Zeke has his first Vision!

As a part of their culture, kids who attend kids church are encouraged to do "soaking time" - where they all lie down and listen to some worship music and ask the Holy Spirit for pictures. Anyway, yesterday when Taff went to her "Raising Tomorrows Leaders" class, Zeke went to kids church and had his first vision (well that he has told us of!)

While driving home, Taff asked him "So how was kids church Zeke?"

He said "Good!"

"So did you guys lie down and listen to some music today?" she asked

"ummm yes!" said Zeke.

So Taff pressed further"Did the Holy Spirit give you any pictures?"

"ummm yes!" said Zeke again.

"Well what did you see honey?" asked Taff excitedly

"ummm I saw a big strong horse, with a big tail and it had 5 eyes"

We are not sure about the interpretation of this yet, but it is SOO COOL to be part of a culture where your kids are naturally opened up to the Holy Spirit and His voice. "Imagine what Zeke will be doing at our age I thought!"

School is AMAZING!

Wow! I (Dave) have been at school now for 4 weeks and I feel like my brain and my heart are getting ripped open and cleaned out every day! This school is AMAZING!

To give you an idea of what my week looks like, I have classes Tuesday to Friday 12:45 - 5:30pm. We have a name tag which we have to wear, and these have to be swiped into machines (like credit card swipers) to clock into classes. We also have to be at 2 church services (which we are rostered into) be part of an outreach, small groups and AMT's (Advanced Ministry Training (I have chosen Prophecy for my AMT)

We have over 800 first year students on our campus (which is the church) and around 650 second year students at another campus called Twin View. We cant meet all together because we are too big for the facilities! From these large groups we are broken down into 'Revival Groups' of 80 people and then from there we are broken down into small groups of 5.

I go to class usually with Bob (a 20 yr old first year student from North Caroliner who loves Tie-dye and skateboarding and is living with us) in his pickup truck, or I ride a girls bike! which we were given or Taff drops me off. We also have started walking sometimes with the kids too now that we have a pram which is cool as we have been blessed with a house not too far away!

The last 4 weeks have been so packed, I feel like I have done 8 weeks of schooling! I have read 4 books in 3 1/2 weeks and about 50 chapters of the bible! (which is a miracle!) (I have 3 more books given yesterday to read!) On each of the books and bible chapters we read we have some questions and reports to answer to help cement some of the learning.

Some of the best things about the school for me so far have been, the amazing presence of the Holy Spirit! I also am finding I am getting more visions here than ever before (which they have told us is because of the open heaven!) God really is speaking soo much to me! Also the theme for first year is understanding 'who you are' in Christ, and this teaching has been phenominal! I have felt like my heart is getting a makeover, it has answered so many questions about why many Christians are powerless and struggling so much and encouraged me that everyone can live a supernatural life and is called to change the world!

Another thing which has been amazing is the apostolic leadership of the church. They are truly here to empower revivalists! They are encouraging us to take risks, that we will make mistakes, and they are giving us the tools that we need to change the world! They literally really believe in training, equipping and sending out world changers! Even the church runs stacks of equipping and empowering courses, of which Taff is doing one called "Raising tomorrows Leaders" - about parenting revivalists.

Sometimes with all the amazing teaching (Sons not Slaves, Righteous not Sinners, Prophecy, Intercession, Sensing God etc) it feels like there aren't enough hours in the day to 'digest it', but I feel like the Holy Spirit is doing a download on me to help out. It is such practical and yet supernatural teaching, I am soo blessed to be here!

I have just chosen my mission trip for March next year. I felt God put some places and leaders on my heart like Mozambique, Chile, Mexico etc I am excited about this and cant wait to see people saved, healed and set free from the works of the devil! In some of these mission trips students have stepped out in obedience to God and seen miracles like - babies raised from the dead, hospital rooms cleared out and hundreds instantly healed in meetings!

The cool thing is also that in our weekly outreaches into Redding the teams are seeing the same thing! I will finish with a story I heard yesterday from the leader of our outreaches. He talked about how he and a team had been out on outreach for almost 2 hours, and seen nothing happen, all their prophecies were off and they saw no-one healed. So as the team moped back to the car to leave, one of them felt the Holy Spirit tell him to go over to a group of youths sitting nearby. He thought "no, nothing is working tonight we will just leave it." But the Holy Spirit convicted him and he decided to walk over the the young people. Anyway he walked over and said "is there any way that we can bless you guys, did you need prayer for anything?" (expecting no real response) And then one of the teenagers takes his shirt off and says "Yeah I have scoliosis (curved spine) can Jesus fix that?" "Sure he can said the leader" So they prayed a 5 second prayer (its not our prayers that heal, its Jesus!) and the top half of his spine straightened instantly! The young people were amazed! So they prayed again, and the bottom half instantly straightened! Then another boy came up with a broken ankle and they prayed for him and he was instantly healed! Then another with a huge bruise from his shoulder to his elbow came up...they prayed...and it shrunk to a 10 cent piece size...then disappeared! More young people got healed and then they led them all to Jesus! HOW AWESOME IS OUR GOD!

