T2 - Week Seven

Garth's download first: It was hard - Lena said it all; "She can't go a minute without her love" - but he had to go for a week!(Apologies to those that aren't Eurovision fans). Garth was lost, with half of himself in Nowra so it was a great relief to be able to pull himself back together at the end of the week when Cass returned (and she came home an evening earlier!). But the kids were good to him until the end of the week when Cass' absence started to take its toll on Ezri - waking up frequently at night and demanding snuggles during the day, so nothing got done. All in all, though, the time did NOT bode well for the three week absence that will occur in a months time. We did get Linda to come over on Friday night so that we could go out for Chinese, just the two of us, to get to know one another again. Then, Mark Glenn took Garth to see Prince of Persia, so the week ended on a high note.

Cass' download:(Here we go!) Well, to start at the end, it was soooo nice to come home and the kids were very welcoming on my return! I was even given a Lego Movie on DVD made by Rykr and Kael - it was awesome and cute! I love my kids!

As for Prac week - 4 Church services, 1 Youth Group, 1 Nursing Home service, 3 school Chapel services, 1 Bible Study, 1 Home church with dinner service for 'challenged' people, 1 school lunch time group and HEAPS of High school Scripture lessons later......... That was my week. It was lots of work, long days and hard not to feel like to odd one out but I did love it. I was encouraged to meet lots of High School scripture teachers and Chaplins and I learnt a lot from them. I loved seeing God work in the classrooms - especially with the rough ones, where the kids are ratty and rude but in no time at all they have settled and are listening to every word. On 2 occasions the class clowns who made our task challenging turned around and apologised, shook our hands and then hang around to chat at lunch! The other Capernwray students had so many 'up front' talents and I was pleased to be a part of their team but my niche was giving my devotional talks in the class room and small group time, when you really get the talk and find out where the kids are at. Over the course of the week I don't think I spent very much time feeling 'comfortable' but I have to say that all my dear friends were right - I was exactly where God wanted me to be and as hard as it was to work with a team that were so different to me, I loved the work we did! And by the generosity of my team leader and the other team members I was excused from staying to do the classes on Friday and that is why I came home early.

I have learnt that I really want to be High school scripture teacher....so let's see what happens in the future but in the mean time I will pray!

T2 - Week Six

The week was all mixed up and was probably the most challenging both mentally and emotionally. At Capernwray I basically spent all week preparing for Prac Week. The Prac team I am in is going to Nowra and we will be teaching scripture lessons to High school students plus visiting nursing homes and bible studies and church services. The idea is for us to get hands-on experience of sharing Christ with other people. I love the work we will be doing, but I feel like such a third wheel on the team. They are all 18-19yr olds and then there is me... And the idea of being away from the family for 8 nights was not fun either.
Well, Thursday come and I travelled down (with all my friends i.e. no one came in my car) to ‘All saints’ Anglican Church in Nowra. The whole trip I spent questioning why I was going because I have taught scripture for 5 years and I have had plenty of experience in sharing God with lots of different people... but I knew I needed to go at least for Friday because we had 2 seminars to run at a high school and I was involved in them, so I couldn’t let the side down. But God is good and calmed me down to help focus on what needed to be done. That night I spent at my billot’s house and they were lovely – just a mum and her working daughter – I got on with them immediately.
Friday morning was an early start and I was keen to get the day over. I loved seeing all the students and we presented the same seminar once to year 9 and then to year 10. Our team sung songs, performed a drama, gave testimonies, talks and showed videos we had made. It was a great programme. I was really only involved in the drama so most of the time I spent off stage praying. It was hard to feel a team member when I had no up-front talents to use but God knew that and after the last seminar I spotted some girls hanging around outside the school hall and so I went out to them- they then spent the whole of their lunch time talking with me about lots of heavy stuff with a bit of general life and fun thrown in too. What a blessing! I love that kind of thing and it was a great way to finish the day.
That evening I went back home, desperate to see the family and I was glad I did – so glad that I stayed home for 2 nights and left early Sunday morning to return to the team for the rest of Prac week. It was great to hang out with Garth and the kids – we went shopping, we went to the skate park and Saturday night was family night so I was pleased to be able to stay and hang with the boys and play cards with them.


The week for everyone else consisted of routine, routine, routine.....routine is good. But to include some events that we missed blogging about previously: Garth did take the boys one afternoon to see Iron Man 2 which was awesome and set up for Thor (nerds will know what that means!); somewhere in here I had the pleasure of cutting the hair of a toddler that wasn't my own; the kids are thriving at going to the skate park almost everyday; And Garth conquered 'Dragon Age' which took 78 hours and then 'Portal' which took just over 2 hours (again, nerds will know what Garth is talking about here, for this is what he gets up to when Cass is at night lectures).

