The 2010 New Year Okerrance!

Happy New Year! 

Well its just under three months since our last update – THREE months already! At least an attempt at keeping up with you quarterly is not too awry! We trust that you are remaining faithful in Christ as this New Year begins, whatever your circumstances, and that Christ is proclaimed through word and deed in your lives.

When we last wrote we had only been in Australia for about six weeks and we were deciding what to do about work. As most of you know, we decided to commit to FOCUS AFES, beginning 2010, and James is now in the midst of preparing the plan for the year! Do pray for James for wisdom and sensitivity to suit the yearly plan to those we are ministering to. It is quite a different environment, different students and different team to be doing ministry amongst this year, so there are many changes to cope with for James. The only constant of course, is the living and enduring word of God that will not change or pass away! Pray that James will remain faithful in life and doctrine amid the changes.

Much of the last few months have been spent doing our level best to settle into our new home in fixing, repairing, buying, organizing, etc before work and school start in 2010! We feel as though we now need a holiday again, but of course it’s time to start work! James’ parents have been in Australia since the end of November last year, so we spent Christmas with them. It was nice to spend some of the Christmas period with Maria’s sister’s family for the first time too.

FOCUSsing in

I am only just getting started at FOCUS and having only visited the Thursday weekly meetings twice last year, I am still orientating myself to the people and environment at Wollongong University. Still, in that time, I have had the great joy of sharing the Gospel with nearly every International student I have met. Most are from China, and most have a genuine interest to investigate just who this man Jesus is as they have the opportunity to investigate God. After about 15 minutes of chatting with one of these students about all sorts of things during a thanksgiving dinner, he turned to me unprompted and said, ‘does Jesus judge people’. I sat there in stunned silence thinking, ‘I don’t believe it, I don’t believe it! how often do I get an opportunity like this? No prompting, no need to ‘turn’ the conversation towards the Gospel.’ Amazing as that was to me then, I have been here a few months now, and having spoken to past and present staff, I’ve realized this happens nearly every week. This is the value of the FOCUS work. Pray that this window of opportunity to reach out to other nationals will bear fruit as they come to hear of Christ the Lord and Saviour! At the moment FOCUS has an Indonesian fellowship, a Mandarin fellowship, an Indian fellowship and an English speaking group. We also have Japanese speakers at FOCUS, so they can always have a Japanese fellowship when the need arises!

I am so blessed to be amongst a godly team of people this year at FOCUS. Matthew Meek is my supervisor, he being the FOCUS national director (overseeing the FOCUS work across the country). He has been with FOCUS for over ten years, and I am looking forward to learning loads from him. I am also full of joy to have another co-worker, John Baird. John is one of the ministry trainees at Wollongong University, serving at FOCUS on a full time basis this year and it is great to have him around. We are also very blessed to have a female FOCUS ministry trainee, Phuong. Phuong is from Vietnam, but was converted and has grown as a Christian here in Wollongong. Please do pray for us as a team, that we will grow in love and service of each other, as we love and serve the students, especially since nearly all of us are new this year. Many of the team have moved on since last year, leaving gaping holes. But, God is sovereign so pray that he will use us to serve his Kingdom faithfully.

At the moment, we are in the throes of identifying and training students to take on the roles of leadership at FOCUS. With so many International students here for such a short time (perhaps on average 2 years), and leaving to return home or move onto other parts of Australia, this makes the task quite tough! International students find it tough to find work in Wollongong, due to the difficult economic environment down here. Humanly speaking, this process is important, and takes lots of time thinking through and prayer. We need to choose the right people from a biblical stand point, so please do pray that as far a possible we will be faithful, and that God will intervene if we are making the wrong choices. We thank God for the many volunteers (both students and workers alike) who have given time to serve at FOCUS in both big and small ways. Keep praying that our Lord will provide student servants for this ministry who can stay around Wollongong long enough to facilitate stability in the leadership.

