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 4th

Ali has gone out with the Bridges group for a social evening this evening, so I am writing today's blog entry.

We started today with Ali going to visit the lady that she and Ian weren't able to visit earlier this week. She found the visit both encouraging and interesting.

After the visit we had a little time, so we visited the local Christian bookshop - 'Koorong', and tried not to buy too much. The stores amazing; there is a small adventure playground outside for kids, a play area inside for toddlers with a children's cartoon video playing, loads of books, music, videos, etc. The range was amazing, and many of the prices were excellent. If only we had Christian bookshops like this in the UK. We want to go back - but may need to pay for excess luggage if we do!

We got back just in time for me to go with Ian to the University to join with the Conversational English class and Bible Study group. The class was interesting, and the Redcliffe t-shirt was a talking point again with the Chinese students in both groups.

Ali's just got back. She had scones and jam at 9.30 - someone said it was a very English thing to do, but Ali said not at 9.30pm! There was a lot of discussion about accents, and apparently someone said I sounded like Jamie Oliver - I guess it's an improvement over being told I sound like Tony Blair yesterday, but I'm not too sure.

August 2nd

(Apologies for the late posting but our internet connection dropped out yesterday evening. Blog entries may be a little infrequent for the next few days.)

Change of plans for today – we had thought we were going to visit Malyon College – a local Baptist college - but this will happen next week instead. Instead I went with Ian to visit an elderly lady who lives in a care facility. Unfortunately she was attending a service that began moments after we arrived, Ian said he would try again later in the week. When I got back we took the girls to a new park – Pineapple Park - that Jon discovered yesterday on the way home. They played for a bit then we took them to KFC – instead of beans and coleslaw they offer mashed potato and gravy! Ian was so surprised when we told him!

He took us to visit a Baptist church in Ipswich, south west of Brisbane. The pastor, a good friend of Ian's shared with us all about the church. It has only recently bought an old sports centre and they have renovated it beautifully. It was interesting to discover how the move affected the church as a whole.

The church has a strong focus on discipleship despite having three quite separate services and congregations. We were struck by how ambitious the pastor's vision for the future is.

This evening Jon went to the English conversation class again and led a session about the weather and whether! There were a few people away, particularly some of the helpers from the church, but it still went really well with the dozen or so who were there.

July 28th

This morning Jon went and did some visiting with Ian, and because it was raining the girls and I stayed in the apartment. The girls played together while I worked on my sermon – again.
When Jon came back we swapped over and I went to a student bible study group. We had an unaccompanied worship session! A new Christian gave their testimony and then the group split into two parts to discuss a bible study about 'Walking in the Spirit'.

I got back around three and did some more preparation work as Jon and the girls had gone out This evening Jon has gone to lead the study at the Bridges group. He said he got asked lots of difficult questions, but it was really good.

July 24th

I worked on my sermon this morning while Jon took the girls to the park. Ian then came over and we discussed the proposed plan for the week. He seems to think there may not be enough to keep us busy – but I think there will be, as there are several things to prepare for this week. Proposed activities include: conversational English, visiting people, Home Group leading, University Student Ministry, Bridges Group, Garage Sale, event advertising and all that Sunday will bring with Ali preaching and an event called 'The Living Room' in the evening.

This afternoon we went along to the Museum of Queensland which was really interesting. They had so much to look at we didn't finish so we are planning a return visit next week sometime. There were exhibits of stuffed animals (never seen a polar bear so close) and lots of information about animals under threat of extinction. The girls really liked it too, especially Beth - who loves polar bears.

This evening Jon went along to a deacons' meeting while I carried on working on my sermon.

Tomorrow is our official day off, but as we have already planned to go out on Thursday to celebrate Rebekah's birthday, we are hoping to get some planning done for events later in the week that we will be involved in.