You have probably heard it said that where God calls... He provides and opens doors to make the ministry to which He has called possible. God called us several years ago to serve as church planters in Western Australia and he provided a way for us to fulfill that ministry. Many of you have known that we have been applying to become career missionaries in order to continue our ministry that He has called us to in Australia. The doors were openned and God lead us through the application process.

I am very pleased and overjoyed to report that we have recently been approved and appointed as career missionaries to Australia. We are very excited to be able to be involved in the ministry and the advancement of the church here in Australia on a long term basis. We will be returning to the US on December 8th and raising our support package and raising up partners that will stand with us as we follow God's call. If you are interested in how you can join us in this ministry, email me at any time at snickergeorge24@msn.com.

Our family is doing well and we are getting excited about the birth of our third child (a son) in March. Our kids are getting very excited as well about getting to play in the snow when we arrive in the almost certain to be snow-covered Western NY. It will be nice to spend Christmas with our family and to be able to sled on Dawson's birthday. Thank you everyone for your prayers for our family and our ministry, God is using you to influence His people around the world.

District Conference- Kids Camp!
District Conference was a blast. Our kids did EXCELLENT on the airplane, except on the way there until dawson fell asleep (2 hours into the flight) he kept saying. "Gotta get off" we are lost. "Gotta get off" we are lost! He was cute, but I gave him some phenergen which knocked him woozy and then he could relax for the next 2 hours. He can be a bit uptight. :) I guess I should probably add here. YES! WE FLY 4 HOURS TO GET TO DISTRICT CONFERENCE! , It's like the distance from NY to LA almost to get to the east coast. However, on the way home he did excellent, let's just hope they keep up this track record for our flight to the states in December. Back to district conference. We arrived at camp on Saturday morning at 9:00 after a three hour drive, from Melbourne to an island called Philip Island. It is normally really cold and windy, but for the most part we had really good weather for Melbourne.
The kids showed up at 9:30. And, I was a bit stressed at first, just because I didn't know where anything was, I brought 20 kilos of craft supplies. But, I got organized quickly and we had a Super week learning about super heroes in the Bible. (This material "Super Heroes unmasked was donated to us by Cuba Wesleyan church) and this is the second time I have gotten to use it and I thank Cuba for blessing us with the materials! THANK YOU! The kids studied Daniel, Esther, Noah, Jesus, David and Goliath, and we did many crafts, and the most exciting thing, was for the first time in at least 5 years I know of, the kids sang on Sunday night for the adults in the service. They did such a good job! We also got to use outdoor equipment, which I was a bit scared since I was the person trained to use it, so here I am pregnant and spotting all these kids. But, we had a wonderful time doing the low ropes course, a boulder wall, a flying fox ( Had 2 staff help on this since I can't really lift), and many other activities. The only major problem we had, was my DVD's would not work on the DVD player in Melbourne, wrong code. (Isn't that weird!) But, they do play in Perth, so anyways. we just came up with more games, and things to do, in place of the 20 minute veggie tale super hero clips. Well, I will attach some pictures. But, I felt great the entire time, I had SUCH A good time. There was one scary moment, and I will share this... Because I believe people were praying on Sunday night 7:00pm (Sunday morning 7AM, your time)...
This campground is quite large. Probably about the size of Chambers camp if you have ever been to Central New York District Wesleyan Campground. But, we were in the dining hall having dinner and we were sitting at a table, Chris, Myself, Dawson, and a bunch of adults (all talking). Well, Makayla came up and asked me to take her to the bathroom. So, I took her, were were gone maybe 2 minutes. Came back, and dawson wasn't in his chair. But, I thought he must have gone into the sanctuary, where I told all the kids to go. When I got in there he wasn't there. Then, suddenly this lady comes running up to me and says there is a baby crying REALLY loud up in the dorm rooms. So, I thought .... " I am the only one with a baby?? (2 yr old)". So, I went tearing up there, and he was not in the dorm rooms, but dawson was all the way up past the dorm rooms, through some trees, through a field, and up in the next set of trees, right next to a busy main road. Standing up there SCREAMING! It was pitch dark! He was completely safe, but completely terrified. All he had was a few scrapes on his face from sword grass, tall grass. But, God protected Dawson from all the terrible things that could have happened, there were two lakes on the campground, surrounded by main roads, and how he got up there... I did find out......
The kids ran up to check on their super hero capes in the crafts room, took Dawson with them.... then when they came back, they forgot him... So, then he was lost and did not know where to go... FUNNY enough. he did go to our dorm room, but then when the lady who heard him opened the door, he took off running up into the woods, but would not let her touch him or pick him up. So, God also sent an "angel" in the form of this lady who happened to be at the right place at the right time, so that she could watch over him and make sure even though he was RUNNING ALL OVER screaming, that he would not be harmed.

After this whole ordeal. I held Dawson, and within 2 minutes he was asleep. So, he did not get to sing Sunday night with the kids even though he knew all the songs. Here are some pics from the weekend. IF you would like to see all of them. Email me and I will send you them in an email attachment.

