Wonderful Weekend!
We had the wonderful opportunity to speak this week at 3 new churches!

-Wednesday night we spoke in Wellsville, NY. It was a wonderful time to connect with a group of people who are excited about missions and what God is doing around the world. Because this church was so close to Chris's parents, our kids had a wonderful evening playing with grandma and grandpa and we were able to share from our hearts what God has been doing in Perth, Australia.

-Thursday Chris went and paricipated in the WNY LDJ meeting. He was inspired that the "church" needs to work together so that we can use the best of our abilities to reach the communities around us! Instead of churches working against each other in competition etc.
While Chris was at LDJ he was able to connect with many of the pastors of churches that support us from our home district and update them all on where we are with our support.

-Friday morning I spoke with the Womans group at Eastern Hills Wesleyan Church, what a time of friendship! I sat around the table I was sitting at with 10 ladies and we answered questions to get to know each other. There was then a missions panel and I participated on that sharing about our ministry in Australia. After words, all the woman were able to ask us many questions. Then to close we went around the table and shared prayer requests and praises! I then closed the time in prayer. It was a wonderful moment for me, becuase my hearts passion is to see Woman walking with the Lord as their saviour and serving him with everything they have, and I felt like this was a time where God met with us and reached his hand out to those who came with needs, and lifted up those who needed some encouragement. I praise God for Friday morning and the connection I was able to make. When I left almost everyone at the table had wanted to pray for our ministry in Australia. What an encouragement! I felt very loved on and knew that these ladies were earnest when they said they would pray for us!

-Friday night we met with the missions committe of Eastern Hills for Dinner. There were 15 missionaries there and the committee. It was a wonderful time for us to share from our hearts as families and be prayed for by the missions committee! What an encouragement and TREMENDOUS reminder that God is providing, and caring, and taking care of his fold, and HE is calling us to do nothing but Love him.

-Saturday morning, Chris joined about 150 men from the Eastern Hills Wesleyan Church for breakfast. It was a great time of fellowship together. The worship and the atmosphere was great and all of the men in the room were encouraged to follow God's leading and plan for their lives.

-Saturday Evening the family shared with the Eastern Hills Church "Taste of Nations". After the great time and wonderful foods from around the world, we were challenged and inspired at the Saturday evening service. We had great opportunities to talk with individuals and share our heart and passion for Australia.

-Sunday morning, we were 5 hours south of there in Wyalusing, PA. The Herrickville Wesleyan Church is a wonderful body of believers that has great passion and this is a church full of young families! We travel many churches. This church had EXCELLENT participation in Sunday school. Chris challenged the sunday school class to step up and answer God's call on their lives. He shared about their individual potential, and what it then looks like when our potential is teamed with God! Then, Chris preached during the service about prayer, and God is still doing the Impossible. It was truly special to see how much they love Jesus and others in their church. We also had the special treat of meeting a couple who had lived in Australia while they were deployed!

Most importantly God spoke to our hearts, and although, we were very busy, we were completely encouraged! God is still calling people to be apart of what HE is doing in Australia. And, many people committed this weekend to be prayer partners and faith promise partners!

Thank you to the churches we visited for sharing your lives with us, and passion for seeing people come to Christ!

BUSY WEEKEND!

Please pray for our family over the next three days as we have many opportunities to share with people what God is doing in Australia. Pray that these people we meet would see God's vision and join the team, to help us go and minister in Perth, Australia!

Please Pray for us specificaly over the next few days for the upcoming missions events we will be participating in.
Friday 9:00am-Woman's Missions Panel
Friday 6:00pm- Missions Committe Meeting Dinner for Eastern Hills Wesleyan Church.
Saturday Am- Men's Missions Breakfast
Saturday 6:00PM-Taste of the Nations Missions Conference
Sunday 9:00am Herrickville Wesleyan Church
Pray that our children would have the strength to survive the crazy schedule and business and non routine they will have over the next three days.

FBI-Fingerprinting!

