Ruben turns 6

Ruben turned 6 last week. He had been planning his 'shark' birthday for almost a year. Cairns has helpfully opened an aquarium in the last year to coincide with the event. It is not a cheap place to visit, so it ended up being just our family.  Tempting as it was to sleep with the sharks, at $199 per adult and $149 per child with a minimum of 20 guests, we'll float that experience until we are a lot richer!

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Joshua decorated loads of balloons

Two boys snacking at the aquarium

Oceans

www.youtube.com/watch?v=dy9nwe9_xzw

I was listening to the song, ‘Oceans’, by Hillsong today. Loved and listened to by churches all over the world, it’s a great song. Somehow we always seem to be able to relate well to all the water references in worship songs!

While Joshua was in hospital we had a line from the song stuck up on the wall, “Spirit, lead me where my trust is without borders”. That’s a powerful line, but for me it’s a hard one. I want to trust, but honestly, I want some borders. Maybe I’m not actually verbalising it, but I am sure when I pray for more trust and faith, what I am actually saying is, I want to learn to trust you Lord, but please don’t let anything happen to the kids. Please give me more faith, but please don’t let anything happen to me. Maybe something small and manageable, no death, dying and illness and definitely not too much suffering. Definitely not childhood cancer. Am I brave enough to pray, “Spirit, lead me where my trust is without borders”?

Fortunately, although we are called to trust without borders, God has clear boundaries. Jeremiah 5 v 22 says, “I, the Lord, define the ocean’s sandy shoreline as an everlasting boundary that the waters cannot cross. The waves may toss and roar, but they can never pass the boundaries I set." We may feel in the midst of tossing and rolling, not always a comfortable place to be, but at the same time we can know that what may feel chaotic and out of control, is still clearly within God’s control.

Another line struck me today. “Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander”. Although we know we have a deeper intimacy and experience of God in pain and suffering - which we feel we lose to some degree in the ‘good’ times, we would never choose the suffering. My feet never willingly ‘wander’ into deep waters.

“And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.” Romans 8 v 28. He causes everything to work together, not just the big things or the hardest things or the ‘things’ of certain people, everything. Sometimes it’s hard to understand how this can possibly work, suffering often seems wasteful and pointless from our perspective. I guess we catch a glimpse of God ‘working it together for our good’, when, from our suffering, comes a deeper experience of him.

Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!

Caleb won a colouring competition and got free tickets to go and see the new Incredible's movie. The promotions for 'the Meg' proved to be even more entertaining. 

Vision Christian Radio

I'm am sure you have similar things where you are, but just for those who are interested, this is a fantastic radio station.

You can listen to it live online or for those of you in the wrong time zone you can easily replay radio programs.

I thought of it today because I was listening to Elizabeth Kendell, a religious liberty analyst, talking about the Trump - Kim Jong Un Summit. For those of you interested in those kinds of things it's worth listening to. The program '20 Twenty' discusses lots of current political issues from a Biblical perspective. In these days of fake news, it always worth listening to another viewpoint, plus it makes the cleaning more interesting!! ( I listen while I clean).

The website is: vision.org.au

or to listen to Elizabeth Kendell go to  vision.org.au/radio/20twenty-podcasts and look for the podcast from the 13th June 2018.

Or look around the website for other things that interest you. There is even a talk about Fortnite. Parents of teenage boys will know what that is! Another guy I really recommend on Vision is an American preacher called Jeff Vines. Hope this is useful for somebody. Happy listening!

Fishing

Some of us quite enjoy fishing, although we aren't very good at it. We went a couple of weeks ago and caught nothing, but the people next to us caught a stingray. They were talking about making soup, but in the end, they threw it back. I I think if we are to improve, we need to take it a bit more seriously, using live bait for starters.

Update continued

A few photos taken on walks around Cairns. We are blessed to live in a place where there are beautiful view wherever you look!

Walking along the Esplanade last Friday evening.

Copperlode dam, where Daniel likes to go for his retreat days!

Sunset from our house. God produces a masterpiece every morning and evening and sometimes a bonus rainbow!

Walking the 'Yellow Arrow', a hiking path in Cairns.

View from Glacier Peak, another hiking trail.

 'The fields are ripe for the harvest.' Sugarcane near school.

Near another walking path.

Update

Well, what else has happened in the last few months? Joshua had his 8th check up this week and got the all clear again. 4 more monthly ones and then they will space them out a bit more. He is driving at every opportunity. Here you can start driving at 16, but you can't take your test until you are 17 and have driven 100 hours. We have done around 40 so far! Driving to school and back every day is helping with the hours. 

Ruben has lost his first tooth and discovered drawing. Up until now, he has barely put pen to paper, but now he is an unstoppable drawing machine. With the help of guidance from youtube, he has produced a few masterpieces!! He even won a colouring competition at school. He also won the cross-country race for his age group! Australians are obsessed with cross country and all ages in all schools do it. Ruben's age group run 1 km, Caleb's, 3km, Bethany's, 4km and Joshua's, 6km. Next week he will turn 6 and is planning a 'shark'

birthday.

Odd picture, but good colouring.

What else would you draw in far north Queensland!

Caleb ran fast enough to go on to the next level and compete against the other schools in Cairns. He didn't win, but he had fun.

A week ago we went to Ruben's school fair where Bethany and I helped on the cupcake stall.

She also did some of her own baking for ANZAC day.

update to be continued...

Guest blog

We are still here and a few people have been asking for a blog, so I will try and resurrect it! Starting with a few photos from Easter when Wendy and Farhad came to visit, (My sister and brother in law) and followed by a guest blog written by Wendy. We had a lot of fun seeing the sight of Cairns and just being together.

Going to Australia was never something I wanted to particularly do. That was however before my older sister Libby and family decided to move there from Kenya. The only new problem was that Australia was ‘down under’ and very far away, whereas in comparison Kenya was only ‘down the road’! It took me 4 years for me to actually get there due to family circumstances and I was there just 2 weeks. 

I had a great time with my husband enjoying the outdoor life that good weather brings with walking, cycling, playing table tennis and swimming. Cairns itself is a very tropical place with beautiful hills and quiet, sandy beaches lined with palm trees. It has a more overtly Christian society than the UK. 3 Christian films were showing at a cinema as one example. Our trip coincided with the Commonwealth games so fireworks were displayed from near the lagoon, the central point of Cairns to swim and bbq. It was also wonderful to see Joshua so well. In fact it is only the monthly checkups that serve as a reminder that he was seriously ill just a few months ago. Amazing. 

The trip also served to emphasize for me the sacrifice that those who ‘go’ experience as well as those that ‘stay’. Those that ‘go’ somewhere like Australia can look as though they’d have ‘no worries’ as the Australians often say.  But other than crocs, typhoons and jelly fish there are other sacrifices that are made in order to live there! There is guilt of not being on hand to help family, only seeing friends and family in the UK every 2 years at best, unless they visit Australia. There have been many birthdays, Christmases, family days out missed now over nearly 13 years. Those that stay also feel that gap, that family are missing. But this is taking up our cross to follow Jesus. Libby and Daniel and family have given up house, parents, brothers, sisters for the sake of the kingdom of God and I love them for that. It is worth every sacrifice....when we look to Jesus and eternity. 

““Yes,” Jesus replied, “and I assure you that everyone who has given up house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the Kingdom of God, will be repaid many times over in this life, and will have eternal life in the world to come.””

‭‭Luke‬ ‭18:29-30‬ ‭NLT‬‬