WE MADE IT TO OZ!

Yes. we have finally arrived safe and sound in Canberra, with quite a tale to tell about our final days in Indiana - and our trip actually getting here:

We had to work VERY hard in intense heat and humidity (about 80 to 90 %) and about that hot, too -- for the whole last week without any air conditioning and the constant threat or experience of rain every single day. We were especially disheartened on Friday, because a sudden unexpected cloud burst that afternoon while we took a break for ice cream with our pastors at Dairy Queen, damaged our "stuff" and effected the bulk of the final packing and sorting process, as items selected to put into shipping containers were exposed out in the yard.

So...we had many loads to dry out to avoid mold problems later on. With already feeling "behind", being slowed up by intense heat and humidity both inside and outside the house and garage all week, and not in our own place anymore but in a house we were sitting for friends gone to Europe...I had no choice but to miss the wedding of my nephew on Saturday, though Carole Anne was able to represent us and glad to get in air conditioning for the day.

A couple of friends from church made a fantastic contribution of their time and energy Friday evening, and a couple more on Saturday, bless their good hearts. I gathered a whole crew of friends from church on Sunday morning in the final hours packing all the shipping crates away, and taking the other stuff to our "permanent" storage location. (It's a good thing our church meets for worship on Sunday evenings!) Sunday morning was especially an intense "cooker" for those working and grunting out in the garage and lugging containers.

After final clean-up of the house we were "sitting" for the week, and finally leaving Goshen for O'Hare Sunday afternoon in the Toyota mini-van I'd rented in Chicago the week before, we almost got blown off the road by tornado-like blasts followed by a blinding rain storm near South Bend, IN, for about a half hour. I knew I had to keep moving forward, somehow, in order to make the plane. Most sane people were stopping and hiding their cars under overpasses.

The main thing is that we DID somehow, by the sheer grace of God, make it onto the plane we had booked (although they initially told us it was waaay to late for us to board - another story to tell there!) Plus we had to take time to process the extra bags, paying extra for those and the "Big Wheel" in its special case. A whole list of things went right that day (some due to careful forethought) after so much had not gone well (some due to not-so-good anticipation of the unforeseen) but in spite of many great challenges "we made it!" We sank down into our seats on that international flight with but three minutes to spare, finally able to truly relax for the first time in days.

We first had a four hour leg to San Francisco, then what was supposed to be a 14 hr flight from there to Sydney after changing planes (but same flight number - go figure!) The biggest surprise is that we encountered NO HASSLES OR QUESTIONS WHATSOEVER from the immigration officials in Sydney, upon arrival, as I had expected otherwise. I was prepared to prove that we would be leaving the country in 89 days for New Zealand for a week, then coming back in, on the renewable 90-day business visitors' visa. It turns out I probably won't have to. (* See the paragraphs at the end, below. for that explanation.)

The ride in the Boeing 747 from Frisco to Sydney went better than expected because I managed to get us seat assignments in the middle row (four seats wide) in the back where we took both aisle seats but had two empty seats in between. Thus Carole Anne and I could take turns stretching out all the way on "the bench" formed by three seats with the arm rests propped "up", while the other person slept (or in my case, tried to sleep) in the remaining seat tilted back. Carole Anne was able to get her feet up for a good portion of that part of the trip that way, which really helped deal with the swelling of feet, a persistent problem for her when flying that long. But what was supposed to be 14 hours turned into 20.

We actually made it a day earlier than expected by those in Canberra (there is another whole story there) but even that turned into a MUCH better situation for us than we originally planned, since we stayed in Sydney overnight in a hotel where we could "crash" after the extended delay of five hours getting there (and the extra hour getting through customs) due to getting rerouted to Brisbane first! Our plane sat on the tarmac for two hours - with no ability to call anyone or get off into the terminal - because all planes to Sydney got diverted that morning due to heavy fog. Happily, all our baggage arrived safely with us, including the "Big Wheel!"

