Month: March 2018

My ministry and visiting path ended with a few days in Denver, Colorado, USA, staying with my brother Jon, sister-in-law Lucie, and my teenage nephew and niece Brock and Ava. It took 29 hours of traveling to get there, including time to file a lost baggage claim, replenishing essentials at Target, and Starbucks coffee to keep me going till bedtime. Jon’s family lead very busy lives, with the parents both working full time and active in their community and childrens’ schools, and the kids both excelling in sports and their academic work in high school, as well as community activities. I had basically just announced to them that I would be visiting on my way back from Australia, without asking if the timing was OK. I repeatedly found myself reminding them of that as they apologised for being so busy and occupied during my stay. I really needed some relaxing time and time zone adjustment at the end of my journey, so it was all good.

Aeroplane window view of Sydney as we took off. I had left Adelaide beforehand in the dark of the early morning.

Sydney Harbour is breathtakingly beautiful. We didn’t fly over the Bridge and Opera House, which are east/left of this photo.

I’m pretty sure this aerial photo captures (in the centre right) Manly Beach, Miriam’s Manly and the Manly Wharf, of which land view photos are in previous blog posts.

 Seeing the Australian coast disappearing from sight wasn’t nearly as emotional for me as seeing it appearing in view a few weeks earlier. I know I will be returning next year with confidence in some form of ministry in the NCIA, and many possibilities between now and then. My plan for spending 5 months per year in Australia and 7 months in USA seems like a reality now, instead of a hope for the future. Now I know how I can be present and connected and useful in two countries simultaneously, or close to simultaneously. I’ve been able to stay in touch with my family in USA, and Home Church, and our monthly Saturday Brunch, for this whole month. Simultaneously,  I’ve been able to visit five NCIA centres in Australia and New Zealand, including helping out with five church events and four social events connected with NCIA activities. Modern technology might have its drawbacks, but it certainly has its blessings. For me, those blessings have added so much value to my ministry and travel and visiting path.

Yucca plants grow all over and are quite spiky if you brush up against them

Moose, my brother’s medium Labradoodle, happily came with me on a two hour walk around the bluff on my first full day in Denver.  He’s the same breed as my Arya, but looks very different even though his personality is similar. We couldn’t run because my running gear was still in my bag, which took almost two days to catch up with me. I was very blessed to have minimal jet lag and no altitude sickness. I’d taken several precautions to avoid both, like hydration, homeopathy, and staying mentally on Denver time from when I’d left Adelaide.

Behind my brother’s house is a bluff from which you can see the outskirts of Denver with the snow-capped Rocky Mountains behind them. It’s easier to see the Rockies to the West of Denver in this photo than in the pano above. The remainder of my time in Denver was pretty much the same: walks and runs with Moose, visiting with Jon’s family whenever we found some time together, watching movies together after dinner, and just relaxing without deadlines and road trips and errands and ministry activities! Some stellar visitors also showed up: Emilie (Suzanne’s niece with whom I’d stayed earlier in the week in Australia) with her three adorable boys, and Lucie’s parents. I thoroughly enjoyed playing surrogate Grandma with Emilie’s family as we played at the playground and went out for lunch. Ange and Wayne came for family dinner on my last evening before returning to Philadelphia, as well as Ava’s friend Sarah. Good times, good people, lots of laughter, family at its best. My last steps include the photos below, which I cannot convince Blogger to rearrange chronologically, nor to add captions. So I thank you for walking the path with me from Philadelphia to points West, then back again. To be continued next year, with ministry and adventures in Australia again!

Water fowl at the Oaklands Estate Reserve near the Adelaide church

For the last 2.5 days of the Aussie part of my path, I took a road trip to SE South Australia and Victoria at the bottom of the eastern part of Australia, and back to Adelaide. My day began with a run at the Reserve, then church and shared lunch as posted earlier, then on the road! First, a few more photos from my run through the Reserve. I ran there twice, and once on the beach, while in Adelaide.

“All the ducks are swimming in the water” – that’s for Chris and Zachary!

It has been a dry summer (as it usually is) so some ponds and streams in the Reserve are dry. But the birds can find what they need anyway.

Shaggy-bark gum trees.

Red river gums, seen around Adelaide, and my Mum’s favourite type of gum tree.

Blooming oleander, related to the Rhododendron that thrives in my Pennsylvania neighbourhood

In my “SA Rellies” post, I included some details about my visit in Tintinara, SA on Sunday and in Keith, SA on Monday morning. I forgot to mention how my Dad joined me for the beginning of my road trip. I turned on the radio to hear his favourite song, one which we played at his Memorial Service. As it was playing and I was crying, I noticed a vineyard sign that read “Arkana.” Swedenborg’s exhaustive Biblical commentary, which Dad studied and used extensively, is called “Arcana Coelestia.” The next piece I heard was a concerto by JS Bach that my parents played a lot in our home as I was growing up. Dad definitely wanted to come along to see Frank and the South Australian countryside he enjoyed as a young man! After visiting Uncle Frank, I set off for Victoria. These shots were precariously and no doubt illegally taken while driving through the Grampians, a mountain range in Victoria. Most mountains in Aus are very ancient, rounded and worn down by millenia of erosion.

