G'day from the George's is changing.... Important... Please read below...

Dear Friends and Family,
For the past 10 years, we have posted to this blog our prayer requests, concerns and story of what God is doing through our family in Perth, Australia. After much discussion, Chris and I have decided that we are going to close this blog. We are going to send all of our correspondence from now on through mailchimp. You will actually receive it the exact same way, in your email box.  But, we are unable to see who opens this blog and we are unable to know if anyone ever actually reads it.   I am sure many of you do though, so here is the important part. If you would like to still receive our updates....
  please email us at georgefamilyinaustralia@hotmail.com    Your, Name, address, email and the church you attend.
We will then enter you into our new system and from now on you will still receive our updates!  We are so thankful for you and we want you to continue on this wonderful journey with us as we continue to follow God's call and serve him in Perth Australia with Global Partners!  We look forward to hearing from you, so we can enter you into the new system!

God bless,
Rev. Chris and Rev. Melissa George

Praises and Prayer Requests

Prayer Requests Pray for us to pick up $35,000 in NEW Faith Promise and $25,000 in Cash in the next 6 weeks. Pray for people in our church to step up into volunteer roles while we are away. Pray for our children as we attempt home schooling while here in the USA. Pray for Chris and I as we book churches to travel too, while on home ministries Pray for Mark and Dawnielle as they carry the ministries on in Australia while we are away Pray for us to reach full support by March 15th.

Praises Praise God we have picked up 2 new churches for support! Praise God we have been granted Permanent Residency in Australia! Praise God he provided a pastor for our church in Australia while we are in the USA raising support Praise God he provided a renter for the church parsonage in Australia We are praising God for all the new supporters and faith promise partners he is blessing us with. Praise God for holding our family in his hands!

December 2014 Newsletter

G'day from the Georges  December 2014 December was a crazy, yet wonderful month as we spent time on the road connecting with many churches and individual supporters that continually give, pray, and support our ministry in Perth, Australia.  Laura (a student from our church in Australia) also joined us. Laura is a leader in our church in Australia.  She came to America with us for the next 8 weeks to see and experience the broader Wesleyan church.  While she is here, she will get to have some amazing experiences.  This month we visited churches from Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and NY.  We also put 4,000+ miles on the car we were driving!    How is Partnership Development going? The Good news is God is also blessing our support. We are currently 70% funded. We still need $35,000 in new Faith promise and $25,000 in cash in our Global Partners account before we can have financial clearance.  Our goal is to have financial clearance by March 15th.  Please continue to pray that God would speak to churches, friends, and family about joining our ministry team and supporting us through prayer and also in financial ways. If God is calling you to give a one-time gift or sign up as a faith promise partner, please click below:   Give online here!

VISITING IWU While we were in Indiana we had the special opportunity of taking Laura to Indiana Wesleyan University.  This is our Alma Mater as well as Melissa worked at IWU for 4 years in the religion department before we went to Australia. So, it was fantastic to catch up with so many wonderful people there...  We also had the special privilege to share with a youth ministry class as well as a Christian Fellowship group.  Pray that God would speak to a student’s heart to come join us in Australia and help lay the next step of growth in training leaders, and workers, for our youth!  GLOBAL PARTNERS TRAINING After we visited IWU we went to Noblesville where we participated in PDT training.  This was not only a week of training for us, but also for our children.   They also received education assessments and neuro-feedback testing.  The kids did really well, and we were super proud of them. Some of the tests were long, and time consuming.  The children especially put in long days with people they had never met, and just shined during the week!  You could sense God blessing this week and reassuring our family that we were right in the centre of His will and that God’s next step for our family IS to return to Australia and DEFINITELY to continue pouring our lives into the culture, the people, and in volunteering for the Wesleyan Methodist Church of Australia.   CHRISTMAS IN THE USA The most special moment in December was having Christmas with our families. Brayden had NEVER had a Christmas in the USA. So, this was a very special day for him. . And, he had absolutely no idea what to expect.   In Australia, our kids don’t get a lot of presents, so when you spend Christmas with both sets of grandparents, it seems like a lot.  And, for the children to choose presents for their cousins and for their grandparents was such a fun and special moment for our children. Christmas day ended though, with all of us getting gastro (Stomach flu).  And, we were all down for the count for a few days.  The kids are wearing shirts Grandma and Grandpa brought back from their mission trip to  Guatemala!