I also had another meeting for my trip to India where we organised our visas and I went to the doctors and received 4 needles and more scripts for other recommended medications to take with me! I am looking forward to it but my brain is solely focused on getting through prac week.....

T2 - Week Five

Lectures this week were delivered from Peter Thomsett who is a school Chaplin from Sydney and he spoke on evangelism but because he was travelling each time we only had 8 lectures from him. They were great though and he gave us a great booklet that he developed called ‘Harvesting harvesters’. It was a week that I had to do a bible study on this topic so I pick Matthew 28:19-20 and really enjoyed my time researching for the study.
Monday was a lengthy but informative visit to the GP with the other 3 students going to India. The doctor was so helpful in letting us know what to avoid and how to avoid it and I was really pleased to have organised it.
‘Quiet Day’ at Capernwray was Tuesday and I finished reading a great book called The Saving Life of Christ. Then I read the whole of Deuteronomy and was quite depressed by the end of it. There is Moses, warning his people of how to stay out of trouble over and over again and then at the end of the book God says to Moses – you know what Moses, these people are going to do all those dumb things anyway – and what made me more depressed was that I understood exactly how that feels when I say the same thing over and over to my kids and they do the dumb things anyway! BUT that night all the students and staff got together to share and I was so encouraged to remember that God is in our every day and today is the day that matters – even though dumb stuff happens, God gets us through it all – Forgiving us and teaching us and loving us! What a great God!
Garth attempted to sell Brownies through the church – the first time was successful, the second left us with unsold batches. So, he has discovered that it is not the way to start a business and perhaps we need to get a Face Book Page going and then just cook to orders...what do you think? Otherwise for the most part of the week Garth just followed the routine and assimilated the knowledge that he didn't have his wife around for 1 day last weekend, the whole weekend this week and then the entire week the week after and THEN for 3 weeks in July!!!! Crazy!

Kael had a fun excursion this week to the Maritime Museum with his class at school. He came home suitably tired and full of outrageous stories! He is such a great story teller - we just wish he could spit his words out with a bit more clarity sometimes, but his passion to get the the end of the story overcomes the need to say all the words properly.
I have to admit though, that the highlight for me this week was the CWCI women’s convention that I attended near Yass. I travelled down with some of my dearest friends and the whole weekend was such a great time of catching up with them. The theme for the weekend was ‘where is your focus?’ and the speaker lead her talks based on the differences between King Saul and King David – and it was awesome! I felt like I should be in lectures again and I could have easily taken pages of notes but thankfully the speaker was happy to send me her notes so I look forward to receiving them. The food at the camp site was fabulous and the fellowship with all those Godly women was amazing. What a great ministry CWCI is!

T2 - Week Four

This week I enjoyed working with 4 other Capernwray students to programme and run Snac – the Sunday night service for the community. It all seemed to fall into place quite quickly and the team worked really well together. I started off the most enthusiastic member dragging the others along but by the actual night the tides had turned. I was lacking energy and desire to be there but the rest of the team were now excited and I was glad to have them there. We presented a really effective skit and we all got to talk- my bit was on surrendering to God and how that is a good thing. That we don’t surrender out of defeat but out of trust. The whole night went smoothly and lots of people enjoyed it.
The Lectures were hosted by Jerry Benjamin – an American Christian Jew – and he spoke at great length and in great detail about ‘Revelation’. I Loved it! He focused on Christ throughout this book and clearly explained lots of bits I never understood before and gave me a great ‘over all’ view of how this book fits into the Bible. My brain (and writing hand!) got a thorough workout!
Friday night we invited 2 of the students around for dinner, then Garth left so we could have some girl-time chatting and I taught them how to knit and make teddy bears and after they left their was still enough time to have my dear Linda around for our normal Friday night of 'Monk' - It was great and I showed off my crochet blanket I finally finshed!

Saturday though, I took one of the students who got engaged at the beginning of the year, wedding dress shopping. We took 3 other students too and travelled to Canberra, since these Canadians hadn’t visited there yet. I was such a great day and we decided that Taralyn looked fabulous in every dress! She could even get away with wearing the really wild dresses – what a hassle to be beautiful! I was glad to be a part of this special day but when I look back on it, it must have seemed quite weird to the rest of the world to see four 19 year old girls walking around with me.... I decided I could probably get away with looking like the mother of the bride! Oh well!
School for the boys involved their NAPLAN test – stupid government tests designed to rank your child’s academic abilities against every other child of the same age in to the state. Really, who cares as long as my babies are doing their best!!!! Garth wants to know where they will hold the ‘Battle Royale’ to rank your child’s physical abilities – boy, would ours kick butt then!
Garth’s routine is established: Mondays – Playgroup; Tuesday – Firewood and girls go to Ma and Puppa’s for some much needed grandparent spoiling; Wednesday – is fondly named ‘Garth’s weekend’ as the girls go to Libby’s for the morning, involving lots of friends and playing!; Thursday – catch up on house work that has been ignored from the first 3 days of the week and Friday – is shopping and preparation for the weekend! What a man... could I get any better!
(This week we forked out hundreds of dollars on immunisations for my trip to India...Scary!)

