August/Sept 2010

We thought it was about time we blogged again! Well, the kids had the usual 3 months off school for the summer and we had a week of that in Florida - it was such a good break and sooooo relaxing (well, as relaxing as walking round Seaworld can be in 100 degrees of heat!)

Rhiana and Jordan are doing really well back at school. Rhiana is now in 10th Grade High School and studying Art, French and Chemistry this year. Jordan is now in 8th Grade Middle School and taking High School classes in Math and Science.

REVIVE is still crazy busy and we are just in the process of taking on a new venue - it will be called RESTORE and will be our 'Sale Shop' and also be the venue for RESTORE offices for Trish and myself! We are excited about this - although it is making lots of extra work for Trev! Please pray for the work we are doing amongst the community - there are many people in need of help and lots of them are homeless. We are still taking cooked meals out, on our 'Friday Food Drop' to at least 7 homeless men and women in the area but we are aware of others (and are in the process of finding them!) Two of the guys we serve on a regular basis are regularly attending Jubilee Church and on the set up team, arriving at 7.45am to get things ready for the service! We have been amazed to see 3 of them complete ALPHA and are currently praying that God would add 'Cowboy' to us - we are helping to pay his weekly rent at a local motel, since he was struggling to survive the heat during the summer. Please pray that he finds some employment, so that we can get him set up with his own room before the winter sets in (believe it or not, it can get really cold in Atlanta!) Please also continue to pray for Kenna, she is the lady with the brain tumor that I mentioned earlier in the year. Kenna is now committed to Jubilee Church, volunteering at REVIVE and helping on our Friday Food Drop regularly. It has been wonderful to have her living with a family in the church and God is really blessing her. Please pray, however, that Kenna would know God's healing and that she would be granted her disability payment. She has been fighting for this for almost 3 years now and we currently have an attorney to help her. She lives on an incredibly small amount of money each month - not enough to even pay for one week's rent in a motel, but she remains so cheerful and is a blessing to everyone that knows her!

We have now converted our basement, enabling us to have more people live here (or come visit!) and that has been really useful over the past few months. Trev and I finished painting today and are now really looking forward to both his, and my, parents coming out to visit before the end of the year!

God has been so good and we are incredibly grateful for his continued blessing and grace in our lives. The challenges are numerous but we are excited about the plans that God has for Atlanta and we believe we are going to see some amazing answers to prayer as we walk into the promises he has for us this coming year!

We love you all very much and look forward to keeping in touch with you all over the next few months.

Update - April 2010 (at last!!)

Sorry it's taken so long! Where does the time go?

This will be a brief update, just to let you where things are at with us all.

Rhiana is doing so well. She has just had her 1 year check, since her spine surgery last April. She is doing great and is now able to swim and dance and bend (a little!) She is limited in her movement in her right arm and will start physio on that soon but apart from that, she is doing great. She still has some restrictions in her breathing too and walking uphill gets to her badly, but in the main, she copes really well! Jordan has just got over a huge bout of 'poison ivy' attack! For those of you who are not familiar with poison ivy - it's straight from the devil!.. and it grows in my yard! He was out building a camp in the woods last week and two days later was smothered in a violent, weeping, sore, itchy rash over his whole body and face! Thankfully, it has almost cleared up and he is back to his soccer and basketball. Trev is now working 3 days in REVIVE and 2 days for JUBILEE CHURCH. This has been really good and has enabled him to take on more eldership / pastoral responsibilities. Tracy is still working voluntarily for RESTORE and we have now been able to help support around 25-30 individuals / families. We are currently looking for a venue for Tracy and Trish to work from - please pray into this - we have a couple of options right now but are really looking for God's leading on this.

We still have Kyle and Sonya living with us and are thrilled to report that they have just celebrated 60 days sobriety! God is REALLY teaching them so much and they have experienced so much blessing as they walk in obedience to His will. Both of them have recently got great new jobs and are saving for a place of their own, possibly moving out in the summer. It has been such a privilege to see the miracles God has been doing in their lives - it truly has been so exciting and we have loved having them as a part of our family.

God has recently been speaking to us about 'restoring homes' (as in 'makeovers') and we have already have at least one house to work on for an elderly lady in the community. We would appreciate your prayers into this new venture too. Please pray for favor from businesses in the community - that they would be open to donating materials, time, money, etc to make these transformations possible for families in the community who need help.

Well, that's a very brief overview of the past few months! We now have (the majority of) our Green Card Application in with an attorney and would really appreciate your prayers for favor with Immigrations. This is a fairly long process, so we probably won't hear anything for a number of months.

Thank you all for your continued support - it's always soooo good to hear from many of you on the phone / by email.