Praises and Prayer Requests

Prayer Requests Pray for new families to come to our church over the next three sundays as we do a big bring a friend to church each week! Pray for Our churches Sausage Sizzle on April 6th. Pray for our Youth Camp May 1st-3rd. Pray for the churches Outreach event, the Easter Egg Hunt on 24th of March Pray for the church as we start the next phase of the house bulding and we do prestart. Where we pick colours etc.

Praises Praise God the Wesleyan Women's Italian Cooking night was a success and we have been able to secure a guest speaker for our retreat in July. Praise God we had two new families in church last week. Praise God everyone who went to family camp this year has ALREADY booked for family camp 2014!!! Praise God two new families from Landsale came on the family camp. Praise God family camp was a huge success with just over 80 of us attending

Brayden's Monkey Luau and Machine Pitch finale

Today Brayden turned 4! Can't believe time has flown by. He had his first party where he invited friends from school. The weather was fantastic and almost everyone he invited could make it. He picked a monkey luau. So, we made monkey ears and played surfing music and the kids LOVED playing musical bobs. Which is where the kids listen to music and when it stops you sit down really quick.  It was a great morning.. Then we had a family barbecue for lunch. and we ate lot's of  really yummy chunky monkey cupcakes!!  This weekend is crazy busy as we have a lot on... But, we wanted to make sure we took time out to celebrate Brayden.  He is such a hard working, fun loving, easy going kids who has lot's of friends.  He loves God with all his heart and we can't wait to see what God is going to do with this beautiful cheeky monkey!

  After the party was over we headed out to our machine pitch baseball team season  finale.  Chris has been the coach for the last 6 months and has worked really hard as well as our team manager and umpires. So, we went to a park and had a massive pizza party to celebrate the kids who play and learnt a new game really well and all the staff.  It was a fantastic day!!!

Bring a Friend to church Sunday

The next three weeks we are taking a break from the Story and focusing on Easter. Tonight we had bring a friend to church Sunday and our goal is for everyone to bring someone new each week, the next three weeks.  Tonight we had a fantastic turn out. Not one person came without bringing someone.  There were 32 people in church and they all came just for church.  In the past people come because their kids are singing or their kids are getting their kids club badges. But, tonight people purely came to hear the word of God. It was a wonderful evening of God moving in hearts and lives and we can't wait to see what God is going to do next week!

Wesleyan Women

Tonight we had a Wesleyan Women Fundraiser.  Our goal was to have 20 ladies come together and experience an Italian cooking show.  It was a fantastic night of laughing, eating, and most importantly thanking God for all the ways he has blessed us. But, the food was so delicious and we learnt soo much fantastic information. We got to make our own noodles and everything.  We also raised enough money to fly a guest speaker in for our Women's Retreat this year!  I am super excited and REALLY hope all these ladies will join us on our women's retreat this year!  It was a fantastic evening.

Family Camp

What an awesome weekend!  Family camp was an incredible time.  We had two new families come this year and we just had an amazing time.  We all packed up our cars and drove north.
All together there were almost 80 of us that came together to worship God on the weekend.  The Landsdale families had such a great time.  We had 18 kids in the kids program and 8 teenagers that went. The rest was adults and young adults.  The speaker did a fantastic job. Thank you Brookside Wesleyan church for supplying the "Adventures on Promise Island material" The kids thought camp was AWESOME! They made treasure boxes, and prayer journals, and t-shirts, and had an awesome time learning about God. The theme was God is with us, God care's about us, God will give us what we need, God will save us and God will answer us!  It was a fantastic trip of building relationships with each other and for some their first time starting to build a relationship with God.   We gave an opportunity for kids to accept Jesus or make commitments. Two boys accepted Jesus for the first time, and a few kids made commitment to make sure they tell others about Jesus and invite them to church!  One of the fun things we did on the weekend was played 44 home at the pinnacles.   It was really spooking everyone would hide and the desert would look empty, then people would be running everywhere to get home.  It was alot of fun, but incredibly spooky to watch everyone entirely disappear!

Family Camp 2013

Today Family Camp starts. We are loading up our car and trailer and car top carrier and heading North a few 100 km's  to a town called Jurien.   WE have 30 people attending camp from Landsdale! I am super excited!  We have brought in a guest speaker and I will be doing 5 Kids lessons over the weekend.  Chris will be running all the family games and activities as well as a youth session. We are super excited.  The Kids will be doing a theme on Luke 3:19  He came to seek and save the lost!  The kids are excited and so are all the adults.. I can't wait to see what God is going to do in our lives!
Please pray for our camp that God would use us as a light and that He would speak to the hearts of our families and especially the parents.  That they would sense an urgency to come to Him and except Jesus Christ as Lord of their lives!

First Day of Kids Club

Today was our first day of kids Club! We had 25 kids come the first day, which is fantastic!  We walked from school all the way to our house! It was 40 degreees out which is really hot!  We are doing a theme on conversation hearts. The first one is love God.  And, then we talked about Elijah and Elisha and how God sent a drought for a few years and then he sent rain. And, God showed the people how he was God and they must love him first!   We then celebrated with our own water party! We ran hoses across the street and played in the park lot's of water games! It was a great first day back! And, the parents are so excited that Kids Club is back on as well.

