JANUARY 2017 (mini-update)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!  May you know the leadership of God's heart as you start a New Year.

Here's a couple of things to be praying for this month :)


Obviously after selling the old house we could never move back to it legally, but this large orange beast has now made it physically impossible as well.  

Sure it's a bit sad to see, but how exciting to consider all the possibilities and future memories to be created in our new home!

FAMILY

After a quiet Christmas and New Year, and a busy couple of weeks of involvement with Christian Endeavour Camps in SA, we are looking forward to 3 weeks of family time from the 10th of January.

MINISTRY UPDATE

SEQUEL - pray for campers and leaders from Senior CE camp who are currently discerning if they register for SEQUEL as the next step in their faith formation.

CE Kids Camp - Trav is currently facilitating story content at a kids camp (4-8 Jan) in partnership with the leadership team.  There are already some exciting stories of kids engaging with God through His story. 

ENJOY

Trav's word for this year is "ENJOY"
Please pray for us to:

ENJOY the possibilities of experiencing community in our new suburb 

ENJOY the value of AccessTheStory initiatives and influence

ENJOY the investment of personal and professional development


ENJOY the distribution of that which has been created in 2016

"SOUPport" day

"SOUPport DAY" - 14th of August - Edwardstown Baptist Church - $5 for soup and bread - after the AM service

Ok, we know it's cheesy, but we thought August was the perfect time for our first ever "SOUPport" day ... think a cup of hot soup and bread roll after church for $5, and you have the idea.

We're in a spot with our support account where we need to replenish our support buffer, so we've chosen the 14th of August as a marker to help see that happen ... here's what we wrote to our supporters just recently:

We continue to see exciting opportunities open up through AccessTheStory, so we remain convinced that God is still leading us to pursue a long-term commitment to this work.

It for this reason we are not discouraged by the gradual decline of our support account over the last financial year - but we do need to respond to this decline. TO REPLENISH OUR SUPPORT ACCOUNT, WE’RE HOPING FOR $5000 over and above our regular support by the 14th of August, then a further $4000 by the end of November - you are invited to contribute to this need through either or both of the following:

• A SPECIAL GIFT over and above our regular support by the 14th of August or the 30th of November - email us at travpix4boys@gmail.com if you need to know how to do this
• BUYING SOUP & BREAD for $5 on the 14th of August after the AM service at Edwardstown Baptist Church  

Hope to see you there!
Blessings
Trav & Pix Johnson

"FOCUS" 15th Feb 2015

Every year we love connecting with those who support us - whether it be through prayer, finances, or both!

This year is no different - but it is a little different!

No different, in that we're looking forward to connecting with people - but different in that we're not launching anything, or eating anything, or running a fundraiser.  We simply want to call people to pray with us.

So, "FOCUS" is our theme for this year ... and our hope is to provide an opportunity for you to focus on God - with us - for one particular day - the 15th of February.

You can do this one of two ways:

1. IN PERSON - Junktion and the ATS office will be open from 2-5pm, we will have some prayer stations set up for you to walk through and pray for specific needs and opportunities for the year of 2015.  You can just rock up to this, or you can let us know you'll be there through an email, or through the Facebook event.

2. ON-LINE - Can't make it on the day?  Well, we'd still love to inform your prayers wherever you may be on the 15th.  Our plan is to provide you with regular prayer updates throughout the day through the Facebook group we have set up for the day.  You can sign up to that here.

We can't wait to see how God will answer prayer this year, and can't wait to have you involved in the process!

getting uptodate ...

It's been a bit of a while between posts here - sorry to keep you waiting!

Now that we have a year of AccessTheStory under our belt, we promise to keep the Johnson family stories rolling...

2015 sees us with a few seasonal changes:

• Tom has moved out of home - living with a mate
• Brad has finished school and is sussing out what the year holds for him
• Jack has just started high school 
• and Fred apparently has "the best teacher ever!"

We're about to share news on our annual supporters event - so stay tuned!

Preaching at VEC

This morning I enjoyed sharing with the English speaking service at the Vietnamese Evangelical Church - for a number of reasons:

- it was my first time there this year, and after a five year relationship with these guys, it was just nice to re-connect again

- I really love the intimate nature of sharing with a group of about 30 people- predominantly youth and young adults 

- lunch afterwards was pretty good :)

- today I got to share a little about immerse, and folks responded really week to the stories I had to share

- probably the highlight for me was a conversation with one of the youth leaders afterward - he's very interested in all things immerse and wants to explore what ministry might look like for him in the future.

... So I invited him to our next immersesa planning and prayer meeting and he's keen to come. I'm praying that He will know Gods leading as he discerns what he steps into next - and if that is immerse then that would be a big bonus for us ;)

... and now it's literal

"Hey, we should do that baptism thing" said one of the 15 year old boys as the group walked by the stream at the bottom of the valley.  The dark-haired teenager was still buzzing from his new-found faith, having decided to follow Jesus the night before.

As they began to wade into the water, their leader Stu, told them to just hang on for a minute and he quickly scaled the hill to get some phone range and called me - he asked me what I thought.  I told him I'd ring him back, and then sent their youth pastor down to chat to them.

24 hours later (including 2 hours of discussion with the boys and five phone conversations with parents), that same youth pastor stood in the freezing cold water of the campsite's dam, and immersed 5 young men.

I'm not sure what the most exciting part is:

- that this bold declaration of faith was entirely initiated by the boys themselves?
- that the one who first suggested the idea had no church background at all?
- that three parents drove two hours south of Perth at the last minute to witness this baptism?
- that one of those parents who came carries no faith background at all?
- that the other set of parents not only got to see their own son baptised, but also his friend whom they had financially sponsored to be there?

I've walked away from this camp struggling to process the volume of life-change stories - and the way in which God is so clearly multiplying His movement among this generation of young people ...

... I'm still scratching my head over the irony that IMMERSE WEST ended yesterday in a far more literal manner than what I ever could have anticipated.

pray for immersewest

Trav will be in WA 6-17 July ... please pray with us:


Pix will join him from the 14th of July - we're looking forward to spending some time together with family, friends, and supporters in amongst some meetings:)