the aussie abbotts

For the 2 of you that still read this, I thought I might report on what a great couple weeks it has been with Chris and Dave and Ron around. The first time I heard Dave speak, I just sat there and cried - even though I had heard the talk several times before. It was amazing to hear someone speak about the things I care about again. I really respect these guys. They are….wise, sooo intelligent…..they have important things to say. It’s been a privilege to share their company.

There’s not a whole of interesting news from here anymore. The job continues, everything is becoming more familiar, we’re beginning to get visitors from home….honestly, I’m finding that this blog was great for the big news of arriving and settling here, but now email seems to suffice. Blogs aren’t meant for the really personal stuff, so I’m not sure how much I’ll bother updating anymore unless something big and exciting happens. We don’t have a phone at home yet and I’m not sure that we will end up getting one. We both have mobile phones that don’t have many minutes but it might be worth it to call and see if we’re able to get to a payphone or work phone or something to call back. My number: 02 0430 313 271. Prestons: 02 0430 313 270. Otherwise, please email to keep in touch. Always homesick and….everything.

My email: angiejeane@gmail.com

Preston’s: prestonabbott@hotmail.com

The blog.  This one has been innactive for a bit.  We apologize to you interested surfers.  This is my first post.  Again, I apologize to you interested surfers.

It is tempting to conjour up some kind of fantastic intro after the long drought of dialogue produced here.  However, that would require an extra measure of effort that is not available on this particular afternoon.  So, unless a mug of fresh ground coffee appears on the desk next to me along with a delicious pastry that is more hazardous to my health than helpful, I am bound to a basic beginning.  Here goes, in medes res.

Today, I taught fifth grade (year 5 in Aussie) and third grade (year 3 in Aussie) kids about King Saul, first proclaimed monarch of the Israelites, tall in stature and small in many other ways.  This one never got a name change.  Anyway, Michael, a hands-on sort of kid, proclaimed himself king, declared me to be the Philistine Goliath, grabbed my wooden prop sword, and ran me through.  If you think that the classroom then turned into that dreaded threesome of anarchy, bedlem, and chaos…you are right.  And the din continued from moments to minutes until one girl said, “Michael, I think you really hurt him.”  Another boy responded, “No.  He’s faking.”  Michael tried to get a “Long Live King Michael” chant going with his wooden sword in the air and some old shiny fabric over his shoulders.  For a few seconds he had a couple of followers.  Then Georgia, who had helped me find my class earlier, said with very genuine concern,  “I think he’s hurt.  Maybe we should get Mrs. Wilson or Mrs. Bauldey.”  I let her reach the door, and then I spoke her name.  “Georgia” Before I finished her name, while still lying on the floor, a kid to my right proclaimed in a very sure voice, “He has risen!”  And I thought good point, wrong lesson, but good point. 

 More later.  Gotta go now.  Looking for roos.  Miss all of you.

Today is a gorgeous, sunny day and Preston is off wakeboarding with a couple guys from church. Yesterday he spent the afternoon boogie boarding at Fresh Water Beach. These are activities that feed the inspiration for his writing so I am happy for him while I sit at my desk, in this quiet little office, with just a window to tell me it’s sunny outide, trying to focus on work…. Yeah. I’m really happy for him.

It’s hard to decide these days what to post on the blog. I feel like we’re just trucking along now. Things continue to become more familiar, and a little easier to manage. I’ve moved into a new office space and it is sooo much better than before. The kids know our names now and I have met more and more parents and have received some decent feedback for how things seem to be going so far. I know I mentioned to a few people before I left that I hate starting any new job, even if the situation is really comfortable. It just kills me to get through that time of feeling incapable constantly and not having any of the answers. So getting through that stage seems to be taking forever, but I might finally be making progress. I’m learning more about the staff, the history of relationships and politics here, and what the expectations for this position really are. Ideally, they need someone long-term in this position and someone very committed to the church. Obviously, I’m not that person, so it forces me to think carefully about what to focus on while I’m here. I don’t want to be a children’s director forever….in fact, I think we all know I don’t fit particularly well into the church employee category, so at this point the future after Australia is a blank slate. That’s actually kind of exciting.

Preston has been writing like crazy and making more and more connections with people. Already, this has turned out to be an amazing opportunity for him. Many of you have noticed that he’s not online often, but Preston is just not much of a technology guy so you’ll just have to trust my updates.  He speaks often of his family in Oregon and missing them, as well as the Cramers, the Burns, and other families and friends who have loved us so well. There are also a lot of comments like, “hey, I should write that on the blog!’ So….intentions count, right?

