Pray for Greenwood High School in, Landsdale, Australia

Please keep our local highscool school, greenwood high in your prayers Liesl Mahood from our church in Australia is a Chaplain there full time. She would really appreciate it if we would pray for her, the students, and the staff. They had a massive racial fight on the grounds on Tuesday, the police and police helicopter were called in. Some of the staff got hurt in the scuffle too. It has really been a very very rough term and the cracks are starting to show with some of the staff.

Landsdale Primary here we come!

Praise God, and Thank you for all your prayers! Our children were accepted this week into the Public school system in Australia! This is a big deal. Not every child gets accepted into Kindy. So, Dawson getting to go is a huge praise! This will help Dawson adjust to Australian culture quicker! Makayla will be going into grade 1 and Dawson will be going to Kindy. The brings on a new prayer request. The kindy system is changing. they will be going to school one more day longer! Dawson was going to go two full days and now he will go three. Pray for me as he is still so little and I will miss having him at home! But, he will have so much more fun at school learning and making friends.

Ohio-Indiana Trip!

What a wonderful time was had in Indiana. Unfortunately the Habitat Team fell through for this week. So, we really need your prayers and hope that some teams will come together in the fall and also in the spring and summer next year to go work on a habitat house. Since we had churches and appointments out in Indiana to speak at we went out there and stayed on the Fairmount campground. While we were out there we met with some important friends who have supported us in prayer over the years. WE also spent the afternoons working on some repairs on our personal house in Indiana, since we didn't have a team to work on the "habitat for missionaries" house. We also visited 4 new churches. Please pray that these churches would pick us up for support! We then made the long drive home to NY. Thank you so much West Chester, Lighthouse, Tipton Trinity, and Mulberry for the wonderful visits we had. We were loved on by all of the churches and had a wonderful time sharing with them God's call on our lives to Australia.

God Moments!

The weekend we had the wonderful opportunity to travel to Lynn, IN to speak at Lighthouse Wesleyan Church. We had a wonderful visit and met a lovely group who are committed to lifting people up in prayer. We are honored to have them on our team and to have them pray for us and be a part of our network! On Thursday we found out our Sunday night service had fallen through. So, it was very exciting to find out that we were only two hours from Lima, OH. So we hopped in the car and went and celebrated with family my cousins daughters birthday, Kate Foster. We had a wonderful time catching up with the family and seeing everybody. Everytime we turn around God is blessing us by being in the right place at the right time. Which brings me back to two God moments we had on Friday 8/7. We were in Noblesville, IN and we happened to run into someone who attends the church in Elwood, IN we pastored 5 years ago! How cool is that! And, the other people we ran into. We happened to at the last moment decide to eat dinner at Golden Coral. And, wouldn't you know there having dinner was the ENTIRE staff from Trinity Wesleyan Church Daycare. This church provided day care for our kids during orientation back in February. And, Makayla always talks about how she would LOVE to see them again! And, there in front of her in line getting her food was her teacher! So, we were able to share with them all what God has been doing and how we are at 65% and Makayla was able to give her teacher Denise a hug! How cool! God knows just what we need when we need it! IF you read this and you think a God moment you have had this week... Would you post it??? We would love to hear what God has been doing for you! The Georges

Makayla Turns 6!

Saturday was Makayla's birthday. And, we were incredibly blessed to be able to stay in Shunem. We were able to rest, from Thursday night to Saturday. But, it was extra special because Shunem had two things Makayla loved. One is the pool and the other was a Wii. So her birthday started Friday night with us taking her to an Indianapolis Indians game, and then on Saturday we did all the things she loves. We swimmed in the pool 2x! We played the Wii, we had her favorite foods steak, coleslaw, corn on the cob, and chips, and we had a new things. we had ice cream that was called "ice cream cake!" It was alot of fun. And, she was spoiled by Jim and Jeannette Vermillya! I would say Makayla was one very blessed girl. Unfortunately we were on the road so she was not able to spend her bday with her grandmas and grandpas. But, we celebrated last week with the Wildays and will celebrate with the Georges when we get back to NY. Here are some pics from her festivities!

