Em's New Ute

In other news, Emilee has bought herself a ute!

I will be posting soon our latest adventure,

but until then, here's a sneak peek.

Just have to fix her up with spotties and a light bar

and other little things, and she's Territory ready!!

(the ute, I mean)

Happy Birthday Emilee

Yes, today Emilee turns 17!

Our run of family birthdays is almost over

for another year.

He Staggered Not............

Romans 4:20

“He staggered not at the promise of God

through unbelief;

but was strong in faith,

giving glory to God.

I recently read this verse in my Bible reading,

and since then, I can't get it out of

my mind and memory.

I had never noticed this verse before

and this is the only time in the Bible that the word

“staggered” is mentioned.

Here, it is talking about the promise of God

to give Abraham and Sarah a son in their old age,

and to make of him the 'father of many nations'.

It comes from the Greek word 'diakrino',

which in this context, has the meaning to hesitate,

to doubt, to waver. We often use this word as

'to work or move unsteadily'

or to 'arrange events so they don't happen at the same time'. Another way we use it is

'astonish or deep shock'.

Now, I know that when Abraham was told

that his wife would have a son,

he would have been 'staggered'!

But that is not the meaning here.

The word here has the meaning of not moved,

not doubting, not hesitating.

Abraham was not discouraged and

was fully assured that what God said He would do,

He would do!

Take a look at verse 21

“And being fully persuaded that,

what he had promised,

he was able also to perform”.

That sounds to me like Abraham had no doubts

that God could and would perform His promise.

It didn't matter that it was impossible

and to the human mind and comprehension,

absolutely crazy and unfathomable.

God is a worker of miracles and if we only

had 'faith as a grain of mustard seed',

we could move mountains!

So, what does all this have to do with us,

and why does the Bible

have so many verses on faith?

To quote something Dad said recently,

“Doubt minimises the scope

of the promises of God,

but faith maximises them;

faith sees the promises to be larger than the crisis,

brighter far than the dark clouds of circumstance.”

Well put! God put this verse in the Bible for us.

He put it in there so we could see

the fruit of not 'staggering' at the promises of God.

And notice the end of the verse,

“giving glory to God”.

It's not enough just to have faith

and reap the benefits,

but we are to give all glory to God!

So many times, we as Christians,

stagger at the promises of God through unbelief.

We pray prayers that we don't really believe God will answer, they're more like wishing for a pony.

We don't have faith that God can do

what we are asking. God sees our hearts

and He knows what is behind the words we pray,

and only He knows the faith behind the prayer.

In James 1:6 it says,

“But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering.

For he that wavereth is like a wave

of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.”

Not staggering! Not doubting!

Abraham laid hold to the promise of God,

he grabbed onto it with both hands.

He “staggered not”.

I think, to me, this word 'stagger' will

always remind me of the time when

Abraham held fast to a promise of God,

and it will encourage me to

not doubt, not hesitate, not waver.

“And Jesus answering saith unto them,

Have faith in God.”

Wet Season in Full Swing

Well, our wet season is upon us and with it brings

amazing cloud formations and cooler weather.

If you didn't already know,

I love to take photos of clouds.

They are constantly changing and

the sunsets are beautiful when coupled

with phenomenal puffy white or grey clouds!

On a recent trip to Darwin,

it was amazing to see how quickly the

sky changed, from fluffy white puffs

of clouds, to dark, ominous skies,

pelting rain, then back to sunny again,

within just a matter of minutes.

Every time I look up at the sky,

I am amazed at God's creation.

We are so small and insignificant,

but God chose to bless us through the

wonders of his creation.

Psalm 8:3, 9

When I consider thy heavens,

the work of thy fingers,

the moon and the stars,

which thou hast ordained;

O LORD our Lord, how excellent

is thy name in all the earth!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ABBI!!

Yes, Abbi is 19 today!

And who knew she was going to marry a farmer!

Sorry, Dave, she's gonna be needin' that hat!

We love you Abbi,

and we can't wait to see what a little McKenna

in a BIG hat is going to look like!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHLOE!

Chloe turns 14 today!

And she's still just as cute!

And yes, she still pulls this face:)

And in other news:

Dave and I just had our

birthdays too:)

But remember......

And if getting older wasn't enough,

we're going to be grandparents!!

Yeah, you read that right!

James and Abbi are going

to have a baby, so now

we reserve the right to feel

as old as we like,

and act as young as we like!!

So, on that note.........

watch out!!

And my dad can relate to this one..........

The latest here at the Holmestead

Last week, I was able to fly over to Malanda

to visit my family, and more importantly,

to be all together with my siblings, all at the one time!

It was a whirlwind 2 days, but well worth

the trip. We haven't been all together for 8 years,

so it was a must do!

As you can see, we haven't changed much

over the years. Cough Cough.

We had a lot of good laughs,

some singing, some sight seeing,

some fast driving in Jer's little Red Bullet,

some duet playing, and a whole lot of love!

(ok, so I just put that in to be soppy)

And if you want to know where we get our

craziness from, just take a look at the old guy

in the centre of the picture! Hmmm??

A snapshot of November 2008,

and December 2016!

