Livin' the dream!

I write in disbelief that we are halfway through the month of May, I have no idea where the last two months have gone.  In two months time we will celebrate our third wedding anniversary, and will have been in Sydney for a year.  Wow.

We are really settled in our new home, we are so pleased to be situated in an ideal location for work, church and friends. We are feeling more part of the community now, we have been able to invite people over for dinner, getting to know other couples, and really feel at home now.

We were so glad that my parents were able to visit us for three weeks in April, a really fun filled, packed holiday.  We appreciated having family nearby again, and was nice that we were able to show them our new home and surroundings.  They had a great time, and have the pictures to prove it.

God is revealing and doing so much in our lives, we are so challenged by the shaping and moulding taking place in us, and by what is going to take place in the future. We are learning so much more about the character of God, and He is drilling into us some home truths which are of significance - there is always more to experience in God :) Personally, I am being challenged by how God see's us, his aggressive forgiveness, acceptance and his heart for Justice. I was reading the book of Amos this week and again being reminded of social justice, and the lifestyle of a worshipper. Are we singing songs and seeking to honour God in our church buildings, but missing the full heart of God and what He accepts as true worship to Him.  Worship and Justice go hand in hand, we cannot separate them or ignore one and pursue the other.  I could rabble on but i'm not going to :) Just my thoughts of today.

Eilidh is loving her job.  She has been teaching her pupils some Scottish sayings, and has taught them "Ye cannie shove yer grannie off a bus", which the whole class sang in assembly, to the delight of parents and teachers.  She is doing a fantastic job - I know that she is impacting lives around her because of Christ in her.  We can so easily forget that we are impacting people without realising it, we can impact them for eternity.  Thats a challenge in itself. Goes to show how important our speech and actions are.

We are praying for our nation and believing that God is going to do great things there in our lifetime. We remember our friends and family at Aberdeen AOG, and those heading West to the US.  We are looking forward to coming home for a break at Christmas, all depending on our finances and cost of flights, but we are believing God to meet all our needs. 

We love skyping family and friends, we try and speak to people back home on Saturdays. so it's been good to keep up with people. We appreciate all your thoughts, prayers, emails and phonecalls. Till next time! Livin' the dream!

p.s - I've been to my first Aussie Rules Footie game, and it was a good experience but can't compare to the atmosphere of a bovril filled, pie eating, tone deaf crowd in the Scottish Premier!

Easter

April already?!  So what's happened since our last post?  Well, we've had the Hillsong Album recording, which was great, and looking forward to having the finalised songs in July! Look forward to the album, some great songs have been introduced over the last eight months.  We also had the Hillsong Womens Colour Conference. There were two conferences over six days at the Sydney Entertainment Centre, next to Darling Harbour.  Eilidh had an encouraging time, and enjoyed the speakers, Bobbie Houston, Lisa Bevere and Sy Rogers. I was there too, serving as a host. It's quite something to listen to 14,000 women worshipping God. 

We have had an extremely busy four months.  Eilidh has settled really well into her new teaching job, she has a great class and is really blessed by God's provision.  We are loving our little home, purchasing things bit by bit for it, but it's just right for us.  Studies have been going well, songwriting in particular has been interesting, and our assessments have gone smoothly.

Easter is next week, and we are looking forward to having my parents here for a 3 week stay, we'll have a great time.  Hillsong have got some great things instore, including an art festival, which is the first time they have held an art show, so it's nice to see the creative being used in church - after all, God is the creator!

We are missing family back home, especially as Eilidh's sisters are both pregnant and due later in the year. We are hoping to come home for Christmas and visit family and friends all over Scotland.  We do enjoy being here as well, but ever now and then we have a hankering for home :)

God Bless you all over this Easter time, such a powerful time and you have a great opportunity to invite family and friends to church. Or if you've never been to church, why don't you go along on Easter Sunday and check it out?

A year of miracles

As we entered this year, the phrase that was buzzing around church was that 2009 was going to be a year of miracles for people.  I responded to this encouragement from the platform by agreeing with a hand clap along with everyone else, by really deep down didn't feel an amazing sense of anticipation or that it would really apply to my life. I felt quite low at the start of the year, Eilidh and I were so weary from searching for a place to stay and a job at a school where Eilidh could be part of the fabric. I couldn't face much more travelling from Penrith to Hillsong (around a 40 min drive), we must have looked at 40+ homes without success. so had really passed the desperation stage and somehow allowed a hopelessness to enter my thinking.   

