Nursing Home Visit

Giving out cards and gifts
Hanna, Micca and Yonah talking with one of the residents
Lisa sharing a gift. I later saw this lady crying and saying thank you to one of our leaders.
Melvin sharing a gift
This lady was so sweet, she was just smiling the whole time
One of the nurses came over and said merry christmas and gave this man a puppy. He started tearing up and was speechless.
Christa and Jayden saying hello
Part of the wonderful choir
All the children singing

Today during church we took the children to a nursing home near by to sing the residents some songs and give them cards and a small gift. It was amazing. The kids sang wonderfully and they were so good at talking to the people who lived there. I loved watching the residents eyes light up when they saw the children so many of them just kept saying "thank you, thank you" and I even saw a few tears. It was so great to see how the children blessed those people. I was a bit nervous about some of the children who had not enjoyed singing in the practices and had been saying that they didn't even want to go. Once we got there though they really suprised me. I think once they saw the residents they realized that this had nothing to do with them and everything to do with blessing those people. You can really see God through these children and it amazes me every time I am with them. So far this has been the highlight of my Christmas experience in Perth.

Christmas Time

Jayden and Aleesa sharing a candle
Jer and I
Mez and I
The group and our picnic (minus Jer and I)

Well it sure doesn't feel like Christmas here in Perth. It's 30c + sunny almost everyday. Really nice but so weird to have a Christmas. I have been trying to do some Christmasy things like making cookies and such but it's not really helping. We went to a carols night at a park here in Perth. It's something that they do a lot here. They have bands and choirs set up at a park and you go for the evening and listen. We set up a picnic and had a great time with our friends. Jeremy and I are also apart of our church's Christmas Eve production. We are both in a short play. I am the narrator and Jeremy plays a christmas tree. It's pretty funny. I have worked everyday this week because Meredith and I are making the set and costumes for the play as well. So it's been a busy week. Well that's all that's going on with us here. It's a busy season even when you aren't buying gifts and seeing family, but it's fun!

Skating

We had our friends Kyle visiting with us for 2 weeks. He and Jer spent a lot of time surfing and skating. They asked me to take some photos of them one day. It was lots of fun. Here are a few of them.

Photos With Friends

The girls (Pip, Mez, Lisa, Merinda, Tegan, Christa, Ning and Me)

The guys (Jer, Rohan, Dave, Timon, Dean, Robo, Graham, Ronnie and Han)
Lisa, Me, Christa and Ning. Christa was really embarrassed because we were up on the stairs where everyone could see us.
Jeremy, Lisa and I

I realized that we haven't really put any photos of any of our friends from Perth on this blog so I thought I would put a few. These are from our friends Josh and Megan's wedding a couple weeks ago.  We have great friends here and we sure are going to miss them when we leave (which by the way is in only 34 days).

Should I keep writing?

So I have been wondering lately if anyone actually reads this. I know our lives aren't incredibly exciting but I thought that a few people might want to know what we are doing over here. So if you do read this could you let me know or else I might think about not doing it anymore.

On a different note, we come home in 41 days!

Jer is off camping tonight with our friend Kyle from home. I hope they are having fun. I am finally getting a chance to clean up the apartment after living with 2 men for a week in a half. I thought Jer was messy but both of them together, I can't even put it to words. Except maybe gross. So we will see how long it stays clean when they get home tomorrow. 

Jer is on holidays this week so hopefully we will get out a bit more and do something fun. I am still working though but only tuesday and thursday. I'm still loving the children's ministry but I find that my favorite part of it is planning events and activities and thinking up new ideas for the ministry. Teaching is fun but I wouldn't say it was my calling or anything. One of my recent ideas was the question box. Every sunday we give the kids a piece of paper to write down a prayer request or (this part was my idea) a question about God, family, life, ect... They kids don't write their names on it so they don't feel embarrassed to write whatever they like. We pick 2-3 questions out of the box at random each weeks to answer and read out to the group. The kids love it and man have we ever had some difficult but great questions. Sometimes we have all 3 of us in our little office working on one question during the week. It was a small idea but has turned into a great thing that I think they will continue to do after I am gone.

Well this post is kind of all over the place so I will leave it at that. Hopefully someone is actually reading this and if you are then thanks!

So Much To Be Thankful For

Today we celebrated Thanksgiving with a group of about 20 people from our church. They were all American, Canadian or married to an American/Canadian. It was so much fun. Everybody brought their favorite dishes and we had a feast! Turkey, stuffing, pumpkin pie, potatoes, gravy, all the good stuff. We all said what we were thankful for, it was fun to hear what everyone had to say. A few of us woman got talking about what we miss the most about North America. It's so funny the things you miss. Most of them are things that you would never even think about normally. Besides the obvious, family, friends, etc... Here were some of them, really good soaps and body lotion, Costco and being able to buy in bulk, getting fresh berries and grapes all year long, marsh mellows, canned pumpkin, cherries, cheap mascara and good Mexican food. There were more but I can't think of them all right now. Strange the things you end up missing. 

It was really good to think about what we were thankful for today. Jeremy and I both are so thankful for the people that we have met here in Perth. We are thankful for all the friends we have here and how at home they have made us feel. We are also so thankful for the experience of living in Australia. Even though it has been really hard at times I know that God has challenged us and made us grow and that we will never be the same because of this year. God had forced us to rely on Him for all things and has shown us just how much He can and will provide. God is so good! He has also shown us (well mostly Jer) what He wants us to do with our lives and that is to serve Him in full time ministry at a church. So I guess this is the official announcement that Jeremy will be looking for a job at a church in worship ministry once we get home. He will also be going back to college to finish his schooling in this area sometime in the next year. We aren't sure how long it will take to get into a church but we are so excited to start this new journey!

