Little things that bless

I just got back from Hillsong Conference 2006 in Sydney….and had been telling like everyone how amazing it was. Attending the conference was one great thing on its own…I think I learned lots of stuff in a short 5 days….like too many stuff maybe? After the 3rd day, I did feel like my brain couldn’t take it anymore haha…but it was cool anyways. It was an almost unreal experience to be in a stadium with 30000+ people from all nations, all united in heart worshipping our Great God…like a tiny glimpse of heaven maybe? But yea we learned lots of practical and spiritual stuff on worship and basic Christian living….and saw people surrendering their lives for the first time….isn’t that what it’s all about? Souls? I actually realise the criticisms Hillsong gets out of organising these conferences and many othersthings they do after going there…I guess it exists in every mega church…but for me…what matters is that the objective that people get the opportunity to know Christ and to receive Him, to be able to worship Him in spirit and in truth…to see lives changed, communities changed…that’s like fundamental…

Anyways, what most amazes me while planning for this trip right to the end is how God shows Himself through people, their servant hearts and generosity just amazes me. Yea can I say I still can’t believe it? 😛

Firstly, even before going there, we were checking out where we were gonna stay and all. We thought we won’t manage to get billeting which is like staying with a host family there, coz we didn’t apply for it earlier. Well, my pastor helped out by asking someone he knew there to check out if we could put up with her….she couldn’t but offered to pay 50% for our 5 days accomodation. We gladly receive the offer of course haha, coz we didn’t have much, like just enough. I finally get to meet up with Su Lin just before one of the rallies started, and felt really bad that we didn’t prepare something to appreciate her kind generosity with! My bad! But yea, your reward awaits you in heaven Su Lin….such a kind soul!

Then amazingly God provides for our other accommodation as well, coz we were gonna go earlier and stay for another weekend, which is not covered in billeting. Adeline has a friend who has a friend studying there, and she gladly took us in to her apartment. Thanks to Jac for her amazing kindness and hospitality….she lets us eat her Indomie and clean up all the food in her kitchen…and yea she even cooked rice for us once…and once again…my bad…we didn’t manage to appreciate her with anything before we all parted at the airport.

Then there were all the little things people at Hillsong church do that make us go wow….

Even as we arrived at the Airport, we were amazed to find Carol waiting for us holding up our names…Carol is like the person in charge of billeting for the conference, and my, she must be pretty busy. Yet, she was there waiting for us two silly girls, simply coz we flew in earlier than she expected so she couldn’t get the info of who our host was to us before…Carol bought us her favourice English breakfast tea while we waited for Adeline’s friends from Spore who were coming in from Melbourne. They were suppsed to take us to the place we were staying for the weekend. Carol just sat and waited with us…and then even offered to fetch our friends from the Domestic airport where they were and brought us all to the Central train station. What amazing kindness she showed…never got to see her again after that tho…

The first night we arrived…we immediately went to Hillsong at the hills worship centre for the Powerhouse youth service. Jac drove us to her uni…Macquarie Uni and we boarded the shuttle bus to go the the place…pretty far away…it is in the hills rite.

Had an ‘eye opening’ time there. Maybe some culture shock? Yea…youths are wild…they call them Wildlife really.

Then on Sunday…we went to the evening service in the hills again…Jac drove there…and we arrived on the dot…so the service started and the hall was packed! So packed we couldn’t find a place to sit. We had to separate from our group….and Adeline and I just found a place to stand on the very top of the hall…then a man decided to help us poor souls by grabbing chairs from the hospitality room for us. We initially thought he was an usher or something…but no, he was just kind enough to help out…yea…

Of course, the day before we also went to the Fish Market. We had a huge platter of seafood consisting of oysters, calamari rings, octopus, prawns, what else?

Then just did some walking around and shopping at Paddy’s Market and Market City…the day seemed just about to start for us but everything was closing already. Malaysians are all night owls? We wake up at nights only… 😛

Conference starts the next day…we were so excited. We weren’t sure how to get to Olympic Park though…but just boarded the train anyways…while boarding the train from Circular Quay to Lidcombe…we met this Filipino lady, Joy. Beautiful lady who was also going to the conference….she kinda showed us how to get there coz she was there already the day before.

And while walking towards the Acer, I met another Filipino lady, introduced her to Joy, and the two just hit it off in Tagalog…we were walking like mad and just lost them in the crowd. In fact, I lost Adeline a few times…it was pretty scary. The crowd is maddening…Amazingly, amidst 30k over people, we manage to meet up with Joy again the next day at conference and actually manage to take some pics together…but once again, we forgot to exchange contacts and lost her again…never saw her again after that… :O

We did lots of standing in lines, trying to get our tickets, lotsa waiting but it was all great. Monday was probably the most tiring day…that night we met up with our host Margaret as well. Margaret is this sweet sweet lady. She insisted we don’t bring our luggages to Monday rally, but leave it at home. After the rally, she fetched us back to West Ryde, Jac’s place to pick up our luggage before going to her house. I was starving by the time we got to her place…we didn’t have anything to eat since morning…but dear Margaret cooked up steaming hot rice and beef curry for us. We even had papadam! Margaret lives with her little dog Mia…the entertainment of the house basically. We had a great time staying with Margaret despite only for 4 days…

She bought breakfast, lunch and dinner for us everyday, and brought us to conference and back…making her take double trips. I thought it was amazing how sacrificially she gives…

We get to do some sightseeing in Sydney as well, the beautiful harbour…the opera house…yea lotsa fun things to do but couldn’t do it all…

Check out more pics in the gallery. If u wanna purchase sessions of the Hillsong Conference go here or even read about the sessions…get them here.

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