Craft Time

Singing in th Sunday night Service. Jesus You're my super Hero

Chris riding the giant swing. They take you up in the air. and then drop you and you swing notice how high, he is to the building behind.

Super Camp kids

Dawson riding half of the flying fox. We only pulled him up about 6 metres instead of 8.

We serve a God who is Amazing!

For the last 15 weeks Melissa's thyroid has been over working causing what should have been many problems for our litle baby. However, our God is bigger and more amazing than any medical problem or concern. The baby has been growing completely up to date. They keep doing measurements etc. And, the baby is RIGHT on schedule. (It should be VERY tiny). But, our God is bigger. Melissa went for her blood test this week. And, our God is bigger than any numbers! The blood test came back clear. Melissa's thyroid has decided to work perfectly normal. (so they say...) But, we know that our God is bigger and that he has, is, and will continue take care of our littly baby that is growing. Thank you for your prayers. We Praise God for his protection, curing the problem (Without medication!), and for his love.

Join with us in Praising God! We are now 16 weeks along...

God has blessed us with the exciting news that we are going to have a new little George join our family. This is very exciting yet scarey at the same time becusae we are venturing into being outnumbered territory! So far the pregnancy has gone well. Pray for Melissa as she is VERY tired and having to face all day sickness. Hopefully this will pass in the next few weeks. We have neer had an ultrasound this early with either of our other two children. But, here is our first picture of this baby at only 7 weeks. We are now 9 weeks.

Also pray for Melissa as she has committed to directing our district Children's camp in Meblourne in September and this is a HUGE time commitment. Please pray that God would give her the energy and time to be able to direct this camp to the best of her ability. It will be just her and one other lady, as it is during our district conference that goes for three days. So, we will only have the children 7 hours a day. But, pray that Melissa will know how to plan this whole event.

Makayla turned 5!

Our little girl is 5. Hard to believe. We have been blessed with her joyfull presence for the last 5 years. She is spontaneous, outgoing, full of laughter, always smiling, and the sweetest thing we know. And, she is God's little girl. She loves Jesus with her whole heart and loves to tell the world. For her birthday this year, we decided to invite all the girls from her class, since we have been encouraging her all year to make friends, we felt it was only right to invite all her friends. So, she decided to have a princess party, which was fine with us. She dressed up thanks to Grandma Wilday as Cinderella, and she had a day full of fun.

August 10th, the 3rd church in Perth, Australia was officially started. A pastor named Tony has come from Melbourne who is a Tongan pastor and is starting a church plant south of the City. There were probably 100 people in attendance as people from our other two churches also attended. But, there were probably atleast 40 Tongan people there which is very exciting! This church is not only going to be reaching Tongan's but it will also be a multicultural church plant. Please pray for Pastor Tony and his family as the venture to fulfill what God has called them to do. They had a beautifull worship team that sang in english and in their native tongue. The teens and worship team also did some "action songs" to some music and it was beautifull!

August 3, 2008
Was an exciting day to look forward to where our church is headed. Chris preached on vision for our church, and we had a wonderfull time of fellowship after the service. We even had a new couple ( from NZ) in our midst on that evening. After the serice we had pizza and we got down to business with the D.S.. Our church is so willing to do whatever God has called them to. Since I was the treasurer for the last year, because NO ONE would do it, I had to give a vision to the church with the D.S. help of the church stepping up to take a big step of faith. We have paid all of our bills for the past three years. But, the church has yet to start to take on any responsibility of paying a pastor. So, praise God! A decision was made to start to put away a PAstor's salary of one day a week, so that the church hopefully by the end of our next career term. (4 years!) would be able to afford a pastor full time! This is a huge step of faith. There were definitely some concerns. It means the church would need to bring in 2x as mush tithe as it did last year. But, you know what! Our God is good! And, our God is bigger than any of the problems we face. And, our people know that, so they have taken a leap of faith! Many other things exciting happened as well. One of our church members has answered God's all on her life to be a chaplain in the public school system. So, now she is going to start classes to become a lay minister! God is good, and our church is ready to look forward to the future of what HE holds for the Landsdale Community Wesleyan Methodist Church.

Laser Tag is Awesome!

I don't know how many of you have ever been to a good laser tag place and had about 15 people that you know all running around in the dark shooting one another. But if you have never been, go, it is a blast. I like it better in comparison to paint ball because I am allergic to pain and paintballs hurt. Lasers only hurt your ego.

We took two cars and a van to Darklight and had a wonderful time together. The unity within the youth grew before our very eyes and we have a new vision and passion to see God move in the lives of these young people. Please pray for them and us as we continue to run our youth group on Friday nights. Pray that we would see growth and the unity in the group would grow even more. Along with that, our youth centre is growing a bit. We now have 2 ping pong tables, 2 air hockey tables, 1 table soccer table, xbox, and playstation 2 with SingStar on the big screen. We have a great time with these teens and can't wait to see what God uses them to accomplish for His glory.

