Rolling Along

So much has been happening here in Sydney! Most pressing, however, is my recital, which will be Tuesday, November 10 at 4:10pm. (Do the math to calculate when that is for your time zone!)

Let's see...where do I begin? Well, last Saturday evening was the Rotaract Club of Sydney City's International Dinner, hosted at the D'Alessandri residence. Honestly, I thought it was going to be boring. Just speaking truly! But I am SO, so happy I was a part of it. We had about twelve different countries represented, and each attendee brought a dish from their homeland. The food was beautiful, but the company was definitely the highlight of the evening! Such amazing, interesting people! We decorated the house with streamers (which have yet to be taken down, although I like the Casa-Ole-look myself) and printed off people's national flags and had them color them in. We also had a fun trivia game with questions about various countries. My team didn't win that part, and I still think Frank Lowe, who won first prize, cheated (he's on the Ambassadorial Scholar committee! Of course he knows facts about various countries!!) =D

Then on Sunday I visited a church with a friend and met some really great people. I hadn't been to a morning service since I left the States, and it was really great to worship in a congregation again. The church reminds me somewhat of Lamar Baptist back in Beaumont, but it's not the church's actual building. See, the church used to meet in a school, but the school now has a new principal and she immediately stated she didn't want the church to meet in her school on Sundays anymore. It's quite sad, since the church also contributed to children's educational programs and such. However, I'm reminded that "we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places" (Eph. 6:12)

Sounds very Lord-of-the-Rings-ish, doesn't it? But it's so true. We often get irritated or angered, hurt and embittered against people, but we forget that there are influences invisible to the naked eye that influence us. Asking the Lord for the ability to see others as God sees them helps correct our myopia, and it's amazing how one can love the unlovable when seeing them through the eyes of Christ.

Speaking of seeing through different lenses, I was treated to an afternoon at Sculptures by the Sea in Bondi. It's a showcase of artwork on the shores of the ocean, and it was very neat! I'll post pictures later, but I highly suggest you visit the link and check out some of the works!

It was interesting to me, however, that hundreds of people walked along the shores gazing at the works fashioned by the hands of men, while God's beautiful creation surrounded it all. Of course, I think most people appreciate the beauty of nature, but the work of man was augmented above that of God's in this particular show. I dunno...it was just an interesting point to me. :)

Oookay. I'm off to complete my program notes. I hope. I had on my Facebook status that Josmery Ramirez should win first place in the Procrastination Contest...but she'd probably arrive too late to enter it. HA!