Sheep in NZ

Iconic sheep in NZ. See more videos I took in NZ here

Back Home

It's definitely hard to believe, but our time in Melbourne has already come to an end. After a LONG, but very manageable flight from Melbourne to LA, I am home (yes, everyone is happy to have me back--including our cats). It was an incredible two weeks!

Thanks so much for praying for and with us. God indeed has done "immeasurably more". Before we arrived, we only had one appointment set up. Suffice it to say, we have had a lot more since then. And as was the case last week, our meetings this week also were very fruitful. We continue to be amazed at just how promising our developing partnerships seem to be.

Our time here has also greatly benefited Student Life (the campus ministry of Campus Crusade here in Australia). Our conversations with Christian Union have paved the way for a partnership with them for postgraduate ministry. However, it also helped significantly build the relationships and unity between Student Life and Christian Union. It has been a beautiful development to observe and be a part of.

Our time here has also helped Student Life develop inroads to a very strategic space on campus. For years, Student Life has wanted to be able to minister to the students at Melbourne University's Trinity Residential College. Unfortunately, they have been flatly refused that opportunity.

On Friday, we met with graduate students involved with the Christian Union (CU) grad/staff group at Melbourne University for lunch. Guess where? Yep--Trinity Residential College. It turns out that the Conference, Catering, and Hospitality Manager of Trinity (Mark) is involved in the CU grad staff group. So, he hosted everyone for lunch. While there, Mike (our host from Student Life) talked with Mark. Afterwards, Mark gave Mike and Student Life the freedom and invitation to pursue whatever ministry God put on their heart for Trinity. How cool is that?!

So, you may be wondering what our next steps are for helping to build a grad movement in Melbourne. Great question. We have been asking the same one. Right now, it seems that what the movement there needs next are a few key student or staff (by the way staff=faculty in Australia) leaders that we could help resource and coach. As of now, the CU staff in Melbourne don't know of any people that could fill that role. Please pray with us for the Lord to surface those individuals.

While you are praying, please pray for Jared and Tracy as they continue our travel. Jared is spending the week in Perth (Western Australia) and then returns home. Tracy is in New Zealand this week before returning home.

Thanks again for going with us to Melbourne. I am already thinking about our next trip.

Want to come?

Day 2 NZ - Arataki Honey Center

I awoke this morning at 9, having had the best night's sleep since I left home. After about an hour of puttering around I drove out to Havelock North, passing numerous vineyards, orchards, and fields filled with fluffy sheep greedily tearing up the luscious green turf. I caught sight of the pacific. It shone iridescent-blue, lapping gently against the grey pebbled shore.

On my agenda today is a visit to the Arataki Honey Center, one of the largest beekeeping operations in NZ. As I drove through the lovely countryside I ached to be outside rather than tied to meetings and schedules. However, the Arataki Honey Center did not disappoint. After being shown around their fun and very educational honeybee learning center, I sat down with John, their beekeeping manager and chatted about small hive beetle and beekeeping in NZ.

I learned a lot of interesting stuff about kiwifruit. Did you know that they are dioecious plants (male and female flowers are on separate plants)? Did you know that they only have viable flowers for 4-5 days? That the flowers do not provide nectar? That the pollen is nutritionally poor? Did you know that it takes 70-80 honeybee visits per flower to get full-sized fruit? Basically, it's one of the hardest plants in the world to pollinate. Kiwifruit growers have done everything they can to make pollination happen. They saturate the orchards with bees for the 4-5 days that they are in flower. They hand-harvest male flowers and spray the pollen over the orchards and the bees.

I also learned a lot about New Zealand's miracle honey plant - Manuka. Apparently they still don't really know what makes one batch of Manuka highly antimicrobial and the next batch not as antimicrobial. Each batch has to be tested as it comes in and after it is packaged before it can be certified antimicrobial. Activity seems to increase with storage up until a certain point. The honey produced from Manuka can be light or dark, and it always darkens with age.

I had the best honey in my life at the taste-testing center. It's called Pohutukawa (poe-HOOT-uh-kaw-uh). Fill a chocolate truffle with creamed Pohutukawa honey and I'd subsist on that alone for the rest of my life if necessary.

