Time for another list of highlights: tis the easiest way to rummage through the busy brain and let you know we’re living the dream:
A week at Rod and Desley Bailey’s Homegrown Organics Farm near Port Macquarie in NSW. This was 5 days of very welcome blue skies and 20+ degrees, but the real star was the garden. Students were drawn to every aspect of it and skillfully guided to be useful by Rod, Desley, Scott and staff. Then to witness Desley and Hannah in action at the market and complete the cycle. Very cool. So many teaching moments, both caught and taught.
Students’ excitement levels about gardening. Not that they weren’t healthy before, but the glimpse over the Bailey fence just gives them motivation and the hands on experience there has added confidence. Stacks is getting done.
The weir is full as a goog, and paddling the canoe on it was just a delight when our Victorian sky turned blue this week. Out with the pelicans, kites, ducks and their lings, swans, all of us excited to have water beneath us for a change.
Mission trip excitement is building. In about a dozen days we’ll fly to Korea to check in with Pr Kim and see how he combines gospel and health at his Dream Lifestyle Centre. Then we’re off to Palawan in the Philippines, where we’re helping to run The Maker Heals program and an evangelistic campaign. That is both exciting and challenging our students, because they’re playing a major part in both aspects.
We’ve had Kerry and Gordon Gosset drop in with The Right Journey’s vintage car Essie. These old friends of ours helped teach Apologetics, shared their experiences and fixed things, all while supposedly having a rest on their route around Australia.
Another more anonymous but just as exciting highlight has been seeing student growth. Some work after knockoff time, whipper snipping until the ears work better than the eyes. Some need no reminders that the firewood box needs restocking; they’re more independent in the kitchen, and contributing significantly at Church in Yackandandah. They’re sharing more feedback at family meetings that helps us run a better program. Very exciting.
Are we giving you an adequate picture of the joy that it is to be part of this experience? God is blessing.
Please continue to pray for our students and staff; for sustainability and energy, for courage to share what they’ve learned while they’re overseas. And for His blessing the useful connections we’re making with locals here at Granya; and for the where to go from here question, as they ponder the needs in various places and seek God’s leading as to where they could be most useful serving Him.