Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Greenday - Know Your Enemy - Harry Boy Style
Me and my good friends Miagi and Steve Train decided to put together this music video. It's our version of the new song "Know Your Enemy" By Greenday.
Tuesday, June 09, 2009
things no longer going..
well, another relationship of mine has ended.
Me and Caitlyn broke up tonight. And i think it's for the best...
In short, i just haven't felt particularly peaceful about the whole thing, i think we're very different in terms of what we want in a relationship, and she clearly needs to be single to focus on having solid christian girl friends and sorting out other issues in her life.
Part of me feels disappointed that i've had another failed relationship which hasn't turned out the way i hoped or expected initially... (especially after getting so carried away and excited in the first few weeks)
And the other part of me is glad to be single again as i'm still so young at 24 and have my whole life ahead of me.. I don't have to rush into a serious relationship just yet. I can still continue being a crazy, travelling harry boy for a few more years i think. And our relationship was definitely rushing too fast and too intense for what i was ready for i think.
Anyway, another major life lesson learnt on my part..
And that feeling of lack of peace is a big thing for me. you have to feel 100% peaceful and comfortable being with someone, and i didn't really feel that properly.
So anywayz, sorry for the lack of life updates lately. I haven't really felt inspired to write anything..
All the usual things are going well.. Church, Cell, Filmcrew, Basketball, Work etc... are all going steadily.. I've moved from Phone faults at Telstra, into the bigpond technical support area now which is quite interesting and something different.
But yeah anyway, cheers boys, cheers..
Say Hi to billy bob for me hey! nah man, its good.
HB
Me and Caitlyn broke up tonight. And i think it's for the best...
In short, i just haven't felt particularly peaceful about the whole thing, i think we're very different in terms of what we want in a relationship, and she clearly needs to be single to focus on having solid christian girl friends and sorting out other issues in her life.
Part of me feels disappointed that i've had another failed relationship which hasn't turned out the way i hoped or expected initially... (especially after getting so carried away and excited in the first few weeks)
And the other part of me is glad to be single again as i'm still so young at 24 and have my whole life ahead of me.. I don't have to rush into a serious relationship just yet. I can still continue being a crazy, travelling harry boy for a few more years i think. And our relationship was definitely rushing too fast and too intense for what i was ready for i think.
Anyway, another major life lesson learnt on my part..
And that feeling of lack of peace is a big thing for me. you have to feel 100% peaceful and comfortable being with someone, and i didn't really feel that properly.
So anywayz, sorry for the lack of life updates lately. I haven't really felt inspired to write anything..
All the usual things are going well.. Church, Cell, Filmcrew, Basketball, Work etc... are all going steadily.. I've moved from Phone faults at Telstra, into the bigpond technical support area now which is quite interesting and something different.
But yeah anyway, cheers boys, cheers..
Say Hi to billy bob for me hey! nah man, its good.
HB
Saturday, May 09, 2009
things going well
just a short simple post, to report that things with my beautiful girlfriend Caitlyn, are going extremely well...
I'm a very content HB.
we naturally just click, and have lots of fun hanging out together... and cuddling and kissing. :-)
I feel that God has placed her in my life as a testament to the scripture Matthew 6:33
I'm a very content HB.
we naturally just click, and have lots of fun hanging out together... and cuddling and kissing. :-)
I feel that God has placed her in my life as a testament to the scripture Matthew 6:33
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
The face of the Lord
Believers seized upon NASA photographs of star "PSR B1509-58" as evidence of the "hand of God" reaching into the cosmos.
This chapatti has garnered so much attention it is now on display in a museum in Bangalore, India. A local woman said the image of Jesus simply "appeared" as she was baking the bread.
A Dutch man travelling to work said he was "shocked" to take a bite out of a Kit-Kat bar and spot what he believed was an apparition of Jesus.
During a crew photo in 2008 this image of the messiah was discovered on the body of Rico the penguin. Confirming to many believers on rvtv that God may potentially be some kind of duck.
This chapatti has garnered so much attention it is now on display in a museum in Bangalore, India. A local woman said the image of Jesus simply "appeared" as she was baking the bread.
A Dutch man travelling to work said he was "shocked" to take a bite out of a Kit-Kat bar and spot what he believed was an apparition of Jesus.
During a crew photo in 2008 this image of the messiah was discovered on the body of Rico the penguin. Confirming to many believers on rvtv that God may potentially be some kind of duck.
Saturday, April 18, 2009
my awesome, beautiful new girlfriend!
Well i'm an excited Harry Boy at the moment.
As of Monday, i've just started dating a very beautiful, fantastic girl from my church called Caitlyn.
She's in my cell group, and also used to be on the filmcrew, and still serves at church doing the platform directing.. so that was the link. And over the last few weeks we've been spending alot of time together, both in groups and 1 on 1, and always having heaps of fun and laughs, and randomness... and we just naturally clicked with each other straight away :)
Anyway. So we've both been in long term relationships in the past that haven't worked out, and now we're both excited and pumped to have each other see what happens.
We've prayed together and asked God to take it and bless and protect the relationship and be at the centre of it all. So right from the outset, it'll be a God focused relationship, and that makes it all the more exciting :-)
So yeah, it's GOOOOOD!
Sunday, March 08, 2009
Tuesday, February 03, 2009
Thursday, January 01, 2009
Happy New Year!!
Well 2009 is here! yippeeee!
Last night a large bunch of people from my connect group celebrated with a pool party/bbq. Which was great fun, and an awesome way to finish off the year.
2008 was a big year for me, it had some big ups and downs.. but mostly i would define it as a strong year of growth for me personally. Mainly through my travelling expedition to the USA and also the UK and my experiences working at Sandy Hill Camp. So that was a big thing. I definitely had my fair share of tough challenges come my way that i had to learn to deal with, so that was good. I had some ugly encounters with a few different people i considered good friends, so that was extremely tough, but it's taught me alot about forgiveness and how to appropriately handle conflict. Challenging situations force growth.
Anyway, as i look ahead to 2009 i'm excited.
My main goal for the year is to basically be debt free by the end of the year. I currently have a large accumulated debt that has amounted from the last few years of poor financial management on my part, and this year for me is really all about rectifying that, and working really hard to pay it off.
My job at Telstra is still going well and i'm enjoying it and earning good money. So this will be a play a big part in my goal for the year. And i'm taking on a few extra little filming jobs that are bringing me in extra income.
I also have it on my heart to travel again at some point this year if God makes a way for it. Whether that be an adventure around New Zealand exploring my roots, or a return to Camp America to hang out with the kids and make videos again, or even a missions trip with the Riverview Childrens Foundation... i'm not sure at this point... but i'd love to do one of those things. I definitely feel i need to live it up and do these things while i'm still young. But i'll just have to wait and see how the year pans out and what i can afford.
Anyway, goodbye 2008, hello 2009. and let me just say...... "Peace be the Journey!"
Monday, December 01, 2008
All going well.
Well i've been working at Telstra now for 5 weeks. And all is going great with it. I did 3 weeks of training, and since then i've had my first 2 weeks of real call centre work. And despite being extremely nervous and scared to even login into my computer at first, i've well and truly adjusted to it now and i'm improving my skills and "average handling times" each day which is great.
It is quite repetitive, which seems to be the main downside to the job.. but despite that i'm still liking it and enjoying earning a much healthier paycheck than i got at spandex. Hopefully soon i'll post a little video of me answering some calls and talking on the phone in my corporate clothes and telstra name tag. haha.
