I'm off again!

This morning is the last morning of the conference. At 9am (20 minutes from now) I have to be in a building that is a good 10 minute walk away. We are assigned to a small group, and are learning together how to read the Bible in a way that allows the text to 'speak'. All week we have been looking at Romans 3:21-26. At the end of today's session we each give a 3-5 minute talk on one aspect of this passage. I have never given such a short talk, so it will be a real challenge for me! Especially since there is so much going on in those particular verses.

At 1pm I jump in a car with some people I don't yet know and drive to Melbourne. It is an 8-hour drive, so I expect I'll know them a little better by the time we arrive. From Thursday through Sunday I will be involved in Life Week - an outreach to international students. It looks like a lot of fun, but also some hard work - we'll be 'on deck' from 10am till...10pm? 11pm??

I'm starting to get really tired - the last two nights I found myself falling asleep in the 9pm talks. And this morning when I went running...well, running is not really the appropriate word. More like 'sheer plod'. Bonus points for the first person to email me to tell me which poem and poet that phrase comes from - and without the help of google!! No cheating now. Hint: he also wrote Pied Beauty, one of my favourite poems. If you are stuck, do google and read the poems too.

A little bonus this morning to lift the heart while I tried to run. I saw a man looking up into the trees, and he called me over. There, very close, was a type of cockatoo that is on the endangered species list - larger than the 'normal' white one...black with a large cream-coloured patch on its head. The man said he had never seen one before, so I felt quite privileged to have been able to join him in this moment, when I am only a visitor to this amazing country.

Well...now I must run, literally, to my small group. More later from Melbourne!