Week 10 Update!! Wait, what??? Week 10 ???

Hey everyone! It’s that time to share again with you what we have been experiencing and accomplishing the past three weeks. Starting the last big push to finish flats 4,6 and 7 by this Saturday for staff moving in to kick off the July quarter. The hope is to finish flats 1,2 and 3 as well, but we will see. We have had lots of help on the Blitz from staff and more volunteers all over the world from New Zealand, Germany, USA, Canada and Australia. This week we will be installing kitchen cabinet kits, counter tops and all of the furnishings inside. Outside will see more tiling on the stairwells and the walkways upstairs and down. Surprising how fast three months can race past with you standing in the wind remembering all that’s happenedJ

We hear “Oohs” and “aahs” from staff each day as we make progress throughout the worksite. Caleb picked up spray painting the exterior of the building for the last two weeks after assisting and learning on a portion of the flats. Each day brought lots of cleaning of the machine and paint overspray on himself! About 95% of the tiling inside the flats has been accomplished. Interior painting, plastering, tiling the inside of showers, creating wardrobes, washing and pantry closets. Whoo! So many aspects of a building project. Dawn has been busy in the office with administration, making wonderful treats for the workers, gathering info for quotes and encouragement.

For Caleb’s birthday we drove to Airlie Beach to see the WhitSundays. We had a thrilling Ocean Rafting ride as we explored the WhitSunday beaches and went snorkeling. A beautiful green ocean with white white sandy beaches! We enjoyed the local cuisine and hiked a short distance through the bush to the beach. We were amazed at the millions of pieces of coral and shells washed up on the beach!

Prayer Points:

• Safe travel back to the States
• Fun and encouraging times with friends and fellow workers
• Perseverance for those that have been working since the beginning of the project
• Blessings for all of those who have prayed for and financed our trip

 

Just Chilling at Billabong Sanctuary

Holding a "Saltie"

On the Jobsite



Week Six....I mean Seven update

Week Six Seven update! We can’t believe how fast the past three weeks have gone. We spent last weekend near Rockhampton, QLD. We actually stayed in a cabin in the dry rainforest near some limestone caves which we got to explore one afternoon. We also spent a few hours at the Rockhampton Heritage Village before heading for the Capricorn Coast and seeing some beautiful coastline. We got to see almost 1100 miles of the Australian countryside in four days. Even more importantly, we were able to spend time together doing it. Being in Townsville is great, but it was even better to be away just the two of us.

The past few weeks have seen quite a bit of change in the flats! There is some tile in every flat with mainly finish work to do once the kitchen and baths are in! Caleb worked on putting in the back fence last week and is painting the exterior this week. The kitchens have come in and will be installed by the end of the week. There is heaps of work to do but we are confident we will be ready for staff to move back in the weekend of July 20.

Dawn is continuing to help in the administration side of the Blitz as well as jumping in to makee a special dessert for Outreach Report Back Dinner. It’s always great to hear from outreach teams soon after they return from the various locations. There were teams in Papua New Guinea, New Zealand, Cambodia and around Australia. So many individuals impacted in lots of different ways.

We have so many pictures from our time in Rockhampton that we will share on Facebook, but here are a few from the last couple of weeks.

Caleb can always find a fence to work on

Cream Puffs

Styling inside the caves

Styling outside the caves :)

Visiting the Rockhampton Heritage Village

The Capricorn Coast

Sugarcane harvester

Four Week Update

We can hardly believe that we’ve been in Townsville for a month! Well that is until we look at the progress made on the flats! There is tile laid in three of the 12 bedrooms, final coats of paint in two of the flats, and a LOT of mudding and taping happening in the downstairs flats. We are a bit behind the timeline that was laid out for the project so if anyone is interested in coming to help out PLEASE DO!!! We’re excited to have Discipleship Training School outreach teams here for two weeks to work alongside us on the Blitz. They are on the second half of their final outreach so it’ll be encouraging to here how God has already used them on outreach.
The last two weeks have been filled with physical labor for Caleb and office work, babysitting, baking, and a bit of physical labor for Dawn. The evenings have been a mix of relaxing with each other at the flat, getting to know our flat mates a bit, and spending time building relationship with YWAM Townsville staff. We’ve enjoyed Heritage Day (history of Townsville) with Mel Davies and the Hoovers, a night of laughter with Caleb’s DTS mates, dinner and coffee with a few new friends and a night at the Strand (beach) with old friends.
There are lots of exciting things happening here at YWAM Townsville and God is calling the ministry into huge new things. It’s an interesting time to be here in the midst of those changes and see for ourselves how the ministry is growing.
Enjoy the pictures and we’d love to hear from you!!
Blessings,

