NSLF Highlights- my small group #32 post-volleyball glory, barn dance beauties, Brendan and I after a nice run on Lake Burley Griffin, sg service

Photos from the journey: Nichole and I in Melbourne, Linsey and I at the half marathon, Brendan and I in Newtown, Dee Why Beach & Canberra

Brooke's Australia Adventures Update #4

Brooke’s Australia Adventure Update #4 Sunday, June 10, 2007

Dearly beloved,

I am sitting on a busy street in Newtown, a suburb of Sydney – a very diverse and popular area filled with Indian restaurants, coffee shops, Asian shoppers and the ever-present Aussie pubs on the corners and bottle shops. I think of all I have seen and learned about Australia in the past four months and I am amazed! I have stayed in so many different neighborhoods just in Sydney alone: Drummoyne, Summer Hill, Lindfield, Hornsby, have gone to church in Turramurra, Annandale, Randwick, have been to dinner in Circular Quay and Killara not to mention getting to know other little rural communities like Paterson and in a few days thanks to another Rotary speaking engagement Wellington near Dubbo in western New South Wales. If you are not Australian, or not spent much time here these places won’t have any familiarity or significance for you – as they did not for me a few months ago. But now, they stir memories of meals shared, houses opened, and lives exchanged perhaps only for a few hours, but I have felt very loved in the past four months and I just wanted you all to know… I am very glad I have come. Plus, where in the world can you sit outside in the beginning of winter and still be comfortable? By the way, I love Sydney and am glad to live close to it, but I am also very glad that I live in Newcastle where the pace of life is a little slower and the beaches are a little less crowded. I also love the tiny alleys of Melbourne, the beaches of Adelaide where the water is as it is on the Gulf of Mexico – calm, and Lake Burley Griffin in Canberra for running trails… Australia is truly beautiful… who is going to come visit?

I must tell you though this afternoon sunshine is especially appreciated because we have just experienced the worst storms ever in 30 years in this part of New South Wales. Along the Hunter Valley/Central coast area on Friday and through to earlier today there was an unbelievable dumping of rain that seemed to want to end the 7 years of drought Australia has been experiencing in a few days. On Friday the seas were up to 55 feet in Newcastle and enough to beach a coal tanker off Nobby’s Beach in Newcastle. The crew had to be taken by helicopter off the ship. When I drove the next morning to the gym there were abandoned cars everywhere where drivers were forced to leave them when flash floods came out of nowhere and a downed tree over the road forced me to abandon my plans of working out. Wouldn’t you know that as I drove down to Sydney that day (Saturday) I decided to skip the first petrol station because there was a line up of cars that I didn’t feel I wanted to wait for and thought, surely I can make it to the petrol station off the freeway… As I watched my gas gauge slowly go down, I did make it and wouldn’t you know it – due to power being off – it was closed? And, since the mobile phone tower was down, I didn’t have any network to make any calls should I get stuck… As I headed off down the freeway praying frantically to find another petrol station I was reminded of how much I often need to slow down and be more patient in the beginning, listening to the still, small voice of the Holy Spirit instead of stubbornly pushing through to do what I want to do… I did make it to the next exit and found bumper-to-bumper traffic in this part of the Central Coast – Wyong – that had been subject to some of the worst flooding. As I inched along I found two petrol stations, both closed due to again, power outage. I found out as I listened to the radio that 50,000 homes were without power in this area and it could be up to a week before it would all be restored… this was not very helpful information to me at this point. I stopped at this shopping center and began asking people’s advice on what to do… and began thinking I could be stranded in this town – halfway between Newcastle and Sydney and no mobile coverage and the storm not yet over. I decided to act on the advice I was given and try one more option – going 5 kms down the road to the next exit in Ourimbah that hadn’t had the power go off and see. My car thankfully made it there and after 20 minutes in the cue for petrol, I was on my way. What an adventure – not to mention the rain and wind I ended up driving through the rest of the day, yet again an opportunity to learn and praise God for His mercy in the midst of my own independence and foolishness. For news about the storm, check out: http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/06/10/australia.floods.reut/index.html

2nd Chronicles 15:2
“The LORD is with you when you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will forsake you.”

I am officially finished with semester one of my program – as I finished my final essay on Friday and am on break now until July 17th when my second and final semester of coursework will begin (this is of course believing optimistically that I have passed all my courses!). It was an intense second part of the semester and I do thank all of you who lifted my studies in your prayers. I have learned so much and have seen my capacity to do research and spend Saturday mornings in the library grow. I have examined and learned about much and had the opportunity to go deeper into issues that are personally intriguing to me including the impact of the multinational corporation Nike on Indonesia, how transformative leadership could be applied to my former workplace of Christian Life Ministries and how the question of women in ministry impacts culture and society for different denominations who have different views. My mind has sometimes been caught up in the complexities of what I am studying, but thankfully I have had some good friends who have reminded me to remain focused and try and keep things a bit simple. I must also thank Gloria Jeans (the Aussie version of Starbucks) for providing a cappuccino chiller to help me stay awake at times… so now I am happy to say I am able to engage my mind in the continuing journey of living in a new country and traveling to Thailand and all that will await me there. But before I share with you about what is coming next, let me allow you to share with me the highlights of the past few weeks.

