Well, here we are enjoying 39 degree weather and it's snowing back at home with a foot of snow on the gorund! Still find this so weird.

Lots has been going on here over the last little while. We've had some really good teachings. A few weeks back we had Dave Cole teaching on Evangelism, then Colleen Noblet on Relationships. This past week we had Ari Sloots teaching on the Fear of The Lord. It was a really good week, I think we both learned a lot in this area. Ari was a great teacher, very open and honest and his way of teaching was really easy to understand.

We are starting to think more and more about outreach as it's coming up really quickly! I think we'll find out our outreach teams some time this week. They're breaking our school up into 3 groups. We're all getting excited to see who we'll be with and what region we'll be in. We are still trusting for about $12,300 au dollars. Oh, cute story for you... so last week Aaron was working at a house that had a lemon tree. There were some lemons on the ground and he had permission to take some. He came home that day and told the kids he had a treat for them and pulled 5 lemons out of his back pack. They were a little disappointed it wasn;t candy but then the girls both said 'hey, we can make lemonade!' then in the next 5 minutes they were planning out how they could make a lemonade stand SO yesterday while I was out washing cars with my school, Aaron and the kids set up their lemonade stand. They made signs and fresh squeezed lemonade and over the course of the afternoon, the kids made $100. They were so proud of themselves and are excited to add it into our outreach funds. They plan on having a cookie sale this coming Wednesday afternoon. I love seeing them so excited about little things like this.

Every little bit helps right now so their $100 dollars is pretty exciting. We are doing the possible and we'll leave it up to God to do the impossible. We are getting down to the wire for our outreach funds deadline, with less than 3 weeks to have it in. I believe the date we need to have the funds in by is December 8th. If any of you feel the urge to help us out just contact me and I can give you the details on how to do that. We believe that we will be going on outreach. God sent us to the other side of the world to do this so why wouldn't he see to it that we go all the way in his plans for us?! Please keep us in your prayers. If you're wanting some specific areas we need prayer in you can pray for the following:

-Outreach Finance/if you're feeling prompted to help us

-Protection for our family while in Mexico City, mainly the kids.

-Mikayla is having really bad dreams at night so maybe you could pray for her.

The kids are doing great here, have lots of friends and each of them have made some really strong relationships. Levi is getting so big, I can't believe it. Mikayla had a sleep over at her friend Sophia's last weekend. Kamryn will be going to her friend Alyssa's to be home schooled a few mornings a week. Right now she usually comes into lectures with us and sits with a staff member. She likes this but the idea of going to Alyssa'a for school is pretty exciting for her. They are all doing so well and adjusted better than I thuoght they would.

On Wednesday afternoon the entire base went to City Beach for dinner and a swim. It was great! Best of all Aaron and I got to throw the ball around on the beach, I loved it! Made me think of all the good times we have back at home in the summer with our slo-pitch team and how they would have loved to be there with us too! We could have shown these Aussie's how we do it!

On Friday we went for our outreach shots. The kids needed Hep A as well as Typhoid. Luckily this was in one injection. They all did well, no tears! Aaron and I got Typhoid as well but in pill form. We thought these would cost about $1,100 but the bill was only about $800 and it turns out we will get about half of that back so that's an answer to prayer in itself!

This week our lectures will be on Lordship. Best of all though, we are leaving first thing Friday morning to go CAMPING! We're really looking forward to this. I think we're heading a few hours North of here to do some rustic camping. Yes, we will have tents and yes I will be careful of bugs and snakes! I've heard we will have camp fires and smores as well as some capture the flag at night and some good old fashioned canoe wars. I will post pictures once we're back.

Thanks to all of you who check in on us by email and to those of you who have sent us cards in the mail. It might seem small to you but it's really encouraging to us to know we are missed back at home! Bye for now!

xo The Littles

Hey from sunny Australia! We are finally starting to get into the hot weather, today was 31 degrees! It's hard to believe it's already November and that we've been away from home for over 5 weeks. It hasn't been easy being here but the lectures and application have been amazing and we're learning a lot in the classroom and also learning a lot about us as individuals. Last week in lectures we had an amazing teacher named Chris Adams and he taught on Worship and Intercession. He's awesome...sports a mullet and facial piercing with a big soft heart. Our kids have made friends with his 3 daughters who are close in age to our kids and I'm friends with his wife. Great people. This week we are learning about Evangelism with Dave Cole. I'm loving his Kiwi accent! It should be a good week.

Some of you may know that I (Robin) was really struggling here for the first while and though the urge to go home still lingers, I have decided to stay for the long haul. Things are in no way perfect but I feel like I need to continue to stay here and experience all that I was meant to and if I came home early I would have been cutting myself short. Each day has it's own struggles and I am being challenged daily but am now starting to see that if I don't allow myself to be stretched, I can't find the healing I need.

So, that said, today we found out where we'll be heading on Outreach! So for the first 7 weeks we will be in Mexico City. I was very against this but have been reassured that we will be safe there and what we hear about on the news is not exactly going on in the areas we will be in. It will be COLD while we're there as they are at a higher elevation. We will be sleeping on warehouse floors and the temp at night will be right around zero and the buildings there don't have central heating. We will have to purchase down sleeping bags and thermal mats to sleep on so please pray for the funds to purchase these items. We've been told to expect to have to pay at least $500 for the 5 of us to have these things we didn't budget for.

On or around February 14th we will be heading back to the east coast of Australia to Byron Bay where we will be staying at the YWAM base there for 4 weeks. We'll hire a big bus and a big van and a few trailers and travel around the area as well. Byron Bay is a back packers tourist location that is big into new age stuff so we'll be spending 4 weeks on the beach sharing the Gospel. I'm a little scared but this is what it's all about, bringing the lost to the light! I am very much a quiet Christian so this will be a MAJOR stretch for me.

And now a little priase report. Since we last wrote about finances we have received an awesome gift of $8,000 from one person in our DTS who felt God telling him this is what he needed to give. We almost fell over laughing and it was hard to accept such a huge gift but God works in funny ways. I was still thinking about coming home at this point but really felt like this was God telling me that money isn't any issue for him and that He will provide. We are still trusting in God for the rest of the finances needed for outreach which I think is still around $10,000...give or take a few dollars! Please pray that these needs will be met. We have about 5 weeks before we have to pay the outreach fees.

So there you have it. This has been one of the hardest things I have ever done, but I'm trusting that I'm here for a reason so I'm doing my best. Home is where my heart is and reading your messages of encouragement make me see how many people love us and miss us back at home.

I've added some pictures for your viewing pleasure, one of us ready to hit the dance floor on 80's night, a view of the city of Perth and one of us on my birthday at the base.