Preaching

I thought I should let everyone know that Jeremy gave his first sermon last Sunday. He was asked to do it at the start of the week and decided that he should go for it. He was a bit nervous about it but did a great job! You would never guess it was his first time doing it. He spoke on worship and it seemed like everyone liked it. He still feels a bit strange about preaching but liked it and is considering doing it again before we leave. I am so proud of him and I hope he tries it again one day because he did so good! I have been trying to upload it on here so that everyone can listen if they want but it's not letting me. I'm not sure how to upload just a sound recording. I will see what I can do though. I know it's floating around in an e-mail between family members so maybe if you want to hear it just let me know and I can e-mail it to you. 

Rottnest Island

Kimberly and I (this is not a Rottnest, it's at city beach by our apartment)
Jer and I with our bikes
A view of the water
A great little bay we found
A quakka
Kimberly and I in the water

The light house


Okay so as I said before we had a friend, Kimberly visiting us this last week. We had so much fun with her and did a ton but I just want to tell you about one thing. We went and spent the day at a little island called Rottnest.  It's about a 20 minute drive and 30 minute boat ride from where we live. There not much on it. A few restaurants and a hotel but it is beautiful. You need bikes to get around the island so we rented  some and biked about 16 km around the island. We didn't make it all the way around but we saw most of it. There are all these tiny little secluded bays to stop at with white sad and perfect clear blue water. We made it up to the light house, that was Jer's favorite. We also ran into some little animals called quakkas that rome around the island. It was the coolest thing ever! I think it's my favorite thing that  have done in Australia. It's a pretty tough bike ride, super hilly but so worth it. It's too beautiful to describe and the pictures don't do it much justice but here are some anyways.

Kimberly

Jayden
The Fung family with the roos
Kimberly with the koalas
Me with Jayden
All of us with a koala
Kimberly, Jer and I with a wombat


My friend Kimberly is here visiting us right now. She has been here for one week and leaves tomorrow night. We have done some really fun things while she has been here. I dont have time to go into detail right now but I will post a few photos and tell you more about it later! Here are some photos from when we took Kimberly to the the wildlife park, we also went with our good friends Ronnie and Christa and their son Jayden.

Flights Are Booked

We booked our flights home today!  We tried to get something before the 5th of January but nothing was available so we will be coming back to Vancouver on January 10th. We are getting excited to come back home and be with all our friends and family again. We do love Perth so it will be hard to leave but I'm excited none the less. So I just thought I would announce our official return home date. It's not to much longer! See you all in a little more then 9 weeks!

Awaken

Last night Jeremy put on an event at our church called Awaken. It is the project he has been working on for a few months now. It was so good! It was a worship and prayer night where we focused mainly on the church and community. The church was open all day  for people to come in and pray and at 2 times during the afternoon groups gathered to pray for those two things. In the evening Jeremy lead the worship time and it went so well. I was so proud of him for planning this. I think it went better then he was expecting. You could really fell God in the room through out the whole evening. I have never seen our church worship so openly. There isn't much else to say other then it was fantastic! Someone taped a few of the songs on the churches video camera so I am going to try to get ahold of them and see is I can post them for you to see. This video that I have posted is the promotion video Jer made for the night. 

Camp

Okay s0 as I mentioned before we went to church camp this past weekend. It was so much fun. We arrived Friday night and played some games with everyone who came. I think there were about 120 people there of all ages. Saturday was the main day. It was filled with activities. We were split into 2 teams (blue and green) and from there 2 groups per team. We played dodge ball, three legged soccer, human battle ship and had a huge relay race. There were also a couple bible studies over the weekend but the children's ministry staff took the kids out during those times and had some great activities with them. Sunday we had our own church service and a time of prayer and encouraging each other. It was a great weekend. The only down side was when I went to bed on Saturday night I found a bunch of millipedes in my bed! So gross! But other then that it was a blast. Oh and Jeremy's team won the weekend not mine. 

I just tried to upload some photos from camp but they are super tiny so you can't really see them. If you want to see some there are a few on my facebook. Sorry! I know pictures are the best part. I will try to take some soon.

Coming home

We got back from church camp on Sunday afternoon. We had so much fun, it was a blast. I am gong to write a longer post about it but I am trying to get some photos from a friend because I didn't take any so hopefully I can get them soon.

For those of you who are wondering when we are coming home, well we haven't bought our tickets yet but we are planning for the first week of January. I hope some of you are excited because we sure are!

Just a cute story

This week has been pretty uneventful. We are going to church camp this weekend. I have never been to church camp before so we will see how it goes. I am helping with the kids stuff so it should be fun. Will let you know how it is when we get back.

On a side note, here's a cute story... I was babysitting 2 little boys on Tuesday night (ages 5 and 3). Well the older one got really excited and said he wanted to show me something. So he gets a stool and reaches to the top of the tv cupboard only to pull down a VHS tape of Robin Hood. So here's what he says, "Look at this, it's so cool! It's a big rectangle DVD!" Then he went on about how he can't watch it though because they only have a circle DVD player. I thought it was pretty funny. But am I aloud to feel old when I am so young? Probably not but it did make me feel kind of old. I told him that when I was a kid we only had the rectangle DVD's and that the circle ones didn't even exist when I was 5. Then he looked at me like I was old.

Han and Meredith

In July I was asked to take some photos at our friends wedding. Han and Mez have become good friends here so of course I said yes, but I was so nervous. Photography is just a hobby for me and I wouldn't say that I am wonderful at it or anything, I just think it's fun. I didn't want to share the photos before Han and Meredith got to see them but some people have been wondering how it went so I will let you see for yourselves. Here are some photos from after the ceremony. I hate the quality of them once you upload them on here but here they are (unedited).