We had 7 major checked bags, plus 4 carry-ons and a VERY large "purse" of Carole Anne's to deal with. You should have seen what the carts looked like when we left the airport and sought the shuttle to the hotel! We needed to take basic fall and winter clothing, plus the books and materials I would need, plus other things to stretch us out for three months here without knowing for sure (up until just a few hours before I'm writing this) whether the whole endeavor was "rock solid" viable enough, financially, to justify shipping all the rest of the stuff we had crated up for the "long haul." It seems now that it will be - see that explanation below.

We finally obtained a good long sleep at the Ibis Hotel near the airport in Sydney, instead of having to endure a couple more hours of wearying travel by car down to Canberra yet that day, as earlier planned. Don White from the Canberra Baptist Church graciously drove up to Sydney with his own car yesterday to stay at the same hotel and haul us with all our gear including that oversized unicycle in his car -- "packed to the gills." I was fully expecting to have to take a train with my wheel" ("38" in diameter) but we amazed both our selves by somehow getting it all in, with just enough space left for me to squeeze my body, somehow, into the back seat.

This evening (Wednesday) is the first chance I've had to connect to the Internet, and I'm forcing myself to stay awake until another hour or two so that I can go to bed for another loooooong night's rest, and hope to be "OK" by Thursday morning. I find that I am adjusting to the jet lag better than Carole Anne, because she conked out about mid-afternoon already. We arrived at about noon today to our home in the Bruce district of the ACT, only about five miles from the centre of the city of Canberra. I went shopping for food straight away, driving around (on the left side of the road and negotiating many rotaries) to get oriented to the city, then had a meeting with pastor Jim Barr, who shared much encouraging news on the employment and visa front.

Carole Anne and I are feeling very thankful right now that a whole number of prayers are being answered, even as we prepared to leave and as we traveled. We experienced MUCH grace and mercy, overcoming a whole handful of obstacles along the way, even as we traveled (involving details with schedule, the weather, details in returning the rental vehicle, and several other pressing matters at the airport too complex to go into here -- any one of which had the potential to completely wreck that trip.) We are sooo relieved and happy to be here.

Thanks to many of you reading this, for sticking by us, for your many prayers and expressing concerns about our health and safety as we made the transition. We know we'll be OK, after catching up on sleep and getting off the allergy medicines (to deal with the cat where we were staying) and getting oriented to our new surroundings. I will officially start my work this Sunday, as originally scheduled, attending worship with folks eager to meet us at the Canberra Baptist Church. (It could more accurately be referred to as the Canberra Anabaptist Church, reflecting their theological bent, but that would really be messing with tradition!)
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* I wrote on the immigration card turned into immigration in Sydney that we would be in Australia for three months -- that I would be serving as a "pastoral care program consultant" during that time (which is the truth) having aquired a special short-stay business visa via the internet last week. However, I will be applying shortly for a renewable two-year religious workers visa which will allow me to be employed (paid in the usual manner) and now have some important meetings planned for next week to work at finalizing memos of understanding with the appropriate parties involved , namely myself, the hospital, the local church, and those officially employing me. Besides contracting for services as chaplain manager with the Canberra Hospital three days a week, I will spend part-time (two days/wk) as a consultant in pastoral care and visiting the sick and family ministry, as part of the ministry team of the Canberra Baptist Church - through the end of 2008.

We have a verbal commitment now for the long haul, with written stuff documented soon, confirming that I can be" sponsored" (then contracted out) by Baptist Chaplaincy Services of New South Wales. NSW is the state surrounding the ACT (Australian Capital Territory) where we live. What this means is we will be setting some precedent in the ACT for improved ways of delivering chaplain services here that will be consistent, finally, with how things have normally been done for years in the rest of Australia via other ecclesiastical entities.

My coming here has apparently pushed all these changes along, but these particular discussions and possibilities didn't emerge until after we heard (only two weeks before moving here) that the hospital was denied, by Australian Immigration authorities, the ability to be my direct employer as a part-time religious worker. And waiting two whole months to hear that! Being affilated with the Canberra Baptist Church for the first six months, something that was decided separately - but providentially, in hindsight - makes this other new arrangement possible!

All of this created much distraction from the sorting/packing process, with it being needful to maintain many important communications with key folks in Australia, reapplication for a different visa, planning for alternatives and booking some flights out of AUS before the 90 days temporary visa runs out - all of this with genuine wonderment how it was all going to work out (but harboring faith that it would - in the face of much genuine questioning from family and friends) in those final hectic days before we left.

