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

A few photos

On Friday after school we had the fun of watching the baton go past for the Commonwealth Games. It's over so quickly, but it still seems worth the effort to go and see it.

Saturday afternoon we watched dolphins at the beach, which was probably more interesting but not as historic. It was easier to photograph the people watching the dolphins than the dolphins.

Update

Sorry we haven't posted for a while, but no news is good news! Joshua is still going well. He had a trip to Brisbane last month for a check up. They were happy enough with him that they've said we don't have to go back to Brisbane at all and can get all future checks done in Cairns. We were at the hospital on Monday for his March check ups. To be honest it feels a little bit like running a gauntlet every month - will he be OK, will he not? Overall though we feel pretty peaceful that God's got this. You can see the hair is back!

In other news, Caleb had his 13th birthday last month. He had a fast-paced birthday party on the Esplanade which meant we have no photos. Sometimes you are too busy living life to document it! I think that's a good thing, although it can also be nice to have some photos.

On Sunday Caleb was baptised at church in the pouring rain by Geoff, the pastor and Daniel. He'd been planning it for a while but in the event it was a spontaneous response to the message preached on Sunday. Geoff had the pool ready and piles of towels for those who wanted to be baptised. Remember it's summer here, so it's no problem to go home in your wet clothes!

School

School started again finally, after a long summer break. Ruben started full time school and Joshua returned to school like nothing had happened! He is cycling to school and has rejoined the basketball team. It's a total miracle the way he has just recovered from cancer. The hats are a Queensland thing, I know it looks a bit Amish! I have no answers for the socks. If you had gone to school where I did, you would have got beaten up for socks like that! Caleb says school is awesome, so that has to be good and everyone else seems to be happy. Ruben has slight issues with having to wear socks and shoes, which are hot. He spent most of last year in bare feet! If you wondering why they are all wearing different uniforms, it's because Joshua and Bethany are wearing the boy/girl versions of the high school uniform, Caleb is wearing middle school uniform and Ruben goes to a different school.

Last Friday was Australia day and was pouring with rain. However, that didn't stop us going down to the esplanade for a free breakfast (I love Cairns council) and it didn't stop some people swimming, (Ruben and Caleb), in their clothes!! There was also a baby croc down there!

There was a  lull in the otherwise very wet weather on Sunday, (it is the rainy season) so we headed for the beach for some chips and to get rid of some energy!! That is the ones with energy to spare in the first place!

Been a while...

Hello all, just a very quick post to say we are all still alive and well! No particularly good excuse for not having blogged, but life happens...

Joshua has had two lots of scans and appointments in Cairns so far, and all is clear. We are due to go back down to Brisbane for his February round, so we are starting to look at arrangements for that. Otherwise, there is not much to report.

So here are a bunch of random photos from the last month or so...

Four of us took a ride in a driverless vehicle that they were trialling on the Esplanade

 Christmas Carol concert, sponsored by the Council but led by one of the local churches

How we get a lie in on summer mornings...

An attempt at a family photo

Ruben opening his stocking on Christmas morning

Ruben thinking he might need a haircut...

A Google-created animation of New Year's Eve on the Esplanade 

(Google seems to have a habit of nosing about in my stuff and trying to be helpful...

quite scary if you think about it too hard...)

Finding God in the Waves

There seem to be a lot of spiritual analogies we can learn from water. This week I have been thinking about a few verses in Job. Job 38:8-11 says, "Who kept the sea inside its boundaries...For I locked it behind barred gates, limiting its shores. I said, 'This far and no farther will you come. Here you proud waves must stop'." 

Waves can be gentle, but they can also be violent, powerful and thundering. When you look at them they appear unstable and out of control. Yet every time a wave crashes it returns to where it came from. (OK, so I'm not talking about tsunamis). No matter how big a wave, there are limits on where it can go. Somehow when it seems out of control, there is total control.

So often when difficult things happen in our lives, it feels like things are out of control and that God has lost control. However, even in the craziest of times in our lives, like the waves,  God has total control. I have been amazed that although Joshua has had cancer, at the same time he has been his usual healthy self. The cancer aside, he hasn't really been sick. It feels like God has said over his body, 'this far and no farther will you come'. The cancer was something totally out of our control, but at the same time the way Joshua coped with treatment showed me that God was totally in control. Like the waves, God puts parameters in our lives. He allows certain things and we may feel buffeted and frightened at times, but it all happens within God's complete control.