“Sun”day

Today was a beautiful day to walk to church, no rain! Plenty of blue sky and sunshine, we didn’t even need to consider taking our umbrellas. It was a wonderful service. The attendance was down due to the fact that the pastor and many others were still helping out at one the evacuation centers. After fellowship tea time our friends took us around some of the Brisbane areas that were affected by the floods. It was amazing to see how high the water levels had been. We pulled over at one spot so I could take a picture of the watermark on the trees. It was mind boggling to think we were driving on roads that were covered with water that would have been well over the car height.  To see people’s whole household on their front yard waiting to be picked up by the trash collectors was heart breaking.



Some other peoples things were covered in mud.
These were more water damaged.

Our friends have a beautiful home about 20-25 minutes from the city. We had a delicious lunch of quiche, tossed salad and garlic bread followed by a wonderful plate of fresh fruit. We had bananas from their trees, grapes, cantaloupe, pineapple and mangoes (their trees did not produce mangoes this last season). We also tried lyche fruit from their yard, we had to peal it and it also has a membrane similar to an orange to peal off. It was like a large grape and tasted like you were eating a fruit salad but it has a larger seed than a grape.

We learned that macadamia nuts, which they grew up calling Queensland nuts, are originally from Australia not Hawaii. The shell is harder than a brazil nut and you have to use a hammer to crack it, although we had the store bought already shelled kind. It was a lovely time of getting to know them better and we shared about America and our families while they shared about Australia and their family. A koala bear visits their yard often, but he hasn’t been seen much since the rains have come. We drove down to an area where we saw wallabies out in the “wild”. They tend to come out at dusk like our deer, so we weren’t sure we would see any. But one was by the side of the road and sat there a while and let me take pictures. After we turned around we saw two more.

On the way back to the city, we saw one of many gathering spots for volunteers to gather to be bused to places to help clean up. What a sight to see people walking down the streets with mops, brooms, buckets and cleaning supplies in their hands on their way to help strangers in their time of need.

As our Sunday comes to a close we reflect on how deep the devastation around us has been, how bright the Australian spirit is and how blessed we are to be safe and dry.