T2 Week Three

The Special Edition of Ray Andrews Lectures will come.... I promise! Hang in there!



The third week of this term ended with Mother's Day! What a delightful time of receiving special little gifts that were hand picked from my children - note pads and pens and nice comfy bed socks! I loved my breakfast in bed and I also shared a peaceful afternoon tea with my parents.

Capernwray was a bit mixed up this week and we ended up spending about 5 periods doing Prac Week preparation and the rest was spent studying an introduction/overview of the New Testament. I really enjoyed the latter... especially walking through Paul's life and seeing where all his letters were written and why. We even ended with getting an insight into the 5 main views of how people interpret the book of Revelation.

Prac Week is as it sounds - a week where a team of students are sent out to do practical ministry and the one I am going on is down to Nowra being involved in High School Scripture. We will need to programme and deliver a 60min seminar on the first day and then go to various public High schools and help conduct their scripture lessons for the following week. It should be a really great time of sharing with others the light we have. But more on that when it happens.

The kids are loving visiting the local skate park most days and school has been amazingly uneventful. There is always the love/hate tiffs that happen between the boys and I can happily say that this is starting the develop between the girls too, proving they are normal after all.

Garth has been very productive in providing lots of fire wood for our family and our house now has that cosy winter atmosphere. He seems to be travelling along better than a couple of weeks ago and has incorporated going to a playgroup for the girls once a week into his weekly timetable. It sounds like such a great playgroup... it's ran by the local Anglican church who provide activities, play, craft, sandwiches, fruit, stories and music for 3 hours for only $2! Wow! Garth took the opportunity to thank and encourage the ladies who serve God in this way and I hope that he will be able to share in the ministry too by being 'on the ground' among the parents. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be other Dads there... but give it time.

My trip to India is looking more likely to happen as confirmed at a meeting that we had this week. At this stage it will be for the first 3 weeks of July. Please pray for our family regarding this and praise God for His amazing faithfulness in all of these plans!

T2 - Week Two

We had a lovely start to our week celebrating my brother's birthday with all the family - even the potential in-laws for Paul! (Which gave everyone the licence to make numerous digs about them getting married and having kids asap! Poor things!) We dined on hot dogs and cake and shared lots of laughs together. We were at Fitzroy Falls but the kids stopped exploring the bush when Ezri came out and showed me the little thing crawling up her leg...a leech! Yuk! We found a few more and informed the kids of what these suckers do and that deterred them from wondering off too far. My niece and nephew then came over for a sleepover where Garth imparted more of his baking secrets with the kids. Good fun all around. But I have to say I was sad to find out that I didn't have Monday off for Anzac Day.... oh well - our Lecturer made up for any disappointment!

Rev. Dr. Ray Andrews (sounds important doesn't he?). And there I was thinking it was going to be a challenging week! No no no! It was a week of freedom - what an awesome message of remembering that it is all about God not about ourselves and our flaws! We can never be good enough for God and that's the point - He loves us! With all of Ray's experiences and teachings we had a full 18 lectures from him and I think I have RSI in my hand from writing so much. I could have listened for another 18 lectures, no worries! This message he brought was nothing new, no secret formula - just pure gospel! But I could go on and on and on so I thought I would write a more in depth Blog as a special edition - Check it out if you want to know more!

The kids had only four days at school this week and one of them was the Sports Carnival. They had a great day, participated in a few events and played 'gofa' for their favourite teacher - Mr J. The boys were spoiled with a trip to the movies to see Iron Man 2 on Thursday and they came home blabbering about all the details... a good sign of a good time! I spent another quiet afternoon with just the girls and I'm scared to admit it, but I do actually miss having that. They are such sweeties and I enjoyed being productive around the house while singing, playing and laughing with them.

I have failed to mention that I have still be able to meet up with my dear friend Libby most weeks this year and sometimes I turn up early enough to meet with the Bible Study Mums too. Wednesday mornings have been very important in my life for a couple of years so it is nice to be able to keep some contact and not feel too out of it. Garth had taken to dropping Ezri and Swae for that morning so that they get some "social interaction" will the plethora of other kids there and he gets some "computer interaction" (aka time out). He has had a normal week of shopping and cleaning and washing and playing and walking and cuddling and consoling and being fed-up with it all and ignoring everything! Ah, the joys of motherhood... umm.. I mean...stay at home Dad!