I learned that there is poisonous honey in New Zealand. It's made from the honeydew of a vine-hopper feeding on the Tutu plant. So now every batch of honey in NZ has to be tested for the neurotoxin called Tutin. It has caused many beekeepers to cease production of comb honey since you have to be able to show that each individual cell of honey is Tutin-free to be able to legally sell the comb honey.

After Arataki, I went into Havelock North to have some lunch, then decided to visit Te Mata peak. It was a scary drive all the way up to the top in my little car, but I and all the drivers, mountain bikers, and hikers that I met on the way survived. I was rewarded with another view of the pacific, of Napier, Hastings, and Havelock North, and of the surrounding country. My Elvish eyes spotted mostly sheep.

Descending from Te Mata, I drove into Hastings and visited the grocery store. A woman was offering wine samples in the aisle. There are so many wineries in this place they're practically pouring the stuff down your throat at every turn. I found a yarn store offering me a selection of yarn from NZ sheep and a "bin shop" offering me everything from almonds to window cleaner in bulk. The place definitely has the feeling of a popular holiday-spot on the off season. Ice cream parlors and posh cafes stand open but few patrons enter. The only other people walking around are the Kiwi school-kids wearing their regrettable school uniforms and fancy purses that play music. Why you would want a purse that plays music, I wonder?

I returned home to my luxury accommodations, greeted by a calico cat and a brand new television. As I ate two kiwifruit, I thought about the 140-160 times that a bee touched a flower to bring me my dinner.

For my NZ pictures, see the new Picasa Album here

Onward to NZ

Our stay in Australia over, I have traveled to New Zealand. How can I describe it? It's a land that I would like to marry and settle down with, filling the rest of my days exploring all the little sheep-dotted hillsides, pebbly beaches, and rich green mountains.

I haven't even really been here very long. I spent the first night here in a cheap motel in Auckland run by an Indian family. They were lovely and it was reasonable for the price, but it was definitely not a place that inspired rest. Early the next morning a shuttle driven by a woman named Ngaia took me to Hamilton and I disgraced myself by falling asleep. Fortunately, I am both a discreet and fetching sleeper. I was deposited at the AsureQuality office and met with Byron and chatted a bit over some needed coffee. Drip coffee this time. Kiwis apparently aren't as picky about their coffee as the Aussies. We drove over to the Plant and Food Research Apicultural division and I met Byron's wife Michelle who works on varroa-resistant bees and her boss Mark who gave me his opinion on everything bee-related and un-bee-related, particularly Australia, USA, and why New Zealand is superior to those countries.

I had almost run out of brain power by the time we got back to AsureQuality. I was ready to go to bed, but I still had a 4 hour drive to Napier ahead of me. Byron kindly drove me to the Airport to pick up my car and reminded me about the unique Kiwi road rules such as no left on red and yield to oncoming right-turners when you're taking a left. They love the roundabout in this country, too. Every intersection spins you like a merry-go-round, exits shooting off the center circle like so many bicycle-wheel spokes.

I got on the road by 4pm, driving an exceedingly cheap Australian-made car. I found out that the kiwi definition of "highway" apparently is "lonely two-lane track through nowhere." So strange to drive so far without the comforting presence of other drivers. I guess that’s what I feel like I’m doing here- striking out on my own despite the fact that I don’t really know anyone in this country, don’t know if I can get a job in this country, don’t know where I’m going in this country on this little highway in the dark. No one driving my way to encourage me, to say, “Yup, you’re going the right way!” Strange stars hang in the sky as I stop to take a look around in the dark. They are useless to navigate by. But I see a shooting star, and think, with a sigh, that it’s not a bad road that I’m on anyway.

I arrive after some delay finding my hotel in Napier. The hotel manager offers me "trim milk" and a newspaper. Then he has me park my car in a tiny little spot on the corner of the hotel. He crosses my own personal courtyard and opens big French windows to a small efficiency apartment, complete with mini-range, mini-fridge, mini-bar with mini-stools, mini-sink, mini-cupboards, mini-microwave, mini-tv, etc. He stashes the milk in the fridge for me and bids me goodnight. Everything in my room is tastefully selected from Ikea. Clean, simple, warmly well-lit. I open the door to the bathroom and I am greeted by a large, lavatorial refuge, soothing colors, a new shower, and multiple mirrors. There are premium soaps. There is an abundance of nice towels. I am in heaven. Then I walk out and notice that there is something hanging from the side of the bed. The controls for my electric blanket. How far did I have to come for this? It doesn’t matter.