Yes, I was correctly driving on the left side of the road. No worries at all.

This part of Victoria has adequate rainfall and the temperate climate to sustain tall trees in beautiful bushlands

I thought I was photographing a “Koala Crossing” sign but it was really a warning about the freight train line nearby. I did see a large koala high up in the fork of a tree, but not till I was almost under it, so couldn’t snap a photo. Instead, here’s one I took a few years ago in Portland, Victoria.

This is a “Wombat Crossing” sign, in the Wombat Forest in Victoria. Didn’t see any, though, digging or crossing!

By afternoon tea time my visiting and ministry path had taken me to Ballarat, Vic., where there is a group of Swedenborgian/New Church people who meet regularly for worship and Logopraxis (a spiritual growth programme developed in Australia). The “Pastor in Residence” in the Melbourne, Vic society is Rev. Glenn Alden, a retired General Church minister. He also ministers to the Ballarat group, which has been a daughter church to the Melbourne congregation for 40 years. Glenn and his wife Mary, lovely friends of mine from USA, had stayed on in Ballarat from the Sunday activities the day before, so that we could meet up with Len and Judy Robinson who are the pillars of the Ballarat group. We all had afternoon tea at the Robinsons while Glenn and Mary got me caught up on the details of their joint ministry in Melbourne. It’s wonderful to see how they work together, offering different things to the congregation. Glenn and Mary will be returning to the USA after Easter this year, after which there will not be a pastor in Melbourne or Ballarat. Sadly I omitted to get a photo from our time together on my camera, to celebrate the great time we had, albeit rather short.

I spent the night about an hour away from Ballarat, at the new house of my New Church/Swedenborgian long-time friend Suzanne Coutanceau. Suzanne’s Dad introduced my parents to each other in the late 1940s, thereby leading my Dad to the New Church/Swedenborgian Christianity, so I owe a lot to her family for several reasons! Suzanne is a talented gardener. In a few years her garden will be stunning, with many rare plants and lots of love.

The next day I drove 9 hours back to Adelaide via a slightly different route, then packed up in the evening to return back to the USA.

Didn’t see any wild kangaroos this time, but I found some later on in the day. See below!

The farmlands in Victoria have taller trees than in South Australia. But in both places the grass is dry and brown by the end of the hot summer. Green grass is a phenomenon of winter time. More or less the opposite of North America.

Beaufort, Vic is a typical country town that I stopped in for a coffee (a flat white to be exact)

The Grampians from a distance on the way back to Adelaide.

A totally unedited photo of “Green Lake” somewhere in Victoria, as I was at a standstill due to roadworks.

Most of the time the highway connecting these major cities is one lane each way. In this windscreen photo, oncoming traffic is visible in the right lane ahead. If you get stuck behind a slow-moving vehicle, you just have to wait for the next time there is an overtaking (passing) lane added to the right for a short distance, or take the risks of crossing into the oncoming lane to get past.

At Bordertown in South Australia, I caught a glimpse of a sign for “White Kangaroos” and took a quick detour, since I hadn’t seen any ‘roos yet and was leaving the country the next day. This time my path lead me to the Bordertown Wildlife Park, and finally some kangaroos – the wallaby sort. The small white kangaroo was more nervous than the wallabies, and hopped away as soon as I approached the fence. People are not allowed in the enclosure so I took photos through the fence.

They have plenty of peacocks, and a few full size kangaroos

The wallabies seemed more secure around visitors, and were openly curious about me.

This white kangaroo is full-size. They are not albinos, but have a rare white gene. I’ve never seen or heard of them before.

The road was actually flat, as is the field, but my driving photography skills are poorly developed! This photo shows the benefit of irrigation in South Australia, which is largely desertous, using water from the Murray River.

This photo, on the other hand, shows the downside: areas of “saltflats” where the water has been drained out, leaving salt deposits on the fields near the river.

Driving over the Murray River, a major if not only source of fresh water for South Australia and parts of Victoria, in Murray Bridge, SA

By the time you’re in South Australia, the roadside trees are “scrub gum” growing in sandy soil. No more tall, well watered trees as seen in  Victoria’s temperate bushlands.

Sometimes the highway is two lanes each way, for the purposes of full disclosure.

My path took an interesting turn when I decided to see my chiropractor on the way back to where I was staying in the Adelaide church, and before starting my 24 hours of flying. My sat nav (satellite navigation = GPS) directed me along the Tourist Drive through the scenic Adelaide Hills. Amazing! I was in heaven!

Another totally unedited shot while waiting at a red light after my chiro visit- this time of the ocean that is constantly in view for those who live in Hallett Cove – such as my chiro friend Shirley, and June Johnson the lay leader, and David Millar who runs the Australian New Church College where I have been receiving my theological training online for several years.

Another red light photo – trying to show the beach ahead that makes up part of Hallett Cove. I really enjoyed staying there last year for a month, including running several times a week along the boardwalk that extends for miles along the cove and headlands.