To all our dearest, most precious friends and family. Wishing you a very happy Christmas. Lorna and I are far away- Sydney Australia to be exact- but tonight as we wrap the few gifts we have for each other our thoughts are with you all more than ever. It’s Christmas eve…with a difference. There is no tinsel in sight and the shops are surprisingly (and refeshingly) quiet. We've spent a lot of our time here at church, for several reasons. Firstly the stunning spirit filled worship and teaching; secondly beautiful Caroline (Lorna's sister) and many of her friends are students at Hillsong College and so they are completely involved in everything and lastly we are here to serve. Although Australia is by no means a developing country (however they haven't developed enough to know that mullets went out in the eighties!) people here, like everywhere in the world, have needs and poverty and injustice does exsist. So over the past few weeks we've absolutely loved being involved in the ministry of the street teams, led by Camokazi (Caroline's nick name ala Soul Touch!). We’ve been wrapping pressies, generously donated by members of the congregation. It’s one of the many outreach community care projects that Hillsong bless their neighbours with every year. It's similar to the Shoe box appeal that we all get excited about at this time of year at home. I am picturing you all now stuffing goodies into carefully wrapped boxes for children less fortunate than yourselves, goodies which have been hand picked and bought with love! The concept is is similar in that the gifts are given out to children and families who are in need. However the practicality of it all is something we discovered to be very surreal. Instead of sleep socks and cosy slippers being packed into stockings we carefully wrapped beach cricket sets and volleyballs as we sat toasting in the sun outside on the church lawn. I know “outside” may be a foreign concept to you all at the moment. You will (or should) be curled up on couches watching star spangled episodes of Dancing with the Stars and X Factor, oh how we miss it!
…but not that much. More than turkey, snow and our favourite shows we miss you, each individually, personally and an incredible amount! Christmas is a celebration, a time for family and for most a time of reflection and so despite the physical ditance between us you are still the ones in our thoughts and prayers. We pray this Christmas you will be abudantly blessed and God will continue to enable you to bless others as you have blessed and enriched our lives! We love you all so dearly and being away from you simply reminds us of how fortunate we are to have all of you in our lives.
Enjoy every second of Chirstmas! We will be in touch before the new year to let you know more about our adventures so far and the ones we are looking forward to in 2008!
Love and many, many blessings to you all!
Erica and Lorna xxx
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