August 11th

Jon had the opportunity to visit the same couple as last time (two weeks ago). The lady had been at the womens meeting yesterday and had taken a copy of my devotions home with her - she has already given a copy to her neighbour.

While he was out I did some preparation for Sunday. Jon got back just before lunch and I went straight out with Ian to the Foundations group. They were having a pancake party to encourage newbies to the group. There seemed to be more people round and the conversational English class (based around a newspaper article on the water shortage here) attracted a bigger group than the previous time I was there. Afterwards we moved into a time of games followed by worship. As we were waiting for the games to begin I spoke with one girl, from Hong Kong, who happened to have been born in England – near London! Her parents moved back to Hong Kong when she was about 5 so she doesn't remember much about the UK.

I took the girls along to South Bank, leaving Jon to work on his sermon once I had got home. Ian rang me while I was out to tell me youth group wouldn't be happening so having got back and told Jon, he decided to go to Bridges. As we arrived home we found Jon taking pictures of the beautiful sunset - the colours were amazing!

I didn't say anything yesterday but we heard about the news from the UK at around 7pm Australian time. It is a weird experience to know all that is going on back home. We are hoping it won't affect our journey back which is coming all to quickly - we can't believe we've got less than two weeks left!

Jon has just got in from Bridges - he found the group really encouraging tonight as he saw the young people really starting to build relationships with each other and grow as a group. When he gave out a leaflet advertising the prayer event we are planning, they were all shocked that we are going home so soon. They can't believe it any more than we can!

August 10th

Jon took the girls to a new park nearby while I went and led the devotions at the women's meeting. It went really well - they asked if they could have a copy of what I had prepared to let everyone take one home! I had to leave early so Jon could go out and got back just in time. Jon had just had a call from Ian - so he rushed off to the church to meet up with him.

Jon went with Ian to the pastor's meeting - there were three other pastors there from two churches. He was struck by the fact that both churches had significant missionary programmes overseas. Peter Law, who spoke at Malyon yesterday, shared more about his organisations work. It was good to be able to learn more about what is happening in Eastern Europe.

This afternoon we managed to visit the beach, after I had finished my preparations for Home group this evening, to keep the girls entertained for a while.

Ian picked me up for Home group in his mini (he had told us previously that it has dodgy brakes!) which was an experience in itself. This week there were two children and five adults so there was more discussion during the study this week.

August 7th

We spent this morning reviewing last week with Ian and covered this weeks plan. We then arranged our placement project with him - a prayer event due to happen on our last Sunday here. There is a lot of preparation needed to get this together which we will have to start this week.

There seems to be a lot of things coming up, we will be going to the Baptist College on Wednesday after the change in our arrangements for last week. We will be going along to all the regular events that we have already been involved in - English conversation, Home Group, local pastors' meeting, etc., but in addition Ali will be leading the devotions at the womens' meeting on Thursday and Jon will be involved in the youth group on Friday.

This afternoon Kerry took us to the Gold Coast - the journey is a good time to talk about church and about our ministry as well.

The Gold Coast is a magical place with golden sands and huge rolling waves. The girls and I all got soaked, several waves took us by surprise and we got our trousers/shorts all wet! It was really blowy, but absolutely - take your breath away - beautiful! I found several fan shells which are gorgeous!

This evening we did planning, but are struggling with getting thoughts into words.

July 29th

Jon got up early to go and help at the garage sale at church which started at 6.30am! The weather was glorious compared with yesterday – complete opposite – with cloudless blue skies and strong sunshine. I did more preparation on my sermon and the girls amused themselves. Jon came back late morning and after lunch we went along to South Bank so the leaflets advertising The Living Room could be handed out. We stopped off at the beach to keep the girls happy. This evening has been full of preparation for both of us – I preach tomorrow while Jon has the childrens talk to do as well as lead devotions before the church's AGM.

July 26th

We walked into the city centre to get a couple of things and to show Jon where we walked the other day. We took the girls to the park afterwards back on South Bank, where they played and we did some reading - relevant to our placement (See, Rosemary, we have read the handbook!.)

This afternoon we went along to the beach where the girls dug and paddled while we worked on our sermons and Jon also did some reading about the devotions he is preparing for the AGM at the church on Sunday.

I went along to the English conversation class this evening and led a session on love and marriage after the ice-breaker about Aussie slang and a sentence game. I found this a little scary, but it seemed to go well. I then led a small group, me and two others, before the group finished with reading definitions of love that we had written, with Ian finishing on 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 as the perfect definition.