Carols in The Park.

This week is the big Carols in the Park that we have been gearing up for. There are a few things we would like you to pray for.

1) The Health Department has STILL yet to stamp our application! Therefore as of this morning we were still unable to provide a sausage sizzle or sell cupcakes on Friday night.

2) We have been given the go ahead to hand out advertisements. But, please pray that MANY people would read the advertisements and come out to the Carols in the PArk on Friday night.

3) Please pray for the KIDS CLUB. As they will be performing a skit and singing a song on Friday night.

4) Please also pray for our Kids Club closing Finale on Sunday night at 5:30. Please pray that we would get ALL of our Kids Club families to church for the evening to experience what our church is like!

OUR FINANCIAL STATUS!
Please pray with Chris and I as we contact our prayer partners and faith promise partners to renew this support. We have been here exactly one year on the field. And, God has done so many good things! But, recently we had a review on our support that is coming in. And, for the Last year God has been good and all our support came in! TOTAL PRAISE!

But, as we were reviewing the budget, some needs and concerns needed to be changed and met. Unfortunately in Western Australia there have been some big changes in the government and how they run the electric, gas, and water billing. The state used to GIVE the utility companies money to lower the actual cost of everyone's bills. . And, now there are so many people in Perth they have decided not to offer the grant anymore to the Companies.

This in turn has caused some major complications for families in WA because our utility bills have ACTUALLY doubled. As this news was coming out we thought we would hang in there and see what it really looked like and start being more cautious about our utility usage. However the bills have been rolling in since June and between us and GP we have decided that our budget needed to be changed.

Also the exchange rate between australia and the USA which used to be at .80 where our budget was done. has gone equal! So, therefore that means our US dollar is now equal to the AUS dollar.. :( Which is causing complications as well.. With all that said.

Just recently our BUDGET was adjusted and from now on you will see that we are in need of MORE support both in financial partners and in individuals and one time gifts!

GOD HAS BEEN FAITHFUL over the last year! And, when the fiscal year ended all our support had come in! This is something to be VERY THANKFUL for! GOD MET OUR NEEDS AND we pray every day for all of you that through your support of giving and prayers, that GOD would inturn bless your lives and speak to you in ways you never thought imagineable! Our God is all sufficient and MIGHTY!

WE KNOW THAT GOD HAS SO MUCH IN STORE THIS YEAR FOR ALL OF THOSE WHO ARE PART OF Our SUPPORT NETWORK! Thank you for all you do!!!

KIDS CLUB
God has been so good. And, you know how Chris and I have been asking you to pray for relationships that we have been building. The last three weeks of Kids Club there have been 5 extra new kids attending! THis is fantastic! And, truly is exciting. One of these families Chris and I have been building a relationship with in particular and God is so good. Through this relationships their kids have started to attend Kids Club! And, have been asking to come back week after week! Pray that God would speak to these parents as they see their children sing about JEsus and go home and talk about Jesus in their lives.

Happy Birthday Melissa!

Monda was my birthday and believe it or not I turned the big 30! But, God made something very evident to me on my special day. And, it was this... This was the FIRST year that I had people stopping in the house all day, and ringing me, and wishing me happy birthday. And, I know I turned 30! Which is an important mile stone in Australia. But, the point that God made to me was that Many of my NON church friends spoilt me. And, these are relationships that Chris and I had built in the last year. We have been building these relationships and showing these people who Christ is through our lives. But, now we are just praying for those seeds (LIVES) to grow(accept Christ) and flourish into followers of Christ! Please pray that God would continue to show Chris and I how to care for these families and "water" and "feed" them with God's word. So, that NEXT year on my birthday I can say that These families are now our chuch families!

On a side note... I am so thankful I am a child of God and that I have had 30 years of going to church and I wouldn't change one moment of the 30 years God has given me! I am TRULY a blessed child of God!!!

DOWN WITH THE FLU!
Last weekend we had planned this huge picnic. We were all excited about it, had families from church and kids club coming. really made an effort for it to be a fantastic day And, Walah! Friday at 7:00 Dawson came down with the flu. And, before you knew it we were all sick!
On the Wednesday Brayden made a visit to the childrens hospital because he had been vomiting and couldnt stop. The dr.s thought it was a reaction to the amoxycillin he had taken twice. But, as it turns out 48 hours later... I would say he had the flu or (gastro) as they call it in Australia! I was very dissappointing we had to cancel the picnic. Sometimes things just don't work out even though we put all our efforts and try our best. But, the wonderful thing is, that God opens doors and gives us opportunities every day! On a brighter note.
Chris has been talking with a dad at school pick up! His name is Terry and Terry came up to me and was telling me how excited he was that Chris and I are in Australia and he was really interested in what we are doing here. He and his two sons will be joining us for dinner on the 4th of December. Would you pray for Terry and his two sons and for Chris and I as we reach out to this dad and his family!

