Sausage Sizzle

Please pray for our church tomorrow as we have a sausage sizzle outside our community Bunnings store.  Bunnings would be the equivalent of lowe's in America. But, at our annual general meeting in August this year we prayed that God would open doors for us to serve the community as well as offer us ways to make some extra income to meet our needs as we grow. And, God brought this event to us.   Bunnings actually called and asked us to fill in for a cancellation the first week in September, and we had families away and had to decline and really felt that they may never call us back. But, a few days later they called and gave us this opportunity. Pray that we would have meaningful conversations with the people who come. Pray that we would be able to sell all of our sausages and drinks.   Pray that we would see this as a way to build a connection to the community through serving food and meeting a need.  Pray that Chris and I will have the energy and strength to work for 16 hrs. straight selling sausages! :)    Thank you so much for your prayers! They are changing lives, here in Australia.

District Conference was wonderful!

Sunday night we arrived safely back in Perth.  District Conference is always kind of a whirl-wind trip. We get on a plane and fly 4-5 hrs. on a red eye flight.  This means that we don't get to sleep on Thursday night! Then we drove 2.5 hrs.  to an island that was REALLY windy and REALLY cold!   After we arrived we were greeted with faces we see once a year.  But, it is WONDERFUL! This is the only contact Chris and I have with the rest of the district.  We soak up the 72 hrs. we are in Melbourne because it is a time for us to catch up, connect and meet, and greet people who share a passion, calling, and a desire to ministers in the Wesleyan Methodist Church of Australia.    We were truly blessed as Rev. Mike Walters from Houghton College was our guest speaker! And, it was extra special because he married Chris and I almost 13 years ago! So, it was extra special.   The weekend was all business meeting except for, in the evenings we would have rallies!    The days were very long! One day we got up at 6:00am and didn't finish until 1:30am!   The week was wonderful and we weren't sure what God was laying on our hearts. But, he has called Chris and I to step forward this year and help with some leadership responsibilities in the district.  With a unanimous vote Chris was elected to the DBMD, and I was elected as the Children's Ministry Director for the district.   This is good because eventually over the next few years, Western Australia will become its own district and we want to make sure we know how effectively run and give leadership and guidance to these positions. So, it will be excellent this year for us to get our feet wet.   Pray though, this will mean extra trips to Melbourne for Chris. he already will have to go in October for a meeting. Pray that the two of us would follow God's direction and that we would successfully do what it is that God wants us to do this year!   The weekend was awesome, and we were truly blessed.   When we returned our kids were a bit stressed out, and worried, and crying over silly things. But, pray that God will strengthen them and show them they do not, need mummy and daddy every second of every day! 

On the weekend we had a memorial service to remember Rev. Ridgeway.   He was an amazing man and at one point the D.S. asked everyone who had been touched by his life to stand, and there was not one person in their chair! He was truly a remarkable follower of Christ who had such a calling to meet people where they were and bring them to a connection and relationship with Christ!   It was truly a remarkable weekend!

District conference

Please pray for The kids we just left them in Perth and they were sobbing when we left. Pray that we will have safe travels and the kids will settle in. Pray that they would be a witness to the families they are staying with. There are 6 people from Perth that have flown to Melbourne for conference. We will be flying Thursday night at 9:00 and flying back to Perth Sunday at 5:30pm.

Dear prayer partners please pray for the Australian church. This morning we heard news that Dr. Jim Ridgeway has past away in the night in his sleep and gone to be with the Lord. he is a very historical Wesleyan Methodist in Australia that has held almost every position. You can read more about him on the wesleyan.org page. He has been a strong leader in the Australian church. He is Karen hotchkin's father. Karen and Phil are our dear friends and our family is part of theirs. Pray for Karen, Phil, Luke, Josh and Dana during this time.

This weekend is also district conference and we will be flying to Melbourne without the kids. Please pray that we will be able to farm our kids out to new families while we are away and originally they were staying with Dana.

Influenza

While we were travelling in the States everyone in perth was down with many different winter flus. We thought we had missed it all, but apparently not. Brayden, Makayla and Myself have had temperatures of 103 above for the past 5 days! We are REALLY unwell, and Makayla has now missed another 5 days of school after missing 4 weeks! So, please pray that we get better! The Dr.s are not giving any medicine, just suggesting rest. So, please pray that we would get over this and that we would start to feel better.

