Family, Life and Outreach!

Hello Friends! Well, first thing firs t;we are so thankful that Aaron was safe and sound at home in Australia at the time of the earthquake in Nepal. He had been there just two weeks before the quake. His time there was really productive, he made plans to head back there sometime in August where him and his team will start working with a small village called Dhamaura. The work there seems so small and insignificant after such devastation and loss from the earthquake. However, after praying; he and the team feel to continue on with their plans by providing homes for the people of this particular village. Thanks to those who provided finance and prayers for Aaron while he was away.

Aaron has been away a lot since October so he surprised us with a weekend get away! With his birthday money and a Groupon deal, he booked us in at a holiday house on the beach. We will go to a place about 2.5 hours south of Perth called Busselton. The kids are all excited as there are 3 bedrooms and king sized beds, movies,  heated swimming pools, tennis courts and very beautiful beaches. It'll be the first time we've had a get away as a family here in Perth, and as a family of 6! It also happens to be Mother's Day that weekend as well, great way to celebrate.

We arrive home from that on the 10th of May and Aaron will leave us on the 16th of May to go to East Timor!This will be the first Homes Of Hope build. Aaron will be traveling with his two staff and will be joined by two DTS (Discipleship Training Schools) who will be sharing a house build as part of their outreach. He will be gone for nearly 3 weeks. It's exciting for him to be going in to the nations to do what he's called to do, but it's hard as he must be away from our day to day life. The kids always go through a small transition time but we're all adjusting to this and getting better at it.

Life in general is really good and getting busier as the kids grow. Aaron and I feel like it is really important for the kids to be involved with team sports or group events, especially as they get older. 

**Kamryn is learning the value of fundraising as she is trying to send herself to Winter Camp this coming July. It is like teens camp at Cowichan Camp where she will be gone for a week, making new friends and learing to love God deeper. Monday nights she has cell group with the teens on base. She's playing sports on Wednesday nights with the teens and young adults and really enjoys that.

**Mikayla has been going to scouts on Tuesday nights. The first 3 times are a free trial so she's been going to see if it's something she would enjoy doing. She can be quite shy but we think it would be good for her to make some friends outside of YWAM. Here's Mikayla being shy...

**Levi is doing great at school and working ahead of his grade level. He is playing AFL (Australian Rules football).He really likes it, he's making friends plus it's great for him to run off all of his energy! He is a very active boy who does well when kept busy. He's an amazing big brother, and loves chasing Lauren, and making her laugh. It's such a blessing to see him grow in this.

**Lauren is a sweet girl, very curious and always busy! She is very steady on her feet and starting to say small words. She has been sick for the last few weeks and sleep is very fleeting but she is a very lovely girl. She has many friends on base, lots of big kids who love to follow her around and make her laugh. She's quite smart (we feel) for her age, and is quite obedient to instructions, which is nice.

We have been making the most of the time we do have together and now that fall has arrived, it's lovely to be outside! Bikes, roller blades, walks are just some of the things we have been doing on weekends. Movies and games in the evenings. Aaron has taken to reading the kids at bedtime, they love that. They just finished The Hobbit. We have been attending a small church on Sundays. We are on the younger side of the congregation, the majority are white haired but they have been very welcoming towards us. Not yet sure if it's a church we will attend regularly but it's a sweet group of people and the message has been encouraging. 

Well, that's about it from us for now.  I'll leave you with some prayer points:

-Please pray for us as we prepare to send Aaron off to East Timor in a few weeks. It's a very remote village where any healthcare is about 4 hours away by car. I always worry about that but trust that he is in good hands. The chief of the village is always so good to Aaron and his team so I know they'll be well taken care of.

-Pray for my sleep! Lauren is a very poor sleeper, only sleeping about 1.5 hours at a time in the night. After about 15 months I am starting to hit the wall. I need sleep to be a good parent especially while Aaron is away.

-Finances. Lots of travel for Aaron means we need to see more monthly support coming in to pay for his flights and ground fees. 

Thanks to all of you who continue to love us as  and pray for us as we serve with YWAM Perth. We may be far away, but we carry you all in our hearts.\

Much love and many blessings,

Aaron, Robin, Kamryn, Mikayla, Levi and Lauren Little

Just in Time!

Just in Time!

Recently I just got back from Nepal; Robin said I could go, if I made it back in time for Lauren's birthday. Well, I flew back to Perth and arrived just in time!

We hosted her first birthday party at Hyde Park, with cake, decorations, a water park and good friends and family. The weather was perfect and we're in awe that she's already one years old! She's a wonderful, sweet, funny girl whom we all love very much indeed.

