Autumn in Australia

Hey everyone!
The clocks have turned back, the evenings are getting shorter and the temperatures have begun to drop. Everything seems to be coming to an end and the winter is fast approaching, making it increasingly difficult to imagine that it is Spring at home and the UK is slowly coming back to life from its winter hibernation. Spring is both Katie and I's favourite time of year and so we are finding ourselves daydreaming about warm spring days with all the blossoms and excitement that comes with these next few months.

Katie's team at Deer Park

Just before Easter we had our last day working on programme! This means the end of working with our teams on camps and running activities. Feels so strange and quite sad to have finished work in a sense, as from now until we leave, we will be doing training and finishing up things for our cert 3 qualification. But the rest of April and May are going to be pretty fun!


Looking back over the last couple of months work has been pretty busy especially with many new staff arriving and several old staff moving on. We have both felt an increased amount of responsibility in our teams and are both enjoying the challenges that brings.

There have been many highlights of Australia, many of which Gods hand has been a part of, but one recent highlight over a period of approx. 3 weeks really stands out. Katie and I really got to see God at work in one of our friends who we have loved and been praying for for several years. Under some hard circumstances she came to stay with us at our home in the National Park. I felt God tell me that all he wanted is for our friend to get to know and experience his love and how much it was for her. The way he used Katie and I to do so was such a blessing to us. She lived with us for the most part of 3 weeks. We spent a lot of time praying and talking with her as well as just hanging out on beach, surfing, and canoeing further up the river for a picnic. Katie felt God tell her that our friend would accept his love before she left, this prompted us to go to Hillsongs city campus, somewhere we had wanted to go for a while. The service really spoke to our friend and she said she finally understood how much God loved her and how much he wanted her to live a life for Jesus. Amazing! It would be fantastic if you would pray for her as she begins her new life in Christ.

God is still working through us both to speak to so many children about him. One particular way was through both of our first Christian Discovery (CD) presentations. We both focused on the theme of Jesus being our rescuer and how we need to be accept what Jesus has done for us to be free from a sinful world. It is quite a difficult task to work out how you to tell 50-100 year 6 girls and boys such a prospect but through much hard work and prayer we were both able to write our own CD's, filled with personal stories and dramas ect. I feel we both did well and that God was sowing many seeds into children's hearts through us. It was great fun, it's a shame we won't have time to do any more before we leave!

Although work has been busy and demanding we have found time to get out and about and continue spending time together seeing and doing what any good tourist should do. We have been sailing on a yacht with a friend from church,  gone for dinner with friends on the harbour and spent time surfing, kite flying and hanging out on the beach. Recently we went to an Aboriginal BBQ, and ate kangaroo, emu and crocodile! They were all really tasty and no, they didn't taste like chicken. We celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary recently, and spent the day at the famous Toronga Zoo, and later had a meal out at Bondi.

Bethany Hamilton

About a month ago, we spent the day at the Australian Surf Open! An international pro surfing and skating event, hosted near Sydney. The place was packed, and we had fun watching the different heats out on the water, and some famous names. In the evening, a local church was showing the new film Soul Surfer. - The true story about 13 year old Bethany Hamilton, who had her arm bitten off by a shark whilst surfing in Hawaii. She's now a pro surfer, a Christian, and came out in the church after the film to share her testimony! It was so powerful, and so cool to see her.

We have been praying and asking God where he would like us to be once we return to the UK and both of us really feel called to Chester. We both feel that Chester is where God will use us the most to bring glory to him, so we are very excited about returning. God has also provided Katie and I with a car! Given to us by Katie's parents, as they were recently given a new one - how awesome is God?! This will be a great blessing when we return and will hopefully mean I can look into getting a job at a sailing centre in the Chester area. Katie's happy to get whatever work she find initially, whilst she looks into getting involved with Christian counselling and photography in the future.

It has been a fantastic few months here in Australia and we are really looking forward to the last couple of months of which we have two weeks off and several weeks training. We would really appreciate your prayers as we have a lot of knowledge tests and assignments to finish for our Certificate 3 in Outdoor Recreation.

I hope you are all well and for those in the Northern Hemisphere are enjoying the spring!

Lots of Love,

Sam & Katie x