We have arrived in the USA!

Last night at 11:00pm we have arrived in Rochester, NY where we will call ourselves at home for the next 6 weeks before we return back to Australia.  

The kids could HARDLY sit the last hour flight from JFK to Rochester. Dawson was SO excited he was Jumping all over the place.   It was almost like it is in the movies. WE had just travelled over 36 hours. But, when we stepped off that plane our kids were speed walking to the baggage claim where we would see our family waiting for us! Then they just dropped the carryon's and as soon as they could see people they recognized, they were running!  full out running! They were hugging and getting kisses and their nieces and nephews had signs welcoming them home! It was truly a special moment that our kids will remember for forever.  It was truly special. We made it all the way to Rochester and only one piece of luggage was missing. So, Makayla got to go to walmart and by a pr. of jammies and a pair of shorts and a shirt, but arriving home felt fantastic!  Thank you for all your prayers for our flight. The children sat and only once did we have a moment of panic with Dawson. But, we were able to calm him down and give him some antihistamines and immediately his ears were fine again and they sat SO good on the way home!  

I will have to write one thing. When the plane took off in Australia, I looked over and not only was makayla sniffling, but her eyes were pouring out tears! And, I reached over and asked her if she was okay, and she said she would miss her friends. It was bad enough leaving the USA and crying the first hour of our flight that we would miss our family while we were away. But, now we cry going both ways!  God has definitely called us to minister to the people of Perth, Australia and we long to see them in a relationship with Jesus Christ! 6 weeks and we will be back in Oz doing what God has called us to do, bring the people of Perth, Australia into a relationship with Jesus Christ!

Hurry, Hurry, Hurry!!!

Yesterday and Today have been insanely crazy! Not only are we trying to do all the work that needs to be done for the next 6 weeks, we are trying to clean our house, pack up, do our regularly daily responsibilities for Monday and Tuesday and make it to the airport in time to catch our plane!   Luckily God has placed some fantastic people in our lives who realize how much help we needed to tackle this task! The teens were over and helped make all the bed clean so if people needed a place to stay they could use our house while we were away.  And, other friends helped prepare for the Kids Club awards night. Chris was running around making sure all of our Bills were paid, and I was MADLY writing and organizing 6 Kids Club lessons for while we were away.  And, writing everything in deep detail.  Luckily we were blessed to get two parent volunteers each week, two parent helpers each week and Debbie, Pastor Phil, Bethany, Laura, Rachel and Kayla are going to run Kids Club while we are away!

The church will be filled in by Pastor Phil, Pastor Shannon and our D.S. Rev. Lindsay Cameron. Church has been moved to our house while we are away for ease of setting up responsibilities etc.

Not only do we dive back into life in Perth the day we get back, but the Women's camp is 4 days later and life will go back to crazy when we land. So, pray that We can keep things organized from the US and that everything will flow smoothly for the church in Australia while we are away.

PRAY for the people listed above that God would use them and that they would grow closer and stronger to God in stepping up and taking responsibility for the church while we are away.  

In a few minutes we will be picked up by two cars and taken to the airport!  It is a strange but exciting feeling. Our children are EXCITED they didn't sleep last night because all they envision is running off the plane and hugging their grandma and grandpa and grandma and papa! They can't wait to see their cousins and hug them and do all the fun things they have dreamed of doing over the past three years! 

We are not sleeping in anticipation of wondering how the church will hold up while we are away. But, we know that God is good and that he will use these people to carry on the good work and that all will be fine in our absence. We are also are desperately trying to connect with churches and raise ourselves back up to 100% while we are home. So, pray that God will connect us with the right people and that he will possibly even help us find someone in the US who wants to come join our team here in Perth in the future!

Term 2 Kids Club Awards Night

Dear Prayer Partners,


The Last month has been amazingly crazy, busy, wonderful and hectic, but God has been doing so many amazing things. On Sunday night we awarded 38 Kids with their new badges for term 2 of the school year. This term we were focusing on the armor of God. The children will continue to study the armor of God for a few more weeks. But, it is amazing to see what they have learned through the helmet of salvation, Breastplate of Righteousness, the belt of truth, shoes of peace and the shield of faith. We also studied the Bible verse “Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.” We had an amazing turn out of parents and families. There were over 62 people in attendance. We had 5 new families attend on the evening!  this alone was a huge reason for us to rejoice! The new families even stayed for dinner afterwards and had a great evening. The kids performed the skit of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. for their parents and sang three songs. It truly was a night to rejoice in all that they have learned.