Western Pennsylvania
What a wonderful weekend we had at Warren Wesleyan and at Coleville.
At Warren we had the wonderful privilege of Chris sharing in the Teen Sunday school class, and I shared with the children. And, then Chris preached the morning service! It was a wonderful time. And, please pray that this church will pick us up. We are on their list to be a possible candidate to be picked up. But, if this church does pick us up we are one step closer to landing in Australia. So, please keep this in your prayers. We then had lunch with a wonderful couple from the church! We then loaded up and headed to Coleville, near Bellefonte PA. We must have been exhausted from camp, becuase we the kids and myself slept the entire way to the church while Chris drove! :) Glad he was driving! But, Coleville has been a faithful supporter of us for the past 5 years and it was a joy and an honour to visit with them and share all the WONDERFUL things God has been doing in Australia! Thank you for keeping us all in your prayers.

Also, over the weekend we stopped in Saturday afternoon at my sisters in Hyde,Pa for free accomodation, but also we celebrated Makayla and her Grandpas birthday which is this saturday the 8th! Yeah, Makayla is going to turn 6! What fun!

FAMILY CAMP!

What can I say! we had a wonderful time! We met so many great people and built better connections with so many more! So, what did we do for one week!

Chris- Did some seminars on Building Lasting Relationships with Missionaries. He also had a tremendous joy connecting three new missionary couples with our district.
Joel & Kerry Lord - Czech, Jessica Lord-Bosnia, and Steph Geary-New Zealand. These are all new missionaries going out from our District (WNY) How exciting! Praise God!

Melissa- I did 9 18 mon-3 year old sessions! We spent the whole week studying Australia and Learning that we should Love Jesus, Follow Jesus, Praise Jesus and Share Jesus! I had a great group! The most we had was 19 kids at one session! But, we did lot's of cool Australian crafts and had a ton of fun!

Makayla's highlight would be that she won the turtle race for her age! She came in first plae and won a whole box of chocolate turtles! A turtle race is a wooden apparatus and it is on string and you walk it down by moving a rope. I will post pics!

Dawson's highlight was spending his time with mommy and he was my helper for my class even though he was suppossed to be in my class.

Brayde's highlight was spending his week getting lots of extra hugs and kisses from grandmas, aunt melissa, and spending his first time ever in the nursery! Which he did pretty good. He only cried a little bit!

Thank you for praying for this week. Please pray that we would make some new connections from camp with a few churches that still do not support us from our home district.

Approved for Ordination!

We were unanimously approved for Ordination at our District conference on Friday. We were so excited and it was awesome to see our fellow pastors and see all the wonderful things God is doing through the WNY district. We have wonderful leadership. And, it was just awesome to be home and vote and do those "business" measures that we have missed out on! I think we miss our church that about right now any type of "church" work feels good!

This weekend we drove up to Grace Wesleyan in Watertown. What a wonderful experience we had and were incredibly spoiled by a tremendous lunch by the pastor and his wife. The weekend was also extra special because we brought our niece on the weekend trip with us! What a joy it is to share with her what a life is like for a missionary kid. But, the whole time we travel with her we pray that God would give her a passion for missions some day and that the experiences she has now with use will be just small stepping stones to the big picture God has for her life!

After driving an 1 1/2 hours this morning we jumped in the car and drove 4 1/2 hours back to Houghton for the start of family camp! Please Keep our family in your prayers this week. Chris is doing two seminars one Monday morning and one Tuesday morning on How churches can partner and team up with missionaries. He is showing many things.. Like, What is GP? Vision, Goals, 80/80/80 plan and many other things. Also keep myself in your prayers as I have 8 more children's sessions to do this week! Tonight was pretty easy. We only had 7 18 mo.-3yr olds. But, we are going to learn to Love Jesus, Follow Jesus, Praise Jesus, Serve Jesus, and Share Jesus! It is almost to the end of the month and we still have many openings in August we were hoping to fill. Our goal is at least 20 speaking engagements.. So, please pray that we would find churches to book right away or individuals to share Gods vision for Australia. Thank you for your prayers and for being part of our network. We definitely feel God using you to impact our lives.