In other random things happening, we lost our basketball grand final the other day, which really sucked. I played really poorly and got extremely angry with myself midway through the game and stormed off the court. I think i was emotionally frustrated knowing it was the last ever game i'd play in the riverview comp as it's closing down, and i desperately wanted to be able to knock down some shots and help us win, but when my shots continued to bounce out it just snapped a chord of frustration within me. Ah well.. life goes on i guess. But certainly people get the most angry about the things they are the most passionate about.
In other news, i had a pretty cool spiritual thing happen last weekend. So it was Saturday night and me and Jason had been hanging out chatting, and it got to the end of the night and we were discussing church stuff. And i was sharing with him how often in the massive pre-service "all volunteer" prayer meetings i feel unable to pray because i'm not "the leader" anymore like i am when i'm in my cell group or filmcrew and also because they're all much older "wiser" christians than me i guess. And i was just telling Jason how it frustrates me because i often feel i have something on my heart that i want to pray in those meetings, but the words won't come out and my mouth won't physically open. Somehow i just clam up.
So anyway, i share this to him.. and then the next morning both me and Jason were on filmcrew for the Sunday services.... and there we both find ourselves in that pre-service prayer meeting again. And the same thing again happens, I really want to speak out with this prayer of passion and energy and enthusiasm for the team, but i can't seem to do it. And then i see Neil Chisholm up the front who is running the prayer meeting kind of looking at me and praying at the same time, and then he just randomly leaves his spot, and begins walking down the aisle towards me.. He walks all the way down, and then enters my aisle and walks right up to me to just places the microphone right there in front of my face.. and calmly says "would you mind praying to close off this morning" hahahahahaha.
So I awkwardly take the mic from Neil, and then turn around and see Jason trying to stop himself from bursting out laughing in his seat because of what i'd shared with just the night before..
and then i go ahead and pray to close off the meeting, and it felt pretty awesome and releasing. Like i had conquered a fear.. first time i've prayed in front of 50 or so people. But it also just put me on this awesome high just knowing that God actively listens to what we say, and then acts upon it and wants to intervene in our lives and do little practical things like that to help us grow as christians.
There's no possible way it could have been a coincidence. They generally don't get other people to pray on the mic like that, and if they do.. they usually choose a designated staff member. Certainly not a filmcrew guy 15 metres away down one of the aisles...
So yeah, that was really encouraging for me. It was a timely little reminder that God is really there and wants to be involved in our lives.
anyway, in other news.. I'm starting to form a bit of a future plan. And at this stage my future plan is centering around returning to study in 2010. I'm thinking about going to Curtin and doing a degree in Film and also Photography, and maybe even throwing in a bit of teaching into the mix potentially. So that maybe some day i could teach media.. Up until then, my sole focus is working hard to clear off all my debt which is alot whilst at the same time entertaining thoughts of returning to Sandy Hill Camp in june... But that would have to be a Miracle for me to financially get my way over there again. Especially with the currency rate between AUS and the US now.. God willing though, i know much more is possible than i think. But yeah, i think it's a good plan, let's see how it all unfolds.
Oh yeah, and i'm still single and searching out the right girl. plenty of time for that though!!
HB
It is quite repetitive, which seems to be the main downside to the job.. but despite that i'm still liking it and enjoying earning a much healthier paycheck than i got at spandex. Hopefully soon i'll post a little video of me answering some calls and talking on the phone in my corporate clothes and telstra name tag. haha.
In other random things happening, we lost our basketball grand final the other day, which really sucked. I played really poorly and got extremely angry with myself midway through the game and stormed off the court. I think i was emotionally frustrated knowing it was the last ever game i'd play in the riverview comp as it's closing down, and i desperately wanted to be able to knock down some shots and help us win, but when my shots continued to bounce out it just snapped a chord of frustration within me. Ah well.. life goes on i guess. But certainly people get the most angry about the things they are the most passionate about.
In other news, i had a pretty cool spiritual thing happen last weekend. So it was Saturday night and me and Jason had been hanging out chatting, and it got to the end of the night and we were discussing church stuff. And i was sharing with him how often in the massive pre-service "all volunteer" prayer meetings i feel unable to pray because i'm not "the leader" anymore like i am when i'm in my cell group or filmcrew and also because they're all much older "wiser" christians than me i guess. And i was just telling Jason how it frustrates me because i often feel i have something on my heart that i want to pray in those meetings, but the words won't come out and my mouth won't physically open. Somehow i just clam up.
So anyway, i share this to him.. and then the next morning both me and Jason were on filmcrew for the Sunday services.... and there we both find ourselves in that pre-service prayer meeting again. And the same thing again happens, I really want to speak out with this prayer of passion and energy and enthusiasm for the team, but i can't seem to do it. And then i see Neil Chisholm up the front who is running the prayer meeting kind of looking at me and praying at the same time, and then he just randomly leaves his spot, and begins walking down the aisle towards me.. He walks all the way down, and then enters my aisle and walks right up to me to just places the microphone right there in front of my face.. and calmly says "would you mind praying to close off this morning" hahahahahaha.
So I awkwardly take the mic from Neil, and then turn around and see Jason trying to stop himself from bursting out laughing in his seat because of what i'd shared with just the night before..
and then i go ahead and pray to close off the meeting, and it felt pretty awesome and releasing. Like i had conquered a fear.. first time i've prayed in front of 50 or so people. But it also just put me on this awesome high just knowing that God actively listens to what we say, and then acts upon it and wants to intervene in our lives and do little practical things like that to help us grow as christians.
There's no possible way it could have been a coincidence. They generally don't get other people to pray on the mic like that, and if they do.. they usually choose a designated staff member. Certainly not a filmcrew guy 15 metres away down one of the aisles...
So yeah, that was really encouraging for me. It was a timely little reminder that God is really there and wants to be involved in our lives.
anyway, in other news.. I'm starting to form a bit of a future plan. And at this stage my future plan is centering around returning to study in 2010. I'm thinking about going to Curtin and doing a degree in Film and also Photography, and maybe even throwing in a bit of teaching into the mix potentially. So that maybe some day i could teach media.. Up until then, my sole focus is working hard to clear off all my debt which is alot whilst at the same time entertaining thoughts of returning to Sandy Hill Camp in june... But that would have to be a Miracle for me to financially get my way over there again. Especially with the currency rate between AUS and the US now.. God willing though, i know much more is possible than i think. But yeah, i think it's a good plan, let's see how it all unfolds.
Oh yeah, and i'm still single and searching out the right girl. plenty of time for that though!!
HB
Sunday, October 26, 2008
A new job: a new era.
Hello blog.
Well as always it's been a while since i've updated so here goes.
So i've been back in Perth now for 2 full weeks since arriving home from my travelling expedition, and for the most part it's been pretty awesome. It started with a loud and triumphant reception at the airport from my brother and close friends as i walked through the gates into Perth terminal. And then ever since it's been a fun 2 weeks of hanging out with all my friends and catching up with everybody from church, reuniting with my cell group and rvtv guys and my basketball teams. Basically just re-familiarizing myself with my life again.. haha. So it's been good, and nice to know i'm surrounded by so many awesome people that took a vested interest in how my travels went and who are also thrilled to have me back again. So that side of things has been good.
