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.

September/October 2009

Well, for some reason, the last update I wrote, did not save - sorry to all those who are trying to stay up to date with things here in Atlanta. I will try and give you a quick overview of the past 4 months!

Rhiana is doing really well. She is now enjoying 'High School' full time. She is now at 6 months post-op and has a month full of appointments and tests. She will have another MRI at the end of this month, which will determine how things have turned out with her spine surgery. She is having some pain in her left shoulderblade at the moment and is still very limited in the activities she can do (still nothing other than walking and a bit of bike riding). She is finding creative ways of picking things up (her feet are now her second set of hands!) and she is still unable to carry anything heavy. She has been diagnosed with 'Restrictive Lung Disease' since her surgery. This is due to one of her lungs being compressed by the spine - the curve was around 80 degrees and was pushing on the lung, compressing it. They had hoped that once the curve was corrected, the lung would re-inflate - however this is not the case ..... yet! Please continue to pray for Rhiana - it's still quite a battle for her and yet she remains her very cheerful and optimistic self! Love her!

Jordan is doing very well in Middle School and still loving Math! (something I cannot understand for the life of me!) He is doing really well in his new soccer team - so far they have won all their matches this season. He has continued to enjoy playing both accoustic and electric guitar and has now joined the worship band and plays twice a month - plays and jumps around the stage!!

Trev is still working full-time at REVIVE and loving every minute of it! The store is still growing (actually, it's bursting at the seams!) We have now employed over 20 part-time staff, from both the church and the community. Four of our staff have recently become Christians and two of them have now been baptised!!!!! SO EXCITING! We have recently had two other Newfrontiers churches send people to get training in starting a consignment store in their area and we really look forward to seeing those start and flourish. It really has been such a God-inspired idea in helping Church Planting!

RESTORE (the new initiative with the poor in our community) has already been affecting those around us. We are currently do a 'food run' every Friday, taking hot food and drinks to the homeless in Acworth and Woodstock. Through doing this, we have met a number of great guys (and gals), one of whom is now attending church and on the current ALPHA course!!! He has also just signed up to help on the 'set up' team on Sunday morning and has joined the team on the weekly 'food runs' to serve others in the same situation as himself! We are also serving a single lady who lives near to REVIVE who is very unwell with a brain tumor. She is struggling financially and having to live in a room at a long-stay motel. She cannot get out easily, can't drive and has almost become homeless twice since we got to know her. She has started attending Jubilee and we have someone from the church meeting with her weekly, to take her out shopping/for coffee etc. Please pray especially for a couple we are involved with helping. We got to know them around Christmas last year, after they had been living in their car. They are now coming to church and have both felt that they want to commit their lives to God and make some major changes in their lives. This has not been easy for them - in fact, it has been a HUGE battle. Please pray that God will give them both the strength they need, in getting help and trusting Him to provide for them in that. At times it has felt too much for them and yet they are still pressing forward. Please also pray for wisdom in how we should help them. We are very involved in their lives right now and are really relying on God's leading and sustaining in this very difficult situation.

Well, the sun is out and the floods have pretty much subsided around us - it was a really bad couple of weeks for a lot of neighborhoods around us. For those that hadn't heard, we had major flooding here a couple of week's ago. Many have lost their homes, and belongings. Temporary shelters where put up in various counties, and hundreds of people were evacuated and will now be trying to get their lives back on track as the shelters close. Please pray that we, as a church, will be able to bless many of these families, through REVIVE and RESTORE and that our resources stretch far enough to do so!

Thank you all for your on-going prayers and love and support. We really look forward to being back at Christmas for a couple of weeks and seeing some of you then!

God bless!

May Update

Well, Rhiana's progress has been amazing. She is now pretty much doing everything for herself - except bending and lifting - this she is not allowed to do for a couple of months yet. She will not be able to do any sport/exercise for a year but other than that she is doing great. She is 3 inches taller (same height as Mum now and still growing!!!), she is beautifully straight and learning to keep her new posture (since a lot of her muscles were so over-stretched before the surgery). She is no longer in pain which is wonderful and on no medication now! PRAISE THE LORD. She is able to now sit for long periods of time, without getting back ache (which was such a problem with the curve!) One thing we would really appreciate your prayers on - Rhiana now has a shunt in her spinal column, which is to drain off any fluid. As you know, after her brain surgery last year, she was experiencing a lot of headaches, which was because of a build up of fluid on her spinal column. In the past couple of weeks Rhiana has had a couple of fairly mild headaches when laughing or coughing and we would we ask that join us in praying that the fluid would not build up again and that the shunt (which is now surrounded with metal work and solid bone!) would do it's job and that she would be 'headache free' again! Rhiana will resume school in August when she starts High School!
Jordan is anxiously awaiting for school to end this Friday! He will then have 10 weeks holiday before starting Middle School! He is done extremely well this year and is especially happy to have been asked to join the worship team at Church, playing accoustic/electric guitar! He is trying out for a new soccer club this week and hopes to make the team so that he can get some play in during the summer holiday.
Trev has recently been asked to join the Leadership Team at Jubilee Church as an Elder which we are excited about and would appreciate your prayers towards. He is very busy, managing REVIVE, which is continually growing and making more money! We now have almost 4,000 consigners which is pretty mind-blowing. The challenge is continuing to grow in the space that we have (whoever thought that we couldn't fill 8,000 square feet was SO wrong!)
Tracy is really enjoying heading up RESTORE - Jubilee's latest initiative in helping the poor in the community. We are currently helping 9 families/individuals with varying needs and are now praying towards a venue that we can work from and would appreciate your prayers in finding somewhere and the provision of finances to rent the space. One of the ladies who came to us for help back in December last year, is now coming to church regularly with her husband and is being baptised this week!!! We are VERY excited about what God has in store for this community and are looking forward to seeing many peoples lives 'restored' and brought into the Kingdom!
That's about all for now! Thank you all for your continued love and support - we appreciate you all so much! God bless.

Sorry for the long delay in updates. Rhiana is doing very well. She is getting more and more active. We still have to help her get out of bed but she is taking walks up the road now. It is great to see her strengthening day by day and we still have not gotten used to how she looks so tall and elegant! She is still sleeping in the living room but she did do the stairs 3 times yesterday so that could soon change. Thank you so much for your prayers, love and support.

WE ARE HOME!!!!! The pain doctors prescribed a new pain killer for Rhiana that is in the form of a patch that lasts 3 days. We decided to go with it and just come home and try it out rather than stay in hospital. So far so good. The great thing is that we do not have to wake her during the night to give her pills. The car Journey was just about bearable for her. Thank you all for your prayers.

Hi Everyone! Rhiana is doing well. Infact we have the all clear to go home as soon as they get her pain medication sorted. A bit frustrating really as they should have done more about that by now. However, hopefully we will be home tomorrow. Rhiana can walk now with no other support than just my hand. We can almost get her out of bed with only one of us helping her. Please pray re the painful journey home.

Good news! Rhiana has just emptied her bladder! We think that we have finally got the medication rite too!! Her breathing is still an issue but it has improved. She is still not eating but that is not too unusual. Thank you so much for your prayers. Rhiana is doing well with walking, tomorrow she has to attempt going up 5 steps.