Today is the last day of winter, and here we are snuggled up relaxing in front of the fire, glasses of freshly squeezed orange juice at the ready, watching TV, in our pyjamas… with the flu.
Since we last wrote to you, we have had two birthdays: Keiran turned 23 on the 30th of July, and Corinne had her 21st just this weekend gone on the 27th. We spent her birthday up in Sydney with Corinne’s family celebrating her grandparents’ 50th wedding anniversary and Corinne’s even got a surprise birthday party. We thank God for His provision for another year and the opportunity to celebrate all he has given us. Thank you all for your birthday wishes!
Last newsletter we wrote that we had two new housemates moving in with us. With a four-bedroom, one-bathroom house, and six people to share it we anticipated potential difficulties, however it has thankfully been a wonderful two months getting to know each other. It has been great for Keiran to have another guy in the house to compete against for the “Best Husband” award and we have both really enjoyed having another married couple around, similarly aged, and who were married only one week before us. We find the household is a tight-knit group, teaching us to communicate and love one another (even when they drive you crazy leaving the sink messy). It is great training for the mission field community culture with five out of the six of us preparing for mission work.
Corinne is well into her second semester at uni. Her subjects are Writing Poetry, Spanish and Shakespeare in Adaptation. There are only 8 weeks to go until she has finished uni for the year and we jet over to Canada for Keiran’s brothers wedding. Pray that she will be healthy and beat the flu so that she will be able to focus on her studies, even with a subject like Poetry which drives her crazy. Pray also that on our return from Canada, she will be ready to start her search for full-time work.
Speaking of work, pray that the Moo will keep giving Corinne shifts. She was sick three and had to cancel her shifts, and then did not receive another until this Saturday coming. We would very much appreciate it if you would pray that she will be fully recovered from the flu so that she won’t have to cancel again.Praise God, however, that Keiran got through his first round of interviews for a casual job at Bunnings. He has a final interview on Monday at 4:30pm, and we welcome your prayers that it would be successful. Keiran also passed his latest CASA exam, GB Fuel Injection Systems and Magnetos. Praise God that he only has three engineering exams to go! He has spent much of the past month working on a practice twin-engine aircraft, getting it to run again, troubleshooting numerous faults and performing engine runs and is currently doing a complete teardown and overhaul of a Continental TSIO-360 Engine (a medium sized engine, for the 99% of you who don’t know what that means). He also had an interesting experience of checking that a newly installed fuel pump was working and not leaking; see the photo opposite to get a taste of how close his fingers are to that propeller (15cm away!). He really enjoys working on these aircraft, however over these past months he has really felt that God has confirmed and has been increasing his desire to be predominately a mission pilot, with engineer as his secondary profession.
We have both recently finished reading the book, ‘Crazy Love’ by Francis Chan. It was an incredibly challenging book for both of us and we have seen in recent weeks how God has worked through the book to draw us closer to Him and to each other. The book challenges our desire for God and how much we truly love Him and not the things that he gives us. He quotes John Pipers book ‘God is the Gospel’, saying,
The critical question for our generation—and for every generation— is this: If you could have heaven, with no sickness, and with all the friends you ever had on earth, and all the food you ever liked, and all the leisure activities you ever enjoyed, and all the natural beauties you ever saw, all the physical pleasures you ever tasted, and no human conflict or any natural disasters, could you be satisfied with heaven, if Christ were not there?’
We pray that we will serve God with all our hearts, with a Crazy Love for Him that He deserves.
With Love,
Keiran & Corinne
