Sunday 16 November 2014

G’day Praying Partners:

Thank you so much for your prayers on our behalf last month! It is such an honor to us to know that you lift us up in prayer – and it’s such a blessing to us to see God answer those prayers!

We had so much fun at the school carnival! I have a couple of pictures on our blog – ernstfamilydownunder.blogspot.com if you’d like to see them! It was actually a lot bigger than we thought it would be. There were lots of people from the community, which was our purpose for being there! We were the only giving away lollies for free, so you can imagine that we were a big hit! I have no idea how many lollies we gave out that day – but we had a container full when we started and none when we finished! The kids loved playing the games. Rob and James (I mentioned him in my last email) were able to have conversations with several parents about the church and gave out information as well. We had several of our church family come to help out – even though most of it was during the day. It was such a blessing to be involved in the community this way as we were able to support the school where we meet. Our relationship with the principal has blossomed and we are just excited about what God is doing through us at the school. It’s certainly not in ways we would have predicted, but isn’t that just like God to do things outside of our own little “box”?!

Family camp was also an incredible blessing. Again, God did things differently than what we would have thought! We were scheduled to do camp with a sister BMM church, but all of their people cancelled (except the pastor and his family) and our church was left with a big bill to pay! Since we had to outlay a bit of money, we decided to invite families from our church that couldn’t pay – and that’s where the blessing came in! These families told us over and over again what a blessing camp was and how much they enjoyed the time away. Our church treasurer told me that where she is always concerned for the finances of the church (understandably!), God had caused her to see family camp as more of a ministry than just a bottom line.  It’s caused many to look beyond just money to see people. I love it when God opens our eyes and changes our hearts in such dramatic ways! On a personal note, a one and half hour trip took us 5 hours to do! We have been having issues with the car and Rob thought he had fixed it, but alas, he had not! After limping the car home, we had a mechanic look at it and he said it was the water pump and would cost about $1500 to repair! (For you car people, we have a Subaru Outback and apparently you have to take most of the engine apart to get to the water pump, very labor intensive).  We just didn’t know what to do. Rob contacted a man who use to go to our church who is a mechanic. He lives about 3 hours away now. This lovely man took the time last Wednesday to come to us and “help” Rob fix the car (Rob was actually the helper!). The whole thing cost us less than $200! God is so amazingly good and we are thankful for people like Juhani who are willing to use their talents for the Lord.

James time in Australia was a blessing as well. It was so nice to see our church family embrace him. This Sunday we voted as a church to sponsor this lovely family into Australia. Please continue to be in prayer for this as it is a long process. Pray for the Peavy’s as they continue to raise support. When they get here they will be heading up our children/teen/young adult ministry – this is a desperate need for us!

Sunday night we had a man from Creation Ministries come with a display of Noah’s ark. He did a fantastic job of explaining the ark and the flood. We thoroughly enjoyed it! While we were in the States we were able to visit the Creation Museum. If you ever get the chance – GO! It is fantastic.

All this talk about church reminds me of a verse James shared with us at family camp: Psalm 127:1a “Unless the Lord builds the house, they labour in vain that build it:” Our heartfelt prayer – constantly – is that God would be the one building Cornerstone Baptist Church in Craigieburn, Australia. We want NONE of our labour to be in vain! Thank you for joining with us as we are God’s hands and feet, building HIS house in Craigieburn!

Shining the Light Down Under,
Rob, Jackie, Stefanie and Victoria