The Beginning of Our Aussie Adventure

First of all, let me just say thank you. Thank you all for your wonderful support of our family. God has used you all to bless us in so many ways!

We have been in Charlestown for just over 2 months now and things are beginning to feel "normal." So much has happened I couldn't possibly relay all of it to you so I thought I would give an overview and show you some pictures of what we have been up to so far.

The welcome we've received has been great (even if they spelled it wrong).

We have had the opportunity to try some new things, some better than others. I'm told kids fight over these at lunch, not sure why??? A dinner role with sugary-frosting and sprinkles - nutritious :)

Our first holiday away from home, Thanksgiving. We were blessed to be able to share it with some other American missionaries. Someone even sent our friend Rob (the bread thumb guy) a can of cranberry sauce which you cannot get here. We ate it all.

Christmas got here fast and as you can imagine, there was a lot going on.

We took some people from the church and kids from the youth group to 2 local nursing homes. It was a great opportunity to show God's love to people. They were really blessed. Josiah was a big hit with the old folks!

Cynthia and kids did their best to make our home "Christmas-y." We received lots of cards and even some presents for the kids - thank you all for going out of your way to do something nice for us. It makes us feel close even though we're so far away.

We had an incredible turnout for our Christmas morning (yes, that is morning and not eve) service. Almost a full house!

Cynthia and I have both been working on our relationships with the people in the church and the different opportunities to minister to people. One of the things Cynthia will continue to work on is our Play Buddies ministry. This is a community outreach where mothers can bring their preschool aged children for a play date every Friday and the mums (as they say here) get to hang out with other mums and get out of the house.

With the exception of my own family, not one of these kids or their mums attend church. Play Buddies has 30+ non-Christian families that they serve each Friday morning. Please pray that God will bless these woman as they reach into our community to share Jesus' love.

This year marks 10 years of ministry for me and in 10 years this is one of the most memorable and unique opportunities to share the Gospel I have had. Over 15 children and their mums (even a couple dads) who are not believers were able to hear the message of salvation as I was invited to share the Christmas story with the kids during the Play Buddies Christmas party. Many of these women and children have never heard this message from the Bible before.

Josiah and Clara love going to Play Buddies!

One of the ways we are trying to integrate the women of Play Buddies into the church is through the Women's Ministry.

Some fun stuff we've done.

Unfortunately, this is not my living room. 

This goanna was probably as big as they get, about 6-7 feet long. He was hanging around a camp ground facility we were visiting, probably looking for a small child to eat.

Having fun all the time is hard work.

Josiah and Clara chasing a wallaby. I think Clara wanted to keep it. They were about the same size.

One new thing - well, I guess everything is sort of new - is that Josiah is going to start taking Karate lessons. This will be good for him and will be one of the only opportunities for me to spend time with non-church members.

Thank you all so much for your prayers and your support. We have been doing a lot of observing and evaluating the last 2 months and are ready to head into this new year with enthusiasm and high expectations of what God can do here.

Please be in prayer for:

• our family and acclimating to our new home here in Australia
• our different ministries - youth, women, children, Sunday mornings
• and particularly pray for our church leadership which is facing some trials

God bless you all!