Five buses, eight taxis, one rickshaw, one hired car, one jeep ride, one microbus, one hitchhike and one small domestic airplane; 2 nights in Kathmandu, two nights in Surkhet, one night on a bus, two nights in Pokharra, two nights in Hatauda, one night in Kathmandu again, and one last night on an airplane heading to Malaysia. Only 12 days away from home but we packed in a lot of action into our Nepal scouting trip!

The trip was for Homes of Hope, my ministry, to scout Nepal and see if it's a viable nation to come build homes. Obviously there's lots of need in Nepal, but we needed to find the right spot. Our goals were to find a genuine need, near a location where YWAM was already established. 

Surkhet is west of Kathmandu and is a likely location that we'll bring teams to build. This is the location where the main river flooded and destroyed dozens of villages back in July 2014. Many lost their lives and most lost their homes. This particular village was built on a hill near the river but was wiped out by a mudslide. YWAM has relationship with them already. 

Hatauda is South of Nepal and I worked with a man named Birbal. He guided us to a village near the India/Nepal border. This village is mainly Muslim and was very poor. I'd call it a rural slum and I found it very challenging to be there. This place is a good location and in need of homes.

After much thought and prayer we feel that both locations make sense to build homes in. I travel back to Nepal at the end of March, very soon. This will be to look at each location with more detail; house design, prices, accommodation, transportation, etc. I'll be in Nepal for about a week, and will combine it with trip to India.

YWAM Perth  has been working for a year in Kolkata, India. I've been asked to come along on a follow up trip regarding applied technology. This trip is to meet with those that expressed interest a few months ago in things like aquaponics, biogas and sand filters. This is a subject that I'm quite interested in personally, but also relates closely with home building and community transformation. 

Total trip length would be about 18 days and total costs would be about $1750-1900 AU. I've seen about $350 come in from 2 bake sales and we will have one more before I leave. Also I've got money left over from the previous trip to Nepal. I still need to see about $1000 come in to cover all costs.

I turn 36 in 3 days and am happy to have Mikayla's 10th birthday only 6 days later. Maybe people will forget mine! Our family and two other YWAM families are going camping for two nights about two hours south of Perth. There's a nice river there and lots of nature around. We're looking forward to time away from the city, spending time as a family and giving our new SUV a decent test.

Robin and the kids are back into school now and are doing well. She's finding it more challenging this year with Lauren being so active. The kids are all thriving in the home school environment and Robin is quite an amazing teacher. She's also kept busy with ARMS, doing office work when she can. Levi will be starting up Aussie Rules Football for his second season quite soon.

Kamryn has joined a 'cell group' of about 20 kids from the base and they hang out, play games, study the bible. She's really enjoying it and I feel that it's so good for her as she's growing so fast!

I've been reflecting on our life recently and my goodness are we blessed. We've got so much to be thankful for! Family, friends, health, amazing jobs, support back home. Recently we were asked by our current tenants if they could renew the lease on our house. They hope to stay for up to three more years! Thanks everyone for your continued support, what a team we've got!

                                                                          Good Bye 2014

What a year! We saw many wonderful things happen in 2014. Here's. Short recap for those of you who aren't in close contact with us!

In February we welcomed our fourth child, third daughter, Lauren Elizabeth into the world! She was born on the 21st of February weighing in at 7lbs 4oz. She's awesome! Such a lovely little lady who brings a lot of joy and laughter into our lives!

In March Aaron went on hi very first Homes Of Hope scouting trip to East Timor. He was joined by a friend and together they went into the village of Bahareduk to check out this little village, meet the village chief and chat about the needs there. It was a short but great trip .( Aaron and Mikayla also celebrated birthdays in this month.)

April, May and June were spent as per usual... Robin in the home school co-op with the kids and working afternoons in the office with ARMS and Aaron getting ideas and strategies together for Home Of Hope.


Mid July through to mid October we were in Canada! This was meant to be a 7 week trip. It turned into a 3 month trip because of a little whoopsie we made on our Australian Visa application. Lesson learned!  We really made the most of our time back at home and I have to say that we had the best weather! We spend a few weeks playing slow-pitch whole getting over jet lag, that was a real treat as Aaron and I both really miss playing ball. We got to introduce Lauren to her family in Canada. We got to met the new pastor of our home church, connect with friends, spend lovely evenings at the beach, were fed amazing meals everywhere we went, were treated to some fun filled days off island, got to attend three weddings! It was a busy but memorable time that's for sure.