Yeah, I know, more grey hair and some

added weight, but we're still gorgeous!

(matter of opinion, but I don't know whose?)

The weather was beautiful, and very

un- Malanda like. We hardly saw any

rain. On a side note, it rained the whole time

I was away, here in Katherine! Go figure?

I finally got to meet my adorable little

nephew, Josiah, for the first time!

And here's my little brother:)

I also finally visited the Spy Camera Museum

in Herberton, I mean I only lived there for

20 years and hadn't done it, but hey!

Wow! I could have stayed there for hours!

It was so interesting and I wanted to take all

the cameras home to add to my measly collection!

I did the falls circuit with Jer and kids

and Lauren and Linet. The water was freezing

but the kids didn't seem to mind.

And of course, you can't go past Millaa Millaa

lookout on a clear day without stopping!

And a lovely ladies tea party at

Nerada Tea Plantation,

despite the fact that most of us ladies felt like

a coffee at that time of the morning, and of course,

um, we were at a TEA plantation,

and, well, no coffee, sorry!

But we all enjoyed drowning ourselves in

pots of various teas and cakes and scones.

We even got to see 3 tree kangaroos!

Bonus! Except that I didn't bring my long lens

along because of added weight so I had to make

do with some movie footage instead.

Still, exciting stuff!

And of course, Mum's beautiful flame tree

out the back had to be photographed!

What an amazing God we serve, who is so

interested in detail in His creation

and the delight it brings us to sit and

gaze upon all He's made and the lessons

His creation can teach us.

But alas, all good things must come to an end

and the trip was over much too soon.

More memories made and hearts warmed.

As I flew into Darwin, I praised God that He

gave me the opportunity and means to make the

trip. Time is short and no one knows when they

might breathe their last breath, and step onto

Heaven's shores. What an amazing sight that will

be! None of the sights we see here on earth

will even compare to seeing our Saviour face to face.

James 4:14

Whereas ye know not

what shall be on the morrow.

For what is your life?

It is even a vapour,

that appeareth for a little time,

and then vanisheth away.

Barunga Community Church

Christmas Event

On Wednesday night, our church had

the privilege of travelling out to

a community called Barunga,

about an hour away from Katherine

to visit with the church there

as they put on their Christmas play.

We all loaded into our Coaster bus,

plus a couple of other vehicles,

and headed out.

Dave and I have done deliveries to this

community, so we knew a few of the ladies

and it was great to see them and 

their children in the church there.

Pastor Patrick Bauer and his family

work in this community, 

holding Sunday Services and Kids Club weekly.

They had worked very hard putting together

a Christmas service with the

community children and parents.

It was a blessing to see the children,

dressed in their angels costumes,

singing and praising God.

This little girl was particularly enthusiastic

We were able to hear a song sung in Kriol,

the local language and also the passage

from Luke 2, read in Kriol.

The 5 dogs that attended were very well

behaved and slept through most of the service.

I have put together a short video of the evening

so you can get a better idea of the service.

Please pray for the work in this community,

for open hearts to the gospel.

Pray for the Bauer family as they minister

there and in Katherine to the indigenous people.

Please pray for our work at Savannah Way

Baptist Church, and for the

opportunities we have with the children

and parents here in Katherine.

HOLIDAY BIBLE CLUB

A couple of weeks back,

we had our annual

Holiday Bible Club

here at Savannah Way Baptist Church.

It was a lot of hard work,

but it was well worth the effort.

Pup and Lydia Cotton came

and gave us a hand for the week

and we all had a great time.

This year, for the first time,

we had a puppet show every day

for the lesson. This went down very

well with the kids and James' puppet

"Tommy", quickly became the favourite.

Dave built the puppet theatre,

with Chloe's help and it worked

out really well.

Chloe was able to be one of the puppeteers

as well as myself, our Pastor's wife, Jessica

and James, with Dave being the narrator

and Abbi playing Tommy for the singing,

as James needed to play the 'real' guitar,

as opposed to the 'pretend' one that Tommy had.

We had a good crowd of kids each day

and good behaviour all round, which was

a great blessing.

There is a possibility of using the puppets

for a Christmas market here in Katherine

in November, so please be in prayer that

we can use this ministry to share the gospel.

On the last day we held a free BBQ

and invited parents to attend. It

was great to see some family members

come and enjoy the day with us.

As always, I took hundreds of photos,

with the help of Maddie,

so I have made a slideshow so you

can see the faces of these precious kids

that God has blessed us with here in Katherine.

So, if you want to see videos of the puppet

shows, singing, more adorable kids,

games etc, please take the time to watch

the video below. I have had to

cut it in half and upload

it in 2 bits, so, sorry for the

disjointedness:) Also, it will probably

not be clear if watched full screen.

Grab a cup of tea,

sit back and enjoy the slideshow

and don't forget to pray

for the work here in Katherine.

Matthew 19:14

But Jesus said, Suffer little children,

and forbid them not, to come unto me:

for of such is the kingdom of heaven.

NEWSFLASH

On the weekend, Maddie managed

to break her ankle!

She's okay, but now going

to have to lug around a heavy,

hot, cast for a few weeks.

Of course, when given the choice,

she chose the camo coloured cast!