UPDATE ON DAWSON

Dawson did a full day of school today and was very chirpy when I picked him up. So, he is definitely feeling much better. His pain is MUCH lower. His blood work came back and the Dr. made an appt. to see us ( but not till friday, assume this is a good sign!) , but said the test came back negative for glandular fever. So, I think that is a good thing! :) His lymph nodes have shrunk incredibly so the antibiotic is working!!! Would like to mention though, as of Saturday morning they had not changed in size at all. But, we asked everyone to start praying. And, by noon they had shrunk incredibly! God is good and he holds Dawson in his hands!!! Thank you for all your prayers.
Melissa

Please pray for Dawson.

Will you join us in praying for Dawson? After seeing a few Dr's At PMH ( Children's hospital in perth) and an ultrasound they decided Dawson has a viral infection in his lymph nodes .This is the cause of his swollen and lumpy neck on his right side. He will take antiiotics for 2wks and then they will review. I think the antibiotics are working because his neck seems to be shrinking in size. He has some lymphs that are as big as 2x5 cms. and they should be size of a coffee bean. He is in a large amount of pain, but doesn't act sick at all. Has been complaining for three weeks his neck hurt(thought he was just sleeping weird) , but was never sick or ill and still isn't. He has been given codeine to take at night so he can sleep through the pain, because seems to hurt most when he lies down. But, today he is running around the house like a crazy boy. So, honestly he doesn't seem sick. So, please pray that the antibiotic works. Dr. has run blood tests becasue he has had sever joint pain the last three weeks which we had thought he got injured and we didn't see it,( had xray on knee and was fine) but dr. thinks this might all be related. So, pray with us for a quick recovery! Taking blood from a 5 year old boy was the worst experience I have ever lived through. We tried for an HOUR, and got no where near the chair. Then went home got Daddy and came back to the clinic. Dawson sat on Daddy's lap, and all of a sudden became a big boy! He never screamed, in fact he laughed, and it was done and over in less than 2 minutes! So, apparently Daddy is the one of us who will go with the kids from now one if they ever have to give blood! :) Thank you for your prayers! They are much appreciated.
Melissa

Landsdale Community Wesleyan Methodist Church AGM

Tonight we had our Annual General Meeting. It was a night for our church to come together and Praise God for what he has done, and look forward to what he is going to do. Our District Superintend flew 4 hours to come all the way from Melbourne which is on the east coast of Australia to join us! Crazy eh? There were not many of us at the meeting, but God was there. Chris and I were able to give our annual reports and then discuss what we were looking forward to. As a church we have decided to best way for us to continue to grow is to connect people to the body and then see God work in their hearts. Chris and I also got some time to just sit and chat with the D.S. about the church, and our family, and we filled out PDP's and did some other reporting for the district. It was a wonderful and long day! But, a productive one, as we march forward with what God has in store for the Landsdale Community Wesleyan Methodist Church. I have posted below Chris and mine's letters to the Church.


Dear Church,
I have been told recently by one of our city councillors that Landsdale is set for a sharp and dramatic growth in population. It is great to be a part of a community that is going through change and growth and excitement. As I thought about that declaration I got thinking about our church. I believe that God is preparing us as His church in Landsdale for a sharp and dramatic growth in influence and witness throughout the coming months. We have had a taste of this growth with the dramatic jump in our kids club numbers and the number of families interested in who we are and what we do.
This year has been challenging and rewarding in many different ways. We have struggled to break the attendance mark but the Lord has blessed those who join in worship each week. This year marked our first attempt at the Landsdale carols in the park and the evening was enjoyed by approx. 400 of our neighbours. Our Easter egg hunt attracted about 100 kids and again was one of our greatest opportunities for outreach. Movie nights brought out many of our kids club families and we grew in our relationships together.
We had the opportunity to work with an intern as he gained experience and course credit for Bethany Bible College in Canada. With his help our youth camp was a great success and we saw 12 teens camp for 2 nights in Dwellingup.
We have been on a journey through God’s Word and have learned a lot together through our sermon series’. ‘The God you’re looking for’, ‘The Book of James’, ‘The King of Hearts’, ‘From His heart to yours’ and ‘HDLife’ are a few of the series topics that we have been through together over the past year. I trust that God has used His Word to challenge you.
It is a great time to be a part of the Landsdale Community WMC! I said a few months ago that I believe we are standing on the threshold of an amazing moving of the Holy Spirit and I believe that now more than ever. Lets continue to scatter seeds in our community and trust the Lord of the harvest to produce fruit.
Let me finish by stating that I love you and I can’t wait to see what God is going to do in and through you in the coming year as together we follow Him and serve Him in our growing community.
In His Palm,


