our{Thanksgiving}

We celebrated Thanksgiving this year with 17 of our YWAM American friends, just like we did last year. It will hopefully be a tradition. Lots of food and games to follow. It didn't feel like home, not sure if it(Thanksgiving) ever will. Eating pumpkin pie while wearing flip flops just doesn't feel right. As much as I missed home, I'm so so so grateful to the wonderful friends we got to celebrate the day with.

The spread in a circle... a little chaotic!

The whole family

Pumpkin Praline Tort for dessert.Yes please!

Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!! Tell me about any amazing Black Friday deals you got!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

Happy Thanksgiving from Australia!!!!

this little turkey found his way to the beach!

Today we are celebrating so many things to be thankful for! Although we miss our family and friends back home this holiday, we are grateful to have our YWAM family to celebrate Thanksgiving with today. We've been busy organising and cooking up a storm to have a little taste of home tonight. It's hot and humid today so my senses aren't telling me it's Thanksgiving but my taste buds sure will tonight...bring on the turkey & pumpkin pie :)

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!And good luck to all you crazy mid-night shoppers! Get a great deal for me!!!

Christian Surfers Australia

Christian Surfers Australia (CSA) is a christian organisation that's heart is to be a christian influence in the surfing community. This week in Coolum, the town where we live, all the regional coordinators for CSA are here to meet & prepare for conference next year as well as tackle regular leadership needs. 

A giant pot of pasta to feed the hungry leaders!

My, Ashlee's role with CS is working specifically with the region of Queensland(it's a state, for those who don't know your geography...) and take care of administrative tasks there. Currently I'm focused on the conference we are hosting next year in Coolum. We hope to have 250 people come and have every mission represented. Please pray for us as we prepare for this week of gathering and growth in Christ. Unity is really important in CSA as we are spread out all over the country.

our FRIDAY

Meet some of my friends from work....

Olivia, Hannah, Danielle & Kylie

They are all super sweet & great co-workers. We all feel blessed to be able to work together. We're more like a family! Kylie moves to Germany in December :( Part of my role is taking over for her.

my desk...note the background on my computer... miss my girls back home :(

Jeremy met with his mentor this morning before opening and running the surf shop today. Unfortuantely we have 0 pictures to show you from his day....

Today after work I had a Christian Surfers state(regional) team meeting. I had the honours(that's how you spell honours here) of taking notes :) Most Thursday mornings I work with the Regional Coordinator on conference planning(for Easter weekend 2012, we are hosting it) as well as a few other administrative tasks. It's really exciting to see all the different things happening with Christian Surfers regionally. New missions being planted, grooms going overseas, chaplaincy on the pro-surfing circuit. God is using a fun hobby to connect people with Christ.

After the meeting, I quickly went home to eat a yummy beef roast I had in the slow cooker. Jeremy greeted me with a "I made a mistake :(" .... come to find out he tried to roast the potatoes like I asked him to and they burnt. No big deal at all! I was expecting a way worse mistake. Despite the burnt potatoes, Jeremy is doing an awesome job with helping around the house and starting dinner before I get home. Sorry I just had to toot his horn a little.... okay Friday continued....

The July 2011 DTS graduated tonight. We didn't really get to know these students since we came after their school had started and weren't really around much. We still loved hearing about the outreaches and what God did in their lives. Watching the videos made us both excited for our next opportunity to go to a developing country... hopefully sometime in 2012!!

And these are my sweet friends.... Selah & Laine!

And now it's 10:30pm & I'm ready to go to bed! Hope this gave you a little glimpse into my day!! Nighty, night!....or I guess it's good morning for you!!

TWO BABIES :)

It's been an exciting week for us. More because of what's going on back home than anything being new here. Two babies in two days!! My(Ashlee) best friend had a sweet baby boy this week. This is as close as I'm going to get to having a picture with him for a long time. We feel blessed to have journeyed with Jade & Jamie through this pregnancy. Praising God for a healthy adorable baby boy! Jameson Jeffrey!

Only a few minutes old here... Praise God for FaceTime & Skype this week!!! It made the world feel like a much smaller place.

We're officially Uncle Jeremy & Aunt Ashlee with the birth of Jeremy's brother, Tim's baby girl Ella Grace! We wish more than anything we could be there to meet these precious little bubs. 

Ella is an 11/11/11 baby!! We're praying for these new babies and their parents as they adjust to their new lives! We hope for lots of good eats & long sleeps :)

{FRUIT&STARBUCKS}

If you didn't know, my(Ashlee) role at work for the last few weeks has been to cold call churches and tell them about the opportunity to screen the movie "Soul Surfer" as a fundraiser or an outreach. Many people think I'm a telemarketer, or that I am wanting to sell them something, which is a little bit true. Rather, we believe in the power of a good movie, and it'd be great if they'd decide to have an event. I've had all sorts of responses! In the last few days I haven't made many calls, as my role has started to move into my more permanent work. We received an awesome email today from someone who hosted a movie screening, 3 girls who saw the film gave their lives to Christ afterwards! Hearing this made all those hours of calling churches totally worth it. I love how we got the opportunity to hear about the fruits of a simple movie screening, so often we don't see or hear about it. We only played a very, very small part but it all contributes.

On a total other note, Starbucks in partnering with the Boardstores (skate/surf shops that are run by YWAMers)and helping fund all the awesome things that they do! I just thought this was really exciting! All the time spent at Starbucks by YWAMers has paid off!!

I know it's small and your probably can't read it but this is posted at our Starbucks here!

Specific prayer requests for this week....

--Christians Surfers Coolum is having a camping trip this weekend. We can't go, as Jeremy needs to man the shop. Pray for opportunities to build relationships & share Christ with the grooms that attend.

-- For the students in our RE classes. That they would see Christ's light in us and would have open hearts to the gospel

-- Jeremy & I both have one-on-ones, other staff that we mentor and disciple. Pia & Jono-- please pray for them, because we love them so much!

-- Our marriage, of course! We are doing really well, but you can never have too much prayer :)

-- Jeremy: wisdom as this week he committed to be the official manager of the shop!! (woo hoo Jeremy committed!!!!! :) If you know Jeremy you know this is HUGE for him!)

Video Update for our Home church in PA!

To watch an update video that we put together for our home church in PA, just click the link!

Hoover's Update Vid!  

Love y'all!