National College-Bound “Scouting” Day

Hey, friends! Scott here.

Did you know there will be 10 million college freshmen entering a U.S. college this fall? Whew! What an incredibly important time to pray and help these young men and women connect with people who love Jesus on their campus.

I and about 15 others are crammed into a meeting room at Cru headquarters for National College-Bound “Scouting” Day.

Using Facebook, we and many others with Cru throughout the country are scouting out incoming college freshman who are Christians, so that we can offer to connect them with an upper-classmen that is involved with Cru.

Would you pray for us to be successful in finding as many incoming Christian freshman as possible, so they can get plugged into with other believers with Cru the first week of classes?

In addition to praying, here’s another way you can help:

If you know an incoming college freshman who might like to be connected on campus, here’s a quick and easy way you can help! Find out if Cru is on their campus and then let us know by filling out the form located at http://www.cru.org/helpstudents.html

We are so hopeful for many, many college students to respond to the very good news of Jesus this fall!

This Face

“It’s hard to wait!”

Yes, Lizzy, it is. We have a 45 min delay but they think they can make it up in the air so I’m all for a bit less time scrunched in the chair. 

A last Aussie coffee and babychino. Cheers!   

 

Getting ready!

It was never so easy to wake them as this morning. The kids cannot wait! Because the 16-hour flight to LA equals movies and new coloring books and food. 

All I can think if is this beautiful reality: we don’t have a screaming 18-month old going with us this time. Walk in the park. Walk in the park. Right?  

 

  

Pray for Scott’s neck?

Scott woke up with a severely pulled neck muscle. With all the physical work of packing and moving, it’s amazing he’s stayed loose until now. Pray for us as we continue to sense our daily need for God as we are tired and saying more goodbyes. 

Just pulled into church. Our last Sunday here. 

More soon.

School starts Down Under!

Sunday launched us Bentleys into a new normal.

 

Scott and I sat together during church for only the 2nd time in 18 months. I have a newfound appreciation of what I’ve taken for granted so often before having kids.

Our church, like most Aussie churches, doesn’t offer any options for children under 3, so Scott and I have been taking turns in a back room with him for all these months.

But Sunday–oh blessed Sunday!–Sunday school resumed for the new school year (it’s late summer here and school’s now starting) and Joshua’s 3 so can finally go to class with the big kids and Mrs. Taylor!

But the really big day was today.

 

A beautiful morning to walk the 14 minutes to the preschool. Lizzy has 15 hours a week (two 6-hour days and one 3-hour day). Joshua has 7 hours a week (two 3.5-hour days). Tuesdays is the one day when both kids overlap being in school in the mornings and I’m still in unbelief of this sweet season of life we’re in. Lizzy’s gained such confidence in the last year since being in 3-year-old kinder and is so much healthier than last year. And Joshua, wait, isn’t this the little guy who screamed and screamed because all his words were stuck for so long? Thank you, Lord, for speech therapy and your grace. And now he’s so excited to be big and join Lizzy in this new world of school. 

Lizzy’s day starts at 8:30am and Joshua starts at 8:45am (their class rooms are right next to each other). We got Lizzy checked in and then went to check in Joshua.

Every child got to pick out their hook for their backpack and for their towel in the bathroom. Not a surprise that Joshua’s picture for the year is a train.

We’re so excited that Joshua gets to enjoy kinder with our sweet next door neighbor!

The faces of Australia

We celebrated Australia Day with the masses in Dandenong, another suburb of Melbourne, about 15 minutes from us.

I love that these are the faces that surround us. These are the faces of Australia.

Are you like me and surprised that Australia’s fabric involves so many countries?

We’d love for you to pray with us for these beloved people, made in the image of God, for relationship with Him, but who–for the most part–haven’t responded to Jesus’ offer of abundant life.

Yet.

What a picture of what Heaven might look like with all of these tribes, tongues and nations represented!

 

Birthday with penguins :: Micah’s plant blossoms

Almost a year ago, we bought a Groupon deal for a 1-night stay at a cabin at a KOA-type place on Phillip Island, home of the little penguins.

We couldn’t use the deal on Friday or Saturday nights, so we cashed it in for my falls-on-a-Sunday birthday this year.

Translation: temp is in Celsius (beautiful during day) and “caravan”=RVs

Bundle up the kids as the sun sets and the cool Antarctic breeze blows over the water. We dressed in winter coats, beanies (stocking caps) and mittens, covered in blankets, and were glad we did. 