Caleb & Dawn
Prayer Points:
Continued Safety on the Worksite
Wisdom to manage our time effectively
Strengthening of our spiritual relationship individually and as a couple
Guidance for YWAM Townsville in this time of growth


　

 

 Enjoying a tasting of crocodile, Kangaroo, Possum & Emu at Heritage Day

Caleb going a bit bonkers after another day of mudding the drywall

 

 We've been so blessed by a staff member who is away on outreach. She's allowed us use of her car while she's gone! We feel SO blessed!

 

 

Another blessings is the flat we're staying in. It's usually used by the guest speakers and is one of the nicest flats on campus. We've had flatmates three of the four weeks we've been here but it's been good having a chance to get to know them.

We drove up Castle Hill to see the town at night. It was fun to see the layout of the city from a birdseye view.

 

The First Two Weeks. . . .

We Began Our Journey With This. . . . . 

 

 And Ended Our Journey With This. . . . .

We’ve been in Townsville for about 2 weeks now and wanted to share some of that time with you.  We arrived with 3 days to settle in and say hi to friends before the Building Blitz began.  It was nice to see familiar faces and meet MANY new people in that time.  Monday May 6th started our work experience here with YWAM Townsville.  The team of 30 people from around the globe rolled up their sleeves and started tearing apart 6 apartments.  It’s amazing how quickly a difference is seen when that many people pepper the work site. 

Caleb is a team leader and was originally working with two other team leaders to make sure only the right things were torn out of two flats.  He worked hard for four days and then woke up with a mysterious fever.  He actually missed the next four days of work due to a surprise case of Hand, Foot & Mouth disease.  A few other people around the ministry came down with it as well but we weren’t excited to start out our time here that way.  He’s back at work and is now mudding the “plaster” (dry wall) in two of the flats.  The team is broken up a bit differently and everyone is doing their assigned jobs in all of the flats.  For example, a framing team, a plastering team, etc. 

Dawn has a range of job duties while here; two days a week she is having a blast watching two toddlers for a couple hours a day.  Also, she is jumping into paperwork two mornings a week to take some of the load off of the Blitz planning team.  She has also baked some muffins and cookies for break times, snapped photos of the progression of the work so we can recap each Friday at our wrap-up dinner. and in her spare time she jumps in with the team on the work site.

Our first weekend we headed to Saunders Beach to enjoy some Indigenous dances, a free sausage sizzle and some quality time with Rebekah and her children.  We were blessed to stay  with Jared and Rebekah for the first few days until our accommodations were ready.  We are now in the Hospitality Flat which is one of the two flats at the work site that are NOT being renovated as they were upgraded a few years ago.  Our evenings have been quiet since we’re focusing on recovering from the Hand, Foot & Mouth and Dawn’s cold.  Welcome to a new environment!! 

We’re excited to share this time with friends here and to be able to share pictures and stories with friends far and wide!!  Thank you for taking the time to invest in our trip planning and now we can show you how God is using your investment.

God Bless,
Caleb & Dawn

Prayer Points

• HEALTH and energy to be effective during our time here
• GUIDANCE on how to use our time here in Townsville
• WISDOM to see God’s next chapter for our marriage
• PRAISE for a safe and speedy arrival
• DISCERNMENT for ways to bless staff and students here at YWAM Townsville
• SAFETY on the work site

Here's some photos of our first two weeks.  Check out Facebook for more!

Caleb scraping linoleum

Dawn at Saunders Beach with Elianna

CJ & Krista scraping paint

Caleb mudding (not the fun mudding :))

Dawn sanding trim board

New Year, New Adventures

I'm sure everyone has thoughts about how quickly 2013 has crept up on us, but here's a new thought for moving into this New Year.

Just a little something to make you think :)  God Bless!