School Holidays
Over the school Holidays Chris and I were blessed with the opportunity to run some family events. The first week we visited Caversham, which is a wildlife park. We had 5 families participate and it was a wonderful time to just work on building relationships.


The second week we had a movie night! Chris and I were really excited about this because the whole evening was focused around Toy Story 1. But, the evening was focused on God's idea of friendships. The children made their own pizzas, the adults had pizza and salad, and the we played fun games that focused on friendship. Chris and I were so excited because there were 24 people who attended. These are families that attend our kids club, and not our church, yet. So, we are working on building relationships and reaching out to these families.

Over the school holidays we also had two families that had babies and one family that the dad had a torn achilles and a family whose father had emergency surgery. We took meals to all of these families and the kids made cards and we have been reaching out to these families as well..

I say all this to ask you to pray for us as we are reaching out to these families. Help us to say the right words and to connect with these families on a spiritual level.

Thank you so much for your prayers, they are chaning lives.
Melissa

Western Australia Woman's Retreat

This past weekend I had the wonderful opportunity to speak at our Western Australia Wesleyan Woman's Retreat. We had 15 ladies who came for the whole weekend. God moved in so many ways. Two ladies and myself join on the retreat from our church plant which was very exciting. The weekend was themed around "Heart Spa" by Group. however, instead of doing small group type meetings. We actually dove into the Bible and did whole sessions on the scripture. I preached 4 times over the weekend and did small group sessions as well as we did a beyond the page scrap booking journal. Which for many of the ladies this was the first time they "scrap booked" a craft. It was an incredible time and God was there and met us as we came to Him. He moved in people lives and hearts. I could go on forever about the weekend. But, Let me just share a few thoughts with you from the weekend and what God impressed upon my heart to share with the ladies.

*Rest - Come to me all you who are weary and Burdened and I will give you rest.
Matthew 11:28-30. Jesus wants us to Call on Him, Accept Him, and learn from Him.
*Reflection- Isaiah 55:1-6 Come to Him, Listen to Him,
*Renewed- Psalm 23: The Lord wants to offer us Rest. He is the Healer, He is the protector and comforter, and Encourager.
*Refreshment-John 13. Love like Jesus, Love by being Humble, Love by being a servant, and Love requires sacrifice.


Over the weekend there was tears of joy, tears of compassion, and tears of love! God moved in many people's lives.


Hear a few stories of how God moved:

There was a lady on the camp who's husband is a post man.
He has been working really hard, because his job was for two people and he
normally shared the job but he was unable to find anyone. So, he has been
working tremendous hours since February.

On the camp there was a lady who's husband had lost his job and was looking
for work! These two wives called their husbands immediately. And, the man who
needed a job started training yesterday, on Wednesday 7/15! God knew where these
woman needed to be. This was his way of providing rest to these
woman! She had come with this burden and this concern, and God met it!

We participated in a foot washing on Sunday before we served communion. I felt led to do this activity before we took communion. And, really felt like Christ wanted me to tell the ladies to LOVE like He did. Humble ourselves, serve the other woman and there was a moment quite a long one where no one was moving but then God spoke to these ladies and one at a time they would go to another lady and they would tell them what GOD had laid on their hearts to share, words of encouragement, and support, or forgiveness, and they would then go and sit in the chair and was the other's feet! It was an incredible moment. At times there would be one woman in the chair and 3-4 woman serving that lady, but passing the warm water over her feet and then the ladies taking turns rubbings the feet and really making that woman know... that they wanted to LOVE her just as Christ does.

There was one girl who could not get out of her seat, she just could not LET
anyone do such a task for her... And, she did get up and wash her mother's
feet. But, when God spoke to the mother to wash her daughter's feet. The
daughter could not let her! She was squirming, and you could see God working and then , God opened the floodgates, and the whole room was in tears as we saw her go through the emotions of what God was doing in her life! Unbelievable!

God knew there we're woman who had faced a challenging year, there was a lady whom had recently lost her baby after carrying it for 7 1/2 months, there was a mother who had been told her daughter had sickle cell anemia, ( PRAISE GOD SHE RECEIVED A REPORT THE DAY BEFORE CAMP IT WAS SOMETHING ELSE) And, the woman had been pray for a different result for two weeks!

God knew these woman we're coming broken, and hurt, and tired, and exhausted. But, There is nothing more moving than to hear woman WORSHIP, to see their LIVES being touched, to see them GROW in Love together, and to see them go DEEPER with Christ. This is what we experienced this past weekend! God was there and He met us and He has offered us Rest, Reflection, Renewal, and Refreshment! Know today as you read this... He offers all this for you too!!!!!

Thank you for your prayers. People praying for this weekend is what held me strong. As a stay at home mum, I was worried about having the time to write the sermons and to prepare the entire camp from beginning to end. And, God saw me through! But, I believe it was because you pray for us and you support us to be here to minister to the people of Western Australia!

Thank you! May God reach out and touch your life in a way this week that will remind you to find Rest in HIM! He is all that we need.

Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever. Psalm 23:6

An exciting day at Kids Club!

Yesterday we had 19 kids at Kids Club! It was an amazing afternoon. It was actually the last day for semester two here in Australia. Tomorrow we will be having the Awards Ceremony and I can't wait to see what new Kids Club families will attend church for the first time! Please pray with us that these families will be excited and hungry to hear what Jesus has in store for them. Chris will be sharing an evangelistic message. The whole term was on two verses.

Do to others as you would like them to do to you.

And,

For God so loved the world He gave His one and only begotten son,

that whoever believes in Him will not perish but, have Eternal Life. John 3:16.

The kids will be singing songs, sharing their memory verses for the term, and special things they really enjoyed. After the service we will be sharing dinner together. There will be 3-5 new families coming tomorrow night. Please pray that nothing would get in the way of them attending! I will follow up tomorrow with a post of a picture of them receiving their badges.

Thank you for your prayers! Melissa