First Day of School

Today was the kids first day of School. Tomorrow all three kids go for their first time! Life has been really crazy even on school holidays.   It's hard to believe today we go back to our even crazier busy schedule. Makayla is starting year 4 in a 4/5 class and Dawson will be in a year 2 class.  Brayden is in kindy and will go to school 5 days every two weeks!   Hard to believe that a three year old goes to school in Australia. But, before we know it, March will be here and Brayden will be turning 4. 

Just as our family is starting back to school, all of our ministries are starting back up to full bore.   Friday we will have afterschool Kids Club again!  We still don't have a facility as they are still working on putting in the air conditioning in the hall.   So, we will be walking all the children to our house for kids club.  

I will start teaching preschool this week for our local community playgroup. It is a great job and I love meeting all the wonderful families. And, the next year they are potential families for our kids club. This year I have two classes and so far 20 families. But, we have room for up to 30.  

The kids were happy to smile this morning even though, we had gotten them up so early!  Here is a new picture of them in their uniforms. 

Thank you Brookside Wesleyan Kids  for your continuous support in our children's education.

Church

Today we had church. We have been meeting in our house because the community hall is getting air conditioning. It was a special time of us looking at the story of David and the reconciliation that God offered him after he realized he has sinned.

Pray for our teens. Tonight we offered them the opportunity for us to take them ton Influencers Conference. Pray that they would be willing to come. I really think that it would be great for them to experience a big room of christians and great speakers! And, I believe that they all have hearts that are ready listen and hear God right now. Please continue to pray that they would commit to coming and that God would work in their hearts! 

 Afterwards we all sat around and shared life together. It was a very special evening. Brayden was so tired that he fell asleep 5 minutes into church! He has been exhausted recently! 

Sausage Sizzle- AGAIN!

Today we had another sausage sizzle. It was a great opportunity for our church families and our kids club families to pull together and work side by side.  We had 14 volunteers. Chris stayed all day running the BBQ. I had to jet out for 2 hrs. for our "Australian Cousins" bday party,  but I then returned. :)   It was 38 degrees and everyone worked so hard!  When we got home 12 hours later, we could barely move.  But, we successfully sold atleast 800 sausages.  During the day the work doesn't seem so hard because we had great company and people to chat with and catch up with and to share Jesus with! A bunch of the parents have not become Christians yet, so it was neat to share the special conversations that we did have.   What I think is most evident about the Landsdale Community Wesleyan Methodist Church is that we are hard workers willing to do anything to reach the community! Pray with us that this year 2013 will be a YEAR of people coming to Christ like we haven't seen before!   God has so much in store for us and is blessing us financially with these fundraisers so that we can build a foundation for the WEsleyan Methodist Church in LAndsdale. So, that we can have a permanent place to say "THIS" is the church!   And, through our church, kids club, and youth group, we are going to reach this community!

ANNIVERSARY

December 30th was our anniversary.We spent the day preparing for our Sunday night church service.  We are still working through "The Story" .   It was a lovely service ! Then after church we all stuck around and chatted and had biscuits and tea. 

Don't worry.. we did do something special for our anniversary. The next day we rode the train into town and went to the Hopman Cup with is professional tennis. The seats were cheap and it was airconditioned and it was a beatiful day inside the new "Perth Arena". Outside the temperature was 40 degrees and rising! So, we were very thankful it was inside! :)

Boxing Day

In Australia we have added an Australia family as our own.  They came to perth over 15 years ago with a vision for the Wesleyan Methodist Churst to be started in the state of Western Australia.    They are the couple we came to Australia to partner with. The Hotchkin family is truly special and important to us. We couldnt' survive living so far away without them.  But, Boxing day was spent having our "family" Christmas. It was alot of fun and they are all Christians so it is just beautiful to sit and enjoy one another's company and rejoice in the fact that Jesus came for us! Jesus came to earth to save us! And, he was the greatest gift ever given to us. What a special, special, day! and, they had TURKEY!!!!!  We rarely ever eat turkey in Australia because it is too expensive. But, it was so good.. and had gravy too!!!   We swam in the pool and it was a beautiful day.

Christmas Day

Christmas Day is always a little interesting when you are a missionary overseas.   It is the big holidays when you miss your family most.   However, with Skype our kids were able to open their prezzies with grandma and grandpa and say hello to everyone. Each year our kids just get one present from us. Makayla desperately wanted a new baseball glove. So, she got a pink one. Dawson wanted a blue scooter and Brayden wanted a bike. They were all pretty easy things to obtain, but the excitement on their faces when they opened them was endless.  Luckily we were invited to our friends house to spend Christmas with their family.  This family is one of the newest families to our church and Melissa and Debbie have been friends for quite a while.  But, it was a beautiful time with them. The temperature was warm. Melissa made yummy ice cream cakes.  She made a violet crumble one and a strawberry mars bar one. They were yum! We headed to our friends house with our bathers  and food to share in a wonderful morning.   Afterwards we headed to another friends house to share dinner.  It was a lovely day. I have posted some pictures below. The thing we loved most about this day. Was that we were able to share with them the true meaning of Christmas. Both the families we had lunch with, the husband is not a believer yet. But, we pray every day that God will grab a hold of their lives and that they would be changed.  Their children all believe in Jesus and have asked Jesus to be their Lord and Saviour. Pray with us that 2013 would be the year God grabs a hold of their hearts.