However at the same time that I was catching up with friends and having fun, i was also frantically spending my days searching out another full-time job. As i quit Spandex before i left for America (A very wise move). And i certainly wasn't going back to that low paying, shoddy job. And as i'm very conscious of what a whopping travel debt i've accumulated, i knew i needed a big time pay increase from my last job to hack into it. So i began the process of searching out the best paying warehousing type job i could find, as that's the first thing i can say i have lots of experience in. So i had a job agency helping me who teed up a bunch of different interviews in warehouse jobs in places like canningvale and welshpool. Yet the more interviews i went to that week, the more and more i was disgustingly turned off the entire industry. The idea of going back into that sort of work really didn't sit well with me, and i think the more i drived around to these crappy little businesses, the more the revelation hit me how much i HATE those kinds of "ocker aussie workerman" type environments. Stupid managers that swear their faces off all day whilst smoking every 5 minutes, and young redneck workers that just wanna talk about shagging girls and getting pissed on the weekend all day long, every day. I'm just majorly over it. No longer interested in working in that environment.
Anyway, so last weekend i was at church telling my filmcrew friend Andrew all about my week of awful interviews for crappy warehouse jobs. And he listened to me and understood my pain, and then began telling me all about what he does working with Telstra in a call centre and told me he thinks i'd be great at it and to go for it. Somehow he convinced me on the spot, he said he thinks i have great communication skills and the confident personality required to be good at it, and then he told me what great pay it can be. And i was pretty much sold on it instantly.
So basically my line of thinking is.
Getting out of warehouse jobs = great.
Earning higher pay = Great.
Working in a professional corporate environment and getting new customer service type skills = really great.
So he gave me the contact, and the next day i went for it. And to cut a long story short.. after a few days of calling back and forth with the guy and teeing up an interview, and then having an interview, and sitting all sorts of typing tests, and communication tests and hearing tests..... I got the job! yippee! and so i start on monday! tomorrow morning! which is fantastic.
It's full time, but my hours aren't always going to be 9 - 5 and there's also weekend work there. So my shifts will be very varied and flexible. My pay rate will be 19 bucks an hour, and then double that on the weekends which is pretty awesome. And it's on wellington street in the city, so i'll never be driving to work. So i'll be saving massive $$ on fuel compared to before.
Basically all my job involves is answering calls all day from customers who have issues and faults on their phone line. And then either coaching them through the issue, or sending a technician to their house. So the downside to it, is that often the customers can be pretty agro. But they say once your good at dealing with an angry customer, it's a pretty easy job and a good environment to work in. I walked through the call centre and it looks like a very well run and professional set-up, as you'd expect with a company as big as Telstra.
My next 3 weeks however will be paid training learning all the ropes of the job and the computer programs they use and i won't actually be taking calls. So that'll be good to ease me in.
Anyway, i'm excited about it. Providing i'm good at it, theres potential i can work alot and earn some big money which is just what i need. As i have a goal to be totally debt free by the end of 2009 so that i can go back to university in 2010.
Some people have tried to talk the job down to me, saying it'll be crap. But my line of thought is... even if it's stressful and tough and repetitive... i'm gonna stick it out for at least 3 months so i can be able to put on a resume that i have customer service skills. I feel like even if this didn't stick, it's still going to be a strong foot in the door. And a bridging job to get me out of warehouse work into better jobs. But ideally though, i can really enjoy this job and stay there all of 2009 working some big overtime and weekends and really knock off all my debt.
But we'll see.
I'll post again at the end of this week with a progress report on how much i like the look of things so far. So if you read this, i'd love you to pray that this will really be a great thing for me and that i'll be good at it, and that it'll stick and be just the financial breakthrough i really need.
So yeah, i feel like i'm moving into a new phase of my life. and it's a good refreshing feeling.
HB.
Well as always it's been a while since i've updated so here goes.
So i've been back in Perth now for 2 full weeks since arriving home from my travelling expedition, and for the most part it's been pretty awesome. It started with a loud and triumphant reception at the airport from my brother and close friends as i walked through the gates into Perth terminal. And then ever since it's been a fun 2 weeks of hanging out with all my friends and catching up with everybody from church, reuniting with my cell group and rvtv guys and my basketball teams. Basically just re-familiarizing myself with my life again.. haha. So it's been good, and nice to know i'm surrounded by so many awesome people that took a vested interest in how my travels went and who are also thrilled to have me back again. So that side of things has been good.
However at the same time that I was catching up with friends and having fun, i was also frantically spending my days searching out another full-time job. As i quit Spandex before i left for America (A very wise move). And i certainly wasn't going back to that low paying, shoddy job. And as i'm very conscious of what a whopping travel debt i've accumulated, i knew i needed a big time pay increase from my last job to hack into it. So i began the process of searching out the best paying warehousing type job i could find, as that's the first thing i can say i have lots of experience in. So i had a job agency helping me who teed up a bunch of different interviews in warehouse jobs in places like canningvale and welshpool. Yet the more interviews i went to that week, the more and more i was disgustingly turned off the entire industry. The idea of going back into that sort of work really didn't sit well with me, and i think the more i drived around to these crappy little businesses, the more the revelation hit me how much i HATE those kinds of "ocker aussie workerman" type environments. Stupid managers that swear their faces off all day whilst smoking every 5 minutes, and young redneck workers that just wanna talk about shagging girls and getting pissed on the weekend all day long, every day. I'm just majorly over it. No longer interested in working in that environment.
Anyway, so last weekend i was at church telling my filmcrew friend Andrew all about my week of awful interviews for crappy warehouse jobs. And he listened to me and understood my pain, and then began telling me all about what he does working with Telstra in a call centre and told me he thinks i'd be great at it and to go for it. Somehow he convinced me on the spot, he said he thinks i have great communication skills and the confident personality required to be good at it, and then he told me what great pay it can be. And i was pretty much sold on it instantly.
So basically my line of thinking is.
Getting out of warehouse jobs = great.
Earning higher pay = Great.
Working in a professional corporate environment and getting new customer service type skills = really great.
So he gave me the contact, and the next day i went for it. And to cut a long story short.. after a few days of calling back and forth with the guy and teeing up an interview, and then having an interview, and sitting all sorts of typing tests, and communication tests and hearing tests..... I got the job! yippee! and so i start on monday! tomorrow morning! which is fantastic.
It's full time, but my hours aren't always going to be 9 - 5 and there's also weekend work there. So my shifts will be very varied and flexible. My pay rate will be 19 bucks an hour, and then double that on the weekends which is pretty awesome. And it's on wellington street in the city, so i'll never be driving to work. So i'll be saving massive $$ on fuel compared to before.
Basically all my job involves is answering calls all day from customers who have issues and faults on their phone line. And then either coaching them through the issue, or sending a technician to their house. So the downside to it, is that often the customers can be pretty agro. But they say once your good at dealing with an angry customer, it's a pretty easy job and a good environment to work in. I walked through the call centre and it looks like a very well run and professional set-up, as you'd expect with a company as big as Telstra.
My next 3 weeks however will be paid training learning all the ropes of the job and the computer programs they use and i won't actually be taking calls. So that'll be good to ease me in.
Anyway, i'm excited about it. Providing i'm good at it, theres potential i can work alot and earn some big money which is just what i need. As i have a goal to be totally debt free by the end of 2009 so that i can go back to university in 2010.