God Saved Rachel's life!

On Friday afternoon  it was storming so hard you could barely see and it was really windy. During Kids Club I was teaching the kindy and pre pimary Bible Class when a parent helper came in and calmly asked me to come with her for some important business.   When I got to the kitchen, Rachel our teen helper was sitting in a chair and she had just been hit by a car getting off the public transport bus out in front of the community hall where we hold church.   Because, it was raining so hard Rachel got off the bus, looked and didn't see a car and ran across the street, only to be hit.  
But, God saved her life.  She ended up having a concussion, severe grazing and only had to stay in hospital for a few hours. She has an injured knee and will need crutches for a few weeks,  but her injuries were minimal and the Dr. kept saying he couldn't actually see an impact point where the car specifically did way more damage.   And, I believe God protected her!   I still am frustrated because the driver only rolled down the window a bit, asked her if she was alright and then drove around her and left her laying in the road.   But, the God we serve is bigger than any circumstance. And a boy from our church who doesn't normally get off at that bus stop just happened to get off at the wrong stop and therefore was able to help her into the church.
 The interesting thing is our Bible Story was about letting God "protect" our hearts and when he does he will do AMAZING things with our lives.  And, as soon as the kids heard about Rachel they asked if we could thank God for protecting her and then they prayed for God to watch over her and the Dr.'s who were going to take care of her.  But, to see this group of  35 young children put their faith to work immiediately was very impressive and a confirmation in our hearts of how much God has done in their hearts and their lives.

PS. I believe your prayers have had a huge impact on this circumstance as well because  Rachel is the teenager who accepted Christ a few months back and we asked you all to pray for!

Support Boost!Our family will be in the US for a very short 6 weeks completing  home ministry duties! Our aim is to boost our support and get our funding back up to 100%.   We are very excited as we will be speaking at both of our home district camps.  So, look for us at Chambers for CNY on the evening of the 4th and we will be sharing in a seminar on the morning of July 5th.  We will also be sharing a few seminars at the WNY camp in Houghton, NY.   While we are home we are trying to schedule churches that don't support us yet on Sunday AM and Sunday evenings.  However, we WOULD LOVE to get a chance to share what God has been doing here in Australia with all of you who already pray and support us! :) Below are a few options we have thought of but are really open to all kinds of creative ideas!

1) Have a back yard barbecue on a week night evening!   Because our time is so short we are going to have to utilize every chance we get! And, we really do want to catch up with you all. Some of our supporting churches are very close to other Wesleyan churches.  We would love to do a "Zone" back yard fellowship or something similar. So, if you would be willing to host one could you email us at georgefamilyinaustralia@hotmail.com and we will be more than happy to help work out an awesome fun family night!

2) Picnic in a park or local meeting place where a few churches could come together on a Saturday.

3) Have a back yard fellowship or picnic and invite churches that don't yet support us. So, they can see what you are a part of and join in the work God is doing here in Australia.

4) Come meet with your missions committee.

Pray for us as we secure people in our church to keep Kids Club, Youth Group, Bible Studies, church and so forth being carried through while we are away. 

Secondly pray for our children as they will be away from school for 4 weeks (2 weeks are school holidays) and will need to stay up to date with their studies. As well, as we have been here for 3 years so I think it will be a bit of a culture shock to them when they arrive back in the US.

Like, we said we truly can't wait to see all of you and thank you in person for all your prayers and support!   God has so much in store here in Perth, Australia! And, we can't wait to get our support caught up, say hello to all of you, and then get straight back here to Australia to keep working with the people he has called us to reach!    Here is our flight schedule so you can pray for us!

June 26th  @ 11:00pm   Perth - Dubai
                                       Dubai- JFK, NY
                                       JFK, NY - Rochester, NY

August 10th  @ 6am!  Rochester, NY - JFK
                                    JFK - Dubai
                                    Dubai- back home to Perth, AUSTRALIA!

