Brooke's Australia Adventure Update - Winter 2012, August 29, 2012

 JJ at Nundle's Woolshed, June long weekend

Jeremiah and Brooke in Nundle

Shoe shopping in Merrylands just before first steps begin

JJ with mate enjoying mum's coffee all over their faces

He's a climber! He loves stairs so much!

Brendaddy and baby J in May 

Daddy and son at friend Josiah's first birthday party

Brooke’s Australia Adventure Update – Winter 2012, August 29, 2012 

Dear friends,

Winter has flown by and now here we are, just a few days off spring and Jeremiah’s first birthday. I am sorry I’ve let this e-mail update get pushed back so long, but it seems there isn’t enough time in the day – or week for that matter to really do it justice and actually reflect on the past few months and all that has happened and what God is teaching in it.  So with the laundry drying and Jeremiah asleep, I find a moment of peace and begin to reflect. I am so grateful you are reading and are along for the journey with our family. As always, God has been incredibly grateful to us in this past four months in every area. Here are some of the highlights.

Jeremiah’s growth and development continues to be such a source of amazement and joy to witness. Together with Brendan and Barbara, Brendan’s mum, we all are able to input different skills into his growing repertoire. He now has quite a vocabulary going which includes our names: mum mum, da da (definitely his favourite word at the moment and gets used for almost everyone, but especially his dad), nana, then la la, look, light, hi (or hiya), hello (which he does use when he hasn’t seen you in a while), woof or ‘oof for dog and ta (the Aussie version of thank you taught to children) when he wants some specific food or for you to share yours. I also attempted a few times to teach him some baby sign language and he has began using the bird sign whenever he hears a birdsong or sees a bird and points his finger to show us things. All in all communication seem to be getting easier (not that the cries have disappeared entirely J). He has also begun walking and is now walking quite strongly and quickly. He also loves crawling up stairs. I was encouraging him to crawl for as long as possible because he was quite fast and efficient at it, but we’re at the next phase folks! He also is an amazing throw with any kind of ball (and toy, though we are trying to discourage this part) and has eight teeth, though a ninth looks like it is about to come through. He’s quite a social and smiley character, winning over most he comes into contact with, especially elderly women when we are on the train. He’s really a lot of fun to be around. Our new puppy Kimba, a 15 week old brindle and white Whippet, came into our home last week as an early birthday present for Jeremiah and it has been very fun to see them interacting and amusing one another with JJ throwing Kimba’s tennis ball and giggling in delight as Kimba bounds after it. But for all of you who’ve had puppies know, it is like getting another child in the house, so I do feel I’ve done twice the clean up and policing in the past week but when everyone is napping I do find myself smiling and breathing a bit of a sigh of relief.

“Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights.”

 James 1:17

Another highlight has been that my brother, ‘Uncle’ Jean-Paul, was able to make his first visit out to see us and meet his nephew JJ. He came in August for two weeks, and Sydney put on glorious winter days for him: with warm temps in the day, clear sunny skies and only a few rainy and cloudy days the whole visit. We visited all our usual touristy haunts with him and were able also to take him to church, have him enjoy some Young Life fellowship and service and meet the kids and community there, our Connect group, and of course meet his extended family in Newcastle. It was great for he and I to have a visit too since it had been about two and a half years since we’d been over to the States and of course much has happened in both of our lives. I think it is interesting spending time with a family member that you don’t see often because in many ways you can revert back to how you used to relate but really you both keep maturing and although your personality and many traits are the same as they always were, there’s a joy to discovering that this person is so much more than you remembered or realized. My brother was a hit with Brendan’s nephew Ethan especially as he made his famous mazes for him to do and although he wasn’t up for changing JJ’s nappy, JJ really enjoyed his time with his Uncle. We look forward to sharing with JJ in the future what a special trip it was that his Uncle came out to see him in his first year of life. It was lovely for me to take a week of work to spend time with him too and for Brendan to take a few days during the two weeks as well. The family time has been so nice and appreciated and I honestly wonder if that’s why we’ve seen such a massive developmental shift in JJ in the past few weeks – all the extra family attention and of course time to notice the changes happening.

Proverbs 27:10


“Do not forsake your friend or a friend of your family, and do not go to your relative’s house when disaster strikes you— better a neighbor nearby than a relative far away.”

Another highlight was the annual Hillsong Conference that takes place each year during the July school holidays here in Sydney. This year I attempted to go to most of it with Jeremiah in tow. I discovered that he was not content in the mother’s room, as had worked at the Presence Conference in April, rather he was constantly attempting to crawl out of it… so I booked him into Kid Song and he was with the one and two years olds with an incredible amount of toys and kids to play with. It was awesome for him and I did catch some parts of the messages. Joyce Meyer, Steven Furtick, Joseph Prince, Louie Giglio, Chris Tomlin and Matt Redman consisted of the main speakers and worship leaders, though of course there were countless others who contributed from around the world, including the Hillsong team of pastors and worship leaders. It was really quite a feast in terms of spiritual teaching and a great chance to fellowship with other believers, and in my case, other parents. JJ really enjoyed the ball pit and the Veggie Tales live action show, but not so much having to sit still in mummy’s Youth Ministry track afternoon sessions. We were definitely exhausted at the end of it, and unfortunately it led to a second bout of flu in our family (the first serious sickness JJ got was on Mother’s Day when we ended up in casualty at Westmead Children’s hospital after he had vomited five times that day and this gastro bug lasted five days of vomiting, yuck) and knocked both JJ and I around for a week or so after. I resist the idea that you can’t do everything even though I have been taught this again and again and I always try to remind my volunteer leaders to set boundaries and get rest, but I suppose I keep re-learning that we need to prioritize what we are doing. Just being in the atmosphere of the worship for the week though was filling and encouraging for me in my own walk with Jesus and helped remind and motivate me in the work I do.