Cowan Volunteer

Tonight Melissa was awared a "Cowan Volunteer" certificate and medal.  This is a medal given by our Member of Parliament and he gives them to people who volunteer in the community and make a difference. Melissa was given it for helping further the local playgroup and children in our local community.   Melissa was not told she was receiving the award. And, so she "rocked" up to her meeting last night not feeling so well, only to be given this award!  And, they took a picture to put in the local paper.  Melissa is hoping it does not "actually"  make the paper as she has been very unwell!  And, was not prepared for such a "glamorous" shot. :)

Rev. Mike Walters

We are truly blessed to have Rev. Mike Walters and his wife Nancy staying with us for the following week.   Rev. Mike actually married Chris and I and baptized me when he was my pastor at the Higgins Wesleyan Church.  But, he has come to perth to teach spiritual formations to all of our churches in Perth. he will be teaching tuesday night, thursday night, and then all day on saturday.  Pray that we would be able to get some people from Landsdale to attend and that God would speak to their hearts.  Pray that Mike and Nancy would stay well while stay with us as we are all sick with influenza.  Pastor Mike will also be preaching at our church on Sunday night the 9th. Pray that we would have a good attendance and that people would come to hear him preach.  

AGM

Last night we had our annual AGM it was such a joy to report to the church all the ways God has blessed us in the past year and to be able to give a vision for where God will be taking us in the next year as the Landsdale Community Wesleyan Methodist Church.   It was truly a special evening for us to look everything over.  Chris and I know that our church wouldn't be where it is without your prayers! So, we reminded them of the number of people who pray for our church.  And, we thanked God for all of you as well as thanked God for all of his blessing this past year!   Not that numbers are the end all, but we were able to report to the district our attendance for the year and our church, kids club, youth, and wesleyan women all went up!!! How fantastic is that!

Wesleyan Women Retreat

What a weekend!

God gave me such a wonderful weekend to share away with the Wesleyan Women. We had been praying for a while about what study we should do and God just kept bringing to my mind Ruth and Naomi and this program called Cozy Mountain Lodge that Group put out.  It was wonderful and just what our women needed!   It was truly beautiful. The women bonded in so many ways. And, the whole focus of the weekend was to make sure our foundation was founded in Christ! And, that we built up from there. It was truly lovely. Thank you to all those who prayed for me.  To be honest last week was incredibly insane! We landed on Sunday. Monday I taught a preschool class that I teach on Mondays.  I did 20 piano lessons, The funeral on Wednesday, And, somehow pulled everything together by Friday by 1:00pm.  God was watching out for me because sooooo many things could have gone wrong. On tuesday the craft still had not arrived from where I ordered it.  So, I called them company and they sent out again overnight another shipment. It did not come on thursday. But, Friday at 12:00 I received the shipment!   Then, my CAR at the worship CD for the camp! Can, you believe that! So, luckily God provided a way for us to get our hands on another copy but it took lots of calls to group, but laid it on their hearts to really help me out! So, Friday morning at 3am I finally had a copy of the music for the weekend.  Then myself, and the worship leader for the weekend had really bad head colds. But, God kept my voice there and one of our teens was able to step up and lead wrship for the weekend. But, Satan was trying so hard to tear down our weekend. But, thanks to your prayers God was SHINING through in every aspect of the weekend.   Below are a few pics of the weekend.  We played board games, crafted the bags at the top, ate lots of yummy food. And, worshipped God! What a weekend.

Madeline's Funeral

Thank you prayer partners for your prayers while Chris performed Madeline's funeral. She was a lovely woman. And, respected in so many areas. She was a strong, bold, hard working woman who loved her family!  After the funeral people kept asking Chris if he was related to her! Maybe because of his accent because she was born in America. But, the family was really happy with the service and I even think Chris did a beautiful job. But, thank you for your prayers. We were able to be there for our church family and that alone was amazing.   We seemed to pull ourselves together jet lagged and all and the funeral was beautiful.  The funeral was to be while we were still in America but because of some questions the funeral got moved back and I believe God orchestrated it all so we could be there. Thank you for your prayers.

Home at last!