Wesleyan Women Committee

Please pray for the Wesleyan Women Committee. We are getting ready to organize this years camp and we have found a venue and have set the dates for August 17-19th. It will be a fantastic weekend, but will require much work. This will be our 4th Womens Camp!  Our goal is to take atleast 30 ladies. So, pray with us that we would have intentional conversations with people and that we would get ladies to come that have not gone before.  The committee has stuck their neck on the line and we will be offering a discount to first time ladies as well as we are going to allow teenagers over 14 to come this year so mums and daughters can also attend together to build a bond there.   Pray for me as I seek where God wants the focus of this camp to be and as I prepare my messages etc for the weekend!  I already have two ladies who have never come before say they are coming. So pray that they follow through and get their deposit and registration slip in!  There are quite a few more I am working on as well! Pray that I can get them to see the important of coming away and growing in Christ!  Please pray for the Committee as well...Myself,  Nalynn, Gem, Glynis, Shannon, Elaine, Bethany, and Pellagia.

Wesleyan Women High Tea!

Today was the Wesleyan Women High Tea. We had 35 ladies come out! It was an enjoyable afternoon of getting to know people and building relationships among the women in our church. We had some guest music. Kids club girls sang and two young adults sang from the Inner City Church. We played games and then we settled down for a devotion.  God brought to my attention a message on balancing our lives.  God knew what all of us were going through and HE knew this was the message for us today! The food WAS also sooo yummy.  But most important God came and met with us and it was a LOVELY afternoon! I was really relieved that this went so well. I spent most of the week runing around, baking, finding, and creating thigs for this afternoon. So, was very pleased God honoured all the hard work we put into it!  

2Samuel 22:33-34 "God is my strong fortress, and he makes my way perfect. He makes me as surefooted as a deer; enabling me to stand on mountain heights." 

City funding!

God has answered one of our big prayers today! We received a call from the City of Wanneroo (our local city) letting us know that we received a public grant for our Carols in the park in December!  Chris was really concerned as he was filling out the paper work we were unsure of whether we were going to fit their criteria being a church and all. But, apparently we did fit their criteia, because they are awarding us $800! This is VERY exciting. This will allow us to be able to hire some jumpy castles, and outdoor games equipment. She also said we can purchase food items for the sausage sizzle we do, etc. So, this is very exciting and just shows one way the City is supporting our church and the activities we are doing in the community!  God is good and he is breaking down the walls between us and the community!

Ladies Bible Study

This term Melissa is running a womens Bible Study on Wednesday mornings. We have three ladies attending who are studying "Friendship, Cultivating the Relationships that Enrich our lives." By women of Faith. Please pray for Melissa, Leanne, Carolina, and Debbie that they would be able to get others to join in and enjoy friendship while learning about God and how he is their best friend of all!  

Kids Club Awards Night

The term One Kids Club Awards night was held last night and we had a fantastic turnout! Four of the children shared about what they had learnt in the term.  The four special moments shared were...
1) Kayla shared about the easter baskets we made and how we put eggs with  special items to help them tell the easter story!
2) Luke shared how we made first aid kits that fit in their school bags so that they can help people in need and what the true meaning of the Good Samaritan was.

3) Rianna shared how Kids Club is her favourite activity of the week and she can't wait to come back each week.
4) Makayla share that because of what Jesus Christ did on the cross we have to make a choice, and she chooses to follow and love Jesus!

The children then sang two songs for their parents. "God is watching over you"  and "He reigns".

The we awarded the kids with their badges.
1) Their name badge they achieved by attending Kids Club on a consistent basis.
2) Their Matthew 19:14 badge was for memorizing. "Jesus Said, let the little children come to me!"
3) The helping hands badge- They learnt what it meant to serve their friends, family, neighbours, and by reaching out to help those who are "different" from us!  
4) Family Camp badge- By attending family camp this year they earnt a badge.
5)  The Cross badge. We spent a few weeks studying the easter story and what it meant to them. They had to be able to tell the story of the cross using their eggs that they made and be able to tell someone the importance of what Jesus Christ did for us!

The kids were amazing and we had over 40 kids earn badges during term 1.  12 of these 40 kids were new to kids club! 35 of these kids earnt 4 or more badges!

Praises and Prayer Requests

It has been brought to our attention, that those of you who follow our page don't receive the praises and prayer requests in your email messages. So, I will every also post them on our wall when I update them, so you can get them!    God Bless.

Prayer Requests


Pray for The Kids Club Awards night. It will actually be on Sunday April 29th at 5:30 pm. Pray that families would come and be open with soft hearts to understand that Christ died for them! And, rose again to give them a new life!!!!

Pray for Chris as we are attempting to get him a new insulin pump. The one he has he has been wearing for 9 years. They should be replaced every 3. Pray that this would be a smooth change over. We meet Tuesday morning to find out how a new one will work.

