So the 24th of November was our very first Thanksgiving. It was a strange day for us Aussies, as it sort of felt like Christmas, without the presents. But then it was quite cold and rainy so it wasn't Christmas weather as we know it. The closest thing we could liken it to was a big family gathering for a special occasion like a birthday or something. Apparently we got the whole Thanksgiving experience right though cause we all ate a lot and finished the evening sitting at home with the top button of our pants undone for greater comfort.
We were invited to celebrate Thanksgiving with the Tooley family, whom we met at a conference in Sydney almost 2 years ago. It has been wonderful to be able to share this journey with them as they too packed up their home and family and made the move to Redding. They really are our extended family and we're so blessed by them on many levels.
They are incredibly generous people, both in terms of resources and being generous with their family time. This being said, in addition to our family of 5, there were approximately 20 other people at the Thanksgiving meal! It was a wonderful afternoon. Its so fun when strangers become family and friends.
Before all the festivities started though, I ran in the Turkey Trot. As I previously mentioned, it was a cold and rainy morning. I felt a little hesitant to get out in it and run 6 miles. I had registered, paid my money and got the sweatshirt (which I wear with pride!) so I had to do it!
We bundled up the kids and drove to the starting area near the Sacramento River in Redding. There were probably a couple of thousand people milling around, looking cold and shivering in tiny running shorts and singlets. They were handing out bagels and coffee, which seemed a little strange but whatever.
Eventually it came time to start and so I farewelled the family and jogged away up the River trail and back again in about 57 mins. Crossing the finish line was the best bit and seeing the kids cheer me on was pretty special.
The day after Thanksgiving is known as Black Friday. It's the biggest shopping day in America each year apparently. It could be likened to the Boxing Day sales in Australia but on steroids. Some shops open at midnight on the 24th, others open through out the early hours of the 25th. I decided I wanted to experience this shopping phenomenon so I rested on the couch until 11:30pm and headed down to one of the department stores in Redding. I only needed to buy a quilt, as we didn't have one, so I foolishly thought I'd be in and out in a matter of minutes. Well, I was shocked to arrive and see a line of people wrapping all the way around the store waiting for the doors to open at Midnight. It was crazy! And this was happening at multiple shops around town. The vibe outside was cut-throat and some women almost came to blows over a line dispute. I was a little scared!
Midnight ticked over and the doors swung open. People rushed in, mad for bargains. I waited until the back of the queue came past and joined on the end, hence successfully avoiding getting my face smashed in for jumping the line of irate shoppers.
Well it took me about 1 min to locate the quilts, choose one and make my way to the check outs. It was here that I waited for 40mins just to make my purchase. It was horrible! I went to Target after that and the same thing happened. By about 3am I was so over it and I don't think I'll bother again next year. The eternal question remains: how far does one go for a good bargain?
A couple days after Thanksgiving we finally managed to get out of Redding and do something 'touristy'. We took a trip up to Burney Falls, about an hour away. We drove through a few towns that looked a little like movie sets and kept our heads down in case of stray bullets.
The falls themselves were amazing and nothing like we'd ever seen before. It was a lovely sunny day but cold and wet down in the valley with the river and the waterfall. The kids had a great time as we walked a mile loop around the area as Ben and I were kept on our toes keeping the little ones from falling down the hillside and into the freezing water. Being of good stock, they were too stubborn to accept help from either of us so we resorted to a herding sheep/netball defence style of protection. We made it back to the car safely and stopped off at McDonalds for lunch on the way home. Unfortunately I think the Happy Meal eclipsed the natural beauty of the falls and as we were praying that night, there was a lot of thanks to the Lord for lunch.
So Ben, it's finally time to man up and try and contribute to the Wilson family blog.
I apologise in advance to all the sincere fans of my beautiful wife and her blog entries, I realize the standard that she offers and what I am about to dish up (as my new American friends would say) "Ain't even in the same ball park."
I know I have offered very little/nothing to this blog so far, but a month or more ago now I sat down and spent a whole night writing an incredible blog entry only to press the wrong button at the critical moment when trying to save it and watch it all disappear never to return. Computers and I have very much a love hate relationship!!! And it has taken me this long to get over the devastation and try and have another crack, so here we go!!
