Merry Christmas!

Dear Family and Friends,

We are so excited about celebrating the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ! May your Christmas be a Joyous one and filled with many blessings as you glorify HIM.

Thank you to those that have prayed for us, encouraged us through cards, gifts and phone calls and have supported us financially. You are a blessing to our family and ministry here in Western Australia!

We miss you and hope you visit us soon or we get to see you in Spring 2011 when we plan to come “home” for a visit.

With Love,

The Munn Family

Nanny's visit!

The kid were so excited to have Nanny visiting for one whole month! Nanny taught the girls how to do watercolor painting. They miss their Nanny and want to know when she will come back for a visit with Grandpa Ed.

A great photo of the kids with Nanny!

MY MOMMY!

IT'S HERE!!!!

The Awana Grand Prix Track is HERE!!!!

Lori's mom(Annette) arrived August 19th from Charlotte, NC with the track in tow plus all her luggage with extra goodies we asked her to bring. Let me tell you this was not an easy task.

First we ordered the track from the USA and shipped it to Annette to bring on the plane with her in order to save $1,000 to ship direct to AU.

Well, it arrived safely to her home but found out her domestic flight to LA. wouldn't allow it on the plane! So, she quickly sent it to LA to Matthew's cousin's house. His cousin was to take it to the LA airport in 4 days and meet Annette there to check it onto Quantas Airlines. Quantas Airlines checked it as oversized, extra luggage and we only had to pay an extra $50!

Eventually, Annette arrived in Sydney. She still needed to get onto another plane to go to Perth. In Sydney, she needed to get off the plane, get all her luggage and go through customs. Not a major deal...she just got a trolley for all her lugguage and this oversized box and made it through customs...now the tricky part...She needed to take all of her luggage upstairs to take a train to the domestic side of the airport for her last flight.

Well, this oversized box wasn't easy to get into the elevator! Stuggling to get this all into the elevator, GOD sent her an angel. A woman saw Annette's plight and urged her husband to "help the lady"! He did. Not only did he help her get onto the elevator, he carried this box to the train and he and his wife got on the train with Annette and took the box all the way to where it needed to be checked onto the flight. This couple had a several hour wait for their next flight. Annette was so thankful and told them they were angels sent from God. The couple didn't know how to respond to that comment and smiled and went on their way.

Annette arrived in Perth 4 + hours later and the track arrived in one piece!

Below is a photo of Matthew carrying the box for Annette out of the airport.

Why go through all this trouble just for a track you ask? Well, our Awana Grand Prix track was an old wooden track in need of repairs. The Grand Prix Races is one of our biggest outreaches and more than half of those that go to Awana do not attend our church or are unchurched. These new tracks were not available in Australia so we had to order from the USA. There was much anticipation and excitement from our Awana kids & leaders knowing a fast,cool, new track was on it's way. We were also humbled and thankful to have a church in the USA love us enough to raise funds during their VBS program in the summer to help us purchase this track. SO, THANK YOU Grace Church of Normal, Illinois. We love you and miss you!

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WBC Women's Retreat

Our ladies ministry is called WOW ( Women of Worth). On Aug 21st weekend, WOW had their 1st annual weekend retreat. I say 1st because no one can remember when the last retreat was held but do remember hearing there was one years ago?

I found the perfect place to have this weekend. It was at Orchard Glory Farm Resort in Bindoon, WA. You can look it up on the web to see photos. It was beautiful and the ladies felt pampered to stay in such nice/clean facilities.

Some of us during free time Sat. afternoon took a 1/2 ride north to a little town called New Norcia. It has a monestary with 5 monks still living there. We took a tour of the town. You can google New Norcia in WA too to see and read about this historical town. The ride there was worth just viewing the canola fields in full bloom. I will post a photo!

I had the privilege to organize this retreat for 55 ladies. We had a wonderful speaker who challenged us to "Walk more intimately with God".

After reading over the survey's filled out at the end of the weekend, the comments were all positive. The ladies were blessed, refreshed & challenged and look forward to next year's retreat to be held late September. So, if anyone is interested in attending that retreat, start booking your flights soon!

Praise God for my neighbor, Marrianne, attending the weekend and 2 others that are not Christians. Seeds of God's Love for them were planted.