Other points of interest: Rykr got a filling is his tooth, I lost 2 gold fish (which inspired a change of location to the kitchen), Swae had an immunisation needle, both boys have developed an interest in Scootering down at the skate park (my SK8R boys!!!!) which will now take over from indoor soccer (and its free apart from the scooters we had to buy) AND last week Garth meet intimately with 1000's of bricks as they were shuffled from the front yard to the back yard of a friends place - what work out! (ps - I'm thinking I might be taking a short trip to India.... but maybe it's just the journey before that counts...will let you all know when I do)

T2- Week one

STOP PRESS : I forgot to mention that I also enjoyed a fantastic night with the book club girls during my holidays. What could be better that sitting around with 4 other godly women discussing and encouraging each other over God's word with cuppas and crochet (for me at least) in hand? Praise God that this time is set aside to honour him and grow us. Thanks ladies! AND our family enjoyed a lovely afternoon/evening in the hospitality of the Saul's with 2 other families on the last Saturday of the holidays. The kids had such a gorgeous time and the adults actually had grown up conversations without too many interruptions. Another great time with great people! Spoiled.

Garth found it very difficult to get back to the grind stone - in fact half of his week has been a dismal failure when it came to house work - just couldn't get back into the groove. Well, at least that is what he thinks. It has been quieter and therefore more enjoyable but he is missing me greatly...Likewise, baby! Swae has been diligently getting up at 5:30am (thank you day light saving) and Garth now has to get up at 4am if he wants to go for a walk - you can imagine how successful he has been. We are both finding the effect of getting out of bed for exercise very challenging at the moment...ho hum... A pray point would be: deciding what playgroup Garth should start attending with the girls. Thanks

Ezri started this week with a fresh hair cut - taking off a couple of inches has meant far less time is being spent grizzling when I brush it each day! The boy's hair was also attacked by scissors (by me) and returned to school looking less like beach-bums - but still messy boys! Although they were less than enthusiastic about the routine of school again, both have settled into the new term a-okay.

Capernwray this week has been ever so challenging with the topic in lectures being 'Servanthood of the Believer' delivered by Satish John. This is a man I have heard and read about for probably 15 years through other Christian friends who work with him in India, so it was a great pleasure to actually meet him. Tuesday morning I presented a devotion to the students and staff and I also delivered a very brief testimony on Thursday morning. A lot of the students have been tired this week and have found it hard to get back into the swing of it, most of all me. This time around I think I have less adrenalin and I am aware what I am missing out on with family time. But alas, it will be great and as I have started preparing the Bible study I have to write and present next week, I have fallen in love with studying God's word in such depth all over again! Ministry work recommenced which for me is scripture teaching in Moss Vale High. Although I have taught Years 10 and 11 for 5 years voluntarily, I haven't been in a class with years 7 and 8 before - but I am also loving that age group too. What a fantastic opportunity we have to teach public school kids the gospel!! Praise God.

Last night was casual girls night at Capers and I enjoyed having some down-time with them, I even taught 5 of them to crochet! I will make grannies out of them yet!

I would appreciate prayer for this week coming - Ray Andrews will be teaching EVERY lecture and I have this 'feeling' that it will be a gruelling time for me but probably the best week ever. Ah, the anticipation of change.

Week nine and holidays

It is hard to remember the last week of term one - it seems so long ago! I know it was only 4 days long and that I received some great marks back for my work but other than that.....?

Our speaker for the week was a Jewish Scholar Arnold Fruechtenbaum and he actually lead us through a passover meal (the short version cause it only took 1 1/2 hours). Our family went and Garth had to take the girls home after the main meal because they lost the plot. On the other hand I was SO proud of my boys for trying all the different food rituals and participating. It was an interest night that gave you a glimpse of the connections between what the Jews had been doing for so many years and how it all related to Jesus and how he made sense out of it all. Simply amazing stuff! Arnold then went through the 8 covenants (well, time only allowed us to cover 5 in lectures) and that was heavy but so interesting! Even hearing how he became a Christian... God is great! Jesus is weaved throughout the whole Bible, from beginning to end, even though these books where written over thousands of years.... wow!

Easter weekend took us down the coast for a day having Pixi-photos of the girls and then the beach. It was a lovely day that inspired Garth and the boys to return in the last week of holidays with the caravan in tow for an overnight stay at Corrimal Beach. Their only agenda "BEACH"! They had great guy-time and I enjoyed a very peaceful, quiet house with my girls. Everyone was happy.

