Marsha's Blog

  Happy New Year (almost)!   Well, I don’t know if you’ve ever read the short story by James Thurber called, “The Night the Bed Fell”, but we had a similar event last week.   First came Christmas Dinner at Nathan & Kylie’s place (since it’s big enough to accommodate all of us). It was a huge feast, enjoyed by most all our Aussie relatives, and a couple of friends to boot. There was enough food to feed a small army, which is good, because the next day …   … we moved camp with the gang (about 15 or so of us) over to our house for a ‘leftover meal’, showcasing several new dishes and uncountable desserts.   Finally, most of them went to their separate homes, and by God’s Grace managed to get safely inside before a major storm hit the Gold Coast later that night. Tragically, it was killer, rather like the kind of tornadoes we get in America’s Midwest, but covering hundreds of square miles and lasting most of the night. Our own house missed most of the damaging wide and rain, but the nex

 Merry Christmas Everyone! After many months and heaps of trials, Marsha and I are finally back in our own house in Australia. The place is a mess, we’ll be unpacking and sorting until July, and every day brings a new “settling in” challenge, but boy, does it feel good! I know all of you are at least as busy as we are during this time, so we’ll try not to be a distraction. In a quick nutshell, we’re so blessed to have Nathan, Kylie, Chris, Nicki, and a good part of their own extended families all together today and tomorrow for a time of celebration that I’ve missed for way too long. At least half a dozen times a day this past week, Marsha and I have stopped, taken a deep breath and whispered, “We are Soooo blessed!” Now I know that’s not politically correct to say anymore, because the unspoken finish to that sentence is, “And you’re not.” Of course that’s not true, and I’d be happy to preach a sermon or two on the subject, but fair enough, there’s a lot of folks around us here who are

  It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas! In fact as I write this, we’re headed to our “Christmas Extravaganza” at church that has become the norm since Covid.  Before that we had more production-based evenings, but relaxed and neighbour friendly is good too. Since many of you are super busy with all the festivities of our Saviours birth, I thought I’d just tell you about a missionary from the mid 1800’s that became the Southern Baptist’s “patron saint” if you will.  She is the one our annual offering is named after. That offering sponsors not only all of our 4000+ Southern Baptist missionaries, but heaps of projects, initiatives, etc throughout our world of missions.  This offering has been going for around 175 years. Lottie (Charlotte) Moon was born on Dec 2, 1840 in Virginia, USA.  Her family were farmers and were quite wealthy, resulting in the girls of the 7 children, being allowed to become quite well educated, against the norm of keeping girls at home.   Lottie was exceptio

 Good Morning All, I don't know about you, but between moving back into our house after 2 years and Christmas looming, stirred in with a heat wave that's made the news, it's been quite a week. But as I sit here writing this, much later than I usually do, I have to say my heart is full. Just when we were at our wit’s end physically (it's amazing how feeble we've become over the last few years, where we can't seem to just lift a couch and move it across the room for the carpet layers to get access), both kids showed up with muscles, food and lots of cheer.  Somehow that and the pool made the weekend a success. (Please keep in mind that we're not rich; most Aussie homes, at least in this area, are more likely to have a pool than an air conditioner) But the greatest blessing this weekend was a short word I just heard at my son's church.  They had their annual Christmas pageant, and our 3rd grandchild, Micah, had a significant part, so of course we all wanted