Disneyland Day 1 - by Luke

Here’s the lowdown from my (Luke Willo) perspective of our first day there...

• Got to Disneyland at 9:00am

• Was really cold

• As we walked in everything- the shops, the attractions, even the castle were done up with Christmas decos

• Star Tours was the first ride we went on, and it was brilliant! There’s nothing like being attacked by Darth Vader and Stormtroopers, finding out dad is a rebel spy, jumping into lightspeed, podracing through Tatooine, fighting above Corusant, receiving a distress signal from Princess Leia and then crash landing, all in 4-D!

• Dad, Max, Ethan and I rode Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Forbidden Eye, complete with fire, snakes, spears, loud noise, people screaming and of course, the boulder. It was great!

• We then joined Aidan and Mum and we all rode Roger Rabbits Cartoon Spin, and the Alice in Wonderland ride. I’m sure that Mum and Aidan enjoyed them a lot.

• It’s a Small World had a massive line. It also had a massively annoying theme song which alternated between “It’s a Small World” and “Jingle Bells”. The actual ride besides the music was pretty good though.

• The Jungle Cruise (renamed Jingle Cruise for Christmas) was fantastic, with a hilarious host/driver/comedian, animatronic wildlife that looked real, and a really inventive queuing area which had us guessing where it would take us next in the 40min we waited there!

• Did I mention it was cold?

• We then sailed the seas on Pirates of the Caribbean, which definitely lived up to it’s great reputation. We learnt that pirates like to shoot stuff, sing “A pirate’s life for me”, and say, “dead men tell no tales” repeatedly in a spooky voice. Sign me up!

• We went to go on the Haunted Mansion but we didn’t because the line was massive, it was cold, and instead we ate churos, which is like donut batter made into a stick. (yum!)

• We went over to Splash Mountain, which was empty because of the near freezing temperatures. Undeterred, Max, Ethan, Aidan and I all rode on it. Me and Aidan made the fateful decision to sit at the very front... and got soaked. Being completely wet didn’t help the temperature, which was steadily lowering.

• Max, Ethan and Aidan all decided to ride Splash Mountain again, and ended up getting rescued off it by Disney attendants when the ride broke down when they were halfway through and stranded in the middle of a whole lot of singing, dancing, animatronic animals.

• We rode the Winnie the Pooh ride, which was brilliant because it was dry and warm. The actual ride itself however, was so so.

• Max, Ethan and I went over to Space Mountain, which provoked the thought, “how on earth is a mountain in space?” Anyway, the ride was not as slick or as extreme as it’s cousin in Orlando, but it provided a thrill nevertheless. (Rocketing around in the dark usually does.)

• Night had fallen, and we watched a Christmas Parade. In typical Disney spirit, it had fantastic choreography, a REALLY annoying soundtrack which repeated over and over again and the message, “Dreams come true”. I dreamt that we would stop dying of frostbite, but it didn’t happen.

• We went searching for food for dinner and a warm place to stay, and a Mexican restaurant that served big burritos fit the bill pretty well.

• After dinner we all went and rode the Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Shoot ‘em Up ride, which was terrific! I didn’t really get the storyline behind it, but we all had heaps of fun blasting Zurg and his evil minions a lot with lasers! (Who doesn’t?)

• We went back out to watch the fireworks over the castle, but they had been cancelled due to “unfavourable weather”. Probably too cold.

• Mum and Dad looked in shops while Max, Ethan, Aidan and I all rode Star Tours again. This time, we fought with TIE fighters, jumped to lightspeed, had a wookie jump on our ship on Kashykk, fought in space above Naboo, crash landed in water and went to Ota Gunga, had a giant fish try to eat us and ended up crash landing in a hanger with the back of a Naboo starfighter smashing through the windscreen and almost skewering our heads. It was AMAZING!

• Overall, our first day at Disneyland was brilliant, leaving us with great memories to treasure and numbness in our limbs from the cold!

Montezooma’s Revenge - by Max

Today we went to Knott’s Berry farm the first theme park in America. We had a great day going on rides, enjoying the foods and having fun. One ride that was really good that stood out to me was Monetzooma’s Revenge. The ride was one of the earliest at the park and still is one of the best.

The ride starts at the loading station and then, once all riders are seated and very tightly strapped in, the coaster accelerates to 90 km in the first 3 seconds. The launch mechanism is based on those used in aircraft carriers. After hitting 90 km the roller coaster goes around a loop the loop and then zooms up a 148 foot tall tower. Once at the top the roller coaster stops rolling forwards and starts going backwards, rocketing down the tower backwards. Then the coaster does the loop the loop again still going backwards and it shoots through the station at a steady 90 km. Then the roller coaster flies up a second tower still going backwards. After the coaster reaches the top of the second 148 foot tall tower the coaster rolls back down again back into the station where it started. To stop the roller coaster 66 brakes are used.