Sunday was a first for me. It was the first time that I have every had to call another pastor on my staff and ask them to preach for me because I was up with the flu all night. It broke my heart to not be able to give the message and lead the service and to be honest, I felt a little bad that I sat here on the couch "feeling better" during church while other's did what I had prepared to do. I am not a control freak, I just hated putting the extra pressure on everyone else when I had prepared everything all during the week. I am glad that I got rest and am over the flu now though and will be back in the saddle this week. Melissa told me last night that the service went well and Phil did a great job. Thanks Phil for stepping up to the plate when I needed you.

Well, I guess that is all for this post, but remember to keep us in prayer as we are in the process of applying for career missionary status and we are waiting to hear about our permanent residency visa. Pray that final dates for our travel home can be set and we can start to book churches in the US to visit while we are home. Thanks for your prayers, you are awesome.

Blessings!

I am preparing a sermon for this week on blessings. We have been going through a stewardship series and even though sometimes I hate "talking money" at church, it has been good and I am really looking forward to shining some light on how blessed we are as "middle-class" australians. It is amazing how God will often times put me through things throughout the week that gives me a better understanding of the sermon that He is preparing in my heart and mind. If I am preaching on anger, I will have a very trying week; if I am preaching on money, the temptation to buy things will be great, and so on... As I am preparing to talk about blessings this week, it gives me an opportunity to thank God for the things that He gives us and the things that He blesses us with.

To make a long story short, I got an e-mail this morning that the house that we own in Indiana (USA) will have renters in it starting next week. We have had renters in it but they moved out a week ago and we were worried that the house was going to set empty for a few months before we found someone to rent. What a blessing. A great weight is lifted off our shoulders when there is someone in the house (paying the mortgage with their rent).

I also think about my family. I have a wonderful wife who is the greatest helper both in life and in the ministry and couldn't ask for anyone better. God truly blessed me with a wonderful partner. I have two beautiful kids that are growing and learning every day. My daughter will be turning 5 on 08-08-08 (isn't that cool?) and is an outgoing girl that I love to be around. My son is a 2 year old miniature me. He is growing up so fast and just last week started stringing full sentences together. He is so good with a ball that I am sure he will make us millions someday.

I don't know about you, but I am a blessed man!

Side note... The other day I had a conversation with Makayla that worries me to great lengths. It went a bit like this...:

Mak: "Daddy, I am having a princess party for my birthday."

Dad: "Oh yeh, well that means that I can be your prince!"

Mak: "No, Ethan is my prince" (boy from school)

Dad: "You don't want daddy to be your prince?"

Mak: "No, I don't need you."

I may be in trouble... any advise from the "dad pool" out there.

Chic is finished for this term. Some of the girls have said they would like to come back and do it again. So, we will see. But, they had a really good time. Unfortunately we ended up with 15 girls in the end that came the last 5 weeks. But, the director has learned a lesson and next term we will not hand pick the girls. We will have the entire gym class, so that we are not competing with dance, and various other gym activities. The girls received a certificate for completing the program.

Side note: three girls were from Landsdale where Chris and I live. Tessa, Kristy, and Georgina. I ran into these girls the other day down at the shops. And, they said that they would like to come to youth group and hang out. Please pray for these girls. They need to make the first step to want to come. I have given them my information. And, we are offering for all the youth group to go laser tagging next week. Please pray that these girls will join us. We hopefully will have a party room for two hours and play two games of laser tag. So, Chris really wants to speak to the teens and talk to them about getting to know who Jesus Christ is.

Kids Club term 2 awards night
Last night we had term two kids club awards night. It went really well. We had 38 people at church. We had two mothers come who have not come before. So, that is exciting. And we were missing 6 regulars. So, the church is starting to grow slowly but surely. Pray for our committed families that they would make the new families feel welcome and that they would strike up conversations with the new people.

The piano concert last week, we are still finalizing how much money was raised from it. But, we do know that there was over 500 people who attended and that, that is amazing! Because, there are only 40 people in the inner city church. So, many people came who do not attend our church. Pray that these people would have made a connection in their heart with God and that they would be willing to come back for church.

Well, I need to go clean my house that has been demolished from this weekend! We hope you all have a great week, and that God will bless you all . We have seen God's hand at work in our lives and it is because you pray for us! Thank you! and may God's blessing be poured onto you!

George family

On june 26th I finally found out I did not get the job. I am okay with it. It would have been an AWESOME opportunity to meet families. Apparently someone applied who has an elementary teaching degree. So, obviously they deserve the job. I am a bit overloaded right now anyways. I am currently enrolloed in two FLAME correspondance classes through the WEsleyan church, and I am directing a kids camp in September for the entire district. So, God has given me enough on my plate already. Thank you to everyone who prayed. Amazingly, I have a really good peace. God has spoken to my heart. Thank you for praying for me! I appreciate it greatly! Your prayers have made a difference. God has settled my heart.