I don't really know how to put all of my recent experiences into a blog entry. Jo is so amazing at these blog entries and has done a great job filling you guys in on lots of the stuff that is going on in everyday life. But she can't really fill you in with what is happening with me and my school experience so I will try and cover that. First thing that needs to mentioned is the shock the whole thing has been to my system. Firstly my classroom is chock full of over 900 people. I have come from not having another person in over 900 acres, to 900 people in one room. AAARRGGHH!! I have found at times that I just need to find a quiet place by myself outside or even just go to the toilet to get some space to think and regroup. Its not that I am not enjoying the fellowship and the business and craziness of this school. I am, it just takes a lot out of me each day.
I found it hard at the start of school to really connect with people, you might have a decent conversation with someone one day, and honestly not see them again for a week because of the amount of people and the extreme nature of the work load and schedule at school. There is not really much opportunity for hanging out and getting to know people, which I struggled with at the start. But once I realized that realistically I was only probably going to ever meet maybe half of the people in my class and only make half decent relationship with about 10% of them it made me relax and just let God do the divine setups with the people that He wanted me connected with. I took the pressure off of myself.
After a few weeks we got split up into smaller groups of around 60 people called revival groups. I love the lingo around this place. We have a revival group pastor with around 5-6 interns that help out and we meet together as a revival group once a week for 1.5 hours. I wish it was more, it really is an awesome time and have made stronger connections from this group. And then again out of that we were split up into small groups of 5-6. Which again has helped form even deeper friendships, and we also meet once a week for an hour and a half.
Over the last month or so I have begun to make some quite deep friendships with people in school. Most of these relationships are with other Australians that I have met here. It is so exciting to see the quality of the Australian contingent that is over here this year. I have had two people in random conversations say to me, "what is it about all you Australians? You are all so mature and ready for action". To which I say "Amen!".
Some of the people I am connecting with I honestly feel it is an honour to just meet them let alone start to do life with. I really feel like there are people here who are going to be positioned in the next decade to shape and shake our nation and the nations of the world for the Kingdom of God. And I can already call many of them my friends. Thank you Jesus. We truly are so blessed to be having this experience. Thankyou so much to you all for contributing either with prayer or financially. I can never repay you for the way you are blessing us.
The other thing that has been incredibly hard to get used to has been the workload. I knew that we would be busy but don't think I realized that it would be this busy. Obviously I am at school during the day, and then I have 2-3 hours of homework a day, maybe only 1-1.5 hours a day on a weekend. Probably doesn't seem much to those at school or at uni but for me it has been a big shock, because I haven't had any homework to do for a long time. This last week I have been staying up to around 1:30am ish most nights trying to get all my assignments done on time. But then those of you with kids will know that the kids don't show you any mercy the next morning, they still get up incredibly early especially when we have to get the kids to school by 7:45am every morning.
It does help that the homework is awesome, very challenging in that it leaves you nowhere to hide. That is probably the best way to describe this whole experience. Imagine the intensity of the best camp/conference you have ever been on and do that most days of every week for months on end. Every little hang up or wrong piece of thinking etc gets revealed in the intensity of His Presence and the quality of the teaching. So it has been an amazing few months, but it has been quite traumatic and emotional if I am honest. Think how much you grow and develop in that camp/conference setting well I really feel that I have grown and matured probably about a normal year of my christian experience in two months. Don't think I am exaggerating either. I am getting some of the best teachers from all around the world every day, we worship for at least an hour every day at school, and I am hanging out with some of the hungriest people on the planet every day. Sometimes I have to pinch myself to realize that it's not a dream. The scariest thing for me is becoming complacent with what is happening in my life right now. Although it's far from normal, it is my normal now and it's easy to just go through the motions and I see plenty of fellow students doing that now and I am desperate not to do that. If you could keep praying for all of us, I would really appreciate it. We have been under plenty of attacks since we have been here, so would really appreciate your prayer covering.
