Aust Pilg 13 - Launceston and final days in Australia

The end of this month marks the one year anniversary since we returned from Australia. It feels like we've been gone from there for a lot longer than just a year. I feel sad when I think of it. I wish we could just "pop" back for a visit. 

I also feel sad that I never finished blogging about our last two weeks there. 

I had this post part way written last year shortly after our return but for various reasons I "ran out of steam" and didn't finish it then.  It may not matter to anyone else but it matters to me. 

I hope I can finish it now. I'll have to pace myself as I am having problems with my neck and my right wrist. 

As I wrote in "Aust Pilg 12"  we left Hobart on Monday of our second week in Tasmania. We drove to the city of Launceston to the home of Wes and Esther Dale.  John was scheduled to speak to a group at the Dales' church the next morning.

We arrived shortly before tea (evening meal). Dales’ son, David, was visiting for dinner. Afterward John went with Wes and David to visit a friend of theirs who wanted to hear about John's computer programing work with Wycliffe Bible Translators. He was especially interested in hearing how AI is impacting Bible Translation. 

I stayed behind to rest and visit with Esther.

Tuesday morning was partly taken up with laundry, phone calls and emails. In the afternoon John spoke to a prayer group at the Dales' church. Sorry I neglected to take photos.

Afterward Wes and Esther took us to the Cataract Gorge Reserve.

The suspension bridge across the gorge and the River Esk.

When we first arrived we walked part way along the left side of the gorge. The view was spectacular.

Then we walked back and went across the bridge. 

The Dales and John and me on the bridge. A stranger kindly offered to take our photo. Sorry I didn't remove my hat. At the time the swaying and bouncing of the bridge made me just want to get the photo over with so we could finish getting across. We were also holding up people who were coming across from the other side.

In addition to the gorgeous gorge :-), there were also lots of peacocks. We spent a lot of time stalking them in hopes that they would display their tails for us. 

They were pretty even when their tales were not on full display.

Wes getting a close up shot.

We followed this one for a ways in hopes that it would open its tale. It seemed remarkably tame, but not at all inclined to give us a show.  

We saw a couple of female peacocks (aka peahens) foraging in the shrubbery. Were they shy, or maybe playing hard to get? Anyway, I tried to insert a couple of photos here but the computer program kept putting them at the end. So I gave up and decided it was appropriate to let them "hide" at the end of the post.

As a native Californian it was fun to see that the reserve had giant sequoias (Sequoiadendron giganteum) which are also California natives. An informational plaque said they are the "world's largest trees by volume." This one was germinated in 1894 and as of 2014 measured 39 meters high (that is almost 128 feet).  

And there were beautiful roses!

Another peacock, resting on a bench.

We finally happened on one that was showing off it's beautiful tale for some other people. 

The other people were in the photo too but thanks to the magic eraser tool I was able to remove them. So it looks like it was just for us :-). 

Another highlight of Tuesday was that John taught Esther how to make books using Bloom. She was so excited and hoped to use the books in her various teaching roles, both with children and adults.

Wednesday was another busy day. We spent the morning packing for an overnight trip to Scottsdale, Tas., where John would be speaking to a group that evening. Before we left we had lunch with the Dales and a large group of friends that came over every week for lunch and fellowship. 

Two ladies with 4 kids each plus the Dales and us was quite a squeeze around the table. (Wes is taking the photo and one of the littler kids is behind someone in this photo) 

After lunch we drove to Scottsdale, Tas. to speak to a small group that meets in a home there. 

The drive was beautiful.

                       

There was a long stretch of road works.

Lovely view of surrounding farmland from where we stayed that night at the home of Lesley and Alona. 

That evening we all drove to another home nearby for the meeting. First they fed us all dinner and had a birthday cake for one of the ladies.

John speaking to the group (see next picture too).

The view from our bedroom window the next morning.

Surrounding farmland around Lesley and Alona's house

They had lovely flowers and plants around their house. 

We drove back to Launceston a different way that was an easier drive. It also gave us a chance to have a nice hike in Hollybank Forest and see Lilydale Falls.

