Sydney Trip '08

Well if some of you have been wondering where I have been over the last few days. I was down in Sydney for an event called RICE Rally '08. It was really encouraging to see over 3000 teens turn up to this event, some teens came just because they heard someone mention it on the streets. Praise God that he can work in many ways, bringing anyone to come to know him.

I must say compared to RICE Brisbane, the only word i can use to describe this event was "Oh my gosh". This event was held in the Sydney Entertainment Centre which can hold a capacity of over 10000 seats. The equipment that was being used for audio/visual was literally a dream. The amount of foldback speakers, lighting, video cameras would probably take us another 5 years before we get anywhere near that amount.

So what happened....

Before the RICE event we had a new branch known as RICE Regenerate. A event for people between 19-25 YO. We were fortunate to have Mark Driscoll from America come talk to us about the 10 things he wish he had known at the age of 25. He was a great speaker and he really hit everyone hard about the reality of being a Christian, the reality of being involved in ministry, the reality of living in a earthly world.

Then we had RICE Rally at 5:30pm. And i must say Sydney people are crazy. Steve Chong decided to play King Caratacus with 3000 teens in the Arena. To see massive groups of kids get up and yell "NO SIR NOT I SIR" was absolutely crazy. The theme of the Rally was "I can change the world" (I think) Once again Mark Driscoll gave an evangelistic talk to the kids. I really liked the way he preached. He didnt hold back at all. He gave the teens the cold hard facts. The truth about how Jesus died for our sins. That it was not easy for Jesus to go through death on the cross. The pain of having your bones crushed by the balls of the cat-o-nine-tails and flesh ripped off by the hooks. The suffering of having to carry your own cross on his raw back. Then only to be nailed through the most sensitive parts of the body. At the hands and feet. And having long thorns driven through his head. And all this for what...

So that all who believe may receive salvation. Being a Christian is not a religion where you have to do so much in order to get a reward. Its about just believing that is all.

Some other highlgihts of my Sydney Trip is how amazing it was to be able to have a random conversation with a random guy in Market city. I had no idea who this guy was but he approached me and asked me about RICE and all and it almost seemed like i had known him for decade. I found out that he was a youth leader who was bringing his teens to attend RICE. Amen.

The other thing was meeting NAZ. Being from Brisbane the leaders had no real role in preparation for RICE. Originally we were going to help out with the RICE Lounge. But God had something better planned for us. Here we were 7 RICE Brisbane leaders standing there with nothing to do. And there was NAZ with her Maccas stressing out as 500 welcome packs had to be repacked with Gospel Tracts and she was the only leader w/o blue leaders. Just from that we had fun with the production line and working together as a team. And from that I feel i have made a life-long friend.

So what more can i say.... I am missing Sydney, the people i met and the many brothers and sisters in Christ who have joined the big family.