Rev. Christopher George

Dear Partners in Ministry, 4/8/2011
This past year has been an astounding year! God has done so many amazing things and shown his face in the ministry of the Landsdale Community Wesleyan Methodist Church. I am blessed to be a part of what God is doing here and honoured that he has called me to work with all you wonderful people! Every day God uses you to bless me!
As Assistant pastor this past year I have been the director for Kids Club. It has been an exciting year with us starting with 15 kids and have worked our way up to 32. We are ministering to over 45 different kids and God is doing amazing things through them. In the Semester we had two mums sign up every week for snack and for helpers. This has turned out to be amazing and God is working in these mums hearts. I am excited about the new look and the numbers of parents helping. As a result Kids Club has become financially self sufficient for snack, and we are now ready to make a kids club committee that will be responsible to the LAC. The committee will help come up with fundraisers as well as ideas for family days. But, would need LAC approval for all decisions they would like to make .This potentially could take some pressure off the general budget of the church as well as get parents more involved in our Church.
Some special highlights for the Kids Club Ministry were:
1) 10 children Accepting Christ and 6 recommitting their lives at Holiday Kids Club
2) 4 Girls sharing their testimonies at the last Kids Club Awards Night.
3) 69 people in attendance at our last kids club awards Night!
4) Our first successful fundraiser for Kids Club at the Rollerdrome in Morley.

Although, I am the children’s and worship pastor at the LCWMC, there are a few other hats I wear that God has used me in this year.
1) I served as the Wesleyan Women’s coordinator for the past year planning a High Tea and the Women’s Camp. Both were successful and wonderful times of fellowship.
2) Organized the District Family Camp this year. With over 40 people attending from various churches. The exciting part for me was that we had 23 people participate in the weekend from the Landsdale church.
As I look forward to the next year I can’t wait to see what God has in store. Every day is a brand new surprise of what God has in store for our church and our family!

Respectfully,
Rev. Melissa George

Family Fun Day/ Fundraiser

God works in just astounding ways. Chris called the local skating rink to arrange a family skate day. When he was speaking to the owner he said that he would LOVE for our church to come and he would also like to offer us a deal! Now, chris at first thought maybe he would give us a $1 off or something. But the words that came out of his mouth were totally unexpected. The owner offered us to get into the skating rink for the normal price! BUT, he would give 1/2 what everyone paid back before we even left the rink in a check! This was the first time we ever did a fundraiser for kids club. And, God blessed us... 27 people came and skated (had a bit of a drama with the time it ran into some other sports clubs games like netball!) But, most of the kids had never skated before and we had a blast hitting the floor and spending time with some families. The highlights for us for the day were

1) a family from Makayla's class came and they have NEVER even come to kids club! So, that was exciting...

2) Also, a bunch of mums were thrilled and were asking if we could do more family days! (Which we do one atleast a month... so look like they will be getting more involved in our church. God is good! :)

3) DADS came!!!!!

Pray for these families in this picture!

Womens Camp

This weekend was our Womens camp for the District. As I am the director of Wesleyan Women for Perth, me and two other ladies worked very hard the last few months to pull off this weekend. Our goals were to bring in a guest speaker, get more young adults and teenagers (14+)on the camp, and get women to stay the whole weekend. God blessed us and our preparations. We had 16 women come and stay the whole weekend. We had 4 come and stay saturday- Sunday. and 1 lady come on saturday and Sunday. We were able to bring a guest speaker in from Melbourne. Mrs. Lyn Holland. She spoke on Birthmarks and Scars and it was just an incredile weekend for us women to learn to work through the way we are and the ways God has used us, pushed us, strengthened us, and blessed us!

The worship times were wonderful and the bonding times were excellent as we did a craft of "retro clipboards", and we did a short hike along the ocean which was beautiful. Some special moments for me I will highlight below:

1. Two teenagers came with me on the weekend! God is working in their lives and they so needed this bonding time to see that Jesus is JUST as real to them and he is to us WOMEN!
2. We were able to get 5 Young Adult women on the camp this year....
3. Playing games and building relationships with the ladies.
4. the speaker fit in SO well... It was if she knew us forever!
5. For the first time we have nominated an actual Wesleyan Women for the Perth area. Therefore it will not just be me and two other ladies doing the work, but we now have a team of Women who God has called to serve him and I am SOOOO excited to see what God has in store this year for the Wesleyan Women of Perth, Australia!
6. The weekend cost the ladies ALOT $180.00/ each. But, we were still able to take a LOVE offering and give the speaker a gift for the weekend.. That is GOD moving! He is amazing and he is living in these WONDERFUL women in Australia!
Pray for them! God has big plans to use them to touch other womens lives....