I just realized the other day that Dave Rod and Chris Jarvis and others from Grace will be coming here in…..a month or so!! Not sure exactly when. But I am soooo looking forward to that! I have the feeling I don’t even realize how great it will be to have people from “that life”  here to discuss the differences with. I talked to a girl the other day who is dying to do an internship at Grace (year-long) and she’s planning on chatting with Chris and Dave about that when they’re here. Should be fun. In fact….if anyone runs into either of those guys, I need to know if I’m supposed to help set anything up for them. Accomodations? Transportation? After Chris and Dave leave it looks like Lauren might be coming and then…Aunt Cyndy!! And then…Dana? Daniel? Jeremy? Jane? Rama? More, more!!

Now I will leave you with some new Australian vocab:

whilst = while
heaps = slang for “a lot” (like we say tons)
arvo = short for “afternoon”
winge = whine
breakie = breakfast
muso = musician

That’s all I can think of for now… Oh! I almost forgot! Preston got a call from someone offering us tickets to go see John Mayer at the Sydney Entertainment Center (directly across the street from where Chris and Keith stayed when they were here.) I know I’ll hear from everyone at home that knows I’m not a fan, BUT there’s no denying he’s a great musician AND Ben Kweller opened AND it was free, so…..who would say no?? It was great - especially Ben Kweller.

Ok, more soon. Lots of love. Please leave comments (except, jeremy….you can stop) and let us know you are still thinking of us. Americans in Australia can get needy sometimes.

I was hoping Preston would have time to post this story himself, but it hasn’t happened yet and it’s just so Preston, you really need to hear it.

So here’s the deal: Last week Preston wants to go hear Les Murray speak (the poet laurreate of Australia) but he doesn’t have tickets and has been told that there’s no chance of getting. Well, if you know Preston you know that’s ridiculous. So he heads down to Sydney where the lecture is being held just to see what happens. Of course, he’s not sitting on the stoop outside too long before he’s in a conversation with someone working at the event and soon he has a glass of wine and some appetizers in his hands and he’s invited inside. As if this isn’t enough, I get a call an hour or two later with Preston saying, “Hey, I think I might be home kind of late” and when I ask why he says, “Oh….I’m going to dinner with Les Murray.” Unbelievable! How did this happen? Who knows - these things just happen to him. So he gets treated to a zillion-course meal, at the type of place where there are no prices on the menu, and enjoys conversation with Mr. Murray and the 5 other people at the table. Yeah. The gods love this guy.

Just wanted to share that for now. Today I finished up the 6th of 8 Easter assemblies for kids and I’m pretty tired. It was lots of fun, though! I told the story of Mary going to Jesus’ grave and finding that he had risen and drew a picture to go with the story with oil pastels. I’m pretty sure the kids liked it for the sole reason that I had multicolored pastel smears all over my hands and clothes…..maybe just a tad on my face too. Oops. At least the kids had fun!

More soon. Thank you for the comments and emails. Always craving home…

Finally back in Sydney today with a little time to spend here on the blog and some emailing too. There are “gamers” here in the cafe making a lot of noise over their virtual lives…I think I might throw something at them soon…

Things are beginning to feel familiar now and the reality of where we are (so far away but in a really great city) is beginning to set in. It’s been way too long since we’ve really been able to connect with home and that is pretty hard. I asked about our phone last night and it seems they’ve told the owners of our house that the work has all been done….but still, no dial tone. So they are checking into it again. I’m not counting on anything. BUT when we do get a phone I expect lots of phone cards to be purchased, and lots of ringing to be happening at all hours.

These last couple weeks have been particularly busy for me with Easter and the end of the school term coming up. I’m preparing for the Easter assemblies that will happen at each of the elementary schools in the area (6 in all) and on Sunday there is a service at St.Paul’s called “unite” where all of the kids come to a family-oriented service with their parents. Kind of like FM LIVE at Grace. After that the kids have one more week of school and then they’ll be on break for two weeks. That means I get a break from my Sunday program too, so that will be great. I might even get to take a day or two off - maybe Presto and I will go and track down some kangaroos.

(Did I mention I have an administrator now? Holy crap. That is amazing. She does everything I hate to do like excel sheets and stuff. She is amazing. Make me very happy.)

