He is always faithful

I thought I would share with you something that happened today that truly reminded Casey & I of God’s faithfulness. Today Casey & I were down at the beach reading our Bibles when Casey said he wanted to read a scripture to me. So he read me 1 Peter 3:8-16 were it says:
“Finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another; love as brothers, be tenderhearted, be courteous; not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary blessing, knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing. For “He who would love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips from speaking deceit. Let him turn away from evil and do good; Let him seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their prayers; but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.” And who is he who will harm you if you become followers of what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness sake, you are blessed. And do not be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled. But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you with meekness and fear....”
Just as Casey finished reading this a young guy came up to us and asked if he could sit and listen to the word of God with us. So Casey read again this scripture and continued. We got talking with him and his name is Fred and he is a Christian. He said he felt God wanted him to encourage us and he gave us the scripture Philippians 1:6 which says:
“being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.”
He then encouraged us that he felt God wants to give us encouragement and confirmation in what He is called us to do and that He will accomplish it. God knows the perfect time to encourage when we may feel discouraged & reminds us again that He will never leave us or forsake us.

Chilling in Manly

Well over the last little while Casey & I have just been taking it easy in Manly. We have been staying in Manly but we haven’t been able to enjoy the beach as much as it is sunny but very cool. We’ve been wearing long pants and layering the sweaters and Casey has been fighting a bad cold for over a week now. We had some awesome time hanging out with Jamie & Tracy before they headed back to the UK this week for 4 months. We met up with them and their friends who were visiting from the UK and got a chance to hang out at Palm Beach and see another amazing sunset & enjoy some fish & chips. Palm Beach is well known to Aussies and those from the UK as a TV series call Home & Away is filmed there. We enjoyed brunch with Mick (with backpackers united) & Jamie talking about ideas and dreams. We also got a chance to have dinner with Aaron & Treen again which is always awesome to see them. Besides that we have gone for some relaxing walks, enjoying coffee together & reading. It’s been neat to meet different people at this hostel from all over the world Israel, Germany, Ireland, Sweden, Italy, Tahiti, England, US & Canada just to name a few. A lot of people here in Manly have been here for a while and are working so some have been here for months. Wednesday (May 23) we went to Ocean world here in Manly and watched the shark feeding but it was a lot different than we thought as they almost had to be force fed. We had fun seeing how most of the spiders, fish & snakes are poisonous here in Australia. Thursday morning (May 24) we had a crazy awakening with the fire alarm waking us up at 3:30 am. As we were going down the stairs there was what seemed like smoke and the foam from the fire extinguisher everywhere. The fire trucks came. They found that there was no fire (Thank God) and it was someone who had grabbed two extinguishers and just sprayed them all over the hostel entrance, stairs and elevator. Also Thursday night we hung out with Kristi & Stu from here in OZ and enjoyed a wonderful Thai dinner then went to look at the city from North point. As we were leaving North point we found that we been locked in as the area closed down at 10pm.....opps. After about an hour we all of a sudden saw a whole brigade of army truck drive up behind us and so they ended up letting us out. Alway a little adventure!

The Crew

So these are some amazing new friends Stu & Kristi are from Australia and have a heart for backpackers in Canada. Then there is Tracy, Jamie & little Ethan who are from the UK and have been connecting with churches in Australia & New Zealand with a heart for backpackers all over the world for the last 2 years. All six of us met at Stu & Kristi's place and shared our visions and dreams together and what was so exciting, encouraging and such a confirmation was how God has placed the same visions in all of our hearts. We have felt God has placed us together for a purpose to work together and so we got together to see how that may look. It is the most exciting thing to see how God can place people from all over the world together with His vision in our hearts.