We arrived back in Launceston in good time for tea (dinner) and a fun evening of games with Wes and Esther.

They taught us Qwirkle and a couple of other games. 

Friday was a day of catching up on things like laundry, and blogging for me. John focused on preparing to speak at a missions conference the next day.

Saturday on the road to Devonport for the missions conference.

John speaking at the conference. The bar graph on the screen is showing that half of the world's languages lack Scripture. See below for a close up:

The numbers have improved since then but there is still a lot of work needed before all the people of the world have the Bible in their own language.

Monday we flew back to Melbourne.

The shy peahens I mentioned:

 One of the shy peahens

It looked like it was asking if the coast is clear.

Another high-light of our last few days in Australia was a birthday party for John's brother Doug. (John took the photo.)

Left to right: John's Mum, our niece Judy, John's bro Doug, Doug's wife Melissa, and me.

It is now October 30th of 2024 as I type this. It could have more information and be more perfectly written. But done is better than "perfect" (Perfect is not really possible and if I keep trying it won't get done!)

I hope you have enjoyed this final episode of our Australian Pilgrimage. 

Christmas and Sundry

Yesterday was John's office Christmas party. 

We exchanged "white elephant" gifts. John definitely got the epitome of a white elephant gift. It got the most laughs anyway, but I noticed no one else wanted to "steal" it when they had the opportunity! Later I coaxed him to try it on to see if it would fit.

It fits :-)
In case you're wondering, the little Christmas lights on the glasses don't light up. 

It was fun to see people I haven't seen for a while. I was encouraged when one lady, Ann Bush, said that she enjoyed reading my blog posts while we were in Australia. I apologized for not finishing them yet. She said, "it doesn't matter!"

I appreciate her non-perfectionistic attitude. 

John chatting with one of his bosses, Michael Cochran

Before the gift exchange, Michael shared some thoughts on Christmas and invited others to share thoughts too. 

John shared thoughts on how scripture says that Jesus is the image of God.*

For thousands of years God taught his people, the Jews, not to worship graven images-- objects that they had made. No man made object could ever embody God's essence. 

But when Jesus came he could and did fully embody and represent God. He is the true image of God that we can and must worship.

In some mysterious way even coming as a baby was an important part of representing God's image. He wasn't plunked down fully grown. He was a living breathing growing fully human and fully God, four- dimensional image (three dimensions plus time.) It's like God thought that a sinless human life lived perfectly from beginning to end while facing the worst that people can throw at him was the best way for God to show us what he is like.

As an adult Jesus showed God's love and power by his sinless life and amazingly loving-miracle-working-ministry, and then ultimately by willingly dying a completely unjust and brutal death on the cross. But he didn't stay dead. He demonstrated God's power by defeating death and rising from the dead.

He did all that because he loves us and wants us to have a relationship with him and be with him for eternity.  

*"Christ is the visible image of the invisible God." Colossians 1:15 (NLT) The Amplified Translation reads: "He is the exact living image [the essential manifestation] of the unseen God [the visible representation of the invisible]," 

"The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being." Hebrews 1:3 (NIV) The KJV reads "the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person."

Here are a couple of group photos after the white elephant exchange: 

Last week we put up our Christmas decorations at our house.  

We also put a couple of strands of colored lights on our red bud tree outside. They're LED lights we already had. I don't like LED lights on the tree indoors but they look well enough outside. 

John untangling one of the strands.

I know it's not the whole tree, but I'm practicing im-perfectionism.

John also put up some new white lights part way around the patio. We've had white lights around the patio year round for several years but they were only about half working and had partly fallen down. So now the new ones look much better. He used bulldog clips to attach them to the vinyl siding on the eaves. Hopefully the clips won't rust. They hold the lights much better than the paper-clips we used before. We sometimes like to sit outside in the evening when it's warmer until the mosquitoes drive us, especially John, indoors. The white lights give a nice gentle glow.

 

Here's a photo of our visit with my Mom on Thanksgiving Day. My last post about Thanksgiving was a couple of days before the holiday.  So here's a photo from the day itself. My brother, Paul, came down to our house and we three went and visited my Mom at her assisted living facility.