Fall Update

Hello everyone, yes it’s been quite a while since I have posted anything and I feel horrible about it. It’s one of those things that if you put it off once or twice it is easy to continue to put it off, but alas I cannot continue I must get back in the habit of writing lest you might think our lives are stagnant and uneventful which could not be farther from the truth.

As many of you know we are now renting a home in Sequim, WA and are attending and working part-time at Calvary Chapel Sequim (CCS). As we made our way back up Interstate 5 from California, in late July, through Oregon and on to the North Olympic Peninsula both Cameron and I were feeling certain we’d end up in Sequim and so were delighted when Pastor Hans and the elder board of CCF offered me the job. It is a breathtakingly beautiful area with a sunny disposition throughout most of the year and yet is still very close to my parents on Bainbridge Is. and Cameron’s parents in Forks. Also, there are a handful of Calvary Chapels around all of which are very supportive of our mission and love having us help out when there is a need.

Meanwhile in Sequim, we’ve been blessed to enroll Ryan and Aubry in the Olympic Christian School (OCS) just a few minutes drive from our house. We were really conflicted with putting the older kids in school since though, we felt clearly that we should not continue to home school them, we were not willing to place them in the local public school. We figured the other private Christian schools would be too expensive so we really prayed and felt the Lord directing us to OCS. Once we sat down and met with the principle and some of the staff our worries disappeared as we saw a school that seemed a perfect fit and the ministry discounts that were offered to us brought the cost down considerably, praise the Lord!

Currently, my responsibilities at Calvary Sequim include helping in the youth ministry, men’s ministry, worship, surf ministry, and in general administration and maintenance. I am also volunteering at the Olympic Christian School teaching beginning guitar and occasionally teaching in chapel.

Cameron’s been busy home schooling Sean and Kay, volunteering at the Olympic Christian School, and keeping the house efficiently running, and assisting wherever possible in the women’s ministry and youth ministry at CCS.

Ryan and Aubry have transitioned amazingly well from full time home schooling for most of their lives to OCS. They have small classes with faculty who are very involved and dedicated to helping them succeed, as of Oct. they are both getting nearly straight A’s! Socially, they fitting right in and getting along with their peers very well. Ryan’s class has a good ratio of boys to girls but Aubry is the only girl in her class. Nevertheless, she’s doing fine and is connecting with the girls from the other grades. Calvary Sequim has a young group of girls called “The Ladybugs” who Aubry has joined and befriended. They are spending a lot of time together in fellowship and prayer and have been active in, and are currently planning many community service projects, outreach events, and even a short-term mission trip to mainland Mexico in July 2012. Unfortunately, with our projected plans for serving in Australia, Aubry won’t be attending. Aubry continues to enjoy piano lessons as she’s picked up where she left off when she left for Australia and is growing in her skills more and more all the time, even singing a bit more to our delight as she has an amazing singing voice.

Ryan has been diving headlong into school and is kept pretty busy with homework. He’s taking my guitar class at OCS and another one at church and is progressing really well. When he wants to blow off steam and get some exercise, he enjoys getting on the bike and exploring the surrounding area especially the trails by the beach. He is also involved with the Youth Ministry and Surf Ministry at church and is always excited to get in the water and has fun whatever the conditions.

Sean has been adjusting well to being the man of the house when his older siblings and Dad are away for the day. He and Kay are really teaming up well through their teaching time and through out the day. Sean’s been keeping busy with the Olympic Peninsula Home Connection (OPHC) on Tuesdays, our local home schooling co-op and will be starting swim lessons soon. He stays active doing hiphop dance, playing in the yard and occasionally going into the woods with Dad to fish and/or hunt.

Kay also tags along to Tuesday school but is too young to attend classes all day. She’s learning very quickly next to Sean in our home school and both are really enjoying the Calvary Kids’ Club at church. Kay’s also enjoying ballet classes once a week and can often be heard singing wonderful Christian songs that she makes up as she goes.