Once we returned to Perth in mid October, Aaron jumped right in, helping build our new staff/student accommodation, most commonly referred to as "Somerville". It houses about 50 people all together and is very much needed as we are kicking off our largest January quarter we've had in a while.

November was cool, Aaron and a small team went on their first official Homes Of Hope outreach! It was him and two others...a small but mighty team! They went in Bahareduk and had the honor of staying in the chief's house. They spent 2 1/2 weeks there in East Timor, helping build a YWAM house in the village so that in the future when teams go (insert YOUR name here___________) they'll have a place to stay! It was hard work but very rewarding. They got to spend time with the children and teens of the village, sharing the gospel and playing with them.

December was a mix of lots of things, mainly prepping for Christmas! We shared Christmas day with about 410 people so thought we were far from family we were far from lonely! We spent boxing day at the beach where we enjoyed bacon and eggs for brekkie and swam in the ocean the rest of the morning. It was a wonderful way to end a very busy year! Oh yeah, and we were blessed with a new-to-us car! Our supporters were very loving and generous and supplied enough finance for us to get a reliable car.

So, there you have it. We had many ups and downs in 2014. Some months were very difficult, we were challenged and stretched greatly while other months were a lot of fun and we saw great release in finance when we needed it the most.

From our hearts, we thank all of you who love us, pray for us, support us and cheer us on. We have the honor of serving God here with YWAM Perth. It's the most rewarding and yet the most difficult thing we have ever done. We love walking out what God has spoken over us and yet our hearts hurt to be so far from our loved ones back in Canada. You guys are always on our hearts, in our prayers and loved so deeply by us! Thanks to our monthly supporters who lovingly give financially to us each month. Thanks to those of you who pray for us, your prayers are so important. Thanks to the rest of you who are our cheering squad, who send us encouraging notes from time to time. You are all so valued by us. May you all be blessed in 2015!

 

Trials and Tribulations

 

What would life be like without trials? Boring I suppose. Here's a little story for you.

July 2014. We had just finished serving our first 2 years with YWAM Perth. At first, we though we would just be there for 2 years but half way through, we knew that our call to missions was going to be extended. It was time to fly back to Canada to introduce our new bubs, Lauren, to friends and family as well as renew Visas and Passports.

 We go to the airport, go through security, get to the gates of the plane only to be denied! Due to slight passport issues, we weren't able to get on our flight. After two days of stress, money, worrying and frustration, we managed to re-route or flights and get onto a plane to Canada. All was well in the land of maple syrup.

 Two weeks into our stay in Canada, we applied for our Australian Visa. It went well, so we thought, when we got the email saying AARON'S Visa was approved. There was no mention of Robin or the 4 kids anywhere on that Visa. So, after making a phone call, we had made a very small mistake on the application form which would again cause us  a lot of time, stress and frustration. That small mistake made it so we would have to miss our flight back to Perth and wait for the application to be approved. The day we got the approved Visa for the whole family we called Air Canada. NO FLIGHTS available for another 4 weeks?! Really?! We were starting to feel very discouraged.

See the theme here? Yes, so did we. We have had a very trying several months. The resistance started the moment we started fund raising for our trip home back in March 2014 and the struggles have continued until present day, September 2014. I'd be lying if I said that it hasn't been hard. We have had to spend a lot of time remembering that often when you are walking in the will of God, the going can be tough. To us, we know from past experiences that we get the most resistance when we are in the center of God's will.

We have had a lot of time to think about the call on our lives during our time here in Canada. We have had lots of fun catching up with friends, watching the kids bond with their Grandparents and enjoy the great outdoors. It's easy to melt back into island life, to think about how easy it would be to be making lots of money with Aaron working, to have a nice vehicle and live in our big house but I'm quickly reminded that we've had that and yet something was missing during that time. We weren't letting God be our center.

So, what are we doing now? Well, we will be flying back to Perth on October 12th. Once there, Aaron will be going full-speed-ahead with Homes Of Hope. The first build is coming up at the end of October and he has a lot to do to prepare. It's been a very exciting time watching this ministry unfold. He has a small team going with him on this first build, it'll be a special time as they learn how to build a home in an extremely poor nation with very limited tools and resources. It's going to take a lot of communication and unity.

Robin will jump back into the Homeschool co-op as well as getting back to the ARMS ministry. She's looking forward to the hustle and bustle of base life. It will bring new challenges as Lauren is no longer a small, stationary baby! She will soon be crawling. She brings a lot of joy to us, she is adored and loved so much by all of us. She still has a sweet little spirit and as she's getting older we are seeing more of her personality. She's funny, loves attention, getting very vocal and responds with loud squeals and grunts to almost every animal she sees. She loves cuddles and her newest love is food! She started solid food a month ago and is now 19 pounds (8.6 kgs).