We arrived safely in Australia on Sunday morning at 4:00 am. The flight was
not too dreadful. The children were really good and all of our luggage
arrived safely.  Departing the US was a bit hard.  There were lot's of tears.
But, the kids were excited about the idea​t of getting back to their friends
at school and Sunday morning at 5:00am Dawson was already up in his
Australian Rules Footy uniform running around ready to go play with his team!
 When we lined up to go through security Brayden had a moment of
understanding that I believe God gave him. He hadn't wanted to hug good bye
to anybody in the US.  And, when we got in line he said "HA, that Papa he
didn't bring his suitcase... What is he going to wear in Australia!"   And,
Chris and I looked Brayden in the eyes and told him they were not't coming
with us so if he wanted to hug and kiss them good by this was his last
chance.   And, Brayden understood! He ran across the airport and hugged both
his grandmas, his papa, and his uncle Doug!   It was REALLY REALLY cute.
Since Sunday we are still struggling a bit with sleep. The boys wake up
starving in the middle of the night and keep getting up at like 3'o'clock in
the morning. So, please pray that they would continue to sleep better.
  
Today we are doing a funeral for a mother of one of our church members.
   Please pray for Chris and I as we support this family today in their
   time of loss and grief. Please pray for the Kheun Kryk family.
   Please keep Melissa  and the WW's leadership team in your prayers as
   they have the Wesleyan Women's retreat this weekend. She is the
   director as well as the guest speaker this year. So, pray that
   everything would fall together for her and that God would give her the
   right words to say to everyone.  There are 21 ladies going away
   together for the weekend. Pray that they would feel rejuvenated,
   relaxed, inspired, and feel the touch of God upon their lives!
  
We have heard some news back from the South Australian District that
   they would like more numbers for the proposed house idea in Landsdale.
   So, please pray with us that we would be able to get this extra
   information to them and that it would be all in the manner that would
   be most helpful to them understanding our proposal.  The Church in
   Landsdale would like to build a house so that we can rent it from them.
   So, that they would start to get their foot in the door on some
   property in Landsdale. Also, then our rent would be going back into the
   church instead to random people we do not know.

 Please also pray for the churches we visited while we were home that
   they would join our support team and that our funds would come in this
   month.  Over the summer months our giving has been low and we have not
   met our target amount for any of the previous 3 months.  Our target
   amount as of today is 16,000 Originally is was 22,000! Rejoice with us
   for the funds that have come in so far this month and pray with us that
   God would bring in the 16,000 that we still need. August is the end of
   our fiscal year. So, we would really want to end with our financial
   account even.

 There was  nothing more special than traveling the US for the past 6 weeks and updating people
   with all that God is doing here in Australia.  We truly have been
   blessed over the past 6 weeks and know that God's blessings have fallen
   on our ministry here in Australia because of the WONDERFUL and LOVING
   support team we have back in the USA!  Our God does amazing things when
   we come to him and ask! I can't wait to see what is ahead this year
   here in Perth!

   Blessings to everyone,
   The George Family

Financial Support

Dear Prayer Partners,
The most important prayer we have right now is for financial support!

We were currently home because our support has been low.  Since January, every month we have been about $2,000 below our support income target.    This is not good and it effects our account but when it continues the problem gets bigger and bigger.   And, because we were  currently only at 90% faith promise this also affected the account.

So we were just home for 6 weeks to do a fundraising Blitz.   If God is speaking or has spoken to you to give, now is the time to give!  If I were to be honest, when we got paid this month there was only  $250 left in the account.  This is the lowest our account has been in 10 years.   Pray that God would bring this account up immediately! Here is specifically what we need and that you can pray for:

Faith Promises needed: $12,034 ( finances promised to come in over the next year)
Cash flow needed: $19,535   (finances our account needs immediately as one time gifts!)  

Please note that we will STILL be leaving on Friday for Australia. Pray that this money would come in immediately and that the fruits would blossom from our home ministry travels.   Also, the Fiscal year end in August. So, we are trying to get as much funds into the account so we don't end in the red for the year. Because at the moment more has gone out then what has come in...