Follow- Houghton! One special gift Makayla and Laura received for Christmas was from Melissa’s Parents. They had the privilege to go to ‘Follow, Houghton’, a Wesleyan area- youth convention.  This was a special time of teenagers coming together and worshiping God.  Makayla and Laura had never experienced anything like this while living in Australia.  It was the first time they had been in a room with soooo many teenagers who loved God too, so it was a very growing experience for them! God is blessing our partners in amazing ways! With all that said, we spent only 3 days home in NY in the month of December.  The entire month we were travelling, changing houses, sharing about Australia, and driving.  But, getting to hear from so many amazing team partners what God is doing where they live! God is moving in the hearts, churches, communities, and towns of people who continually pray and give to the ministry in Perth, Australia.  It is moving to hear the stories and see the people God is calling to follow him all around the US as we travel. And, God is blessing these amazing people in so many wonderful ways! Our God is amazing!  Copyright © 2015 George Family, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you signed up to be a prayer partner or financial partner for the George Family. They are Global Partner Missionaries to church plant in Perth, Australia. The George's have been serving in Australia since 2004. Our mailing address is: George Family 66 Raeside Drive Landsdale, WA 6065 Australia

Call to prayer for a Landsdale family

Please pray for the family of Sam Trott. He is a little boy that has changed the Landsdale community for forever! He was a son, brother, grandson and friend to Many of the landsdale playgroup children. His smile was huge and he was 2 1/2 years old. But, he will be forever missed and he rests now in heaven. He drowned in the lake near our home and his family and our small community will never be the same again. a candle vigil was held this evening in Australia. But please life up in prayer his family. His sibling, his parents, grandparents, aunties and uncles. Pray that God would be their source of strength in a dark time where there is no understanding.  Also, please pray for our churc as they had scheduled a carols in the park this Friday. It will change in many was as it should, but pray that we would hAve sensitive hearts and be calling on God for direction  and guidance.

Ohio- Indiana

This week we have been travelling from NY to Indiana. We visited with and thanked our family, financial, and prayer partners in Elida! The Kern family has blessed us in many ways. 2 years ago, this family gave a huge donation to our ministry when our support was low.  So, it was super special to stop and thank them in person.  It is always so fun to see how God is moving and blessing those who support us and God is blessing this family beyond measure!  This family is a little extra special because they are our cousins! And, the kids loved every minute they were there! The girls painted nails and stayed up late talking into the night. 

 Then we headed onto Marion, IN.   In Marion, we have connected with Melissa's aunt and Uncle Bill and Daphne Foster.  It was really special to spend time with them.  They served 30 years in Australia with Global Partners. So, it is always special to share time with them!   We also had the wonderful privilege to share at Chapel Pike in Marion, IN which was our home church after Chris and I were married almost 14 years ago.   Makayla and Laura had an extra special time at Chapel Pike, because they had an all-nighter! So, they had the privilege to participate with this youth group and have a great time doing something they had never done before! 

  When then headed onto IWU.  Laura found IWU to be completely exciting! She has never seen a University with so much love for God and such a willingness to share it with everyone around.  The whole time we were there you could see God everywhere, and that was just amazing to her.   We ended up with lot's of IWU paraphernalia and had a great time showing the kids where we lived, worked, and of course all of the great friends we still have there on the campus. 

- Pray for Laura as she seeks God's will for her life and seeks him to discover the call He has for her.  She will be starting her senior year of High school in February.

We also had the opportunity while at IWU to meet with World Christian Fellowship and share our ministry with the students and even had the awesome opportunity to share a few minutes  with a Youth ministry class.

- Pray for the students of the Youth Ministry class. We pray that God would call one of them to step out and join our team in Perth.

We also had the privilege to catch up with some retired Global Partners Missionaries and current ones.  This is always a special time as we learn from them and grow!  One of those special meetings was with Dr. Jim Lo.  He has been a mentor of ours for years! And, even just a meal with him and regular chatting felt like old times. :)    We were also able to visit a chapel service.


Today we headed to Noblesville, IN.  We are staying at a missionary house there, for the next 10 days.  We will be completing some Global Partners training and visiting churches around here.  Pray for us as we finalize our Global Partners Budget for our next 5 year term. Pray for us as we  seek God's direction in our lives and draw closer to him this week through our leadership team at Global Partners!

- Pray for our children this week as they will take an education assessment to make sure that they are staying up to speed and are doing emotionally, physically, and mentally   well...  We believe the children will do well, but just pray for them to have a positive attitude when they meet with the assessor.

Hard to believe that all this was accomplished in less than 4 days! But, God is good and he gives us the strength to continue travelling raising support and raising prayers partners so we can get back to Australia as soon as possible!

Thanksgiving November 27th

One of the best parts of being home raising support is spending holidays with our families. Thanksgiving day we were able to spend the day with Chris's family and then thanksgiving night we went to the airport and picked up Laura! She flew from Australia to spend two months with us. Laura is a student in our church we are mentoring. She is a leader for our AWANA program. And she has such an amazing heart to follow and serve god. While she is here she will get to visit churches with our family as well as she will get to to attend FOLLOW, international conference and also the gathering as well as many other youth events while she is here. She will also get to visit IWU and Houghton and see what a Christian college or university looks like. Pray that. God would lay a passion and a desire on her heart while she is here for her future,

Friday we spent the day with Melissa's family having thanksgiving and sledding. It was such a wonderful time with so many great memories.