I found out today they are going to make a decision this sunday on the fab 4' teacher position. Please pray that if it is God's will I will get the job.
Thank you,
Melissa George

Correspondence Courses

Chris and I are licensed pastors in the Wesleyan Church, but this November we will be ordained! But, to be ordained I need to finish two more classes. This has been a step of faith, because unfortunately My time is very busy, but also our finances have been extremely tight considering the American dollar is EVEN with the Australian dollar. Because I need to get these classes done, I have stepped out in faith that God will provide the funds. Please pray with me that God will bless us with a way to pay for these classes.

AWESOME OPPORTUNITY

Recently I was asked by Makayla's teacher from last year to apply for a position in Landsdale. She is stepping down as of term 3 in July. So, I have prayed and received a green light from global partners to apply for this position. Please pray that I would have God's guidance and full confirmation before I say yes. So, what is so cool about this opportunity. I have been praying for a way to meet families in the community. And, I was thinking of opening a piano studio, or something that I could just work 5-6 hours a week at, so that I could meet families. Problem was that I would always be meeting the SAME families. However, this teaching position. Is 3-4 year olds, held at the community hall where we have church. And, is only 4 hours a week. I used to teach preschool years back and actual took a few college classes on early childhood education. So, I have applied. Here is the coolest part! I work on 4 hours a week, 2 hours prep time.. So, only 6 hours a week. Also, I would have two classes with 20 students and a parent is required to attend with each child. So, I will meet 40 FAMILIES a year in landsdale. Also, when the kids age out at the end of the year, they will age into our churches Kids club. How cool is that. God could not have brought a more awesome opportunity about. Please pray for me as I apply and I had two major conflicts with me accepting this job. 1) I already committed to direct a kids camp in Melbourne in September and would miss two days of classes. 2) We will return at the end of this year to raise funds to become career missionaries so I would miss 4 weeks of classes when we do that as well. So, I could definitely use your prayers.

Chic!

I have been teaching this term in the public high school a class by scripture union called Chic! It has been fun, trying, hard, enjoyable, yet God is using me to make a difference in 7 girls lives. These girls have been chosen to be in this program because of their behavioural problems at school.
Week 1- went great
Week 2- went alright till last 5 minutes, and one of the girls tried to beat another girl with a stick. And, I had to intervene. etc.
week 3- Went alright, except for the fact that I felt like the lesson didn't address any issues. So. then came week 4.
week 4- I followed up with the girls on the issue of inner beauty and how they are who they are on the inside, I actually got through to a lot of the girls, and they now respect me, and two of the girls even told the others to stop talking because they wanted to hear what I had to say.

Although, I have had many emotions about this program, and about working in the school. I believe God is using me and I would like you to pray for the following girls, that they would see Jesus in and through me as I share my life with them. I am not actually allowed to say the word God, and things but when the girls specifically ask me questions I am allowed to answer. So, pray that the girls would open up and continue to talk with me and ask me questions.
The girls are: Natalie (sweetheart, becoming my friend and completely respects me), Megan, Alicia (Rough on the outside, but genuinely I think just needs to know someone cares), Tessa (Real sweety, not sure why she is in this group yet), Monique, (Fighter, till the end, ad feisty!), Georgina, (First week she was in my group, gave a hard time at first, but by the end of the session she was on my side and working with me instead of against me), and Kristy.

If you could pray for them I would GREATLY appreciate it!
Thanks so much,
Melissa

Young Adult weekend in Katanning

This past weekend, we took 5 young Adults to a church in Katanning W.A. Our D.S. rode with us as well. He is Visiting all the way from Melbourne! (5 hours flight to us). We were hoping for more, but with finals in UNI only two weeks away. Many young adults needed to stay home and study. It was a 4 hour drive South East. As we arrived we had many ideas of what Katanning would be. But, had no idea that we would see how God is moving in the town of Katanning. The church is about 6 years old. It started with a Pastor who felt that God called him to holiness and from there out they now run about 50. This pastor is wanting to retire. But, God uses him every day and every Sunday to minister to the people of Katanning. We had wonderful conversations and met many people who will be in our prayers often! As we arrived this "little" town did happen to have a target, two banks, a bakery, a store that was open on Sunday morning when Melissa realized she forgot baking soda and we were making waffles! We stayed on an old boarding girl schools campus owned by the Baptist church. (Farmers daughters would stay at the school during the week and go home on weekends). We had an incredible time and on the way there we passed through a town called "Wagin" pronounced waa jing with a long A! This town had the biggest ram in the southern hemisphere. We had a wonderful time and couldn't believe it took us 3 years to finally get out there! We plan to go back and help the pastor when he would like to take a sunday off or just go out and be guest speakers. Their church service is in the morning so we would make it back in time for Landsdale. Now about our young adults. Chris and I got to know Rick Ray, Rina, Fei, and Joshua, Young who runs the Young adults ministry at the John Wesley Church came with us as well. The young adults who came with us actually attend both the Landsdale and John Wesley church, but have been attracted to our church by Pastor Young who is teaching them English. Rick Ray is a third generation Christian from Korea. Fei from China Recently accepted Christ just about 6 months ago, and has really shown growth. Rina, and Joshua also from Korea have shown growth But over all we really bonded. We stayed up till 1AM playing UNO, because no body could win.

