A 7-Day Refresher

Dear Friends and Family,
   The Lord provided both of us a time to get away from the small town life of Katherine. We needed this. A break from work and ministry and children.  Jesus is the reminder to us all that we need to take times away in order to be useful in the work.... He often went alone to pray to the Father, to escape the many people who "needed" him.  We need to get with Him on a daily basis, but He was kind enough to us to let us escape and go somewhere else :). We chose to go to Brisbane, because that is where we were provided completely free accommodation, as well as a beautiful prayer retreat to end our trip with, in order to "get alone" with the Father. We count it a blessing that friends we trust were able to care for our children while we were away for 7 days! That is quite a lot to ask of friends... but it was such a blessing to know that our kids were safe and well-cared for while we were away. I hope and pray that God provides for them in their needs as well. Here is a daily run-down of our trip:

Day 1: We ventured out to Ipswich, QLD, where our lovely unit was waiting for us... took some time to rest from our midnight flight, and then walked on a path (in the rain :) !) to scout our some pizza for lunch...got lost, but made it anyway! 

Day 2:  Had a relaxing morning...then took the train to Brisbane... saw the "Wheel of Brisbane," an art gallery, and the city botanic gardens. We finished our day at a local Korean BBQ where we felt like we had left Australia and gone to Korea! EVERYONE in that restaurant was Korean, except for us. What does that tell you about the food? It was excellent! We cooked it ourselves, right on the table!

Day 3: Whale Watching Day!  Lots of travel just to get there... including a long walk, as the bus didn't go near the pick-up spot. (we walked a lot on this trip :) ) But it was most definitely worth it, just to get up and close to God's beautiful creation of whales, and see them in their natural environment. Amazing. This was also the day that a U.S. aircraft carrier was pulling into the Brisbane port to drop off American military boys for the weekend... the local newspaper said,  America's invading Brisbane! Oh no! :) But we saw the invasion up close and personal as well, as it delayed our travel out to the island for a bit...

Day 4: Our last full day before heading to the prayer retreat, so we decided to take it easy and stay in Ipswich, instead of heading into Brisbane again. We took a relaxed morning, went out for coffee (again) :)... and then decided to catch a matinee of "Inside Out." I wasn't sure what to expect with this movie, but it beat my expectations to say the least. We approve...not that you need our approval! :) Just a nice, relaxing day... we ended it with a short walk again.

Day 5: Early morning service at 8:30 am at a local church... rush, rush, get to the bus... miss the bus! Miss the train!  Can't make it to the prayer retreat on time! ... Call our friends who live in Brisbane area... get invited over for lunch (American hot dogs, which Jared was thrilled about!)... have a nice visit with them... catch the last train to Gympie! Arrive at the prayer retreat at 8:30 pm.

Day 6: A beautiful location, for focused time in prayer with our heavenly Father. No distractions. Had a good day in quietness with the Lord, both separately, and together. Invited over to the hosts' place for dinner... which turned out to be a Bible study at their house and lots of people we didn't know! Good times though. Partook of communion as a group... sang a hymn... prayer... and looked at the Lord's prayer in Matthew. Various denominations represented. It was a very nice way to conclude our day there.

Day 7: We spent the morning at Eaglemount Prayer Retreat... then hopped on the train to get back to the Brisbane airport and head home!  Arrived in Darwin at 12:30 am the next morning... drove straight home and got to our house around 5 am.  Needless to say, we were tired. Picked up the children that morning... great to be back with them again.  Thank you friends who watched them! We really had a nice time away.