Speaking of Preston, he has continued to make connections for his writing. He’s been to a bunch of lectures, met area writers, connected with people at church who are or know writers, he even entered some pieces in a contest last weekend and read them in front of a roomful of other writers. He didn’t win, but of course, that wasn’t the point. He seemed really excited about the people he met there and the advice some of them had for him. John Gray has asked to see some of the poems Preston wrote for Easter services at Grace and some others at church have been bringing writing for him to read and comment on. On top of all this, he has been doing a lot of landscaping where we live, swimming most days, and lots of teaching and work with the kids. I came home the other day to he and a volunteer from the kids program at church practicing kids worship songs in the living room.

While Presto was at the writer’s contest over the weekend, I went to….drum roll…..”Evangelism Explosion.” Yes, it was a 2-day class on evangelism. (Pause here for the various reactions….) It was…fascinating. They have this new approach that is supposed to be focused on “generation x”. You start out by asking someone “On a scale of 1-10, how fulfilling is your life?” This is the new generation x question. The question from the old version was something like, “How certain are you that you’re going to heaven?” Yeah. I’d love to elaborate in the future to anyone who’s curious. Needless to say, I was exhausted after the emotional energy that went into a class like that. I’m also taking (at the request of John and Ian) an Old Testament class - correspondance through a seminary in Sydney…plus lots of church…and small group each week…so…I’m kind of overwhelmed with thinking. That’s about all I think I’ll say about that for now.

Through conversations with various people, I’m learning a lot about what the goals for the children’s ministry and the church as a whole are. I hope I can play a part in preparing someone to come into my position after I leave that can commit for a long time. That’s really what St. Pauls needs. A lot of good things can happen in this ministry, but I think I will need to make some decisions about what to focus on while I’m here - otherwise those “good things” will probably become a little too overwhelming.

Everyone we’ve met has been so kind and welcoming. We’ve been invited into lots of homes for dinners and taken out to coffee and asked often if we need anything…the people are really great. The woman who was the Children’s Director here before (Linda) and her husband Mark are the kind of people we would want to hang out with wherever we met them, and that feels like a blessing. I have a lot to learn from Linda and I have to admit, I’m glad that I happen to genuinely like her! It makes things easier. The volunteers for the Sunday kids ministry are really great - pretty self-sufficient and also really enjoyable people. Preston seems to know everyone already - I’m always waiting after church for…hours and hours. So don’t worry too much about us being taken care of - it’s just that no one can replace everyone that we’re homesick for. And I guess that’s a good thing…if we weren’t sad at all what would that say about home?

Thanks sincerely for your comments on here and for your emails. It’s still surreal that we’re really here and that you’re all still there, with normal life going on all the time. Keep us updated - it’s really nice to know what’s going on.

Much Love!!

So, woke up the other morning, sat sleepily on the bed for a minute, noticed something above the door and gasped that big gasp that only means you’ve seen something you can’t believe. Biggest spider I’ve ever seen in my life. Ok, this is no big thing to Australians so everyone here thinks I’m ridiculous. But this spider was bigger than my hand - bigger than a tarantula. It was AMAZING.  Huge, thick, hairy body too enormous to smash even if I wanted to. I took some pictures and I’ll see if I can get them to post on here. So we stared at it for awhile (these guys are called “huntsmen” and they’re friendly) and then caught it in a container to take it outside. Apparently, this is the first of many of these beasts that we will see. I just know I’ll wake up some night to find one crawling across my face…..

6 Weeks! We’ve been here 6 weeks! And so many things are happening at home - Jeremy got a new job, Daniel is going to Africa, Eness is going to Africa, Aunt Cyndy looooves her team at work, Traci and Amy probably have big, cute bellies by now with their babies only a few months away, Maddie and Jane got older, Ethan is getting older soon, and so much more and then so many more things I don’t even know about! We think and talk about everyone all the time, wondering how things are going, how people are changing. In a few months we’ll get to see some people from the various states that we love and that will be AMAZING. Can’t wait!

That’s all for now. The important thing was the spider story and then, you know, in addition, we thought we should tell you that we’ve been thinking of everyone a lot and wish we could be part of everything going on. I’m losing patience for the whole phone and internet thing - will track some people down on that this weekend. Kick some aussie a– …just joking. That’s mean and innappropriate. I’ll just ask nicely.

 More soon!

I guess our days and schedule here are becoming more familiar (which feels strange to say) and we’re beginning to feel like there is less interesting news to post here…maybe I’ll make up a good story….hmmm…

We enjoyed a fun visit last weekend with lovely Amy Truscott (intern at Grace last summer from Brisbane) and she was as excited as we were to join Amy Christie’s infamous Oscar party for a few minutes. We called (and do not want to know what this cost from our mobile phones) and got to hear some familiar voices and then we were sooo sad! I think the new rule should be: no fun allowed until we get back. Ok?

