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| Photo by: Kieren Ash |
About a month ago (March 19th!), I went to a bar with a couple of my friends and after hanging out for about 10 minutes one of the girls (who had been drinking prior) felt too drunk too handle and asked me if I would leave with her and make sure she got home safe. I wasn't really excited about the bar and I wanted to help her out so I told her that we could leave that way the others could stay out until whenever. We left the bar and ended up at McDonalds to get food and wait for one of her friends to come and pick us up. After about 2 hours a guy and a girl sat next to us and sparked up a conversation. They were both Australia (as was my friend) and we all got along really well. Our conversation was very lighthearted, we didn't talk about religion at all, but got to know each other and spoke about our family background and whatnot. We exchanged information and they had to go catch a bus so we walked them to the bus stop and said our goodbyes. I honestly thought that was the last time I'd see or talk to them which made me pretty sad because they were really nice people.
We all added each other on facebook and soon after, the guy sent me a message asking if I could meet him at Wynyard (a train station in Sydney) on Sunday. I asked my roommate if she'd go with me and she said she would so I agreed! The morning of, Kelly accidentally slept in, but I thought I'd go ahead and meet my new friend at the train station. After all, it was Sunday morning around 9 am and I felt pretty safe. Above that I really felt the Lord pushing me to go. I was picked up by him and his sister outside of the train station and they told me all about the place we were going.
Church. I'd been praying for months about a church and the ones I tried out, I wasn't too fond of so I was excited that the Lord literally just laid this one in my lap. My friend told me it was in a pub because it was a really new church plant and they were just getting off the ground. I was keen so we made our way to Pyrmont (the city the church.
We got to the church/pub and when I walked in I started meeting heaps of people around my age who legitimately loved the Lord. The conversations weren't forced like the other conversations I'd had at other churches, and above that they reminded me of my friends back home. I ended up getting into a conversation about my church background and I told them I attend a church called "The Village" back home to which they responded with "Matt Chandler!?!?". My heart started racing. No way did I just find a church through a guy I met at 2 am in a McDonalds....that just so happened to know the pastor of my church. It gets better.
I find out not only do they know Matt, but they are apart of the same church network as The Village. Acts 29. There are 2 Acts29 churches in the country of Australia. Two. This one, Cornerstone, doesn't even have a website or any type of advertisement.
I listened to the sermon and I was sold. Adam, the pastor, spoke about the Truth of the Gospel instead of just lovey-dovey general messages. After the sermon I met a guy named Dan who, after a nice conversation, asked me if I would be a leader at a week-long Youth Camp. After I had a chance to pray about it and sleep on it I accepted! For the past few months I've been really upset about missing YoungLife camp this year, and this was so similar it was almost unreal.The next Saturday (just 6 days later) I hitched a ride with another leader and was on my way to Camp Kedron.
Camp was incredible. The food was wonderful. The people were amazing. And most importantly the Lord was the focus. The other leaders I met at camp were life changing. They were encouraging and welcoming the entire week. On Friday (the last day of camp) the camp "dad" & "mom" (which happened to be Adam, Cornerstone's pastor, and his wife Amy) brought me a birthday cake and the whole camp sung to me! A great end to a great week.
The next day, my birthday, I went bowling with a bunch of the leaders from the camp (Amy, Adam, Vanessa, Dan, Kieren & his girlfriend Maddi) and then out to dinner with two other leaders (Rhys & his sister Allie) along with an American from the AIFS group. It was a great birthday.
Yesterday I went to church again at Cornerstone and I've got to admit I'm going to be devastated when I have to leave the community I've formed here. After church I went to Amy & Adam's apartment for tea and ended up staying the whole day! We had great conversation, made dinner together and then ended the night with champagne on the roof of their apartment...which happens to be a garden overlooking Sydney.
During the past 2 months I've made heaps of friends in Sydney but none like the people I met during this last week. I've felt drawn to Australia this whole trip, but I was disappointed that I didn't have a good community with uplifting friends. Now that I've met friends with eternity at mind, I feel even more called to live in Australia.
I don't know about you but there are heaps too many things making up this story to boil it down to a just plain coincidence. I started praying for a church about 2 months before I left, one random night I was out at a bar and my friend wanted to leave, I ended up meeting a guy who goes to this church every once in a while and he just so happened to invite me to church. A church that not only knows my pastor back home but is part of the same church plant network. A church that isn't online and doesn't use advertising. I met a guy who invited me to work at a camp, after I'd been pretty upset about missing YoungLife camp this year. I also was running out of money and this camp was free for leaders and I had a place to sleep with 3 meals a day. How can someone turn a blind eye to that? How can someone just say that is a coincidence. No. That's the Lord, being faithful.