Icy roads! . November 23

This past weekend God protected our family in amazing ways. Recently we started to drive to a church in Western Pennsylvania just before thanksgiving and we were up in the hills just 20 miles west  of Williamsport and all of a sudden we realised that it had gotten really cold and there was a flash freeze. Cars were sliding off the road, and we found ourself in a little town in a valley between some really steep big mountains. As we kept trying to get out of the town their were lines of trucks everywhere. Because the roads were closed.  Everyone we spoke too, was pretty much a hunter and not from where we were. Luckily there was a little place we could stop. While we we're inside we were able to call the pastor of the church we were travelling to and he mentioned the roads were better the more west we could get. There was some very kind people who gave us directions as there was no cell phone reception . We followed 44 down through the valley. And then came to a point whee we sat at the bottom of a very large hill for an hour waiting for a snow plow to come through and salt. Then They opened the roads but were instructed to not go over 20 miles per hour. God protected our family because our car never slid once And we were kept very safe. But,  our three hour trip turned into a 7 hour trip.  We covet your prayers for our family as we travel!! After we arrived we had a wonderful weekend visiting and sharing with Hyde Wesleyan and Ashland Wesleyan.  We are so thankful to have them as part of the team ministering in Perth Australia through support and prayers.

Prayer Requests for the George Family

Dear Prayer Partners and supporters. Whiles we are home in the states completing partnership development there are a few specific things we would like you to be aware of and praying for:

1)  For our support.

                          - Our account has actually dropped into the negatives by $4000 because the last three months we have not met our target for financial donations and we needed to purchase plane tickets for our family to return to the USA.   I think that people have slowed down there giving because we were returning.. However, we actually need all of our faith promise partners to continue giving even while we are stateside.     

              For example: this month October... so far only 1/10th of our donations have come in.   

PRAYER NEED- Please pray that our partners would continue to give while we are stateside.  Because we need all of our donations to continue to come in so that the ministries can continue to run in Australia while we are here in the US. And, especially so we can do our partnership development in 6 months.

2) Currently we need to raise
                        - 200 prayer partners
                        - $25,000 in Faith Promise  ( New partners)  Our new budget will take effect in December.
                        -$26,000 in one time gifts

PRAYER NEED- Please pray that we would be able to connect with new churches that have not heard about our ministry in Australia.  Please pray specifically for Chris and I as we contact churches in our home districts in CNY and WNY. Pray that they would be open to hearing what God is doing in Australia and willing to partner through financial means or prayer.Pray that we would be able to fill our schedule with connecting with all of our current partners as well as book in the new churches.

3) Pray for the Staff of the Landsdale Church while we are away.
                   -Please pray for the Matteson Family-  The landsdale Community Church brought them on staff for one year to be our Family Ministry Coordinators while Chris and I were on partnership development.  Please pray for guidance, strength, wisdom, courage, and of course blessings as they are working hard every day with the families of the Landsdale Church while they keep our small groups, AWANA, and Youth Group ministries continuing in our absence.  This is a big job!!

                   - Please pray for Lindsay and Rosalea Cameron- Lindsay will be the supply pastor of the Landsdale Community Church while we are here in on partnership development. Pray for the Cameron's to also connect with our families and be able to minister to these families in a way we have not been able to!  We pray that God would bless them as they work full time, study, and pastor the Landsdale church.

4)  Please pray for the ministries of the landsdale Church
                             - AWANA (kids ministry)
                             - Youth Group
                             - Small group Bible Studies
                             -Young Adults
                             - Carols in the Park
                             -Family Outreach events

5) Please pray for Chris and I as we are stateside and continue to carry out our local church and  district responsibilities for Australia.  Pray that we would have time to achieve goals that we were not able to do while in Australia due to time constraints. Pray for us as we offer guidance and council from here and that God would guide and direct everything we say and do.

6)   Pray for us to connect with people here to help us grow spiritually so that we can take back amazing perspective and ideas and creativity when we go back to Australia.

7) Pray for us to have driving mercies and for our car to not have any mechanical dramas!

8) Pray for our Travel Schedule Pray for the churches we have been to and for their missions committees. Pray for the churches especially as they are taking faith promises and discerning where God wants them to partner and how they can make missions a part of their church ministries!  Please pray for us as we book up the rest of our schedule.

October 3-5    Eastern Hills
October 12th- Horseheads
October 16th- First Wesleyan -Easton, MD
October 19th- Lyncourt Wesleyan
October 20th- Pastors of New York, Houghton
October 21st- FLN
October 23rd-  Warren Wesleyan
October 24- Pastor Wives of WNY
October 25- Warren Wesleyan
October 26- Brookside, Wellsville, NY
November 1-3-  Pine Meadows
November 9th- McCrea Brook Wesleyan
November 9-30th. Pray for us to confirm these bookings so we can add them to our schedule!
December 1-15th Pray for us to connect with our supporting churches in Indiana and book them up immediately!
December -8th-12th  Global Partners Training
December 13th-30th Pray for us to book churches into our schedule for this Christmas time.
January 4th- Rockhill Wesleyan Church - NC


We are so blessed to have an amazing team.   We are so grateful to have you praying for us! Please know that as you pray for us, we are praying for you and your local churches and that God would give you an outpouring of his love, guidance, and strength.

God bless,
The Georges