Some people have tried to talk the job down to me, saying it'll be crap. But my line of thought is... even if it's stressful and tough and repetitive... i'm gonna stick it out for at least 3 months so i can be able to put on a resume that i have customer service skills. I feel like even if this didn't stick, it's still going to be a strong foot in the door. And a bridging job to get me out of warehouse work into better jobs. But ideally though, i can really enjoy this job and stay there all of 2009 working some big overtime and weekends and really knock off all my debt.
But we'll see.
I'll post again at the end of this week with a progress report on how much i like the look of things so far. So if you read this, i'd love you to pray that this will really be a great thing for me and that i'll be good at it, and that it'll stick and be just the financial breakthrough i really need.
So yeah, i feel like i'm moving into a new phase of my life. and it's a good refreshing feeling.
HB.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
a funny video i found.
Well the Harry Boy is home safe back in Perth. And loving it mate... it's awesome to be back, and i'm really enjoying catching up with all my friends again whilst getting myself settled in again and looking for another job. So it's good.
Today i've been sorting through thousands of pictures and videos on my computer clearing out stuff to free up hard drive space so that i can bring in all my America and UK pics and videos... and i found this video from just before Francis and Chippy moved house.. And i find it so funny that i needed to post it.
haha. enjoy.
Today i've been sorting through thousands of pictures and videos on my computer clearing out stuff to free up hard drive space so that i can bring in all my America and UK pics and videos... and i found this video from just before Francis and Chippy moved house.. And i find it so funny that i needed to post it.
haha. enjoy.
Saturday, October 04, 2008
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Sunday, September 28, 2008
4 months away from home.
Hi blog. well it's been quite a while since my last post.. and so much has happened since my last one that it's going to be very hard to squeeze it all in. But here goes! Get ready for an extremely LONG post!!
So picking up from where i left off with my last update.. I left camp on the 27th of August after having enjoyed one of the best summers of my life, It was great. I took the $2200 cash that i was given for an entire summers worth of camp work, stuffed it in an envelope and put it in my bag to set off on my travel. By my side, my south african buddy Pierre and another guy from Alabama called Johnny (who scored us a very cheap accomodation package because he'd agreed to go and view a few properties as a potential buyer)
So first stop was Orlando, Florida. Where we stayed for 4 nights.. and thoroughly enjoyed the likes of Disney World and universal studios. Both of them are jam packed with so many amazing 3d shows, adrenalin packed roller coaster rides, and alot of other really cool exhibitions. I'd highly reccomend both of them to anyone going to Florida.. the technology they've created in some of the shows you see is just amazing.
Orlando is a very cool city too, it felt like one big holiday land.. big wide open roads everywhere and thousands of tourists flocking to see disney world.. and it's just a cool vibe being there.
Once we finished up in Orlando we got in our rental car and drove down to a city at the bottom east tip of america called Fort Lauderdale. Which is another pretty city. We stayed there for 2 nights and mainly just relaxed and drove around.. Although to be honest by this point i was getting pretty irritated with them. Well, mainly just Pierre actually.. He had alot of annoying habits and would make alot of really immature comments which started to bug me alot after a week of being around him. He appeared to be a very devoted christian guy right from the start, but once we got travelling it was like his double personality kicked in and suddenly he was the excited little boy that's escaped his parents and ready to party while he has the chance. He constantly wanted to go and drink it up and check out the girls and kept making all these really sleezy comments about even random girls we would walk past. Which really frustrated me.
One night we all went into the city to check out the nightlife, which was probably a dumb decision on my part to go along. I think i just agreed as i knew they wanted to, and i didn't want to be the one to spoil the party and be a loner. I tried to join them in one of the nightclubs for a while but really just couldn't bare it.. it just wasn't my scene and it saddened me that for so many people thats all they have in life to look forward to. It was pretty disgusting.. So i ended up not joining them at the next place they went into and i went and got myself a pizza and a coke and sat and pondered over my life for a couple of hours.. haha! which was nice. And at this point i began plotting the rest of my travels in america.. I then made up my mind that they weren't people i wanted to be around for the rest of the journey. Not bad guys, we did have some good fun.. But i was just ready to go travelling on my own for a while and do my own thing.
Anyway, next and final stop with those guys was the cruise to the Bahamas Islands. which ended up being a 2 night cruise to absolutely nowhere due to Tropical Storm hannah which had been circulating the bahamas at that time. The cruise, despite being a bit of rip off.. was good. I enjoyed the beautiful ocean views and spent plenty of time on my own during the days reading my bible and listening to my Hillsong albums on my portable CD player.. which really refreshed me. The food was great too, and i had some good conversations with some of the people on board.
Anyway, after the cruise finished.. I said goodbye to the guys (who wanted to both go to Miami and party for 4 days.. ) and i flew off to Baltimore in the hope of returning to Camp for a few days to do some extra work and enjoy the free accomodation. I organised it with the camp to return and they said someone would come to baltimore airport to pick me up, yet once i got there i waited 2-3 hours and no one ever came. It turns out, they got completely lost and didn't go to the right spot.. leaving me in a tricky spot. So i checked into a hotel in baltimore and decided to stay there 2 nights to relax and i even got the chance to catch up with 2 girls who i was friends with at camp who happened to be there at the same time.
After that, i decided that the Grand Canyon awaited me! so i jumped in a plane and flew off to Las Vegas and checked into an awesome hotel called the flamingo right in the middle of the Strip. I stayed there 3 nights and really enjoyed it... I went on an all day tour to the grand canyon, i visited an awesome church called "central christian" which was very similar to riverview.. and i even found time to hit a casino and do some gambling! haha, not really.. But i did go into one and walk around and have a look, and i sat at one of the machines and gambled away a couple of 1 dollar notes. Just to say i'd done it.. hehe. But Las Vegas is a pretty crazy city.. everywhere you go theres sex and gambling. As you walk up the strip, at any hour of the day.. you will encounter lots of little mexican men every 10 yards offering you little porno/sex coupons. It's ridiculous how many of them there are! And most of the pubs/bars you walk past will all have girls up on top of the bar in their undies dancing away trying to encourage you to come in. Even during the day! The gambling is even worse... It must be the only city in the world that has gambling machines at the airport. In fact, it's actually the very first thing you see once you come off your plane into the terminal.. loads and loads of pokie machines. And there you'll see lots of little old ladies gambling away their retirement money.. it's a pretty funny sight actually.
But yeah, the grand canyon was incredible and i'm glad i did it despite the $200 i payed for the tour! Just a whole in the ground at the end of the day, but it's an incredible hole in the ground.. It's phenominal just to sit and stare at it. marvel at it's beauty.
and the church i visited there was great. I remember walking in midway through their first praise and worship song and being moved to tears. I hadn't been in church for quite some time and i'd forgotten how amazing it is to be in the presence of God when theres an entire church of people singing and praising him. It just hit me. They sang the song Mighty to Save at the end which was nice, and then the preacher was the senior pastor Jud Wilhite, who was really funny and challenging too. It was interesting to hear about how God is working in such a large city of so many broken people. I got the feeling that it'd be hard to be a luke warm christian in a city like that. With so many issues and broken people everywhere, and so much temptation You'd need to be strongly committed to God to have any impact and avoid the immense temptation everywhere. Anyway, after the service i met the video team leader guy, and he took me backstage into the control room and showed me around which was nice. I was impressed by the 2 remote controlled cameras they were operating there which they simply controlled with a lever backstage. They were able to pan in all directions, zoom in or zoom out as normal... yet the director could do it himself from the control room. Pretty cool ay?