Central NewYork!

What a joy it was this weekend to visit two churches from the District Melissa Grew up in. If I flash back and think of memories. I participated in "Believers!" from Gates Wesleyan when I was a teenager. We travelled and sang at churches all over the district, ministering to familes, teens, children, and adults.

Then the second church we were at Buena Vista. I have fond memories of learning how to shoot a bow at camp from Pastor Dan Pickering and from his wife earning my CYC badges. They also have children who have impacted my life VERY MUCH in going into ministry! So, we had a wonderful weekend. We had a huge bonfire at Buena Vista and the kids were so excited to eat smores! We do not have these in Australia. We cannot get hte graham crackers or the marshmallows like the ones here!

The kids were excellent in the car. Dawson had a little bit of a meltdown. So, we have decided the rest of this week, we will stay home. So, please pray for Chris today and tomorrow as he heads out to ENYNE district conference at Glen Falls, NY all by himself. Pray that we would get connected with new churches, and individuals for Faith Promise!

Sunday morning at 6AM!

A weekend in Western Pennsylvania!

We just arrived home yesterday from 4 churches in 5 days! What an awesome time we had in Western Pennsylvania. We visited Loganton, Ashland, Hillview, and Mount Union. What a wonderful time meeting people and sharing with them. We also had a wonderful time helping Pastor Dave and Melinda Finlay at Hyde Wesleyan get ready for their VBS. It was exciting to help them becuase we miss being involved in outreach ministry in Australia right now, so it was fun to help decorate and do lot's of various other things. Not to mention our children had a WONDERFUL time playing with their cousins. So, it was a great journey and wonderful people were met! Not only were wonderful peope met, but 3 of them are faithful prayer and support partners and the 4th looks like they will join our network! PRAISE GOD! Where He leads we will follow! Continue praying for us to be able to pick up support quickly every day we receive more emails from Australia asking if we will be returning any time soon. God knows when we need to get there. Please pray that we would be faithful to scheduling churches and individuals to share the vision of God's calls for us to minister in Perth, Australia!

Good Ol' Chambers Camp!
This past weekend we had the special privilege of visiting Chambers Camp. This is the campground I grew up on, and gave my heart to Jesus in the Old Tabernacle there. We had a wonderful time connecting with all the people we know. And, God opened an opportunity for Chris to share a few moments in the evening service. I had the opportunity to do the evening kids program during the service. So, I had 60 kids and had a blast! God is so good. He provided me with wonderful teenagers who helped me and were amazing! God is good all the time.

On Saturday our kids participated in the camp play. Dawson was a cow and Makayla was a lady bug. I will post pictures later today.

On Sunday morning we spoke at Grace Lee Memorial Wesleyan Church. Pastor Matt and his wife Carmen were my youth pastors when I was just a teenager. It is an honor to see where God leads those who follow Him and how He Blesses them. The Pickering's have been blessed with a giving church who really has an interest in missions and also a beautiful family.

Today God kept our children safe!

Today our children went on an outing to a movie with the McGrady's, Pastors to Missionary's. And, while they were on their way to the movies a car lost control on the highway and just started spinning. Marlene and the children said the car was completely out of control spinning all over the place. Apparently when it came close to the van, it just all of a sudden stopped spinning and the driver had control! Praise God he loves and looks after our little ones!

Psalm 116:6 NIV

6 The LORD protects the simplehearted;

when I was in great need, he saved me.

PRAISE GOD!