The Joy of Reunion

One of the things I was most looking forward to on this trip was all the friends of mine that I was going to get to see again. I arranged to spend the night at three different houses during my stay in Melbourne too, as I've wanted to spend time with as many friends as possible.

My first hosts were Joel & Rosey, in the eastern suburb of Blackburn, just a stone's throw from the Laburnum train station (just two stops closer to the city than and on the same line as Nunawading, where Tracy's been staying). I met both Joel & Rosey in the Christian Union group at Monash in 2004. Rosey's currently on staff with CU, and Joel's working in pest control while trying to find an engineering-related job. They're probably the friends I've kept in most frequent contact with since I left Australia. They're both nerdy (love to play Starcraft and watch Stargate), and Joel is fairly reserved, but Rosey is quite possibly the most outgoing person I've ever met (right up there with Heather H., anyway!). They gave me a key to their house and loaned me their car (more on that in another post coming soon), and also had a package of Tim Tams and my favorite Aussie cereal (Just Right) waiting for me. :-)

On Friday night last week they volunteered to host a get-together of people from the Monash CU group back in 2004, and that was an awesome, awesome time. Not everyone was able to make it, but still quite a few people showed up. Of course while I wasn't able to talk to everyone quite as much as I would've liked, it still was a great time. And perhaps the neatest thing about the evening was that I provided an excuse for all of my friends to get together with each other too. Because they live in several different suburbs, and because of everyday life getting in the way, it'd been several months since some of them had seen each other. I've missed all those people quite a bit.

Then on Saturday night my friend Paul (from Monash CU) took us to the Geelong-Collingwood footy match. Tracy wrote a lot about that a few days ago, but I will add that Paul was so excited (then again, Paul's just about always excited, hehe) that I was able to explain pretty much all the rules of Australian football to Ash & Tracy, and that I already had a Geelong Cats footy scarf and t-shirt. Paul has commissioned me to go forth and spread the footy gospel in the USA, hehe.

My second hosts were my friends Rob & Simone (and their 1 1/2-year old daughter Hannah), who live in the northern suburb of Brunswick East, a short tram ride from the city center. Again, I know them both from Monash CU; we had a Sunday night Bible study in their house, and they've since both been on staff with CU part-time a bit, though neither are currently. They're both taking courses at Ridley (a seminary), and Rob's also working full-time with The Backyard Bard, the same Biblical storytelling group that Simon Camilleri is with (those in State College may remember Simon performing "Elijah" in 2008). Because we had appointments in the city on Sunday, Joel & Rosey kindly brought my luggage to Christ Church in Hawthorn in the evening, where Rob was performing a storytelling of the entire book of Revelation. Seriously, he memorized the entire book, and it was amazing. Hearing the whole book read/performed in one sitting helped it make more sense, and the performance helped me picture it in my mind's eye much better, without overwhelming or overriding my mind's picture in the way that a film would.

Rob & Simone are planning to move to the Middle East to work with a deaf ministry in about a year and a half, and they hope to move to the region permanently eventually. They have a heart for Middle Eastern culture (perhaps partly because Rob's mum is Lebanese), and as such much of their cuisine and even the furniture in their house has a Middle Eastern feel. For instance, instead of having a couch in the living room, they have a muffraj (sp.?), which is basically some cushions or pads laid on the floor and against the wall. I'd even drag the muffraj into the study at night to sleep on it, so it's quite portable.