Pray that Chris and I would be able to connect with 10 churches and new individuals to pick up to be apart of our team!

Pray for Melissa as she puts together a woman's Bible Study to meet on Wednesday mornings. Pray that ladies would be excited to come and would be eager to learn more about God.

Praises

Praise God we had 12 youth attend this years camp and it was an awesome time of bonding and drawing closer to Christ.

Praise God Brayden was able to ride his scooter for the first time this past week! He is almost back to normal. Still has a small limp. But, is almost totally recovered.

Praise God that the WA family Camp was WONDERFUL!!!

Praise God that the first term of school, kids club and church have gone smoothly. Hard to believe we have already had 9 weeks of school!

Praise God the Easter Egg Hunt was a huge success with over 90 kids attending! And, we were able to share the true meaning of Easter.

Praise God we have 5 people meeting on Thursday nights to do a Bible Study.

 

ECHO

Western Australia

Youth Camp 2012

 Top: Youth making french toast on the outside barbecue.  Was very yummy!



Right: Playing Uno (Pronounced "You no" in Australia) while it was raining outside.



Bottom: Hiking Sand Dunes.

WA Youth Camp

This year we had 6 guys and 6 girls go on the Western Australia Youth Camp. 11 of these teenagers were from our church! It was really exciting as we prepared for camp. The teens worked hard at their jobs and fundraisers so they could attend the camp.  It was well worth their effort because they had an awesome time.

The teens had to prepare all their own meals, with our help as well as we did all kinds of group bonding games, and lots of exciting activities.  After cap was over I could barely walk. I realized that Chris and I are NOT as young as we think we are! We had played capture the flag, and climbed sand dunes, and done all kinds of crazy things, and our legs were sore for atlesat 3 days... :) And, we were exhausted. We are not used to only getting 1-2 hours of sleep! :)

The weekend was focused on the phrase ECHO.
His Words- My speech
His Walk- My steps
His Will- My Stay
I am - I ECHO

Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children. Ephesians 5:1

 The teens made all kinds of personal commitments and I think Laura (Rachel's Sister) is very close to becoming a Christian. please pray for Laura as Chris and I share Christ with her!

Easter Egg Hunt

Landsdale Community
Easter Egg Hunt

This years Egg Hunt was a complete success. We had 109 children register and participate with their parents.  There had to be over 175 people in the hall because it was totally packed!   We had craft stations, Easter egg hunts according to age groups, jelly bean count , colouring in contest, free popcorn and drinks, but MOST importantly we had a story time where Melissa read the real meaning of Easter.  Each child was given an opportunity to make a choice and decide whether they were going to "believe" Jesus was alive.   "Kids Club" also sand two songs for the audience.  It was beautiful! The kids were fascinated and you could see their mind clicking over. It was a very busy,  but fantastic day.  Melissa and I have been organizing this for weeks and months, but we literally got up Saturday morning at 7:00am and never sat down till 9:00pm and that was with a WHOLE pile of everything left sitting in our living room at our house.   It is a lot of work to gather everything together and then haul it down to the haul for an event set up and then bring it all back.  We used every table and chair that our "rental" facility had to offer!

I also forgot to mention. We never did get our crafts that we ordered until 8:00am Monday morning. So, we had to go out and purchase all new stuff.  We had ordered three weeks ago our craft items and paid for three day shipping. But, UPS was very kind and ended up giving us back 1/2 of our shipping for not getting our package to us in a timely manner. 

We had quite a few emails after the event from people who have never participated in anything with us in the past and they kept commenting on what a great event it was and that the love of Jesus just poured out of our church family.  We have lots of following up to do!  So pray with us that we would be able to connect people to Jesus in a powerful way and that they would see the need for him in their lives. 

EASTER EGG HUNT - PRAYERS NEEDED

Pray for the Easter Egg Hunt that is this Saturday from 3-5pm. I am very nervous about it. Unfortunately our crafts have been held up and are not going to get here in time which is a huge disappointment. Luckily we have about 70 of everything left over from last year. So, Chris and I ran around today collecting some last minute ideas.  Please pray that our box would APPEAR in Perth today. For some reason it has been held up in Singapore and we still need it to clear their customs as well as Australia customs before it will get here. And in Australia Mail is not delivered on Saturdays.  The craft items were ordered weeks ago, but sometimes this is just what happens! :(

However, Pray that we would have new people come and that their hearts would be softened to hear the message God is going to use me to bring on Saturday.