And all this in a parking lot of a shopping centre in the afternoon!

I cant wait to see what God is going to do this year in our lives! I just want to thank everyone for making this a possibility! Love heaps! Dave

Home Sweet Home

So much has happened in the past week. It's been an amazing adventure!

We really enjoyed our stay (3 nights) in the shared house. The family were lovely, as were the people that were in there with us. It was such a relief to be with people and know that we weren't chewing at our savings. During our time there we spent countless hours searching for a house and a car. We were offered a 3 brm place in a great area, however the house was really small. It wasn't worth paying the money for the size of it. Prior to being offered that house, we had looked through a massive 3 brm place with a massive yard for only $100 p/m more. We applied that day and were called up at 9am the next morning with the good news that we could rent the house! The great thing about the house is that it is big enough that we have been able to have 2 borders move in to help with rent (more on them later). The house also reminds me (Taff) of my 2 homes in Bendigo. The carpet and the size of the house (and the era) remind me of the house I grew up in in Spring Gully Road. The bathrooms are big and long with really big mirrors. For those who saw our house in Flora Hill, we had a massive mirror in the bathroom. So we feel right at home here. The yard has lots of grassy area for Zeke to play and kick a ball (without it traveling down the hill to a main road!). We were able to move into the house immediately - just had to buy a couple of beds to do that :).

So we have slowly been filling our house with furniture. We have been incredibly blessed! We went to some yard sales on Saturday and got some amazing bargains; 2 swivel/rocking chairs for $15, and a couch for $15 - all had just been steam cleaned and are in beautiful condition. We also got given a single bed with sheets etc which was amazing. We also picked up a swing and slide set for Zeke for $10! Nothing wrong with it! Just needs a coat of paint to make it like new again. We also picked up a big fridge with ice maker for $60. So the place is starting to feel like home.

In the process of setting up, we met the neighbours. It's a really friendly neighbourhood - in fact I would say that Americans in general are so friendly and hospitable and willing to help out. We love it! Dave met our next door neighbours and immediately got an invite over for tea. Their whole family went for dinner also so we met quite a few people that night. The added bonus - they have a beautiful pool with a waterslide, and a tree house for Zeke to play in. Their daughters, Cassidy and Maciah, are 8 and 10 years and Zeke has taken to them quite quickly. Their extended family includes 2 boys aged 3 and 4 which has also been great for Zeke. Corey (our neighbour) kindly helped Dave put Zeke's swing set together and lent him the tools etc to fix it up a bit. They have also given us their password for their internet while we wait for ours to be connected. After knowing them for 24 hours, they offered to look after our kids while we went out for dinner to celebrate our 6th wedding anniversary. Very kind of them!

As I said, we've also had 2 borders move in with us. One of the guys, Tim Parr (from NZ), is a good friend of my sister & brother in law. We'd had a little bit of contact with him prior to coming, then when his accommodation fell through we were able to offer him a place to stay. We then got another guy Bob Carr from Virginia to share the room with him (it's a decent sized room). Both guys and their friend/girlfriend are easy going and lovely people.

Last night we had an extra 2 people in the house! Some of you will know Lindsay Stokes (Mark Stokes dad) from Kyabram. He has connections with Tim Parr's girlfriend Anna. So he rocked up on our doorstep last night and will be staying until he finds a place to live. We also had another girl, Rochelle (friend of Bob) crash on the couch. Thankfully the house is big enough that you don't feel like you're getting in each others way.

We also managed to buy a car. Dave still hasn't gone for his license, but will do that next week (found out is wasn't as urgent as we thought). The lady we bought the car from has been very helpful to us also. She's fixed up a couple of things on the car for us and made sure that we've got a reliable car.

We have been blown away with how many great people we've met - neighbours, housemates, borders, friends, people who helped collect our furniture, car seller etc etc. It's definitely made our transition a whole lot easier.

Sometime over the next couple of days we'll make a short video of our home and post it to the blog so you can see where we're living. If you're interested in our address, just shoot us an email and we'll email it to you.