MANLY BEACH

Well Casey & I moved from Bondi beach to Manly beach about a week ago. Its a beautiful area with an amazing beach and a really cozy plaza area with lots of coffee shops. This week has probably been the most encouraging so far. Casey went to a Men's encounter weekend with Shire Live church. An encounter weekend is a time you set aside to encounter God to draw closer to Him & allow Him to do a deeper work in your life. Casey again was further blessed by the brothers at Shire Live, for their love for one another as well as for their sincere hearts which was so evident the whole weekend. Saturday night we had the awesome opportunity to be a part of helping with Hillsongs backpacker ministry. Jamie (friend from the UK from Backpacking is it) connected us with the guys running the ministry. One of the guys is a Canadian from North Vancouver named Ricky who is an amazing guy with an incredible story. We met up with Ricky at about 4:30pm at the Hillsong City Church (Thanks to Glen from the Shire for blessing us with a ride in his styling "Companyrolla"). We then jumped in the Hillsong Van and went to some of the hostels in the City. We went into the common area (where tv & eating area is) and started talking with whoever was there and invited them for a free meal then let them know there was a service to follow. It was a little uncomfortable at first going up to strangers and striking up conversation (as we know that's not my comfort zone) but it was also really cool to meet some of these backpackers. We met Cody from Edmonton who came with us....yes another Canadian! He was a really cool guy and we had a great opportunity to hang out with him all night and watch seeds being watered in his life. We have an amazing God who pursues us with such an unfailing love, who so desires a relationship with us. We had an amazing night meeting new friends and were again encouraged by others who have a similar vision.

Hanging out with AJ & Treen

We had a wonderful day on Saturday (May 5) hanging out with Aaron & Katreena. Aaron and Casey went to highschool together and he has been living in Sydney for the past 10 years. They met us at Bondi & took us to a look out with a view of the city & the harbours. We then had lunch at a cute little cafe where we got a chance to catch up and have a few laughs. Then down to the city centre. It was an amazing time, we saw so much! We walked around the Harbour took a boat taxi to the Darling Harbour, walked around China town & had bubble tea, walked through some beautiful parks & got to see a possum. They then took us to the Sydney tower for Dinner which rotates and gives you a view of the whole city it was amazing. It was a great time with friends they truly blesssed us.

Meeting Jamie & Tracy

How amazing is God! We got an amazing opportunity to meet Jamie & Tracy from backpacking is it on Friday (May4). They are from the UK and have a similar heart and vision as we do. They have been connecting with Churches for about 2 years now encourage the churches on how to be backpacker friendly and share the love of Jesus with them. They also have a heart to connect Christian backpackers to these churches with opportunities to serve in these ministries as well as connecting them with others Christian backpackers on their journeys. We spent the day off and on with them and their 5 month old boy Ethan. We got to share visions & dreams together and got really excited as we know that God has a plan for us together in this ministry some how. How that looks we are excited to see how God unfolds it!

Start of Hostel Living

Well May 2nd was our first day of hostel living. And this is our room, it was nice having a fridge & sink in the room & no bugs. The first night we got to truly experience hostel living waking up to some guy peeing in the hallway on someones shoes....lovely. It was called Noah's Backpacking and it was located right on Bondi beach we had a view of the beach which was nice. The kitchen on the other hand I'm surprised there wasn't rats running around....well there were flying "rats" pidgeons. We found it a bit difficult the first few days meeting people so just hung out at the beach the last few days we were there we met & hung out with people from all over the world. First we met Raphael from Germany who is 20 years old & travelling with his girlfriend. Then we met Michael from Chile who could speak four languages. Monday (May 7) we went for a long walk with the two of them from Bondi Beach to Coogee beach which was about a 2 1/2 - 3 hour walk there and back. It was absolutely beautiful except for the large spiders we saw on the journey. That night after dinner we met a couple from England, Tanya & David who are also in there early twenties & had just arrived. We chated on the roof top for a while & then went out to indulge in some wonderful desserts & coffee...mmmm Chocolate.

Down Under

We arrived in Sydney, Australia 6:50 am on May 24th and skipped a day in the process. We had the awesome opportunity to stay with the Birdsall family in Sydney. We had never met till then and were so blessed by their hospitality and making us feel at home. The first week we really felt at home especially with all the rain & thanks to Oliver for letting us use his room. We went to a soccer game with Ross & Annelotte and Miranda took us around to shopping centers and for a day in the Royal National Park to see some amazing beaches & aboriginal carvings. We also enjoyed amazing meals with wonderful company and many laughs as Josetta & Annelotte entertained us. They informed us of the Aussie nicknames for speedos such as Sluggo's & Budgie Smugglers (Christa's favorite).

Sunday morning we went to Shire live church which was close by and felt right at home. We met some amazing people who invited us out for lunch. After lunch two guys Glen & Greg took us for a tour along the coast line in the "companyrolla". We had a great time then went to the evening service which was full of youth. They informed us that the average age at the church is 26! We felt so welcomed and blessed. Our first week we really experienced Aussie hospitality at its finest.