On Tuesday night Rob took Ash, Tracy & I to a Yemeni restaurant in the suburb of Ascot Vale. Coincidentally enough, the restaurant is called Yemeni Restaurant. Rob & Simone visited Yemen (and other countries) last year, so Rob was showing the restaurant owner some photos on his iPad -- and the owner even spotted his former house in one of Rob's photos of a city in Yemen (Sa'na?). Anyway, eating at the Yemeni restaurant was quite a neat cultural and culinary experience. First off, the food was excellent. We sat on the floor, and the dishes were all laid out for us on the floor as well. For the various bean, meat and rice dishes, we'd scoop it all up with pieces of Yemeni bread (much like naan bread in Indian cuisine). We were all dipping and scooping the bread on the same plates, so we really were sharing a meal together, not just eating our own separate dishes while happening to be at the same restaurant or table. We all felt like it gave us a much better insight into what it means in Middle Eastern cultures (and meant, in Biblical times) to sit down and share a meal with other people. It really is more of an experience, and one in which you have to trust the people you're eating with, because they're dipping bread into the same bowls or dishes as you.

On Wednesday I toted my suitcase along with me down the tram to the University of Melbourne for my next research seminar, and from there on the tram and train out to Mt Waverley to go to my friend Jillian's house for dinner -- she'd invited several CU folks over for burritos. They weren't quite Mexican burritos, but rather an Australian take on burritos. First, in addition to the usual marinated chicken, lettuce, tomatoes and onions, there also were sauteed mushrooms, pineapple chunks, and either sweet chili sauce or bbq sauce (there wasn't any salsa). And the tortillas were lightly crisped in the oven before serving. They were still really good, but not quite like burritos I'm familiar with from, say, Qdoba. ;-) Anyway, it was great to have another evening hanging out with my Monash CU friends.

My third hosts on this trip are my friends James & Alison, who live in the far southeastern suburb of Hampton Park, about a five minute walk from the Hallam railway station. Alison is a primary school teacher, and James currently is a chaplain in a local public high school (the relationship of the Australian government and schools with religion is worth another post by itself), though until a year ago he was the national youth director for the Christian & Missionary Alliance church in Australia. I met them a few days before I went to Australia in 2004 because they were visiting the States, and Alison's parents know my parents (her parents, who are Australian, spent a few years pastoring a small CMA church in western Minnesota), and they were pretty much my adoptive family while I was studying at Monash. They even stopped by Penn State for a quick visit last April when they were visiting some family and friends in Michigan and Pennsylvania (and yes that photo was taken at The Creamery at PSU).

Ali came to pick me up on Wednesday evening following the dinner with my CU friends in Mt Waverley, and it's been great to be at their place again. They have several pets, including a couple rabbits (Fudge and Bubbles), a sugar glider (Cookie), a shingleback lizard and a couple bearded dragons (they're in accidental hibernation for the time being because James forgot to plug in their heat lamps). I was told that if Bubbles woke me up during the night by making a racket in the next room that I should just say, "Bubbles, stop!" and he'd stop, haha. On Thursday night they had all three of us over for dinner too, for which they grilled kangaroo steak, beef porterhouse steak, sausages and prawns (big ones). We were all sated, to say the least. :-)

And then this afternoon (Friday) the three of us went downtown to the banks of the Yarra River to the Melbourne Aquarium, where my friend Emily (again, from Monash CU) works. She wasn't able to get us discounted tickets (but our Penn State student IDs saved both Tracy & I about $12 each!), but she was able to give the three of us a guided tour, telling us all about the various fish and marine creatures in the tanks. The Melbourne Aquarium is really quite nice, and has been rated as the best tourist destination in Melbourne. They're also home to the world's largest species of stingray, and croikey were those massive! The penguins were also really fun to see and watch, but really, just about everything at the aquarium was neat to see. It was great to see her again and hang out a bit (she wasn't able to make last Friday night's reunion thing, but was at Wednesday night's dinner).

I guess the bottom line is that, for me, the friends that I made and still have here are one of the primary reasons why I continue to be so drawn to Australia. It's important to have a community when you live someplace, and they welcomed me into their community back in 2004. Things aren't exactly the same as they were six years ago, but I wouldn't expect them to be. It's been great fun to come back and see and hear how everyone's doing, to laugh and recall good memories, and to make new ones. I've definitely felt like I've been able to get reconnected with them on this trip, which has been great. And because of that, I have no doubt that I'll be back in Melbourne again someday, whether for a visit or for something more long-term.

Partnerships

As Tracy and I saw earlier today on their website, "Don't Go It Alone" is the slogan for the Monash University Postgraduate Association. It's not a bad slogan either when exploring grad ministry in Australia as Americans living quite literally on the other side of the world.