Dave started school today. I'm sure he's going to love it. I'll miss not having him around all the time like he has been the last couple of weeks, however he only has school for half a day each day so I can't complain! :)

We are all well again. Zeke has settled in to his new home very well. He is much happier now that he's not battling sickness and we've stopped in one location. Jaden - still the same - very easy going and taking it all in his stride :).

Hopefully we'll get the video of our house done soon for you all! Thanks for your prayers, emails and skype calls! It's been a roller-coaster ride but we're enjoying the adventure of it!

Best Western to Community Living!

So today we made a move. Not a move to our house, but to a house where there are about 12 people sharing the facilities! Best Western was becoming quite expensive - 6 nights was enough. We found this couple that rent out beds to people needing short term accommodation. Nice and cheap - $15 per night per bed. So now we at least have a proper kitchen to make use of so we don't have to buy meals or cook with only a microwave. There are people sleeping in a bungalo out the back, people sharing rooms in the house, people sleeping in caravans out the front and us; we are sleeping in the garage (yes a car garage), but it's not as bad as it seems! They have made it quite homely in here for us. There are other advantages too - lots of people to talk to and find out local knowledge, acres for Zeke to play with, animals and toys for Zeke, piano for Taff, some handy man work for Dave if he so desires, a nice deck area to sit on rather than being stuck inside, and just being around people who love God and care about you. Tonight we shared a BBQ with heaps of people (extras came) to celebrate Labor Day over here. It was really nice to finally meet some people.

We will be staying here until we find a home. We have prospect of one available on Thursday, and another that isn't available for another 30 days. We'll also be looking for others the remainder of this week. Dave was reminding us today of the message we heard at Planetshakers the sunday prior to us leaving Australia; Neil Smith was talking about Jacob and how he wanted to dig a well but was being blocked by the locals. But he persisted because he had such a conviction about doing it. That's how we feel right now; trying to lay foundations down in the form of a home, but nothing is coming up. We'll keep persisting because we have such a strong conviction that this is where God wants us at the moment.

We attended Bethel Church for the first time yesterday. We went to the 11am service which was so packed that even the overflow room was overflowing! We were in the overflow room for the service. It was a great time of worship - totally free, and a great message. The 6pm service was also full. We had to leave early as it hit 8pm (yes, long service, but totally worth it) and the kids needed food and bed. We're looking forward to getting involved more in the church rather than just walking in and walking out.

So tomorrow Dave will be going for his license, so we can legally drive a car that we will buy (haven't found one yet, but hire car has to be back on Thursday!). Please pray for him! He's a little worried. :) Taff will go for hers at another time. We only need one person to have it in order to buy the car.

Thanks again for all your emails! Keep sending them through. xx

San Francisco

This post is a bit delayed due to the busyness of trying to get set up in Redding! But anyway, here it is!

As we said in previous posts, the trip to San Fran was long and hard due to Zeke not being well. We stayed in a beautiful place - had to start getting used to tipping everyone. Kind of a strange thing, but we have asked a few people and think we've got the hang of what to tip! We were staying in an area called 'Union Square' (the heart of SF that doesn't sleep!). The shops around there were beckoning Taff! But she resisted...at least for now. Will head back down once the baby fat is gone :). Who's coming over for a shopping trip???

We explored the hills of San Fran - just like what you'd see in the movies (ie girls, like in Princess Diaries! Boys, like all the cool car chase movies). They are amazingly steep. We walked across (well half way across) the Golden Gate bridge. It's an amazing structure. Lucky for us the half that we walked was fairly clear - even blue sky. The other half was covered in cloud - a common thing apparently. There are many Piers in San Fran; the most famous being Pier 39. We looked around there; saw 1002 sea lions sleeping on wooden boards in the bay (wild, loud and smelly). Quite an interesting place. We drove past a store called 'Big Dogs' which we found amusing as that's the nickname Dave uses for Zeke :) - and every other male he knows. Unfortunately Taff didn't stop the car to take a photo of it :).

We are looking forward to heading back to San Fran someday. It was a really beautiful and interesting place - only downfall is that it's cold!

We've now been in Redding for 5 days (stripped down to the shorts again). We are staying in a Best Western while we look for a house. We've finding it hard to know what to do first. You need a social security number for a credit check to get a house, but to get a number you need ID, but to get ID you need an address. Same with a car - you need to get a license, but to get that you need an address. Bit confusing, but we'll get there. Please keep praying for a house, car and our health!

We will head to our first Church service at Bethel this sunday. Will be a bit bizarre walking into a place that you will call home for the next little while when you've never been there. We're looking forward to meeting some people though! Missing you all! Please keep sending us comments and emails! We love to hear from you. xx