Well, we mailed off today our FBI fingerprints. We paid to have them delivered one day. Because the processing time is 3-4 weeks! we now have 20 days to get them turned in. We heard good news from the department that if we put the date we need them turned in by on the outside of the envelope that most likely they will be processed quicker! So, please pray that this would occur in a timely manner! Tomorrow we head down to the police department in Wellsville to get clearances from the police department to say we do not have any criminal record, and then we will fax those to the DIMIA office! So, all is looking good on the VISA end of things! Thank you to everyone who is praying! Thank you for being part of the network! We couldn't do it without you!

VISA!

We received a letter yesterday on our visa. They would like us to go get Federal clearance in the US and also in Australia, and finger printed, and a few other things. But, they have given us 28 days to get these in. So, THANK YOU for your prayers, because God heard them and they have started to FINALLY proccess our Visa. But, please pray now that the FBI will get back our paperwork and Australia will get it back in in the next 28 days!

They have also requested our ACTUAL passports now, which is a pretty good sign that they are going to put the VISAS in them as soon as they receive this paperwork!

Driving Through God's Beautiful Countryside!

This past weekend we visited Perinton Community Church and Millerton Wesleyan. We had a lovely drive in between churches. We drove through some mountains next to a finger lake, so it was beautiful with the trees changing. But, what is more beautiful, is the fact that every where God send us, he speaks to peoples hearts! We had many people sign up this weekend to be prayer partners! They joined the network! This is exciting! Becuase, God has not just given us a vision to GO, but he has given us and others a vision to GO and minister in Australia. Whether we are praying, giving, or going. God's word is going to the people of Australia, and lives are being changed! We are so glad you are a part of this! Thank you!

Global Positioning Systems?
Today we had the privilege of speaking at Angola Wesleyan Church. This church has supported us for the past 5 years! It was exciting to go and share with them what God has been doing in the "Land Down Under!" But, most importantly God spoke to my heart about a few things we do in Australia. Here they are!

1. We must follow God's word!
On the way to the church our GPS could not get a Satellite! Do you think we had a map? No. So, we would drive a ways and then stop and ask for directions! But, what we should have done was pulled out our map and looked to see where we were supposed to be going! God has given us His instruction book for life! By serving in Australia we are bringing God's word to the people of Australia and sharing with them the news that Jesus Christ died on the cross for them!

2. We were right where God wanted us to be!
We didn't get mad at the GPS we didn't really panic we just knew that God would get us there! And, sometimes... life is just like that! Sometimes we know where we are going. But recently being a missionary feels like stepping out into new territory. And, all we have is faith in Jesus to know he will bring us through the other side!

3. Serve with everything in us!
Later that morning the church service started and on the first song they apologized for not having a pianist and they sang with no music. Now, I could have sat there and told God my gifts and talents were not good enough. But, I got out of my seat and went and sat at the piano, and for the rest of the service I played. I have not played a piano since we left Australia! I missed it, and I felt so involved in worship in a way I haven't in a while. Because, I used the small talent God wanted me to serve Him with! We are getting ready to go back to Australia. There are going to be many days we feel inadequate. But, God placed a call on us and he will supply all we need! Even on the other side of the world!

Who knew a drive without a GPS could teach us so many lessons!

Brookside Junior Church!

This weekend we had the privilege of going on a church outing as sponsors for the Brookside junior church because we are their missionaries! This was a wonderful day because they faith promised to support us! We love travelling and challenging churches, but never did we expect a Jr. church to become a part of our network and support us! We spent 3 hours in the van driving with boys in our back seat and they were SO good! But, also it was a blast to answer their questions and get to know them. We then went to an indoor swimming park and had a blast for 6 hours and then got back in the car to drive home 3 hours! It was a wonderful day and our kids had a blast! But, what I just can't stop thinking about is the fact that out of those 25 people who went. Who is God going to call next into ministry, or to be a missionary. I wonder who these children will be when they grow up. My prayer is that they will follow Jesus with all of their heart. And, that they will follow the calling on their life! But, in all they do, that they would be a missionary where they are and around the world!

The Wesleyan Church of Orchard Park

Last night we had the privilege of visiting The Wesleyan Church of Orchard Park. This is a church that has been faithfully supporting us for the last 5 years! It is soo exciting to go and see people we know and recognize. Our kids had a blast becuase it was their missions festival so they had hay rides, and they had a Christian juggler come and do all kinds of fun and cool things for the kids. Our kids talked about all the items the man juggled the whole way home from the church. Thank you Orchard Park for stepping out in faith and being a part of the network ministering in "The Land Down Under!" Here are some pics from the night!

