Dear all, after being in Aus for nearly a month now we’re starting to feel quite settled. This has been the first week we’ve spent entirely at our house, and working on site each day in our teams. It’s been really good to be in one place, get to know our teams and different sites. However, this week’s been quiet, so have mainly been doing odd jobs around the place that we feel like we know our way around now. I had fun using the blower clearing all the leaves from the paths.
The week before last we spent at Shoalhaven – another of Youthworks sites, about 2 hours drive away. At Shoalhaven we had a few training days in abseiling, archery, low ropes and how to lead ‘Christian Discovery’ and small discussion groups. There was lots of theory, lots of practical, how to run sessions, health & safety, standards & procedures ect. We’ve since had a few assessments on some of them. There’s still a lot to learn but our training from now on will be more spread out over time, so we’re looking forward to working on site, assisting the leaders, and gradually leading activities on our own once we’re qualified.
There was a funny moment on our way back from Shoalhaven after stopping at a petrol station, I (Katie) walked out the shop and opened the car door, moved a strange looking bag to sit down, and a complete stranger turned around in the front seat and said hey. I quickly apologised, got out, and ran over to where our car had been moved to.
I (Sam for this paragraph) spent Thursday and Friday of last week assisting on a Youthworks advanced sailing course and assessment for some of the staff. It was great to get out on the water and help the staff learn more about sailing and try to get them excited about it. They all did a great job picking up man over boards and trying to get their head around how to use a conventional spinnaker. The two days ended with a great race out on the river. It was great to be able to introduce some of my own and some of the RYA’s techniques, the best of which was the 5 Essentials! Awesome. It has been good to see Katie out on a boat too and she is looking forward to getting out and learning as much as she can while we are here.
Sam has just returned from a ‘Rathane’ team day off/social in the Blue Mountains. He spent the morning canyoning, jumping from rocks/cliffs into icy pools and abseiling down a 25m waterfall. The afternoon was spent grass-karting, pretty much summer sledging or simply flying down a big grass slope on 4 wheels and some metal. Quite an awesome way to spend a day off.
On the weekends we’ve spent a fair bit of time at Cronulla beach, last week we watched the a big Christian Surfers competition event where Sam was able to try out a demo shortboard and chat to people about what he was after. Having been pretty nervous about going out for the first time in Aus he came back pretty happy even after he had to swim back against the rip to get in. This weekend he brought a 5’ll shortboard and tried it out yesterday. The waves were pretty small, but he did pretty well considering the board is tiny! I can only really surf bigger boards and most places don’t have any to rent until the summer starts, so I’ll have to wait a little while sadly! The weather’s been quite random since arriving – lots of heavy rain but also lots of sun. It’s generally sunny enough to get burned, but the wind’s pretty chilly, so it’s not always as warm as it looks.
This last weekend was particularly exciting as our good friends Sam and Lex (whom we also worked with in Greece) had a baby boy! Maxwell Samuel Hudson. They invited us to visit in hospital and Max is adorable, I think it’s an absolute miracle how God designs and creates each of us! They’re all doing well and think they’ll be heading home today or tomorrow. We feel so fortunate to be in Australia at this time with them, and to see Max lots for the first 9 months of his life. Sam and Lex are awesome and have been an incredible blessing to us since being here.
We think we’ve found a church that we’ll settle in for our time here – thank you to those of you who’ve been praying for that. We’ve been twice now with a couple friends and really enjoy it. It’s quite big, very multi-cultural – most countries seem to be represented there! We felt challenged that it’s the kind of church you can’t really sit back and cruise along in. People there will always ask what God is doing in our lives and how they can pray for us etc. It is a church that will challenge us, where we can serve and where we will be supported.
We were touched (and quite amused) to see a Welsh flag at half-mast at Cronulla yesterday! We were very gutted to see them out of the World Cup, but it was great watching them.
Still don’t have internet sorted in the house but really hoping to over the next couple days. Looking forward to skyping with some of you soon!
Thanks for reading.
Lots of Love
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