We received very exciting news this week that a new family visited the church in Landsdale on Sunday. The most exciting part is the fact that Pastor Keith went and visited them on Monday. When he was making his pastoral visit he explained to them the Salvation plan. And, the parents decided to accept Christ as their savior! how COOL! We are thrilled and you should be too! Becuase, it is your prayers for the people of Australia that are moving and changing hearts on the other side of the world! You are advancing the kingdom with your support! And, it is you who are obeying what God has called you to give, and do in your life! Thank you for being a part of our network! Isn't our God amazing!

MTI-Week 2

"Missionary Hostage Training"

Rule #1-Always carry a water gun.

Rule #2- Always carry two water balloons.

Rule #3 always have a gangsta baby!

Now, on a much more serious note! We had a wonderful week learning about Muslim traditions and beliefs. Many of us that are going to the field will be in Muslim countries. So, we have had to open our minds and learn a bit, so that we can understand the people and their culture. We also did some learning on contextualization, and various other things. This week the kids have done really well. They were super excited becuase the pastors to Missionaries took our children to a movie and to the zoo this week. So, they had a blast. The pictures above were taken on Friday night after a long day of work! So, the kids had a blast. Also, I would like to mention is has been in the high 90's the whole time we have been here! So, playing with a bit of water tonight was REALLY exciting! Thank you all for your prayers. We have one week left! So, keep us in your prayers, as each week our kids are getting a bit more tired, but we are able to see the light coming at the end of the tunnel. Things you can pray for.

1) We will be at Chambers Camp next week. Please pray for us to connect with new churches in the CNY district and for them to pick us up!

2) The clock is ticking. We need 45% more of our Faith promise and we need it by September or else the churches in Australia will be with out a pastor for a few weeks. Pastor Keith is going home tomorrow back to Melbourne which is going to leave our church with Phil Hotchkin filling in until we return. However Phil and His wife have already booked their sybbatical in Europe in September.. So, if we do not return, there will be no one to pastor the churches in the city of Perth. So, please pray hard!

3) Pray for us as we go to WNY district Conference and also to ENYNE district conference. Pray that we would pick up new churches and new support.

4) Please pray for us as we call through a list of churches we were given from some missionaries who are coming off the field. Prerfully consider picking us up financially. Again, we are so grateful you are a part of our team and keep us in your prayers. We continue to keep all of you in our prayers.

Missionary Training Institute Week 1

This week has been AMAZING! We have learned and talked about so many topics this week. Every day we have been in sessions from 8:15 in the morning till 4:30. And, then we have been spending our evenings talking, sharing, and learning from our fellow GP family, missionaries. Topics we have trained on are:

-Cross Cultural Evangelism -personal security -spiritual warfare
-Missiology -intercultural communication -working in teams
-Purity -Language learning -spiritual development
-conflict resolution -Hostage Survival


A highlight of this week was training from Dr. Lo. He has played a very key important role in our lives and in our spiritual walks, and with our decision to become missionaries in Australia. Dr. Lo has been a spiritual leader in our lives. Melissa worked as his administrative assistant for World Impact for 4 years while we were at IWU . And, Chris took many classes from Dr. Lo. He inspired us, stretched our hearts, stretched our minds, and left us with many things to think about, pray about, and work on in our lives as we venture back to Australia.


Thank you to everyone who is praying for us. Brayden has been very content except for when we were trying to take his picture! And, the children are loving "school" is what they call their day care class. So, thank you for your prayers God is hearing them and answering them. Because, this week could not have gone any better!

Facing Impossibilities.

It is a distinct priviliage to travel to many different churches and tell people about what God is doing in Australia and be able to challenge them to pray and give to what God is doing. I have been sharing the story of Peter in prison and what happened after the church began to pray. I truly believe that we serve a God that still has the power and desire to work through our 'impossible' situations and show the world what He can do.

This morning I received our finalized budget that we need to raise before we can return to Australia. We knew that it was going to go up with our career status but weren't quite expecting it to be as high as it is. I found myself in my head saying things like, "man, there is no way we can get back to Australia by July" or "with the economy the way it is, raising a budget like that is impossible". Well, you could say that I was challenged today as God gave me a slap across the face and simply asked me what I have been telling His body of believers as we travel around.