Chris and I after the ordination service with the cake for all our friends and family.

Whirlwind of visiting new Churches!

The last 3 weeks have been very busy. We have been travelling new churches. God has brought us together with many wonderful people, missions committees, and churches. Many of them are prayerfully seeking God's guidance and direction on whether to support us. This is an awesome thing to think about! Our support has reached the 75% mark! This is very exciting. I would like to share with you a few thoughts from the road. Our chldren love to listen to the Crocodile Dock CD from VBS this summer. But, what I find interesting is, it seems to speak to my heart even as we are driving.

1) When you get down, you get back up! Chris and I were a bit saddened at the reality of not reaching Australia this month. We wanted to be boarding a plane and be reunited with the work. We really miss being involved every week with the Church God has asked us to serve in. The reality is, that even though we felt down, beat, sad, and exhausted. The truth is we have to get back up, make more calls, contact more churches, and work just as hard as we have been! And, about the moment we started to feel down. God has reached out and spoken to us. He has reminded us of the call HE has given us! And, God gave us an awesome day last week where pastors answered the phone, spoke with us, and let us email them our info! Not only could our ordination come at a better moment. We were encouraged and loved on by so many pastors in the district that it just was a great big PUSH for what God has called us to do. He never said it would be easy. He never said it would be always full of joy. But, God is moving, funds are still coming in, and God is impressing on peoples hearts to give! So, here we wait patiently to show all the new churches we know He will connect us with.

2) There is a song that talks about Faith. It goes... "Faith to see beyond what I can see. Faith to see that God will do great things! I will trust the Lord I will always believe... as I hold onto my faith, Jesus you are holdng on to me!" This song is always a reminder to Chris and I, that this is what we do! We step out in faith, everyday knowing that God is going to provide. And, so far he has.. We went 8 months without being paid, and God has taken care of every moment. We have always had food, shelter, and God has been meeting every need. But, a special moment for me was at the end of the song, there is just music, and Chris and I could hear from the back of the van Makayla praying. She was praying for her friends, and for a safe trip driving, and for her family. God is definitely working in their hearts and times when we think about this lifestyle and how it is SO hard on our children. God works in them and is growing them into beautiful children who love Him with all their hearts.

Pray for Greenwood High School in, Landsdale, Australia

Please keep our local highscool school, greenwood high in your prayers Liesl Mahood from our church in Australia is a Chaplain there full time. She would really appreciate it if we would pray for her, the students, and the staff. They had a massive racial fight on the grounds on Tuesday, the police and police helicopter were called in. Some of the staff got hurt in the scuffle too. It has really been a very very rough term and the cracks are starting to show with some of the staff.

Landsdale Primary here we come!

Praise God, and Thank you for all your prayers! Our children were accepted this week into the Public school system in Australia! This is a big deal. Not every child gets accepted into Kindy. So, Dawson getting to go is a huge praise! This will help Dawson adjust to Australian culture quicker! Makayla will be going into grade 1 and Dawson will be going to Kindy. The brings on a new prayer request. The kindy system is changing. they will be going to school one more day longer! Dawson was going to go two full days and now he will go three. Pray for me as he is still so little and I will miss having him at home! But, he will have so much more fun at school learning and making friends.

Ohio-Indiana Trip!

What a wonderful time was had in Indiana. Unfortunately the Habitat Team fell through for this week. So, we really need your prayers and hope that some teams will come together in the fall and also in the spring and summer next year to go work on a habitat house. Since we had churches and appointments out in Indiana to speak at we went out there and stayed on the Fairmount campground. While we were out there we met with some important friends who have supported us in prayer over the years. WE also spent the afternoons working on some repairs on our personal house in Indiana, since we didn't have a team to work on the "habitat for missionaries" house. We also visited 4 new churches. Please pray that these churches would pick us up for support! We then made the long drive home to NY. Thank you so much West Chester, Lighthouse, Tipton Trinity, and Mulberry for the wonderful visits we had. We were loved on by all of the churches and had a wonderful time sharing with them God's call on our lives to Australia.

God Moments!