Tuesday was one of a few “mental health days” the staff here takes each year. They all go out together, just to have fun for the day. We went lawn bowling (commonwealth sport) and to the beach. It was a beautiful day - I actually have a photo of me watching the waves that I’m supposed to send home to the Outreach team. John Gray said, “tell them this is your office.” I know, it’s mean….and funny. How’s the snow?

Preston has been showing his talent with teaching kids by taking on 3 “scripture” classes (the thing where we go into schools and teach kids for a bit - it’s like a short Sunday School). They loooove him and were fascinated to learn about tornadoes in Indiana. Preston ordered posters from Omsi for them!

I think we’re beginning to find our footing here. Always taking connections to home as a drug - can you believe: still no phone or internet at home!! I know some of you haven’t heard personally from us at all and I’m really sorry. Soon! Right now, I’m already feeling guilty for typing this at work.

Love, love, love to you, home. You are missed in so many ways.

I guess things have become pretty busy and this poor blog got neglected in the meantime. But we’re still here and it seems surreal that we are already beginning our fourth week. Almost a month!

Turns out quite a few people on staff or connected to the staff have birthdays near Valentines Day. So, we were invited along to enjoy various versions of celebrating including being introduced to the Sydney club scene. Preston is quite the dancer - as I’m sure you can imagine! The club we went to is located right on Darling Harbor which is beautiful at night. Thursday night we’ll celebrate my birthday by going into the city to see Damien Rice play.

Here’s a little story that will be meaningful to just a few people: I went one night to a womens thing at church, mostly for the purpose of meeting people. I was feeling a little homesick and sad that night and sat looking at all the unfamiliar faces thinking, “God…? Hello?” Then, right on cue, I heard on the mix being played as people came in, a song by the Weepies. The Weepies! I only know a few people that have heard of them and I LOVE them…and the words….they were just right. Later I asked who put the mix together and I was told it was a complete accident that the song had been included. Yay! I love accidents!

Preston has been writing and making connections and even has some meetings with people this week. He read me a poem he wrote in response to communion at church and I was reminded how crazy talented he is.  It’s amazing that he has this space to focus on this gift….I know he feels some pressure to produce a lot ot work and would appreciate your prayers.

The phone and internet are supposed to be in this week….I’m starting to doubt that will ever actually happen. Can’t wait to talk on the phone and catch up for real! I received some birthday calls at work last week and that was INCREDIBLE. Also a couple cards and gifts and…well, it’s just life-giving to hear from people. It seems I’m addicted to home. Thank you for thinking of and caring about us.

Lots of love! More soon!

Tomorrow will mark two weeks in Australia. Holy crappers.

The biggest news right now is this: Preston saw a koala! Isn’t that cool? In this area they’re not seen very often in the wild, but the other night preston heard something crawling around outside, went out and looked in time to see it crawl up the tree next to our porch! I was sleeping…. (Pity me.)

The days have stayed gorgeous - warm and sunny. I hear it’s pretty frigid there…so I have an idea: come visit us!! Yay! Good idea! Ok, see you soon.

Thank you for emails and comments. I promise to be better about replying when we have internet at home. We’ll also have Skype eventually which will mean free phone calls. We miss home so much for so many reasons…it’s really wonderful when we hear from you and we do want to be more personal than this blog allows, so thanks for your patience.

This weekend I’ll get to teach the lesson to all the kids - ages nothing to about 12. And then I’ll do a training session for all the leaders on Sunday afternoon. There is so much to learn about this job - I’m a little overwhelmed this week and plan to take some time to myself tomorrow.  You know, tend to the introvert inside. Preston has been tracking down writing leads - spent the day in the city today. I’ve got him scheduled to teach twice a week in the schools (they do a “scripture in the schools” thing in the state of NSW) but no worries, that’s only an hour a week.

Interesting facts about Australia: there is no tipping whatesoever in restaurants, food portions are refreshingly smaller than the states (no big, huge cups for pop or coffee…), everyone hates starbucks and loves good coffee, thongs are flip-flops, rubbers are erasers (those two can cause problems), and you only care about valentines day when you’re dating.

We’ve taken to bribing the horses to like us with sugar cubes.

Much love!

Oh yeah, no home phone or internet yet. Trying to get to the library for personal emails now and then. I can sometimes call home from a payphone with a calling card but not many opportunities for that. Soon…