There are just so many opportunities around this place. It's incredible to think that this church only seats around 950 in it's auditorium but employs over 600 staff. That might give you an idea of the enormity of activity around this joint, it's incredible. So it's a matter of picking and choosing, stewarding your time wisely, which we are walking the fine line of quite well I think. Don't want to over do it, but at the same time the opportunities at our door stop are once in a life time, and so we want to take as many of these opportunities as are appropriate to us and our situation. Which means that most mornings Jo and I are not in the same house, with Jo going to as many things as she can and obviously I am out the rest of the day at school. It is really good to see Jo joining small groups and getting some good connections with some awesome women of God, and trying new things and stretching herself. She is working hard in her fitness group in which she is the star pupil, and get's special exercises from the instructor because she works far harder than any other of them. Good to see my hard work with her has paid off when she used to be soft. HAHA!! Just jokes darling, it's more like she said the other day once you have pushed out 3 children pushing through 30 seconds more pain is nothing. That's my girl. So proud of my wife. She is the fittest she has ever been and is truly an inspiration with the shape she is in, having had three children. She has run the 6 mile journey back from school quite regularly and is doing a Thanksgiving run in a week or so called quite amusingly "The Turkey Trot." Which is a six mile "fun" run. And she has found out about a 10 mile event in January which I know she is really keen to do, and knowing her she will dominate it. For those of you that don't know 10 miles is 16 kilometres. What a woman!!
Part of the whole school experience is the opportunity is to go on a missions trip. There were honestly hundreds of options, it's quite staggering to see the effect and reach that Bethel Church is having not only here in the U.S. but in the World. There were multiple trip opportunities to every continent (except poor old antartica) of the Earth.
Now I think Jo mentioned the missions trip in her last blog entry. There have been a few developments since then. I had the opportunity to pick a top five list from the hundreds of trips offered. There was a wide variety of prices and locations. I tried to pick a mix of these, according to where I felt the Spirit was leading me. Before the trips came up on line I was telling people how I was so keen to go to Argentina or Brazil, and felt a strong desire to go to South America and always have. Especially reading over many years about the massive revivals that have been going on down there for 20 plus years with millions coming to Christ it has always had a strong pull upon my heart. When the trip options came out, Brazil and Argentina weren't even options and I really didn't feel the strongest pull towards the other South American options listed. So I wrote down 5 completely different trips with some really cheap ones, some mid range and one quite expensive trip. Quite a few friends of mine didn't even get accepted in any of their top 5 choices but I got accepted to South Africa which was my number 1 choice so I was happy and excited to be going.
One of the revival group pastors (a fellow Aussie) and I have established quite a good friendship and he has been really encouraging and sowing into my life which I really appreciate. Shortly after being accepted into the South Africa trip, he put an update on his facebook page saying that he was now officially taking a team to Argentina. So I wrote something like, "sounds awesome mate, will be an awesome trip". He messaged me straight away and said he wanted me on his team and was more than happy to try and organize moving me out of the other trip if I was interested. I was so excited. It is an expensive trip, being around $3000 and a big decision to make. I really wanted to make sure I was doing the right thing so I took a week or so to make my decision, but I really felt strongly that God wanted me on that trip hence why I was singled out to be on the trip. I knew that this part of the world had been on my heart for many years, and I felt His Presence on me when I read about the trip and felt my spirit get excited. You know how it's hard to describe, but you know when you know. That's how I felt. And this revival group pastor has gone around and assembled an awesome team, many of which I was friends with and impressed with already. As for the financial side of things, I really felt God say to me, "it's My will so it's My bill". So I trusted him and signed up.
During the trip, we will be going to a church in Buenos Aires, which has 25,000 members or something ridiculous like that.
I know this is long already but I think it's important to give you guys some insight in to what I am going to be doing and give you an idea what you will be sowing into if you choose to support me in any way.
The pastor of this massive Argentinian church came and ministered to us in our school earlier in the year through an interpreter. It was the most impactful session on me personally so far. We saw some videos of him preaching to massive football stadiums in Argentina completely full of people.