The weekend we had the wonderful opportunity to travel to Lynn, IN to speak at Lighthouse Wesleyan Church. We had a wonderful visit and met a lovely group who are committed to lifting people up in prayer. We are honored to have them on our team and to have them pray for us and be a part of our network! On Thursday we found out our Sunday night service had fallen through. So, it was very exciting to find out that we were only two hours from Lima, OH. So we hopped in the car and went and celebrated with family my cousins daughters birthday, Kate Foster. We had a wonderful time catching up with the family and seeing everybody. Everytime we turn around God is blessing us by being in the right place at the right time. Which brings me back to two God moments we had on Friday 8/7. We were in Noblesville, IN and we happened to run into someone who attends the church in Elwood, IN we pastored 5 years ago! How cool is that! And, the other people we ran into. We happened to at the last moment decide to eat dinner at Golden Coral. And, wouldn't you know there having dinner was the ENTIRE staff from Trinity Wesleyan Church Daycare. This church provided day care for our kids during orientation back in February. And, Makayla always talks about how she would LOVE to see them again! And, there in front of her in line getting her food was her teacher! So, we were able to share with them all what God has been doing and how we are at 65% and Makayla was able to give her teacher Denise a hug! How cool! God knows just what we need when we need it! IF you read this and you think a God moment you have had this week... Would you post it??? We would love to hear what God has been doing for you! The Georges

Makayla Turns 6!

Saturday was Makayla's birthday. And, we were incredibly blessed to be able to stay in Shunem. We were able to rest, from Thursday night to Saturday. But, it was extra special because Shunem had two things Makayla loved. One is the pool and the other was a Wii. So her birthday started Friday night with us taking her to an Indianapolis Indians game, and then on Saturday we did all the things she loves. We swimmed in the pool 2x! We played the Wii, we had her favorite foods steak, coleslaw, corn on the cob, and chips, and we had a new things. we had ice cream that was called "ice cream cake!" It was alot of fun. And, she was spoiled by Jim and Jeannette Vermillya! I would say Makayla was one very blessed girl. Unfortunately we were on the road so she was not able to spend her bday with her grandmas and grandpas. But, we celebrated last week with the Wildays and will celebrate with the Georges when we get back to NY. Here are some pics from her festivities!

Western Pennsylvania
What a wonderful weekend we had at Warren Wesleyan and at Coleville.
At Warren we had the wonderful privilege of Chris sharing in the Teen Sunday school class, and I shared with the children. And, then Chris preached the morning service! It was a wonderful time. And, please pray that this church will pick us up. We are on their list to be a possible candidate to be picked up. But, if this church does pick us up we are one step closer to landing in Australia. So, please keep this in your prayers. We then had lunch with a wonderful couple from the church! We then loaded up and headed to Coleville, near Bellefonte PA. We must have been exhausted from camp, becuase we the kids and myself slept the entire way to the church while Chris drove! :) Glad he was driving! But, Coleville has been a faithful supporter of us for the past 5 years and it was a joy and an honour to visit with them and share all the WONDERFUL things God has been doing in Australia! Thank you for keeping us all in your prayers.

Also, over the weekend we stopped in Saturday afternoon at my sisters in Hyde,Pa for free accomodation, but also we celebrated Makayla and her Grandpas birthday which is this saturday the 8th! Yeah, Makayla is going to turn 6! What fun!

FAMILY CAMP!

What can I say! we had a wonderful time! We met so many great people and built better connections with so many more! So, what did we do for one week!

Chris- Did some seminars on Building Lasting Relationships with Missionaries. He also had a tremendous joy connecting three new missionary couples with our district.
Joel & Kerry Lord - Czech, Jessica Lord-Bosnia, and Steph Geary-New Zealand. These are all new missionaries going out from our District (WNY) How exciting! Praise God!

Melissa- I did 9 18 mon-3 year old sessions! We spent the whole week studying Australia and Learning that we should Love Jesus, Follow Jesus, Praise Jesus and Share Jesus! I had a great group! The most we had was 19 kids at one session! But, we did lot's of cool Australian crafts and had a ton of fun!

Makayla's highlight would be that she won the turtle race for her age! She came in first plae and won a whole box of chocolate turtles! A turtle race is a wooden apparatus and it is on string and you walk it down by moving a rope. I will post pics!

