Melbourne

Well I have made it to Melbourne where I have recooperated for 2 weeks. I've mostly bummed around, helped clean up at the church I was staying at and fixed up my bike. I've been staying at Ebenezer Bible-Presbyterian Church and going to the church and its branch in the city, the City Gospel Fellowship. Today off home, gee how I've missed it and not missed it, mixed feelings, however looking forward to seeing people.

Well the trip from Mildura to Melbourne was flat out as I was pushing hard to get more rest time. I lived off sausages and bread and now consider myself to be somewhat of a sausage connoisseur. The butchers which sold the best sausages in Victoria were only slightly better than at home but maybe there is a limit to sausage taste. I tried some cashew, chicken, spinach and fetta sausages...interesting.

Anyway in this section of the trip I camped under a bushy tree on a town edge, was chased after by a reporter, saw a town with the main railway down the middle of the main street, got the most abuse of my whole trip in 1 hour, whooped my speed record (65.4k) scaring myself half to death and broke my bike again.

This time I was flying down some windy hills and got stuck in high gear going up the next one. As I struggled to move I tipped my bike numerous times trying to pull it over. A guy stopped to help me as numerous cars queued up behind him, slowly getting angry. As I tried to take off again my chain bounced off the chain ring (bit that pulls the chain), but part of it stayed on putting enormous force on a small section causing it to bend. After pulling my bike over to a driveway (driveways in the hills here are shared by numerous houses) I foolishly resorted back to trying to sort every out in my own strength. I rang one of my friends in Melbourne a couple times then rang my parents to get a taxi truck. In the meantime a couple cars had gone up the driveway including a landcruiser with a trailer. As I finished talking to my parents a guy walked down the driveway to see what was up. I told him my chain ring was stuffed and he asked where I was going to. Turns out he and his family were moving to a house right there and their old house was right next to Kilsyth the suburb I was going to. Once again God has bailed me out even though I bailed on him. How faithful is he!

I saw the biggest willi-willi on this section too, bout 100m high, no joke. Also now have the title of Fly-Killer Extraordinaire after averaging 1000 flys a day in certain regions.

Literature of the month:

Romans 8:26 We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.

The Grits - song lyrics, My Life Be Like
"It's times like these that make me say,
Lord if you see me please come my way.
Leavin bread crumbs for when I stray
Rely on sacrifice and the price you paid
Feel me like a fingertip
Sometimes I fall I slip
Got a heartfelt desire be more like you
Trying not to quench your fire by the things that I do

My life be like, oooh, aaah"

On pain and suffering
"Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it" - Helen Keller (Born blind and deaf)

"I walked a mile with pleasure,
She chatted all the way,
But left me none the wiser,
For all she had to say,
I walked a mile with sorrow,
And ne'er a word said she,
But oh, the things I learned from her,
When sorrow walked with me!"
Robert Browning Hamilton

"We can ignore even pleasure. But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pain: it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world" C. S. Lewis