Blog entry, 19-july-2009

G’day from Cairns!!

We’ve been here almost 24 hours and in that time we have a great time! We started off by arriving at the airport at 12 noon, greeting our fellow team members and farewelling out family. Once we moved through the airport, luckily no-one made the metal detector beep, we sat down and ate lunch while waiting for our flight to board. Upon boarding call, we were seated on the plane embracing ourselves for a 3 hour flight north.

During the flight, we talked, listened to iPods and watched a movie to pass the time. The movie we were able to watch was 17 Again, which every watched and this passed the time quickly. After the movie, everyone started to get restless, so we walked to the bathroom and back and there and back again and even painted Craig’s fingernails black…that was incredibly funny. When we arrived at Cairn’s, we hopped off the plane, grabbed our baggage and waited for Mark Brown aka Brownie to hire our cars. Our hired cars for the trip are, “The Party Car” (Brownie, Tom, Craig, Blake and Claire) and the “Most Awesome Hyundai Car” (Mrs Imre, Elsie, Jackie and Laura) From the airport we travelled to where we are staying, Tropicanna Resort, got settled into our rooms and headed out for dinner and a walk.

We had McDonanlds for dinner, as a special treat of course ,and then headed down to the Cairns Esplanade for a walk. We were welcomed by a grand fireworks display, and Brownie explained to us that this was for the Cairns show, though we’d rather believe that it was just for us. As we walked along the Esplanade we came across our first crocodile. After much examination of the floating object, we realised it was a polystyrene cup. However, by this stage we had already attracted a lot of attention to the ‘crocodile’ and several other tourists joined us! In our defence it was already dark.

As we walked further along the Esplanade we came across a great kids playground, and so we spend the next hour running around burning all of our nervous energy. When we were done on the play equipment, we walked back to the main shops and each of us bought an ice cream. After this, we returned to the motel for some much needed rest for the coming days.

The next morning, Sunday morning, we woke up for a 7:30 start in the dining hall for breakfast, a much needed energy hit for the day. After breakfast, we walked to the local church, Saint Lukes, for church. The service was very different from what we are use to, but nevertheless it was an extremely good experience. The church service was a mixture of Torres Straight Islanders and High Church, which was interesting for the group of us. During the church service, we were welcomed up the front where we were taught the words and actions to a couple of songs, in front of everyone in the service. After the service, we talked to everyone before walking back to the resort again.

Upon returning to the Resort, we headed out for lunch, where Brownie took us to a wonderful location upon the water’s edge. Here we had some much added relaxation and bonding time before we returning to the resort for free time which consisted of making balloon animals, puzzles and posters for tomorrow’s session with the children in Mossman Gorge.

Tonight, we look forward to travelling to Mossman Gorge for church and experiencing another example of different cultures. Nervous as some of us are, we are truly excited to be here in Cairns, to spread the name of the Lord and to bond together as a team.

Keep you Posted,

Arden Cairn’s Mission Trip

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