April 2012 Newsletter

Greetings and Aloha!
We trust you've had a great start to the new year, on the other hand perhaps its been difficult and challenging? In either case, God has been present with you and faithful to you, and whether tough or smooth its been good. Right???

For us, we eased into the new year with family life as the kids were on summer break till the beginning of February. We didn't have a lot of beach days this summer since the weather has been abnormally cool and rainy. Nevertheless there were a few cranking swells that came through and some good surf and we were able to enjoy some rare sunny days at the beach. Nowthe kids are in full swing with school; Malena is in year 12, Jesse year 9, and Nina year 6.
Malena is studying for HSC's this year (similar to SAT's) and plans to attend Calvary Bible College in Murrieta, California at the beginning of next year. Jesse is taking a cooking class at school and has become quite the gourmet chef in our home, surpising us with various dinners and desserts. And Nina love's school as she can't get enough of playing sports and roughing it up with the boys. All three kids have transitioned to a new soccer club and have just started the new season, they're playing for Curl Curl Youth Club. We're super stoked on the club, its a great fit for us! With school and soccer on, Christy has been the kids' taxi service. She's still working
part time at the kids' school as well.

Answered prayer: we've just put down a deposit to rent a home closer to Manly and Curl Curl. We've been looking for the past 2-3 months and will be moving 17 April. The house is in a suburb called Beacon Hill, about 10 minutes from Manly, 7 minutes to Curl Curl, and 10 minutes to the kids' school. Plus its up on a hill offering some nice views. We'll send photos in next newsletter.

Another answer to prayer: I've been offered a job at ICMS (the college where I serve as chaplain). I was approached by the Founder of the college and the Managing Director (CEO), the two of them thought I'd be perfect for a position that had just opened up; student services manager. My role will consist of three primary functions; pastoral care, event coordinating, and student administration (i.e. helping students with bus passes, business services, etc..). I'm pretty much the first point of contact for students, helping them get situated for the term(s). It's a fulltime role and they're sponsoring me with a visa to stay in the country. We're all very excited about the new job and convinced this is the next step in this journey the Lord has us on here in Australia.

Regarding ministry a lot has been happening. After the Surf Outreach with Bethany Hamilton (Feb 16-18), I hit the ground running hard. I started a 6wk course at St Matts titled "Life to the Full." The course was produced by another ministry here in Australia and they agreed to allow us to use it. However, they only gave us a loose outline to work with. Thus I've had to write and produce the course almost from scratch as well as teach and lead it on Thursday nights. Its designed for the curious seeker, the skeptic, and the new believer who has a lot of questions about God. Following is the outline:

wk 1: What is life to the full? Can you have it with or without God?
wk 2: The reliability of the Bible; 7 evidences to prove the validity of the bible
wk 3: What happens when God and man meet; realization of sin and death.
wk 4: Why was Jesus executed? He paid for our sins so we could be forgiven/saved.
wk 5: What happens after death? The significance of the resurrection.
wk 6: How should I respond? What is a Christian and how do I become one.

We've had over 20 people attending the course, about 5-6 are unbelievers. This past Thursday (last night) was our final week, it was a great finish as believers were strengthened in their faith and unbelievers were left at the threshold of salvation (they didn't respond to the invitation). Please pray for those who haven't yet responded to Jesus, that they would commit their lives to Him!

Aside from St Matts, I was asked to do evangelistic training for a team of high school students going on a short term mission trip to an Aboriginal community in Northern Australia. Its a team of 25 kids and 6 teachers from Covenant Christian School (where our kids attend). This past weekend I taught at a family camp for St Ive's Community Church and had a great time! I taught 3 sessions on Ephesians titled; "Sit, Walk, Stand." We're 'seated with Christ in heavenly places (Ch's 1-3),' walking in Christ in earthly places (Ch's 4-6:9),' and victorious thru Christ against the forces of darkness (Ch 6:10-18). It was a great weekend. Lastly, I'll be traveling to New Zealand at the end of this month for a week of teaching at the Calvary Bible College 'speakers week.' I'm really looking forward to connecting with Scott Clifford and Mark Walsh and the Rotorua crew.

With all that's been happening I haven't had much time to invest in Christian Surfers. But I'm excited to be turning a corner as I'm hoping to be freed up to give more attention to CS. We'll be having a meeting soon to regroup and discuss our plans for the rest of the year. We've been getting together with Mark and Theresa Redden and having some sweet fellowship, Malena and Lauren have been going to the Redden's on Tuesday night for bible study (for those who don't know Lauren has been with us for the past few months, she came prior to her parents who are praying about starting a church in the coming months). Lauren attends Covenant Christian School with our kids and is in year 11).

Please keep us in prayer, to get focused with Christian Surfers and to be victorious over the wiles of the devil during this time of transition (moving houses, changing jobs). Our borrowed vehicle is about to be redeemed by its owners (in June), please keep us in prayer about acquiring another vehicle. We have one car we can make do with, but a second vehicle would be very helpful. Lastly, since I'll only be at St Matts for another 4 weeks, we're praying and deciding about what to do for church, whether we should plug in somewhere and/or start up a Sunday evening bible study.

We pray that God will richly bless you as you seek His face.
Love in Jesus,
The Halls (Brad, Christy, Malena, Jesse, Nina)

Lastly, as you’re praying, if God leads you to partner with us by supporting us financially there are a few options for doing so:

FOR AUSTRALIA:
BSB: 082 116
Acct: 179391629
Bradley Hall

FOR USA:
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: accounting
3800 Fairview
Santa Ana, CA 92704