Update - January 14

G’Day everyone,
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas holiday and New Year. Since we didn’t send out a newsletter in December, I’ll do my best to recap the last two months.

Let’s start with the Hall family; the kids hit their half-year mark with home school and essentially “hit the wall.” As most of you are aware, our kids attended public school in Hawaii, so Home school, while it was great academically, was a real challenge for all of us. After praying about it we feel this was a good stopping point with home school and the kids will be attending Covenant Christian School, beginning at the end of January (the start of the new school year). Malena will be starting year 11, Jesse year 8, and Nina year 5 (11th grade, 8th grade, 5th grade as we say in the US). Covenant is one of the top schools academically in this area and all the faculty are committed Christians. We’re excited about this and the kids can’t wait to start school.

The new sport season is starting up soon, Malena will be trying out for soccer (haven’t decided which club to go for yet), Jesse is going for basketball and possibly rugby, and we think Nina will go for soccer also, but for the past couple month’s she’s been involved with Little Athletics (Track and Field). In fact, she was selected for a special competition to compete in Shotput. The ocean water has warmed up nicely and I’ve been getting to surf quite a bit. We’re supposed to get a big swell this coming Sunday-Monday. Its pretty much the first big swell since we arrived in August…Can’t wait! Christy and the kids have been going to the beach when I’m working and meeting with some friends there on occasion, meeting new people too.

We’re really looking forward to the end of this month, as the kids start school, and my job with St Matts takes on shape. I’ll be working part time, 3 days a week. But in the first week of February, one of those days I’ll be serving as chaplain at a secular college (www.icms.edu.au). In December I met with the CEO of the college and we really hit if off. All said and done he basically told me, “these kids today have no moral compass and they need to get on the right track. Brad, I want you to know that the college is yours to do whatever you want, if you want to hold a weekly class that’s fine, but these kids need godly direction.” So Feb 7-11 is orientation week and they’re allowing me to set up a table with biblical promotional materials, which will draw people to a weekly bible study I’m teaching at the college, and ultimately draw them to the Lord. I’m very excited about this and looking forward to seeing how it unfolds. Please keep this in prayer!

On Thursday nights I’m leading a bible study for international folks, last night 10 people showed up (people from Nepal, S. Korea, Japan, Chile, Germany, and of course Australia). 4 or 5 of them aren’t saved, but attend this study to better their English speaking skills. I taught Hebrews 1:1-3 about the superiority of Jesus, which turned into a great discussion about the gospel. At the end of it, I gave an invitation to receive the Lord which was not accepted. However, all of the people are interested in learning more and are planning to return next week. Please keep these people in prayer, that God would soften their hearts to receive Jesus.

On to the Refuge; on January 1st, we transitioned our Sunday morning services to Saturday evening. I prayed about this for awhile and am convinced this was the best thing to do. Most sports take place on Sunday mornings and if it’s a nice day, many families would go to the beach rather than church. It’s strange, making the change from Sunday to Saturday (since in America Sunday’s are traditionally church days), but here in Australia Saturday evening services are just as acceptable. Last week I started teaching 1 Corinthians and plan to go through the whole book over the coming months. What’s neat for me is that when we started 1 Corinthians on January 8th, I finally felt like we started with the ministry and what we came to Australia to do. The last 5 months leading up to this has been a gradual settling in and getting established, even though we’d been meeting for church. God has blessed us with another family, Scott and Kathy McLean, to lead us in praise and worship, and to get involved. And Greg and Simone are doing well. Greg is going to rotate with Christy in our children’s ministry. In a few weeks we’ll do a ‘letter box drop’ in the community to invite people church.

Last but certainly not least, Jason and Tina Fisher (Christy’s sister) will be moving here to Australia on February 10th. We’re really excited about them coming, looking forward to having family close, and know they’ll be a blessing to the ministry.

Areas for prayer:
1. Praying about weekly studies and prayer meetings, what to do, where to do it, and when.
2. Our visas are currently being processed, please pray for government approval.
3. The kids making quality friends when they start school; also that they get involved with the right teams/clubs for sports.
4. The Fishers safe arrival, a job for Jason, and visas for them.
5. Help with creating and updating our website (someone with graphics experience). Website address is: www.refugejc.com
6. Please be praying for the flood victims in the north. The flooded areas are about 500 miles north of us, so we’re not affected, but a lot of people have lost everything.
7. Lastly, as doors are opening and the Lord is moving, the enemy has ramped up his game. The battles are intensifying and the enemy is working to oppose us. Please pray we'd be victorious in spiritual warfare.

Many blessings to you all.
Love the Halls