Celebrating 5 Years!

Sunday night was a night for celebrations. We invited the John Wesley church to come join us as we celebrated in what God has done through the landsdale church. A 5 minute video was made with pictures sharing where God has taken us!

Our daughter Makayla and a friend Nikita opened the service with a special song called Sing Praise!

Then we had a testimony from Glynis a lady in our church. She did an awesome job! the Jist of her testimony was life is so much better, and different when you walk with the Lord. There is someone there to help you to pray to, there is someone there to share the joys and the sorrows with who loves her. She did a wonderful job!

We installed our first LAC. Local advisory committee.

We commissioned Phil and Karen Hotchkin the pastors Chris and I have been

partnering with ever since we arrived to go do another church plant south of the Perth City.

Chris preached on the Israelites and how it took them 40 years to do what they could have done in 10-11 days. And, encouraged us to follow and trust God and have a clean heart so that he can take Landsdale where he wants to take us!

Then we had dinner! What a wonderful evening!

This picture is of the 5 pastors who planted the Landsdale Community Wesleyan Methodist Church. Rev. Phil Hotchkin and his wife, Young Min Yoo, and Rev.'s Chirstopher and Melissa George

God is Moving.

Last week Chris was on youtube and he watched John James testimony from the Newsboys. He commented to me "How do I get this guy to Perth!". Then on Thursday night we received an email from another youth group in the area inviting us to come to an event called BAM, The next day! And, Chris called the church to see what they were doing. ... And, they were having John James there to speak! This is totally a God thing. We quickly called everyone on Friday morning and changed youth group to an outing and went! We had all 7 kids we took make a commitment! God was there and our teens were listening. We then had the wonderful opportunity to come back to our house and talk with them all and pray. We can't wait to talk one on one with these teens and find out where God is leading them.

Today we also had 12 kids at Kids Club. So, the first day we had three, then we had 6, and this week 12! Pray that we continue to grow and that if we need help we find volunteers who are willing to join us and help at kids club. On a side note Makayla has a very good friend that has been allowed to start coming to Kids Club. And, I praise God that Makayla feels comfortable enough to invite people. And, I praise God that this door of reaching her friend for Christ has been opened.

Baptism

Today we went down to the City and one the River front we baptized to members of our congregation! This was a very exciting day for Chris and I. This is a couple who used to attend our Young Adult Bible Study in our first term here in Australia. We then went to Singapore and married them in '07, And, they recently moved back to Australia in August '09 and lived in our house till Christmas. But, the thing is that this married couple has decided to proclaim their faith in Jesus and share it with the church. They stood in the water and shared their testimonies. And, God has done soooo much in their lives! But, it was exciting for Chris and I to get to stand with them and pariticipate in their baptism.

I would like to share a bit of Graces* story with you. I am going to give her a different name. Because she comes from China. Her parents are high up in the Government and when she first went home to tell her parents she was a Christian they would not even let her bring a Bible into the house. But, it is hard for her to know that when she decided to become a Christian she turns her back on EVERYTHING and EVERYONE in her family. She has been dating a Christian for the past three years. And, her parents recently even made her sign a contract or Christmas stating she would not marry the Christian because they have spies here in Australia watching everything she does. But, she stood there in the water today and proclaimed her faith! And, she said I don't know where I will turn the only place I can turn is to God! And, that is the point of being a Christian. We must rely on God to guide us and direct us and lead us. Please, pray for her. It reminded me of what we as Americans take for granted! Becoming a Christian in America does not mean we say good bye to our family. But, in other countries and other cultures when you become a Christian you are persecuted. So, please continue to pray for Grace*!

*Name Changed for security reasons.

Church in the Park
Unfortunately we had to change our 5 year anniversary for two weeks. But, the awesome thing is that we got to have church in the park last night. WE set up two tents and had church underneath them. WE actually had quite a few people askus what we were doing. And, this may be a good opportunity for us to make more people aware of our church! But, we had a wonderful service and snag with just a guitar and we were all reminded of how nice it is to just come and worship with out all the "extra" stuff we seem to expect in church every week!

Play Group
This morning I had play group and only one mum showed up. I was a bit dissapointed. But, something cool came from it. I was sitting there talking with Daphne and found out that once she attended a play group in Zambia. She is actually from Mauritius and her husband ishere studying for college. But, I think they may have decided to stay in Australia. But, she told me that she had done a book by Rick Warren. Daphne does not attend church, and she is not a Christian. And, I was really wanting to share a devotion every week during our play group. And, she was the one I was worried about being turned off! And, next thing you know she is telling me about how she loved that play group! So, God has opened the door. Pray with me as I walk through it. Obviously since it is a play group we will do a very short "Lift up" moment from the Bible. But, pray with me as I decide what this will look like! Also, another friend of mine has decided to join, she is Catholic, but I do not know yet whethere she has accepted Christ as her saviour.

Here is a little bit of the Special that was sang on the Church Camp.

Mandurah Family Church Camp

The past four days were spent camping in 100, 102.2, 104, 102.2 degree weather. Needless to say it was like an oven! This weather in Perth is very unusual. It gets hot but not normally for a week at a time. The whole time we were gone to Gold Coast our children were enduring this weather. And, just for the record the air conditioner in our house is not working! So, it was very miserable weather to be having.

