We’re Ba-a-a-ack!
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- Hayden 4-9-19
Well it is good to be back from the land down under! We spent time in the beautiful metropolitan areas of both Sydney and Melbourne, soaking in a different culture as well as having some relaxing moments on the sandy beaches of the Indian Ocean and Tasman Sea. We explored new experiences including drinking real coconut milk from newly harvested coconuts on the beach in Seminyak, bumming around with mostly docile primates (except the one who tried to steal my son’s water bottle from him) in Bali’s Monkey Forest, visited the absolutely awesome rice terraces in Bali’s interior, relaxed in the cultural backstreets of downtown Melbourne, and took a launch around Sydney Harbor capturing many angles of the Sydney Opera House.
We took our life in our own hands (surely God was watching over us) as Heidi and I rode a scooter for 3 days in the crazy, scooter-filled streets of Ubud, and swam with the fishes, snorkeling in the Blue Lagoon located on Bali’s east coast.
These holiday encounters were but of few of the many wonderful experiences we were blessed with over the last 3 weeks. However, and I know this may be cliché but, our most exciting and enjoyment filled times were being with our children and their significant others, loving them and being loved by them. Yes, our trip to Australia was a huge success, but mostly because we were able to share it with our family and their friends.
God wants to share these experiences with us as well for we have been adopted into His family. All of His creative order was for us to share together and with Him, our family! Scripture tells us, “God decided in advance to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave Him great pleasure” (Ephesians 1:5, NLT). The whole time we were with our children, they kept asking us what we wanted to do. I think we frustrated them a bit because all we could tell them is that we didn’t care what we did, just as long as they were with us to do it! God has given us these wonderful experiences to share with our family, and He wants us to invite Him in to share them together.
By the way, it is so good to be back with our family in Huntington that we can share our adventure with you as well!
May God bless you even more!!
Pastor Chris