Dawson's highlight was spending his time with mommy and he was my helper for my class even though he was suppossed to be in my class.

Brayde's highlight was spending his week getting lots of extra hugs and kisses from grandmas, aunt melissa, and spending his first time ever in the nursery! Which he did pretty good. He only cried a little bit!

Thank you for praying for this week. Please pray that we would make some new connections from camp with a few churches that still do not support us from our home district.

Approved for Ordination!

We were unanimously approved for Ordination at our District conference on Friday. We were so excited and it was awesome to see our fellow pastors and see all the wonderful things God is doing through the WNY district. We have wonderful leadership. And, it was just awesome to be home and vote and do those "business" measures that we have missed out on! I think we miss our church that about right now any type of "church" work feels good!

This weekend we drove up to Grace Wesleyan in Watertown. What a wonderful experience we had and were incredibly spoiled by a tremendous lunch by the pastor and his wife. The weekend was also extra special because we brought our niece on the weekend trip with us! What a joy it is to share with her what a life is like for a missionary kid. But, the whole time we travel with her we pray that God would give her a passion for missions some day and that the experiences she has now with use will be just small stepping stones to the big picture God has for her life!

After driving an 1 1/2 hours this morning we jumped in the car and drove 4 1/2 hours back to Houghton for the start of family camp! Please Keep our family in your prayers this week. Chris is doing two seminars one Monday morning and one Tuesday morning on How churches can partner and team up with missionaries. He is showing many things.. Like, What is GP? Vision, Goals, 80/80/80 plan and many other things. Also keep myself in your prayers as I have 8 more children's sessions to do this week! Tonight was pretty easy. We only had 7 18 mo.-3yr olds. But, we are going to learn to Love Jesus, Follow Jesus, Praise Jesus, Serve Jesus, and Share Jesus! It is almost to the end of the month and we still have many openings in August we were hoping to fill. Our goal is at least 20 speaking engagements.. So, please pray that we would find churches to book right away or individuals to share Gods vision for Australia. Thank you for your prayers and for being part of our network. We definitely feel God using you to impact our lives.

Central NewYork!

What a joy it was this weekend to visit two churches from the District Melissa Grew up in. If I flash back and think of memories. I participated in "Believers!" from Gates Wesleyan when I was a teenager. We travelled and sang at churches all over the district, ministering to familes, teens, children, and adults.

Then the second church we were at Buena Vista. I have fond memories of learning how to shoot a bow at camp from Pastor Dan Pickering and from his wife earning my CYC badges. They also have children who have impacted my life VERY MUCH in going into ministry! So, we had a wonderful weekend. We had a huge bonfire at Buena Vista and the kids were so excited to eat smores! We do not have these in Australia. We cannot get hte graham crackers or the marshmallows like the ones here!

The kids were excellent in the car. Dawson had a little bit of a meltdown. So, we have decided the rest of this week, we will stay home. So, please pray for Chris today and tomorrow as he heads out to ENYNE district conference at Glen Falls, NY all by himself. Pray that we would get connected with new churches, and individuals for Faith Promise!

Sunday morning at 6AM!

A weekend in Western Pennsylvania!

We just arrived home yesterday from 4 churches in 5 days! What an awesome time we had in Western Pennsylvania. We visited Loganton, Ashland, Hillview, and Mount Union. What a wonderful time meeting people and sharing with them. We also had a wonderful time helping Pastor Dave and Melinda Finlay at Hyde Wesleyan get ready for their VBS. It was exciting to help them becuase we miss being involved in outreach ministry in Australia right now, so it was fun to help decorate and do lot's of various other things. Not to mention our children had a WONDERFUL time playing with their cousins. So, it was a great journey and wonderful people were met! Not only were wonderful peope met, but 3 of them are faithful prayer and support partners and the 4th looks like they will join our network! PRAISE GOD! Where He leads we will follow! Continue praying for us to be able to pick up support quickly every day we receive more emails from Australia asking if we will be returning any time soon. God knows when we need to get there. Please pray that we would be faithful to scheduling churches and individuals to share the vision of God's calls for us to minister in Perth, Australia!