Sunday, August 21, 2016

Return to Oz

Dear friends,
It is with great excitement and a touch of sadness that we let you know that we are about to head back to Oz. Its been a great 8 years here in TL but the time has come ...
Before it does though, what have we been up to over the last few weeks?

A big event was having a team from the Salvation Army Australia come and visit us here in Timor-Leste. This team was led by Lucas Cairns and the main objective was to set up the recording studio in the training centre and run a sound system workshop. This actually means that the training centre is functional (partly)!

Some of the crew recording in the Kadi Studio (after they lined it with carpet and set up the sound equipment). Later they helped us record a combined churches CD with 11 songs from 9 different churches.


Soldering some sound cables - Lucas was able to teach the locals how to do their own maintenance.

Later the team got out to a local ministry centre and, among other things, assisted with some hose to bring water to the centre - they got a hands on lesson on what it takes to survive without water on tap.


Thanks so much, guys for all the encouragement you brought to us from Oz!

Our new organisation, Kadi Kapasidade, is now off and running. It is registered in Timor-Leste and is managed by Nino with Emmy as assistant manager. We will be running training for the churches in Timor-Leste with a focus on Bible teaching and preparing church leaders for ministry. Kadi will also be doing some women's ministry and agriculture development. For more info, check out the site at www.kaditimor.org


Out the back of the training centre - waiting for a veggie patch.


Some other training includes Old Testament Course (a one day cram covering the Old Testament)


Women's sewing workshop led by Lauren in Bele Kria which now operates in Kadi's training centre.


Chicken raising workshop - which was run on the back of our chicken vaccination program. In July, we coordinated the vaccination of 240 chickens in the local village to protect them from Newcastles Disease.


As part of our chicken project, we sent another roll of chicken wire out with Pastor Tom to Los Palos to assist the IPTL church, Immanuel, out there. (Thanks to CVCC!)


We also got a visit from my bro and his wife, Kylie, and got to show him some of our activities on the island of Atauro (the good, the bad and the ugly)


Very nice whatsies hanging off the reef - ok, I need to brush up on my marine biology.


We got a visit from Sipri, who has now graduated and is a Lieutenant at Kupang.


Cynthia organised a mini-Olympics event with the home school group which was a great success - it included javelin (tooth pics), shot put (coconuts), and high jump (throwing army men) to name a few of the challenging events.


Today, we did the First Lady's Cup Fun Run - Serenity sets a cracking pace to finish the 10km in 1hr 6 minutes.

These are just a few of the things we've been up to - for those who've visited, they know a couple of pics probably doesn't cut it. In the end, we thank God for good health and good opportunities to work with the locals here.

Cynthia's parents have come to help us pack and move out. On Wednesday, the crew will leave Timor-Leste with Serenity and Samuel staying to finish up over 3 more weeks. Many ask what will happen with all that we've been involved in. I say, stay tuned ...