Pray also that we would have enough helpers and be able to pull the event off with all the glory going to God! 

Bible Study

Thursday nights we are meeting together with 5 people for a Bible Study called a New Creation. We have met twice so far and have another 4 sessions.  It is written by our DS Lindsay Cameron and we are really excited so far in the questions and conversations we have been having with this group. Pray that these people would come to know Christ and that they would draw close to Him and realize that they need Him to be the one true God they worship.

New Insulin Pump

Today Chris met with his rep for the new diabetes pump he will hopefully get. She mentioned that they should be replaced every three years and that he has had his nine which is just incredible!   But, the time has really come that he needs to upgrade. The insurance company has been fantastic and has given him three green light and apparently will cover 100% of the cost of the new pump. Please pray with us that he will get the new pump smoothly and that he will be able to switch over to the new pump with no dramas or problems along the way. 

Landsdale Neighbour Day

Today our church partnered with the Landsdale Residents Association.   Chris spends alot of time building relationships with people in the community. One of the ways he does that is by sitting on the Landsdale Community Residents Association Committee. 5 years ago when they really wanted one he stepped up and played the role of president. Then, a lovely person named Jessica came along and she fit the role and would do a fantastic job so Chris kindly stepped aside and has stayed on the committee so the church can have a hand at helping within the community.  

Today was all about getting our name out there and building bridges to get to know people. We let the Residents association use our sound equipment and we sold drinks while many other community groups also participated such as the playgroup association ( Melissa is on their committee) as well as the Footy club and various other community groups. There were about 400-500 people that participated. Chris worked hand in hand with all the groups making sure the days performances by the school, drama groups etc went smoothly and I sold drinks, handed our information about our church and had people pre-register for our Easter Egg Hunt next weekend. It was a really fun day and Brayden actually limped around quite a bit! He made it from the hall down about 50 metres to go play some games! So, he is already improving! 

BRAYDEN IS 3!

BRAYDEN IS 3

Today  we had Brayden's 3rd birthday party. He invited 5 little friends from Playgroup to come celebrate with him. We decorated fruit boxes from the market to look like cars 2 cars and the kids raced around the yard. I got Brayden up on his feet for this picture but unfortunately he couldn't actually limp along and carry the box. His leg and ankle are still quite stiff. But, he was in pretty good spirits for the day!

Seems crazy and hard to believe all at the same time that Brayden is already 3!   I think Brayden turning 3 is scary enough just in itself because in less than a year he will be going to public school here in Australia and that seems totally crazy to me! He is our last little bub so he in our minds is just so little! 

He is an adventurous, wild, crazy boy who loves Jesus very much! I praise God for him and we are truly blessed! 

WA Family Camp 2012

FAMILY CAMP!

Family Camp was a blast! 70 of us came together to camp it out and have an awesome weekend together as the WA Wesleyan Methodist church family!  It was truly a fantastic weekend full of fellwship, fun, growth in who we are in Christ, and did I mention alot of fun!

  Dawson the very first night got eaten by  and we are not exaggerating atleast 100 mosquito bites. The poor boy itched ALL weekend. He looked so bad that the campground manager gave him free mosquito wristband to keep the mosquitos away. They were basically like cat flea collars! :) Brayden survived the EXTREME heat with his cast and Makayla had a blast with her friends!

It was a very busy weekend for Chris and I as we were in charge of lots of different parts over the weekend. But,   we also were attending with our family and trying to play that role as well! :)   We had 7 families from the Landsdale church attend the camp in the end and it was TRULY exciting!




Melissa did a great job with the kids programs. We did five Kids sessions. Each session had a theme, craft, songs, and Bible story to connect it all together. As well as we did a huge tie-dye session as a fun family craft.  This was not any little task. Tie-dying in a campground was alot of work! And,my hands were red, blue, and green, for days!!!      Chris organized family games, outings, and youth sessions.  Pastor Phil organized all the food and it was yum!  Rev. Lindsay Cameron flew in from Melbourne (five hour flight) he is our D.S. and spoke for our main camp sessions. He spoke all weekend on priesthood and God spoke to everyone in our church! It was a wonderful time. Everyone can't wait till next year! 


Because of your prayers God was there and working on us and helping us and molding us! We appreciate all your support and prayers that made this weekend possible!