It's been too long
Hello everyone!
It truly has been too long since we wrote our last blog, so I will apologise in advance for a long read ahead!!! With both of us studying, the homework load and the kids being in school: it has been busy! We probably found a good routine about 2 weeks ago but since then, the kids have been off school many days and now we are on Thanksgiving break so the routine is out the window! We are however grateful for a few days off and looking forward to celebrating our first thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving is on Thursday (in 2 days time for us) and we are going to spend it with a lovely older American couple who are hosting all the international families from our Revival Group. There will be lots of food and plenty of kids so it should be a really fun day! I (Elle) will be making pumpkin pie - a super American traditional thanksgiving dish!
Since the last blog so much has happened I will try to fill in as much as possible!
Charlee and Declan have been doing well. At school they are both achieving really high grades and settling in to classes well - we've already received 2 report cards for them. Sometimes it is hard to know but were pretty confident they are happy and making friends.
Charlee was very keen to get baptized while we were here and so a few weeks ago we decided to encourage her do it. She was so excited on the night and so brave getting up in front of 1000 plus people saying why she wanted to get baptized. If you want to watch you can at this link Sunday night Bethel service - Charlee's baptism, she testifies at about 9mins 30 seconds in and then you can see her coming out of the water at about 42 mins 40 seconds. It was such a great night and we celebrated afterwards with InNout burgers!!
Chris and I went on our Retreat in about week 4 of school. Retreat is typically a highlight for many students and has been described and going out into the woods and meeting Jesus! We certainly went to the woods, it was in such a beautiful location up in the mountains and as far as your eye could see was pine tree woods, apparently there is regularly a bear that comes into the camp grounds! It was absolutely stunning! We had high expectations on the spiritual component of retreat and we were not disappointed. From prophetic booths, to fire and joy tunnels, raw but heartfelt worship and God encounters all over the place it was such an encouraging time for us to truly see God move with love and kindness, but also JOY so much JOY! The kids stayed with another couple who are students from Australia and then we looked after their kids while they were on retreat. It worked out so perfectly!
When we got back from Retreat school went into full swing. So now we are at school 4 days from 9:30 till 3:45 sometimes later depending on classes and then Chris has Healing rooms every second Saturday morning.
As a part of our schooling we do what they call 'City Service' this can look like anything from cleaning parks, patrolling the river riding segways on Friday nights to playing music in restaurants around the city or serving in the schools with kids who need someone to talk to or help them! It really is such a varied and incredible part of school. As I mentioned Chris was selected to serve in the healing rooms at Bethel Church. It was such a desire of our that we would get the opportunity to do that, to learn from what they do for their healing rooms and why they are so successful that people would come from all over the world to receive healing there. Chris is loving being in the environment and seeing the healings and miracles happening - it is too much to share here how they run the rooms and the incredible miracles but if you want to know send him a message on messenger and he'll share with you about it. I have the absolute privilege of prophesying over the leaders that are a part the Global Legacy network at Bethel from all over the world. We use a video chat to meet with people for a 10 min time slot and in teams of 2 or 3 we encourage them and prophecy over them where ever they are at!
We also have completed our first Advanced Ministry Training class and are now onto our second. We took separate classes in trimester 1, Chris taking Cultivating Intimacy with God and I taking Encountering the Fathers Love. 2nd trimester we are going to the same class 'His Glory and his Presence' one of the most crazy classes on the schedule and those of you who know us well won't be surprised, but we can assure you it is breaking down some religious boxes we have, every time we attend!
Chris and I had the amazing privilege of taking a 4 day intensive marriage course called Love After Marriage (LAM). God graciously provided finances for us to go, it was full on 4 days of 9am till 6 pm and really we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into, but I will say I think it will go down as a highlight of the year! Barry and Lorie Burn the creators of the course were our facilitators and the anointing they carry for marriage and reconciliation is incredible! They are also very frank and vulnerable about how God designed marriage and what it can look like. It has seriously changed our lives and God is showing us daily the amazing blessing that marriage is! We can share with anyone who is interested about it, unfortunately I think there is only one place in Australia you can do the course!!
I know this is an incredible amount of information and if you have made it this far you are doing so well!!
As you are probably aware there are more fires burning in California. The closest to us is over 1 hr away (actually really close to where we went on our retreat). You can understand why the fires burn so well when you see the acres and acres of pine forests! We live backed onto a reserve and about 1 month ago a fire broke out in there; thankfully the wind was blowing away from us and the fire department got onto it it really fast: water bombing and retardant dumps. The fire didn't go far but it was a little nerve wracking! It is so dry here. It has rained about 2 days in the 4 months we have been living here!! It is forecast to rain over the next few days, but we will see!
We appreciate your spontaneous messages of love we receive - please feel free to get in touch in between blogs, there is so much more to share! Please keep praying for us: no surprises we still need a financial breakthrough! God has been so kind up until now but at the moment every week is a struggle to see how he will provide. We won't give up trusting that he has us in his hands though! Please keep praying for the kids and their journeys, they both need a really good solid friend! Please pray for Chris and I as we journey through school - this is not a school of theology or of a distant experience. It is a school of walking out freedom and identity in a very real way; it challenges everything in you and every bit of religious mindset you didn't even realise you had buried deep within! We love it but it is tough some days so we really appreciate your love and support - we are feeling it!
A big shout out to all who supported us for our mission trips. We were both able to meet the deadlines to pay our deposits. Thank You so much!!!!