We played all kinds of thinking games, (they like those), and just silly games! Chris and I had a wonderful time "pretending to be young adults" Although, I would like to think we still are considering we are only 27! But, God moved in us and in them, and you could see as they talked with the people in the Katanning church, that God was working in the young adults lives! Fei speaks English really well, but the rest of them, are just learning. So, it was definitely a fun experience had, but as they got to know us they were much more comfortable with trying to speak to us. Pray that as we are now home, we will be able to continue to grow our relationship with the Young adults and bring them closer to having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ!

Youth Group IGNITES!

Our Ignite youth centre Friday night had 28 youth attend! A couple of weeks ago we had this same situation however Chris and I were caught off guard. But, not this time. The teens read the rules signed youth group contracts on behaviour! And, we actually had a blast! We played group games, and were actually able to facilitate activities! It was SO much fun! Pray for us as we have to decide how to respond to this. 16 of these guys were footy players, and we want to reach them for Christ. Yet, there are some social issues that are a problem. Pray for the church as we make some decisions about how to conduct the youth centre, and whether or not we should move it to another time. The most major problem is that after the games the parents stand outside the hall drinking and having a good ol' time. However, we are a Christian organization and we do not carry a liquor license which is REQUIRED in Australia. So, we are praying for God to show us the way as we discuss this with the footy group and find an alternative solution without loosing the footy boys! We believe that God is starting to change them and they are starting to open up to us. When it was time to close we literally had to almost kick the kids out! Because, they would not leave! WE praise God for such problems and hope that you will pray with us as we seek an answer!

Friends Night at church

Also, Sunday night we had Friends night at church. A teen that I have been bringing to church named Cindy has been coming for about 8 months! This Sunday night her dad came to church and brought her 3 siblings! HOW EXCITING! God is moving here, and he is starting to change lives! Tun, Cindy's dad would like to come back. Please pray for Tun and his family!

Asking for Prayer for our Young Adult Camp!

This week our DS is coming out and we are taking the Young Adults away on a 36 hour camp! Chris and I will be running Bible Studies and group games to build leadership and a bond between all of them. Pray that we would have a good trip and that they would unite together! Also, we are Sunday morning visiting a town called Katanning which is a sheep farm town 4 hours from Perth. On Sunday morning the church will be bringing in members! WE will be there to show them our support and to also build a bridge between us and them! We will be leaving our kids in Perth. Pray that this time would be a time of bonding, that our children will do well with out us, and that an unbreakable bond and growth in who our young adults are in Christ would be made!

Mother's Day

Mother's Day was full of celebrations at church. The children made Trivets at Kids Club for their moms so we handed those out as well as the church gave to every mother a candle that said faith. We started this week our sermon series on Family and what better way to start than on Mother's Day. Chris preached an excellent sermon on what a Godly mother looks like. Funny enough, one of his points was that a Godly Mother keeps herself physically healthy. Funny enough though I was sick so everyone snickered on that point. He wasn't necessarily talking about sickness, he was talking about physically healthy. But, everyone had a good laugh and looked at me since I was SICK!

We had 33 people at church which was exciting. Our family is a bit ill at the moment with a pretty bad cold. So, pray for us to recover quickly, since the doctor has no appointments for two days! :) I have already been sick for a week, and seem to not be getting better, but we will be patient and wait it out. We have challenged every person to have a friend in church next week. Please pray for our church families as we would love to see this happen! We thank you for your prayers Chris and I feel them especially on the days when we are sick and have so much work to do for the kingdom! But, God is good and he never gives us more than we can handle.

I just wanted to post on here Happy Mother's Day to my Mother!

My mother has been a Godly example to me my whole life. She is full of love, patience, kindness, gentleness, and she is devoted to being a follower of Christ! I thank my mother for the impact she has had in my life. Whenever I am out of patience with my kids I stop and think how my mom would have reacted and it would have been with complete control and patience! I hope I am a mother like her! I love getting to talk on the phone everyweek with her and hear how she is doing and get tid bits of advice from her! I love you Mom! I hope you have a wonderful Mother's Day! XXOO

Signs, signs everywhere...I have been going through a series entitled "Road signs in the Bible". We looked at the "one way" sign where Jesus says that He is the only way to the Father. Then we looked at the "do not enter" sign where we talked about dealing with and resisting temptation. We looked at the "detour ahead" sign where we talked about times in our life when we seem to go down a different path than what we planned. This week, I will try to encourage everyone to stay on the path and run the race to completion with the "no U-turn" message. I plan my series topics well in advance and never really know what to expect when I start writing them. This series took a surprising twist and has focused much on the life of Joseph (from the OT). How he was able to handle the temptation from Potiphar's wife and then all of the detours that he faced and yet was able to still trust in his God. My life is much different than his but I think I have gained more from this series than many of my congregation. It's funny how God does that sometimes. I have heard of preaching to the choir, but what do you call it when the the preacher is preaching to the preacher... hmm!

