Hi everyone,

here are some new photos of Benjamin. He is growing up fast and is very cheeky. He is so full of energy, he is hardly ever still. He is not quite crawling yet, but does move around in other ways.

Cornerstone kids camp

During October we were involved in the Cornerstone kids camp. This year the camp was held at Silverton just outside of Broken Hill. It is a camp that is open to all the primary school aged kids in Cornerstone and friends. It is a lot of fun for the kids and it is really good for them to get to know other kids in Cornerstone.

Being in Broken Hill meant that Millie and I could attend some of it with the kids. I was able to camp out with the kids for some of it which I enjoyed. This year the theme was the story of Gladys Aylward. She was a missionary to China, who had an amazing story of commitment to God. The best thing about her life was that she was someone who came from a poor background, wasn't educated enough to be able to qualify for the missionary societies, but she believed that God was calling her to China anyway and so she went. A step of faith trusting that God would lead her. I might tell the story another time. The kids had lots of different activities that were based on her story, they listened to here story and had adventures based on her story. They really enjoyed it, even Isaac who didn't want to go at first.

kids at the show

Not too long ago the kids went to the show. It has been a while since I have updated the blog, so I thought that I better put up some photos of the kids. Life has been pretty busy lately. Kids have started a couple of new things. On Thursdays Ethan, Grace, Isaac and Lachlan have started little athletics. On Saturdays Grace, Isaac and Lachlan have started swimming lessons.

Benjamin is still not crawling, but he is enjoying some new foods that he can hold onto and put into his mouth himself. Not that all of it ends up in his mouth.

soccer finals

Isaac played in his soccer final today, which I also coached. It was a great game against a very good side. The opposition scored 2 early goals and it wasn't looking very promising. A handball in the box meant we had a penalty and brought it back to 2-1 which is how we went into half time. It was hard fought after that with opportunities to score but no goals. It looked like we were going to score, but a second half goal meant the game ended 2 all.

Extra time was taken, with golden goal to decide the outcome. It was a nerve racking time with chances at both ends, but in the end both terms were even and it had to go to penalty shoot out. Unfortunately the team couldn't pull it off and lost the penalties, but they played very well 

and I was very proud of them. Isaac had a great game.

august news

We have been back from holidays for almost a month already. Since that time we have really hit the ground running. Holidays were a great time. We travelled up to the great lakes area where we rented a couple of holiday houses. In the first week we stayed with Millie's mum, dad, sister Angela and brother Johnny. In the second week we stayed in another house with my mum and dad, Dani, Kylie and Steve, plus kids. It was good to catch up with family who we don't get to see all that often.

The kids loved the beach and being with family, especially cousins. We loved the beach too, eating seafood, playing golf and playing games. 

After that we headed over to stay with friends Dan and Chia for a few days in Musswellbrook. That was great too as they had heaps of space for us. Dan and I took the kids up for a couple of walks. Especially good was heading up to the top end of the Barrington Tops with the boys. They enjoyed it too, but found the going pretty hard at times, but were happy to get to the top.

After Muswellbrook we headed across to Dubbo for a couple of days and stayed with the Albion's and enjoyed more family time. Andrew had a projector that he had borrowed, so we enjoyed quite a few videos on the big screen while we there. I especially enjoyed "Into the Wild", the story of a young man who heads off on a journey to Alaska. An amazing story which highlights both the pain that someone can experience, but also the treasured experience of life, love and grace that can come in relationships with others. Life is truly not just about the physical. Our pain and our joy attests to something far greater.