THANKS BE TO GOD for being so faithful to us in the midst of our frailty and human fallibility!
-Clair (for both of us)

Mark Swatzentruber Piano Concert , June 18 in Goshen

Friends in the Goshen area...

I received word this past weekend from my Aunt Jan from Columbus, Ohio, regarding a (free) concert by a world class pianist to be held at Sauder Hall at Goshen College the evening of June 18. The pianist is Mark Swartzentruber, her son (and my first cousin, because he is my mother Edna's brother Paul's son) who has lived in London, England many years and raised his family there.

Mark teaches music and helps make sound tracks/film scores with Franco Zeffirelli, etc, and performed at many major music venues throughout Europe and the Middle East. See the press release below for more about that and some other interesting details regarding his upcoming master classes at Goshen College and the evening concert being offered in connection with that.

Here is a link to a site containing some of the clips of his pieces (some are full length) which are sprinkled throughout six CDs he has recorded so far. All are available from his own music label, Solo Records.

Also, a search on Amazon using his name reveals over seventy different piano pieces he has recorded, which can be previewed or individually purchased there.

I am VERY disappointed to have to miss this concert and hope some of you might be able to enjoy it -- or the other one he's doing in Columbus Ohio the following evening. (I'm hoping they will be able to make a video or DVD copy that can be sent to me in Australia.)

--Clair

Press Release:

Mark Swartzentruber will be performing at Goshen College on June 18, 7:30 p.m. in Sauder Hall. After teaching master classes on Tuesday and Weds he will perform on Wednesday evening. The concert is free and open to the public.

On Thursday, June 19, Mark will be performing at the Worthington Methodist Church in Worthington (across from the Post Office on High St.) This concert will benefit the Peggy McConnell Worthington Arts Center which will have the ground breaking ceremony on Saturday, June 21. The tickets for this event are $25 and the proceeds will go toward the building of this facility.

Mark graduated from Worthington High School and Indiana University School of Music and is now living in London, England with his wife and three children.

Mark Swartzentruber’s solo recordings on Sony and Solo Records have all won critical acclaim in the international music press. He has performed throughout Europe and in the United States and the Far East and has appeared regularly in recital in important London venues including Wigmore Hall, the South Bank’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Purcell Room and St. John’s Smith Square. He has broadcast on BBC Radio 3, Radio 4 and Classic FM and enjoys chamber music partnerships with pre-eminent string players including the Allegri String Quartet and members of the Raphael Ensemble.

He is Music Director of the Holloway Arts Festival in London and has worked with directors such as Franco Zeffirelli and Richard Eyre developing and performing music soundtracks for London West End productions. A committed teacher, he is regularly invited to give master classes and to adjudicate competitions.

Press Quotes:

‘His classically honed but never inhibited account of the Appassionata is one of the best I’ve heard.’ – BBC Music Magazine

‘Few pianists have offered such transcendental pages with greater honesty or coherence.’ – Gramophone

‘A blend of poetic expressiveness, aristocratic Classical restraint and keyboard virtuosity.’ -- International Record Review

‘His playing leaves you once more in awe of Debussy.’ -- Gramophone

Lifehouse "Everything" Skit

The experience of liminality

A chaplain colleague/friend of mine from Kansas City, MO, sent the piece (below) to me today as encouragement for Carole Anne and myself as we prepare for this major transition in our lives. It is so relevant and I'm sharing it here for the benefit of others who may find themselves dealing with similar dynamics. Tim sent this in response to something I had shared earlier today with extended family members and a selected list of friends -- most of which I will include as a reference point at the end, below these very pastoral words of wisdom. -Clair

Thoughts for the Week: 04-28-08

The experience of liminality

My title this week sounds like a fanciful and complicated word. It is also a word with which I was unfamiliar until I read an article recently in one of my professional pastoral care journals. Not knowing the definition, I did some more reading. I found that while many of us may be acquainted with the words “preliminary” and “subliminal”, most of us are not as familiar with the experience of being in a “liminal state”. All of these words have at their roots the word “limen”, or “threshold”. Upon reading a number of definitions of both the word and the experience, the phrase that most often came up was the state of being “betwixt and between”.