Update on Irene's Sister.
Over the past few weeks I have asked all of our prayer partners to pray for Irene's sister in the USA who needs a kidney transplant. Today I was standing outside Makayla's classroom and Irene came running up to me with a great big smile on her face! She was sooo excited to give me the news that her sisters kidney activity was up 4%! Irene said that God was listening and he was hearing our prayers!

On Friday Irene's son Ricky came to Kids Club for the first time! THIS WAS VERY EXCITING!
God is movig in Irene's life. thank you for your prayers!!!

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...

GOD IS GOOD
This week I have had a dear friend find out that her sister in America needs a kidney transplant. Irene is here in Australia. But, she wants to go through the process to probably be a donor, and she was very scared, worried, not for herself, but her sister. But, we serve a BIG GOD who so just soooo good. Because, the day I found this out, Randy and Linda Freeman (Our Pastor to Missionaries) were actually making their first ever visit to us in Perth! Randy had a kidney transplant a few years ago, and he was able to share with Irene many facts, and details, and thoughts, and most importantly we were able to tell her that we would be praying for her! But, God is amazing. He puts everyone right where they need to be at the right time!

As a side note, we had a wonderful time sharing our lives with Randy and Linda and giving them just a sample of what our life is like here in the land down under!

Could you please continue to pray for Irene and her sister in NJ?

We honestly do covet your prayers! It is through your prayers that God uses us in the MOST UNEXPECTED WAYS to reach people here in Australia!

Pray for Strength for our Family!

This is the last week of term 3 in Australian School. Our kids are weary. But, not only is our family weary. It seems that everyone we know is weary. And, a lot of people are facing some really hard stuff right now.

Chris just spent three days in Melbourne for our district Conference. It was a great time to catch up with pastors from our district as well as to see what God is doing across the district! Chris attending district conference is a BIG reminder of how different things are here in Australia than how they would occur in America. Chris boarded an airplane and flew 4 hours to Melbourne, on the EAST Coast. He then got in a car and drove a few hours to where the meetings occurred. Because of the cost this year, the kids and I stayed behind. IT was a good thing we did. God knew we needed to be here.

This weekend we had the teen girls stay and have a sleep over all weekend. They were such a help to me,but I had some FANTASTIC conversations with them.

A family that has been key in our church, lost their grandfather. He had been ill with Alzheimers but they were unaware he was actually that sick. So, it was quite a surprise that he had passed away.

We have had a HUGE unspoken request for a family that we know. And, it is really just a totally shocking heart wrenching conversation that I had with this family. But, could you please pray for "Jessi " this week. Pray for Understanding, reconciliation, peace, culture shock, this family I believe is really being targetted by the Devil. Please pray that God would hold this family together and that the family would turn to HIM and seek what is best. There is going to be some real listening, understand, and compromising that will need to take place.

Then, on top of all that. The devil seemed to know Chris was away.. Because instead of life being easy things just fell apart, our car broke down, The cars at church on Sunday night all got broken into (Luckily, I left my car unlocked so there was no broken windows etc. on our car, and the list goes on., but the kids and Chris are all sick with a dry cough.

With all that said.. Would you please lift our family up in prayer and just ask for us to come to God and find rest and strength, and for us to turn all this into being a "light" for Christ in our community.

INTERNS COMING!

Praise God! Darrek and Stephanie have raised enough support for them to join us in Australia.
We have had to revamp a few things. But, God has TRULY blessed their support and we have received word that they should be arriving in October!

Pray for Chris and I as we prepare for them to come. We will be rearranging the house and moving ourselves into Brayden's bedroom and the boys will now be sharing a room, so that we can put the Thornton's and their bubby Grayson in the front bedroom of our house for the next 5 months!

Our kids are truly excited to have visitors and Chris and I are excited that God is bringing this family to help us in the efforts of planting a church here in Landsdale.

