Anna-Marie's 12th Birthday

Before we left for Mississippi we had an early party for Anna-Marie's birthday. She had some friends around for games and cake. It was a fun evening. She is now officially taller than her Mum and likes to stand next to me in photos so that everyone can see that. Her and Rachel have been able to join a study with four other girls their age on a Monday night. It has been nice for them to be able to join this. She also spends lots of time with her new friends at the Village Manor basketball court.

It was Anna-Marie's actual birthday in Lakeshore. Pastor Scott from the Oregon team, which we had served with that week, surprised Anna-Marie with two big cakes for everyone to share and she was asked to stand for everyone to sing happy birthday. Continuing family tradition Mark took her out to breakfast but instead of the normal McDonald's she chose Waffle House.

Missions Trip to Lakeshore, Mississippi

We thought that we may not see the ocean for a very long time but here we are at the Gulf of Mexico, Lakeshore Mississippi. We went with 5 others from the church we are fellowshipping at, Immanuel Baptist Church, as part of a missions team. Lakeshore was devastated by Hurricane Katrina over a year ago but there is still so much to be done. Lakeshore Baptist Church has become a distribution center for food to the community and they are still rebuilding peoples homes. The church building was lost and it is all now temporary buildings that house the many volunteers that God keeps providing. The church, which is about a mile from the shore, was left 42 feet under water. To find out more about the rebuilding that we were involved in look at http://www.rebuildlakeshore.com or http://www.jamiedunbar.blogspot.com/. It was a wonderful experience for the whole family to be serving together in such a way. I'm sorry it has taken so long to place updates on this blog but I have unfortunately injured my back (we think on the 11 hour trip down) and have been unable to sit. I see a chiropractor tomorrow due to the generosity of some friends as I am still very uncomfortable. It has been a blessing that this has happened now as Mark has been able to take over the schooling with semester finished but your prayers would be appreciated.

This was such a common sight. The foundation of someones home. Lots of people are now living on their land in trailers. There are still lots of fallen trees and rusting cars that have been thrown amongst the trees or just bits of homes laying around, still needing to be cleaned up.

Rachel and Joel are standing on an old pier that was demolished in the storm.

The shipping containers which are now bunk rooms, where we slept.

Rachel and Matthew helping unload supplies for the distribution center.

Joel and Anna-Marie helping Andrew clean up someones section.

Mark preparing a wall for painting at one of the homes that was being rebuilt.

Thanksgiving

We spent our first thanksgiving with two families from Village Manor. We were blessed with a beautiful day which enabled us to eat outside (this was great because it would have been cramped in any of our apartments). We had begun reading a book about thanksgiving to the children earlier in the week and had been learning about the Pilgrims and their travels. Thanksgiving is about God's provision of the harvest, something we forget with the ease of supermarket shopping. We finished the story on thanksgiving evening and each listed five things we are thankful for. Here are a some of them:

Dad working hard to provide for us

Being given winter coats

A safe trip to America

Our new friends

Jesus dying on the cross for us

Getting a new house

The Fleeners renting our house in Hastings

Carol and Viki's group sponsoring us

Free art lessons from Mandy

Village Manor

Being able to go to the Recreation Center

Keith and Julie Parker being good friends and helping us

Good health

Family nights

The provision of finances so that we could come here

Praying friends and family back in New Zealand

Prayer Needs

First we want to say thank you for taking the time to read the updates on this blog. We appreciate your interest in our lives. Some of you have asked to be made aware of prayer needs that we may have so this is an update to make you aware of some.

Mark is in his last two weeks of this semester. He has one paper to finish and three exams. He has a hermeneutics exam on Monday 27th at 11a.m.(US time), a Greek exam Tuesday 28th, at 8a.m, and a NT exam at 11a.m. You could also pray for more work, as the holidays afford an opportunity to work full time, and at present Mark only has about 15 hours per week. If you have any extra time to pray we have one more need. We are privileged to be going to Mississippi (Yes, the birth place of Elvis), for 5 days, to help with the disaster relief effort. We are going as a family with a team from our new church, Immanuel Baptist from Dec.2-7th. This is a little bit of an unknown so please pray that we would be able to faithfully serve, and that it would create in our children's hearts a greater desire for Christ and His ways. Under "links," you will find information on the church we are going to, Lakeshore Baptist Church. Thank you so much for your faithful support. Christmas may get a bit lonely so please keep up your correspondence, you don't know how precious your e-mails are. God Bless

Kids Fit

Kid Fit and Motor Skills has come to an end. Matthew enjoyed showing me all that he had learnt at his last Motor Skills and the others ended Kids Fit with a few games of dodgeball against the parents.

Rachel received this special award signed by President Mohler for being one of the two most fit children in the class.

Locust Grove Fair

Last weekend we went to this 18th Century Market Fair at Locust Grove. It was at a beautifully restored 1790 Georgian mansion with huge grounds that are very pretty this time of year. A large group of people dress, act and live for the weekend like they did in the 18th Century. They also re-enacted a battle from the War of Independence. It was a really interesting, enjoyable day.

Our Little American

We have been blessed with many hand me downs for Matthew for the winter and also some lovely new outfits (thank you Fleeners). They make Matthew fit right in and we feel like he is our little American. He loves the way that they speak differently and often says "Yes Ma'am" to me now, although I'm not sure that it is with the respect that it should be with. He also calls me "mom" and tells me that he needs to use the "potty"(which is what the toilet is called). This photo was taken as we arrived home from our first African American Church experience. The church that we are attending walked down the road and joined them for a wonderful time of praise and worship. They put on a wonderful meal for us. They certainly sing and interact during the preaching with great enthusiasm, charisma, yet humility and sobriety. As Anna-Marie said, "We have never heard so many 'Amens' during a message."

Chapel Services at Southern

Mark has been enjoying the chapel services at the seminary. Last week C.J Mahaney was the guest speaker and this week it was Dr John MacArthur. The whole family went to their first service to hear Dr MacArthur preach on Thursday. It is a wonderful atmosphere where the Word of God is much revered. We enjoy the way that the Southern Baptist Churches have you stand during the reading of the Word.