We want to thank everyone who has prayed for us and supported us over the last several months. Many of you walked with us as we tried to get back to Canada, faced the trials with us, helped us by giving us financial gifts and made this a possibility for us. We felt your prayers and saw doors open up for us. We can`t express our gratefulness!

 

We do have a few prayer points

* For Aaron as he heads out to East Timor. Last time he was there he came home very sick. Please pray for his health and safety as he goes.

*For Robin as she will be alone for 4 weeks while Aaron goes to East Timor

*For our finances. Staff fees are going up in January by a few hundred dollars per month. We need to gain several more monthly supporters as we are just barely staying afloat right now.

* and the head gasket in our vehicle is blown. We need a reliable vehicle.

 

 

 

 

Back to Perth!

Hi everyone. It's been awhile...we're so excited to share with you that we're going back to Perth in June of 2012. God's called us back there to join staff at YWAM Perth. We feel so excited about the direction that our life has gone.
In October 2010 God brought us there to completely change our family's lives. From personal healing, to our marriage being saved, God worked some huge miracles for us while in Aus. Now, we get to go back to help others to experience some of the same awesome power of Jesus' healing hands. We pray that even if we can help one person to experience even a part of the freedom that we gained while there, it will be soo worth it!

If anyone feels it on their heart to donate to our ministry one way is:

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Thanks guys, Love the Littles

He's Sttrretching our Faith

Hi everyone,



Hope all's well at home on Salt Spring Island. We were a little jealous of the snow back home. The kids were missing the snowmen, sledding, snowballs, etc...(so were Robin and I.) The other day we bought a $20 pool so the kids could stand to be outside in the sun without overheating. Talk about opposites!



Our life is a bit hectic here right now, we have until Wednesday, December 8th for our funds to come in for outreach. Currently we're still short nearly$5300. Yeah, I know, three days to go. Like I said in the title God is really stretching our faith right now. It's almost like the figure is so big that it does seem impossible for us to do alone. That way we need to rely on God only. He's been giving us great ideas for fundraising, the lemonade stand and then the bake sale. Robin baked 12 dozen goodies, mainly cookies for the Leonard Cohen concert just up the street from us. We sat at the end of our property and met the foot traffic coming off the main train station. What a good location. We made just over $530! The kids were amazing and really helped to open up conversations for us. It helped to conquer any fear of man that we may have had. People...bake sales don't make $500...only God's bake sales do. We just had one last night for the Jack Johnson concert and made another $200. We'll do the possible, He'll do the impossible.



Classes the past two weeks were on Lordship and Missions. Lordship was taught by a young guy from Seattle area who's 32 years old. He was really challenging for both of us. He said things that made people uncomfortable in a good way. He was definitely speaking through the Holy Spirit as he shared his love for Jesus! The Missions week was taught by an older missionary originally from New Zealand but who's moved to Turkey to work with the churches there. He really got into the Word with us and helped us see what we're all called to do. He shared with us how many people of the world hadn't heard of Jesus and where they lived, mainly in the 'ten-forty' window. He also helped us to realize what our call as a follower of Jesus really is.



Our camping trip was great for most of us. I (Aaron) got sick on the morning that we left and was laid up for most of the trip. Levi was sick too, but the girls had fun. We went on canoe trips and tried to swim as well. We saw a kangaroo at dusk with her joey down by the river. The amount of flies there was definitely unforgettable, you couldn't get away. The class played capture the flag at night and enjoyed an awesome relay race. The food was amazing. Unfortunately the following Tuesday our class had 10 people sick. It was fun though.



I really can't believe that we're almost done the lectures and that it's almost Christmas. Time has just flown by down here. The time here has been so precious for me, it's the most important period of my life. God's given me a second chance (again) to get my life right. He planned this trip from the beginning knowing how essential it was for our marriage. He's been revealing so much to me, tearing down shaky foundations of this world, and building new walls filled with truth and love. Old hurts and habits are being exposed and fixed. God's been sharing through others that what I've hid from for most of my life, that I'm called to be a leader. He's giving me more confidence and wisdom in how to lead my family as a man of God. The key for me, and all of us, is that we must only rely on God. I've learned over and over that my ways don't work. It only leads to destruction, no matter how good the intention is.



Please keep praying for us, first for outreach finances, next for healing in our marriage and wisdom in raising our kids. Also, safety in Mexico City, from the people there as well as the pollution.



I'm really excited for the next post to share how God provided the $ for us.



XO the Littles

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