Well I’d say that things are finally looking up a bit for me down here. I think I’ve maybe finally found a student group here on campus that I feel really comfortable with, and where I feel like there’s real potential for some friendships to develop, which would be an answer to prayer for me. But more on that later. ๐
Back on Sunday morning I went to church at Hope Church Melbourne – Waverley Center, in nearby Glen Waverley. It’s a much smaller church (150-200 people) than the church I attended on Saturday night, and I’d say I liked Hope more than WCF. Hope Church was still a bit charismatic, but not quite as much as Waverley Christian Fellowship was, and there seemed to be more of an emphasis on the Bible at Hope, which is good. They also have a potluck lunch after the service every Sunday, but I couldn’t stick around for it this time, because I had to go to Lucky Chan’s Seafood Restaurant in Melbourne for some “yum cha” with a few of the other kids who came to Monash through IFSA-Butler, along with Jodee, our IFSA coordinator here in Melbourne. 
It was some excellent food, and also quite a bit of “firsts” for me, including chicken feet (pictured), cheese oysters, bok choi and mango jello (only it’s called jelly down here). Jodee & I liked the chicken feet, but Meghan, Sharon & Krista were all a bit weirded out by the texture, which was basically like kinda fatty skin, only with lots of bones right below the skin. It was in a good sauce though, trust me. It was a good chance to catch up with the Butler people, as I don’t see much of them now that classes have started and they’ve been making their own friends and stuff. Oh, and in case you’re wondering what “yum cha” is, here’s an explanation. Yum cha is essentially a Chinese restaurant, where the waiters wheel around various dishes on different carts, and you just take what you want when they go by. Basically, it’s a buffet, only it’s brought to your table. Pretty cool if you ask me. Yum cha is pretty popular in Melbourne, and Lucky Chan’s, I’m told, has the best yum cha in town, so Jodee took us to the right place. ๐
Monday was a fairly ordinary day. Went to class. Went to the Matheson Library with the intention of reading a bit, but wound up dozing off for most of the time (I should’ve known not to pick a soft cushy chair!). Went to another class. Came back to my room, read a bunch of articles online, and a couple of the daily newspapers up in the common room. Watched “Gladiator” on my computer. Yeah, fairly ordinary day, not too much excitement. Although I did get a letter from home, with a card signed by my parents, brothers and their families, and my Grandma. Thanks everyone! If any of the rest of you feel like sending me some mail, go right ahead. ๐
I finally got to sleep in this morning! I’m gonna like this no-class-on-Tuesdays thing, I can tell. ๐ But in the course of chatting with Mike a bit online (and then on the phone), I found out that his mom will be having an urgent and risky 12-hour surgery on a valve in her heart on Wednesday at North Memorial in the Twin Cities. So please keep Sue in your prayers. And Mike’s gonna be having some surgery of his own on Thursday, to repair damage to his nose from when it was broken in a basketball game a year and a half ago (only the idiot doctors he was originally seeing for the longest time said that nothing was wrong). But this surgery should rid him of the asthma and allergies that he’s had since then, along with giving him his full sense of taste back, which will be good. So keep Mike in your prayers too. Basically, pray for the whole Mathison family, as they go through these next couple weeks in particular, with preparing for, undergoing, and recovering from, surgeries.
At 1pm today I went to a Christian Bible Talks, a weekly Bible study put on by a group here on campus called Christian Union, which also has branches on several other university campuses throughout Melbourne and Victoria. It was a good talk, they were continuing a study of Philippians which they’d started last week. After that a few of us went down to The Den (a cafe beneath the Matheson Library) and hung out for bit, which enabled me to get a chance to know a few of them. And then at 5 the students in CU came back together and broke into small groups for more study of the same passage that was talked about in CBT earlier in the day. And after that there was another small-group session, called “Two ways to live,” the goal of which is basically to equip us to be able to present the gospel message effectively. And then we all had supper together after that, which was nice. I was impressed by Christian Union (people, message, doctrine, etc), and felt more at home in that group than I have in any other so far here at Monash. And I actually started to make a couple friends too, yay! They also have a church service/Bible study on Sunday nights for those of us who live in the Halls here on campus. I’m looking forward to being involved in CU while I’m down here, and getting to know those people better. So that’s basically why I say things might finally be looking up for me here. ๐
Oh, and I almost forgot, there were some links that I wanted to pass along from articles that I’ve read in the past few days, partly to give all of you back in America a sense for what’s going on down here. Down here in Australia there’s lots of talk right now about Michael Moore’s propaganda film Fahrenheit 9/11 (I refuse to call it a documentary, because it’s not), and people’s reactions towards the film seem to be split, much like they are back in America. To get a vibe for what the Australian media thinks about it, check out these articles from the Sydney Morning Herald and Melbourne’s The Age. Also check out these articles about the movie from the Washington Post, and be sure to read Christopher Hitchens’ marvelous column on Slate. That one is definitely a must-read. I have an entire folder of bookmarks labeled “Michael Moore’s Lies” in case anyone wants more on the subject. ๐ Switching topics, I don’t know if it’s a big story back in the States or not, but a story that’s getting a lot of attention down here is the genocide that’s going on right now in The Sudan. There’s criticism down here of the US being hesitant about getting involved, especially after the humanitarian case that was made for the war in Iraq, but there seems to be even more criticism about how the United Nations appears content to let another Rwanda-style genocide happen while it does nothing. It’s just further evidence of how the UN is a broken and completely impotent organization. And I don’t know if this has made the news back in the States or not, but yesterday an Islamic terrorist group made threats against Australia about strings of car bombings and “pools of blood” in the streets. Foreign Minister Alexander Downer responded to these threats yesterday, and rightfully chastised the Spanish and Philippine governments for caving to these terrorists, which did nothing but embolden them to take more hostages and murder more people. Well, that’s naturally created a big brouhaha, with those short-sighted and cowardly governments condemning Australia’s remarks and protests going on and all that. So that’s kind of a big deal down here right now. And switching topics yet again, the notion that John Kerry is a Red Sox fan is a complete farce. When asked for his favorite Red Sox player, he named a guy that’s never played for Boston! That, and before he threw out the first pitch at the Red Sox-Yankees game at Fenway on Sunday night (at which the cheers were at least equaled by boos), he even had to be briefed by his staff on the names of the current players, who the manager was, where they were in the standings, and yet he claims to be an avid Red Sox fan! Kerry is a total and complete phony.