24 December Newsletter

Hey Everyone, hope you’re looking forward to Christmas and preparing for the new year. A lot of things have developed over the past couple of months, much to inform you of.

I’ll start with the Envision Australia church workers conference that took place (Nov 30 – Dec 3). We held the event at St Matthews Church in Manly (where I work part time). The main speakers were Brian Brodersen, Bill Welsh, Pete Nelsen, and Chris McCarick. Leading worship was Scott Cunningham and Shannon Quintana, with special music by Steve Grace. I had the unexpected pleasure of MC’ing the event and had a lot of fun doing it. The conference was amazing on so many levels!
Personally because the Lord gave me clarity and confirmation about where we’re at and what we’re doing….…In Acts 16:6-15 Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia pleading with him to come and help them. Paul then left Troas and traveled to Macedonia at the invitation of this unknown man. He arrived first in Philippi and found a group of women by the riverside praying on the Sabbath. After Paul spoke to the women (presumably he spoke of Jesus and the meaning of the cross), he baptized Lydia and her household and the church in Philippi was birthed. This is what spoke to me; it was the invitation of a man that got Paul to Macedonia but God lead him to a group of women to minister to and work with. Had Paul been so rigid as to say “I came to find the man in my vision, this is where I must start” he would have missed what God wanted him to do.We went to Australia because God called us to “go” and He confirmed this calling by a number of things, most importantly by His Word. But what got us thinking of Australia in the first place was the invitation of my good friend Greg (a man asking us to come and help…to start a church). It’s become clear this is not where the Lord would have us getting started; i.e. planting the church we’ve been trying to get started over the past year. As I mentioned in our previous newsletter when we decided to let go of ‘the refuge’ we immediately got involved with Christian Surfers in Manly, a group of people who had been praying by the riverside, so to speak.

So this is where we’re at and what’s going on:
Our Christian Surfers group has been meeting every Wednesday morning to pray since October and we’ve been meeting once a month on a Friday night for a meal and to discuss our vision, giftings, and godly desires for the community. We’re a core group of about 10 people. For 2012 we’re planning to start a community bible study at the beach, or a non-church building environment. We’re hoping to start bible studies in February, our next team meeting is 6 January.
We’re currently preparing for a week of outreach to the surf community during the Australian Open (a WCT pro surf contest being held Feb 11-19). On Thursday, 16 Feb we’ll show a Christian surf film at St Matthews Church and conclude with the gospel message; On Friday we’re doing a Christian concert with an evangelistic message; On Saturday we’ll show the movie ‘Soul Surfer’ with Bethany Hamilton being present to share her testimony. During the days of the contest we’ll be working with the ASP Tour chaplain to serve the contest/community in any way we can. In addition, we’re working together with World Vision since Bethany is an ambassador for them. WV is planning to do an environment/poverty awareness segment that features Bethany as the draw. WV decided to invite Tony Abbott to the event (he is the opposition leader to the current Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard and possibly Australia’s next PM), but they put the invitation on Christian Surfers letterhead and signed “my” name as the one inviting him. So the Tony camp responded to me and said “he’s very interested in attending and will confirm soon.” Isn’t that crazy??? Maybe I’ll get a picture!!!!

I’m currently putting together a 6wk evangelistic course which we’ll run twice this coming year at St Matthews. And we’re planning to do a monthly outreach night called “Alive” (Friday 16 Feb is our first one). We’re planning to have rockin music, special guests, always with an evangelistic message. In the international group, though there’s a constant flow of people coming and going (it’s the nature of Manly), aside from the regulars who attend there’s one Chinese gal that recently gave her life to Christ and she can’t get enough of the Word or fellowship, Christy gave her the BIble Bus reading schedule and she's set out to read the bible in a year. She lives about an hour and a half from Manly and has to travel by train, bus, then ferry to get here but she comes a couple times a week. Her name is Jun.Also, God has raised up two ladies to start and run free Conversational English courses at St Matts which will allow participants the opportunity to attend our international bible study. This is an answer to prayer since there are approximately 6 million visitors a year to Manly, many of which speak English as a second language.
The founder of ICMS (the college where I’m chaplain) is arranging for me to write a regular column in the student newsletter (a 250 word spiritual tidbit to encourage people), he’s also looking into to providing a more visible platform for our Living Water group on the website and on campus. Keep in mind, this is a secular college…this is huge!

Every year the faculty at our kids school has a week long conference to prep for the new year, this year it takes place 23-27 January. God has opened the door for me to teach devotions each morning. Really looking forward to this!!

Christy is still working in the maintenance department at the kids school and getting to know her colleagues better as time goes on. She meets with a number of ladies for various things; a book reading club, women’s bible study and fellowship gatherings. All the ladies she meets with are from a variety of churches and Lord continues to give her opportunities to be a shining light for Jesus. Christy and the girls are excited about a monthly Christian Surfers meeting for girls and getting involved with CS as well. Its awesome that our whole family is able to get involved with CS, super stoked about this.
Malena is praying/considering college options for next year. Since US universities have certain stipulations for entry and the classes offered in Australia don’t always match up there are a number of challenges. Please pray with us regarding Malena’s education. She's had a number of opportunities to stand for Jesus and encourage her peers in the Lord.
Jesse will be entering year 9. At the moment his arm is in a cast, broken wrist from playing basketball. He's also taken an interest in fishing and has been wetting a line every chance he gets.
Nina is going into year 6 and doing well, she’s made a number of friends over the past year. She's also started surfing and is getting comfortable out in the water, soon she'll be pulling in to 6ft barrells. The kids are still homesick at times, but pressing on in the Lord.

Our current lease on the home we’re renting expires 8 February and since the Lord has us being involved primarily in the Manly community we’re hoping to move closer to Manly in Feb. Right now we live about 30 minutes from Manly.

We continue to covet your prayers and are so blessed for those of you who partner with us in prayer, this means a lot!! There are ups and downs, hills and valleys…adjusting to Aussie life has been challenging and not easy. But its been good. A big issue is settling into a home, we’ve moved 5 times over the past year and we’d like to setting down in a place for awhile. Spiritual warfare here is very mental (as opposed to external attacks), fiery darts, emotional struggles, thought life….these areas seem to be the devils playground. Again, we truly covet your prayers.

As you’re praying, if God leads you to want to support us financially there are two options for doing so:
1. If by credit card you can do so by going to:
https://www.easytithe.com/f/?k=6SSHN0DEHB4KG6DH
Under the ‘Missionary Name/Code’ prompt you’ll find us listed as “Hall, Brad”

2. If by check:
a. Make checks out to: Calvary Chapel, in the memo note: “Brad and Christy Hall.”
b. Mail checks to: Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa, Attn: accounting3800 FairviewSanta Ana, CA 92704

May God richly bless you this Christmas and in the New Year.
Love in Jesus,The Halls (Brad, Christy, Malena, Jesse, Nina)