To experience liminality is to be in a position of transition. One example is being engaged to be married. No longer really single but not yet married, it is a period of being in between. Using this definition it seems to me that in some ways we are always in this state. We are not who we were yesterday and are yet to be who we will be tomorrow. Life is always changing, moving, taking us though one “threshold” after another. Some transitions are voluntary and enthusiastically anticipated. Others are shocking, painful and unwanted: death, divorce, a significant move, leaving a current job. Each of these life events and so many others that we experience each day push us from one stage of life to another. Even when changes are chosen, they can still be rife with confusion, anxiety, and feelings of being “betwixt and between”.

As I have reflected over my own experiences of liminality, of which there have been many, retrospectively I have been able to see times of considerable personal growth. One of the most significant was the four months of recovery at home after my back surgeries. For much of this time I was limited to resting and doing very little other than taking a daily walk. Even with the support of family and friends, I had times of feeling very alone and vulnerable. In a number of ways I was not who I had been and I had no idea who I would be. I was in what Dr. Seuss described in Oh The Places You’ll Go as “the waiting place”.

My growth came as I allowed myself to be present in the moment, rather than yearning for the past or fearing the future. I began to feel the feelings, name the fears, search through the myriad of thoughts and determine what was truly important. I also discovered that even during my lowest times, I was not alone. There was One who had with me and even whispering to me throughout my transition. Caught up in the “what had been” and the “what might be”, I could only hear my fears. Growth took place when I began to listen. Isn’t it the way with much of life?

As you begin another week...
-May you consider points in your life when you were truly betwixt and between.
-May you reflect upon what helped you to both move forward and grow from the experience.
-May you think about in what ways you might be in a “waiting place” even now.
-And May you know that whenever such times occur, there is One who knows the way through.

Chaplain Tim Brooks, MDiv, BCC
North Kansas City Hospital
2800 Clay Edwards Drive
North Kansas City, MO 64116
tim.brooks@nkch.org

==============

The above was shared in response to my request for prayers (and counsel, if people felt so moved to offer it) which I had sent out earlier today...

Wed, April 30

Dear extended family members (and discerning friends)

I've decided to forward (see below) a copy of a reply I sent to a local pastor friend in Goshen this morning, in response to his question about when we are actually moving to Australia. We are mainly asking for your prayers (and counsel if you have it) regarding what comes out of my interview - via another Skype video connection - this coming Saturday evening. We want to be candid about some concerns regarding the challenges we have been facing connected with our current transition to Canberra.

Also, Carole Anne continues to struggle with some physical pain and limits in the functioning of her legs, in the long process of recovery from knee replacement surgeries last summer and fall, and they say it takes up to a year to get back to normal. Our recent travels really stretched her endurance levels, though her "oasis" of rest for 12 days near the end, in New Zealand, while I traveled on, did help a lot. The grueling 36 hours of being awake during all the flights home kind of unraveled her for a while, but she's in a better mood now.

Please join us (in a spiritual and emotional sense) for the next couple of weeks in what has turned into an ongoing exercise in patience, faith, and fortitude -- and pray that we can pace ourselves appropriately to protect our energy levels, as we surround ourselves in a sea of bubble wrap and boxes -- and piles of things we MUST give away!

As the byline says in the email signature of another of my pastor friend's: "What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us."

-Clair

---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: Clair Hochstetler <clair.hochstetler@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, Apr 30, 2008 at 10:30 AM

Well, John, I never seem to take on "simple" transitions, for some reason...

I still won't have my work permit in time, but since we finalized the sale of our house yesterday, and agreed to turn over possession of it by the end of May (renting it from the buyers until then) we will move to Australia at that point with our valid visitors visas which are good for another three month stretch. We plan to settle into a place we can "house sit" through August, make some friends and adjust to the new environment, instead of wait around here - but it has become a real exercise of faith that "things will work out somehow." When Carole Anne has waned I have waxed, and when I waned recently, she has waxed -- so we pull each other along!

But, this means Carole Anne and I have only a month left to finish sorting through all our earthly belongings (including many files and books of mine) and get it all sold, shipped, stored...or surrendered! It's becoming quite the emotional/spiritual experience.