We would love to see thriving graduate student (postgrad) communities built here where the gospel is powerfully transforming lives. We would love to help build those communities. While it seems that God is calling us to do so, it is definitely clear that we can't do so by ourselves. And so, we have been primarily praying that God would lead us to individuals and groups with whom we could partner.

He is definitely answering our prayer! On Wednesday, (our first day here) we met with Malcolm and Sandy, two staff members with Christian Union (CU) at Melbourne University. On Friday, we met with Graeme, a staff member with CU at Monash University. Yesterday, we met with Peter, Matt, and Chris, staff members with CU at LaTrobe University, and last evening we held a Skype conference call with Lewis, the National Director of Postgraduate Ministry for AFES, the parent organization for (you guessed it) CU. Can you see a pattern emerging? I don't believe that there is another Christian Union staff member in Victoria working with postgrads that we haven't met.

In every one of those meetings, we shared our desire to see the gospel come within arm's reach of every postgrad on their campus, to see Christian postgrads thriving in their relationship with God, to see a new generation of Christian scholars raised up and mobilized, and to develop partnerships with existing Australian campus ministry organizations to see those three dreams become a reality. They shared with us their vision for postgrads on their campus as well as the current status of their ministries. We shared some more about what we have been learning as a ministry at Penn State. And then we talked about the ways a partnership might mutually benefit both organzations.

We left each of those meetings so encouraged, excited, and hopeful. We share with the staff from Christian Union the same vision for building a gospel-centered movement among postgrads on their campus. We share with them a Kingdom perspective, that is the desire to see God's Kingdom built, not Campus Crusade or Christian Union. And we share with them a lot of like-mindedness in how that might happen. It is so beautiful to see the Body of Christ function as Christ intended it to do.

Please continue to pray. Tomorrow I (Ashley) am meeting with Simon, a faculty member at Monash University who coordinates the CU postgrad ministry there with Graeme. On Friday, we are all meeting with Malcolm, Sandy, and some of the postgrads involved with the CU ministry at Melbourne University. Hopefully, I will also be able to talk to Lewis, the National Director, via Skype before we leave.

In each of these meetings and in conversations that follow over the coming weeks, we hope to figure out more specifically what these partnerships will look like and what next steps to take.

A ministry update!

After a delightful time shopping and eating delicious new things at the Queen Victoria market early yesterday morning, Mike picked up Ash and Jared and I and drove us out to LaTrobe University to meet with the Christian Union team there. Ash will be writing a little bit about that meeting and another meeting with a national staff member with Christian Union working with graduate students. Suffice to say, the eyebrows wagged in our favor and we had a couple of really productive, positive meetings yesterday.

Today I hopped on the bus to Monash to meet Ash and Mike there for the undergraduate Student Life (Campus Crusade in Australia) weekly meeting, which was delightful. Then I wandered upstairs to the Monash Postgraduate Association, an office which serves the Post-grads (Graduate students) at Monash with seminars, socials, support, and advocacy. Here they have 4 full-time staff devoted to helping graduate students to cope with grad school problems and find community. Jenny, executive officer of MPA, sat down with me and happily answered all my questions about how the MPA works. Basically, the university funds the MPA to increase the completion rate (graduation rate) of post-grads by providing advice and support. In the case of conflict with supervisors (advisors) or problems with intellectual property rights, the MPA can act as an independent advocate for the graduate student, explaining their options and even going with them to help sort things out. I'm not sure if there's really anything like it in the 'states.

Ash joined us later and we continued a great discussion about the perils of graduate school and the role that a group like ours, devoted to meeting the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of graduate students could play. The MPA provides a lot of inspiration for our work in the future at Penn State and in Melbourne. The mission of the MPA to support graduate students is very much like ours in PSCG. Their website even uses the slogan "Don't go it alone" - which we've discussed using in the past. Perhaps they would like our Top 10 reasons to get involved with PSCG, including "Your advisor is not your God" and "The late-night library raves are getting old."

P.S. It has come to my attention that our Slideshow gadget up on the right-hand side seems to be broken, hopefully temporarily. In the meantime, click here to visit our gallery