I think that should do for now! I'll try and blog again before Christmas - it's coming so fast but doesn't even feel like Christmas here! (Mainly because it is starting to feel cold and getting dark really early)!!
Please look us up on messenger and send us a hello we would love to hear from you!
Blessings
Chris, Elle, Charlee and Declan
It truly has been too long since we wrote our last blog, so I will apologise in advance for a long read ahead!!! With both of us studying, the homework load and the kids being in school: it has been busy! We probably found a good routine about 2 weeks ago but since then, the kids have been off school many days and now we are on Thanksgiving break so the routine is out the window! We are however grateful for a few days off and looking forward to celebrating our first thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving is on Thursday (in 2 days time for us) and we are going to spend it with a lovely older American couple who are hosting all the international families from our Revival Group. There will be lots of food and plenty of kids so it should be a really fun day! I (Elle) will be making pumpkin pie - a super American traditional thanksgiving dish!
Since the last blog so much has happened I will try to fill in as much as possible!
Charlee and Declan have been doing well. At school they are both achieving really high grades and settling in to classes well - we've already received 2 report cards for them. Sometimes it is hard to know but were pretty confident they are happy and making friends.
Charlee was very keen to get baptized while we were here and so a few weeks ago we decided to encourage her do it. She was so excited on the night and so brave getting up in front of 1000 plus people saying why she wanted to get baptized. If you want to watch you can at this link Sunday night Bethel service - Charlee's baptism, she testifies at about 9mins 30 seconds in and then you can see her coming out of the water at about 42 mins 40 seconds. It was such a great night and we celebrated afterwards with InNout burgers!! |
| Waiting in line for the big moment! (Declan was not impressed about having his photo taken! |
 |
| In n Out for dinner! |
Chris and I went on our Retreat in about week 4 of school. Retreat is typically a highlight for many students and has been described and going out into the woods and meeting Jesus! We certainly went to the woods, it was in such a beautiful location up in the mountains and as far as your eye could see was pine tree woods, apparently there is regularly a bear that comes into the camp grounds! It was absolutely stunning! We had high expectations on the spiritual component of retreat and we were not disappointed. From prophetic booths, to fire and joy tunnels, raw but heartfelt worship and God encounters all over the place it was such an encouraging time for us to truly see God move with love and kindness, but also JOY so much JOY! The kids stayed with another couple who are students from Australia and then we looked after their kids while they were on retreat. It worked out so perfectly!
When we got back from Retreat school went into full swing. So now we are at school 4 days from 9:30 till 3:45 sometimes later depending on classes and then Chris has Healing rooms every second Saturday morning.
 |
| Elle's Cabin at Retreat : Very bungalow style |
We also have completed our first Advanced Ministry Training class and are now onto our second. We took separate classes in trimester 1, Chris taking Cultivating Intimacy with God and I taking Encountering the Fathers Love. 2nd trimester we are going to the same class 'His Glory and his Presence' one of the most crazy classes on the schedule and those of you who know us well won't be surprised, but we can assure you it is breaking down some religious boxes we have, every time we attend!
Chris and I had the amazing privilege of taking a 4 day intensive marriage course called Love After Marriage (LAM). God graciously provided finances for us to go, it was full on 4 days of 9am till 6 pm and really we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into, but I will say I think it will go down as a highlight of the year! Barry and Lorie Burn the creators of the course were our facilitators and the anointing they carry for marriage and reconciliation is incredible! They are also very frank and vulnerable about how God designed marriage and what it can look like. It has seriously changed our lives and God is showing us daily the amazing blessing that marriage is! We can share with anyone who is interested about it, unfortunately I think there is only one place in Australia you can do the course!!
I know this is an incredible amount of information and if you have made it this far you are doing so well!!
As you are probably aware there are more fires burning in California. The closest to us is over 1 hr away (actually really close to where we went on our retreat). You can understand why the fires burn so well when you see the acres and acres of pine forests! We live backed onto a reserve and about 1 month ago a fire broke out in there; thankfully the wind was blowing away from us and the fire department got onto it it really fast: water bombing and retardant dumps. The fire didn't go far but it was a little nerve wracking! It is so dry here. It has rained about 2 days in the 4 months we have been living here!! It is forecast to rain over the next few days, but we will see!
We appreciate your spontaneous messages of love we receive - please feel free to get in touch in between blogs, there is so much more to share! Please keep praying for us: no surprises we still need a financial breakthrough! God has been so kind up until now but at the moment every week is a struggle to see how he will provide. We won't give up trusting that he has us in his hands though! Please keep praying for the kids and their journeys, they both need a really good solid friend! Please pray for Chris and I as we journey through school - this is not a school of theology or of a distant experience. It is a school of walking out freedom and identity in a very real way; it challenges everything in you and every bit of religious mindset you didn't even realise you had buried deep within! We love it but it is tough some days so we really appreciate your love and support - we are feeling it!
A big shout out to all who supported us for our mission trips. We were both able to meet the deadlines to pay our deposits. Thank You so much!!!!
 |
| Some American 'Fall' treats |
I think that should do for now! I'll try and blog again before Christmas - it's coming so fast but doesn't even feel like Christmas here! (Mainly because it is starting to feel cold and getting dark really early)!!
Please look us up on messenger and send us a hello we would love to hear from you!
Blessings
Chris, Elle, Charlee and Declan
