Crikey!

In memory of Steve Irwin, we are including pictures of crocs that we saw in the Outback. They are a protected species (as are all the many deadly critters here), so they are VERY plentiful! (In fact we have a good Aussie friend whose husband was eaten by a croc while fishing) The smaller one on the branch is a fresh water crocodile and not really dangerous unless threatened—he just “nibbles”. The Australia Zoo and Crocoseum are only about 30 min from us. Steve was a hero to so many! We had prayed that there would be some public confirmation of Steve’s reported conversion if it were true. Less than 5% of Australians even attend church—most consider themselves athiests. Please pray for the effectiveness of the Gospel message here. David Cunningham is the PCA missionary pastor of our church here. You can listen to his sermons at http://www.christcommunity.org.au/ (Sunday Sept 17th, not yet posted, was especially good.)
Patriotism is beginning to grow here. “True Blue” (the song at the end of the memorial) means “patriotic.” The emu and the kangaroo are symbols on Australia’s national coat of arms because neither is capable of moving backward. Many young people are looking for national identity and unity, and they admire the US for our patriotism.
Within the next few days, we’re planning to blog information on two of the three mammal categories which make AU so unique and interesting. The three categories are separated by the way they produce their young and include Placental (people and most animals we are familiar with); Marsupial and Monotreme.
Picturesque that Aussies refer to “being with child” as “she fell pregnant”. (Sounds like a plague doesn’t it? :)