The middle weekend found me hosting a 'How to host a murder' evening and I loved having some of my friends around for food and fun. I didn't realise just how much I missed everyone during term! This particular episode was set in China and everyone was suitably dressed up - a great night of laughs!

The closing weekend of the holidays saw the completion of our house being fully carpeted! Brent King willing came with 2 more lots of carpet for the boys rooms and also finished our stair case - The house looks like a million bucks and it cost us nothing! What an awesome gift to receive from such a cheerful giver! What a blessing from our Christian friends!

(Garth here. Cass would never tell you, but she has been doing REALLY well at Capers. ALL of her work has received 'A's with some 'A+'s as well. She did receive a 'B' for a group effort, but that was a GROUP effort, and we all know how those can go sometimes... Praise to God, and kudos to Cass!)

Week Eight

Just one week to holidays!
Capernwray spoiled us with (dare I say) the best lecturer yet! Ken Legg is a Pastor of a church in Queensland and runs small group programs, Check out www.small-groups-ministries/ken-legg This week we did 'The Identity Driven Life'. It is a 10 session course which uncovers all the lies you have been taught in life about were to find your worth and value eg. through other people, through achievement etc. And also what has developed in your "filter" because of these lies and hence why you react to things the way you do. I learned sooooo much about myself and the need to believe God's truths over mans lies. I am the person God created and He loves me. With God all things are possible and His Spirit lies within me, teaching me and growing me to be all I can be in Christ. This all sounds very familiar hey? But do you act on your faith? I was really challenged over the course of the week and I look forward to shedding my old warped ideas that the world feeds you and living in the truth found in God's word.
On Tuesday we had the pleasure of having 3 of the students around for dinner and we even ate the first of our garden grown vegetable's... well we had some silver beet but it was yummy. Unfortunately, the next thing growing in our patch was this zucchini (pictured) who, even after so much love and attention as the first fruits, stayed this size for over a week and eventually got eaten by our enemies (grubs)! And after picking off a gallery of green caterpillars and little yellow eggs from the white butterflies, I invested in some Yates Garden Dust and relished in see the little attackers squirm! Here, Here to their impending deaths!
Garth's week was... actually, see if you can guess what his week was like: It started with girls having High temps, he attended lots of night calls from screaming girls, went through boxes of tissues hoping to save clothes and carpet from "Number 11's" (runny noses) for days on end, feeling exhausted from wearing one in particular child on his hip all day, and his ears hurt from all the whinging and crying that resulted from their conditions. To top it off, Friday produced the worst shopping trip in existence as he cruised the isles with not 1 but 2 tantruming girls attracting all the typical undesired looks from onlookers. And if you think it can't get much worse, today he has developed his re-occurring eye condition AGAIN, just weeks after the last flair up (usually they are months to a year apart). So, needless to say, Garth had the worst week ever!
Yet hope is on the wind with holidays in grabbing distance and he enjoyed a evening at the movies with Kael seeing "How to train your dragon" - apparently it was awesome. Thankfully he has had plenty of opportunities to zone out and play the computer this week (because I have needed to do lots of study) thus filling his 'coping skills' tank!
Our boys are going REALLY well with school and participated in the cross country this week. Both of them were tired but enjoy themselves. Homework is not the saga it use to be although still not easy but oh, so much better! They have both received Encouragement Award Certificates from their teachers - the fine young man in them is emerging.
I also enjoyed a brief farewell party to our dear friend Amanda - her smiling face and positive witness will be greatly missed in the Southern Highlands - actually her whole family will be missed. Praise God for them and may they know His faithfullness all the more as they embark on a new journey for Him.
And we had more carpert laid upstairs on Saturday by our great mate, Brent King - What a servant heart he has! Sometimes I have to stop and remember that Garth and I have only earned less than $500 since December the 10th last year and we are still here! Only in God could we have the security we have and the blessings that have come from stepping out in faith.

Week Seven

So, what happened this week..... Garth went gallivanting with the rest of the house wives to the park coming back truly feeling like one of the girls. He shared in the "shopping and washing" conversation but doesn't doesn't quite fit in by letting our 18 month old daughter climb a 2 story high slide by herself without adult supervision; the legacy of having 2 sons! Garth's biggest moment this week was preaching this last Sunday, first time at this church - and all went awesomely! Although he was nervous, he received lots of conformation from God before hand that what he had chosen to speak about was spot-on : Fasting! Although, it was a brief time spent behind the pulpit, Garth enjoyed the experience and even came home quoting that he would do that again! The subject lead a some good conversations among the congregation and hopefully God has inspired some more people to look further into the subject themselves.