Keep praying on our behalf -- that the Australian immigration officials will see the light and give me a "case number" requested by The Canberra Hospital upon which I can build by submitting the documents I want to give them and which are needed to complete the process -- which, reputedly, takes a couple of months to gain the needed work visa. It's only when I have that permit in hand that I can actually get paid by the hospital, or a church there, as well. I really hope it won't take that long, yet, but it realistically could. That Chaplain Manager hospital position currently only has a salary enough to fund three days a week - though the work really could and should be full-time. But that is a goal: for the funding base to be further developed, over time.

Meanwhile, this Saturday evening, I am also being interviewed by the Deacons Board of the ______ Church in Canberra. (____ ... and their senior pastor is affiliated with the Anabaptist Network of Australia and New Zealand) This interview is in regards to serving them for a couple days a week as their interim associate pastor.

Actually, there is considerable risk involved, especially financially, as food costs there are double what they are here in Indiana, and housing costs are at least triple. The salary structures can't possibly make up for all that difference, and this means there are implications for Carole Anne, as well, so we are "counting the cost."

From a mere secular perspective we are absolutely crazy to be doing this. But, we are growing a lot in our faith through this thing, for reasons not yet fully understood, which we continue to feel called to pursue -- to extend ourselves beyond our comfort level and be in ministry in this part of the world...

Thank-you in advance,
Clair

Why I'm voting for Obama in Indiana's Democratic Party Primary Election

Below are the fine remarks my good friend (and fellow church member at Faith Mennonite) Dan Shenk offered at the ribbon cutting ceremony during the grand opening, April 4, of the Elkhart County Obama campaign headquarters in downtown Goshen. Dan is president of the local organization. These remarks capture my own political position and sentiments quite well.

Dan and I also had a brief exchange today regarding yesterday's commentaries on Obama's response to Chicago pastor Jeremiah Wright's new embarrassing blustering.

Dan had this to say: "Barack has now severed ties with Wright, more in sorrow than anger. I hope Hoosiers get the message in time."

-Clair

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(Remarks at Elkhart County's Obama Campaign Headquarters Ribbon Cutting Ceremony: April 4, 2008 -- Dan Shenk)

Forty years ago today they tried to kill the dream in Memphis. With the candidacy of Barack Obama, the dream is alive again.

The crowd we have here is evidence of that. The crowd of 110 we had Monday evening at the Goshen library is evidence of that. The way Goshen and Elkhart are working together is evidence of that. The volunteers who have been working all week to set up this office are evidence of that.

Barack Obama brings people together. He has been doing it throughout his adult life -- bringing Republican conservatives onto the board of the Harvard Law Review, of which he was president. Bringing black and brown and white together on the streets of South Chicago as a community organizer. Working across the aisle in the Illinois Legislature and the U.S. Senate to pass legislation.

A Texas Republican who has worked as an aide to George W. Bush said, "Barack Obama is a walking, talking hope machine. People see him as a reflection of what is good and great about America. He's like a mirror of what people think we ought to be. He is successful, talented, respectful, moderate, judicious, thoughtful and deeply human. I think people see him as a human bridge that can unite the country," adding that Obama could become "healer-in-chief."

Senator Obama not only has a track record of reconciling partisan divisions in this country, his candidacy is also healing racial, cultural, class and religious divisions. And I see him as the best hope for getting the United States out of Iraq and restored to the family of nations.

Barack has said many times that his campaign isn't so much about him as it is a movement of people from the grassroots, from the bottom up, not the top down. He once said, "I'm a Democrat because we are the party that believes we are all in this together." Emphasis on we. Here in Goshen for Obama, we indeed have a number of Democrats, but this movement also has many independents (like me) and, yes, Republicans -- also known as Obamicans.

Here in Goshen we celebrate the opening of this facility. We want to thank Eric Kanagy, CEO of RedPost Inc. for making the space available. And I'm deeply grateful to all the dozens and dozens of volunteers who are working on many fronts in Elkhart County to help Barack Obama become the next president of the United States.

Indiana is relevant. Barack needs us. Now let's keep registering voters right on through Monday afternoon!