Today and tomorrow are basically rest/preparation days for my upcoming trip to New Zealand. Of course, I’m not exactly sure how rest and preparation are going to harmonize in just 2 days but I plan to give them both my best effort. 🙂
This morning I again attended the C3 church in Oxford Hills (Web Page). Their pastor, Phil Pringle, gave a great message based on Romans 8;1 about forgiveness and being free from condemnation. I really liked one of his quotes today regarding condemnation for past sins, “Jesus said, I didn’t come to rub it in, I came to rub it out”. This resonated with me because I’ve had challenges with this in my life and others in the past. He’s a very energetic person and clearly passionate about what he does. It seems to be a great church and I’m glad it’s only 15 minutes from where I am staying in Mona Vale.
After church I stopped at the Warriewood shopping center to get a few things and spent the afternoon having lunch, a short nap and beginning to prepare for my next trip. Rick and Linda prepared a great dinner after which Rick, Josh and I went to a local brewery in Mona Vale for a drink. When we pulled up I could hear a band playing. When I got out I realized they were playing blues and I got very excited! They were good and I thanked Rick for bringing me here. As we were standing at the bar getting ready to order the band stopped playing and said, “Thank you very much for coming out this evening”. I looked at the bar tender and said, “Did they just finish” and he said “yes”. I was soooo disappointed! Oh well, timing is in fact everything. 🙂
So we ordered some craft beer and sat at a nice outdoor table. It was a perfect evening to sit outside and we had a good conversation….mostly about the micro brew industry in the US and AU and how they produce different beers. As I looked around I saw a sign that I thought was kind of interesting….
I thought it was interesting that it said they use, “Fresh live yeast flown in from the USA”. Rick said the US is considered the pinnacle for craft beers so having the yeast flown in from the US is a big deal. Ah, the things we take for granted living in the US. 🙂 Anyway, the beer was very good. So if you ever find yourself in Mona Vale Australia looking for a good craft beer I would highly recommend the Modus Operandi Brewing Company (Google, Web Page). There’s a really cool video on their web page about the owners and operators. My friends and family in NC should especially watch the video and listen closely to the second guy who speaks. It’s true, it IS a small world after all. 🙂
We only stayed there for 30 minutes or so as we had to get back to the house for Josh birthday celebration day 2. I was told that big birthdays (like turning 21) get celebrated at least 2 or 3 days. So last night was the presents and tonight was the cake. Unfortunately I didn’t get any pictures of the cake (maybe Rick can send me one) but I’ll just say it was very good and everyone enjoyed celebrating Josh’s birthday, again. 🙂
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