Best wishes for 2011

from Arthur and Ellen

Andrew, Kathleen, Lois, Julie-Ann (September 2010)

Hannah, Truli,Arthur. Daisy, Ellen, Hyland, Poest, Sterling

Jesus said “Peace to you. As the Father sent me, so I send you. ... If you forgive men's sin they are forgiven.... ” (John 20:21-23)

Well 2010 has been another busy year. Maybe the highlight was the trip with Ellen to England, France, Germany, USA and Mexico. Here we visit the hall of mirrors at Versailles.

Arthur had four trips overseas this year. First was a Mission Awareness trip to Bangladesh organised through Wycliffe. One focus of this trip was to witness the training of local pastors in 'Bible Story telling'. Jesus always told stories when teaching people. We need to relearn the skill of telling what God (Jesus in the gospels) has done in peoples lives.

I then had three weeks consulting in America in April before returning home to build the garage (see below).

October saw me in Guangzhou with Robin Thompson and Harry Wu for ASReml training. What I saw was a city with very modern infrastructure.

After China, I had another week in Bangladesh where I was able, among other things, to visit a school for girls run in a slum by local believers.

The contrast from China to Bangladesh is dramatic. But God has his children in both places. John wants us to believe Jesus is the Christ (annointed King of Israel who will return and rule over the whole world) and the Son of God (the man who understands our thoughts, forgives our sins, raises the dead, quiets the storm, casts out demons, declares the future and rose from the dead).

May saw us building a garage and attempting to fix the gully problem with a new dam.

There was no olive harvest last autumn because of the very dry sping but this year has been the wettest since we came to Cargo. It definitely breaks the 10 year drought. Ellen is spending a lot of time on the mower keeping the grass down.