Things are going well at the moment and we are beginning to feel the coolness of the nights as summer has officially ended. Today is our day to relax and it will be spent cleaning our house (it is easier said than done with two small kids) and spending time together at home. School goes back tomorrow for term 2 and so things will seem to be "normal" again.

The past week has been the first week of School Holidays here in Australia. It is hard to believe that term one is already over. As quickly as term one has flown so has Kids Club and Youth Group. We had our Kids Club Awards night for Term 1. All the children who attended to get their sashes had perfect attendance! Isn't that unbelievable! It excites me to know that they have so much fun being there that they come every week. I and the children have learned so many cool lessons about the fruit of the Spirit, about being Strong and Courageous about our faith, and about sharing our faith. The children sang three songs for their parents and we really did have a good time rewarding them for their work and effort. We also had one student, Thereza memorize the books of the NT and earned a Hands On Bible. (The Bible challenge is one we ran last year, and have promised that we will keep it running for the time being because our kids need Bibles in their hands that they can take home and be reading with their families!)
Term One is also always slow on attendance and we graduated 5 children to youth group. However, we have already had three families contact us and say they would like their children to participate during Term 2. So, I look forward to the next term! Please pray that people in the community would learn of Kids Club. And, that we would be overwhelmed with Children. For Once I have extra teachers! As I pray, please pray with me that next term we would have 4 children for every teacher,(20!)

Thank you to the Avon Wesleyn Church for your Easter Package
We received a wonderful Easter Package on the Thursday before Good Friday. It had suckers for the kids, and Easter books, and bunnies that sang Jesus Loves Me and little socks which Makayla won't take off her feet! And, wall hangings, and dish cloths, and all kinds of goodies! We are truly spoiled!

I can't explain the power in a package. Other than the Package is loaded with so much of God's providence for us and His care. At times when we miss our family the most and have been very homesick, we receive a package reminding us of what God has called us to do and reminding us that He knows we miss our family and friends, but at the same time He has called us Here to further His kingdom and we will do that! However, receiving a package was just the icing on a wonderfull weekend we spent doing ministry! We were spoiled with a little taste of home! Thank you so much!

Thank you to the Hyde Wesleyan Church and David and Melinda Finlay
for all their work in sending us a Valentine's Package! WE greatly appreciated it. It was such a lift for us. It arrived the day after Chris's Parents left. And, it made us feel very loved. Inside the box were all kinds of goodies God was providing for us right now! Inside were two toothbrushes, and floss! (YEAH!) we actually just that morning were saying we really needed money to go out on and get these. Also, inside was WINTER clothes for Dawson! WE desperately needed these! Somehow the boy came on this journey with no larger clothes! I guess I thought ahead for Makayla but not for Dawson. Also, was little valentine's bags and the coolest gumball machine ever! Also inside were two little gift bags for mommy and daddy! We greatly appreciate all you have done for us. It made us feel so special and cared for! Thank you almost doesn't sound like enough! We are truly blessed by your care! May God bless you abundantly in return! Here are some pics of the kids with some of the things in the package.

Our Easter Weekend!

It is the Tuesday after Easter and I can literally feel that the pace of my life as a pastor has slowed down from what it was last week. Easter is a very busy time for those of us in ministry, but it is so worth it and I wouldn't trade it for much of anything in this world. I know that many of you out there are interested in knowing about our weekend so I will do my best to update you on our Easter experience.

Greenwood High School: On Thursday afternoon, I went to one of the local senior high schools with my Bible, some words that I believe God gave me and absolutely no idea what to expect. As I entered the school I felt confident that God was with me (thanks much in part to your prayers). We went to the music room as the lunch bell rang and we waited to see if any of the students would give up their lunch to come hear an Easter message. We had 12 students and about 6 faculty who came for the time and I believe it went very well. It was the first time that we had tried anything like this in the school and I was encouraged by it. Some guys from our church are going to be playing basketball in the school during the lunch hour beginning in a few weeks. We are so excited about the connections that we are able to make and the ministry that we can have in the public school system.

Easter Sunday: I brought the message at both the church in the city as well as our church here in Landsdale. Both of the congregations had good responses to the message and we were very excited to have some visitor at Landsdale. Thanks Melissa for putting up invitations down at the supermarket. Please pray that we can draw our visitors back for another service.

Easter Monday: Yesterday, we went down to our Aussie family's house for an Easter meal. It was a good time all together and we all have so much chocolate we don't know what to do with it! We are so thankful for all that we have and wanted to take this opportunity to say thank you to all of you who remember to pray for our family and support us as we are in Australia. Thank you and God bless you and your family.

Easter Eggs: I am not sure of where this tradition came from but people all around the world over the last week have coloured eggs for Easter. You hard boil them and then you use food colouring and crayons and other things to decorate these eggs. That isn't the funny bit, it is what people do with them after they are finished that is funny. We used to keep them in the door of the refigerator and we would go and get one, crack it and enjoy it for a snack. My brother and I would always crack the eggs by smashing them on our heads (yes, that is what happened to us). This tradition stopped when my brother smashed an egg that wasn't hard boiled over his head. My son, has found his own way of getting the eggs open. A tennis racket! In the picture below, you can see my son hitting an egg with a racket straight at everyone who is sitting on the couch.

We hope that all of you had a wonderful Easter and that you were able to celebrate the Risen Saviour with your family and friends.

Our Normal Busy Lives! Let me start out by apologizing to everyone out there in blog world that likes to keep updated on our lives through this site. I have been very lazy with this blog and I will try to do better in the near future. So many things have happened in our lives and our ministry over the past few weeks that I have decided to designate a paragraph for each thing. (You may need a few minutes to read it all) So get yourself a cup of coffee, sit back and enjoy my review of us over the past few weeks.

1. Mum and Dad George's Visit- They were here for three weeks and we had a great time spending time with them. It was great because we were saying that when we are home in the states we travel so much that we don't even see them as much as we did in those three weeks. We spent the first week living our lives. Mum enjoyed seeing how we live our daily lives and getting to know our church family and hanging with the grandkids. The second week, we visited a lot of the local attractions that Perth has to offer (many of which we had never done). There were some busy days but evenings were nice to relax and enjoy family at our house. The third week we took a road trip. We went for a six day trip down south where we hiked the highest point in the southwest of Australia, stayed at several different caravan parks and drove just over 1000 kilometers. Their visit seemed short but we did have a great time and we are so blessed to have wonderful parents. Thanks mum and dad for making the "long" trip to Australia.

2. Church Beach BBQ- The first Saturday that mum and dad were here, we had a church bbq at the beach. We dipped dad in sun-screen and headed down to the sand. We had a great turnout and everyone enjoyed themselves. We had several new young adults come and join us for our picnic and our time was very enjoyable.

3. Valentine's Banquet- The youth group put on a Valentine's banquet and we had around 40 people in attendance. Everyone said that it was very good and are looking forward to next year. The most exciting thing was how excited the teens were to serve. That was our original purpose, to allow the teens an opportunity to serve others, and we think we succeeded in that. We were able to make a few hundred bucks for the youth group as well.

4. Melissa the preacher- We are currently in a series "Faces of Easter" where we look at several characters in the Easter story. Melissa took on the task of Peter and did a great job. Her message was both informative and challenging and all of our church members enjoyed it. Now maybe I can have a week off once in a while...!

5. Youth Group Sausage Sizzle- We held a sausage sizzle for all the teens in the area where we openned up the youth centre and gave out free food. We had 20 kids (a few of our regulars were missing as well) and we were very encouraged to see that many teens said they will be back next week. It was a good night and I am still the ping pong champ over the teens!

6. Easter Egg Hunt- On Palm Sunday we had our second annual Easter egg hunt in Landsdale. We had around 75-80 people and many new families. We were very excited to see all of our church pull together to put this event on. There was kilos of chocolate, crafts, contests, give aways and egg tossing. To reach out to people this year, we had a booth where they made the christian bracelets with the colors, and at each spot was a card, and the parents could read what the colors represented to their children. We also had a skit room, where we had the keeper of the tomb do a mystery skit and the kids would go into the tomb and figure out the surprise that Jesus Christ rose from the dead! It was great and alot of fun. Please pray with us that we will be able to make contact with the families that came for the first time and somehow tie their chilren into kids club and into our church.

7. Wilson- We have a housemate. He is a nursing student from Zimbabwe who is attending a University close to our home. To make a long story short, he was praying for a Christian family to stay with closer to his school and we were praying for help from God with a bit of relief on our finances because of the exchange rate right now. Wilson stays in our guest room and has been a blessing to have in our home. He is a confident Christian and has already been an encouragement to me.

8. Greenwood High School- Chris has been invited to share an Easter message at a local PUBLIC high school. Look here later this week to see how it went. Pray that God will be able to use me in that setting to challenge the teens.

I hope that gives you a picture of what we have been up to over the past few weeks. If there is something that you were hoping to be updated on that I missed, please just leave a comment with your question and I will try to answer for you. Otherwise, I will see you next time. God bless you and have a wonderful Easter weekend.

Woman's Scrapbooking Bible Study

God works in Mysterious ways, yet HIS ways are always better than our own!

