Crikey!!!
We've made it to the outback! Here are some pictures and short descriptions about life & ministry in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia:
The church we're staying at and working with while we're here. It's called Goldfields because Kalgoorlie has one of the largest mines in the world! Gold is one of the things they mine. It's a community of 30,000 people and from what we hear you live our here if you're connected to the mining industry in some way because there really isn't much else out here. The Pastor & his wife are wonderful and have welcomed us so warmly!
Desert flies. Yuck. They're everywhere! Poor little Violet has them land on her sweet little face constantly
Ninka, Natalka & Auntie Stanka spending some sweet time with Violet. She LOVES being with "the girls"! They were showing her a picture of sheep and Violet was "baaa'ing" to make them laugh!
Meet Caroline. Caroline is from Italy (outside Roma) and has lived in Kalgoorlie since 1963. She came over at the age of 23 with her 3 children.
We went around to people's houses the other day just asking if there was anything we could do - clean, sweep, scrub, mow, etc. We just want to serve the people here. The way we could serve Caroline was to just spend time with her, compliment her beautiful cactus garden and listen to her stories of coming over from Italy almost 50 years ago! She promised if we come back she'll make us cappuccino and we'll continue where we left off
I asked if I could take a picture of one of her really unique cactus's and she said, "yes, but I think you should also take a picture of this one" (the one she's standing in front of)!
The one she preferred
Emu! John & Olav took the kids to the park the other day while we had a meeting. They saw emus just wild...also some kangaroos but they were far off. Jack was really excited about "the bird that won't fly". ha!
Change is quite difficult for Jack. Being in a new place with a new schedule and new bed and new food and new bathroom & potty and new everything has been quite the challenge! Jack likes consistency and structure and YWAM just isn't that. So, it's been tough. We've needed a lot of grace and wisdom as parents. We finally just took him and Violet to the park yesterday to spend time as a family doing something that's familiar to him - playing in the sand with his cars/trucks at a park. Please pray for us and Jack.
Violet however is happy as ever with change! New food, new environment, etc...she's all good with it!
Church this morning. I was in the nursery watching all the kids. For anyone that knows me...this is challenging ministry for me Anyhow, once the cookies came all the kids had something in common and were happy as ever. Jack sat next to this cute little guy and they enjoyed cookies and after I pointed out that he had Lightning McQueen on his sweatshirt Jack tried to talk with him! Jack likes having a snack and calling it a "tea party"!
My go-to was the DVD player...since the nursery faces the worship center with only glass windows in-between I kept it tame...heeheee. John provided pop corn - a big hit!
Adrian & Stanka cooking dinner. One thing that's taking a lot of time out here is fixing meals for 11 adults and 7 children twice a day! We've made the best of it and we're on a dinner rotation and all get a chance as head chef (and floor mopper/dish washer)!
So there's some of what we've been up to. Please pray for us - we really need wisdom and encouragement right now.
Love to you!
John, Laurie, Jack & Violet
The church we're staying at and working with while we're here. It's called Goldfields because Kalgoorlie has one of the largest mines in the world! Gold is one of the things they mine. It's a community of 30,000 people and from what we hear you live our here if you're connected to the mining industry in some way because there really isn't much else out here. The Pastor & his wife are wonderful and have welcomed us so warmly!
Desert flies. Yuck. They're everywhere! Poor little Violet has them land on her sweet little face constantly
Ninka, Natalka & Auntie Stanka spending some sweet time with Violet. She LOVES being with "the girls"! They were showing her a picture of sheep and Violet was "baaa'ing" to make them laugh!
Meet Caroline. Caroline is from Italy (outside Roma) and has lived in Kalgoorlie since 1963. She came over at the age of 23 with her 3 children.
We went around to people's houses the other day just asking if there was anything we could do - clean, sweep, scrub, mow, etc. We just want to serve the people here. The way we could serve Caroline was to just spend time with her, compliment her beautiful cactus garden and listen to her stories of coming over from Italy almost 50 years ago! She promised if we come back she'll make us cappuccino and we'll continue where we left off
I asked if I could take a picture of one of her really unique cactus's and she said, "yes, but I think you should also take a picture of this one" (the one she's standing in front of)!The one she preferred
Emu! John & Olav took the kids to the park the other day while we had a meeting. They saw emus just wild...also some kangaroos but they were far off. Jack was really excited about "the bird that won't fly". ha!
Change is quite difficult for Jack. Being in a new place with a new schedule and new bed and new food and new bathroom & potty and new everything has been quite the challenge! Jack likes consistency and structure and YWAM just isn't that. So, it's been tough. We've needed a lot of grace and wisdom as parents. We finally just took him and Violet to the park yesterday to spend time as a family doing something that's familiar to him - playing in the sand with his cars/trucks at a park. Please pray for us and Jack.
Violet however is happy as ever with change! New food, new environment, etc...she's all good with it!
Church this morning. I was in the nursery watching all the kids. For anyone that knows me...this is challenging ministry for me
Anyhow, once the cookies came all the kids had something in common and were happy as ever. Jack sat next to this cute little guy and they enjoyed cookies and after I pointed out that he had Lightning McQueen on his sweatshirt Jack tried to talk with him! Jack likes having a snack and calling it a "tea party"!My go-to was the DVD player...since the nursery faces the worship center with only glass windows in-between I kept it tame...heeheee. John provided pop corn - a big hit!
Adrian & Stanka cooking dinner. One thing that's taking a lot of time out here is fixing meals for 11 adults and 7 children twice a day! We've made the best of it and we're on a dinner rotation and all get a chance as head chef (and floor mopper/dish washer)!
So there's some of what we've been up to. Please pray for us - we really need wisdom and encouragement right now.
Love to you!
John, Laurie, Jack & Violet
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