I was updating my Publicity page, and I realized I'd never posted a couple of articles that ran when we were in Australia in 2009.

The Salvation Army of Australia ran an article on my performance of The Revelation in Sydney.  It's on page 9 of Creative Ministry, October 2009.

Then in January 2010 they ran a feature article on my work: Going Solo. In that article I mention how I was inspired by Curt Cloninger, who is going to be a master class instructor at MasterWorks this summer!

Some time back, while a theatre student at MasterWorks, Irene Kao sponsored a child through Compassion. When she returned home to Australia she went online to see if she could correspond electronically to save international postage. While she was there, she discovered that Compassion had an Australian branch...and that there was a job opening. She's been working for them for about three years now, and she arranged for me to perform for their national headquarters while I was there. As a bonus, I got to lead some enacted prayers for their team. Some of them were quite powerful.

If you don't already sponsor a child, you can do that right now by clicking here.

Graeme and Neryl, who arranged our trip to Australia, introduced us to an Aussie meal called The Tiger, a meat pie covered with mash (potatoes), mushy peas, and gravy. I was telling friends at church about it, and I got such a hunger for one that I made them for dinner. There was no sign of meat pies at our local grocery store, but they did have Jamaican beef patties, which actually came pretty close. Yum!

This Thursday at Thirst, we'll be sharing some of the miracles that took place surrounding our performances in Australia and New Zealand as a kick off to the study of the miraculous Exodus. Hope you can join us for Aussie snacks at 6:30pm: WestchesterChapel.org.

Here's a brief report from Sunday:

Joyce and I walk past a flock of geese on the way to church each week. They can be intimidating, but we're glad they aren't equipped with knife-like claws like Australia's cassowary.

We were blown away by the animals of Australia!

One bite from this Inland Taipan has enough venom to kill 100 humans

We saw 130 species only found natively in Oz in this wildlife park located right on Sydney's Darling Harbour.

As we touched down at JFK, Joyce said, "There and back again." We've seen the wonderful land of Oz and Middle Earth on the same glorious adventure. Bilbo would be proud.

So many prayers were answered on this journey, and so many times we saw God move more mightily than we dared Hope.

One small miracle was that, despite the fact that we booked all of Joyce's legs with frequent flyer miles and we were rarely told (or offered a choice) of seat assignments on any of the seven flights we took, God always answered our prayer that we sit together. Now that we're back in NYC it's been about 31 hours since our last shower, so you'll get no proof of this last miraculous seating!

The only exception was that flight to Taupo, where there was only one seat on either side of the aisle. But we could still smooch across it and see the other's coastal view as we treasured times away from the performances as our 13th honeymoon.

To our friends Down Under,
We're in LA, and we've never been so pleased to have had a delayed flight! It reduced our layover at LAX from 9 to 4 hours. Much better.

Coming through customs an officer asked us if we were carrying any TimTams. We told him we were, and he said, "They're illegal. You must give them all to me."

Grateful for humor at immigration, and a stock of our TimTations (which will run out all too soon) we're glad to relive Saturday. With all the delays we're not sure when we actually lifted off, but we arrived about six hours before our scheduled departure. It makes up for that Wednesday we missed heading over. How's that for fun? We exchanged a weekday for an extra weekend day!

But oh how we miss it Down Under! The flaura and fawna were amazing, but it was the people that made it such an absolute joy!

Thanks for your part in making this the trip of a lifetime!

Can't wait to get back!!!

In Christ alone,
Rich & Joyce Swingle

When we were in Sydney we performed at the William Booth House, a drug rehabilitation facility. I performed Sheepish and led a bibliodrama and some enacted prayer, while the Sydney Staff Songsters blew us all away with sweet music. Graeme Press, who leads the Songsters just sent me the following quote from one of the pre-believing residents: "I didn't know that anyone, including the Salvation Army, could care enough for me to succeed in this program so much that they would give us a night like last night." Succeed, my friend, succeed!!!