The story of his church is that he had grown it too about 1000 through 10 years of hard work and smart techniques and good leadership rather than any relying on God's power. And he knew it and started to get incredibly hungry crying out night and day for his country, for revival to come. For more anointing to flow through him in ministry to get more breakthrough in reaching the lost of his city, for signs and wonders to break out in his church to attract the lost and broken. He got an impartation from someone (who I can't remember) by the laying on of hands at a big conference in the USA and didn't feel any different. But his first service back at his church he was up the front and he noticed something that needed dealing with over in one of the corners of the church and he was trying to get the ushers attention at the back of the church by waving his hand in the direction of the issue. And one whole half of the church falls down under the power of the Holy Spirit as he was waving his hand. He was more shocked than anyone. This was back in 1991-2, before email and the internet. Between that Sunday service and the following Tuesday prayer meeting, the congregation multiplied, through word of mouth, so much so that they had to hire a 6000 seat football stadium for the prayer meeting. And so from then on it has just grown and grown.
During the trip, we are going in for a weekend of services and then going out with 500 hundred others from this church on their biggest outreach of the year into the poorest parts of the city with food, love, clothing, blankets, and power encounters with Jesus. Followed by another weekend of meetings before going home. We are also going to have the honour of just our small team of 20 or so getting to have and impartation with this guy. Sounds amazing, I can't wait. An amazing opportunity, to meet someone who has been a big part of revival in his country, city and church for 20 years, and sit and chat with him and glean information and insights how to carry something that significant back in Australia, well that's what I am believing for any way!!!
If you are interested in sowing in to this amazing trip, then just click on the link on the side of this blog and follow the links. All donations can be totally anonymous if you prefer. I absolutely hate asking for money so this hurts my feelings but the Bible says, "You do not have because you do not ask." James 4:2. I feel like it's good for my character, and something that we as Christians need to get better at - being honest when we need help and asking for it. Having said that, we have received some generous gifts from people already and we'd love to say a massive 'Thank You!' and pray that God would bless you abundantly in return.
One last thing to talk about before I finally finish this blogging marathon. You might have seen the video I posted on facebook if not have a look at the video above.This video was taken at last Sunday night's service here at Bethel Church in Redding California.
What to make of this unexplainable cloud of a sparkly, glitter like substance just seemingly exploding in mid air. Well variations of this have happened 5 times since August and 3 times in the last few weeks. I think I posted another one a few weeks ago. All I can say I can understand if it is extremely hard for your brain to understand and you are doubting. I think I would too if I hadn't been standing in the midst of it for over half an hour on two occasions. And even then it took me a while to make the connections in my brain - heart - spirit that this was God!
Is anyone seeking signs over Jesus in this church? Absolutely, 100% NO. The first time it happened it was in the middle of ministry time at the end of a conference, and it seemed to correlate to the worship of the people. Everything stopped, and people just started cheering to begin with sure. But then spent the next hour singing 'Holy, Holy Holy', simply worshipping Jesus and as we did, the cloud would swell and increase it was incredible to see. In absolute midair with nothing around it. (Video does it no justice) The next time it was in worship time, and then the last one was in the middle of the sermon. I heard it was happening a few weeks ago so I said to myself I have got to go and see this for myself so I drove up there and got myself wedged in right beside a big crowd on the stage and had this gold like substance swirling all around me. Then I had the most bizarre thing ever happen to me. This glory cloud started coming seemingly straight out of the wall two metres in front of me straight into my face for around 15 minutes. I even went and checked the wall. It is a solid wall. This cloud is like a wave of specks, I could feel them and people were just covered in a gold like substance in their hair and on their clothes, it was so strange. It did look like streamers on the video but in reality, they were tiny little flecks and there were just so many of them it made it look like and AFL grandfinal celebration. HAHA! We were just singing a song that goes, "open up the floodgates of heaven, let it rain, let it rain, open up the floodgates of heaven". And it just kept coming, there was such a sense of awe and the healthy fear of God was in the room it was amazing.
Okay can I explain it? Absolutely not. Do I have too? There are obvious biblical examples of similar things happening in the OT, but I don't feel like I have to be justifying what I saw and experienced with my own body. I like to think that anyone who knows me knows that I am not going to over dramatize something. But at the same time it was incredibly dramatic. If God can lead a nation by a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, I am not so sure what all the fuss is about really. Do I have all the answers no, but I choose to press in as a believer and live up to that name - BELIEVER. I will finish with a quote from one of my aussie mates about the issue on his facebook update.