Our God still works miracles and still answers prayers. Please pray with us that as we face "impossibilities" that God would make them possible and bring them to pass.

Brayden Charles George, 4 weeks

Makayla, Dawson, Brayden

Introducing Brayden Charles George

At 1:50 pm on March 23rd 2009, we welcomed our son into the world. Brayden Charles George was 9 lbs. 6 oz. (4.24 kilos) at birth and measured in at 21 inches long. Melissa and I are so excited to be parents of another bundle of joy. Makayla is again a wonderful big sister and is already asking how she can help and is so gentle. Dawson took right to Brayden and I can see already that he is his 'buddy'. I was so proud of Makayla and Dawson for being such great big sister and brother. Melissa is doing very well after her c-section and is on track with her recovery. I love my family and can't wait to grow up with these kids as we serve the Lord.

A Working Retreat

Melissa and I are so blessed to have a wonderful home district that takes care of us through their prayers and support. We are so thankful that we were invited to join the pastors from the Western NY district of the Wesleyan Church at their pastors and wives retreat earlier this week. Rev. Steve DeNeff from Indiana shared his heart with the pastors and challenged us to holiness and to the teaching of holiness. It was great to spend a day away with my parents and relax a little bit before our son arrives. The hotel had a beautiful pool, but we had forgotten our suits.

While it was a retreat and it was relaxing, it was also a great opportunity and a priviliage to sit around the tables with pastors from our home district and share our heart for Australia and what God is calling us to be a part of there. I was given an opportunity to share what God is doing in AUS and challenged the pastors to join the network and get behind what God is doing. I challenged those who don't currently support us through faith promise to get on board and those that do to prayerfully consider increasing their faith promise amount. We are trusting God to supply what is needed to get back onto the field so we can serve Him in AUS.

Family News

I set up the crib last night and we are ready (or as ready as we can be) for the arrival of our son on Monday, March 23rd at 1:30 pm. Please be in prayer for us and our family as we meet this new little man for the first time. If you have any names to suggest, we are still open to hearing them.

Home Ministry Notes

Thanks so much for your prayers and your support for our family as we are on home ministries. We had a new church join our team this week and are so thankful for support as they step out in faith to see what God will do. Thanks Big Tree Wesleyan.

This week we are in Avon, NY and the following week we are in Fillmore, NY. For more information on our schedule go to http://www.praygivego.com/ and click on 'missionary scheduling' and find our names.

My grandfather was able to make it up to NY last week for a short visit. It was great to see him and spend a bit of time with him. Thanks for making the trip grandpa, we miss you already.

Global Partners Missionary Orientation!

Chris and I just finished our week of Missionary Orientation out at Global Partners. So many exciting things happen in the GP office. We are backed by a staff that loves God with all their heart and are so real in seeing the word of God go out around the world. They are truly a group of people that we could not minister in Australia without! We are truly blessed to be partnered with such a wonderful organization. Just for basic information I thought I would post GP's
Vision and Mission.

The GP Vision:
Every Wesleyan serving in fulfillment of the Great Commission.

The GP mission:
To exalt Jesus Christ by calling and mobilizing believers to global ministries of evangelism, church planting, leadership development and ministries of compassion.

Thank you for your prayers for the Flame Class!

As you all prayed Chris and I were able to take our last Flame class. God was so good. We came home feeling refreshed and renewed and we learned lot's of exciting things about Holiness in the Wesleyan church.

Our children slept well, (all the way through the night). And, when we came home they weren't even ready to leave. So, they had a bit of tears every day, but that is probably normal.

We were able to connect with pastors and also one of our mobilizers Tim Hibschman while we were at Flame. We were able to make some appts. to speak and then also we were able to pick up some awesome prayer partners along with make some contacts for future support.

Thanks you to everyone who prayed.