Anyway, after my time in Las Vegas, i flew to Washington State to visit a friend from camp called Katie who had offered that i could stay at her place for a few days on my travels and explore the lovely area of Battleground, Washington. This was possibly the worst decision i've made in many many years as a human being! haha. I really didn't know her that well, and it wasn't until i got there and had been there for a day that i realised what a teprimental, emotionally unstable, angry little loose cannon she was! Never in my life have i encountered such an uptight little drama queen of a female. She made issues of everything, started huge arguments with me for the most off hand harmless comments and really made my stay at her house a total nightmare. I think the only thing that kept me there was the fact that i got along with her parents and little brother really well, and they all encouraged me stick it out and try to enjoy my time there despite how much of a b#### katie was being to me. And i also met a nice girl there who i tried to have a relationship with for a few days. But that really didn't get far when i discovered we had nothing in common and that she wasn't christian! haha. At least it gave me a few oppurtunities to get the heck away from katie though! hehe
Anyway, rather than being a sight seeing trip like most of the other places i went, my trip to washington ended up being one of the biggest "learning experiences" of my life. I learnt not to go and stay at someones house that if you don't have a solid foundation with that person, i learnt alot about communication and dealing with an angry emotionally unstable girl, i learnt about conflict resolution, i learnt about grace and forgiveness even in a time of anger and i also learnt some things about the type of girl i want to be with some day. And it will be nothing short of a fun, positive, upbeat and devoted christian girl that has something to say, a strong faith and will stand by my side through anything and actually help to bring the best out of me. Needless to say, this girl from washington didn't have those qualities! I feel like i've dated enough girls now to know what i want, and i feel like my next girlfriend will be wife one day.
Neil Chisolm once prophesied over me at a youth camp at serpentine back in about 2004.. and the words he had for me was just that God wanted to let me know i would have the right girl standing by my side one day, and not to worry about it. And that was pretty impacting and i've always remembered it.
Anyway, enough talk about angry girls and future wives! haha.
So, finally after the week from hell, i was very glad and happy to pack up and fly off to New York City to catch my around the world ticket flight to England! yipppeee.. I flew in to NYC at 3pm, and my flight to london was leaving at 8am the next morning. I made the call that i didnt want to be pay another 150 bucks for one night of accomodation. So i decided to make the JFK airport my home for the next 15 or so hours!! haha. First of all i got my bags and lugged them to the subway station and caught that into the city to get some food. Where i ate some wonderful subway, and had a chat to the sri lankan man that worked there about the australian cricket team. Then i wandered around manhattan for a while before heading back to the airport to do some long hard reading, music listening, breathing, eating, more reading, chatting to random people from, germany and saudi arabia, followed by some more breathing and music and then some sleeping on a hard bench.. and then 14 or so hours later i jumped on the plane to London and kissed the united states goodbye. As i flew off, i thought to myself that it was a shame my final week in america was a bad one, but that at least when you look at the whole 3 months over all, it was amazing and incredible.. and the whole thing was so worth it. because of camp and the fun traveling i did.
Anyway, i arrived in London and then caught a 55 pound taxi ride to Beaconsfield where my family was based. (i arrived too late in the evening to catch the 14 pound bus..) Over the next 2 days i reunited with my wonderful family members and got to spend 2 days exploring all the sights of downtown london with Bridget and Dave and then Frankpol and Chippy.. and that was awesome fun. And i also got the chance to catch up with Jenna, who i dated for a few years, a few years ago.... Who now speaks with a full blown English accent which is quite funny. But that was nice, and actually not weird like i thought it might be. It was interesting chatting with her all about camp america, which she did while we were dating a few years ago. It's amazing how much more i understood about it her whole experience now that i've done it myself.. compared to when she first got back and she was trying to explain it to me. It made me aware what a big difference it makes when there's a relatabilty factor. When she did it, i just couldn't comprehend or relate to the experience, so most of her stories went over my head... where as now when i asked her about it again in England 3 years on... i understood everything so much clearer. so that was interesting.
After that, it was time for our big sister Anitas Wedding! Which was fantastic.. It was a beautiful little wedding in a lovely catholic church in Beaconsfield. And i can tell you Anita was one very happy little bride to be marrying an awesome legend of a guy like Daniel. I helped francis film it, so i was up the back of the church looking down on everyone and i got a lovely view of the building from up there.. and even did some fine quality dancing to the bands hymns. The only downside for me was that after the wedding one of my shoes completely fell apart.. so i was hobbling around like a hobo that can't afford a decent pair of shoes! hehe. I ended up going across the road and buying a bottle of glue and some sticky tape to put it back together which kept me going til after the reception. I said Grace for the reception and managed to throw in a reference to my shoe in my Grace. I prayed that Anitas and Dans marriage wouldn't fall apart like my shoe had! hahaha
Anyway, it was a lovely day. And i think they're going to have a very happy marriage. yay!!
After the wedding.. I went to Ireland for a few days with my oldest brother Matt and my Parents where we saw some beautiful irish scenery.. and were able to visit the Ross Castle, which was home to the clan of the O'Donoghues back in the 15th century. So a bit of history to our family there.. it was really quite a cool looking castle too, and was built mainly for protection from any attacking armies. Right throughout the castle were little peep holes where guns could be fired from and it had a bunch of other little safety features.
After 2 days in Ireland, i packed up and left my family to come to Scotland where i am currently residing right now. I flew into Glasgow and caught the bus into the city.. where my good friend Matty J who is living here now came and met me and brought me to his apartment in Glasgow to stay for a while. And so far it's been awesome.. I've had the chance to explore and enjoy both Glasgow and Edinburgh which are really cool cities stacked full of culture and history. Lots of old buildings and structures and Museums and statues.. Kind of the way London is but Edinburgh has even more of that style to it that London does i think.
Tommorow i'm off to check out C7 church, which is a relatively fresh and new church over here which is closely affiliated with Hillsong which is really picking up steam. Both Matty J and another one of my friends from Scotland called Ewen who also used to go to riverview... both attend C7 and are heavily involved in the media and worship teams respectively. The pastor is an australian guy that went through bible college at hillsong and some of the other key leaders are australians too. So i'm really excited to go there for a couple of the services tommorow. Somehow i have this feeling like God will do something there.. Either for me, or through me... i'm not sure. but i have an anticipation about it..
So yeah, that's where i'm at.
The question now is when i'll be back home to Australia. I'm scheduled to get back there on the 12th of october after 4 days visits to both Amsterdam and Singapore. However due to the fact that i have very little money left after a long adventure of travels.. I have tried to alter my flights to allow me to get home much sooner than that. I'd actually like to come home in just a few days time. However yesterday when i called Qantas they told me they can't see any available flights earlier than what i've already got.. and they think it will be quite expensive to change anything. Which has put me in a frustrating hole. They said they would email my travel agent to see what they could do and to call them back on monday. So i'll try for that and i'm holding out hope for that to pull through for me... but it's not looking good and it may end up that i'll have to go ahead with those trips and not get home til the 12th. Which would suck majorly as i simply can't afford those trips unless either God drops a financial miracle on my lap in the next few days.. or i extended my credit card to put myself in even more debt that i am already in.... or i was able to travel by faith as my dad did 20-30 years ago on his world trip that resulted in a manuscript for a book called "the world by faith". But i'm not sure whether i'm called to the same god trusting adventure that my dad was called to all those years ago..