Midweek, we hosted a dinner for my family group from Capernwray and by request, we dinned on the sorts of foods you would expect to get for breakfast. I was pleased to see that I had over catered and when I brought out the 'Mud and Worms' cake for one of the student's birthday, I got the thumbs up that it was just like his mum's - high praise indeed! We spent time around the pool table and lots of laughs playing 'Buzz' on the PlayStation. From being a bit tentative about how I was going to entertain a whole heap of teenagers, the night went without a hitch!

Capernwray brought us Geoff Hobson this week (previous principle of the school) and he spoke to us about the Gospel of John. Another great week of learning so much more about our amazing Saviour and the life that He lead. What a man! What a God!

I spent time learning the PowerPoint system up the back with the sound man and even organised the what was needed for the SNAC songs on Sunday. I was pleased that all went smoothly - nothing like having the wrong song words up during worship! My highlight was the oral presentation I had on Friday - a 10 minute talk on a subject of your choice with spiritual relevance. I chose Parenthood and.... I ..... got.... an.... A+!!!!!!!!!!! Yay!

Our week finished on a great note by taking our boys and our friends (a thank you for the carpet) to Jamberoo Recreation Park and "it just happened to be" that our great friends Dan and Leah, gave us a voucher that reduced the cost amazingly. It was perfect weather and we came home exhausted from enjoying all the activities they offer: water slides, water rides, tobogganing, racing cars etc. My dearest parents looked after the girls that day since Ezri was unwell with a temp and the poor thing didn't get much better the next day either. Oh well....

That was another God-granted week in the Sabben household - Praise God for His blessings!

Week Six

We have new (old) carpet! Yay! Let's tell the story....


It all started 3 weeks ago when I went to the Tip-Shop to get some lace curtains (costing about $5) to use to keep the butterflies off my veggie patch. Garth sent me off with $50 "just in case". Well, while I was there I happened to spy some new light purple carpet - then I spied my lovely friend Linda, who happens to be married to a carpet layer. She rang him and he came over to the Tip shop to check out the quantity and if it would be enough for the girls room. It was, and it only cost $40!!!! So Brent throws it into his Ute, comes and measures up, drops everything and lays the carpet that very Saturday. What a generous couple! Our whole family was quite taken with our one room of soft fluffy carpet and spent the afternoon lazing around on it in awe. Now, fast forward to the following Wednesday evening when Brent and Linda come to our front door with a carpet sample and asked "Do you like this colour?" (as pictured above with Swae) I said yes, still puzzled until they lead me out to see his Ute packed to the brim of carpet he had just pulled up from a house that day - from another Christian couple at that. I was totally over whelmed (nearly to tears)! The boys got to it and before I knew it, our rumpus room was full of rolled carpet and under lay - ALL FREE! This last Saturday, Brent came and did our living room and walk way and it looks like a new house! How spoiled are we? How gorgeous are our friends? and how amazing is our God?


Garth's favourite words have become "Swae, just bugger off!" and he proposes that she was programmed incorrectly at birth, since a normal child is suppose to laugh 70 times a day - Swae whinges this amount instead.... driving everyone up the wall - the universe obviously forgot the carry the 1. However, he has done exceedingly well this week considering he has only had one eye, the other was taken over by a virus. The eye became furiously red, sore and super light sensitive. A trip to the doctors proved predictable unhelpful but we are hopeful that it is actually getting a little bit better now -time will tell.
Capernwray was a bit different this week. We had Lectures on Acts 1-8 The Early Church. It was really interesting and full of great discussions. Tuesday was our "Quiet Day" in which all students are encouraged to spend the day alone with God - in prayer, in his word, in nature etc. It really is a quite day when no one speaks and no loud activities are happening. I spent about four and half hours praying and reading the Bible while laying out in the sun on a grass over looking the fields and river. Beautiful! The sky was a brilliant blue and the birds were playful. I spend the majority of that time reading and writing Ephesians. What a great book! As I re-wrote it, I transcribed all the "your" and "we" type words with "I" and "me" type words. WOW! Now the book was speaking to me personally. And I learnt so much. Particularly about the church body and about the security we have in Christ. It was a great time and I highly recommend everyone take this kind of time even if only once a year! That evening, all the students and staff came together to sing and share our days with each other and that was a very uplifting time. How faithful is our God in our lives!
Another highlight in my week was Bible study. This time I had to write and present it. Talk about a LOT of work - I must have spent 20 hours in preparation! But it all went well and the other students got very involved. For the presentation itself I got an A- and I hopefully will find out this week what mark I received for my full manuscript. But I am truly loving my time at Capernwray this year and I feel so blessed to be supported by friends and family.
Until next time...

Week Five

WOW! What another great week!

