You never know what to expect!
On Tuesday Makayla's teacher still needed a parent to go on their class field trip to the farm. I was going to stay home and help Stephanie and Darrek settle in, but Makayla's teacher was desperate so in the end I said I would go...

When I arrived I found out that there was not room on the bus and I would have to drive... :(
Then I found out I could not be with Makayla. At first I was a bit disappointed, but I was determined I was not going to let this ruin my day.

I had 6 children and we had a wonderful day until the rain came. All day long children kept running up to me and saying hi and giving me high 5's. And, the kids in my group kept asking me how I knew those kids.. And, I would just say "The go to after school kids club on Fridays! One little boy in my group asked if he could come. And, I just mentioned to him that he could have his mum talk to me after school.

The fantastic news is that God was in the midst of that entire day. And, on Friday Alex came to Kids Club! And, he is So excited t0 be there and cant wait to come back next week!

What if I hadn't volunteered? Alex would not be coming to church. God is in the midst 0f everything we do! He has given us opportunities, we just have to be looking for them and open and ready to use them!

Pray that Alex and his family would start to build a connection with our church family and that they would come to know who Christ is.

Dawson's Specialist appt.

Thank you to everyone who has been praying for Dawsons specialist appt with an occupational therapist. Dawson has not done well settling this year into school. He has done well with making friends, but has not found himself on very many "green lights" Which is a good thing. He has seemed to have MANY red lights (disciplinary light). Although this may sound bad, the teacher and I sat and talked because Dawson is not INTENTIONALLY naughty, but even though he is very sportsy. He runs into people and falls down and does all kinds f silly things. But, in the silly, we have decided to look deeper and see if we can find why.

The specialist has found Dawson has low body tone. And, that he has at risk posture control and at risk bilateral control. So, Dawson will be starting physical therapy.

The goood news is that in the midst of all this, I have gone and spoken with the principal and suggested that Dawson have a bit more structure int he classroom. And, AMAZING we are on week three of the term and we have had ONLY green lights! So, please pray for Dawson and that he would understand what it is that people are asking f him, and that he would find the growth he needs through this physical therapy so he can function properly next year.

The Thornton's have Arrived.

Last night the Thornton's arrived. It has been an exciting await as Chris and I have waited 6 years for someone to join us here 0n the field in Australia.

They arrived with all their luggage and our kids were SO excited to meet them and of course their little handsome baby Grayson. The Thorntn's had a perfect flight and everything fell into place. Thanks to your prayers Grayson slept practically the whole way here. Our first night was a bit of up and down f0r everyone, but please continue to pray that we would all settle in and things would fall into place, and that our house would become a home fr the Thornton's fr the next 5 months.

Thank you for praying for Luke, he is continuing to get better every day! God is so good, and Luke has been telling everyone who visits him, that today they need to get their lives straight with Christ, because you never know how much time you have.

Luke has been home since Saturday and he has been doing everything for himself, and today he even walked all the way to the park, and shot some hoops. He was totally exhausted and laid on the couch the rest of the day, but pray that Luke would continue to recover and get all he rest he needs to recover! Thank you for your prayers... We greatly appreciate them.

Thornton's Leave this Saturday for Australia!
Over the past week God has done some pretty incredible things! The first thing I would like to share with you, is that the Thornton's have their VISA and will be flying here to join us in Australia on Saturday! God just blows us away with his timing and perfection!

A week ago the Thornton's received a letter from the Immigration dept. stating their VISA was on hold until a problem had been solved. Immediately the Wesleyan church of Australia contacted the immigration dept. and found out that we needed to renew every three years a document, and our three years had been up. So, immediately the form was filled out and our fee was paid and everything on our end was turned in Monday night... When we called to make sure they had received it, we were told it could take 21 days, before they would start to process the Thornton's VISA. We were quite saddened by this news and resorted to praying! :)

Tuesday morning we woke up, and on Facebook Darrek had posted that he HAD his VISA. I was quite shocked and thought at first it was an error.. I even woke Chris up at 5:30am to tell him he needed to get up and get a hold of Darrek to find out why he THOUGHT he had his VISA. But, my point is... God is just AMAZING! because, Darrek did actually have his VISA. What they had told us would take 21 days just to start... was finished and finalized in less than 12 hours! Isn't God good!

Continue to pray this weekend for the Darrek, Stephanie, and Grayson as they fly here and start their internship here in the land down under!

God is SOOOO Good,
Melissa

Dear Prayer Partners,
We desperately need your prayers for a few things this week. Sometimes when things seem to get hard and you think you can't take much more.. Life gets a whole lot harder. And, God teaches us that HE is the source of strength for everything. This week has been very exhausting, spiritually, emotionally, and physically.

Chris's best friend, and Australian brother Luke was diagnosed on WEdnesday with a brain tumor. We have spent every holiday in Australia with Luke and his family, and we treat them as if they were our own. Our kids even call him Uncle. But, when we found this out, Chris and I dropped everything so that we would be praying, and supporting, and giving Luke all the support we could. The situation for Luke was as bad as it could get. But, the cool thing is, we serve a God who loves us and will do the impossible to remind us that HE holds our lives in His hand.

Let me write for you the verse Luke was comforted by, that he posted on facebook just before his surgery.

Blessed is he who has regard for the weak, the Lord delivers him in times

of trouble, the Lord will protect him and preserve his life, He will bless him in

the land and nit surrender him to the desires of his foes. The Lord will

sustain him on his sick bed and restore him from his bed of illness

God has taken care of Luke and brought him through surgery on Friday morning. The Dr.s and Nurses were amazed that Luke even walked into the hospital with no symptoms, other than a headache. The tumor was very larger, one of the largest the Dr. has ever seen of that kind. But, God's hand was at work to get Luke to everywhere he needed to be, so that he would get admitted and so that the brain tumor would be found before it was too late.

Since the surgery Luke has come leaps and bounds. But, only because he has stayed faithful and trusted God to know that HE would carry him through. There will still be hard times as he continues to recover. Recovering from brain surgery is not SHORT, but I pray that this story would give you a reminder of God's promise to you too. And, also I am asking that you would take time to pray for Luke and ask God to continue to give him the strength he needs to recover from this operation...