play in it. Maybe another time.

After it stopped raining, a rainbow hung in the sky for a while. Some time passed and it disappeared. The heavy clouds started to break apart and blow around as God painted the sky in all sorts of greys and blue like some sort of heavenly stormy ocean. It began to glow in peach and crimson and gold, first along edges and then in all the spaces as the sky turned to amber. Palm trees silhouetted against the brightest halo of gold stood to one side and the ocean was in the sky to the other. As I walked the wind blew on my skin and birds sang and flew between trees. 

I am now in JetStar aircraft some thousands of feet above the ground somewhere between Brisbane and Townsville. As we float in bright blue skies above cotton-white clouds a new stage of the journey is beginning to the most beautiful ending.  

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Come away with me
Come away with me
It's gonna be wild 
It's gonna great
It's gonna be full of me 

'Cause 
I have a plan for you
I have a plan for you
It's gonna be wild 
It's gonna be great 
It's gonna be full of me