Home Sweet Home

Hey, Finally some better pictures of the house. Isn't it fun!

September 24th

I haven't put up a post for awhile so I thought I should try to just put a note in about what is going on.
We got our car fixed and back after my overheating event in rush hour traffic. I just don't think I was intended to have cars. I need a horse or something. God is good though and little mitsubishi is back and running great. She still needs a tune up but...I need a job before she can have that. speaking of jobs, David has already had an offer to work for a pool company over the holliday break here so, Lord willing that will all pan out. I on the other hand am still waiting for a work visa and so am just spying out what is available. I did find out though that a huge gym is opening about a 10 min drive from where we live and I would love to work there. I would really like to get a gym membership and working for a gym may be the only way to accomplish that. Not only that it would be a short drive and I would have a great mission field there. But...we'll see what God thinks is best:).
Other than that both David and I got a bad cold this last week and spent a couple days immobile on the bed sleeping(well, I did. David really didn't have that option). Pray that all the symptoms hanging on will take off and leave us healthy and energetic as soon as possible.
God bless and we'll talk to you soon.

Magpie Alert!

Can I just tell you I thought Hitchcock's, "The Birds" was comletely fictional and horrific!!! Who ever thought that birds would really have the nerve to attack you??? I prayed they wouldn't, but here in Australia the nightmare is real. Yes, magpies attack and it's for real...
OK, I'm exagerating just a bit but it is true that you get swooped here by "the birds" and they are scary. All of my house mates have been attacked and I watched it happen jsut yesterday. I cut and pasted this off a web site today:

The experience of a magpie attack can be quite alarming, but it is usually only a warning. Only occasionally will a bird actually strike the intruder on the head with its beak or claws. If this unusual behaviour persists, there are ways of reducing the risk of physical injury to humans.

If a magpie swoops at you:

Walk quickly and carefully away from the area, and avoid walking there when magpies are swooping.
Make a temporary sign to warn other people.
Magpies are less likely to swoop if you look at them. Try to keep an eye on the magpie, at the same time walking carefully away. Alternatively, you can draw or sew a pair of eyes onto the back of a hat, and wear it when walking through the area. You can also try wearing your sunglasses on the back of your head.
Wear a bicycle or skateboard helmet. Any sort of hat, even a hat made from an ice cream container or cardboard box, will help protect you.
Carry an open umbrella, or a stick or small branch, above your head but do not swing it at the magpie, as this will only provoke it to attack.
If you are riding a bicycle when the magpie swoops, get off the bicycle and wheel it quickly through the area. Your bicycle helmet will protect your head, and you can attach a tall red safety flag to your bicycle or hold a stick or branch as a deterrent.

So, any of you who want to visit in the spring...start sewing those eyes onto the back of your hat:):)

New news

Here is a picture of our house. I want to get a better ones with pictures of the inside too but I have to get the right connection for our camera before I can do that. This picture I "Stole" from one of my house mates, bless her heart. Anyway, our townhouse is the house closest in the picture. We are on a cute little street with tons of beautiful houses. Our yard, as you can probably see, is a bit tinny but I'm excited about that because I don't want to do yard work here. There are to many spiders and scary things crawling around and getting in a flower bed makes my skin crawl.
Inside we now have furniture! The school brought us two chairs, a table, and a leather love seat and chair. It's awesome! I also meet a couple from Switzerland who are bringing us a desk so...God's providing;):). God is provding. We've actually had some awesome things happen since I last updated this blog. Let me see, David has now been in class for two weeks and things are well underway. God has hooked us up with a number of really awesome couples and one of the fellas David met named Matt took him fishing last friday in a river. They didn't catch anything but David almost got a big one:). Also, while David was out fishing I was taking one of our house mates mate to school and I looked down at the Temp. gauge in the car as I was turning into rush hour traffic after dropping her off and saw that my engine temperature was slowly but surely going up. AHHHH!!!! I prayed all the way home, "Jesus get me home, Jesus get me home..." Jesus got me home but now David has a job to do and we aren't sure exactally what is wrong. David thinks it might be the thermostat but he has to get it figured out. So, keep that one in your prayers. Cars...
When I called David out fishing to tell him what had happened he, off course, was calm (I was totally frazzelled!) and told me that Crishan, the pastor over all the young adult (18-25 years) programs here at Hillsong had called him and asked him to speak at PowerHouse (young adult church) and give his testamony. It was awesome! They don't ever ask first year students to speak. Actually, this was the first time they have ever let a first year student speak at one of there major church services. So, David got to speak to a couple thousand people last night and he did awesome. People were cheering him on and he was so confident. He did great. As a result of that today he was moved from what is a regular college weekday ministry group to a small group of men who go into what they call Hostels which are really half way houses here. These places house people newly out of prison and the phsyciatric hopital accross the street. Another thing that they don't let college students be a part of but the guy in charge of there Street Team ministry was at the service last night and fealt like David should be on this team. Thus he is working it out with the college to get David's weekday minsitry changed over to this team. David is pumped!!!! I of course won't be able to go with him but am very excited for him too. God gives him so much opportunity, it's crazy! God is awesome! What unfailing love to use us in anyway shape or form. Please keep us in your prayers. Especially for work visas to come quickly, for a job for me, for our car, and for ministry and school. We are hear not just to learn but to be used by God anyway He sees fit. Also, pray for direction for the future. That God would prepare the way for us and show us where to go from here. Love you all!

