This was a trip my wife and I looked forward to. April 2016 would mark about six months since my son Matt, his wife Juyoung, and our granddaughter Chloe headed Down Under because of work. Of course they had looked forward to it and were excited. We weren’t for we knew we would miss Chloe. She stole everyone’s hearts.
It has been a long time since we were last in the eastern coast of Australia. The last time we were there, our children were primary school age. We went to Brisbane, the Gold Coast and its theme parks, and we visited Sydney and the Evangelical Sisterhood of Mary in Camden. So it was good to make a visit to those parts again.
We enjoyed our time thoroughly. We stayed with family and it was good to catch up with them and play and read with Chloe. They brought us around Toowomba and the Mooloolaba Beach and Brisbane. I returned with fresh impressions:
- Australia is a big and beautiful country.
- Chloe grew up fast: taller, smarter, more agile, able to converse intelligently with her mother in Korean, but less so in English.
- Small churches in small towns struggle. Although I made a decision not to preach outside of my church in 2016 I felt I had to accept an invitation from a small Korean church that my son’s family attends. He gets relieved from preaching for one Sunday.
- I met a few skilled workers (mechanics, photographers, etc) who were trying to obtain or who had already obtained permanent residency. It was never an easy process.
- The rate was reasonable but staying in an apartment under Airbnb felt awkward as the owners’ clothes were hanging in the wardrobes, the bicycles and golf clubs, the magazines and books, the food in the refrigerator and their family photographs on the wall. Here is a slideshow of our trip: