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.