"I was there! I have friends who wondered at the relevance of this. They ask, "How is this helping the starving in Africa?"
I don't know how, or why. But this is my response. I will celebrate whatever God is doing, and not question Him about what He's not doing. Ps 115:3 "God is in Heaven. He does whatever He pleases."
That's not meant to be harsh but it is the truth. Who do we really think we are that we get to decide what God can and can't do?
Thanks for reading all the way to the bottom of this ramble. Thankfully Jo can come back and rescue this next time! But hopefully that gives you all a bit better idea of what my life looks like as a student now. If not at least it makes me feel as though I have tried, and I can stop feeling guilty that I haven't even told anyone how school has been going and I have been doing it for 2 months,and I can just go back to doing enormous amounts of homework instead.
Love to you all and might see some of you pretty soon as I am flying back to Adelaide in late December for a week for the wedding of the decade.
Ok, so I was a little premature in proclaiming that the rainy season had begun. Since I wrote the last post, the weather has been sunny and pleasant. Apparently un-seasonally so.
People are gearing up for Halloween, which is a little yucky. I'm not sure what the attraction is about having a life-size grim-reaper in your front yard and fake spider webs stretched across the door. I really don't get it.
Accompanying the gruesome decor are pumpkins. Big, orange pumpkins everywhere! People are selling them on the roadside, as well as in the supermarkets. The boys have each had a field trip to the local pumpkin farm with school and have (unfortunately) come home with a pumpkin of their own. I just don't know what to do with them to be honest. Currently they are rotting in the back yard. I'm uncertain that this is the intended purpose.
Pumpkins aside, things are busy and interesting in our family at the moment. Last week I attended the Open Heavens conference at church after miraculously snagging two tickets very last minute. It had been sold out for weeks and I just happened to come across a lady wanting to sell her tickets on Craigslist. Moments before seeing the ad I had been venting to Ben about feeling a little trapped at home and wondering if I was ever going to get a chance to be involved in something outside of the everyday stuff of mothering. Ben didn't have school due to the conference being on so he was able to have the kids while I went and got fed spiritually and worshiped so hard I lost my voice. It was a wonderful few days. I gave the other ticket to a fellow BSSM wife and stay at home mum. Yay!
Also, last Sunday I started a prophetic art class. Hmm, I bet that's got some of you thinking. Now I'm no artist but since being here I have realised that I feel truly alive when I am creating something. So when I saw the notice in the church bulletin, I felt as though I should explore this new thing I had discovered about myself. When I say 'prophetic art' it just means art that carries a message from God. Art that is Holy Spirit inspired, for the purpose of building up the church as a whole and individuals too. Testimonies were given about pieces of art that had brought both physical and spiritual healing. One young man bravely got up and told the class that up until late last year, he had been severely depressed and into self-harm. He somehow went to Bethel and while the worship was happening, one of the artists (they usually have people painting whilst worship is on) painted the word HOPE. After the service, he went up to the painting, stood before it, read it and was healed. Amazing. I'm looking forward to getting into whatever it is that the Lord has for me in this new arena.
Hannah has started a Suzuki music class on Friday mornings. She is enjoying singing and bashing the xylophone and dancing around with coloured scarves with all the other toddlers. Its so fun to watch her enthralled by a new instrument and see her try and do the actions to the songs. She happily gets up from my lap and waddles over to the teacher for her turn on the drum or whatever. It brings me great joy to see her stepping into her independence and taking the chances offered to her.
Lachie is enjoying pre-school and today told me randomly 'God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all!' It was a great moment. We pray that the truth of that verse (1 John 1v5) is forever etched in his heart. He is loving learning the alphabet and gets pretty excited when he recognises the letters he has learnt when we are out and about. Also, thanks to Dora the Explorer, Lachie also counts to 3 in Spanish and will often pipe up with a random Spanish word for something. As his parents, this is both irritating and amusing.
Overall, life is indeed sunny. Although we are busy, we are full, life is full and it is a good feeling. We are being filled with things that we are passionate about, that we have a heart for so it is not a drag or an inconvenience to get to whatever is on the calendar. These are happy times.