Blind with Joy

They call them the blind – but they could see Jesus more clearly than most – certainly more clearly than I could after a traffic snarled journey to see them. The place to learn godly patience is definitely on an L.A. freeway when 10 lanes of traffic are stationary! However the place to learn godly joy is at the feet of old blind men who sing about Jesus!

The place was the Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown L.A. The event was The Blind Boys of Alabama Christmas Concert. We expected the play list to be full of the usual selection of Christmas music we’d normally here in a secular nation in a concert; and have heard non-stop coming from Disney. But no! These men loved Jesus. And Christmas songs for them meant singing about Jesus coming in the same way they always did – with gusto, with evangelistic fervour and with sincerity to glorify our saviour with every breath.

The concert lived up to everything we’d hoped and more. Yes they really are blind and yes they really are a bunch of old men, but man can they sing and entertain! Beautiful harmonies, astounding vocal range, soaring notes and striking melodies kept us all on the edge of our seats. For a group of very old men they were interactive, funny, and moving, they had us on our feet, they had us clapping, they had us laughing and close to weeping. They are indeed blind to the architectural magnificence of the Concert Hall architecture, but like when Jesus opened the eyes of the blind man in John 9, they had no trouble seeing Him and staking their joy on the salvation he brings to all who stake their hope in his saving love.

If at 90 I can express my shameless delight in and devotion to the glory of Christ, at 1/100th of the level these men manage, I will have served my master well. It is old men, the Blind Boys of Alabama who are leading the way.

MEEEGGGAAA CHUUURRRCCCHHH

Church at 1pm in the afternoon! Who could pull that off? Saddleback could.

When I thought mega church I thought a big building, a big band, big crowds and a big attitude. I was mostly right, however their brand of mega goes much-much further. For those like us who had never even looked them up on the internet (www.saddleback.com) we visited the main campus at Lake Forest. When they say campus they mean campus. Three sets of traffic lights lead into the site, threaded through with dual-lane roads and there are at least a dozen separate buildings all with their own parking areas and courtesy trams from the parking to the various buildings. It took us 5 mins from moment of entry to the site till we were finally out of our car near the main “Worship Centre”. This building seated 3800 and the screens were two of the biggest I have ever seen. There was overflow seating all over this campus, the city (and the world actually) where it was streamed live – in fact shut-ins could also tune in live via cable TV.

It was polished, it was lively, it was visually spectacular, and it was brief – in and out in 1 hour 5 mins. Thankfully the preaching took up 40mins, was engaging, faithful to the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, God honouring and potentially life changing. In fact there were a number of baptisms directly after the service in the specially built baptism pool just outside the auditorium. A guest preacher on this day, focussing on Peace at Christmas, it was an excellent thematic type sermon ranging over the New Testament whilst unpacking none of it. What it lacked in biblical exposition it made up for in theological reflection, pastoral sensitivity and evangelistic fervour.

Being a mid-day service there were just 500 in attendance which meant we couldn’t hear anyone singing over the band, but it didn’t seem to dampen the mood. They all seemed to be very conscious of the communion of saints due to the simultaneous video links to other sites. Unfortunately we also missed the kids and youth programmes as we had no idea how to access them and didn’t allow enough time in arrival to work that out. The visual and audio wow factor within the service was enough to keep us all interested wondering what would happen next. Their focus directly after the service on all kinds of excellent options in how to put our faith into action was exciting – kind of like a forecourt expo of possibilities. They have systems upon systems upon systems that ensure every opportunity is taken to engage believers in Christian growth and earthly action and to lead unbelievers to take Jesus seriously.

What did we miss? Declaring our faith together as a moment of expressing our common identity; Engagement with one another in the congregation – rather than just experiencing what others did up-front; reading the Bible together or hearing it read; Prayer – the Lord’s Prayer, pastoral prayer, gospel outreach prayer, world-wide focussed prayer, reckoning with our sin in confession and hearing we are forgiven; and Singing: audibly singing together – rather than just appreciating what they sang to us.

What did we gain? Fellowship with the saints, an appreciation for how others do church, a delight in the expectancy of an immediate gospel change in people’s lives, a thrill that God encourages the saints on a large scale as much as he encourages on a small scale, a reminder that large buildings don’t need to be dark ... high ceilings, and lots of large windows make for an excellent space to meet.

