It’s been a full on season for us as a family. Back in May, David and Carrie made the trip over to Turkey for an ANZAC conference. It was a great time of getting Aussies, Kiwis and Turks together for reconciliation and renewing our call to work together. Carrie spent her birthday in Istanbul with a bunch of YWAM friends – definitely a different but fun birthday!!

Then in June, Carrie started making the trek back and forth to Melbourne as her mum wasn’t well. In the midst of this time, David’s mother became ill as well. The short version of the story is that both of our mothers passed away within a month of each other – July 25^th and then August 25^th. We are so grateful for such amazing mothers. They were both faithful Godly women, who passed on a priceless inheritance to their children and grandchildren. It’s quite an adjustment not having them around anymore.

Throughout this time David was also in the final stages of an Executive Masters of Arts in Leadership that has spanned the past 18 months. He had a major thesis due in early August. The upshot was that he finished everything and not only passed but achieved an A!!

During this season, we have been struck by God’s faithfulness in terms of timing and provision. At each step we knew His direction, when Carrie should be in Melbourne, especially as we had to fly to NZ in the middle of her mum being so unwell. Thanks to everyone who helped out financially – we appreciate it!

Our kids are a constant joy to us. Both Nathan and Chloe have significant others in their lives now – they have followed God’s leading and chosen well. Nathan is on staff with us – at the moment he is staffing a School of Worship. Chloe is about to embark on a Nursing degree at Uni next year and is involved with Youth and Creative Teams at her church. Abbey has started working with our media team one afternoon a week after school – she has been filming our YWAM Public Meeting each week, then edits ready to post on our website.

Ministry wise we have just started our biggest quarter ever – we have 72 students. This does pose some accommodation and catering challenges, but we are so excited for the life it will bring to the community – for the first time ever we will have almost equal numbers of staff and students!