Psalm 46:10
“Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”

The biggest blessing by far, and amazing gift is that of a person in my life. Brendan is a man I met in my first few weeks of being in Australia at a gathering at a mutual friends house in North Sydney, Jock Cameron. I was introduced to the friends gathered there that night (about 70) as an American just moved from DC to Newcastle to study (some dear American friends were there that night as well visiting – George Madison and others). After the group time Jock introduced me to Brendan as someone who is from Newcastle that I should talk to about the area. Brendan and I immediately hit it off, and as I was going to live there and interested in finding a church we started talking about the options. He was very gracious to give me lots of tidbits of information about the area and the next day followed up our conversation with an e-mail detailing lots of options as well as church links. As things turned out that next Sunday he happened to be up visiting his family and so I was brought along to church and that turned into lunch and a great tour of the city and surprisingly intimate conversation. It was a fantastic day and yet I left thinking – I can’t have a crush on the first Australian guy I meet… Yet, two months later, Brendan and I went on our first date and we haven’t looked back since. He does live in Sydney, which makes our time together sweet when either I come down, or he comes up to Newcastle and it has just been an amazing time of sharing life and vision. I feel he has really been a partner for me in encouraging me here in what I am doing both in my studies (he too is interested in economic development having a commerce and economics degree himself) and in my relationships with those at college. We have much in common and both were on the team to help put on the National Student Leadership Forum in Canberra last week so it was fun to work together on the details of that – I helped coordinate the service portion and he helped organize all the “fun” activities including a volleyball tournament and “Amazing Race.” It is still a new relationship, but we do have a great sense of peace about where we are at and so friends I just share this for you to rejoice with me in what God has given and feel free to pray for us as we walk through the season we are in together.

Another highlight of the past few weeks was the half-marathon at Apollo Bay that Linsey (my hall mate) and I did together on May 20th. We completed the Great Ocean Road Half Marathon and what an amazingly gorgeous course! You can’t normally run on this windy bit of road because it is just two-lane and is full of blind corners, but for the race was completely closed to traffic and we had the most spectacular views of the ocean. Both of us did times we were very happy about and it was awesome to share it together. The weekend also allowed me to re-connect one last time with Nichole in Melbourne before she finishes up her master’s and heads home a completed Rotary scholar. We had a very nice visit and it was wonderful to have our friendship have that one more good time together following the way our trip before had gone. I have much to be grateful for in that!

The other huge highlight is the time in Canberra last week at the National Student Leadership Forum. I was balancing a few roles there – helping with the community service organization and facilitating a small group – but it was a great time. Tiring, but great. I was co-leading group 32 with Dan Crozier from Melbourne and Michelle Mignone from Adelaide. None of us had met previously, nor had any of our students (wide range of students mainly from around Sydney, but also Perth and Wollongong). I was struck by the amazing diversity of students that attended, not just in race – Asian, Indian, African, etc. but especially by the range of faiths and creeds – Muslim, Christian, atheist, Siek, etc. and yet the sense of respect that existed among all of the students. Our small group was able to get to know one another in a meaningful way and we also had a lot of fun. Besides hearing from Prime Minister John Howard and opposition leader Kevin Rudd, the students were also greeted by other Members of Parliament and got to know other Australian legends – like Margaret Court who won 65 grand slam tennis tournaments in her day and the founder of Aussie Helpers. There were many inspirational speeches, but I truly saw the students come alive through being engaged with their peers in a small group setting where trust was established and intimacy developed through story telling in just a few days. I have no doubt from what I witnessed and experienced in and through the lives of these students that Australia is a rich and diverse nation with much hope in its future through leaders like these. I am so very grateful for the glimpse into their lives and the opportunity to give what I have been given in the past.

I leave this Friday, the 15th of June for Bangkok and just as a refresher for those who would like to keep the trip in prayer; I will be working with Night Light in Bangkok from the 15th-29th of June. Then, on the 30th I will fly to Chiang Mai and spend my remaining time until the 10th of July with the organization, Garden of Hope. Both organizations seek to minister to women in the sex trade. My time will be spent volunteering in whatever capacity they see fit, but certainly some of my time will be spent doing outreach to the women in bars and building relationships, in the small way I can due to my lack of language ability, but truly in some ways coming alongside the staff there and encouraging them, learning from what they are doing and seeing firsthand the women who have been long on my heart. I will then fly back to Sydney and have a few days for re-entry before beginning classes again. This trip is truly an answer to prayer and a fulfillment of a passion I feel the Lord placed on my heart several years ago. Thank you for standing with me in prayer for it.

2nd Peter 3:9
“The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”


I want to end on a fun note by giving you a vocabulary lesson between Australian and American English:

Aussie lingo American translation
Fairdinkum really?
Bogen redneck or hick
Brekky breakfast
Avo afternoon
How you going? How are you? Or How’s it going?
Ferrell wild, to be used as in “my kids are feral…” or “those feral…”
That’s alright you are welcome
No worries it’s all good
Good day substitute for good morning, good afternoon, good evening, etc.
Jumper sweater
Car boot trunk
Mobile cell phone
Petrol gas
Caravan mobile home/camper RV
Ute truck
Bush dance barn dance/square dance
Cue line

Like in British or Canadian English, the Australian English adds u’s to words or e’s at the end for instance: colour and centre

There are many cultural differences I have noted and picked up on and tried in my limited way to make corrections on in my own vocabulary or pronunciation. For instance, the city Melbourne is not pronounced Mel-born… it is Mel-been – who knew that in America? By the way, Australians when they first meet me are reluctant to ask if I am from America, because if I am Canadian I’ll be offended – so they first try with, “are you from Canada?” I think this is very funny because of course I am dual-citizen Canadian/American so they can’t offend me – but I do like to tease them with it a little.

I hope you have enjoyed my cultural lesson and don’t worry, even if you do mis-pronounce something the Aussies will just “have a go at you” and if they do it means they like you (as in they will make fun of you mercilessly & sarcastically). Please do know that although you are far away, you are all in my heart and there is a place for you to stay here if you decide to visit… since I am already down 4 months and will be in Thailand there’s only about 8 months more for you to come – August – February – so get booking and let me know!

Much love,
Brooke Gagnon
As always… check out the blog for accompanying photos: http://www.brookesintladventures.blogspot.com