Also, my mom arrived 2 days prior to the weekend and I was blessed to have my mom share this special time with me.

Thank you for praying for this special weekend. God worked in mighty ways!

3x3 Basketball Tournament Slideshow

Long Awaited Update...and Prayer Request.

G'day Family & Friends,

Thank you for being patient with our lack of updates. Here is a catch up with some Aussie speak too. These last 2 months have been full on & we have felt flat out with our Sr. Pastor Colin away for 3 months on his long service leave. My incoming phone calls & emails increased rapidly upon Colin's departure. It was a heavy but worthwhile experience to juggle a lot of Colin's responsibilities too. Because we asked for specific prayer last time, we think it is important for us to share the results.

We were pleasantly surprised with how our After-school program at a local primary school ended. Some of the more difficult kids also responded to us with pleas to return next term. God touched our hearts for these kids who spend way too much time in day cares & not nearly enough with mums & dads.

Thank you for praying for our second 3x3 Teen Basketball Tournament.  At least 75% of players were unchurched! A professional Basketball player also attended to sign autographs & let us quawk at his 214cm  frame (7' 1") as he swooshed his shots, after eating a trough of Sausage Sizzels (Aussie hot dogs).

The all day Oz Family Life Marriage Seminar @ our church had 24 couples attend. It was so good to "tune up" the marriage. I  needed to be reminded often how to keep the fire going & the ears open! A secret for all my fellow blokes; keep the ears open & the fire can burn quite a bit longer between tune ups.

Listen to this: Grace Church in Normal ran an Aussie themed VBS program in late June. We were thrilled to hear they chose our Awana children's ministry as their mission to support through the VBS giving. We split the cost of a new Grand Prix Derby Race Track. Our kids will be jumping like roos when it arrives this next week. Prayer Request: We are seeking to get it on the airplane at LAX with Lori's mom this Monday Night & that it also arrives safely with her on Wednesday morning. 

What about our AU VISA? Long story short! We finally received another 2 yr. Temporary Workers Visa. But due to my caseworker's miscommunication we had to start all over with the Permanent Residency Visa. I mailed the completed application "packet" today with the US$2,116.09 fee! Good news is they said it will not take too long. I asked how long is not too long. She replied; 6-8 months! Aussie speak for "sometime in the distant future but no idea when"! 

Did you pray for our friend YV to be pregnant? Well, she is now 14 weeks pregnant!  And our friend AW is attending church & working towards healing psychologically.

Ministry to Neighbours? Lori established a beautiful friendship with our neighbor, Marianne, & also joined a workout gym with her for 3 months. She will be attending the Women's Retreat next weekend. Please pray for Marianne to respond positively to the love of Christ Jesus. 

Lori organized this Women's Retreat. 54 ladies Christians & non, will be attending the 3 day retreat. Extra special is Lori's mom will also be attending, while I will lead the 5 Munnsters thru the weekend without mum. Anyone interested in coming out to help me?

Lori's hobby of photography continues to bless people as she recently photographed 15 families on a Saturday afternoon to raise money for our church building fund.  The results have been very positive, so this may be a good start for her business to grow.

 

Lori started a Bible study group on Wed. mornings about 1 yr ago with 8 ladies. Last term they split the group of 14 into 2 groups & next term Lori expects her group to begin with 11 ladies. How exciting is this? One of the ladies planning to come has been on the pray list for salvation! 

Matthew is now the Small Group Teacher for his Tuesday night group. Our church Missions Ministry may also come under his oversight in the next several months. It needs to be overhauled for effective Sending & Discipleship purposes. 

In two weeks, we are also providing a community care professional seminar; Why you need a will & other estate issues. Please pray this is a big hit for the Lord, as this has the potential to open many doors to the lives of people in our community with the church's ability to help meet both basic & spiritual needs.

Next time, I will share about our follow up plans & the event we are helping to plan to reach hundreds of people at one time just before Christmas! 

Well,  this is a bit long, but as you can see God is working in tremendous ways & we are trying to hold on & keep up! Thank you for praying, giving and encouraging. 

We'll leave the light on for ya!  

A video for Grace Church but for all to enjoy too!

Here is the link to you tube to view the video in a larger formatt:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldou2i6iQzM