News for July – Finally we are saying Hello and not Goodbye!!

Finally , early in the morning , on the 22nd June we arrived at Auckland Int Airport, walked down the residents line and they let us in!!!!.

We spent a few days with the Jones in Hamilton, before heading down to our temporary home on the Lakes Ranch in Rotorua.

So … what has happened ?

It seems like so much in the short time we have been here .

Highlights & Lowlights !

We have a car praise the Lord – a Honda 7 seat odyssey , which insists in speaking Japanese to me , and the manual is in Japanese, turning her voice off was a minor though significant language triumph.

Becky has a school uniform !!! On the 2oth July Becky starts School at Mokoia Intermediate for two terms (that is two periods of 10 weeks) before moving to High School, Please pray for her as she is excited an nervous at the same time PS I am not allowed to post a picture of her in the uniform , which is mostly very very red ! – she refuses to wear the “bucket hat”, but then bucket and hat should never appear in the same sentence!!!

Jordan has a Tennis club!!! He is now part of Rotorua Tennis club cool huh!!

We had a fire under the church building !!! – fun huh. The store under the church, was gutted in an electrical blaze, damaging the church entrance way and filling the church with acrid smoke. There has been almost no damage to the sanctuary, which is huge blessing that the Lord kept everything safe , we have been having church out at the Ranch and will probably need to do so for a week or so whilst the repairs and cleaning of the church take place in order to make it usable.

We have no place to do Bible school!! – After much deliberation the Board of Lakes Ranch have decided that they do not wish to have CCBI on their site, so at the moment we have no specific location for the school starting Feb 2010 – Fun huh !!! . God is in charge , so please pray HE will work out the details, we commit our way to him and he will act Psalm 37.

In a month we have to find a new place live !!! – Please pray for the Lord guidance and provision , the tricky thing is since leaving Europe, our support has dropped by 25% so things will be interesting …. mmmm

A Spiritual thought… or two

Here is what I have been learning !

Steps of faith require courage and we have made a step come here, but once you make a step of faith , continuance also requires courage. When Peter stepped out of the boat it required courage , but to continue also requires courage and at that point sight is not helpful , seeing and understanding the height of the waves their velocity, presence and power doesnt help you prevail. So we contineu by faith in the presence of the waves knowing that God is good.

Herein is calling proven – God is good and His mercy endures forever.

All in all we are doing well the church here is a huge blessing , I will begin teaching a 13 week series on Nehemiah in the Wednesday study in a week or so.

The kids and Gwyn are doing well though , we feel a little dislocated from family and friends , some of that is getting Internet and phones sorted out and just transition.

We covet your prayers and your love , and we are deeply grateful for both ..

I will post some prayer and praise request in a few days

M & G