the days to come

for several days, we will be out and around melbourne, staying a few different places, visiting with church planters and catching up with friends.

saturday - in the afternoon the three of us will head over to the southeastern suburb of berwick (about an hour's drive) to stay at kimmy's, the victoria director of forge and our gentle, loving "boss."  he and his wife have three boys that isaac has already met and thoroughly enjoyed.  we are going to spend saturday evening at a meal and a gathering of their group (mission workers and church planters) and they've asked us to share about communality and our life in a missional community.  we will relax with kim and his family until early sunday evening.  we haven't had any substantial unhurried,  "unofficial" time to actually visit with kim and maria and there isn't much time left, so we are very much looking forward to it.

sunday evening - we were invited to speak to a salvation army youth group in glen waverley (also in the east) by two students who heard us speak at their college.  again, they want us to share stories about mission in the u.s. and life together in communality.

later sunday evening - after this event, we will retire at john and glena smith's, who live quite close to where we'll be speaking.  we are looking forward to spending two nights in their home, introducing isaac to them and catching about recent years.  the smiths are long-time family friends of the maddocks and geoff's family lived down the street from them for about ten years.  john and glena were originally organizers and workers of communality (while in the u.s. studying at asbury) along with greg and mary and the few of us students in the early days.

monday - while we're in the east, where the dandenong mountain range lies, we plan to take isaac for a much-anticipated walk through the stunning bird-filled bush and tour the little towns that rest at the top of these hills.

tuesday - we will return to the city in the afternoon.  kevin will meet us to collect isaac and we will continue on to whitley theological college to participate in a workshop with our friend daz.  this workshop is a part of their "school for ministry" program titled "old church and new church: becoming tomorrow's church."  we plan to join this conference group for dinner and see our new friend simon again.

we feel deeply blessed and privileged for each opportunity to speak and share with groups and friends.  we are continually mindful of our faithful community in lexington, to whom our shared stories belong.  as always, we are indebted to our friends and family for cherished prayers of support and love.