Let's start with Capernwray this time - This weeks topic was Mark and Ivor Jones presented the lectures. He is a great man from Marysville VIC (and yes, he and his wife lost their home and everything in it to the fires on Black Saturday)and with the gospel of Mark we focused on Jesus the servant. But not just any servant. Jesus was the Divine Servant, the Obedient Servant, the Proclaiming Servant, the Conquering Servant, the Itinerant Servant, the Teaching Servant, the prophetic Servant, the Forsaken Servant, the Suffering Servant and the Triumphant Servant! All of these of course point to the verse found in Mark 10:45 "For the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and give His life as a ransom for many." - Doesn't that just say it all?!

All of this term too, we are studying the Old Testament which has been really interesting - getting all the different interuptations of what people believe and why - mainly about Genesis plus we are spending all term doing a subject called Hermeneutics which basically means the science and art of Biblical interpretation. In this subject we are learning the tools to interpret, explain and expound what the Bible means so that we don't misinterpret scripture. We will soon be looking at exegesis and homiletics too. But this week we looked at the possbile 'gaps' which hinder our understandings of the original intended message eg. historical, cultural, religious, technological, linguistic, biological, philosophical, geographical and social. And didn't that invoke into some interesting debates! Oh, how we all are a product of the nuturing we have received - whether right or wrong!

But life outside of Cass - Rykr took a overnight excursion to Bathurst Gold Fields. He had a great time with all his friends and Mr. J his teacher. They learned a lot, ate lot but didn't sleep a lot. It was a long time on the bus (4 hours each way!) which I just can not image doing with 30+ kids. What brave school teachers we have! This picture blows me away and I really saw that my boy is becoming a teenager - I can no longer keep thinking of them as the cute little boys in kindergarten......ho humm.......

Kael started the week abit unwell, got better and returned to school only to come home of Friday night with the dreaded cough! Poor man! But he is doing so well at school and he is loved by all the teachers - using the Sabben Charm!

Garth was strong this week and decided the put his foot down with Swae not sleeping at night- something I have been far to soft to do! BUT after just 2 nights of LOTS of crying things started to get better and last night our baby girl sleep for 12 hours only waking briefly once at 4:30am. So, we are hoping (but not getting our hopes up) that this is the turning point in all our lives for the possibility to sleeping like normal people again!

On Friday Garth and the girls were spoiled and were shouted to go to soft play with our friends and their children. He was a bit unsure about hanging out with all the mums but came home happy because he had a great time and enjoyed the morning totally. What great friends we have!

And speaking of GREAT friends - this week we had a ute full of free carpet dropped off at our house! I was so excited and overwhelmed I almost cried! What a huge change that will make to our home when it gets laid - we will have a nice floor!

But I have to present a Bible study that I have to write this week - So I better go get to work!

Week four

It's Friday? It's Friday!

But let me begin with last Sunday. Garth conducted communion at church and he spoke of about Jesus' career and his life style. Both would have been a constant reminder of the death he would have to endure in the future. Garth was really nervous but did a good job and he had lots of good feedback.

From then, Garth has had a particularly hard week: Rykr was home from school for 3 days coughing away with a chest infection and both Ezri and Swae developed a runny nose and a cough. The biggest downer about all of this meant NO SLEEP at night. Basically every night this week, Garth probably saw each on hour on the clock - rocking, patting, giving drinks, cuddles and all too often kids ending up in hour bed! Unfortunately, I have been little help during the days and I am guilty of often sleeping through the calls at night..... I have truly dumped the lot on him! But, he is also super cool and has handled the week well. What a man! (and he was sick too!)

We had miracle happen this week... Rykr scored 100% on his spelling test on Friday. Now let me put this into context: every week the class have a pre-test of the list of words and every week this year Rykr hasn't got any of the words right. And because he hates homework his desire to learn these words has not been high and so his been lucky to score 50% by the end of the week. BUT this week, I decided to teach him how I learnt to spell and he responded well to my silly method... well the proof is in the test! We are very proud of him and we pray that this enthusiasm will remain for the rest of the year!

And my week was amazing! We had Gareth Evans come a speak at Capernwray.

The theme was "To soar like an eagle" - we covered the reasons why some eagles never fly. Some are wounded: we covered Justification, Glorification and Sanctification. Some eagles have made decisions contrary to God's principles: we explored the choices we are constantly making and how they can hinder us. Some eagles never understand what they should know: we discussed the failings of churches and fellow Christians who lead people to their way of Christianity and never teach them the basics of life with Christ. And some eagles have their wings clipped: with this we recognised the tight reigns that churches often have on people, particular young people and they are so afraid to let them go and soar, that they shoot them down again and again.

We were then given 5 words - Vision, Burden, Gift, Ministry and Anointing.