P.S. here is a short video of Sam doing what his class does each morning: THE PLEDGE
So yesterday it started to rain in Redding. The shift from extreme summer heat to cold, wet winter has literally happened over night and 'Fall' has been somewhat bypassed. Redding locals tell us that once it starts raining, it pretty much doesn't really stop for a few months. Great news. I'd sort of like to find a balance between extreme weather patterns for my own sanity but we'll work with what we've got. The boys have relished being dressed in winter gear and were very excited to be able to wear raincoats to school. I wonder how long that will last?
Last week Ben went to Chico, a town about 1.5hrs away, with his Revival Group (60ish people) for a 3 day retreat. By all accounts it was a great time of getting to know each other and building relationships. Ben and a bunch of other guys prayed for a man and saw his leg grow out to match his other one. Incredible. This sort of thing is common place among the students as they are so hungry for more of the Lord and willing to give whatever it takes to press in and get it. Watch the clip of it here. God is Healer!
While Ben was growing legs in Jesus' name, I was holding down the fort at home. The time went quickly and I was happy knowing that Ben was where he should be. Its always hard parenting solo but at the moment I'm totally cool with working with Ben to make sure we both get as much out of our time here as possible. Ben actually sent me flowers while he was away with a note of thanks for all my efforts with the kids. The delivery came at just the right time, I'd had a bit of a rough afternoon and to be completely honest had just spent the last minute or so silently punching the couch in frustration. Yeah, how's that for a look into real life! Anyway, my phone rang and it was the flower guy. My heart was immediately softened as I felt not only Ben's love but also God's love for me. Of course it brought me to tears and I repented of my couch bashing. Haha!
This evening Ben and I have been looking at all the options available for his mission trip in March next year. He needs to apply for his top 5 preferences and he is so far struggling to narrow it down to that many! Every trip would be completely amazing. There are options all over the U.S., Mexico, South America, Africa, Europe and Canada. He feels led to apply for a trip to Honduras and Nicaragua. It's purpose is to reach out to the people that live on the rubbish dumps. They would be taking food and clothing to give them as well as just heaps and heaps of God's love. We watched this clip from a previous trip and were bawling our eyes out. Have a look here and prepare to be moved.
The cost of every mission trip is the responsibility of the student. This trip will cost $2400 USD. It's not factored into the tuition fees for BSSM so we need to raise that amount in order to send Ben there. We believe that God has got it covered and so Ben's applied in faith that the funds will come in. We'd love it if you would like to bless Ben financially for this trip. If you feel led to do so, click here. Thanks so much in advance, lets bring some Hope and Love to a forgotten people group.
In finishing, I just wanted to say how grateful we are to be here, living out our dream. We couldn't survive without the financial aid of so many people. Every time I get to the check out at the supermarket I thank Jesus for providing the cash. Not just enough to survive, but to thrive. Our God is the God of abundant blessing, and He's pouring it out through so many of you (and your wallets!), so thankyou thankyou thankyou!
Its been a while since our last post and for that I apologise.
What you need to know though is that Ben spent a few hours writing a great post detailing his experiences at school and his thoughts on this new phase of life he has entered into. However, sadly it was all lost at the last minute and Ben was shattered.
So, as it may be a while before he attempts a post again, I thought I'd better take up the slack and keep you up to date about whats going on with us.
Family life has needed to adjust to having a 'mature age student' in the house. Ben is working hard to find the right balance between school work and family life. I am also doing my best to accommodate Ben's need to have study time whilst making sure we all get to spend time with him and I get the help I need with the kids.
Ben and I have started a course at church called 'Love After Marriage' (LAM). It runs each Sunday morning for 30 weeks so its quite a commitment of time and energy (another thing for Ben to fit in to his schedule). The kids spend the time in Kids Church as they normally would so we get to spend some time together working on our marriage.
