You'll Have to Look Up My Sister

If anything has been constant for us in Australia thus far, it has been the unexpected. In a nutshell, nothing has gone the way that we anticipated. Take, for example, our desire to take a two-week road trip at the end of our 90 days in Australia to see the Great Barrier Reef and the Outback. When we mentioned this to our hosts in Newcastle, they promptly said, "You can't wait until then; it will be the rainy season and everything shuts down up there." To make a long story short, we found ourselves packing for our trip the following morning.

Initially, I wrestled with the thought of "vacationing" before having "earned" it. But then I quickly realized that God had His schedule and I had mine. While I have relayed a couple of things that God did while we were out on the road, I neglected to share the one below. I think you'll enjoy it.

The second morning of our road trip, we found ourselves overlooking the ocean. Something was different, however. As I looked over the blue waters, the rolling waves, the birds flying above, and the beautiful sand, Susan pointed it out to me: there was absolutely no development. There were no roads, no houses, nothing. It was, in a word, natural. The view was gorgeous.

Up on the bluff, an elderly man and his wife were taking in the view. We started talking with them about where to find koalas, etc. Susan then mentioned to them that we intended to go to Lightning Ridge to look for black opal. Lightning Ridge is in the Outback (about 500 miles away!) and apparently is the only place on the globe where black opal is found. "Oh," replied the elderly man, "you'll have to look up my sister when you are in Lightning Ridge. She and her husband used to mine black opal. Their name should be in the phone book." We had nothing with which to write, so we attempted to memorize her name, Robin Hutchinson. "There is no 'n,' in her last name," the elderly gentleman corrected me. To be brutally honest, I didn't care if it were Batman & Robin, I was just pacifying him. "Oh, okay," I replied, "H...u...t...c...h...i...s...o...n...." "Right," he replied.

When we reached the car, Susan wanted me to write the woman's name down. To be frank, I had no intention of looking up some lady and her husband, but I wrote her name down anyway.

(Fast forward about ten days.) We arrive in Lightning Ridge, which is as attractive as Trona, California. (Note: for those of you who have not been to Trona, you are missing out on a good laugh about now, so just go ahead and yucked it up for a second and then get back to the story.) We pull up to the visitor center and Susan asks the woman at the desk if she knows Robin Hutchison. "Yes, I do. She is a lovely woman." And, what do you know, she also had her phone number. Sometimes I can get my mind set on doing one thing (and nothing else) and I don't care to change my plans. This was one of those times. I just wanted to search for some black opal with the kids, get a Coke, and go camp. I was NOT in the mood to visit anyone, let alone a complete stranger.

But God had a different plan. Lightning Ridge has a population of about 3,000 and daytime temperatures reach about the same. As such, when we were driving around the town and I saw an Olympic-sized pool, which was open to the public, I quickly pulled to the side of the road and stopped to see how much it cost to get in. "$3.50" stated the clerk. With that wonderful news, it was not long before Amy, Tyler, and I were in our bathing suits.

The pool was truly Olympic-sized: 50 meters long with ten (or more) lanes. No wonder the Aussies are so good in Olympic swimming. We were in heaven. Susan, however, was on the phone with the woman, Robin. Before long, Susan informed me that the lady was coming to the pool for a visit.

When the woman came, she and Susan hit it off immediately. The woman looked at Susan's cross necklace and asked if she were a Christian. Before I knew it, Mrs. Hutchison was taking us for a tour (in her four-wheel drive) of the opal mines in the Outback. I have never seen a grandma so comfortable driving through pot holes!

After our two-hour tour of the opal mine sites, Mrs. Hutchison took us to her house. We met her husband, Ken, and sat down for tea. Two hours later, we had seen numerous beautiful paintings that she had painted, eaten fresh honey (straight from their backyard beehive), and learned that Ken was once an avid surfer. In fact, Ken so enjoyed talking about surfing with Tyler and me that he gave us a color photograph of the surfing spot at which he used to surf. It is located about 40 miles south of Sydney. Tyler and I promised to go surf the spot for him.

As we left their home that late afternoon, Susan and Mrs. Hutchison exchanged addresses. Who would have thought that we would drive 500 miles from the place where we first met her brother to her home? Not me. Who would have thought that Amy and Tyler would have discovered a new hobby (involving opals) only weeks before we left for our trip that would cause us to go to Lightning Ridge in the first place? Truly, God is directing our steps, even when I (in my ignorance) don't realize it.