I am now a man between jobs … literally.
As you likely know, being friends or family, I finished up with Austral Church of Christ on Sunday, 15 February. A disappointing end to my ministry there, in that the fit did not turn out to be as good as we all hoped, but we parted ways amicably and I am thankful for the experience and lessons learned. I hope that they too will take some inspiration from what I was able to share with them over such a short period of time.
I have accepted an associate minister position with St. John’s Sutherland, an Anglican church. I am responsible for their Sunday night congregation and for developing and overseeing their mission and ministries to youth and young adults. However, this position does not start until Monday, 1 March. Until then I am, literally, between jobs. Anybody got some work that I can do for two days?
To take advantage of the time, Marcia and I took the kids up to Cairns for a few days this past weekend. Cairns, for those who don’t know, is a small city in tropical Northern Queensland, Australia. The deal offered to us seemed great at the time, until we realised, that is, that this time of year is the monsoon season. Rain upon us it did …
Despite the rain, we had a pleasant room at the Rydges Esplanade Hotel. The waterfront area of the city has been developed into a wonderful public swimming area with boardwalk, great play equipment for the children, and some sporting facilities (e.g. beach volleyball). We took a boat tour out to an outer section of the Great Barrier Reef an snorkelled around the reef, playing with the fishes (and being chased by some). We drove around Kuranda (they have some fantastic markets) and Mareeba (has a great café called The Coffee Works with great food, coffee and chocolate, but the service was quite disappointing). We also drove up to the Daintree National Park, just on the edge of Cape Tribulation, for a visit to the Daintree Discovery Centre (an excellent introduction to the rainforest, its flora and fauna). This was well worth the trip but it poured something fierce. On the way back, we stopped in at Hartley’s Crocodile Adventure which was a great afternoon of crocodiles, snakes and cassowaries (i.e “psycho chickens”). Again, more rain but worth every moment.
Overall the trip to Cairns was quite enjoyable for all of us. I have just two complaints: 1) the restaurants were very expensive and hard to find outside of the central business/tourist district; and, 2) what’s the point of a wonderful beachside city if you can’t swim in the water (e.g too many crocodiles which will eat you and poisonous jellyfish which will kill you with the slightest touch)? On these points alone, I’m not sure that we’re going to be moving there anytime soon although, for all other reasons, it was a quite enjoyable holiday to an attractive place. Good on ya, Cairns!
