Hermanus & Chantalle Engelbrecht (D) of Pretoria and William & Bev Warmington (D) of Germiston flew to Sydney, Australia on 10 October to attend 5th DMI Conference from 12—16 October. On our arrival, the next day we were picked up by Ps. Stanley Grimmett (D) to stay overnight with him and his wife, Barbara (HoH). Then Stanley drove us all down 1½ hours south of Sydney to Stanwell Tops Conference Centre near the city of Wollongong. It was a lovely place, in beautiful Australian bush land with a view of the Pacific Ocean; near to beaches and other scenic spots. The conference centre has the conference hall, dining room overlooking the forest. There were many rooms where two or three couples shared.

The theme of the conference was "I am not ashamed of the Gospel …" Romans 1:16. About 120 Deafies from 20 countries with some interpreters attended the Conference and 30 visitors on Saturday.

On Wednesday evening the conference began with the flag ceremony with 'JESUS' flag (belonging to Hermanus) leading the way. The delegates with the flags representing different nations followed. Ps. Chad Entiger (D), Director of Deaf Missions of USA, was the main speaker throughout the meetings. Ps. Josephat Mulongo (D) of Kenya and Ps. Heo Inyeoung (D) of South Korea preached on Thursday. There was an outing on Friday—two groups chose eitherto go to Sydney or the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney for the day. Unfortunately there was a heavy mist on the Blue Mountains and one couldn't see the Three Sisters. Robert Turnbull (H) of Australia shared God's Word with us that night. Ps. William Warmington (D) of South Africa preached on Saturday afternoon and Ps. Rod Chapman (D) of Australia preached that night.There were competent interpreters signing in own Sign Languages. On Sunday morning Ps. Rod Chapman concluded the Conference with the Breaking of Bread. It was a VERY blessed time when many new friends were made.

Many delegates flew home while the rest of us remained for the post-conference tours to Melbourne. About 30 of us went on a hired coach to Canberra, the capital city of Australia where Elana (D) had arranged with her home church people to host the delegates in their houses for two nights. The next morning we were dropped back tothe church from where we went on the coach for theday visiting the Parliament and the beautiful Botanic Gardens. There we had pizza for lunch. Afterwards we visited the National Museum—an interesting day. The next day we went on a sinuous drive through the forest southwards to Melbourne to Neville & Lill Muir's (H) (Directors of DMI), home where we were again taken by the deaf and hearing Melbournians for the week. Trevor &Anita Petersen (D) took us and Hermanus & Chantalle to their spacioushome. We all went on tour every day to different interesting places. A trip to the Melbourne City and a ride on the famous tram and up the Eureka Tower (88 floors), a visit to Dandenong Ranges National Park where one could feed the rainbow lorikeets and cuckatoos. Atop the Mount Dandenong we could see the vast spread of Melbourne far down below. We went for a drive round the huge harbour of Melbourne. Aboard the ferry we crossed the sea gap to theother side of the vast lagoon. After many beaches along the way, we reached Geelong where Neville Muir's brother, Ken and his wife, Gladys (H) live, for BBQ.

The next day after lunch at Susan Shannon's (D) home we went to the Philips Island to see koalas close-up, wallabies and little penguins that return in groups at dusk from the whole day hunting—so cute to watch. It was cold sitting and watching by the beach at dusk for 2 hours!

On Sunday Trevor & Anita took us four to the Monash City Church for breakfast and joined the hearing congregation for worship. Neville Muir (H) gave a presentation of his work. Rev. Prince Charles Obeng-Botang (H) from Ghana (Africa), ministry to South Korea, preached with the interpreters in AUSLAN. After that we spent the day with Trevor & Anita and Rod Chapman.

Very early the next morning Trevor droppedus at the station near his home to catch the V-Line (train) to Melbourne City. There we caught the Country-Link (train) to Sydney. It was a whole day's scenic ride on the train. We arrived in Sydney in the evening. My brother, Michael Topper (H), met us and took us to his family home where we spent two nights. On a rainy day we had a break resting from two busy weeks.

On Wednesday we hired a MAUI Campervan (at the suggestion of Michael) and wow what a BIG campervan it was! With the help of the fantastic GPS we drove northwards to Brisbane and parked at several beautiful caravan parks along the east coast. From Sundowner Breakwall TouristPark, Port Macquarie (Koala Capital of NSW) we walked for half an hour to Koala Hospital where many injured (knocked down by vehicles) or sick koalas are being kept and nurtured back to health.At the Lorikeet Tourist Park, Arrawarra near Coffs Harbour we fed many lorikeets. The kangaroos roamed freely at the caravan park. A mother with its baby in her pouch fed on the grass. After that we swam in the spa.

Then we crossed the NSW (New South Wales) / QLD (Queensland) borderline to Coolangatta where time is set one hour back. If one is too late for the bank in NSW, one can just walk over to the open bank on the QLDside—how convenient! The next day we drove along many beautiful beaches of the Gold Coast to Brisbane. We reached finally at Hans-Peter & Karen Hollstein's (D) (ex Cape-Townians, South Africa) home. My hair rose as Karen's rented house is on top of the panhandle through which William revved the campervan up the very steep driveway onto the sloping garden where we spent two nights. We slept on the inclined bed inside the campervan☺. Karen showed us around Brisbane City alongside the Brisbane River. We went on the ferry on theriver—Karen showed us that bridge under which the flood rose up to the bottom of the bridge last January. It's hard to believe how high the flood had risen flooding the buildings and how quickly the peoplerepaired the damage.Amazing! Then we met Ronald & BronwynBothma (D) with their cute daughter, Taryn for lunch—their two daughters were at school. What a lovely get-together! They are keeping well and happily settled in Brisbane now for 5 years.

The next morning Hans-Peter helped direct William to maneuver the campervan safely down the driveway before H.P. went to work. A lovely family withtwo sons, Steffan (left)& Marcus (right). The whole family live in Brisbane for 4½ years.

After dropping the campervan off at the depot near the airport, we caught the train to Brisbane City where we spent overnight at the inn. We left very early the next morning by train back to Sydney. We stayed with Michael and family for 4 days. They showed us around over the weekend. We went on ferry to Manly Beach and saw the famous Sydney Bridge with Opera House on the left. On Sunday evening we went with them to their church, C3 Church and it was wonderful worshipping there. The next day, with Michael & Sally off to work and my nieces, Courtney& Madison off to school, we caught the bus to the city and rode on the red hop-on & hop-off bus around the city. We walked to the Opera House, the beautiful botanic garden and the old government house. On the last day we caught the ferry to Taronga Zoo and saw all sorts of wild animals of Australia, Africa & some other countries and watched the seal, elephant & bird shows—very interesting! We flew home the next day.

It is good to be back home sweet home after one month abroad!

Bev Warmington (D)