townsville award

some exciting news from reef to outback.... every year the mayor and city council here give out awards to people and businesses in townsville who have made a positive impact in the community. this year our base director, ken mulligan, was awarded the cities top honor of "townsville citizen of the year!" i put the link on here so you guys can check out his award presentation. it's only 3 minutes long. i thought it would be cool too because it talks about us as a ministry and what types of things we do. the mayor even gets up after ken's acceptance speech and gives us a little plug which is cool. hope you enjoy!

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swing of things

G'day everyone!

Well i am here and i am just about settled. I have now been here for two weeks and while I am at the same place as before, this time around things are already shaping up quite differently. And it's good. My living arrangements have improved although most of you will be sad to hear that i am only sharing a toilet with 3 other boys instead of my customary 13. I am living in "the flats" which are basically apartments on the base property itself. two of my three roommates were the staff on my dts and one of them was my mt. isa outreach leader (the one who hurt his back), so i know them well and we get along good. something else that is pretty cool is that i can also get wireless internet inside the flat which is a new thing base-wide. i have also begun cooking my own food which is different, albeit not always as tasty as the food cooked on base. however i am able to do it my own way a bit cheaper and i have been able to introduce my friends here to my eating habits that my friends back home knew so well. their favorite concoction of mine is my tuna, rice, corn, and cottage cheese recipe. just mix it up. don't worry...i only do that twice a day. everyday. i love it....for some reason they think it's odd.

having been here two weeks now my staff internship is in full swing. the main difference from my time here before is that last time i was a student and this time i am staff. so instead of lectures with guest speakers and outreaches and going to "school"...we are learning more of how the base operates on a behind the scenes basis as well as leadership training. The first two weeks have been mainly one big meeting where we have learned more base history, got our food handlers license (for kitchen work), done personality tests, done emergency fire training (which the guy was nervous to teach because of my background in that particular area..haha) and learning more of the different areas of base operation. but now that is over and this week i will start my full time normal schedule. My first rotation is in our accounting department. so my job will be just that....basically deal with reef to outback's finances, budget, paying bills, receiving donations etc. I am a money man now. haha! so pretty much 8 to 5 M-F that is what i will be doing. so if you thought emails about rock jumping, and preaching sermons, and running with kangaroos, and sleeping in tents were exciting....just wait till you hear my stories about accounts! when i did my calculation wrong, or ran a credit card payment for the first time, or those crazy days when our account actually balanced! the stories will be endless and i'm sure more exciting than ever.....haha! i really am looking forward to it and as in life...there is a time and season for everything and this will be a great opportunity to serve and learn and grow in different ways. I know my time will come to lead in other parts of the ministry and in order to be trusted with the "big" you have to be faithful in the small right? so for now...i plan on being the best darn accountant reef to outback has ever seen!...(or at least try not to mess things up).

Aside from work everything else has been good as well. seven of us are back on base from my DTS with two others living in the area. that means half of my graduating class is in townsville, so that is really fun to see them again and get back in the swing of things. they are great friends and it's great to be around them again. on the past two monday mornings, i have woken up at 4am and 6am respectively to watch the NFL playoffs live. out of a base of over one hundred people, i was one of only five people to get up and take part in this. the games that you in america have the privilege of watching on sunday afternoons are on quite early on monday over here...but i am not defeated by a little thing like a 4am wake up call. i will press on with determination and get to a tv so i can watch my football. and it's playoffs no less! is there any other option than to watch it? of course now i have to approach the subject of getting next monday off so i can watch the super bowl. i'll let you know how that turns out. haha!

this weekend is actually "australia day" which i believe is similar to our 4th of july...although i am not totally sure what they are celebrating (and funnily enough, not a lot of them know either apparently!). to celebrate, yesterday some friends and I went to "big crystal creek" which is a water hole about 40 minutes away. we were there for about 5 hours and we got pretty fried. did i ever tell you that supposedly the hole in the ozone is over queensland and so the U.V. rays are way more intense here? that is the claim anyways. it is true that it is not only hot but the sun really does feel like it is hitting you a whole lot harder. in any case...i am sunburned. but it was fun. hot sun, cold water....it was fun.

i think that does it for now. things are good here and i look forward to hearing from you!

Aaron

p.s. the support me link was not working correctly and so i am in the process of fixing that currently. also i noticed this morning that my temperature and clock were not working either so i will look into that as well. so it's not you.....it's me.

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i'm back!

isn't this fun! i thought a blog might be a bit more interesting than my normal emails. hope you enjoy!

Well I hurt my back a bit more on the plane ride. haha, just kidding! I know for all of you who have been worried about me that probably wasn’t very funny! I am back in Australia however, and that is not a lie! I flew out on Thursday the 10th and arrived back in Townsville about 24 hours later. Thursday was one day before the 2 week mark of my surgery but all the flying and traveling went well. I know many of you were praying for me and my back and my flights and let me tell you what happened.

I received my boarding pass like normal in Portland for my flight to San Francisco but I didn’t think I was given the one from frisco to Sydney. So when I made it to SF I was just gonna take my e-ticket up to the counter and get my boarding pass there. No big deal. But when I arrived, I had about an hour before the flight left and no one was at the counter. Finally someone got there after about 15 minutes and a ton of people got up to get in line because apparently a lot of people had their boarding pass but it didn’t say what seat they were on. So the employees made an announcement to sit down and they were working to try and figure everything out. All this chaos seemed to be happening behind the counter and people were being called up for all sorts of reasons and it seemed like a big mess. Finally I get up to the desk and the lady starts working on my ticket but she keeps getting distracted by other employees asking her things amidst the chaos swirling around us. So I start joking with her and tell her that if all this fuss was about me that I would gladly sacrifice my seat to be put in first class. I figured that would just be the noble thing to do. Well she didn’t put me in first class….but she did put in me in business class!

Woohoo! For 14 hours from SF to Sydney I was lounging in a chair that laid ALL the way back, putting my feet up on a foot rest, getting fed off a menu, viewing my personal tv screen, and sleeping like a baby! People were boarding and heading back to the economy section and as they passed I heard several times “must be nice…” I wanted to reach out and grab them by the hand, look them in the eye and say “no, no, you don’t understand, I’m just like you….but yes it is nice, thanks!” haha! As fun as it was (and by the way, even though it was probably the last time I’ll ever be there….I loved every second) it really was a blessing because of my back and it made traveling a whole lot easier for me. God was taking care of me that’s for sure. So yes I made it, my back is doing great, and it’s exciting to get the ball rolling again. Seven of my fellow prior DTS mates are back with me as well and two more are not on base but living here in Townsville. So nine of the 18 of us who went through the July DTS are back which is really cool. A lot of familiar faces and a real easy transition back into everything so far.

We start up tomorrow morning and so I will write more when I know more of what’s going on. Thanks for the thoughts and prayers during my trip and be sure to keep in touch!

Aaron

p.s. as a side note, when I got all the way here and was in my room at the base, I was unpacking my bag and found the original boarding pass to Sydney from SF in the stuff I was handed at Portland in the first place! I had my economy ticket the entire time! But you know what….I have no regrets….:) :)

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