With apologies to faithful Gluesticks who know that my habit is to post once a week, I am at this very moment blogging from beautiful Cairns, Australia. It is just after 5:00 a.m. on Tuesday morning, February 5, and I have just finished a ten-minute interview with Aaron Ironside on Radio Rhema, New Zealand's premiere Christian radio station out of Auckland. The interview was arranged in advance of my visit to Christchurch next weekend and to promote the first Mosaix Global Network Seminar ever to be conducted outside the United States.
So ... Since New Zealand is three hours ahead of the time here in Cairns and I'm up, I thought I'd get started on this travelogue before heading back to bed and a trip later this morning to Port Douglas. I'll add pictures later when I can. Enjoy:-)
Thursday, January 31 - Arrived in LA with about five hours to kill and spent three of them at Chili's in the International Terminal awaiting the midnight flight to Sydney. Unremarkable, other than the fact that a woman (young mom, early thirties) bellied up to the bar around 10:30 p.m. ordering a glass of wine and shot of tequila. After casually drinking the wine, she slammed the shot expressing her determination to get some sleep on the red-eye to NY. No sooner had she downed the tequila, that she realized her plane was at that very moment boarding. She rushed out to catch it and as she did, one of the men standing near her expressed to the rest of us that it would take about ten-minutes for the tequila to kick-in; "God help her!" And then, no sooner had she left and she was back - with, still, a line boarding the plane - for one more shot! Again, she slammed it and left in a hurry, this time for good. "Poor girl," the man said. "She thinks the first glass had no effect and just about the time it kicks in, she'll think it was the second. In about twenty minutes, though, she won't know what hit her! It's not sleep she's ordered up, but sickness."
Friday, February 1 - My lost day! Darkness for nearly the entire 15 hour flight. The back of each seat on the Qantas flight, however, is equipped with a tv/video monitor and I'm able to watch premier movies on demand at no charge! Two meals will be served, fresh fruit and other goodies throughout. If you ever fly in this part of the world, you'll be well provided for by the folks on Qantas. And at some point during the trip, I heard a song entitled, Warm Whispers by a young Australian singer/songwriter named Missy Higgins. It's a very intimate tune sure to keep my heart home and missing my beautiful wife, Linda for the next twelve days.
As the crew begins to prepare the cabin for landing, the chief steward on the 747 asks me about American politics and the current race for the White House. He is interested in the individual candidates, patitcularly Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama, and, as well, as the primary process, i.e., how does it work. This is a line of questioning that will be repeatedly put to me throughout my time in Australia. Finding out I am from Little Rock, Bill Clinton naturally becomes part of the conversation and I tell him something I heard one of Hillary's detractors recently say, that "The last thing America needs is Bill Clinton back in the White House with nothing to do!" He immediately gets the subtle point and laughs out loud. Later, I'll use this with similar success in churches here to break the ice before I speak.
Saturday, February 2 - I arrive in Sydney, Australia 10:30 a.m. local time and realize in Little Rock, it is - at that moment - 5:30 p.m., Friday, February 1. While still trying to get my mind around this concept, Pastor David Boyd of the Jesus Centre (no website at the present time) welcomes me to the country he has called home for more than twenty years. Of Scottish descent, he is originally from New Zealand (a "Kiwi," as the Australians say). David is warm and personable, a man with keen insight concerning the coming integration of the local church. It does not take long for us to recognize the kindred spirit that connects both as brothers and champions of the multi-ethnic vision. In fact, he tells me that his first book, You Don't Have to Cross the Ocean to Reach the World will be published in August 2008 by Chosen Books, a division of Baker Publishing Group. Later, he will invite me to endorse it, as well.
Leaving the airport, it does not take long to realize that Australia is so very much like the United States. David confirms this, as will my brother-in-law, Bob Foot, two days later who describes Australia as "just another state." Seemingly at this point, the only difference is the side of the road on which the Australians drive and as a passenger, I will more often than not head to the wrong side of the car throughout the trip!
We arrive at the Jesus Centre around noon and I am greeted by associate pastors from Burma and Vietnam. A meal is being prepared by volunteers for the more than 30 leaders from the church now arriving to spend time with me in advance of Sunday night at which time, I will share with the entire congregation. The Jesus Centre was founded by David and his wife, Chih (Chinese) in 1990 and originally intended as a mono-ethnic church plant among Chinese nationals living in Sydney. Today, it is a church of 400-500 people comprised of men and women from more than 40 nations and located in Cabramatta, a richly diverse, though desperately needy area of the city inhabited largely by Asians of varying nationalities. This is evident by the many signs I see on the street immediately surrounding the church advertising businesses in multiple languages. Following the meal, I share of my background, personal journey into the multi-ethnic church, of Mosaic and more generally of the growing interest in the emerging Multi-ethnic Church Movement. Following this, I field questions from a very informed and committed group of believers who, themselves, are passionate to plant such churches throughout Australasia and beyond (i.e., Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, etc.). Indeed, this church and these people are already doing so!
On Saturday, March 8, I received a call from my brother-in-law, Bob Foot, in Australia. Just more than three weeks after returning home from Australia, my sister, Jean, finally succumbed to cancer. Her untimely passing was sadly inevitable, but according to Bob, the end came peaceably with him at her side. 
In fact, I told some here in the states that Bob treats you more like Christ than I think many so-called Christian husbands might treat their wives in similar circumstances! So I want you to know that I admire him greatly and thank God you have had such a good and caring man to love you the past twenty years. I know, Bob will always carry you close to his heart; and I look forward to he and I remaining good mates through the years!
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