Kids Club Awards Night-Term 2
Sunday night was an amazing evening as we saw God move in an amazing way! We had the most people we have ever had at church! There were 67 people in attendance. (AND, we were missing 22 kids and their families!) We came together to giveaway two new badges to the children.
They earned their family badge and also their WWJD badge. This term the kids learnt many exciting things such as:
1) Honour your Mum and Dad
2) Serve your family
3) Obey your Mum and Dad
4) God looks at the heart
5) God loves us just the way we are
6) We should follow Jesus
7) We should be "right" in God's sight
8) We should turn to Jesus when we are scared.

During church 4 girls shared their testimonies of ways they lived out their "secret missions" for the week! If I can get video of this, I will download it.. Completely amazing to hear what they said." But, the girls hearts have been changed and are wanting to live their lives every day for Jesus. Afterwards the kids shared three songs.
Into the Bible
Hey, Jesus Loves me
and Rooftops! The kids were fantastic and were so excited to sing praise and worship!
Afterwards we donned the children with their new sashes and badges! It was fantastic!
After that Chris preached a sermon on living faithful lives to God in the midst of all of the little things. It was great to be able to share that they could live lives that please the Lord and they can live on a track that leads to God's fullness for them.

After the service we shared a family meal together that everyone helped provide!
IT was truly an amazing evening! This is God's hand moving in Landsdale! And, God is drawing these people to him! Pray that we will get these parents to participate in Christianity explained!

Below are some pics!

We have been meeting weekly with some friends and doing a Bible study called Christianity Explained. It has been going fantastic, but we are down to the last week! Pray for Chris and I as we answer questions and explain what being a Christian really means. Pray that God would speak to their hearts.

2) we have had 4-5 new families to kids club AGAIN! God has just been blessing the ministries we are doing. Pray that we can keep adjusting and finding help with Kids Club and that we are effectively communicating to the children. Pray that we are making the Bible stories understandable and life changing for these children!

3) WE just finished a huge craft that took the children 6 weeks to work on! They each made a heart pillow. We have spent the past six weeks talking about How good looks at the heart. We then went deeper and talked about God Loves us no matter who we are, God wants us to Follow him, We need to have a heart that is "Right" in God's "Sight" and, when we have tough decisions we need to make then we need to ask Jesus what to do. The Kids have been thrilled and I have posted below some of the kids with their pillows.

Christianity Explained!
Praise God tonight we started our Christianity explained course for the next 5 weeks. Three parents came from kids club! We are so thrilled that they are ready to start looking into what Christianity is! And, even more thrilled that these lovey people get to come into our home and we can share with them our lives. Please pray for these people that they would see their need for Jesus and understand that they need Him as the saviour of their lives!

Wesleyan Women High Tea
On Sunday we had our first ever Wesleyan Women High Tea! It was a wonderful afternoon of really good food! a few ladies brought sandwiches, savouries and desserts! The atmosphere was fantastic! The room was full of friends and then also people building friendships! There was also a special moment for me to share with the ladies a devotional. There were 40 of us that gathered. 22 ladies and 18 children ranging from 3 little bubs to teenagers! We had some special music. The Kids Club from the Landsdale church sang "This little light of Mine!" And, then Makayla, and two of her friends Emily and Nikita sang " Friend of God" . We also had a special music number sung by some ladies from the Inner city church. They sang some in their language and some of it in English . It was beautiful. Jesus had impressed upon my heart a devotional I titled, "Rejoice and live life up, like the beautiful “Princess", you are!" from the passage
Zephaniah 3:14-17
New International Version 1984 (NIV1984)
14 Sing, O Daughter of Zion; shout aloud, O Israel! Be glad and rejoice with all your heart, O Daughter of Jerusalem! 15 The LORD has taken away your punishment, he has turned back your enemy. The LORD, the King of Israel, is with you; never again will you fear any harm. 16 On that day they will say to Jerusalem, “Do not fear, O Zion; do not let your hands hang limp. 17 The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.”
I brought three main points out:
1) Rejoice! You are forgiven princess! He accepts you just the way you are.
2) Rejoice! God is always with you!
3) Rejoice! He is delighted in you!

