It won't last...

I mean the hairdo, not the romance between these two.

Sharing is Caring

One of the things we love to do is open up our home and invite friends and people we meet to break bread with us. In fact, we have an "open door policy" in our home and people are welcome to drop by anytime and stay for as long as they'd like. Recently we hosted a Spanish-themed potluck dinner and I had to post the photos that our guests took because they came out simply awesome!

The following dishes were made by our friends:


Tuna Empanadas


Tortilla de Patatas


Almond Cake

These were the dishes Jim and I made:


Garlic and Butter Calamari


Red Onion and Orange Salad


Paella Valenciana

Mouth watering isn't it?!

Life is Sweeter When Shared With Loved Ones

As soon as our two MTW interns left, our fellow teammates (and dear friends) came down to Sydney from Brisbane for Tony to attend a conference and also to get a passport for their newborn at the U.S. Consulate. After taking care of business, they extended their stay to take a much needed short vacation break and we had the privilege of hosting them. The timing was perfect because we were able to take a few days off too! We had a wonderful time and cherish the sweet moments we spent sharing our lives with one another.

The beautiful family: Tracy, Tony, Aidan and Kathryn.

Waiting for lunch.

Drinking a "babychino" like a true Aussie kid.

The boys acting like "Nacho Libres" at a Mexican fast-food place called Mad-Mex.


Baby Aidan bundled up like a burrito.

The girls at Watson's Bay.

Chillin' in the sun at a playground.


Day trip to the Blue Mountains.

Our Growing Family

These two darlings have been sleeping in our home and eating our food for the past month and a half!


Erin, 21 years old from North Carolina, arrived the first week of June. She is kind of stoic and contemplative, is a natural with children, and loves chocolate and peanut butter.


Ben is only 17 and is from New Jersey. He is a very bright young man. He devours food and books equally, loves singing and salsa-dancing, and as you can see loves to goof-around.


It has been a blessing having them with us as we've had the priviledge of witnessing their eagerness to follow after the Lord's will for their lives and their desire to be used as God's instruments. They'll be here until the end of this month, and we'll miss them a lot when they leave.


Thankfully we still got Buddy, the apple of my eye.

Top Five Things I Miss the Most

#1: Toilet seat-covers in public bathrooms.



#2: Self-pay stations at gas pumps.



#3: Friendly customer service.



#4: Laundromats with giant commercial washers & driers to wash my blankets.



#5: Freeway Interchanges.

Love so undeserving...

This week some people paid us a special visit, all the way from Brea, California! After a jam-packed couple of very busy days of speaking at conferences and other Christian engagements here in Sydney, Jim's former boss and his wife met with us for dinner last night. Though it was a brief visit, we were so blessed and encouraged by the depth of their godliness. They also brought with them lots of "love" letters from the staff at ECCU!

During our short time of prayer together, my heart swelled with thankfulness and humbleness. We were tremendously moved by their gesture of love, generosity, and care. Being so far away from our loved ones, sometimes we forget that we are not lonesome sojourners. We have many people, whom we’ve known for years and whom we haven’t even met, praying for us with the same hope that we pray, which is for all of us to be the best representatives of Christ’s heart, hands and feet. Thank you M & C (and everyone back home) for your love! We long to hear from you more.

P.S.: I hope I don't get into trouble for posting their pictures without their permission!

One Thing Led to Another...

This past weekend was pretty "memorable". It started off on Friday afternoon when I decided to accompany a friend who wanted to check out a dog-friendly park/cafe in Sydney. While at the park, Buddy (our Labrador Retriever) decides to take an unexpected swim at the canal that runs along the side of the entire park! I run over to get him and to my horror, the sides of the canal (which are completely made of concrete) slopes down about 5’ at a steep angle! I’m semi-panicky, but Buddy is not even fazed; he’s just having a yabba-dabba-doo-time swimming in the dirty water.

Thankfully, an older gentleman comes over to help. He reaches over and is able to grab Buddy by his collar. But as he tries to pull him up, the collar comes off and Buddy is back in the canal! The little rascal is too fat to be rescued! Then these two younger men rush over, one of them holds on to the edge with one hand, puts his leg over the edge, and grabs Buddy by the back of his neck with his other hand and pulls Buddy up to safety. Buddy thanked everyone around by spraying dirty canal water on us as he shook himself off!

However, the drama continued as soon as we got home. After giving Buddy a quick bath in the backyard, we noticed that the hot-water tank was leaking. So we turned it off and said, “No worries. We can call the plumber tomorrow (Saturday).” Tomorrow came and we couldn’t get a hold of our real estate agent whom we had to notify first. She was at an auction selling a property and wouldn’t be able to get back to us until she was done. To make the story short, the earliest that a plumber could be scheduled to come was Monday.

Still, the fiasco didn’t end there. After dinner, we were cooking some food for Sunday’s lunch for our church gathering and, forgetting that we didn’t have hot water, Jim drained some beef fat down the sink. He doesn’t tell me this important fact until later when I was about to do the dishes and realized the sink was clogged due to the fat that had solidified in the pipes. We plunged it, poured hot-boiling water, plunged it again, poured Drano, and plunged it some more with no success of unclogging the sink. We were stuck with dirty dishes and pots piled up on the kitchen counter. And the cherry on top of the icing of this disaster-cake was that we had to boil some water over the stove to bathe ourselves.

Thankfully, the chaos was over by Saturday night. The next morning we had a wonderful time of devotion with our Harbour City Church members; and though served with plastic plates, cups and utensils, we had a nice, tasty and warm lunch. The plumber came early this (Monday) morning and everything got fixed. Call this series of events what you may: Domino Effect, Cascading Failure, Chain Reaction, or Butterfly Effect. The important fact is that the end result was still a triumphant victory. God ALWAYS sees us through, even in trials that seem petty and secondary. God is good!

Have you ever had a crazy weekend like that?