Allbutt Journalings
What have we been doing in recent days
An online web journal (weblog) of Mike & Vanessa Allbutt. (Updated as often as we remember to.)
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
Mid-year Preparations
¡Hola / Hello Friend!
Catch up
Greetings from cold Melbourne. We have been in our new home for over three months now, and we continue to enjoy the space and freedom it gives us. Mike continues to work full time from home building websites. We've really seen his business grow well, although he still needs to put in long hours.
Priscila
Since Priscila had gastro 5 weeks ago, there seems to be something wrong with her gut. We've spent almost every night taking it in turns to hold her and comfort her as she seems to be passing very painful bowel motions. We are currently waiting for test results to come back, to determine whether she has a bug or a parasite, or whether her stomach isn't breaking down food properly.
Please pray that it will be easily treated, whatever the problem may be. We are all very keen for her to sleep through the night again.
Other than that, she continues to develop well. She has started to say words such as peas (please), ta, woof woof (dog), no, yeah, zoo (shoe) and baby.
Baby
Baby continues to grow well. We have three months left until he/she arrives. It kicks and punches very often (sometimes at the same time!), reminding Vanessa that he/she is still there. But we are more than ready for him/her. The baby room is all set up and ready, and the clothes all clean and folded nicely. Although we anticipate lots of hard work, it will be nice to have a little newborn again.
Pioneers
We had our final interview with Pioneers last week. A letter will be sent from the interviewers to the leadership of Pioneers recommending our acceptance into Pioneers. Once this occurs, we need to finalize details regarding each party's role (ours, our church, CS Australia, CS US, CS International, and Pioneers). This can be a long process as there are so many participants involved.
Please pray that communication will flow clearly and agreements made.
US trip
After having several discussions with CS US staff, we have decided not to attend the CS US national conference. One of our most important reasons for attending was to spend time with the leaders. It appears that we would not be able to meet with them during this time, so we felt it would not be wise to go.
Leadership Matters
A recommendation was made for Mike to attend the Leadership Matters Course in July in the Sunshine Coast. This course address leadership issues that Mike will probably encounter in Mexico. We really felt it was appropriate for him to attend, especially since he has not held a formal position in leadership for some time.
We really need your prayers at this time. Mike will be away for two and a half weeks, which means he will not earn an income for that time. We also have to arrange to cover the costs of airfares, accommodation and the course itself. Please pray that God will provide all we need during this time, both financially and practically.
Vanessa will remain in Melbourne with Priscila for most of the time, with one week in Tasmania with her parents to (hopefully) have a rest.
Please remember Vanessa and Priscila in your prayers. We're really trusting God for good health and sound sleep. It can be very tiring looking after a 15 month old on your own, especially being 30 weeks pregnant. Sickness or bad nights will only make it worse.
Thanks for your interest in what we're up to. If you'd like more information, or would like to support us in sending Mike to the Leadership Matters Course, please contact us.
We also have quite a lot of Prayer Cards available. If you would like us to send you one/some then please email us back and we will arrange for it to be posted.
P.S. We value your support and appreciate the time you took to read this end of financial year update.
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[By Mike 12:27 PM ] +
I trust that this Allbutt Journalings helps bring you up to date with what I have been up to recently. If you want to contact me then click here. Thanks for reading some of my thoughts. If you want to read some of the older files then they have been stored in the archives here.