Happy Anniversary to Us! We celebrated 9 years on June 13th.

So what do you think, cheesy or romantic?

"Let the cold wind blow and the hard times roll..." (*)

Winter is just around the corner in Australia, and we're finally experiencing cold weather in over a year! We arrived here in October, during Spring in Oz which coincides with the Fall in the U.S. So the last time we were in cold weather was back in the beginning of 2006! Wow!

Although the Winters here are very much like the ones in So Cal, we have been freezing! The problem isn’t when we’re outside as one might assume; we're actually freezing inside the house, day or night! You see, most houses here are made of bricks, and insulation and central air are not so common in most homes, except in some of the new ones. Some houses have fireplaces, but not ours! It gets bone-chilling cold! We literally walk around the house during the day wearing our down jackets. At night we've been sleeping in our flannel PJs, on flannel sheets, covered up with three layers of blankets -and one of them happens to be a Korean mink blanket! We tried to tough it out, but even Jim can't stand the cold. So, we went and got ourselves a portable heater -pretty common here.

The thought of having a portable heater was hilarious for me! I feel like we've gone back in time. I was thinking about how I hadn’t seen one in nearly thirty years, and couldn’t help but think back about my childhood days back in Brazil when our family used to sit around a heater, much similar to the one we just bought, and cook hot dogs over it. Oh, the good ol' days. Thinking about my childhood has brought some warmth to my heart. I just hope this heater does too.

P.S: Thank you to all those who've prayed for us and sent us words of encouragement regarding my last entry. Regardless of the circumstances we’ve begun our weekly fellowship meeting and we’re very excited about our ministry.

(*) lyrics from a Bluegrass song