Spite the weather the camp was still a SUCCESS! We had 43 people join us between the Landsdale and John Wesley Church. There were 21 that joined us from the Landsdale church. God is good. We arrived home Thursday night from the Pastors Conference and Friday morning was a bit of a blur. We packed our bags, loaded the car. We fit everything in, but the stroller and our mattress so we took those to the other Pastors house and he put them in his trailer and away we headed down south. It was only an hour and a half drive. And, we got there and we set up our tent, and a sun shelter, and then we just relaxed until people came. As each family arrived we would help them set up their tent etc. Chris and I were incharge of planning the camp and activities, Pastor Phil did all the planning for meals and cooking. Every camper volunteered twice to help with a meal. And Pastor young was in charge of worship.

On Saturday we had a worship service. Wilson the young adult from Zimbabwe who lived with us for 15 months from 07-09 spoke. HE did a tremendous job and he has grown up SO much in the past year while we have been gone! God used him in wonderful ways. We had pool time and then we ate lunch and headed to the beach. Saturday night we went to a place called Kings Carnival and they gave us a great rate ad everyone was able to play mini golf and go on rides. On Sunday we had two church services we had extras join us just for this day that did not come on the camp. But we had two lay people in the John Wesley church share. God used Pella and Ashley in so many ways to work on people's hearts. It was truly touching and the worship was excellent. We then prayed for two families who announced they were having babies on the camp. We also were treated by a special Zimbabwean special. If you would like to see more pics check out my facebook page. But, I will post some pictures here. It was a great time of building relationships being pushed to Lean on God and make him our first love and to follow him with everything in us. I also did children's sessions. We did one where I challenged the kids to jump into obedience like the Disciples did when catching fish. The did what Jesus asked and they caught so many fish the nets were breaking. The second session I encouraged them to Jump into courage. As the disciples did when they were on the boat and Jesus quieted the seas. It was a tremendously wonderful camp. Here are three highlights I would like to share about.

1. A dear friend of mine brought her two children. She used to attend our church regularly but has not attended at all in over a year! So, we were very glad to see her come on the camp. I believe God worked on her heart pray for me as I follow up with her.

2. My best friend here who does not attend church. Had many excuses NOT to come on the camp. And, she had many things come up. But, God worked it out for her to come on the camp on Sunday afternoon and stay till Monday. She did not attend the church service. But, she talked with people and her husband was able to build some relationships. Pray for me as I follow up with her.

3. A lady in our church was touched by the African singing. It reminded her of good times and home and she had not heard our South Africans sing. And, she was truly touched. God has been providing things for Glynis that she didn't even know she really needed yet. But, I believe God touches those who follow him. And, I believe this is why Glynis is seeing God's hand in her life right now. She is a strong hold in our church. And, she is strong in her faith.

thank you for your prayers. Continue to pray for us as this month is very heavily busy with many things going on. I will post those in the prayer column. But, please remember to pray for the ministry here in Landsdale! thank you so much! May God bless you!

National Pastors Conference

After 5 1/2 hours on airplanes and 8 hours total of travel time we landed at the Gold Coast airport on the East coast. We had a short drive to Tweed Heads where we stayed in our accomodation. The accomodation was wonderful. They were self serve apartments. So, they came with clean sheets etc. And, then you had to tidy them up before you left. But, they were very nice. The first evening we started a 24 hour fast and focused on prayer for the nation. This is the first time Chris and I have gotten to see the Australian Church Pastors and Leadership as a whole. It was truly wonderful. It is a group of people who know everybody and we never saw anyone just sitting there. Everyone was talking to everyone else and it was just truly an wonderful experience. We were not left just standing there either. Many people were always introducing themselves and asking us where we were pastoring with which we loved to respond Perth!

Amidst the fasting, prayer sessions, and prayer walk. We had some wonderful speakers. The National Superintendent gave a call for us to partner with him in spreading the vision for an Undivided heart. He talked about in spiritual ways between us and God, our churches, and as a country.

A vision was given for the Australian church which now consists of 78 churches in the whole country (Which is the size of the USA) to get on board the vision of 150 churches by 2020. This means every church is to plant atleast one church in the next 10 years! This is a leap of faith. Becuase this means we need more pastors, we need more lay workers, we need more money.... But, we prayed that we would be faithful to not give silly excuses and that we would pray to God and see where it is he wants us to plant next.

We then had church planting seminars and had the Superintendent for the Solomon Islands share along with a missionary that Australia has sent out to the islands.

We called Makayla and Dawson every day in Perth and they seemed to be doing well. They had a wonderful time and when we returned asked "When do you go away again! We had alot of fun!" So, thank you for your prayers. They worked. I will admit that they did miss us! They were a bit sulky on the last day we were gone. But, they were VERY excited to pick us up at the airport for the first time ever.

One cool point I want to share with you is... not spiritual just informational. The hotel we stayed in was on the border of Queensland and New South Wales. In our hotel room we were in New South Wales. but, if we crossed the street to McDonald's we were in Queensland. Therefore there was an hour difference every time we crossed the street! How crazy would that be. So, basically if it was midnight in the hotel we could go across the street and Mcdonald's would still be open because it was only 11.

All in all the trip was wonderful and it was really a wonderful experience for us to see what we are apart of in Australia. We are just a small part in a passionate team to see the Country of Australia reached for Christ!

Thank you for all your prayers! They impacted our family over the past four days and we felt the power of your prayers! Thank you.