Happy New Year! Happy New Decade!
The last couple of months has been extremely busy. I don’t know where they went, but they are gone and it’s January already. I’ve begun to think about some new resolutions because it is always good to set goals. Last year my resolutions included buying more locally, buying more organic foods, and using as few things containing harmful chemicals as possible.
Last week, Pastor Alex finished his series called “Wired,” that was about our personality gifts that God gives each of us. He said at one point that the gifts were divided into two broad categories: speaking gifts and serving gifts. My top two were speaking gifts.
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
James 1:27
Have you considered adoption? If you are like most people I know, you have adopted, or considered adoption of a furry companion, but have not seriously considered adopting a child.
Therefore, holy brothers, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess.
- Hebrews 3:1
By the time we got to Sydney, we were both very done with traveling. It is a beautiful country, there are beaches and palm trees and shops and restaurants… but really, we were ready to go home.
We spent our days walking around Darling Harbour and Circular Quay. We saw the Sydney Opera House, and the Botanical Gardens. We visited the Governors House inside the Botanical Gardens, which was neat. It’s interesting because the governor doesn’t live there currently, but still uses it for meetings and formal events.
From the heat of a tropical island, we traveled to Christchurch, New Zealand. There it was the beginning of winter. It wasn’t below freezing though, but it was chilly.
We got our Jucy car rental and our GPS, and entered our destination. We were staying at a rental house in Akaroa, a small coastal town away from Christchurch. We started driving and the sun started setting. Before too long it was very dark. Then the road started to rise and twist, and fall again. And suddenly we were in the mountains.