Sydney at Sunset

Here is another beautiful pictures of Sydney at sunset. If you look closely you can see the Opera House in the right portion of the picture. This was taken on a ferry ride leaving Sydney. Pretty Snazzy!

September 6th, 2006

Another day down. David is going to school every day and I'm trying to track down a job. Today I had a job interview at the church for their childcare center and it was good. They really don't have a job opening right now though and the only thing to look into there is a internship starting in January. Basically that means that starting in January I could work toward having the Australian Child Care Certificate necsassary to work full time as a childcare provider here in this country. We're are in need of a job before January though so...God will provide. I talked to alot of people today though and got a lot of info on available jobs in the area. Hopefully one will pan out.
Please pray for our work visas to come through as soon as possible (we applied today) and also that God would provide me with a job that will meet all our needs (money, my ankles, time, schedule...) Thank you!!!!!

Darlene Zschech

David met Darlene Zschech today! Yep, He stopped her in the hall...He told me all the college students where just walking by her and trying to act like it was no big deal so he thought, "why not, it's not every day I am walking next to Darlene..." Anyway, they had a good little talk and later when she was giving a lecture to all the students she told the student body whe had met a young man from Alaska and she wanted to pray over him. So, she did. Pretty cool when there are a thousand students and you get singled out like that. That was are excitement of the day. I also drove the car all by myself for the first time in rush hour traffic. I don't like that!

Today

Today was pretty lazy! Monday's are the days off here and so we had a nice breakfast of crepes with strawberrys, whipcream, sour cream, brown sugar... David doesn't quite know what to think of sourcream and brownsugar together but I got him to taste it today and I think I got his approval. Other than that David went shopping and I stayed home to work on this blog and get it caught up. Then tonight we went to our first Counseling Practice class at the college and it was very interesting. We both think it will be a deeper class than we were anticipaiting. That's good! We can see already that this college is all about taking you as far out of your comfort zone as possible and forces you to take leadership roles. It will be a year with no sliding through. Once again that is good. In the morning David starts his Leadership 3 intensive that will be 40 hours of lectures. Tomorrow Brian Houston, and Darlene Zchech will be the lecturers, so that will be fun. Just to say his teachers are Brian and Darlene is kind of cool.
Side note, I'm learning to play the guitar, if I can not be so stubborn it should work out. That is actually a cool story I'll have to get in here soon. It's the story of buying David's new guitar and getting it for a God send deal. It cost him less than the guitar he sold at home and I personally like it better. That story is for later though. Have a wonderful day.

September, 4th, 2006

Life is good! This picture was actually taken a few days ago in the Piazza (food court) outside of the local shopping center (Mall) here in Baulkham Hills. We had one of our favorite girls with us. Meet Jessica Pierce:) She is from Michigan and is awesome. I haven't heard someone with a voice like hers in a very long time. When we can, we grab her to come along with us on some of our adventures. This day wasn't a huge adventure, but the food was good and it was relaxing too. Oh, we did get the car registaration in our names on this day and that was an adventure. They need proof that we have been driving for three years before they can give us Australian drivers licences...wonder how long DMV will take to send that. It's ok though because we have 3 months we can drive with American licenses so we will be fine.

Party Time

Here's the typical college kids having fun picture. The party house is just around the corner from us so sometimes we go and join in on the fun. We are in this pictures...play a little "Where's Springmans." with this entry.

Sunday Night and Serving

David started his weekend ministry yesterday and was assigned, much to his delight, to the new people and new christians ministry. I am going to help out with him too so basically what we get to do is help sett up a welcome lounge for new people, then mill around in the foyer while people are coming in and talk to them. After that we get to go to service and at the end when people raise their hands to respond to the gospel invitation we get to follow them out of the auditorium and get their details and give them a Bible. Pretty awesome! It will make us not be shy that's for sure and we'll get to talk to people who have just made a descion for Christ and encourage them. We then get to go back to the lounge and just talk to new people again and give them dougnuts and coffee. It should be fun!
Above you see some pictures of church on Sunday nights. It's huge! There are somewhere between 3,000 and 4,000 people each Sunday night for services. It's definately a mega church. This will be quite the year.

September, 2nd, 2006

Today was quite the day. Jessica(left), Rachael(right), and David and I went for another tip into Sydney. This time we descided to take the ferry though. It was so relaxing! We caught the ferry from Paramatta, a suberb about 25min. from our house and road it right to the Circular Quay dock that is right next to the Opera House. It was so much fun to come around a bend in the river and see the Sydney Harbor Bridge and the Opera house. It was very unreal to me but it's still unreal that I'm living in Australia too so... David got lots of video and pictures so we can show people when we get home. After we got to the Opera House we boarded another Ferry and headed for Manly Beach. Beaches are busy here! We didn't have much time to hang out but we got to enjoy a little sand between our toes and some sun. On the way home it was dark out so the city lights were stunning. I want to put some pictures of it on this blog but that will to wait. More news later.

September, 1st. 2006

We got a killer Sydney road map after our last trip. See it in my right hand:) Now we will be able to navigate for ourselves.