Thursday, January 29, 2009

Last couple of days in Sydney

We had a couple of busy days in Sydney before leaving catching up and meeting with a lot of people including:
Damien and Julie Bassett - i knew Damo from Taurang days. They are heading to Toronto in a few weeks to plant a church. So excited to hear waht they are up to.
Jay Jury - pastor at a hillsong Extension service- talked shop
Tim and Tanya - talked about Italy and church stuff
Pastors John and Ann Iuliano - unfortuantley jsut a quick hello
Dr Mark Hutchinson - got us up to speed on what to expect in Italy
Dr Ian and Jennie Jagelaman - a caht about church stuff over a lemon ime and bitters at their beautiful home with kookaburras on the verandah
Aran Puddle - just a brief hello
Ben Houston - even briefer - quick talk about our girls.
Jared and Denise - Australia Day at a beach

We had a great time in Sydney hanging out with Thomas and Kat and satyuing with Nick and Sarah and Kai (Kaira's little boyfriend). We are so blessed to have such great friends.

Travel to London

We have just done 23 hours from Sydney to London. It was a lot easier than expected. Kaira was a dream and slept most of the time. In fact I recommend having a baby with you when you travel (even if you need to borrow someone's). Everone is freindly and lots of people come and talk to you, you tend to get on planes first, and a lot of officials enable you to skip queues. Brilliant. In fact, when we arrived at Sydney, the customs queue I think would have taken close to an hour to get through. Andrea went and spoke to a customs officer (with Kaira - who burst into tears at that moment) and he let us through another door without even going through customs.

We are just killing time at Heathrow at the moment. We have 4 hours here so bought a drink each - £7 - $21!!

We are being picked up from the airport in Rome and have accomodation there organised for us. We are going to spend a few days there and then perhaps with a friend of Thomas Hansen's in Florence so we can practice our Italian. "Un caffe per favore!!"

We will head to Bari next week.

Monday, January 26, 2009

Sydney

We are almost at the end of our few days in Sydney.

We had our very first Australian day which featured people with Australian flags everywhere. We spent the afternoon at the beach with about a dozen people. All kiwis except for one.

We went to Hillsong sevrices on Sunday. Chris Hill was speaking in the morning and Sanga at night. Both really good.

It has been great catching up with friends. We leave for Italy tomorrow evening. we just bought some notebooks to start writing out our Italian phrases.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

The 'G'



Today included a visit to the MCG.



The MCG is the largest stadium in Australia, and holds the world record for the highest light towers at any sporting venue. It is within walking distance of the city centre (as are all of the main sporting venues in Melbourne). Founded in November 1838 the Melbourne Cricket Club selected the current MCG site in 1853 after previously playing at several grounds around Melbourne.


Until the 1970s, more than 120,000 people were sometimes crammed into the venue - the record crowd standing at around 130,000 for a Billy Graham religious event in 1959, followed by 121,696 for the 1970 VFL Grand Final. Renovations and safety regulations now limit the maximum capacity to just over 100,000. This makes it the eighth largest stadium in the world.

The first international cricket game was on New Year’s Day 1862 when an English invitation 11 played against a Victorian 18. The Victorians were allowed extra players to make the contest more even! Some estimates put the crowd at the MCG that day at 25,000. The Victorians however, were no match for the English at cricket and the visitors won by an innings and 96 runs.





Not only was the first Test match played at the MCG in 1897 between England and Australia, the first One Day International match was also played there, on 5 January 1971, between Australia and England. Australia won the 40-over match by 5 wickets.

The MCG was also the location of the infamous dirty Australian underam bowling incident. This highlights how ridiculous the decsion of Greg Chappel to instruct his brother Richard to bowl underam. The ground is so big it is difficlult for anyone to get close to hitting a six let alone Brian McKechnie, a tailender who had just come to the crease.








Andrew Symonds has just denounced the NSW 20/20 team to import Brendon Mcullum for their final game as "unaustralian". Given their history I would venture to say that it is perfecty Australian! God bless 'em!




Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Melbourne at Night

We had a lovely stroll along the Yarra and through the city. Melbourne is beautifully laid out with cafes and restaurants all along the river.