I’m sure many of you are interested in finding out what is on the horizon for our family’s calling to Australia. Well, we are also very interested and are continuing to pray and connect with others who are interested in missions Down Under. Since our return from Townsville in June, I was able to attend the National Pastors’ Conference and prayed earnestly that God would connect me with other ministry leaders who might be apart of God’s next step for us. Straight away, I began meeting people both interested being involved first-hand and those who’re interested in supporting the work. Two significant men were Pete Nelson and Brian Henderson. Both have a huge heart for Australia and both are actively working toward launching a church plant in Sydney around July 2012. As we’ve been in communication over these months their vision and strategy has become more solid and other couples, families, and individuals are coming on-board to be involved, including our family! As Pete is leading the church plant and the rest of us will be in supporting roles, his vision is for this church to be a church planting church. That it would begin with a very strong missional focus thereby staying away from trying to make a name for itself and gain personal notoriety. Instead, when the time is right, he feels no hesitation in sending out ministry leaders like ourselves with other like-minded workers to plant churches throughout Australia and potentially throughout the world. His heart is for the Calvary Chapel style of ministry to really gain a foothold in Australia and to spread freely where God wants it to go. This is exactly our heart as well, even more now that we’ve been there for a year and have seen first-hand the hunger for balanced ministry and the expositional teaching of the word of God. Oh the fire continues to burn in our hearts to get back to Australia and do the work! Even so, God has brought us back for a myriad of reasons many of which we’ve already experienced but I’m sure there are more to come.

Here’s one recent experience I’d like to share with you. A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to come down from Washington to S. California to meet with Pete, Brian, and a handful of other interested parties to pray together and share more of the vision and strategy for the Sydney church plant. I flew in on a Sunday night with everything going smoothly on the trip down. I met my Mom at the San Diego Airport and was soon in bed. I awoke early Monday morning to make the drive up to Murrieta for the meeting. Everything went well through the meeting and we were all blessed to be reunited and to get to know each other better. As the meeting wrapped up, we ate lunch together and then I headed back to San Diego, not really sure what to do with the rest of my day. I figured a trip to see some old friends at a local Ocean Beach surf shop would be in order. I managed to find a parking spot nearby and walked down the busy sidewalk to the surf shop. After a while of browsing I was able to reconnect with the owners who I have known for over twenty years. They were among the group of friends and acquaintances who have watched my life change from when I was 19 years old, a wandering godless surfaholic to a newly born Christian, to a youth pastor and eventually to husband, father, and church planter, and missionary. All along the way I’ve tried to stay in touch and have prayed many prayers for their salvation and for God to really transform their lives and use them. Sure enough, as I began to share with them of our experiences in Australia and Papua New Guinea and they shared their personal struggles over the last couple of years, their hearts were broken and their spirits were ready to receive Jesus as Lord and Savior and to turn from their old lifestyle. After more than twenty years of prayer, God gave me the privilege of being able to pray with them to receive Jesus and become Christians. If it was for this reason alone that God brought us back, it would be worth it, but there have been numerous other instances much like this that we’ve been apart of in the last few months and I’m sure God has much more ahead. What a joy it is to know God and to be His agents of love for this world, whether it be in the States or in Australia or wherever, we are so blessed!

So as we know more about our specific plans, we’ll be sure to let you know and I am recommitting to be more current on the blog so everyone can see what we’re up to. Once again thank you for your prayers and support and we ask that you would continue to partner with us in the work.

PRAISES!

• My Mom’s cancer has been treated and all reports say the likelihood of it returning are very slim!!!
• We’re established in Sequim for now and God is faithfully providing and is using us in a bunch of different and significant ways.
• Everyone’s healthy, though I gotta remember to keep my back strong, it’s gone out on me twice already since we’ve been back.
• Home schooling with Sean and Kay is going great
• Regular schooling with Ryan and Aubry is going great
• The Lord continues to make our van run well and has provided us with a nice used truck for a second vehicle.

PRAYER REQUESTS:

• More clear direction in obtaining a visa for Australia
• The Lord’s will in pursuing a second job for Jeremy or Cameron
• The Lord’s will for Cameron to go back to school to finish her AA