Christmas Eve Service

Today Chris and I did all of our last minute christmas shopping and prepared for a special Christmas Eve Service. We had two new families come tonight and it was a sepcial evening of focusing on the true meaning of Christmas.   Was really special. melissa sang a special song and you could just tell that god's presence was in the room and everyone's hearts were in the right place. Was a very special evening.

Sunday Service with a Christmas Dinner

Today I got up bright and early and started cleaning our house.  Because the community hall is currently under construction work, church has to meet at our house.  So, I spent most of the day cleaning and we celebrated Chris's Birthday with a big lunch and some friends over from 12:00-4:00 and then we had church from 5:30-6:30 and then we had the church Christmas party and dinner after that.  It was alot of fun and we did a white elephant christmas gift exchange. It was alot of fun. And, we also have a fun tradition of a steering wheel device that comes back every year. So, it was really funny! The kids all got things that they loved and one of the most loved used gifts was a box full of bunnies.  The kids went nuts when they saw it.  So, it was a great day and we had a new family come tonight to church that had only come once before so that was very exciting.  Pray for Amanda and her husband scott and their three children!  

Chris's Birthday and the Bunnings Sausage Sizzle

Today was Chris's Birthday and we also had  the Bunnings Sausage sizzle.  It wasn't too warm... But, it was hot enough. We got up and started hauling a whole trailer full of food to the shop.  WE set up our display and everything and away we started cooking. We had people buying sausages befor it was even 8:00am.   By noon we we had run out of drinks and ice and onions and were sending people out to pick up more stuff!   WE then ran out of sausages and were able to get more.  But, amazingly we never ran out of rolls!  We sold just over 1200 sausages.  This is a good step in the right direction towards  helping our churches building fund!   We had many parents from the church who came and helped and it was a wonderful day.  Chris and I pulled in the drive way at 7:30 ran and got changed and went to our friends house to share "Christmas" with them and pick up our kids.  We had a lovely dinner with them and were very spoilt.  God has truly blessed us with some amazing people in our church!  Thank you for all your prayers today!

Preparing for the Sausage Sizzle

Today Chris and I ran all over Perth picking up sausages, and onions, ketchup, mustard, barbecue sauce, serviettes, and about 600 cans of soda.   We were preparing for the Sausage Sizzle that will be tomorrow. We spent lots of time sorting eskies and putting drinks in order and loading it all into our trailer so that we would be ready at 6:00am  tomorrow morning to go sell sausages.  This is one of the biggest fundraisers our church does. And, this afternoon Bunnings called and told us we really needed to bulk up what we were brining because they felt we needed 1200 sausages. So, we upped our orders and bought more supplies so that we would not run out. We sign a contract with the Store that we will sell sausages until 4:00pm no matter what.  But, with it being so close to Christmas and I know how stores are in Perth, They run out all the time of basic needs.  And, I am really worried that if we run out of rolls we will not have any way of getting more.   So, we are praying and ask you to pray with us that we have enough rolls, no matter what!!!

Also this afternoon Chris and I were able to sneak off for 2 hours and go see a movie for his birthday! Was very special!

Brayden Still complaining of a tummy ache!

This morning I took Brayden back down to the doctor's as he is still complaining of a tummy ache and we were up all night again with him tossing and turning.   The doctor still insists he is fine and there is nothing wrong with him. Please pray that Brayden would get over whatever this is and be all better! Especially the sleeping through the night again would be nice.

Landsdale's Got Talent

Today Kids Club was invited to come to school and sing in the talent show .  Today is also the VERY last day of school this year!  They did a great job and sang a song by Hillsong called "Born is the King". It was beautiful and Makayla played a CHristmas carol on the piano.  They did VERY well!  I was so proud of them!!! I am trying to download the video but, it seems to be too large. I will keep trying though.

REPORT CARDS

Just have to take a momen here and tell you how proud of our kids we are...   They work very hard and love attending school. But, they did very well on their report cards.  In australia reporting is differnt.  an
A= 18 months ahead
B= 6 months ahead
C= right where you need to be and ready to go to next grade

Makayla received an A in Math and English and Drama.  She got B's in Social and Economic, Music, Gym, and C's in Italian and Science.
Dawson received an A in Gym, B in Drama and Music and Art, and C's in Math, English, Science, Social and Economic. Very proud of them.

Pray for Makayla as she has been put into a 4/5 grade  class next year and with that will come a 1 to 1 computer program. So, she will need to be right on her game to keep up next year.  Dawson has been given a lovely 2nd grade  strict teacher for next year which will be fantastic! So, we now are officially on school holidays starting tomorrow till February 1st.

Can't believe another year is over....