Flight/Arrival
The trip to the airport where I would board a plane from Houston, Texas to Los Angeles, California was one of the weirdest trips of my life. Not weird in a bad way, though. It was odd to me because I knew I was about to leave on a life-changing trip, but for some reason it seemed like we were on our way to drop someone else off. Anyways, once we got to the airport and Ethan thankfully helped me figure out where and how to check in my bags (Thank you!!) it was time to go through security and say goodbyes. After I found my gate I sat and waited for my slightly delayed first flight that would take me to Los Angeles, and then once there I had a short layover before my flight to Sydney. Once in Sydney I waited for my parents to arrive and it took about an hour and a half to find them after I had landed. Once we met up, it was time to catch a taxi to our hotel in Sydney harbor! After a few days of touristing it up and souvenir shopping, we finally went to Hillsong Church! The church is really beautiful, but it is definitely not as big as I had imagined. There are 3 buildings to the main Hills campus where I will be attending. The HUB, which is mainly office buildings and Administration offices, but there is also an auditorium. The next building is the Convention Center, or "CC" as it is known here, which is the main building where church is held. The building is really beautiful and at night they shine light green and purple and blue lights on the white building and it is really awesome to see! The third building is the Chapel building, which is where there are small services on Sunday mornings that are more intimate, acoustic sets. My first time in the church we were looking for the Hillsong College registration, and we eventually wandered downstairs and found it! New Hillsong College kids were everywhere, music blaring, and videos of the Hillsong Live team playing all around. I got my paperwork for where I will be living which is in Glenwood Gated housing, and the house was already furnished! WOO! The whole time I was there getting registered, students were just coming up to me all the time wanting to find out where i'm from and what stream of study i'm going into, and if there was any way to help. Seriously like the most helpful people ever! Then I got registered for POWERHOUSE SUMMERFEST.
Powerhouse SummerFest
Powerhouse is the name of the 18-25 year old group in Hillsong Church, and January 24-26th was the SummerFest camp and took place on Cockatoo Island which is pretty centrally located in Sydney Harbor. There were about 1,000 18-25 year olds that went, and we all camped on the water's edge (if you buy a 3 man tent it actually means it's for 2) and during the day had multiple sessions in "The Revival Shed". Also, the last day of the camp was, in fact, AUSTRALIA DAY. Australians are very proud of their country, (even though it's not 'merica) so the air was filled with national spirit which was very cool. Cockatoo Island used to be a jail and then was turned into a shipyard later, so "The Revival Shed" was one of the old shipbuilding sheds. The first night the Hillsong United team did the worship (excellent) and they played two brand new songs (very excellent) that are going to be on the new United album! The worship and speakers were above outstanding, and the main thing I took away from the camp is what Harrison, the main Powerhouse pastor said the last day. He was talking about how Jesus has a huge puzzle put together of all of our lives that are the little bitty pieces. I am honestly just so excited to get going in classes and figure out where in the church I will be serving, and what puzzle piece I will be that makes up the puzzle that brings God glory and makes Him famous. After SummerFest was over, I met up with my Dad and Kim and we walked around downtown Sydney. The next morning, we got up early and drove back to my house in Baulkham Hills, where I said my goodbyes to them until Christmas or whenever it is that I come home! Also, I ate Kangaroo in a restaurant.
Waiting for school to start
Today is Tuesday January 29, 2013, and tomorrow morning school starts! All the students are going to be meeting in the Chapel building at 9:00am and we will begin Orientation and Enrollment in specific classes for our stream of study. Overall I am nothing short of amazingly anxious to start in these classes and learn from these amazing leaders. The culture in this church is ridiculously awesome. I went to my first Sunday morning and night service, and the atmosphere is amazing. There is no denying it, Hillsong Church has it's heart set on glorifying Jesus. All the leaders and worship team sit right in the front of the service and don't act like they are better than anyone else, they just worship. Last sunday Nigel Hendroff, Dave Ware, and Marty Sampson were part of the worship team, and they are just so normal and after service will talk to anyone for however long they want and are just total nice guys. LOVE IT! The student atmosphere is outstanding, and I am so happy to be a part of it. So until next time! Hopefully I will do this again this weekend after classes have started and I will know more of my permanent schedule. Love to all my family and friends from TEXAS! YEAH!
Give the glory.
-Aaron
