Update

Ok the Uganda trip in September is now cancelled, which gives us more time to get things sorted here at home. We've been asked instead to go to India on a trip in November. So this will be exciting, it will be working with minor girls rescued from prostitution off the streets on Bombay & Pune. These girls will be from 10-16 years old and are either forced into prostitution or sold as sex slaves. The idea will be to bring these girls truth, love and joy. We're excited about it but just hope that the trip will go ahead. We will be meeting with the couple who organizes these trips next week to see what our role will look like in future trips.

We are also in the process of getting settled back in at home here trying to get cars sorted out (ncts, tax, ins etc) and other stuff to get us back on track. We will head to Cork from the 10th-20th of September to meet with various youth leaders and church leaders about future work with them and training. We have also been talking to Om about our role in teenstreet Ireland next Feb and teenstreet Germany next July. So there's lots of little things to organize. One of the other things we have to sort out is our support so please pray that God will continue to provide. He is amazing and we have been getting so many encouraging verses since we've come back. To name but a few we have gotten Proverbs 3:5-6 and yest we got Isaiah 41:13 - For I am the Lord, your God, who takes hold of your right hand, and says to you. Do not fear. I will help you. We got this in a text yesterday. So praise God he has already gone ahead of us and we know he will provide but we still want to get covered in prayer. Thanks for all the support so far.

Total miles & hours

Ok some people have been asking what our total flight times, miles and distance we flew while we traveled around. Last one we posted was back in Cairns. So here it is, again bear in mind that this only includes the flights and not driving or walking anywhere.

Miles flown ~ 32,522
Hours on planes ~ 72hrs 40mins
Hours on transport to & from airport ~ 15hrs 45mins
Hours in airports ~ 49hrs 30mins
Amount of destinations visited ~ 20

Wow when you look at it like that, what a trip!!

Back to Reality.

Well were unpacked with the third load of washing done and Linda's folks have headed back to Cork. The reality of being back is hard as we have floated through the last three months, living in a different world and now we have bills and lots of organising to do. We could do with prayer as we seek the Lord for clear direction with what to do next.

We have a couple of options on the table but we only want to follow His will, so please pray for us that we can discern this and that we can settle back into things which is really hard. Jet lag is also trying to wreck our sleep patterns, so a sleeping tablet had to be taken at 2.30am last night. We have decided to take a few days to recover and get all the bills and stuff organised.Looking forward to seeing everyone in due course so for now take care and God bless.

Back on green grass

Well we've done it. Travelled the world and now are sitting up to our necks in clothes and souvenirs. Oh joys of coming home. Will post up some pics of California to show ye soon. Look forward to catching up face to face with people. Hoep your all well. WE"RE BACK!!!!!!!!

Ventura

Hey everyone, very quick post here to say we fly tomorrow (22nd) and arrive back on thursday at 3.40pm. Having a fantastic ime here in Ventura. Have met some fantastic people who have put us up in a RV right on the beach. We sat out today having our lunch and saw two dolphins swim by us. Yesterday we went down to La went to hollywood boulevard, santa monica, venice beach, rodeo drive just to name a few. Just to say having so much here. Really looking forward to seeing everyone and catching up. It's been a mad summer. Luv ya lots. Xo

Viva Las Vegas

Funny as we hear this song as we're in Las Vegas how it actually really works. What can we say hotels everywhere, burning heat, blue skies, thunder and lightning, people everywhere, shows all over the place, food courts, restaurants, lights, lights and more lights, slot machines, poker, roulette you name it it's here. What a place. Oh and how can I forget to mention the wedding chapels. OH my goodness we drove past one that said "say I do in the drive thru" tacky yes that is one word I would use for certain parts of Las Vegas but not all. We were quite surprised as to how cool this place is. There is so much to see and so much to do that we feel we only scratched the surface of it. But at the same time there's only so much you can take of the slot machine noises as you walk to get out of your hotel or walk through any other hotel to see it.

We are staying on the main strip and are in the perfect spot but are just not paying through the face for it. We have walked so much and our legs are in bits. We have gone to most of the main hotels to see them and to run in from the 45oC burning desert sun : ) We are in our last night even though I am typing this at 2am. We leave tomorrow for La and then head to Ventura. Plase pray we get our bags, we have them in storage and they are to meet us tomorrow at the airport, we're just praying they will be there when we arrive. Then we head to get a car and drive to Ventura. Only 5days left and our big trip is over and we're home. Really looking forward to not packing a bag for a while. Can't wait to see everybody but as we count the days down we also count down the uncertainty of our future. Looking forward to meetings and plans with God's direction. Ok going to head to bed now but will try to update when we're in Ventura if we can get internet. Bye for now. Xo

San Francisco

Hey, thought La was dodgy and I was right. I just went over to Mac Donald's right across the street from our hotel and had coins thrown at me by four homies sitting in their Lincoln suv. When i went to check where the local 7/11 was they followed me and i had to leg it into a shop or cover, bit sketchy. In San Francisco now, it is a cool city. So far we have gone out on a harbour cruise under the Golden Gate and out around Alcatraz, we have watched around 100 sea lions which bask and fight in the sunshine by pier 39 and today we went to see Postcard row, which is the row of houses you see in a lot of movies, Pursuit of happiness as example. We are staying in chinatown which is cool, lots of signs and smells. One unmistakable thing is the truly unnatural amount of homeless people on the streets. It is absolutely heart breaking. In certain parts we are outnumbered 10-2 as we walk around and night time is definately not safe. We go to Las Vegas tomorrow morning really early at 4.45am not looking forward to time but we are looking forward to seeing somewhere else. We've gotten used to moving around a lot now so it doesn't take too much out of us anymore and hey we're going to Vegas. Will be in touch again soon.

Phew!!