But God's timing is perfect, and at the 11th hour He always answers.  You feel at the end of your rope, and close to falling, when He reaches down and touches your life which brings healing, and suddenly, somehow, everything thats happened makes sense.

I reported in the our blog a few days ago about our new home. Praise God for that.  We knew God hadn't forgotten about us! :) It gave us a renewed sense that we had heard correctly about moving here to Sydney too. On Tuesday we signed the lease, and celebrated with a meal at a local restaurant.  After eating, we then went to our church connect group.  It finished around 9pm, and before we left, there was an opportunity for prayer.  Eilidh asked that people would pray for a full-time job for her at a school close to home.  Literally 30 seconds after finishing praying (at 9pm, with school starting the next day), Eilidh's phone started ringing.  Eilidh answered the phone outside.  After the call she came back in looking like she had seen a ghost! She was gob-smacked.  The call was from an assistant principal of a school, asking if Eilidh could work with them for a year full-time as a year 2 teacher! Starting the next day! Amazing.  It doesn't end there though....the school is four doors down from  our new home!  Well, you can imagine our response and the excitement we felt.  Suddenly we saw the big picture.  God does know what He's doing after all ;)  So our year so far has had two big miracles, and we are so thankful to God for hearing our prayers, and we look forward to all that He will do in our lives, as we live open to his will.  

We pray that 2009 will be a year of miracles for you also, no matter the situations you face, if you respond to God, He can't help but respond to you with his love.  Things may not seem to go the way you plan or would like, but God always works for the good of those who love Him. Our God is THE Great God.

Property!!

We are pleased to report that we have been successful in finding a place to rent.  It's a lovely one bedroom flat, in a perfect location and is at a good rental price.  It's a ten minute drive to work and to Hillsong College, rather than our daily forty minute commute, so we are looking forward to moving in.  We are so thankful for everyone's thoughts and prayers as it's been very tough to find a suitable place, so much competition.  There were six or seven other couples looking at the place we were have now, so we are so glad that we don't have to look anymore, and can look forward to living there and having friends round etc.  Will maybe post a few pictures later. Thanks again for the prayers!

Our new address is 6a Avril Court, Glenwood, Sydney, NSW, 2768.

Our start to 2009

Happy new year to you all, we trust that you had a blessed festive season!  We had a great new year here in Sydney, great sun, great friends and some great fireworks.  We spent new years eve down at the Harbour bridge, sat for 9 hours waiting for the big fireworks show to begin.  We got a fantastic spot to witness them. It was a good experience, so many cultures, 1.5 million people crammed into spaces down by the water in the picturesque city, and just the carnival atmosphere during the whole day.  Of course, the fireworks display didn't disappoint!  

The downside of going to an event like this is getting back home.  All roads into the city were closed, so the main mode of transport was the train.  We were like sardines walking down the street to the nearest station, and then it was a case of squeezing onto the train.  It took us 3 hours to get from our place at the show to the station in our home town.  However, to our dismay there were no taxis running at the time, so we had an hour's walk home.  So we will probably just sit and watch it on tv next time, but was worth doing once.

Our plans to go to Melbourne had to be cancelled as the repairs to our car took longer than expected.  We eventually got our car back around two weeks ago, and since then we have been driving around rental properties.

Merry Christmas

Just a note to say Merry Christmas to everyone, we will miss not being with friends and family in Scotland, but glad we can spend it with my uncle in Perth. Hope to Skype over the Christmas period!  Have a great Christmas, remembering what it's all about!

"Summer Holidays"

During the "summer" break, Eilidh and I are hoping to explore more of Australia.  We have flown to Perth, western Australia, to stay with my uncle for 10 days over Christmas.  We have just arrived, and have already encountered two fairly large huntsman spiders - one on our bed and the other in the livingroom.  Eilidh is trying to remain calm :) There are also snakes around but have yet to see any.  My uncle's place is beautiful - he has a large amount of land, and keeps horses and grows fruit.  Kangaroos in the back garden and parrots in the trees are common here, it's so different to what we are used to.  There is such a variety of wildlife here, and the house is "in the sticks", everything seems untouched and is basically the outback. We are going to get the most out of our time here!

We have plans to visit Melbourne when we return to Sydney, but it depends on whether or not our car is ready, as it's still being repaired after the accident.  Will post some photos on Facebook and a few on here later on.