A state of constant transition

(Our family by the Hopkins falls outside of Warrnambool, on a recent visit to our friend Nathan there.)

A life of transition can be a strange and difficult one at times. When I look back on our married life, I realise that the longest we have lived in one location was Box Hill, our first home in Australia together. We were in the one flat for 21 months. That's still a record. We were in our flat in Novosibirsk for 15 months. It was awfully tiny, and we were so relieved to move to a much bigger fat in Krasnoyarsk, where we lived for 11 months. In six years of marriage Melody and I have made our home in 10 locations now. Since leaving Russia in July we are now living in our third home. Thankfully, this one will be for 11-12 months, but it won't come anywhere close to our record. It is our dream that when we return to Russia, we might be able to live in the one location for 5 years. I just lay that at God's feet, and we will see what happens. After all, godliness with contentment is great gain.

This of course does not make it easy on little Abigail. Abigail trusts us, and feels safe in our presence. But until she feels safe in her environment because it is secure, comfortable and regular to her, she doesn't like being away from us. As we tend to move so often, it usually takes us a month or two to settle into a home as if it is really "ours". Therefore we do expect her to settle in at some stage, but at this point it is a difficult time for her. In January our classes will commence and Abigail will be in child care a lot of the time away from us. As she has lived nearly all of her life in the company of parents, this will undoubtedly be her biggest challenge yet. Please remember her in prayer at this challenging time in her life.


We have definitely seen kangaroos hopping by where we live, but just none on camera for you yet. Recently we have had plenty of rain, which has been a wonderful blessing from God, during the long drought. The rain seems to have brought the ducks out.


Last night was a very pretty sunset. From a prairie point of view, there are plenty of trees to block your view, but I thought you may appreciate the distinctly Australian flavour.