So yeah, it's a bit of pickle i'm in that i have to work out over the next few days. But i have no doubt that something will work out for to get me home safe at some point in the next 2 weeks.
I'm really excited to get home now.. I miss alot of things. I miss my friends, and my church and my cell group and filmcrew and basketball, i miss my own car and my own income from working and my own freedom to do my own thing any time i like. It'll be great to get back home and have a normal life again with a job and start paying off my credit card debt that i've racked up over here. It means virtually as soon as i get home i have to be frantically applying for jobs to get one as fast as humanly possible to get myself going again. I quit Spandex before i left, and there's no way i'm going to go back to it. I'm thinking i'll probably get a job as a forklift operator.. as there seems to be alot of jobs going for it, and it pays generally 20-25 bucks an hour which is way higher than i got at spandex.... That would allow me to pay off my debt and save up to potentially go to sandy hill camp again next June.
That's my plan anyway, things don't always go to plan but that's at least my vision for how things will happen in the short term. And then for the long term my plan would be to either land a great job in media or to go to university and study Film. probably in 2010.
Anyway, i think that's all my ramblings.. I'm sorry again for how long this has been... but i had alot to say after a month away from the blog! :)
So all is well, and i hope God can pull through for me so that i can be home to see everyone again very soon!
Cheers
HB
So picking up from where i left off with my last update.. I left camp on the 27th of August after having enjoyed one of the best summers of my life, It was great. I took the $2200 cash that i was given for an entire summers worth of camp work, stuffed it in an envelope and put it in my bag to set off on my travel. By my side, my south african buddy Pierre and another guy from Alabama called Johnny (who scored us a very cheap accomodation package because he'd agreed to go and view a few properties as a potential buyer)
So first stop was Orlando, Florida. Where we stayed for 4 nights.. and thoroughly enjoyed the likes of Disney World and universal studios. Both of them are jam packed with so many amazing 3d shows, adrenalin packed roller coaster rides, and alot of other really cool exhibitions. I'd highly reccomend both of them to anyone going to Florida.. the technology they've created in some of the shows you see is just amazing.
Orlando is a very cool city too, it felt like one big holiday land.. big wide open roads everywhere and thousands of tourists flocking to see disney world.. and it's just a cool vibe being there.
Once we finished up in Orlando we got in our rental car and drove down to a city at the bottom east tip of america called Fort Lauderdale. Which is another pretty city. We stayed there for 2 nights and mainly just relaxed and drove around.. Although to be honest by this point i was getting pretty irritated with them. Well, mainly just Pierre actually.. He had alot of annoying habits and would make alot of really immature comments which started to bug me alot after a week of being around him. He appeared to be a very devoted christian guy right from the start, but once we got travelling it was like his double personality kicked in and suddenly he was the excited little boy that's escaped his parents and ready to party while he has the chance. He constantly wanted to go and drink it up and check out the girls and kept making all these really sleezy comments about even random girls we would walk past. Which really frustrated me.
One night we all went into the city to check out the nightlife, which was probably a dumb decision on my part to go along. I think i just agreed as i knew they wanted to, and i didn't want to be the one to spoil the party and be a loner. I tried to join them in one of the nightclubs for a while but really just couldn't bare it.. it just wasn't my scene and it saddened me that for so many people thats all they have in life to look forward to. It was pretty disgusting.. So i ended up not joining them at the next place they went into and i went and got myself a pizza and a coke and sat and pondered over my life for a couple of hours.. haha! which was nice. And at this point i began plotting the rest of my travels in america.. I then made up my mind that they weren't people i wanted to be around for the rest of the journey. Not bad guys, we did have some good fun.. But i was just ready to go travelling on my own for a while and do my own thing.
Anyway, next and final stop with those guys was the cruise to the Bahamas Islands. which ended up being a 2 night cruise to absolutely nowhere due to Tropical Storm hannah which had been circulating the bahamas at that time. The cruise, despite being a bit of rip off.. was good. I enjoyed the beautiful ocean views and spent plenty of time on my own during the days reading my bible and listening to my Hillsong albums on my portable CD player.. which really refreshed me. The food was great too, and i had some good conversations with some of the people on board.
Anyway, after the cruise finished.. I said goodbye to the guys (who wanted to both go to Miami and party for 4 days.. ) and i flew off to Baltimore in the hope of returning to Camp for a few days to do some extra work and enjoy the free accomodation. I organised it with the camp to return and they said someone would come to baltimore airport to pick me up, yet once i got there i waited 2-3 hours and no one ever came. It turns out, they got completely lost and didn't go to the right spot.. leaving me in a tricky spot. So i checked into a hotel in baltimore and decided to stay there 2 nights to relax and i even got the chance to catch up with 2 girls who i was friends with at camp who happened to be there at the same time.
After that, i decided that the Grand Canyon awaited me! so i jumped in a plane and flew off to Las Vegas and checked into an awesome hotel called the flamingo right in the middle of the Strip. I stayed there 3 nights and really enjoyed it... I went on an all day tour to the grand canyon, i visited an awesome church called "central christian" which was very similar to riverview.. and i even found time to hit a casino and do some gambling! haha, not really.. But i did go into one and walk around and have a look, and i sat at one of the machines and gambled away a couple of 1 dollar notes. Just to say i'd done it.. hehe. But Las Vegas is a pretty crazy city.. everywhere you go theres sex and gambling. As you walk up the strip, at any hour of the day.. you will encounter lots of little mexican men every 10 yards offering you little porno/sex coupons. It's ridiculous how many of them there are! And most of the pubs/bars you walk past will all have girls up on top of the bar in their undies dancing away trying to encourage you to come in. Even during the day! The gambling is even worse... It must be the only city in the world that has gambling machines at the airport. In fact, it's actually the very first thing you see once you come off your plane into the terminal.. loads and loads of pokie machines. And there you'll see lots of little old ladies gambling away their retirement money.. it's a pretty funny sight actually.
But yeah, the grand canyon was incredible and i'm glad i did it despite the $200 i payed for the tour! Just a whole in the ground at the end of the day, but it's an incredible hole in the ground.. It's phenominal just to sit and stare at it. marvel at it's beauty.
and the church i visited there was great. I remember walking in midway through their first praise and worship song and being moved to tears. I hadn't been in church for quite some time and i'd forgotten how amazing it is to be in the presence of God when theres an entire church of people singing and praising him. It just hit me. They sang the song Mighty to Save at the end which was nice, and then the preacher was the senior pastor Jud Wilhite, who was really funny and challenging too. It was interesting to hear about how God is working in such a large city of so many broken people. I got the feeling that it'd be hard to be a luke warm christian in a city like that. With so many issues and broken people everywhere, and so much temptation You'd need to be strongly committed to God to have any impact and avoid the immense temptation everywhere. Anyway, after the service i met the video team leader guy, and he took me backstage into the control room and showed me around which was nice. I was impressed by the 2 remote controlled cameras they were operating there which they simply controlled with a lever backstage. They were able to pan in all directions, zoom in or zoom out as normal... yet the director could do it himself from the control room. Pretty cool ay?
