Hey everyone we are going technological and have our own blog. Didn't even know what one was till last week.
As most of you know we have moved. For those that we didn't catch up with our apologies and for those still waiting for last years Christmas card and annual message my sincere apologies, I will try to do better this year.
In late May we were bought out by Main Roads for a proposed highway bypass of Gympie. We decided to head south (to the cooler weather) and have ended up at Cowes on Phillip Island in Victoria (for the moment). We have bought a cheap house and no longer have a home loan which is a wonderful feeling. It also gives us a lot more freedom.
The boys have settled into South Coast Christian College and are doing well. Patrick is in Year 7 and Nicholas in Year 5. They have an extra year of schooling in Victoria because they have Prep year.The school has a good sense of community. There are only 45 students and it has been established for 9 years. It was set up by the larger campus at Leongatha. We have just returned from 3 days of school camp. For those of you who know our school camp history you will understand what a miracle this is to have all 4 of us on a school camp.
We began to look at distributing Macaday chocolate bars (made in Gympie) in this area. We have found that while people like them and are happy to take them it is very slow here in the winter and they don't want to take them until November. So we will probably have to look at something else that we can do all year round or through the winter months.
We have met 2 families down here and are heading off overseas with them soon. Frank and Coral Fokkens regularly go to Hong Kong and take Bibles across the border into China for Autumn Rain. Laurie and Rosanna Sprague and their children left on Monday for a year with Interserve in Laos. Our itinerary follows - we are doing lots of small plane trips with the boys in mind and to use the cheaper airlines.
Sept 15 Saturday Melbourne to Darwin
Sept 16 Sunday Darwin
Sept 17 Monday Darwin
Sept 18 Tuesday Darwin to Singapore
Sept 19 Wednesday Singapore
Sept 20 Thursday Singapore
Sept 21 Friday Singapore to Shenzhen, China
Sept 22 Saturday - Sept 28 Friday Shenzhen
Sept 29 Saturday Macau to Singapore
Sept 30 Sunday Singapore to Bangkok and Bangkok to Udon Thani, Nth Thailand and Laos
Oct 1 Monday Laos
Oct 2 Tuesday Laos
Oct 3 Wednesday Laos
Oct 4 Thursday Laos to Udon Thani to Bangkok
Oct 5 Friday Bangkok
Oct 6 Saturday Bangkok
Oct 7 Sunday Bangkok to Singapore to Darwin
Oct 8 Monday Darwin
Oct 9 Tuesday Darwin to Melbourne
We would appreciate your prayers as we organise visas and immunisations and accommodation (particularly in Singapore where they don't seem to have many family rooms in the budget range) and also while we are over there for safety and for the work that we are doing.
Had 2 days teaching in Patricks class on Monday and Tuesday as his teacher was away ill. Just got a call to ask me to do tomorrow and maybe Friday as he is still unwell. Class sizes are pretty good. Teachers at CCC would be very excited and Maurice would be having nightmares. The Prep/1/2 class has 11 students, Year 4/5 has 18, and the year 6/7 class has 16.
