Brisbane is the third largest city in Australia with a population of 2.5 million, and the starting point for our ten days in Australia. It’s on the eastern side of this continent, 455 miles from Sydney, on the big u-turn bend of the Brisbane river, and eight miles from the the ocean – the Coral Sea. We arrived here early Saturday morning, after 24 hours of airports and airplanes and met up with our good friends from California, Mike and Joanie, at the hotel, as they got here the day before us.
One of our pleasures in life is riding a Segway in a new big city. It is a fun way of learning the streets, landmarks, and the city’s interesting history. That same Saturday afternoon, we walked a mile, crossed the big river, and ambled past the famous (Ferris) ‘Wheel of Brisbane’ to the place where ‘Kangaroo Segway of Brisbane’ keeps their Segways. For 90 minutes we rolled/drove/wheeled along the picturesque Brisbane River, most of it on a super-wide walking/biking path.
On Sunday we attended the 9 am worship at the downtown campus of Hillsong. The music, people, and pastor all lifted our spirits. It was the last Sunday of the year, and decade, so the theme was about time and place: “Don’t lose hope, 2020 doesn’t have to be defined by 2019” and about the importance of being ready when you are in the “right place at the right time”. Because they didn’t have a drummer today, the music featured a video link to the central Sydney campus so the band here played along with the band there. Amazing technology and great-sounding speaker arrays in this old movie theater that was redesigned to become a place of worship. We sat up close, in the second row.
After the service had concluded we left the theater and fifteen steps down the sidewalk, a guy tapped Ted’s shoulder – it was the pastor who gave the message! He simply wanted to thank Ted for being such an ‘encourager’ to him (with his smile and attention) as he spoke, and asked us about our visit to Brisbane.
Sunday afternoon we enjoyed a boat ride on the river, a relaxing swim in the hotel rooftop pool, and a nice dinner. On Monday we begin our four-day train trip from Brisbane to Adelaide.
