I have always held the opinion that if God had wanted me to see the sun rise, He would have scheduled it for later in the day, but that opinion is under review since I took this picture last week. I shudder to think of how many spectacular sunrises I've missed.

We have announced a major decision this week - we will be moving back to Canada later this summer! The reasons are laid out in our June newsletter (download a copy here), but in a nutshell the media work and ministry opportunities before us will be best accomplished there, and our girls (especially Shaniah) will be better served by a more traditional school setting. There are several challenges ahead: locating permanent housing; getting the girls into school; finding an affordable car; resettling into a new home church.

We are excited about the opportunities ahead of us. I have been asked to develop an internet presence (including video) for a leadership training ministry in Toronto, I'll be finishing the editing process on the Australia video I shot last month, and I'm filming in Thailand for three weeks next month. Also, I have been developing a new outreach tool for churches whereby they can provide a short video introduction to their church on their website. All of this requires us to be closer to the people we serve.

So, here's the plan. I'm in Thailand from June 20 to July 15. After I get back we'll spend a few weeks tying up some final loose ends here, and then we'll fly back to civilization on or about August 1.

Fasten your seatbelts... it's bound to be quite a ride!

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A few of my favorite Maddy Moments... enjoy!

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Aside from skipping over time zones, international travel messes with your head. For three weeks, I was in a parallel universe. As life continued as usual with Lynn and the girls here in the DR - homeschool, piano lessons, church - I was basically on my own, reliving my days of road trips, sleeping on friends sofas, just watching out for me. Don't worry. Nothing wild 'n crazy happened. But it was just strange. It feels good to be back home with the family. Shaniah and I have been walking around the block in the mornings to feed some dogs (her first real job!), and I have joyfully reconnected with our church family at The Gathering.

I have a few videos to shoot this week. One rental villa, one for a missionary, one music video for a friend, and ISV is back for the summer and I ought to be filming them too. And I've been asked to film in Thailand for three weeks at the end of June, too, so life never stays quiet for long. But for now, it's just good to be home.

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I finished up filming at Fraser last Tuesday, with two nights camping on the beach. We were able to cover a lot of ground while there, and filled in most of the material I needed for the video. The only flaw was our inability to find Dingos to film. In all his years guiding on the island, this was the first time Patrick had failed to see at least one Dingo. We suspect that the Ministry of Parks is exterminating them quietly, but we are hoping that because it is mating season, they are simply back in the woods away from people doing their thing. But I owe Patrick and Louise a debt of gratitude for putting me up when we weren't on the island, and introducing me to their wonderful part of the world. (See "Sand Down Under" for a look at the project.)

Things weren't quite as rushed after that, so I took an extra day on the drive back to Sydney, spending the night at a backpacker hostel in the surfing mecca of Byron Bay. I took some time to climb to the lighthouse at Cape Byron, the most easterly point on mainland Australia, before making my way down to a little inn in Karuah, just a few hours north of Sydney. The next few days were spent making connections with my DVD production company in Adelaide, and with the media department of the Ministry of Parks, who will be shipping me some of their Dingo footage.

This morning, I discovered that Hillsong Church had a city campus just ten minutes from where I was staying, so I decided to check it out. For the most part, I was glad I went. The music and message were first class, and the atmosphere was very warm and friendly. I still had the feeling though, and my non-churched friends here confirmed it, that vast numbers of people would not be attracted despite the band and smoke and lights. It's great for Christians, I think, but people still need to be exposed to the Gospel in the context of a relationship. To their credit, they provide those opportunities too.

So tomorrow the journey home begins. A 2:00pm flight to LA, arriving the same day at 10:00am (get your head around that), followed by a flight to NYC arriving at 11:00pm, and then a flight to Miami and then Puerto Plata by Tuesday at 3:00.

The trip has been a success, but I can't wait to get home. I missed Shaniah's birthday and Mother's Day, so I've got some making up to do!

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Now there are two words you've probably never put together. And I wonder why? Other than not wanting to be too closely associated with the extremist tree-hugger types out there, it seems like an almost biblical concept. God created all of this and then pronounced us managers, right? At the minimum, we ought to at least express some concern when we see the environment being trashed, but I have yet to hear a sermon preached on the subject.

I spent today with a 72 year-old aboriginal elder named Marie. We walked around Fraser Island a bit, her home, and she relected on what human traffic has brought to the place. Not much of it was positive. Fraser is home to half of the world's perched dune lakes: fresh water suspended on a layer of sediment in the sand. Lake McKenzie (above) is one of these. It is a closed system, meaning that it is not spring fed. Water is added when it rains, and exits through evaporation. The water is actually quite acidic, but a few fish species survive in it. The problem is that hundreds of people, slathered in sunsblock and bug spray, swim in it every day, doing all kinds of damage. They get to the lake in trucks and buses, again not helping the environment.

I think I've mentioned the dingoes. Fraser is home to the last remaining pack of these purebred Asian wolves. A well-publicized dingo attack in '91, where a boy died, launched a movement to see the dogs exterminated. There have been a few minor bitings in the years since, and the Ministry of Parks and Wildlife (or sparks and wildfire, as they are affectionately known) seems bent on eliminating the animals. Problem is, we have found the source of the problem, and the problem is... us. People let their kids wander around the island, and you know kid and puppies. And they leave food scraps around, and you know food scraps and dogs. We need to exercise care around the dingos, but extermination seems a little severe, especially for an endangered species. It's kind of funny. They've erected cages around picnic areas, so tourists won't be harrassed by the dingos. I wonder if the dingos aren't silently amused at these cages we've built to contain the humans.

I can't help but wonder if there ought not to be a greater role for Christians to play in conservation. I'm not about to run out and join Greenpeace, but hey, didn't God give us a job to do?

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I just finished two days of shooting on Fraser, and the conditions couldn't have been better. All the rain from Sydney to here, as much as it was needed, didn't leave me very optimistic, but my fears were unfounded. Things were perfect. This image was actually stitched together from three photos taken from the top of Indian Rock, the second-most easterly point in Australia (first is down at Byron Bay, by about 12'). It is not unusual to spot schools of sharks - including the odd Great White - feeding on massive schools of smaller fish.

To the left you can see a few massive "sand blows". Breaks in the vegetation give the easterly winds the opportunity to push the sand around, covering everything in it's path. This island is all sand, several hundred feet deep and high, hence the name of the project - Sand Down Under.

One of the unique things about Fraser is that it is the last stand for the Asian wolf, otherwise known as the Dingo. Around 100 remain, and they are in danger of extinction at the hands of the wildlife service of all people, who are convinced that they are nothing more than ferrel predators that must be eliminated. While there have been some well-publicized dingo attacks, most agree that these have been brought on by careless human interaction with the dingo, and the local population is quite concerned. We are planning to spend a few nights on Fraser early next week to get some footage of these amazing creatures before it is too late, and hopefully bring some awareness to their plight.

PS. You Mac users out their can stitch your own images together using Double Take.

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