Monday, April 27, 2015

Praise God!


Praise God!

We're excited to share that we are currently at 100% of our one-time gifts!  This allows us to focus on raising our last portion of monthly support.  We currently need:

33 Partners at $100/month.

It's our hope to get to Perth sometime later this summer or fall.  If you aren't currently a partner with us please pray and consider joining our team and the work God is doing in Perth. 

Maybe you're interested in making a monthly pledge to support us, if that's the case you can fill out this PLEDGE FORM and we can count you as one of our monthly partners! 

Thank you again for your prayers!

Wednesday, April 1, 2015

Sun's Coming Up | Perth: February 3rd-19th

In February, Lee and I traveled to Perth to meet with our team leader Stephen Rarig, other members of our the MTW team we'll be joining later this year, and the Presbytery that will be sponsoring our visas.  The purpose of this trip was to meet and secure visa sponsorship from the presbytery, meet with the core group of believers we'll be planting the church with in Fremantle, and do a lot of strategic planning.  It was great trip.  Below is a photo diary of our time down under.


We arrived in Perth, Australia on February 5th and had a day and half to get rested and adjusted.  That meant spending some time at the beach, eating fish and chips, and catching up with a few of the people who will be involved in planting the church- which we're calling the Village.



Throughout our trip we had a number of meetings with pastors from the Westminster Presbytery.  Lee had a transfer of ordination exam and we both shared and answered questions regarding our call and our vision for church planting in Perth, we attended a church planting committee meeting (pictured above) where we discussed the details of our work visas, and on our last evening there we attended the presbytery meeting where they voted to sponsor our work visas!



We got to spend time with a WPC church in Mandurah.  Lee preached and Stephen served communion.  Afterwards they fed us an amazing meal of Aussie meat pies and pavlova for dessert. It was so good.  And it really turned out to be an exciting service!

The Left Bank in East Fremantle.  We had a lunch meeting here and this was our view!  Fremantle is the area of the city where we'll be starting the Village.


A view of South Fremantle from the water.  We spent some time praying, discussing our roles and vision for the church plant out on the rocks in the Fremantle harbor.


This is a shot from Cottesloe beach looking south toward Fremantle.  I had never been to Cottesloe beach so Stephen stopped on our way to a lunch appointment so I could see it. 


We got to spend a lot time with various pastors involved with the WPC.  This is Roger Palmer.  He's a pastor from South Africa serving at Maida Vale Presbyterian Church.  He spent a number of years at Twin Oaks Presbyterian Church in St. Louis and a couple of our partners connected us back in 2013.  I'm thankful they did- and it was great to finally meet him in person and here about his ministry!





One of the most exciting moments of the trip was preparing and leading music for the first gathering of the Village!  Lee and I cooked a huge Mexican feast, then we sang some worship tunes, prayed, and Lee preached.  I cannot tell you how encouraging it was to be a part of this night and Missy and excited to be in community with these folks everyday!



Just north of the city in Jundaloop, there is a group of Australians and South Africans who are planting a church that our team leader Stephen is connected with- he consults with and preaches for them occasionally.  They had a huge BBQ feast and invited us.  I took this photo on the way to the BBQ. West Australian sunsets are hard to beat!


Lee and I spent Saturday, February 14th exploring all over Perth.  We walked up Mount Street and saw that one of the super Luxe condos on that street was having an open house. The view of the city from the balcony was spectacular.  Later that afternoon we met up with Stephen and Berenice at Langley Park to see the Giants (which are giant marionettes that were in town from France for the month long Perth Festival). They spent the weekend roaming city.  An estimated 1.5 million people came out to see them!



The following Sunday morning Lee preached at Canning Vale Presbyterian Church.  CVPC is pastored by MTW missionary Richard Bailey.  God is using Richard and his wife TC in big ways.  Richard holds a regular bible study at his house on Sunday evenings for university students and early career folks.  He invited me to join them that evening and asked me to sing some worship tunes and share my testimony and how God has worked in my life to bring me to Australia.  This was another one of those moments where everything hit home for me and provided another example of how our role on the team.  I can't wait to join with Richard in this bible study.  Over 30 people where in attendance that evening!



On our last day Lee, Richard, Stephen, and I had lunch.  We prayed for that evening's presbytery meeting, discussed how we can pray for each other in the coming months, and dreamed about the day we are all together in Perth