When I get picture back from the lady who took them, I will post them on here! But, thank you to everyone who prayed! I was trying to get this group of ladies together so they could mingle and get to know each other a bit. We will start advertising for camp this week! We are hoping to double our numbers this year. WE are praying for 30 ladies to join us on the Womens camp from July 15th-17th!

32 Kids at Kids club! two weeks in a row we have smashed our old time high of 25 kids at Kids Club! God is bringing more families to him and we are just amazed at what He is doing through us and in these families! God is just so AMAZING! In the pics below we are singing" Hey! Jesus Loves me and " Roof tops!"

Melissa

Today I had the opportunity to share with a lady I have barely spoken with. But, her daughter is friends with Makayla. And, today we were at the same party so I got to share with her all kinds of information about our church due to her opening the door and asking. She was VERY receptive and had HEAPS of questions. She come from a background that was not christian and was of another belief. . And, has recently decided there has to be something better out there. Please pray for this family. It is hard to choose to believe there is something more out there! But, God is a God of Love. And, pray that I am able to share His love for her and his joy for her! She is HIS daughter, pray that she would sense and understand and believe that she is a daughter of Christ and that Hehas so much more out there for her and her family! Please pray that she will come and visit Kids Club and also church.

Today was a total God day!
Today was a day that only God could orchestrate! We had 32 kids come to Kids Club! It was amazing, scary, stressful, perfect, awesome. God was there.. To hear the kids worship and praise God today was amazing! We had three new families come today and it was totally unexpected. But, God was there.. The craft we were able to work out, the snack we were able to work out, and God just amazed me. With all the staff today and extras there were 39 people in the hall, and to top it off everyone said they want to come back next week! The message at Kids Club was God looks at the heart. And, I am so glad God has given us a heart and a call to see these kids come to know who Jesus Christ is. I will record next weeks worship time and post it on here. Because To hear these kids sing "Yeah! Jesus Loves me!" Is just the sweetest sound I have ever heard. I was exhausted by the end, but so amazed by what God has in store for us.

When we finished we had kids that didn't want to go home. But, it was totally God working here today and I am sure it is because people are lifting us up in prayer and the ministry here, and the people here in Landsdale, Western Australia!!!! Praise God!

Christianity Explained!
This week Chris has been following up with people about doing a 5 week Bible study on the book Christianity Explained! So far we have two families from Kids Club that are interseted in doing it. Please pray that we would get a few more! But, this is a step in the right direction. And, we are excited that God has been speaking to these parents hearts! Pray that we would find a day of the week and time to effectively do it! And, whether we should put dinner on for all the families. It's hard to come up with something that will effectively accomodate everybody.

Coming home

This morning when I went back to the hospital, I found Chris still in a room in the emergency department. Apparently because they couldn't verify our insurance (because they didn't try), he had been left overnight. So, he was exhausted and tired. There were 23 beds next to each other with a curtain between and lights on etc. So, not really a restfull area. His specialist came in and said that if Chris's ketone levels got down to +1 they would let him come home. So, they ran new blood tests and by 1:00pm they let him come home. They never did find the infection (which is a concern) but, they said it must be a virus. So, in 10 days if he still feels ill they will run more tests. I want to thank you all for your prayers. He is suppossed to take it easy this week and rest. The church board gave him this week off. But, really that means he still has to prepare a sermon and do a few things. So, please keep him in your prayers. Again, thank you for your prayers. We greatly appreciate them!
God bless,
Melissa

Please pray for Chris this afternoon. at what would have been 6:00am your time. Chris was admitted into the hospital with mild ketoacidosis. He has been a type 1 diabetic since he was three. And, unfortunately when he gets sick, sometimes his body doesn't know how to cope. He was having chest pain, shoulder, neck, abdomen, and leg pain that was on a scale of 1-10 it was a 9. He was really struggling to make sense. And, so we went to the ER. He was taken in straight away, even though the waiting room was full. As of 1:00am tonight my time. they still did not know what was causing the infection. His white blood cell count was really high. And, they have started to bring down his sugars. Part of his sugar being high, was because he was in so much pain, he was vomiting. Pleas pray that he will rest tonight. He wasn't put no a floor yet, but I needed to come home at 1:00am because Brayden was still up crying at our friends house. Please pray that we will know how to get through this. Not, sure I can prepare a sermon in less than 48 hours with three children and a sick husband to care for. And, the family thatis our assistant D.S. is away for a wedding on the east coast. So, please pray that God will give me the guidance and strength we need to get through this. Please pray that the Dr.s will find the source of infection and that Chris will get rest and his body will start to heal. We appreciate your prayers!
In His palm,
Melissa George

Good Friday

Today we went to the Inner City Church- ( the one we used to work at.) and Melissa played the piano and we worshipped with the congregation for Good Friday. It was a good time for our children as Makayla is old enough for the first time to realize that Jesus suffered on the cross. She may have seen pictures and heard a million times. But, this was the year she realized that Jesus paid a price for her, and that it was not an easy price, but one of suffering and love for her!

