choc tops and hillsong

so... today was a good day. i went to hillsong! let me start with yesterday though...
i got to sleep in and didn't wake up til 12:30 (the latest i've slept in since i've been here... i couldn't believe i slept in that late). all my roommates were gone, so i basically got the day to hang out by myself. i got to call home, get some stuff done, and spend some much-needed quality time with Jesus, which was awesome! then elle came home and we went out again with some other girls from the program. we walked around a lot and couldn't get into a lot of clubs because the girls didn't have their ids (they had their isic cards, which don't really work even though they are technically ids and have your birthday on them...) but then this one place let them in, which was awesome because it's my new favorite. it's called 3 wise monkeys, and it has 3 floors. the first is like a pub, the second is just a bar and hangout, and the third has live music and dancing. it was awesome! there was a really good band that was doing all covers, but they were super talented and fun. then during their breaks there was dancing, which was fun. i think i like this club the best mainly because i love live shows, but also because i can only stand so much dancing before i get sick of it, and that's not the only thing to do there. so that was pretty exciting. o, and also i saw the real world house! woohoo! i'm gonna go back during the day and get pictures... it's very exciting.
today i went to the last of the 4 required churches: the uniting church. the first thing that struck me was that the pastor was a woman. and not like a young woman... she was probably in her 70s. i'm not really sure what my opinion of having a woman as the head of a church is, but i still thought it was impressive mainly because she's so old. but the biggest thing that i liked about it was the fact that everyone was so incredibly nice. i'm not even lying: every single person came and greeted us during the peace time or whatever (like in a catholic church where you shake hands and say "peace be with you." they did that.) and then they all invited us to come have tea and talked to us more there. it was nothing too impressive or challenging, but the people were really cool.
after church and some lunch elle, esther, and i went and found paddy's market downtown. i had heard about it from everyone, but it's one of those things you have to experience. it's not quite as cool and funky as glebe or paddington, but everything is SO cheap and there's a lot of fun stuff to take home to people. i was pretty excited about it.
from there we hopped the train to go to hillsong (the hills). all i knew about getting there was that we had to go to this place called parramatta (which, turns out, is not part of our cityrail pass, but somehow we got through without paying extra), and from there a hillsong bus would pick us up. but we didn't know exactly where the bus would be, and we couldn't find the signs or any big crowds waiting for a bus, so we asked around. no one seemed to know for sure where it would be, so we walked around trying to find it. we were walking back to this one stop where we knew there would be a bus to the right area when all of a sudden the hillsong bus passed us going right in the direction we had come from! so we turned around and ran after it, but we couldn't keep up and lost it. so we're standing around super confused, when there goes the hillsong bus right back the direction it had come from! so we turn around again and start booking it trying to keep up, and elle's waving trying to flag it down while still running and screaming. we ran probably about 2 blocks and saw it pull over right where we had been waiting in the first place. so we're huffing and puffing and the bus driver is laughing at us, and i asked if he had seen us. he goes (all laid back), "yea, but no worries. i would have waited for you." gotta love the aussies. so after that exciting adventure, we rode the bus for about 15 minutes to the church. it was absolutely huge! which was not surprising, but still.
i wasn't really sure what to expect, but i was somewhat skeptical about hillsong, just because it is so big and well-known. we walked into the sanctuary from the bottom level, which was cool because it has like stadium seating, so i could look up at all the people. it was packed! we ended up getting seats way in the top corner because we got there right as it was starting, but i didn't mind. i was excited about worship because, well, it's hillsong. but i was super excited when worship actually started. my favorite thing was the fact that there were no spotlights on the worship team. at ccu chapels they never have lights on the worship band because they want worship to be about God, and not the people leading it. so the fact that this huge band that would still have a following even if they did put the spotlight on themselves didn't have one was very impressive to me. the worship was awesome, and i love that everyone was not afraid to get into it. people were jumping and raising their hands and just going crazy worshipping God. it was definitely flashy and had enormous screens and everything, but it didn't feel fake, which i was worried about. the speaker was this guy who's name i can't remember, and his message was really good. he talked about how a lot of times people will just live their lives through other people, and all their beliefs and experiences will be based off of second-hand accounts instead of first-hand encounters. he said that we need to seek those first-hand encounters because our beliefs won't be true unless we have those experiences for ourselves. he also tied it into worship and how sometimes people will do things like raise their hands or jump around not because they are feeling the presence of God, but because everyone around them is doing it. i was glad that he said that, because i think it is so easy to get caught up in the moment and the fun of going crazy during worship, and we forget that it is all about God.
basically i was very impressed with hillsong, and i definitely want to go back. even though it is massive, i still felt like it is true to what it claims, and i really think that they just love the Lord there.
also, everyone was so freakin trendy. seriously, i don't think i saw one person that wasn't dressed all cute and trendy. but that's kinda how i feel about australia in general...
ps: choc tops are chocolate dipped cones at hungry jacks (burger king) for a dollar. you can also just get a regular cone for 50 cents, but the choc top is way better. mmmm