Relationship building

These last few days have been a lot about people, especially people in our new home church.

One of the big reasons why we packed our bags and came to
Australia for a whole year was so that we could invest in
relationships here. This week it's been encouraging to have
many opportunities to do so, especially in our home church.

Monday night: I went to a fun women's night at our home church (I wasn't leading.)

Tuesday night: David went to a Bible study at church.

Wednesday: met for a few hours with our pastor and an elder in our home church talking about a whole range of things. Very encouraging. Their challenge to us was to get to know as many people as we can in the church so they feel connected to what we do before we go back next year.

Thursday am: I had coffee with a new friend from church. We're doing a lot of this this year, getting to know new people. It is stretching, but very good.
Thursday night: our two oldest went to the youth Bible study. When collecting them David hung out with some of the leaders and supporters (you know, the ones who cook for the teens and clean up).

Friday night: we all went to the Kid's Club/Youth Group Family night breakup at church. It was like a Japanese summer festival wit food and games. David and I helped out (I served sausages in bread most of the night). We've found one of the best way to get to know people is serving alongside them.

Saturday am: David spoke for a short while at our church's denominational state leaders meeting (is that the best way to describe Presbytery?).
Saturday afternoon: a friend of Wendy's from uni days came with her family for afternoon tea at our place. Wonderful to meet up with faithful friends and pray-ers.

Tomorrow am: home church again.
Tomorrow lunch: some more new folk (?maybe some we've met before). People interested in Japan are meeting for lunch and a Japanese-English house church-type meeting.

So you can see that though we've not been doing formal stand-up-the-front deputation meetings this week, we've been busy investing relationships, and, hopefully our future support team.