The penguins start coming out of the water at dusk, so you sit and wait for awhile before you start spotting them. Tiny–from a distance–and in big groups, like swarms of bees that quickly waddle up into the sand, then quickly waddle back into the water, as if they can’t make up their mind about what they’ll do. The hilarious things is, they do this every night from what we hear. (This image and the next one are thanks to the Penguin Parade website as photography after dusk is prohibited.)

These are little penguins! I had no idea there were fully-grown penguins that were anything less than the big ones we’ve seen at zoos. How creative is our God to make these creatures! The best part was after they’d come on land, they start making their way up the hill, waddling underneath the boardwalks — and then next to us — we walked on to get back to our cars. They were right there next to us. Oh, I wish I could have taken a picture of the kids on one side of the fence and these tuxedoed birds on the other. Joshua was a giant in comparison, as they came up to his knee or thigh.

The next day we enjoyed the sun again (I tell you–Melbourne weather!) and went to the corner of the island, to The Nobbies. What a rock! Off in the distance is a strip of land and, with binoculars, we could see seals sun bathing. 

Where’s Waldo? If you look closely, you’ll see a little penguin in the upper/left/middle section, living amongst the sea gulls. (I’m still a bit traumatised at how sea gulls have now swooped on me twice since living here, most recently that evening as we waited for the penguins, we munched on nuts and…well, bye bye nut. With Joshua on my lap. He was already crying and afraid of them. He turned his head and missed the should-be-used-for-military-secret-ops-with-that-precise-tactic grab otherwise we might have had to leave right then.) 

We came home to the surprise (for me, at least, but Scott knew) gift of a dinner all ready, flowers, a cake and a card from our dear friends, the Ungs. It was an amazing gift in and of itself, but I felt like it was also a sweet ending to a great-but-whiny mini vacation. I’ve been sick with some yucky respiratory junk for almost 2 weeks that I can’t kick and cough more than I sleep, the kids were whiney and not as grateful as I’d have liked, I was whiney and not as grateful as I’d have liked. I wanted strangers to burst into spontaneous rounds of happy birthday and hand me American chocolate birthday cake. And for American friends to pop out from amongst the penguins and hug me. There’s still a deep ache, even after 14 months of living here, to be known well here. The ache undoubtedly has been felt more, recently, after having the Michaels here and then celebrating another birthday. For my story to be a lightweight backdrop to a conversation, not for my story to be what we talk about, because it’s not yet known to a friend. But, it takes time. And I’m still learning what that looks like and how to be patient. At 41 I didn’t know I’d still be learning so much about resting in Jesus about friendships, too. But, spring and the hope of new is here, at least Down Under. Our Gardenia bush, our “Micah plant” has started to blossom. Oh, the fragrance. Life.

I asked if I could take a picture of Lizzy with the bush. This is what she did. My heart caught in my throat a bit at her spontaneous hug.

 

 

 

Getaway overnight, thanks to friends

Oh my. What refreshment blew into my soul during just an almost-24-hour getaway with Scott.

Our dear friends and marriage mentors, the Michaels, are here visiting. They’d offered to love our kids so we could get away on an overnight somewhere before they left. Soon after their offer, we got an out-of-left field-large gift from a friend and their note with it encouraged us to use it for a little R&R.

The timing and provision was clearly the Lord’s as neither friend knew of the other’s offer to us.

Scott and I have this running joke about where the other person should take us if we go into a coma and won’t be revived. I’ve been saying that it has to be somewhere beautiful with a great view.

I think I found my spot.

Pictures don’t do justice, but here’s where I’d lay in a coma.

Looking into the rainforest part of the Dandenong Ranges & National Park

Aptyly named “Cottage in the Forest”

A hamper (basket) of food for our breakfast and some eggs, juice and milk in fridge.

Amazing dinner last night with a let-the-chef-decide-what-to-bring-you courses. Beetroot is a staple in Aussie cuisine and this is a bit of pureed beetroot appetizer.

Duck pate. No idea how to do proper spelling or accent marks but can say we tried it. I’ve never had anything that had a first taste, and then it morphed to a second taste. Took a picture with our hands — we started that tradition on our honeymoon and we joked that our kids will be able to do a photo montage when we’re 85 years old of how our hands got older over the years.

After a few more delicious tastes of things, Bryce brought us this mango sorbet as a palate cleanser, but we missed that part. We thought it was dessert. Until he brought us this. Holy cow.

Thank you, Robert & Sondra, for being family to us!

Update from Saturday

I just wanted to give a quick update for those of you who prayed for me on Saturday (your Friday)!  The changes and upgrades to our systems were a success and our ministry’s data and computer systems are much more protected as a result.  It wasn’t without a few challenges, but God was definitely the One who helped me figure out solutions when problems came up.  Thanks, friends!