Well, here we are in Melbourne - home of the AFL, great shopping and PEAK HOUR TRAFFIC!! We have been incredibly blessed during our 3 weeks here and are excited to be able to share with you some of what our awesome God has been doing. But before we get right into the good stuff....lets first make you slightly jealous by telling you about some of our relaxing and exciting adventures!!After a fantastic time in Adelaide, we packed up the caravan and set off toward Melbourne along the Great Ocea
n Road for a week of eating, sleeping, sightseeing and relaxing. Sean took the opportunity to rest his voice which was greatly needed and I did all the talking...yay : )Our first stop was at a small town on the coast of SA called Robe. We grabbed fish and chips and settled back to watch some quality Tuesday night TV, only to discover our antenna wasn't working...so we agreed on an early night and snuggled instead! We'll leave it there : )
After packing up we headed for the seaside town of Warrnambool where we stayed
for 2 nights. On the way there we visited an old volcano crater called Blue Lake (see pic above) which was spectacular and managed to polish off a whole box of Cheezels! Impressive : ) The next day we found the local mini golf park and I insisted that we go head to head in the 18 hole championship as I was fairly confident that Sean was hopeless at golf...as it turns out he was pretty good. He ended up winning by 2 points and scored a hole in one.....but unfortunately for him, I walked away with the real victory as I scored the best score any woman from WA has achieved and got my name on the Hall of Fame. (check out the pics)After our 2 days there we headed
down the Great Ocean Road which literally is all the way along the water - it really is breathtaking. Stopped to check out the 12 apostles which sadly now look like 5, but anyway was worth a look, before stopping at a tiny town called Wye River. What an adventure to get to our camp site...we had to drive across this tiny man made bridge that looked like it was built 200 years ago! The caravan made it over without any damage, but only just. The next day we headed to Geelong where we checked out Robin Hood at the movies and treated o
urselves to Noodle Box for tea. After spending some time at the foreshore praying and looking around, we headed for Melbourne where a very busy 3 weeks was about to begin....We arrived at our amazing friends Chad and Carla Smit's Sunday afternoon, who very generously invited us to come and stay with them and their gorgeous little 10 month old girl, Lacey for our 3 weeks here in Melbourne (See pic below). We have had a great time here with them...thanks guys for everything, you're so awesome, love ya heaps and can't wait to see you again in October!
The tour officially began again that week with 5 school performances. Sean did a
mission at 2 very upper class grammar schools and spoke on honouring your parents which the kids loved and finished on the Friday with a combined schools concert. The kids enjoyed the songs and Sean's illistrations really connected and showed how much God desires to be in relationship with each one of them. On the Saturday, Sean took me down to Skilled Stadium in Geelong, home of the Cats to watch them play verses the Melbourne D's...Apart from the rain and Sean forgetting to print off the tickets.... it was great fun : )On Sunday - MY BIRTHDAY - Sean convienently booked 2 concerts at a couple of big churches in the area and even managed to get us invited to an early morning breakfast to get out of making me brekkie in bed!!! Anyway, we had a great day and God blessed us incredibly with a great response at both venues and lots of fun!
The next week we played at 4 Christian Schools across Melbourne and then played 3 shows on the weekend at New Hope Baptist Church, which is where Sean will be filming his live DVD in October. To say we were blessed here is an understatement!! God looked after us incredibly and undoubtably went before us and prepared a way.
We got to meet Phil Gaudion from the Paul Colman Trio who loves Sean's music and really encouraged us to keep going and that we have a great gift. He and his lovely wife Tamara kindly invited us over to their home for dinner where their kids asked Sean to do a mini concert before they had to go to bed!! We had a great time talking about their journey and life on the road with PC3 and Third Day and were able to get some good insight into the Christian Music Industry. We had lunch with one of my YWAM friends, Manori and her hubby, Matt, and it was great to catch up after not seeing each other for 6 years!! Thanks guys for your hospitality, bless ya! Finished off the week at Etihad Stadium, good game...the Doggies made a great come back in the last quarter against the Pies, but not enough to beat them, unfortunately! (see pic below)
Finally, this past week we had a few days off before playing at a school yesterday and 4 shows over this weekend at CityLife Church which we are really excited about. As well as cheering for the Eagles tomorrow as we are going to see the game at the MCG, hopefully they will win as they play Ricmond : )
Have met some incredible people who have encouraged us and given us wisdom and offers to help whenever and however they can. Everyone truely believes Sean has an amazing gift and that God is going to do great things. Have had lots of good feedback about the new CD and are very excited about recording the live DVD in Oct. Met an amazing christian guy who used to work at Channel 7 who is going to head up the filming side of things for Sean and another well known Melbourne singer who has been able to help Sean vocally with some voice training. Had one of the Children's Pastors from the church randomly ask to meet with Sean and gave him an amazing word that confirmed some things that we both have felt God lay on our hearts, so that was awesome!! We can't begin to even explain how amazing it is that God has brought the right venues, churches and people across our paths....so the only thing we can do is rest in the knowledge that He has this all in His control!! Off to Canberra on Monday for a few days before heading to Sydney to play at a few schools and the Hillsong Kids Conference!!
Sean's voice for all those wondering is much better and we really believe God is completely healing it!
Until next time....please keep us in your prayers and love to you all.
Sean and Rina
