Australia Day, part Flag

Friday was Australia Day, the national day here in Australia. It's the day of the year where you can see the most Australian flags in one place, people wear their flags as hats, capes, sunglasses, fake tattoos and so forth.
Nathan and I went around trying to find different expressions of the Australian flag. We found this:


We also found this guy:



People play cards with the flag


We also found what has to be the biggest grass-flag, at least here in Perth.


Then the fireworks started. Perth actually has the biggest fireworks display in all of Australia, even bigger than Sydney's.


Have a great day!
I am doing good, this week is a bit busy.
Emails and comments are really welcome, the same is postcards and packages :)
-paulandreas

Smallgroup in a big park

We went as a smallgroup (our whole school is one smallgroup, by the way) to one of the worlds largest urban parks (that is parks connected to a city). It's for instance bigger than Central Park in New York.
It's King's Park in Perth.

There we kicked and threw some Australian footie, took some pictures and played a good game of some European football, where the last goal took about 15minutes to score. I played. And, yes, that means my foot is incredibly much better, as I also scored some goals...



Concerning the foot, the last pill of antibiotics was taken ten minutes ago, so from tomorrow on, I am not taking pills anymore. (I've been taking these brightly colored pills for almost three weeks now, and before that the Norwegian ones...)
Thank you God! And thank you very much for those of you who were praying, it really helped!

The last picture is a flattering picture of me overlooking the city of Perth with it's sunset and skyscrapers.

We've had the hottest day since I have been here today, with 37°C, and tomorrow is going to be hotter they say...

Have a great day, and be sure to tell all the Australians you know "Happy Australia Day!".
Happy Australia Day!

My Australian address

I have an address down here as well, not bad?

It is:
Paul Andreas
PO Box 8501,
Perth Business Centre,
Western Australia 6849,
AUSTRALIA

Don't consider this hinting unless you really want to... :)

Nathan is a good cartoonist

Perth Glory vs. Newcastle Jets

Ari, Jimmy, Timothy and me went to see a soccer game, the last one for this season, Perth Glory played Newcastle Jets. It was not such a great game the first half, but the goals came in the second half. Australians are pretty crazy when it comes to soccer. Some at least.
Perth could have won 3-1 if it wasn't for the last four minutes when they let in 2 goals, and the game ended 3-3.

Go Glory... :)

It's been a REALLY hot day, 35+

-paulandreas in Aussieland

Pictures of taking pictures

Here are the pictures accompanying the previous post.


My school leader Ben in front, with Watto, Kelly and Susi Childers, our speaker in the back.



Lachie, the birthday kid.






Andrew "Watto" Watson, one of my staff, Australian dude



Stevo showing off his photography skills.



Jason shooting a picture of Katie, the professional photographer

Some more details, finally

I'm sorry for not writing more the last few days, but the Internet at the base has not been treating me nicely. It keeps shutting down on me, so I didn't even get to post the pictures I wanted.

As you may see in the pictures, there are some known faces to some of you... We are three YWAM kids in the school, which is quite fun...
We are a total ten students at the school, one Australian, one French girl, a South African girl, one Egyptian, two Canadians, two Americans, one Norwegian and one who is generally confused about where he's from, but he's been to 111 countries, so who can blame him for being confused?

This week we're gonna be having Susi Childers teaching about photography, a week I am really looking forward to having. Today, Saturday, we've been out in Perth taking pictures of people after a photography seminar at the base. Going up to someone asking: "Excuse me sir/ma'am, do you mind me taking your picture?" Most said I could take their picture, some didn't and some took some pleading and persuasion before they eventually said yes. It was really a stretch in my boldness, and I believe that next time I will be taking even better pictures as well.

We are six guys in the same room, a room that is sometimes cold, sometimes really hot and sometimes stinky, but we are a good group of people, getting to know each other more and more each day.

Today is the Australian Lachie's birthday, he's 26 today! Happy birthday!

The disappearing pictures from the beach

Body Surfing and Aussie Barbeque

For starters:
My foot is doing SO much better, soon back to normal, thank you all so much for praying!

Today I went body surfing for the first time, the salt stung my eyes, the waves slapped me in the face before dragging me under and giving me exciting somersault (salto) ride before spitting me out again. But I really loved it, being by the beach, in the water, playing beach volleyball and eating herb and garlic seasoned sausages.

We did all this because we had a get-to-know-each-other trip to the beach today, and I am starting to love Australia more and more, as well as the YWAM base here, there's so many things that they do that are just so right, good and fun at the same time. I'll try to write more later. I have to go out and buy a book for my weekly journal, or the C.I.R. as they call it here.

The pictures show some of the people on my school as well as a blue tongue lizard.

Be blessed!

I am alive

I am alive.
I am in Australia. Perth.
I have great room/class mates.
I have a foot that is doing better than two days ago.

Updates will come.
Good night.

Thank you all for praying!

-paulandreas

An update from Asia

I am currently in Hong Kong, in the airport, on my 6 hour layover waiting time, just 4 hours until the last plane heading for Perth is taking off.

The 8 hours in London went amazingly well, and I know it's because of all you who were praying. I looked around, did some drawing, eating, looking at people, listened to music, washed my hands, ate some more and looked at more people, and then looked more around. Then the plane left. Yes, I was on the plane... :)

I got to sleep for about 7 hours on the ride over here to Hong Kong, and that is truly an answer to prayer, as the longest I have been sleeping on a plane before is maybe 2 hours. Thank you again! And thank You Jesus!

I am now waiting for some more hours, then it's 8 hours flight to Perth, and ten hours later, the school starts.

A foot-update:
My foot is doing better, i know that. But there is one thing, the swollenness is moving itself around a bit. So where it was swollen before is less swollen, and one area has become more swollen.
But, also feet get swollen from flying as well, at least that's what I'm telling myself. Please pray more, I need to get well from this, and I don't want to go to a hospital in Australia because of this... But I have seen now that praying really works, so please continue praying!

Thank you,
a Hong Kong greeting from the travelling Paul Andreas

Leaving soon

I just said many goodbyes and got many prayers for my foot at Grimerud, and if you didn't get a good bye from me, here comes: Good bye!
See you in half a year or so.

Please continue to pray for my foot and that the infection will disappear from my body, and that I will have a great travel tomorrow and the day after.
I leave from Oslo at 1200 Friday and arrive in Perth at 0800 Sunday (That's 00:00 Norwegian time, see the Perth-time at the top of the blog.) 36 hours!

Thank you so much for all the support and prayers, may God bless you richly back!

I have to get to bed, getting up in 5 1/2 hours.

Be blessed!

-paulandreas

PLEASE PRAY!

Yesterday I went to the doctor because of a infection in my right foot, and it had started to become swollen (hevelse i foten).
The doctor told me I had streptococcus (Norsk: streptokokker)and gave me penicillin to fight it with.
The challenge in this whole thing is that I am leaving for Australia this coming Friday, the 5th of January, and I'd love not having to travel with a swollen foot and with agressive bacteria in my body.

I know God hears our prayers, and He loves to answer them, so please join me in praying that I will get COMPLETELY healed of everything that's trying to hinder me from going where God wants me.
Thank you! I'll try to update you on how it is going.

-paul andreas