EXCITING TIMES

Well, the moment finally came. We boarded our minibuses and headed to the Entertainment Centre in downtown Sydney. The countdown was on – in just a few hours we would be witnessing something the live album recording of the latest Hillsong CD!

I drove one of the buses and the crew were so excited that there were flashes going off, what with taking pictures of simply anything that moved, oh and a few of themselves too. And then there was the singing – just about every song from worship to Disney and back again!! There was no doubt, we were ready for action.

Once we were there some ran in straight away, hoping to get a place in the mosh-pit, while others queued respectfully to get a seat somewhere in the 20,000 seat arena which we had already heard was pretty packed. The fortunate ones got into the mosh-pit and the rest of us eventually got inside – the atmosphere was of great expectation.

The presentation began with Joel Houston, singing a song which, in his own words, didn’t have an ending. It was the best unfinished song I’d ever heard!! Then some of the more familiar singers took to the front of the stage to reveal other new songs. We appreciated the line up – Darlene, Reuben, Brooke and others. Absolutely awesome! I had a lot of favourites (if that’s possible) but the song that has stuck in my head is the one where the chorus begins ‘No weeping, no tears or pain’ GREAT JOB GUYS – can’t wait for the CD.

Then came Monday: our Pizza Night at the Colosseum – the fundraising event for our mission trip to Hong Kong. It was with great anticipation that we went. All the preparation had been done, all the prayers had been prayed - all it needed now was for us to be there and for a huge crowd to come. Well, God didn’t let us down. Soon after things were set up, (we had Alyssa singing and Prue playing the violin), the phone didn’t stop ringing. There were heaps of orders and then the steady stream of people coming to pick them up.

At one point I wondered if the whole evening was going to be like this, with no-one eating in, but then things turned!! Our waitresses were put to the test as all the tables were filled and the crowd was ready for something more than just a pizza – and they weren’t disappointed! We began our auction of all the donated goods from the local shops. The response was truly amazing – people were bidding for all kinds of things and just loving the whole atmosphere.

At the end of the night we cleared $1345 which included the 20% from all sales along with the auction proceeds and some donations. How great is our God!!

That’s the exciting news for this week - now we’re looking forward to lots of fun over the weekend. Next week I’ll give my last blog update for a little while as I’ll be gone for two trip to Hong Kong.

HAVE A GREAT WEEK!

Steve / Woodsey