Goodbye Australia

Early Morning Perth

We have less than 24 hours before we board a plane for Southeast Asia. We are really going to miss it here in Australia and hope to be back sooner than later. Our future base location may now be wide open at this point even though our commitment to Create International has only increased.

We came here to Perth to serve with Create International and just completed the initial training program required to join YWAM as missionaries. Meanwhile the founders of Create International have relocated to Thailand and personally invited us up for firsthand training with them. You can see that this exciting move to Thailand is working out for the best for us and this ministry at this time in our life.

Allyson testifies about our PNG experience during our outreach "report back" event.

So here we go! We leave Perth tomorrow. In effort to make the best use of your missions dollars, we are actually saving a significant amount by taking 4 flights through 4 countries to get to Chiang Mai rather than the more direct 2 flights that would have been more expensive. (I'm not sure how it's cheaper for the airlines to cart us all around Southeast Asia, yet this is how the they save money on airfares.) Consequently, we have an overnight layover in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and then a day and half stop in Singapore for some much needed R&R before arriving in Thailand on July 1st. Our next training program starts July 6th.

We covet your prayers for us as we travel and for many travel mercies for all four flights. There are also lots of restrictions on luggage and carry-on weight that have proven to be challenging already. We have tentative reservations for at least one flight and some hotel bookings in other countries to manage. In Singapore we are staying at the YMCA in the heart of the city. It all adds up to some crazy busy travel in the next few days.

Featured here with our outreach leader Samantha on our DTS graduation day.

Regrettably, we are also under-funded for this transition into Thailand, so please pray for our funding to increase so we can met our financial obligations in Thailand in a timely manner. As mentioned in our last official newsletter, we have lost almost 20% of our budget since December due to the dollar's drop internationally. We think often of the financial sacrifies people are making on our behalf and it's very humbling.

Lastly, because Google no longer is supporting our ability to send bulk email to our list, we made a recent switch to Google Groups as a provider for our newsletter, and lost a bunch of readers along the way. Many people have chosen not to sign up and we respect their choice not to follow our story any longer, yet it is obviously discouraging for us to be dropped by so many. This only makes those of you subscribed to our blog here even more precious to us. Thanks for tracking with us and being such a blessing with your prayers and encouragements.

Reflected in the window below the Create International office in Perth.

Thanks too to those of you who shared fun anecdotes and left comments for Allyson on her Facebook birthday page and provided for her birthday celebration. It was a very bright spot in June for us and her turning 40 is worth celebrating after all, isn't it?

This Baldwin boomerang is getting flung into Asia. We'll catch up with you again after we land on our feet in Chiang Mai!? Bless you abundantly for reading this and staying with us on this journey.