We are having a lovely time with Phil and Kita.

A Day at the Open

Today was tennis day. We had tickets for tonights session (Christmas presents form Phil and Kita) but the Open organisers decided to make it Australia Night and put on their unseeded Australian players. Normally it would have been two fo the top seeds. Typical Aussies - good in the way they are so into their players but we didn't think we could stand that much Australian patriotism and rendetions of Waltzing Matilda! We sold our tickets and got tickets for the days play.


Starting at 11am we got to see 3 great games. Ana Ivanavich, Novak Dokovic and Roger Federer. It was awesome. Our seats were up the top but we managed to get right down courtside to watch some of the games.












Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Real Tennis

Going to the tennis, I decided to have alook at the history of the game. It's predecessor- Real Tennis, surprised me a bit. It is played in courts with walls and has some pretty complicated rules. It is still played today. Here is a bit about it.





T

Monday, January 19, 2009

Hot!!

It was 40 degrees in Melbourne today. Like an oven.



We had a tour around the city with Phil. One thing that stood out was the Shot Tower in the middle of the city. It was built in the 1800's to make gun pellets. They drop the molten lead from the top of the tower and by the time it reaches the bottom it is the right size droplets and it plunges into water at the bottom to cool.


The thing that impressed me the most though was that it was not knocked down for development. Instead a huge shopping centre was bult around it.



We spent some time walking down Bridge road as well which is lined with shops. We travelled by tram so felt very Melbournian.


The whole place ia abuzz with the tennis. We are going tomorrow and will get to see Federer play. I can't wait to see him. It's not often you get see someone as brilliant and talented as him.



Melbourne

Well we had a big day.

It started at 3am going to the airport. I felt so sorry for Kaira, coping with a few hours sleep, but she did well and was really good on the plane.

Unfortunately our plane was delayed and we missed our connecting flight from Sydney to Melbourne. All a bit stressful really. Fortunately there was no charge to get on a later flight.

We had dinner with Andrea's brother Phil and his girlfriend Nikita then went wondering around melbourne. Its my first time here and I must say i am really impressed. Sports stadiums everywhere! We are staying just across the road form the MCG and the Rod Laver Arena. we went for a walk alongside the Yarra river and sat in Federation Square watching the tennis on a big screen. It is mid 30's so nice and warm.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Our Italian Adventure

Why?
In early 2008 Pastor Ken and Raewyn ministered to a network of Assembly of God churches in Italy. One of the churches was Bethel Church in Bari with Pastor Giovanni Ciato. It is a growing, progressive church that is eager for leadership and strategy to take it to the next level. The one thing they said they needed help with was someone to develop the Youth Leaders. Andrea and I believe that with our involvement over the last several years in Youth Ministry in the local church and nationally we will hopefully be able to offer Bethel Church and the wider church community.


What?:
In our time in Italy we will be based at Bethel Assembly of God in Bari. Our ministry at Bethel will include:
Training and Tutoring the Bethel Church Youth leaders;
Involvement in all of the Bethel Church Youth activities (teachings in leadership, connect groups etc.);
Occasional involvement in the Preaching Ministry in Bethel Church and other congregations;
Teaching in one of the Theological Training Seminars that is held monthly at Bethel Church .

We will also be released by Bethel Church to minister to the wider network of churches they are associated with. This will include:
Participation at the Assemblies of God National Easter Conference. You will have to hold three seminars lasting one and a half hours each regarding any theme that you see fit for leadership of youth and teenagers;
Seminars to be held in other Congregations or other Assemblies of God Churches.
325,000 people reside in Bari with about 1.6 million in the greater Bari area.

When?:
We depart on 19 January 2009 and return in October.


We would also greatly appreciate your prayers for:
Safety and protection
Fruitful ministry
Good relationships with the people we are ministering with
Financial needs to be met

We would like to keep in contact with you while we are away. If you would like to receive emails from us then please email us: bradenmatson@gmail.com

Countdown

Just 3 more sleeps until we head off to Italy for 9 months. We had sent our passports to the Italian Embassy in Wellington to get visas, and we just got them back yesterday. Cutting it fine, but all good.

Now just to finalise things in the house and at work, and fitting in all our goodbyes.