We've had 3 sessions so far and its sort of like doing a Bible study in the nude with 100 other people, its that level of awkward and vulnerability. The couple that run it don't pull any punches and its great. I mean, what's the point of skirting around important issues that face all married couples in some form or another? Already there have been tears and deep discussions, re-commitments and taking back lost ground in the relationship. Couples have volunteered to be made an example of out the front and it has been both horrible and beautiful to watch. We have homework to do each week and are enjoying re-connecting and taking time for our marriage. A strong, healthy, loving, Godly marriage is a powerful witness to the world of the Lord and his love for his Bride, the church. Our marriages should reflect that. We definitely want ours to.
Onto other matters.
Sam had his school 'jogathon' the other day. It is a fundraiser for the school and their main athletic event for the year (think Aussie sports day). The kids are meant to get sponsors for each lap they run of a track in 20mins. We were the only ones who sponsored Sam. I hate doing that sort of thing. Anyway, he did great. It was 40C and the kids were so hot. Sam didn't quite grab hold of the 'slow and steady' method of running and so spent his 20mins periodically sprinting and walking. He got very hot and bothered and when time was called, promptly collapsed in a heap of sweaty tears.
He eventually got over the exhaustion and was happy until he realised that he had not won. He was a bit of a wreck, poor love. It really was quite an ordeal for him due to the heat and the pressure to run run run. After a cuddle from us, lots of encouragement and some cold water, he pulled himself together, much to his credit and finished his day well.
Thankfully, the weather is slowly getting cooler. It is now 'FALL'. The leaves are changing colour and falling to the ground, creating a lovely crunchy sound for our footsteps through the park. Its almost cold in the mornings these days but the afternoons continue to be pretty warm, around 30-35C.
I have begun training for the annual Redding Turkey Trot. A 6 mile 'fun' run, sort of like the City to Bay in Adelaide. It takes place on Thanksgiving morning so I've got a bit of time to get my act together! It is very strange thinking of distance in miles rather than km. It lulls me into a false sense of security!
Going for a run today in the park near our house, I was struck by the beauty of the changing seasons. I love the large, shady deciduous trees surrounding the park and although it will be a shame for them to drop their leaves, there is a beauty about Autumn that is very distinct. I realised that there is indeed beauty in making ourselves vulnerable to others, in 'dropping our leaves' so to say. I thought of the LAM course and how it requires the participants to be vulnerable with each other, not just between the spouses but within the small groups we are put into. It is a tough ask to let complete strangers see your marriage for what it really is, good and bad. In doing that though, we will all be rewarded with 'new growth', if we first agree to let our guard down and allow the Lord to use others to speak into our lives. It sure makes for interesting Sunday mornings!
Yesterday (15th September) was Ben's 31st birthday. It feels like a significant milestone to be celebrating his birthday here. If you think about it, we wait our whole lives to step into our destiny. Although Ben didn't know he was going to be here when he was a child, or even 5yrs ago, his life has moved towards this goal, this place, this moment in time in Redding.
It has been wonderful to see him so happy, to be stepping into this next phase of life. When someone's dreams come true, its awesome to be standing along side them. That being said, he's at school, walking out his destiny and I'm at home with the kids. Its been glaringly obvious that I am going to have to be very careful in protecting my heart from getting bitter. I always want to hear what has happened at school each day but if I let myself get all annoyed at the fact that I'm missing out I'm in for a crappy time. I know that I am doing a very special job caring for my children and home etc. A job that no one else can do better than me, a job that is as much worship pleasing to my Lord and King as being at church or in BSSM. Its only the evil one that tells me the lie that I am missing the boat or insignificant. I remind myself often of the words of prophecy spoken over me about this time at Bethel Church being as much about me as it is about Ben. The Lord has big plans for me too. He has amazing plans for everyone. Even YOU. Especially you.
Back to the birthday. We had to go to a 'meet the teacher' night at the boys school (also at the church) so we arranged to have the kids looked after (thanks Brooke and Rachel!) and planned to go out to dinner afterwards. The meeting took longer than we'd thought, partly because we met some other parents from the UK (also here for BSSM) and got talking. It was fun. God loves bringing people together just for fun, just to bless. He's pretty awesome like that.
We got to speak to the boys teachers and we were so impressed. The school clearly loves the kids and the love of the Lord is evident in every classroom. It really was amazing. We're so glad we made the decision to send the kids there. We'll work the budget out later........