I look forward to reporting more about FOCUS in the coming months, so watch this space. We will let you know how things are going…

Maria

The last move of 2009!

After 6 weeks of great generosity & patience from my sister’s family in housing us, the Jacaranda trees were swaying their goodbyes to us as we vacated Jacaranda Ave. The noise levels went down a few notches in the lovely suburb of Figtree and a whirlwind of activity & noise descended upon Cordeaux, the next suburb down. Our new neighours were regularly greeted with “Excuse me! Whats your name? My name is Jessica!” as our little girl shouted with excitement across the yard.

Our humble abode

The whirlwind continued - unpacking, shifting, cleaning, sorting, washing, shopping, doing admin and running errands through the months of November and December 09. Although the lists of jobs & boxes are still staring at us, the calm has arrived and we are 90% settled into the lovely home that God has provided for us. We are very thankful to God for a place which is close to family and schools, and big enough to be able to host visiting guests!

James’ parents were our very first visiting house guests shortly after we moved in. This year marks the first year both James & I could spend the Christmas season with family from both sides of the family! December was also a month packed full of family birthdays, so lots of celebrating and eating. Although busy, it was nice that we could end our year on the beach and watched a beautiful display of fireworks by Wollongong Harbour – the first time of its kind in Wollongong! 2009 was indeed a very memorable & busy year for us.

Boxing Day with Kerrs & Finleys

I am entering 2010 with a lot of excitement for the year ahead. I am looking forward to forming new relationships both with overseas students at FOCUS and also with members of St Michael’s Cathedral Wollongong. I will also look forward to the arrival of a new niece/nephew in the next week and the lovely opportunity to be geographically closer to my sister & her family. Due to our different ministry commitments, circumstances and geographical locations the past 15 years, we have not been able to support each other in practical ways. So it is really nice to have the opportunity to do so now.

Please join me in giving thanks to God for all the above. We are so grateful that He provided abundantly every step of the way. Pray also that in the year ahead, we will seize opportunities in our relationships with those whom we come into contact with.

Josiah

Moving and Grooving with Fluffy!

The last school term of 2009 was a very active one for Josiah. Dancing practice for a ‘Moove & Groove’ event, twice a week after school sports of soccer and basketball, a 2 week intensive swimming programme AND Saturday morning cricket! This will probably not be a typical term for Josiah, but it certainly helped him eat like a horse & sleep like a baby. He loves being able to do so much sport, and is especially taken with the game of Cricket.

Jos grooving away

Jos' 8th B'day

Josiah has also been asking persistently for a pet, specifically for a dog. We finally gave in to the pet idea but negotiated a dwarf rabbit instead. So for Josiah’s 8th birthday, Fluffy the rabbit joined our family.

Fluffy

Jessica

Theres no place like home…

Jess with cousin Rosie

It took Jessica a longer time to settle as she had to wait for all her immunizations to be administered before she could enroll into pre-school. She finally started school in October, two days a week. It is now 3 months into her new school and she is starting to enjoy it a lot more.

She is also a very ‘homely’ girl, she loves being at home and playing with all her toys. So after moving in & being reunited with all her usual belongings, it made her feel a lot more settled and secure. She is now enjoying her own PINK room and hopes to have her cousin Rosie to sleep over soon.

Just before we left Singapore, Jessica showed an exponential interest in swimming. So we decided to seize the moment and found a lesson she could join. To our great surprise, she was swimming confidently by the third lesson! She continues to swim every week and is making good progress.

Jessica the Rocket

Thank you for all your prayers for our kids in settling into their new home, surrounding and routines. Their moods improved leaps and bounds when we finally moved into our own home. They are also having A LOT of fun here with so many community programmes/ initiatives towards children and their growth. As I am writing this, Josiah is enjoying a Mecanno building workshop organized by the local library.

Please continue to pray that they will learn more about Jesus every day, commit to Him and submit under His authority in their lives. Pray too that we as parents will commit to being godly examples daily.