Go Lettuce (updated!)

My mother-in-law planted some lettuce in our garden and I've been working hard taking care of them, watering them, giving them liquid fertiliser from my worm farm.
Three weeks from the the first photo, the lettuce have exceeded my expectations and are growing rapidly. My wife was amazed that I was interested in gardening as I'd never shown any interest before!

Another two weeks later!

• Praise God that he makes things grow!

Warding off bad spirits at Thailands new International Airport

Yesterday the Airports of Thailand (AoT) organised its largest religious rite at the new Suvarnabhumi International airport to ward off evil spirits. Yesterday's rite was presided over by 99 monks who chanted en masse to improve the luck of the new airport. Panupong Nualthongyai, head of Suvarnabhumi airport security, a witness to some strange, unexplained episodes said ''Whatever you make of it, it is the belief associated with the Thai way of life. For the non-believer, it is best not to act disrespectfully [towards the supernatural].'' From the Bangkok Post(25th Sept 06) online at www.bangkokpost.com

Coup in Thailand!

Excerpt from an email from Thailand "Last night (Tuesday) there was a military coup in Thailand. The Army Commander, General Sonthi dissolved Parliament, suspended the constitution and installed an interim Government. Today has been declared a public holiday and all schools, banks and government departments are closed. There is a heavy military presence on the streets with many roads in central Bangkok closed to traffic. Everything seems to be very peaceful and quiet with most people staying at home. As far as we are aware all our OMF members are safe and well.

We have advised all our OMF members all over Thailand to stay at home today (Wednesday) and minimise travel as much as possible, until the situation becomes clearer. At this stage there has been no violence, and the army seems to be firmly in control. The Prime Minister is currently overseas and is not welcome back in Thailand.

Please pray for;

• Wisdom in advising our OMF members regarding travel and general safety.
• That our OMF members will be kept safe in the peace and joy of the Holy Spirit.
• That political insecurity will lead many Thai people to find eternal security in Christ.
• A return to peaceful and fair democratic elections in the near future."

Where are all the Christian Workers?

One of the missionaries with the organisation we will be joining in Thailand wrote this in their latest prayer letter.

"This week I visited the centre of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This was in order to get information about a subject that I am studying on cults. As I came in the door I was met by over 20 clean-cut young men in white shirts and ties eager to welcome me and help me to understand more about the Mormon faith. After the interview I could not help thinking "Where are all the Christian workers?" The Mormons have hundreds of these eager young men tirelessly riding their bicycles around the streets of Bangkok, and have many programs in place to attract Thai people into the Mormon Church. This year there are 60 thousand of these young missionaries around the world, who give 2 years to mission work. What are we prepared to give to serve our God?"

• Pray for more Christian workers to reach the unreached.
  

Couch Time

We been recently reminded that we need to have more 'couch time'. This is a phrase from the Ezzo's who are famous in parenting circles having written contentious child rearing books in the Babywise series. 'Couch time' is spending 15mins with your spouse each day, on a couch or somewhere similar and just talking with your spouse in front of your child. This way the child sees that you love each other and the child feels secure knowing that you, his parents love each other. More on the Ezzo later ... we are attending a 18week Ezzo course called 'Growing kids God's way - along the virtuous way' and we are 3 weeks into it ('couch time' came in week 2).

• Pray that we will be good and godly parents to Luca & Aidan and that they will come to know our Lord and Saviour
  

Australian Idol - Bye Bye Joseph

My wife is into Australia Idol. She even voted for two of this year's finalists this week(both of whom ended up in the bottom three!) even when I told her not to! Do you need any more proof that we are normal people and not super spiritual.
This week Joseph was voted off just in case you were interested. R

Do you know what you missed out on?

I went to a missions presentation this afternoon and it was very encouraging. The minister shared from the bible about Jesus' mandate to reach the nations and how that included the different stratas of our society and not just overseas. He then interviewed some people from the congregation who had recently returned from short-term trip to China. The state director of our mission shared about the vital role of the sender for missions. I found the afternoon very encouraging and learnt lots. My only disappointment was that more people from this church weren't there to benefit from the presentations. In one of the largest evangelical churches in Sydney only about 20 people from all the different congregations attended. It was a real shame. They won't know what they missed out on ...

• Pray that our churches will not ignore the mission heart of God
• Pray fhat Christians will not think that missions is just for the 'enthusiasts' or the superspiritual but that everyone has a role in God's mission, whether they go or send.
  

Blessings of serving God overseas #1

#1. Making the most of time with family ...

This is something which has hit home this week. It will be sad when our eldest son's cousin leaves with his parents to go back to the middle east where they are serving God. They have come to love each other very much over the last 6 months. It will probably be a number of years till they see each other again.

However, it is very unlikely that they would have spent this much time together (seeing each other 3-4 times a week) and become so close if we weren't going overseas to serve God. So a blessing I've seen this week about serving God overseas, is that it's made us make the most of our opportunities to spend with family.

• Praise God for the opporunity to spend lots of time with family before we go.
• Pray for our son's cousin that he will be able to find new playmates in the middle east.

passport photos

Passport photos cost a heap. $12 at Australia Post for 4 photos. So here is my attempt to save money by printing out 8 photos on 1 photo which is standard 4x6 (which should only cost $0.29 at Kmart self service photo booth). I hope the passport office accepts the photo. It took about 50 shots to get one where son2 is looking straight, eyes open, mouth closed, with both ears showing as stipulated. The whole visa process can take 4-5 months so I need to send all our forms to Thailand this month.

• Please pray that we will be able to get our documents to Thailand in time so that our visa is issued before we leave.
• Praise God that L's back has been getting better.

R

Shine for Missions Day

Nails

Cards

Malaysian Cusine

Shoe Shine

The Wobbles

Our church held its annual Shine for Missions Day. There were lots of great stalls, great good, and great company. Thanks so much to every who contributed to this great day.

• Praise God for all the effort people put in to the Shine for Missions day.
• Praise God that over $4,000 was raised towards our support.
• Pray that there will be other missionaries going out from Cornerstone to support in next years Shine for Missions day.