Annual Easter Egg Hunt
Today was our annual Easter Egg Hunt.
It was a busy week as Chris and I had been preparing every evening after everyone went asleep. We prepared the crafts and organized food for what we were expecting was about 150 people.
Families in our church pitched in and helped. We had a sand cross necklace station, and a colouring contest station, a magnet station, and temporary christian tattoo station, jumpy castle station, and an egg decorating station, as well as the jelly bean guess where we got families information. and of course the Sausage Sizzle.

The afternoon went off without a hitch and despite the rain early in the morning the day was lovely and all three groups of kids got to do their Easter egg hunt as well as, we were able to do the egg toss. Afterwards the kids came inside and we read the Legend of the Easter Egg Hunt, and then we handed out awards. Truly was a lovely afternoon!

Straight after the Easter Egg Hunt we had our Palm Sunday Service. This was lovely because for the first time we had a few families stay from the Easter Egg Hunt! Truly an exciting moment for the families of our church who had been praying for this event! Chris's father has been here for the past two weeks and he shared from the word of God with these families. Which worked out perfect, because it allowed Chris the opportunity to meander and speak with families. And, took a lot of pressure off of him! Thanks Dad for all you did as well as Chris's Sister ran around with me collecting all the items and food, and helping organize as well!

Pray for Chris and I as we follow up with these families. And make an effort to connect them to our church and Kids Club.

You're prayers are impacting lives! Do know that God is moving here in these people. One of the families that attended our palm Sunday service has now been to church two weeks in a row! Pray that God would move in their hearts!

One of the difficulties of both Chris and I pastoring the church and always being incredibly busy on these days is watching our children. Luckily this year they had Aunt Melissa who came all the way from the USA to see them. She looked after them and they had a wonderful day!!!

Family Kids Club Day!
To close out Kids Club this term we had a family day. The Kids came after school and we had a great big party! We had a jumpy castle and every family brought snacks and it was a BEAUTIFUL afternoon of fun! Then, afterwords all the parents joined us and we had a movie night. Kids brought their chairs, and bean bags and sleeping bags and the families all brought their own dinners and we all sat around for a wonderful evening. My favourite part of the evening was sititng and chatting with the mother's. I especially got to know one of the mother's a girl who has just started coming to Kids Club for a couple of weeks. It was truly a special moment. I can't wait to see how God is going to connect and build a relationship with us and the Stamp family.

Term 1 Kids Club Awards Night

Kids Club tonight was a very rewarding evening for not just the kids, but for Chris and I . We were able to see the fruit of our hard work. We had 23 kids receive 46 badges. Not all of them were able to make the evening. But, none the less the kids shared with their families the special songs they learned as well as they received their badges. We focus this whole term on God! The Kids learnt- God created everything, God is Love, God is our friend, God is our Father, God is Holy, God is Powerful, and a few other topics about God. But, they also shared their main memory verse. Genesis 1:1. And, I was very VERY proud of them! We had a record number of Kids Club families come and we had three regular kids club families away for a wedding! So, God is moving in these families lives and pulling them closer to him! Praise God he works in even the smallest of us! Tonight I was reminded of just the fact that we ALL need to be like these children and have child like faith! For many of these families.. .Their children are the first generation Christian in their home! Praise God!

MACHINERY! ---not always helpful!

Today was a very busy day. It started off this morning with me trying to print off the badges I had created for the Awards Assembly. What I thought was going to be a VERY simple task turned out to be a bit of a nightmare. I think the devil was trying to smoosh his way into our awards evening for Kids Club. We had 23 kids who earned 46 badges! This is huge! And, God is AMAZING. But, God works in mysterious ways. With the help of a few families and getting the badges RE-printed. Praise God Chris's Dad and Sister were here and able to work the badge machine and get the badges finished in time for us to put them on the sashes and still hand them out at church on time! For some of these children it was their first time ever getting badges so it was a REALLY big deal! Praise God he looks after even the tiniest of details! PS. Chris's Dad and sister brought us this fancy machine in their luggage from the states! That is why I was a bit delayed in getting them done on time! :)