After the meeting went late, we stopped off for some quick dinner at a Chinese place. It was delicious food, great conversation and a balmy night made for a very pleasant time all round.
Upon arrival in Redding, we were met with intense heat, i think it was about 39C. Since that day, the daily temperature maximum hasn't dropped below 37C. Initially we were drinking litres of water and we all felt the heat. These days, it seems normal and our bodies have adapted. Amazing really. That being said, the heat is strangely different to what we experience during summer in Australia. We've all been out in the sun, during the heat of the day, without sunscreen or hats and no one has been burnt. The Ozone Layer certainly has a lot to answer for!
We spent the first few days in Redding very tired but very busy making all sorts of arrangements. It seemed to take forever to get over what I can assume was jet lag. We were so tired during the day and then the kids would be awake for a few hours in the middle of the night. Totally whacked.
One of the first things we did was go shopping for food. And so began an adventure that continues even now. Finding foods that we recognised, that tasted familiar and were not filled with High Fructose Corn Syrup (bad news) was harder than we'd ever imagined. So many foods have seemed as though they were ok from the outside and then turned out to be completely different. Yogurt, cheese, bread and butter are some staples that are very different to what we know in Australia. They do not drink instant coffee here, so I've bought a little coffee maker and am actually enjoying the process of making 'real' coffee each day. We bought a bread maker off of Craigslist (an online classifieds that everyone uses here) today and I sure am excited about making bread that doesn't taste sweet and stale. It's surprising the things that make you feel as though you can face the future! The fact that I need 'real' bread to feel secure is confronting! I suspect I value my carbohydrates more highly than I should.
We were living in an apartment in the 'lower socio-economic area' of Redding, owned by a 4th year student at BSSM. It was cheap and served our needs well but after a midnight episode of helicopters, sirens, searchlights in the carpark and dogs barking, we were keen to be on our way.
Earlier this year, we purchased another Aussie family's home contents and their car. It was a divine arrangement by God, with each family involved getting what they needed. Such a blessing! All our new things had been put into a storage unit and our car had been looked after by a friend of the previous owners. It all worked out beautifully.
So, with heaps of help from some other wonderful Aussie's and a monumental effort on a boiling hot day, we moved into our new Redding home. We are renting a 4 bedroom place about 8 miles from church. Many people have been surprised that we live 'so far away' from church but when you've previously travelled 40mins each Sunday in Australia, 10 mins (on a slow day) is nothing.
The excitement of moving in was dampened by the fact that the air conditioning was not functioning. It was a long, hot, boring day. The kids had no toys to play with, all we had to eat was a few bananas and some biscuits and did I mention IT WAS SO HOT!! Eventually someone came and fixed the aircon and we were able to sleep in comfort.
It took a while to find out what we already had and what we still needed. There have been many trips to Walmart to buy random home items. One of which was a washing line. No Aussie would be comfortable using a dryer when the clothes could be dry in a matter of minutes in this heat. So we've strung up a make shift line across the back patio which is working a treat and I feel more at home hanging out the washing than I ever imagined possible. The kids have been beating the heat by running through the sprinkler in the nuddy. Us responsible grownups keep our clothes on while frolicking in the water. At least while the sun is up...ha!
A week after we arrived in Redding, Sam started school at Bethel Christian School. He is in Kindergarten (the US equivalent of reception) and loving it. Having done 2 terms of school in Australia already, he is quite a bit ahead of the class in terms of reading and writing etc. I think it makes him feel pretty clever already being able to read and we're glad that this move is boosting his self confidence, not the other way around.
Lachie has also started 2 mornings a week at Pre School at Bethel. He's doing so well and is always very happy after a session there. On his first day he apparently did a wee in the playground instead of going inside to the toilet. These things happen growing up in the country! Anyway, upon returning for his second session, the teacher told us about the wee issue and so we made sure he knew the rules and where the toilet was. When I picked him up later that day, I asked him if he went to the toilet this time. He informed me that no, he didn't need to go to the 'party' and asked me why they call the toilet a 'party'. So funny. Poor kid probably thought there were going to be balloons and streamers and instead found a loo! 'Going Potty' is the accepted term here. Even for adults. Curiouser and curiouser........
