(I was taking a walk with the idea of sitting and reading somewhere and looked up - clearly I thought it was worthy of capturing). All the other pictures are from our Anniversary down in San Diego.
Hello again,
So I said that we would be more regular with our updates... but... enough with the excuses, forgive me and read on...lol
We have my younger sister Bec and a friend from Sth Africa living with us this year which has been great. We met Lizanne through a mutual friend and she totally fits with us all - I kept on asking Lou when she was going to advertise the extra room and she kept saying that God had said wait... as time went by I became a little nervous and then Lou's faith was well rewarded. From "left-field" God connected us with Lizanne. We sent a few emails back n forth and we picked her up the from the airport the day she started school - and she went!
We are absolutely loving second year. The class size is significantly smaller and much more intimate. We have continued to make many new friends and have gone even deeper with those that we connected to last year.
This year we spend much more time breaking into electives and intentionally learning and growing in those areas that really interest us. I am doing one elective on Kingdom finances, another on student development (think life coaching), and another on deploying people to utilse their gifts in areas that they are passionate about (in and out of the 4 walls of the church).
Lou is doing one on inner healing, preaching, and another which we couldn't really summerize and the title of which doesn't really give that great an idea... actually I have already forgotten what it is...lol
We have read a few books already and they are coming at us really fast - I got 2 new ones last week. Each one has been really good. I have always found church history a slow subject...but the book I just finished made it fairly easy to digest.
Lou's younger brother Chris, is in Holland at the moment - he was asked to lead worship at a conference over there. He gets back late this week. It's been really nice to have him and Bec around.
We went on a ministry trip to Oregon and then Washington a few weeks back. It was an amazing time. We saw so many people get healed from physical and emotional problems. One guy badly injured his ankle 35 years ago in a ski racing accident and he lived in pain every day. He stood up and moved around with absolutely no pain at all.
We went on the trip thinking that we would really get to bless a lot of people (and we did), but upon our return we were talking about how so many people had blessed us. People were genuinely thankful for our visit and the ministry that we did. We received many encouraging words.
In October, Lou and I celebrated our 10 wedding anniversary. We went to San Diego and thanks to American Express had free accommodation for 5 nights. We walked the city, the foreshore, ate out at cafe's and restaurants and generally just had a really nice time away together. The picture on the right is of a killer whale at Sea World.
We both have some ministry trips coming up. Lou will be going to Honolulu in a few weeks time. It's a fantastic opportunity and God got her onto the team in a "back-door" way. She had been praying some weeks earlier and God had said to her that she would get to go, but then when the team was selected she wasn't on it as she had already travelled with Kris V. (the staff member that the team would be traveling with). She remained confident that she would be going and simply said that if someone couldn't go she would still like to. She was told that there were many people before her and that she really wouldn't be going. Well like the story above where she remained full of faith...she got an email just last week saying she was now on the team... once again she jumped around the room...lol
I am going on a trip to Palestine, Texas in the beginning of December with some guys who see the most amazing miracles and regularly! I can't wait. I am also hoping to be on a team to Sth America early in the new year.
Both of us felt led to apply to go to Cleveland for our mission trip and we were both accepted. We connected with the senior pastor a few days after we found out that we were on the team and we are really excited by what they are doing in Cleveland and how we will get to participate.
At this stage we are unsure of what next year (post June), will look like for us. When we know we will pass it on. What we do know is that our finances will not cover a third year (from a natural perspective). We would like to be here and are checking out some possibilities of how that might be able to happen.
Thanks once again for all your love,
Shane and Lou
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