Pray that the Thornton's would receive their VISA quickly as you all know in the past this has been very hard for our family to obtain. Luckily they will be applying for a shorter visa, so we believe it should be a much quicker process.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR PRAYERS! GOD HAS MOVED MANY PEOPLE TO GIVE TO THE THORNTON'S AND, GOD HAS HEAR YOUR PRAYERS AND HE HAS ANSWERED THEM!!!!

Australian Father's Day!

On Satuday we celebrated Australian Father's Day. The men came to our house and had a wonderful breakfast made by Melissa as well as then they headed out for a Father, Son day on the Golf Course. Chris had a wonderful time taking Dawson for the first time and when Dawson returned you should have seen the smile on his face! He was SOOO excited for the time he had spent with his Ddddy.

God has brought three families close to us. But, God has opened a door recently for Chris to get together with the men from these families on a weekly basis and golf. Funny enough when Chris had this thought, he wasn't sure how he would fund the golfing and how it would all work out. But, God has supplied the extra money we needed for him to do 9 holes of golf each monday with these three guys! But, most importantly each week they get to discuss christian thought, and ideas, and this is the first time since we have been here that Chris has really been able to share with three non christian Men on a weekly basis the grace of Jesus Christ!

A highlight that has come out of this is, one of the guys has quit smoking and it has now been 3 weeks. But, throughout this, we believe that it has been GOD who led his heart as we had never actually talked to him about it, yet he came to us for support as his friends, and we believe that it is God who is carrying him through and we pray that Matt*** will realize the difference this time, and realize he has been able to quit this time... because we are praying for Him and that he has God helping him!

Kids Club is continuing to grow!

Kids Club has continued to grow and we have gained 7 children that are under 5! We really need more help and today I am asking that you would start praying for God to show us people that can help us with the Kids Club.

I have an idea to use the parents who are willing to stay. But, these parents are not Christians.. So, please pray that God would use us to reach these parents through Kids Club!

On a praise!!! We have had differently families volunteer each week for Snack! So, this is saving Chris and I personally money, that we were having to use each week to supply snack, but most importantly the parents are then staying and getting involved!

Makayla's Birthday

This weekend we celebrated Makayla's birthday! Was a fantastic time. We had 20 little girls and 3 boys running around our house! We invited parents to stay and had a little pop star party. It was truly a fun time of getting to know all the girls in Makayla's class as well as the mum's who stayed for the party. We were also blessed by a family in our church who brought us Dinner on Makayla's birthday so after her big party, I didn't have to cook! We were truly blessed!

As Makayla turns 7, we have so much to be grateful for! But, most importantly I praise God that she has accepted Jesus Christ as her personal saviour and that she is more than EXCITED to share every day with all of her friends that they need Jesus too!

We now have 5 kids from Makayla's class at school that come to Kid's Club. And, 6 other children from her grade (1) that come to Kids Club! Chris and I are very active at helping out in her classroom and have built relationships with all the families and parents.. It is very time consuming and lot's of work! But, these families notice a difference in our family. And, that difference is Jesus Christ!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAKAYLA!

WE LOVE YOU

and PRAISE GOD

for BLESSING our

FAMILY WITH YOU!!!!!!!!

Annual General Meeting.

On Augst 1st we had our Annual General meeting. Our D.S. flew 5 hours on an airplane to join us for this meeting. At church the Kids Club children sang a special song and Chris preached and then after the service it was a time to eat together, fellowship, and then we reflected and praised God for all he had done over the past year. As well as it was a time for us to look forward as a church and pray for God to bless where he is going to take us this year! We had the largest attendance we have ever had and the new family the Smythe's we have been asking you to pray for attended the meeting and are interested now in membership classes. God is good. this family has been attending regularly and we believe that because you have been praying, God has been moving in their hearts. a few exciting things we have to look forward to, that we approved at the meeting.
1. The church will be filing for permanent residency for Chris and I so that we do not need to keep applying for visas all the time.

2. They approved the Thornton's (BBC student) to intern under Chris.

3. We have agreed that we will organize for the entire community a Carol's by Candelight service this year. This is alot of work and will occur on the footy oval. but, the whole community will be invited to an outdoor's Christmas carol singing ut most importantly we will be sharing the true meaning of Christmas. "Carols by Candelight" are huge here in Australia. People love to come out and sing Christmas carols.

PRAY-that we will get the church on board with the carols by candelight.
PRAY- that the Thornton's will reach full support through Global PArtners to join us on the field. They need to raise $33,000.
PRAY- that we will be able to start processing the paperwork for our Permanent Residency Application soon!