Brookside Wesleyan

This evening we had the wonderful privilege of sharing with Brookside Wesleyan in Wellsvillle. This is Chris's home church and it is always special to walk in and receive a million hugs from everyone who has prayed for us, not just since we were called to be a missionary but since we were babies. God has worked through us a blessed us because of the faithful people who have prayed for us and believed that God could do awesome things through our family. We all had great big ice cream sundaes with all kinds of toppings including bacon!?  Dawson also got to see his teachers from camp one last time and we were able to steal a picture.  And, we were able to chat with some friends that we have had for a VERY long time and hear what God is doing in their lives.   It was so special to visit here and see what God has done in Chris's home church while we have been away!

Best Years Fellowship

Tuesday afternoon Chris and I were able to share with about 60 or so men and women from the Western District over lunch what God has been doing in Perth Australia.    It was a special time for us to share from our heart.  But, also a time of thanks. Because we know the people in that room are the people who continually pray for us!  They are the force that moves God's hand to do amazing thing in Perth Australia and in our family.  We are truly blessed to have them on our team!   Thank you Best Year's Fellowship of Western New York! 

Missions Team!

Today we met with a pastor about the possibilities of their church bringing us a missions team in Perth, Australia! How awesome would that be.. Are we allowed teams? yes! Is there plenty for a team to do in Perth?  Yes!  We are so excited and ask that you would pray for Orchard Park Wesleyan as they look into bringing a team, that people would feel God calling them to come and that the plans and logistics would fall together so we can provide a successful trip.

West Jasper

Today we visited West Jasper Wesleyan Church.  It was a wonderful time spent with this church family.  The kids really enjoyed being there. They were setting up for their Vacation Bible School that started later on in the day. We pray that God would bless them this week and that many children would come and experience Jesus there. Then we had a special time where we got to sit and catch up with the pastor and his wife.  They have a heart for missions and it was wonderful to just sit down, relax and hear and share what God has been doing.

Praises and Prayer Request

Prayer Requests Pray that we would increase our faith promise by 10% immediately. And, that God would give churches a passion and desire to be a part of our team. Both churches that we visited while we were home and new churches that we are currently contacting. Pray that people would give one time gifts and that our GP missions account would steadily rise immediately! Pray for the Landsdale Church as we are putting in a proposal to the district to purchase some property for the Landsdale Community Wesleyan Methodist Church Pray for our family as we fly out August 10th to go back to Australia! Pray for safe travelling mercies and also as we jump straight back into life there and full time school, ministry and work! Pray for Melissa as she prepares the final touches for this years womens camp from August 17-19th in Perth, Australia. Pray for the committee and that they would be able to reach out and get more ladies to come this year that have never been!

Praises Praise God that he has been using us while we are here on home ministries to call children, teenagers, adults, and families to be Missionaries. Pray that God would move in these people's lives and show them what their next step is as they obediently answer Him! Praise God that Chris and I were ministered to this week at Family Camp. We were able to sit every evening and here Rev. Tom give the word of God! It was rejuvenating for us! Praise God our children are starting to understand, see, and experience the other side of missions! The people diligently pray and support us! And, they seem to comprehend how many people are a part of what God is doing in Perth, Australia

Commissioning Prayer

Thursday night during the Camp service Rev. Jennings called our family to the front of the evening service and had a commissioning prayer for our family. He called the pastors of the district to come together and lay hands on us. They prayed that our funds would come in this week and that God would put a hedge of protection around our family and the ministry we are called to do in Perth and that people who continue to partner with us and join our team.  There is no feeling that amounts to the way it feels when your "family and team" surround you and lift your before God. It was a very overwhelming experience of peace and we were truly blessed to have this opportunity.

Thursday of Western New York Family Camp

The 4th 5th and 6th graders and their awesome teacher Rev. Al!  Makayla really felt God speak to her in a special way through this group of kids!

Thursday morning Chris taught another seminar and I did two children's programs back to back. One was for the 1st 2nd and 3rd graders and the other was for the 4th 5th and 6th graders.   It was a very special morning because, we LOVE sharing what we do, but we love speaking with children as well!  One of the children really felt God impress upon her heart to be a missionary when she grows up. And, not only did she express this to me, but she went immediately out and told her family and others!  I have posted her picture below with her family. But, pray that God would direct her paths and her parents as they help her grow and answer this call on her life!

Wednesday morning seminar!

Praise God! Wednesday morning during our seminar a women really felt God calling her to missions.  Pray for this women that God would direct her and her husband paths and show them where God wants them to be.