And while we really missed being with the saints of Shellharbour City it was terrific to be on the other side of the world and find a Christian church who welcomed us and preached the same unchanging gospel that salvation can be found in Christ Alone.

Toyoshiba, Toyoshiba, Toyoshiba – Oi, Oi, Oi!

Is it a car, is it a plane, is it a brand of hot sauce? No it’s Joey, Minda, Briar-rose, Brienne and Baylee – family Toyoshiba. As part of the extended Parish Family (Minda being Chuck and Connie’s daughter), to generosity and flexibility they add fun, adventure and a lot of talking!

We spent a wonderful day with them at Knotts Berry Farm, where Joey is in charge of all the rides at the Park. In fact Joey and Minda met there and were married there ... Knotts Berry Farm is in their blood. Who better to be our tour guides and ride coordinators than the family who lives and breathes that park.

Briar-Rose knew the shops, shows and side attractions inside-out. Brienne the dare devil was an excellent ride companion for Luke, Max & Ethan. Baylee looked after fun with Aidan in all the best ways possible. Minda made sure everything was just right with terrific highlights – like meeting author Jeff Tucker author of “The Sixth Key”. Joey made the whole thing possible and smoothed the way for a perfect day. (A Knotts Berry Farm blog post from one of our boys is on the way)

The next day we all went together to Ontario Mills Shopping Mall and then had dinner altogether back at Connie and Chuck’s. Their patience with us and genuine friendship was constantly on-show as we shopped and went to the movies and experienced some of that astounding place. Dinner was a hoot, the food was excellent, and their advice and willingness to help was always wonderful.

We can’t wait to return the favour when they come down-under in 2014.

Our Californian Parrish

Not our sister church in the USA, but our wonderful friends Chuck & Connie Parrish. Karen first stayed with the Parrish family when on School Exchange at 16. Now with Luke at 16 it’s been a friendship of love and generosity for 28 years.

Staying with them in their family home in La Verne, Los Angeles is nothing short of delightful. We’ve enjoyed three nights and two and a half wonderful days with them and their dog Zuzu. They never cease to amaze us with their kindness and generosity to 6 sleepy headed Aussies and all our daily kerfuffle. It was an impossibility to beat Chuck to the bill at a restaurant no matter what stunts I pulled and Connie’s cheerful accommodating flexibility on any day and in any circumstance is a wonder to behold.

It’s a great kindness of God to put such lovely friends in our lives, men and women who we look up to and always enjoy spending time with. Praise God for our Californian Parrish family.

Mahalo

Mahalo is the Hawaiian word for thank you. Mahalo was the word we heard constantly with every announcement on the plane flight, as well as in our stop-over at Honolulu airport. It all felt a little over-done for our cynical Aussie ears. Way over-done, that is until we had need to say as many mahalos as we could muster. It happened like this...

During our 4 hour lay-over in the airport terminal we set up camp near gate 53 in a quiet corner where we wouldn’t disturb anyone. Exploration forays to find information and pick up supplies was pretty much all that happened. Eventually they declared our next plane was to leave from Gate 22, about 1km away in another building along some pleasant walk ways. So we shifted camp, walked the walk, re-made camp, ate some dinner and readied to board the next plane. Then, just as they called us to board, Ethan declares, “I’ve lost my ipod! I must have left it at the other Gate.” With our next plane now boarding and 2 hours having transpired in-between campsite shifts, I declared it lost. We reported it to the desk who gave us the number for lost-and-found who told us to check in with them tomorrow. Not a great result but the best we could do in the circumstances.

However, the boarding line was really long and moving super slow. So we thought, why not jog back over and have a quick look, surely we’d be back in time. So off I ran with Ethan and we swiftly discovered that running 1km after an over-night flight wasn’t so easy as it sounded (and then we’d have to jog back!). We eventually panted our way back into Gate 53. Nope it wasn’t under the seats. None of the new passengers had seen it either. I checked with the staff nearby and what-do-you-know ... there’s Ethan’s ipod sitting front and centre of the desk just waiting for us to come back and claim it. Mahalo to every one at Gate 53!!

But to our dismay more mahalos would soon be needed. You see we still had to run back to Gate 22.

All up the round trip had taken 15 minutes. In actual fact more than enough time to fully load a 767 bound for Los Angeles. And all that were left in deserted Gate 22 were 4 members of Team Willo and a bunch of highly stressed flight attendants declaring the flight would likely have to leave without us. Was it Heathrow all over again? But no, just in time, Ethan and I slogged round the corner wheezing for breath. As we called mahalo to everyone in sight, they ushered us onto the plane with ipod and everything else now firmly in-hand.

Mahalo Honolulu airport staff – Team Willo is in your debt.