Southern Comfort

 
 
Americans love their guns. We attempted to find out why by trying out a Glock at the local shooting range.

Josh and Emily Youssef

 
After church we shared lunch with Josh and Emily Youssef. Josh heads up Leading the Way media ministry, is a student at RTS - and looks very much like a younger Prince Andrew.

Megachurch Adventures

 
 
 
 
Michael Youssef trained at Moore College in the 70s, and served as curate at an anglican church in Sydney where he met and married his wife Elizabeth. They moved to Atlanta in the early 80s, where Michael founded The Church of the Apostles. It's now a huge church on a sprawling $50 million campus, and Michael is broadcast all over the world through the church media arm "Leading the Way." Michael and Elizabeth were delighted to meet Louise, as her dad had been a huge influence on them in Sydney back in the 70s. Oddly, they were also previous tenants in exactly the same Moore College accomodation that Lou and I lived in a decade later. We were able to reminisce about the kitchen decor.

Meet the Lowes

 
 
 
Bruce and Rachel Lowe are living in Atlanta (which though it starts and ends with A, is different from Alabama), where Bruce is lecturing in New Testament at the Reformed Theological Seminary (RTS). Their four kids Elizabeth, Jimmy, Josh and Jonathan are a real delight. We've had a great time visiting with them, attending church together this morning, and getting to know some of their friends.

Welcome to Atlanta

 
 
Atlanta, Georgia, is a city of around 6.5 million people (slightly bigger than Sydney), and one of the most prosperous cities in the USA... and the world. Coca Cola is based here, as is Ted Turner's CNN TV network, and Delta Airlines. We're here to visit our friends Bruce and Rachel Lowe, who you'll meet in the next post.

Goodbye IGH

 
 
Saturday 22nd, it was goodbye to the International Guest House in DC. A fun place to stay, and nice to find a sense of community among travellers. From here it was a Delta flight to Atlanta.

Real Stuff

 
 
 
A quick stroll from Capital Hill took us to the Smithsonian's Flight and Aerospace Museum. Aldrin's real moon suit, the real lunar lander, and the Wright brothers' real 1903 "Flyer" were all there in front of us.