Anyway, after my time in Las Vegas, i flew to Washington State to visit a friend from camp called Katie who had offered that i could stay at her place for a few days on my travels and explore the lovely area of Battleground, Washington. This was possibly the worst decision i've made in many many years as a human being! haha. I really didn't know her that well, and it wasn't until i got there and had been there for a day that i realised what a teprimental, emotionally unstable, angry little loose cannon she was! Never in my life have i encountered such an uptight little drama queen of a female. She made issues of everything, started huge arguments with me for the most off hand harmless comments and really made my stay at her house a total nightmare. I think the only thing that kept me there was the fact that i got along with her parents and little brother really well, and they all encouraged me stick it out and try to enjoy my time there despite how much of a b#### katie was being to me. And i also met a nice girl there who i tried to have a relationship with for a few days. But that really didn't get far when i discovered we had nothing in common and that she wasn't christian! haha. At least it gave me a few oppurtunities to get the heck away from katie though! hehe
Anyway, rather than being a sight seeing trip like most of the other places i went, my trip to washington ended up being one of the biggest "learning experiences" of my life. I learnt not to go and stay at someones house that if you don't have a solid foundation with that person, i learnt alot about communication and dealing with an angry emotionally unstable girl, i learnt about conflict resolution, i learnt about grace and forgiveness even in a time of anger and i also learnt some things about the type of girl i want to be with some day. And it will be nothing short of a fun, positive, upbeat and devoted christian girl that has something to say, a strong faith and will stand by my side through anything and actually help to bring the best out of me. Needless to say, this girl from washington didn't have those qualities! I feel like i've dated enough girls now to know what i want, and i feel like my next girlfriend will be wife one day.
Neil Chisolm once prophesied over me at a youth camp at serpentine back in about 2004.. and the words he had for me was just that God wanted to let me know i would have the right girl standing by my side one day, and not to worry about it. And that was pretty impacting and i've always remembered it.
Anyway, enough talk about angry girls and future wives! haha.
So, finally after the week from hell, i was very glad and happy to pack up and fly off to New York City to catch my around the world ticket flight to England! yipppeee.. I flew in to NYC at 3pm, and my flight to london was leaving at 8am the next morning. I made the call that i didnt want to be pay another 150 bucks for one night of accomodation. So i decided to make the JFK airport my home for the next 15 or so hours!! haha. First of all i got my bags and lugged them to the subway station and caught that into the city to get some food. Where i ate some wonderful subway, and had a chat to the sri lankan man that worked there about the australian cricket team. Then i wandered around manhattan for a while before heading back to the airport to do some long hard reading, music listening, breathing, eating, more reading, chatting to random people from, germany and saudi arabia, followed by some more breathing and music and then some sleeping on a hard bench.. and then 14 or so hours later i jumped on the plane to London and kissed the united states goodbye. As i flew off, i thought to myself that it was a shame my final week in america was a bad one, but that at least when you look at the whole 3 months over all, it was amazing and incredible.. and the whole thing was so worth it. because of camp and the fun traveling i did.
Anyway, i arrived in London and then caught a 55 pound taxi ride to Beaconsfield where my family was based. (i arrived too late in the evening to catch the 14 pound bus..) Over the next 2 days i reunited with my wonderful family members and got to spend 2 days exploring all the sights of downtown london with Bridget and Dave and then Frankpol and Chippy.. and that was awesome fun. And i also got the chance to catch up with Jenna, who i dated for a few years, a few years ago.... Who now speaks with a full blown English accent which is quite funny. But that was nice, and actually not weird like i thought it might be. It was interesting chatting with her all about camp america, which she did while we were dating a few years ago. It's amazing how much more i understood about it her whole experience now that i've done it myself.. compared to when she first got back and she was trying to explain it to me. It made me aware what a big difference it makes when there's a relatabilty factor. When she did it, i just couldn't comprehend or relate to the experience, so most of her stories went over my head... where as now when i asked her about it again in England 3 years on... i understood everything so much clearer. so that was interesting.
After that, it was time for our big sister Anitas Wedding! Which was fantastic.. It was a beautiful little wedding in a lovely catholic church in Beaconsfield. And i can tell you Anita was one very happy little bride to be marrying an awesome legend of a guy like Daniel. I helped francis film it, so i was up the back of the church looking down on everyone and i got a lovely view of the building from up there.. and even did some fine quality dancing to the bands hymns. The only downside for me was that after the wedding one of my shoes completely fell apart.. so i was hobbling around like a hobo that can't afford a decent pair of shoes! hehe. I ended up going across the road and buying a bottle of glue and some sticky tape to put it back together which kept me going til after the reception. I said Grace for the reception and managed to throw in a reference to my shoe in my Grace. I prayed that Anitas and Dans marriage wouldn't fall apart like my shoe had! hahaha
Anyway, it was a lovely day. And i think they're going to have a very happy marriage. yay!!
After the wedding.. I went to Ireland for a few days with my oldest brother Matt and my Parents where we saw some beautiful irish scenery.. and were able to visit the Ross Castle, which was home to the clan of the O'Donoghues back in the 15th century. So a bit of history to our family there.. it was really quite a cool looking castle too, and was built mainly for protection from any attacking armies. Right throughout the castle were little peep holes where guns could be fired from and it had a bunch of other little safety features.
After 2 days in Ireland, i packed up and left my family to come to Scotland where i am currently residing right now. I flew into Glasgow and caught the bus into the city.. where my good friend Matty J who is living here now came and met me and brought me to his apartment in Glasgow to stay for a while. And so far it's been awesome.. I've had the chance to explore and enjoy both Glasgow and Edinburgh which are really cool cities stacked full of culture and history. Lots of old buildings and structures and Museums and statues.. Kind of the way London is but Edinburgh has even more of that style to it that London does i think.
Tommorow i'm off to check out C7 church, which is a relatively fresh and new church over here which is closely affiliated with Hillsong which is really picking up steam. Both Matty J and another one of my friends from Scotland called Ewen who also used to go to riverview... both attend C7 and are heavily involved in the media and worship teams respectively. The pastor is an australian guy that went through bible college at hillsong and some of the other key leaders are australians too. So i'm really excited to go there for a couple of the services tommorow. Somehow i have this feeling like God will do something there.. Either for me, or through me... i'm not sure. but i have an anticipation about it..
So yeah, that's where i'm at.
The question now is when i'll be back home to Australia. I'm scheduled to get back there on the 12th of october after 4 days visits to both Amsterdam and Singapore. However due to the fact that i have very little money left after a long adventure of travels.. I have tried to alter my flights to allow me to get home much sooner than that. I'd actually like to come home in just a few days time. However yesterday when i called Qantas they told me they can't see any available flights earlier than what i've already got.. and they think it will be quite expensive to change anything. Which has put me in a frustrating hole. They said they would email my travel agent to see what they could do and to call them back on monday. So i'll try for that and i'm holding out hope for that to pull through for me... but it's not looking good and it may end up that i'll have to go ahead with those trips and not get home til the 12th. Which would suck majorly as i simply can't afford those trips unless either God drops a financial miracle on my lap in the next few days.. or i extended my credit card to put myself in even more debt that i am already in.... or i was able to travel by faith as my dad did 20-30 years ago on his world trip that resulted in a manuscript for a book called "the world by faith". But i'm not sure whether i'm called to the same god trusting adventure that my dad was called to all those years ago..
So yeah, it's a bit of pickle i'm in that i have to work out over the next few days. But i have no doubt that something will work out for to get me home safe at some point in the next 2 weeks.