Ok it's 2am here and we're just getting settled down now. We have sorted out the bags. Had to pay $100 but hey at least 2 bags will be safe for the next 6days, until we get back from San Fran and Las Vegas. We just uploaded loads of pics of hawaii so hope you enjoy them and don't get too down. Sorry the weather isn't great at home, we really don;t want to upset people or get ye cheesed off with our pics but just want to share what we're doing. Can't wait to see ye all. Luv ya lots, Alex & Linda Xo

Landed in LAX

After a very long day we have finally arrived at LAX. We have just checked into our hotel and are having hassle with storing bags. It's amazing how you arrange something over email and think your set then you get to the hotel and everything has changed. All arrangments were non existent and despite showing then an email the guy who sent it now happens to be on a vacation for a month. Anyhow trying to sort out how to store bags here for a few days before we fly out tomorrow morning to San Francisco very early tomorrow. Anyhow just wanted to let you know that we arrived safe and sound to La and at this stage are tired and looking forward to getting back home. Please pray for us at this time as we're getting tired and cranky as things start to go all pear shaped. Hope your all well.

Hello

Hey put up some pics for you to check out. Had a great day today just because we really feel like we have some great ideas about the future. It’s funny as it’s almost like we’ve been put on detox and relaxation and recharge over the last couple of months. No matter how much we tried to think and talk about the future it was just going nowhere. We both agreed that we felt we weren’t to work it out but just enjoy the blessing of being OFF and getting back in tune with the world and ourselves. It has been so good and we feel really refocused and recharged. So it was really cool to sit under the Hawaiian sun and have all these thoughts come flooding in and for things to become a little clearer, which is great. So we’ll have plenty to talk about when we get home. Ok gotta go for now but enjoy the pics. We’re still in Waikiki and are moving up to the North shore on Thursday till Sat when we fly into La. We’ll keep you updated. Oh and we hope to go to Pearl harbor tomorrow.

Aloha

Hey what can we say.... we made it, thank goodness for the sleeping tablets and we are definatly in a tropical paradise. We know you must be getting sick of hearing all of this from us for the last couple of months but what a place. It's really hard to believe we're standing on Waikiki beach watching a sunset. Really been blessed with this AMAZING journey, and what a journey it's been. God has shown us so much about the world around us and the people everywhere. Myself and Alex were only talking the other day (yes we're still talking hehe) and I was saying how I had been so excited just to travel to all these places and had no idea of what would be in store. Seeing so much brokeness and emptiness everywhere. Seeing that people were searching for something meaningful all over the world. It has been such a different experience, one for which I am truly grateful for. To see how big and yet small the world is. How God's heart breaks for so many of us. How easily I can lose my focus and how lost the world is. Everyone wants the same thing, to be loved, accepted and make a difference. It has been such an eye opening trip. He has spoken to us so much on who he is, what people look like and what we can look like ourselves. The book by Frost and Hirsch "Shaping of things to come" is ideal for this trip and what we're seeing. Other books we're reading is "Girl soldier" , a story on the life of a girl from Uganda who was kidnapped and made into a child soldier. It's a hard book but amazing of God's hand over her life and how she was rescued from all that. Also Alex is reading a book called "Dead Lucky" kinda apropiate considering. about a guy who climbed Mount Everest and died only to come down the next day.He is captured by it. Why am I telling you this??? No idea just thought I'd share our thoughts with you on the blog. Hehe well hope this finds you all well. Can't wait to see everyone again. 3wks to go. Xo

Ps Please excuse waffling and spelling mistakes it's been over 24hrs traveling. We don't know what time or day it is despite our sleep on the plane.

Back in Sydney

Just to let you know we're back in sydney stuck in transit. Feel a bit like Tom hanks in the terminal as we're looking at the fab sklyine and sun and are stuck indoors. But oh well we're on our way to Hawaii so unlike Tom we get to leave in 2 1/2hrs. Just letting you know we're safe and sound and are making our way round the world again. Have to say we're sick of planes and airports but it's worth it when you get to your final destination for the next part of the adventure. For now goodbye and we'll post again later when we get to the tropical island : ) Talk soon. Linda & Alex

Taupo & Rotorua

We love the North Island. Yesterday we went to a place called Craters of the Moon, a simple but nice start to the thermal areas that you find in this region. Lots of steam rising from the ground and a small mud pool. Little did we know what lay in store for us as we went to Huka Falls and then the largest thermal areas in New Zealand.

Huka Falls is this cascading torrent of steel blue water forced through a narrow rock pass from a large lake above. The result is a spectacular and terrifying spectacle as we witnessed 200,000 litres of water flow over the falls every second. I know that it rains on the just and the unjust but God really answered our prayers as the heavy rain broke for us each time we ventured from the car.

Finally for yesterday we took a boat across a river to Orakei Korako a thermal valley also known as the hidden valley and as a result almost free from tourists. There we saw some incredible lava flows, silicia terraces, mud pools, geysers, craters and lots of steam. It really was very cool and we thoroughly enjoyed it.

Today we traveled early to Rotorua the capital of thermal areas in New Zealand and went to Waiotapu Thermal Wonderland. There we say truly incredible rock formations, more lava flows and a champagne lake, which is 60m wide and 60m deep. It contains arsenic, sulphur and iron compounds. It bubbles with carbon dioxide at about 74oC, dangerous but beautiful. The mud pools we saw today were so active and one or two drops were close to hitting us on occasion.

The geyser behind our accommodation erupts every day around 20 times and shoots 30-40 feet in the air. In our accommodation the whole building shakes every time the thermal air moves underground, a bit disturbing really. Tomorrow we travel to Auckland for our final 2 days in New Zealand, it’s been great but too short, will have to come back we recon. That’s all the news for now talk soon.

P.S Hawaii here we come.