No kangaroos or koalas yet

Greetings from Perth!  From the land of continuing rain...the good side is that everything is green and lush, and when the sun comes out, it’s beautiful.  We are seeing some interesting wildlife;  crows that sound like a baby crying and parrots that are just flying around the treetops.

No kangaroos or koalas yet. But they do have some cool vehicles.

Our studies are going well...we didn’t think we would get marriage counseling when we came here, but out topic last week was team unity.  And when you search the scriptures about what God has to say about unity, that extends to every relationship, including marriage!  In working going over our notes and praying together, we found we were able to communicate in more concise ways than we had gotten in the habit of communicating...We had to address our tendency to be independent and withdraw from people when they offend us or we are annoyed with them.  Jesus’ last recorded prayer before we went to the cross was for our unity, that the world may know he loves them (John 17).  It was that important to him, that his people be in unity, because when we aren’t, we keep the world from seeing God’s love.  Isn’t that a major problem with how the world views the church?  They often don’t see love in us, so aren’t aware that God loves them!

Anyway...other topics...we continue to have fun with base life, it’s like being in a 250 person family, challenging at times, but if everyone is committed to walking out unity and valuing each person as important as themselves, there is harmony.  It really works!

Updates about outreach locations.  We leave toward the end of September.  Rick and I will be going first to the Kimberly’s, an outback-type place where the main population is Aboriginal people.  We have been invited to work among them for 8 weeks.  It is a three day drive and it’s going to be hot!  Maddie is going to Cambodia and Hong Kong and Cameron is going to Burma and Thailand.  Gasp, yes, our kids are going to different places!  

Well, gotta run, more coming soon!  Thank you Thank you Thank you to all who have commented on the blog, written emails or made comments on facebook.  It means so much to us to hear from home!  

Love

Rick and Gail