Littles in Aussie!

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.