With Vision we covered all angles - inwards, outwards and upwards, and the need to get all these correct and in line with God. Very challenging for me, particularly inwards and trying to tackle my self-worth issues!

With Burden we learnt about the need to find our own and to make sure we don't put our burden onto other people who are not meant to carry it because they are not made for it. And to make sure other people don't put their burden onto us. It's ok to say no if it's not what God wants you to do, regardless that it might be good works. And we need to be willing to step up to our burden and take it on.... don't spend the rest of our lives waiting.

With Gift, of course we discussed spiritual gifting and natural gifts. Whatever our gifts we are to use them within the body of Christ for the benefit of the Body. We are all different and together we make up the whole - so let people be different.

On Ministry we learnt to recognise our passions and when God is putting Godly people around you to lift you into your ministry. We covered Authority, responsibility and accountability.

This then lead into Anointing and the difference it makes with what we pursue - it will thrive when it has been anointed by God and that this can happen to ANYONE - ordinary people - you don't have to be smart or have pieces of paper - you just need to be God's.

GREAT WEEK, do you agree?

Week three

Garth has had a great, in fact fantastic week! He even had the privilege to look after a dear friend's little girl for a whole day and boy, did Garth spoil all of them! Ezri, Jemima and Swae were taken to the Ducky Park in Mittagong, Hot Chippies in Bowral and lots of playing at home in Moss Vale! ALL IN ONE DAY! What a super hero Dad! The household has never seen such organisation and it is truly lovely to come home to such an atmosphere. Garth is having a ball and all praise is for God!

As for the boys, we had 'Meet the teacher' afternoons this week and I am proud to report that both Rykr and Kael have settled into their class beautifully AND both of their teachers think they are great kids. What a wonderful change from previous years!

Week 3 at Capernwray was hard hitting. We covered the Beatitudes that are found in Matthew Chapter 5. Beatitude - the Attitude to BE. I think I squirmed throughout all the lectures as I learnt so much about how not to try and live the Christian life. No wonder I have been feeling so overwhelmed for the last few years! I need to die to self - and allow Christ to live in me. Only then, can I even start on the path of becoming Christ-like. This is all stuff I have heard many, many times before, but to have to confront it and not just "walk out of church and go home", has been a heavy thing to do. We also spent some classes discussing 'Quiet Times' - yet another subject in my life that needs attention. But really, what a fool am I, to ignore and pass up the opportunity to learn from God's word everyday! I was humbled but gladly so, when the student I sit next to, realised that I struggled with Quiet Times. She thought I looked like one of those people who would have that under control.... oh how looks can be deceiving!

However, these things I desire to change in my life will not change unless I start doing things differently. I pray for this and I pray I will just do it and stop waiting for the perfect time.

Gotta love God!

The year of change Week one and two

2 Weeks into study at Capernwray Bible College and my brain is brimming with good stuff!
The first week's topic was the Revelation of God and I had to complete my first Bible Study Outline. I chose Hebrews 1:1-4 and the meat that I uncovered by diving into God's word was amazing! I have forgotten how awesome it is to spend really quality time with God - not the usually token amount I had been offering him for quite some time now. Ain't I a Fool! Jesus has managed to bring me to my knees again because I understand so much more about the sacrifice that he made for all of us. And I don't mean dying and rising again - I mean even coming to earth in the first place! We are talking out deity here - becoming a human, a tiny baby human, leaving his throne to come the a place that reeks with death and sin, and he did that for us! What love! What Love! WHAT LOVE!
Week 2 had my relishing in what Lyton Allan brought to us. His is an artist from melbourne and I think I hung on his every word. The topic was the Art of Faith. Lyton really encouraged us to think outside the square - to be who God wants us to be - to GO out to the people and connect with them - to trust God with everything we are - to know that God loves us and provides for us - to Step out in faith - Listen the the world that is starving for Christ - and the list goes on. I pray that God will relieve the Plans he has for me during this year. I desire so much to know who I am, what he had created me for, and just to love him everyday with a love that is real and faithful.
Being a student is slowly becoming the norm, and I think I am finding my feet in this new situation. The other students are lovely, the girls are particularly good value and I look forward to the fellowship and growing in Christ that will come over the next 12 months.

And as for Garth at home, being full time Dad suits him down to the tee! He has established his own routines and the Girls are thriving with him at home. Over these last couple of weeks, while I have been the emotional wreck, Garth keeps everything and everyone together! You gotta love him! House chores are completed, the girls giggle and he even takes on the odd jobs that we normally never get around to doing. This year will influence our whole family and although not much has changed for the boys, their love and support on the changes has been remarkable. They are encouraging and happy for all that is changing this year and I love my little men for this. What an awesome family we have! Praise God! He is generous with us!