As of Tuesday evening, all 2023 Team Australia members have now safely returned from Australia to their respective final destinations! The return trip home from Brisbane to Los Angeles was “only” 13.5 hours which was at least 2 hours shorter than our initial Los Angeles to Melbourne flight. Although the flight was relatively smooth cruising at 39,000 feet, the most challenging part was making sure that all our checked-in luggage was under 30 kg (70 lbs).
Because this was the first time that our flight left at night (normally we would depart Australia on a morning flight), we believe that this will help our bodies to readjust quicker to our normal time zones (our members in the Southeast/Atlanta region traveled from/through 11 time zones including crossing the International Date Line). Oddly enough, we left Australia at 9:40 pm Monday evening and arrived into Los Angeles at 6:05 pm Monday evening.
Although the team was quite tired, throughout the trip each one stepped up and gave of themselves sacrificially for the cause of Christ. Only eternity will tell of the impact they made in the lives and hearts of all the people they ministered to. Each one has written their testimony of the trip which will be shared in a future post as well as a trip wrap-up.
One final blessing at the end of our trip was meeting our LAX hotel driver William. Upon looking for the shuttle to ride to our hotel, Mrs. Cirone hailed a shuttle that she thought had the name of our hotel on it, but wasn’t really sure if it was the correct shuttle. When the driver stopped and when Mrs. Cirone explained where we needed to go, William mentioned that he was not planning on going there, but that for us, he would take the five of us straight to the hotel. Obviously thrilled, we boarded the shuttle and had a great conversation about the Lord as we traveled to our hotel. Finding out that William was a believer, he kept sharing how blessed he was and how good God has been to him. Upon noticing that William was wearing a Marines cap, we had another common bond and talking point as the Cirone’s son is currently training to be a Marine pilot. We inquired about his Marine’s experience and expressed our sincere gratitude for William’s service to our country.
While William was such an encouragement to us, he did share his heartfelt burden that his wife needed to take that next step and trust Christ as her Savior. We encouraged him to keep being a Christ-like example as God would use that in his wife’s life to impact her heart for the Lord. In asking if he had a smart phone, he said that he didn’t but that his wife did as we then gave him a Good Question tract that she could scan and hear a clear Gospel presentation. Although we gave him a generous tip for giving us great door-to-door service, it was neat that he was more interested in and kept saying that he wanted that tract so that he could give it to his wife. We concluded by telling him to tell his wife that we had a specific word from Lord from Campus Church in Pensacola, Florida, that we wanted her to hear. Please pray that William’s wife will not only listen to the Good Question video, but will also eventually accept the Lord as her personal Savior.
Praising God for His Goodness and Safety,
Team Australia