Easter Sunday

Our first Easter together was great. We had an exciting and eventful day. Our day started with Richard and Cathy popping in to deliver more goods for our apartment! They brought us bedside tables, a computer desk, a couple of plants, a fan and a PORTABLE AC. We were also given some Ozzie Easter treats! We enjoyed a bag full of chocolate Easter eggs from Rowan and Julie and a chocolate bilby (instead of a rabbit!) from Richard and Cathy.

We met a couple of my friends from the Uni for church on Easter morning. They were students from China who had never been to church. This was hard for us to imagine. Apparently, most of my Chinese friends were a little confused about the idea of Easter, because I received several questions about it during the week. The only churches they had seen were on American movies. So we had a good time and were able to explain some of our beliefs to them. We went for coffee after church and learned a lot about China! For example, when they are born, they are automatically 1 year old. Maddux would already be 17 months old!

We then went to join our new family - the Hayes’ - for lunch. We had a fantastic time with them. This part of our day was really helpful because were able to enjoy the family atmosphere to keep us from missing home too much.

After lunch we caught a train into Darling Harbour, for a FREE Rebecca St. James concert put on by Hillsong Church. We didn’t know a whole lot about her but both of us really enjoyed the music. She apparently grew up in Sydney attending Hillsong. The service reminded me a lot of Falls Creek - very up beat, inspirational and a completely young crowd. We had to laugh every time the mentioned the word church. They would say “Hi everyone! Welcome to chuch in the beautiful Dawling Habour.” The typos were intentional this time! This is how the Australians sound to us.

Also, on Monday we went to the famous Taronga Zoo. It is a zoo located right on the harbour. They offered $5 tickets to college students and their friends. This must have been the busiest day of the year with the day after Easter being a public holiday, everyone was off work. We got to see more of the famous Australian animals. Plus, we were able to get really close to the tigers and lions!