This saturday God did something that frustrated me, but that worked to his GLORY! On saturday I had 4 people call me within an hour and cancel from coming to the once a month woman's Bible study. I was quite dissappointed and was very sad that I had not had success at having good attendance. However, God was orchestrating something LARGER and bigger than I would know. I still had 3 people coming. Two are students.. Lisa a girl I have been mentoring from Korea, and Fei from China, and then Chipo (a strong Christian from Zimbabwe). So, I was glad to spend time with the three of them and we were doing a bible Study on Mary Magdalene about how we need to be tenaciously loyal to Jesus Christ! Fei opened up with us and shared that she was afraid she really didn't become a christian. I think if everyone would have come, Fei would have never opened up, and she would still be wondering today if she was a Christian. However, I was able to share with Fei, that YES God truly has come into her life, and yes she HAS made a decision to follow Him. She is going home on Friday for two months to visit her family. Her Family is ALL atheist, she is the first to become a Christian. And, in her mind, it was easier for her to say, "I haven't really become a Christian", than it was for her to start to think through what she might say to her family. I am going to meet with her again before she leaves and we are going to do a Bible study on her assurance that she is a Christian and when she returns I will mentor her one on one. But, pray that Fei would be Tenaciously LOYAL to Jesus while she is home in China, and Pray that if God does want her to speak to her family about her decision to be a Christian that she would listen to what He has to say, and speak the words Christ has put in her mouth.

Youth Centre

This weekend was awesome! Friday night we started up the youth centre again. There were 10 kids that attended. Please pray that Chris and I would be able to use this group as our base support and grow a strong youth group off of these kids. Two of the girls (Jade and Cindy) that I have been asking prayer for asked to come to church on Sunday. So, I picked them up and they asked to come again next week! Please pray that THEY would hear God speaking to their hearts. Jade became a christian last year at a youth concert, but has not showed much change in her life or commitment. Pray that we would start to atleast immediately start to see some behaviour change! Cindy's dad came out to my car when I dropped her off and was VERY thankfull that I have taken cindy under my wing and have started to care for her. Please pray for Cindy. She comes from a home that is falling apart, and so much has changed in her life. Pray that Cindy would realize that she needs God in her life to give her attention. She has been acting out lately, but I think it is a cry for attention. Pray that she would not do anymore dangerous things and that I would be able to connect with her and begin to talk with her abut her life, the life God has given her.

New Year's CHURCH CAMP!
After Christmas we had our annual church camp. On the 28th we loaded up our cars and headed South. Months of preparation was finally coming to the reality of camp was here! Chris and I picked the place, I planned the activities calendar for the camp, and did the children's sermons, Chris spoke at the camp, and then we both had alot of fun! We had 42 people go on the camp and 3 people come down as day visitors. WE had 12 tents to set up, and we used two cabins and a caravan as well. So, there was a large group of us. Pastor Phil the lead pastor over seeing the inner city church and also guiding us with the landsdale church, did all the menus. And, he helped everyone prepare the food. WE at our meals together and had teams of people who took turns cooking and cleaning. The trip was 5 days and it was WONDERFUL! What was even more wonderful was seeing God unite the two churches together and realize that there is a large group of us Wesleyan's here now in Perth, and he is using us all in so many different ways. Some Highlights we would say of the trip, was the speakers speaking, the kids would say the digital scavenger hunt was a blast,

This was our team!

we did parents vs. kids kickball! nobody had EVER PLAYED BEFORE! WE looked for dolphins, never saw any. And, one of our friends took us out on a boat the last morning and we did get to see some. Also, the young adults and kids had a great time crabbing. WE got more little ones than big ones. But, we did finally end up with out of 40 that we caught, three that were big enough to keep, so we boiled them up and ate them.

. And, then we all packed up and came home. The last night we played capture the flag to midnight to see in the New Year. It was such a good time. When we got home we slept for like 15 hours, ALL of us. The bugs were the worst. Dawson had spider bites all over him (6) . And, was very swollen, but he survived and we will definitely go camping again! Hope you enjoy the pictures.

Sorry, it has been awhile since I have written I will try to update everyone with everything that has been going on. When we arrived back from Singapore our life became VERY BUSY! Between two churches doing Christmas the week before Christmas we had 6 functions in 7 days! The highlight of functions for us was the Christmas play the Landsdale church did. The community of Landsdale is REALLY big on doing Christmas lights! So, we decided to do a living Nativity. We worked like crazy to prepare. I sewed 12 outfits it took me and another lady, one whole day to make the under pieces, and then myself another day to make the top pieces to the outfits. The Kids practiced and practiced and practiced. And we did a really cute Nativity. They acted out the Nativity to "Angels we have heard on high" by Third Day. They smiled and did such a good job. Our children were in it as well, and they also had a blast. We acted in the front yard, and cars would drive by and stop and watch the play (4 minutes +Christmas caroling after each time we did the play). We then gave everyone who was watching a candy cane with the church logo on it and the story of the candy cane on the other side. We figured we had over 100 people get to see the play. This was much better than trying to get people to come to the "church" to do carol singing. Although, Australia is not very Christian, singing Christmas carols at Christmas is huge! Next Year, we figure we will do more lights etc. But, for our first year of trying something new. It went really well. Hope you enjoy the pictures.