I'm really excited to get home now.. I miss alot of things. I miss my friends, and my church and my cell group and filmcrew and basketball, i miss my own car and my own income from working and my own freedom to do my own thing any time i like. It'll be great to get back home and have a normal life again with a job and start paying off my credit card debt that i've racked up over here. It means virtually as soon as i get home i have to be frantically applying for jobs to get one as fast as humanly possible to get myself going again. I quit Spandex before i left, and there's no way i'm going to go back to it. I'm thinking i'll probably get a job as a forklift operator.. as there seems to be alot of jobs going for it, and it pays generally 20-25 bucks an hour which is way higher than i got at spandex.... That would allow me to pay off my debt and save up to potentially go to sandy hill camp again next June.
That's my plan anyway, things don't always go to plan but that's at least my vision for how things will happen in the short term. And then for the long term my plan would be to either land a great job in media or to go to university and study Film. probably in 2010.
Anyway, i think that's all my ramblings.. I'm sorry again for how long this has been... but i had alot to say after a month away from the blog! :)
So all is well, and i hope God can pull through for me so that i can be home to see everyone again very soon!
Cheers
HB
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Off to Europe
The O'Donohue ClaN is heading to the U.K !!
Anita gets married on the 20th September in London and the convoy has begun. We'll be re-united at last!!!!
It's been 17 years since we all lived together in Corrigin under 1 roof, so will be awesome to be together again, with the odd wife and husband coming along for the adventure! woof :)
Family is where its at, it's like the bible says in Genesis 27:9
"Go out to the flock and bring me two choice young goats, so I can prepare some tasty food for your father, just the way he likes it."
Amen to that brother!
Anita gets married on the 20th September in London and the convoy has begun. We'll be re-united at last!!!!
It's been 17 years since we all lived together in Corrigin under 1 roof, so will be awesome to be together again, with the odd wife and husband coming along for the adventure! woof :)
Family is where its at, it's like the bible says in Genesis 27:9
"Go out to the flock and bring me two choice young goats, so I can prepare some tasty food for your father, just the way he likes it."
Amen to that brother!
Friday, August 29, 2008
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
3 Months in America.
Well today is the 3 month mark of me being in America. I left on the 25th of May and it's now the 25th of August. Doesn't time fly fast! Which means, in only another 6 weeks, i'll be home in Australia again. Crazyness!
My travelling expedition is right about to begin and it should be completely awesome. I can't wait to explore and learn much more about America rather than just camp, which is really all i've known since i've been here.
And then with England getting close now, i'm getting very excited about that too! It's gonna be great to finally see Europe and watch my big sister Anita get married!! yippee! I'm certainly glad i listened to my Dad when he strongly told me to get an around the world flight rather than just a return flight to America and back, which was what i thought i wanted.... But he is certainly wiser than me! It would have been alot less fun if i was just going straight back home after America.
And the good thing about going to England, is that after Anitas wedding, i can travel europe and visit many of friends scattered around there too. I have people i know in various parts of England and also in Ireland and Scotland. I also plan to go to Paris and say to a random girl on the street "Tu et si belle madmoiselle" hahaha. I can't wait for all of it!
Anyway, in other things.. I was recently extremely discouraged to hear of the fraud of Mike Gugliemucci from Planet Shakers. He was a worship leader i had a huge amount of respect for, and to see him last week confess that he faked having cancer for 2 years.. was very upsetting.
About 5-6 weeks ago i ordered the new hillsong cd/dvd and i had it delivered to me here at camp. And i was very inspired to see Mike Gugliemucci performing this amazing song on it called "Healer" where he sings on stage with an oxygen tube on his face because he is "fighting his cancer battle" and believing that through his song Healer that he and many others could be healed through their trust in God. I absolutely love the song, and his performance on stage was very stirring, and i had showed it to a bunch of the other christians here at camp. So now to find out that the entire thing was a hoax, and he never had cancer at all, and it was all just a massive Lie.... It really hurts.
I used to go along to Planet Shakers meetings in Perth and see Mike get up and lead worship passionately, and see him preach like a crazyman. And even though his style i found to be overly screechy and loud.. I respected him for how passionate he was for God and how great his worship songs were. It just blows my mind that he would do this now. And it blows my mind how he even managed to pull the whole thing off with no one knowing. And i just can't figure out WHY he did it!
Anyway, i won't rave on too long.. but just wanted to document my frustration at what has happened. As i feel this has the potential to leave a strong dent in the churches around Australia. I really hope and pray it doesn't, and that somehow God can turn it into good. But right now, i feel this will be something that will really distance non-believers from attending churches like hillsong/riverview/planet shakers.
Anyway, on a brighter note.. i'm about to go and drink a Dr Pepper, and continue editing this Musical production that i have to finish by tommorow night. It was filmed with 3 cameras and it's a 3 hour production, and i just have to slice and dice my way through it. I have already finished the promo video for Greg to use on the website, which looks very good, and now this musical thing is the last video i've gotta do before i leave camp on wendesday. Yay!
Anyway. cheers.
HB
My travelling expedition is right about to begin and it should be completely awesome. I can't wait to explore and learn much more about America rather than just camp, which is really all i've known since i've been here.
And then with England getting close now, i'm getting very excited about that too! It's gonna be great to finally see Europe and watch my big sister Anita get married!! yippee! I'm certainly glad i listened to my Dad when he strongly told me to get an around the world flight rather than just a return flight to America and back, which was what i thought i wanted.... But he is certainly wiser than me! It would have been alot less fun if i was just going straight back home after America.
And the good thing about going to England, is that after Anitas wedding, i can travel europe and visit many of friends scattered around there too. I have people i know in various parts of England and also in Ireland and Scotland. I also plan to go to Paris and say to a random girl on the street "Tu et si belle madmoiselle" hahaha. I can't wait for all of it!
Anyway, in other things.. I was recently extremely discouraged to hear of the fraud of Mike Gugliemucci from Planet Shakers. He was a worship leader i had a huge amount of respect for, and to see him last week confess that he faked having cancer for 2 years.. was very upsetting.
About 5-6 weeks ago i ordered the new hillsong cd/dvd and i had it delivered to me here at camp. And i was very inspired to see Mike Gugliemucci performing this amazing song on it called "Healer" where he sings on stage with an oxygen tube on his face because he is "fighting his cancer battle" and believing that through his song Healer that he and many others could be healed through their trust in God. I absolutely love the song, and his performance on stage was very stirring, and i had showed it to a bunch of the other christians here at camp. So now to find out that the entire thing was a hoax, and he never had cancer at all, and it was all just a massive Lie.... It really hurts.
I used to go along to Planet Shakers meetings in Perth and see Mike get up and lead worship passionately, and see him preach like a crazyman. And even though his style i found to be overly screechy and loud.. I respected him for how passionate he was for God and how great his worship songs were. It just blows my mind that he would do this now. And it blows my mind how he even managed to pull the whole thing off with no one knowing. And i just can't figure out WHY he did it!
Anyway, i won't rave on too long.. but just wanted to document my frustration at what has happened. As i feel this has the potential to leave a strong dent in the churches around Australia. I really hope and pray it doesn't, and that somehow God can turn it into good. But right now, i feel this will be something that will really distance non-believers from attending churches like hillsong/riverview/planet shakers.
Anyway, on a brighter note.. i'm about to go and drink a Dr Pepper, and continue editing this Musical production that i have to finish by tommorow night. It was filmed with 3 cameras and it's a 3 hour production, and i just have to slice and dice my way through it. I have already finished the promo video for Greg to use on the website, which looks very good, and now this musical thing is the last video i've gotta do before i leave camp on wendesday. Yay!
Anyway. cheers.
HB
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