Long time no blog, or how does a blogger survive without internet access?

I have missed blogging as much as many of you have missed reading my blog. It's two weeks today since we arrived in Australia. I guess in some ways it is fair to say that lots has happened. In other ways we are trying not to push ourselves too hard so that we can come down from our high stress levels of the last six months. I will continue to find it hard to blog as we do not have internet access where we are living. I will probably find more time in the near future to catch you up to date though.

A few thoughts since arriving in Australia:
"This place seems strangely familiar, have I been here before?"
"How in the world am I going to be able to catch up with so many people before Christmas?"
"Melbourne is such a busy city, I can't ever see myself living here permanently again."

A few events that have occurred since arriving:
We spent the first week with family as much as possible. We stayed with my parents the first few days and had a few family meals with everyone including the nephew and nieces.
We have spoken in two churches so far and one Bible college since arriving. We were very warmly received at our home church yesterday and this was a huge encouragement to us. I enjoyed saying to the Bible college students, "if you can come up here to the microphone and list A, B, C what God is calling you to do, then that's great, you don't have to come with us to Siberia!"
We have also caught up with a few friends, including randomly bumping in to one who was very excited to see us. It's nice to feel loved!
We have checked in with our org and had some debriefing.
We have had a couple of outings with parents, one to the Dandenong mountains, and one to Cape Schank.
We have bought a car, a 2004 Hyundai Getz at a very low price and very low kilometres (32 000). It's being serviced right now, so I'm at a shopping centre getting some internet time.

A few things coming up soon:
Speaking in more churches, 4 more to be precise. Three prayer meetings on top of that.
Complete medical overhaul check ups.
Citizenship test for Melody and then application.
Appointments this week to finalise enrollment at the EQUIP Linguistics school, where we will live and study next year.
Our newsletter should arrive soon in your inbox. (Let us know if you have never received one before and would like to).
A well earned holiday. We have not finalised a location yet.

A few highlights in pictures of Australia so far. (More to come in coming days soon.):

Abigail feeding the cockatoos in the Dandenong mountains.


Cockatoos facing off for a showdown.


Pelicans in Hastings near where we are living, which is an hour from the city, by the sea.


Our local beach at Somers, where we live.


Australian wildflowers: the "Banskia".


A koala in our backyard, yes OUR backyard. I love living outside the city.


Our wee family in the front garden.


See you again soon!