“Twenty-seven percent of the Bible is prophecy, and 20 percent of the books of the Bible are prophetic.”

                                    Mark Hitchcock, The Complete Book of Bible Prophecy

In terms of Young Life, I feel a lot of this past seven and a half months back serving has been spent running from meeting to meeting and very much in maintenance mode helping manage the area. Now, however, the national office has asked us to create our next two-year Business Plans, and it is time to think vision and future! Wow! How the time goes! It seems like I was just doing the last one of these. To get my mind into this mode I have been realizing how much God has done with the amazing volunteers He has sent us. I’ve also realized that the Northern Sydney area’s sustainability and growth is being limited by not having a committee of adults willing to volunteer their energy and expertise into helping support the area by prayer, finances and planning. Please pray for this area to have some local people and churches really get on board with the vision of Young Life and committed to helping continue the weekly pancake breakfast outreach at Chatswood High, lunchtime outreaches at Chatswood High, scripture teaching at Willoughby Girls High and fortnightly clubs in the area. Volunteers are our backbone to healthy ministry and I found this quote that I just loved and wanted to share with all of you:

“Just a volunteer? Just a volunteer? I wanted to scream. You’re not just a volunteer! You’ve never been and will never be just a volunteer. You are a connector to the current of the power of Christ.”

-   Steven Furtick, Sun Stand Still

Young people in Ryde and Northern Sydney continue to be met each week with men and women who believe in friendship evangelism and going where young people are to share with them the hope of their salvation that comes from Jesus. It is exciting work and our work in Ryde has been expanded by an addition of a Chaplain at Marsden High and Ermington Public School, Bryan Henderson, and a Student Welfare Worker position at Arthur Philip High School in Parramatta, Maria Matherson. Both of these roles fall under my supervision and they are both exceptional ministers and have quite a lot of experience to bring to the schools they are serving in and can certainly help the ministry grow in Ryde and beyond. They have the opportunity to be pastorally caring for students using the Young Life methodology while being funded by the federal government – it is an amazing situation for Young Life Australia to be a provider in this sense. Please pray for both of these new roles at these schools and for Bryan and Maria as they navigate the relationships both with the schools and administrators as they work out these roles in practice, and with students who they are serving and caring for. A highlight of our Young Life calendar year is always our Northern Leaders Retreat and this year was no exception as Brendan, Jeremiah and I bundled into our car for the Queen’s birthday weekend in June to head to the Dag Sheep Resort in Nundle, about a five-hour car trip from Sydney. It was our only experience of frost this winter, but the warmth of the community made it all worth it. It is such a blessing being a part of the greater family of Young Life and hearing what God is doing in and through the other areas in the Northern region. This year Mando, the Southeast Queensland Area Hub Manager, Brendan, the Armidale Area Hub Manager and I (the Ryde and Northern Sydney Area Hub Manager) were given some strategic vision talks to present. It was great to see how the Lord has been leading each of us and giving us insight and experience as we’ve all been growing in our roles over the past few years and able to give that out and receive from one another. I am very much looking forward to our annual summer camp that takes place in Jindabyne, even though it is still months away, as again, many of the current staff have key leadership roles rather than these being outsourced when our staff has been new. It is wonderful to see the organization of Young Life in it’s 40^th year of ministry continue to grow and mature. Your prayers for continued health and maturity and sustainability are really appreciated, as we know everything in this work needs to be bathed in prayer and if it is not God’s work, it will not stand.

Psalm 127:1

“Unless the LORD builds the house, the builders labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain.”

Brendan and I just celebrated our third wedding anniversary and were blessed to have Brendan’s parents baby-sit for us for a whole night so we could get away. It was our first time away from JJ, but he hardly missed us I think, with his cousins also spending the night at Nana and Dedo’s. It was a wonderful night of celebration and remembrance for Brendan and I to reflect especially on all the highlights of the past year and to thank God for His amazing grace to us. We enjoyed a tasty gourmet meal at the Arnott’s Bakehouse in Morpeth and stayed in a B & B that used to be a convent. It was a great night and reminded us of the importance of spending time together prioritizing our relationship. Often life just gets busy and stressful and it is easy to take each other for granted. Please pray that we would set aside a regular time to appreciate one another and have a regular special date night and also pray that I would be more patient and loving.

“Often our most defining spiritual markers happen at conferences, retreats, on mission trips, vacations, or work stints far from home rather than in the usual places. The daily-ness of home is crucial, however, because there God challenges us to believe and persevere in what He often shows us elsewhere. Sometimes “elsewhere” might have been the last place we expected to hear a dramatic word from God.”

-   Beth Moore from Daniel: Lives of Integrity, Words of Prophecy, Bible Study

With loving friendship,

Brooke