Thursday, 27 October 2016

ATTENTION! ATTENTION!

What a disaster!

Oh no, we made a big 

mistake!

We put the wrong account number

on the shrapnel boxes!

 

While we were down in Victoria,
 we handed out some shrapnel boxes

These boxes were to be used if people
wanted to put their loose change (shrapnel) in them.

We use this shrapnel to make bible stories
Turning Shrapnel into Stories!

The BSB number was correct
The Account number is wrong!!!

DUH


If you use the wrong number, the bank wont recognize it, so fortunately it does not go into someone else's account.




The correct numbers are:  

BSB  032 388     ACC 222 860

I feel better now!



If you would like some boxes, please let us know and we will get some to you















Nellie will kill me when she sees this!  (lol)

Our Trip in Victoria

Tranting around Victoria

After 2 months on the road and 10, 327 kms, we are finally home. We arrived home on Monday 24th October.  It was great to be back in the warm weather, sorry Vic, but it was cold  and wet!

We drove through Dubbo, Forbes and Hay to get to Mildura. It started raining in Dubbo, and we followed the rain for the next 7 weeks!
This was an omen for the rest of the trip!


Never mind! These come with rain .
It was our aim to visit as many country Victoria churches as possible. So many people have faithfully prayed and supported us over the 20 years, and we wanted to catch up with as many as possible during our time there.
Old Methodist Church-Rainbow. (Glenys' family church back in the dark ages!)


Often we struggled with time. People we would dearly loved to spend more time with, we only saw for a couple of hours, or maybe just a few minutes at church or meeting.  This was disappointing, but we will be in glory forever, so we can really catch up then.

Going to different churches is so encouraging. So many people have ministries in  different areas. While we are serving in remote parts of Australia, so many people are serving God and evangelizing in their own communities. We did enjoy hearing what people were doing, and how they and their churches were still working on the Great Commission.

It was great to share about the 5fish app. As GRN has not been much in the public eye for a number of years, people had not heard what GRN was doing.

More country areas are having people come in from different countries now, so it is great that GRN can be used to help share the gospel with them. Please pray that God will soften the hearts of people to listen to God's message, that people will be willing to share the story with them and that the 5 fish app may be a useful tool for people to use.

This trip was mainly in Presbyterian churches. While we did get the opportunity to share in some other denominations, there are so many churches out there that could be using the 5 fish app but don't know about it.

Some churches have a ministry in some of the Universities. We were able to show them the 5fish app. This was another tool they could use for the students who have come to Australia to study.

Many farming communities also have workers coming in to work on the farms. This is another area of ministry that people are working in that was not there a few years ago.

Country people have lived up to the reputation of putting on a 'good spread'. Our kids had to go to the meetings with us, and it was often boring as they heard the same story over and over. Trevon would ask if we were having 'a feed' at the meeting. If the answer was 'yes', then he would patiently put up with the meeting as a reward was offered after. He was always happiest if there was something with chocolate flavour on the table. Chocolate redeems all elements of boring meetings!

Katie Broad & Trevon
We are also very grateful to the many people who went out of their way to engage with the kids, make them feel comfortable and important in the whole scheme of our work.

They loved it so much when people took an interest and spent time with them, or included them in their lives.We don't have photos of every one who helped make their time on the road enjoyable but we still appreciate those who put time into the lives of the kids while we were away.
Geoff Broad & Kids Rochester
Dave & Trevon prospecting for gold
John & us at Strathbogies

Shirley & alpacas


Every time the kids had an enjoyable time at a church, or with a group of people, Trevon would ask if we could move to that area/church and stay there because he had such a great time.

We would love to hear from you and what you are up to. Shoot us an email occasionally so we can share in your lives too.

Home Made Tourist Attraction

Home Made Tourist Attraction

While we were away, we did not just do meetings! We tried to show the kids what we could in Victoria. (between rain and floods!)

One such outing stuck in our minds as quite funny.

Trevon really wanted to see koalas. A number of years ago we had been to Cape Otway and saw the many koalas there. We thought we would go there and show the kids the lighthouse and koalas as it was on the way to Geelong North, our next destination.

It was surprising to see the damage to the trees, so many were dead. We assumed this was from too many koalas in the area.

The kids were double disappointed at this stage. We planned to visit the lighthouse, but it was too expensive to go in, and there were not the huge amount of koalas in the area.

To compensate for this, we decided to stop along the road at a safe spot. We would have a cuppa, and the kids could wander in the bush and look for koalas there.
stopping for a cuppa


Dennis went in to make the coffee, and the kids and Glenys wandered about looking for koalas. It did not take them long to find some. The koalas were in the trees just beside the road.

Trevon & Nellie were looking around and counting the koalas. While they were looking, a carload of tourists came around the corner. They saw the kids looking and pointing up into the trees. Next thing we knew the car stopped, an out poured a car load of tourists. They ran over to where the kids were and started looking at where the kids were pointing.
first lot of tourists crowding around Nellie and Trevon

The kids showed the tourists where the koalas were, and they wandered off looking for more. The 2 kids pointing out the koalas to each other caused other cars to stop.

While we sipped on our cuppas, we watched as more and more people stopped to check out why so many people had stopped.  This really tickled our sense of humour.

After about 20 minutes this was the result:
13 cars and numerous tourists looking for koalas
Nellie made the comment: 'Look, we have made our own tourist attraction!'
We should have been selling cups of coffee to everyone!

A few weeks later we went to the Charlton show. Dennis was pointing out a branch on a tree that was very unusual. I told him that if he kept pointing, he would make another tourist attraction. Sure enough a lady came up and asked what we were looking at. She was so disappointed  that it was only a branch!