WOW . . . We had worship today!

Today is what it is all about. This is why we came to Australia. Today we worshipped.

Warm-Up at West Ryde

After an early (6:30 a.m.) breakfast, we set out for West Ryde Baptist Church and to meet one of Dan's new friends, Pastor Steve, face-to-face after originally meeting over Skype. One of the first discoveries we made is that if you ever need a technical "go-to" guy, look for someone named David . . . and West Ryde had two of them! And it was almost like being at home with our own David! In corresponding with Steve Hales, pastor at West Ryde, Dan had mentioned some things we would like to have, if available, but said they were not essential. Well, enter the two Davids, and just like our own David, they figured it all out, rigged projector platforms onto speaker stands, etc. And it all worked! But back to worship. We got to West Ryde early to rehearse/warm up because they have a special schedule. About an hour before the service begins each Sunday they have people who come into their worship center and pray! We certainly didn't want to be a distraction and were delighted by the opportunity following our warm up to get into small groups scattered throughout the church and share in this special time of prayer. Then the service began. Any time you step outside of your "normal," you don't know what to expect. Dan had put together a service of special music and worship medleys, but we didn't know  whether the people would know the songs, enjoy the songs, or participate with us on any of the songs. But they did . . . and with gusto! Steve Yarbrough (our past-president) and John Stam (our missions pastor) shared brief testimonies. John shared how one week ago when we had a prayer on behalf of this team prior to our departure for Australia he had mentioned that the opportunities for ministry might begin before we reached Australia and that it might even be with the person sitting next to you on the plane. Little had he known then the person that would happen to would be him! It was a wonderful morning that could have continued forever, but time wouldn't allow it.

Pastor Steve Hales & family

After the worship service at West Ryde, they have "tea" (aka snacks in the Commons back at Emmanuel) and visit. Pastor Steve had asked Dan about the possibility of splitting us into small groups to go home with church members for lunch. During "tea" as conversations were struck up, members would ask someone they had bonded with to come home with them for lunch and would take a group . . . some of 3, some of 6, and Pastor Steve and his family took 10! It was amazing to visit with these people in their homes, to learn about their lives, and share a special time with them on a more intimate level. But again, we had a schedule to keep so we had to meet back at the church to begin our transit to the Salvation Army Congress Hall. Along the way we stopped for a group photo again!

Rehearsal with our Australian friends!

When we arrived at Congress Hall, we were joined by Ash Sellers (he worked sound for us) and about 30 singers from the Salvation Army choir and William Booth House to rehearse "Lord of All" which was the closing number for the evening. We had another great evening of worship with another great group of people. We followed the same basic order from the morning and once again Steve and John shared with those who were present. Then finally, the experience of joining voices with others to close out the evening was indeed a very special moment.

We had great plans for dinner . . . we were going to go to "Harry's Cafe de Wheels" for Australian meat pies . . . but, alas, there were too many of us so we'll have to go back in smaller groups for this unique Australian experience. We returned to the Meriton where we headed out to eat on our own or hit our rooms after a long, exhausting, but very rewarding day.