109 Degrees!

The past three days have been VERY hot here! Because the hall where we have church has no air we moved church from the community hall to our house. And, we had an amazing service! The church is not a building but the people. The most amazing things I want to share with you is we had two new families come to our house and also we had a family that has come sporadic come and say that they have decided to come regularly to our church now. God is good! This is a praise. We had 35 people worship in our living room. It was a packed room, but God presence was there and speaking to hearts and Chris preached on Ephesians 4:15. The sermon was on having a heart that is being cultivated and growing in love.

This week Chris and I drove down south to check out the caravan park we will be having our family church camp at on Feb. 26-March 1st. The place is very nice. We stayed one night just to really get a feel for the place. I was able to book 8 campsites. So, we should be able to fit about 16 tents. And, right in the center it has a camp kitchen. So, hopefully it will not be 109 when we go camping.

Continue to pray for us as we try to reconnect with people who used to attend our church sporadic and also as we connect with new families that Keith the previous pastor has met.

I am sure most of you are aware but I would just like to ask you to pray for our missionaries in Haiti! God is good and they are all safe and protected. But, it is a big job they have ahead of them to serve all the people that are in need of medical attention and basic needs like food, water, clothing etc. So, please keep them in your prayers. You can check out their website at gpcaribeatlantic.com

Again, thank you for your prayers God is changing lives here in Perth, Australia!

Undivided Heart!

Psalm 86:11

Teach me your way, O Lord

and I will walk in your truth;

give me an undivided heart,

that I may fear your name.

We have challenged our church people to learn this verse. On Sunday we will see how many people know it. Our children have learnt it as well. But, God has really been teaching us recently that EVERYTHING comes from Him. And, we are to learn His ways so that nothing can hinder us from coming to Him. Today we had our house fumigated for spider cockroaches and all kinds of lovely mini beasts as they call them here in Oz. But, just like a spider web starts little and gets big. Chris preached on Sunday that sin can seep into our hearts and we can be unaware and it can destroy our heart and it can divide our heart. But, we in 2010 as a church in Landsdale are striving to have ONE heart that beats for the Lord. And, we are striving to have a heart that will follow, learn, grow, and serve Jesus Christ! We hope and will continue to pray that this is also your goal this year!

So, as we have continued to move in Chris has been busy setting up the church booking for our building hire of the hall, and he preached this past Sunday in our church and also the inner city church. Please keep him in your prayers as Monday he will start visiting families that have showed interested in our church but are not attending right now.

Our kids have been busy starting on Monday Vac Swim. Swimming here in Australia is VERY important. There is too much water for you to NOT know how to swim. Also, in school you are required to swim as part of school curriculum. And, Makayla had missed a year of classes. and they do this swimming called VAC swim. So, we were able to get Makayla signed up and registered. But, she goes every day for 10 days. So two weeks M-F. And, she has only done two days so far. But, she learnt the first day how to do the back stroke and yesterday free style. Dawson has just learnt how to put his face in the water and blow bubbles which is amazing considering he has only had one lesson and we almost couldn't even get him in water!

Brayden has really started to settle down. He has an appetite and he has started to put his weight back on. He can now take two steps at a time and he is really starting to settle in. He still is not sleeping well. Last night he got up 9 times in the middle of the night. So, you can pray that he will start sleeping again.

I think that is all that has happened in the last week! A praise is that Makayla got her class assignment for the year and she is in LA 7 and to top it off her best friend is in her class! This will be the first time they are in the same class. Hopefully they will be able to learn while being in the same class. But, I am glad that Makayla will not be in her class with no one she knows. Grade one is the first grade that is required in Australia. So, I think the kids go from having 3 different classes in a grade to 6. So, there are many new students to get to know! We pray that you have a blessed week and we look forward to updating you next week on what God is doing. Thank you for you continuous prayers! We know that God is moving here and that we couldn't be doing what we are doing without you! May God bless you!

Still Unpacking

As we have just been here a month it is hard to believe we are still unpacking and well packing some things up! Yesterday, I took the christmas tree down! This week seems to have flown by. For new YEars we basically stayed home and laid low. WE were hoping to have our house put together enough to have a party, but it is not there yet.
This week we spent many hours working very hard outside in the hot heat! We rented a dumpster, and all the trees in the yard had not been cut in a year. So, we trimmed, and we power washed all the winter yuck off the house, and we spent many hours trimming bushes in the back yard! Chris worked very hard and we filled half a dumpster full of trimmings and then threw out alot of our belonging that don't work anymore. We were washing windows and doing all kind of fun work. Its amazing all the little things you do to keep up a house, how you odn't seem to notice all the work you do until it isn't done for a year! Then things look pretty bad! :) The good news is the truck came and picked up the dumpster so we are done!!!! YEAH!

The bad news is, somewhere in there I hurt my back. So, you keep me in your prayers this week. I went and saw a doctor and he said I did too much little stuff all together which probably made my back go into spasms, and it is so spasmed that it is actually curving my spine. He has given me some codeine, but It did not even touch the pain, so I have not taken anymore as I am sure it is not good for Brayden to get in his system. The good news is I am starting to feel a bit better. So, hopefully I will keep improving.

Chris has started to preach a series on an Undivided heart! It is the theme for the Australian Church and we really praying that this is the year our church grows in MANY forms but most important in their passion for Jesus Christ! We are busily trying to plan the year out and had our firt meeting sunday night as we want to form and LBA.

Currently I am desperatly putting plans together for an all family church camp in Mandurah in March. I was able to book a campground and we were only able to get 9 campsites! but, I think we can house 40-50 people on those sites! so, pray that people would get excited and that the plans would start to come together for this camp!

We hope and pray that you and your family had a safe and wonderful Happy New Year! Please know that we are praying for you and praying that God's blessings would flow abundantly upon you, your family, and your church!

Happy New Year!