Doorway To Dreams

A couple of weeks ago Daniel came home with a slip from school saying that he needed to have an immunisation shot for Chicken pox if he was to continue attending school. So off we went to get him a shot. When we left the clinic he had 4 puncture marks in his arms - and none of them from a Chicken pox immunisation. He had to have a rabies booster, Hep A, Hep B and something else I don't remember. He was very brave and didn't even flinch as four times, 1 inch of needle disappeared into his arm!

When we came out of the clinic, Ali and I saw this door and thought it looked cool. Very Mexican style. (Of course, it didn't look exactly like this. I've taken the liberty to experiment!)

Riverview OC Has Kicked Off

Dusk off Newport Pier. Nice!
Took this when Gavin Eva was visiting us
on the weekend of the Riverview OC launch.
(Check out his version of things at El Rancho Relaxo)

This is the mailer postcard that went out to around 20,000 homes in a 2-mile radius of the Cinemas where we meet. We had several people turn up to church last Sunday because of it (even though it was also Daylight Savings changeover and we had to get up an hour earlier!)

Phil Wickham Wocks!

We were able to go and see Phil Wickham live last Saturday night at The Flock. Very, very cool! This guy has an amazing heart, an amazing voice and great songs. He's a real worshiper and a passionate singer.

I've been a fan for a while and have played the CD many times over at home and in the car, however Ali was taken by surprise. She said it was really fresh and she had an incredible worship experience. She was also moved by his honesty and ability to paint great word pictures.

Unfortunately this picture is not from the other night. It was held in a small church building, but jammed full of about 250 young people.

How Could You Not Want To Marry This?!

Huge congratulations to Boof & Bridget who just got engaged! Wooohooo!
I'm sure I speak for everyone when I say "Onya Boof! We are very happy for you. May the road ahead be wonderful (and littered with Booflets)!"

Watch out - The Police are coming!

The Police

June 23, 2007
Saturday 6:30 PM Dodger Stadium
Los Angeles, California

And I have tickets!
Wooohooo!
Ali and I will be there taking part in history.
(Sorry, I'm gloating...)

8 Crazy Weeks

Well we have hit the ground running in the OC. We've now been here for 8 weeks. We found a place to live at the end of our first week here and have been trying hard ever since to bring our lives down to some kind of normality – which is quite hard in a place that just isn’t “normal”! We are loving it though and day by day learning more about the place and the people we now live with.

We’ve visited Laguna Beach, Newport Beach, Huntington Beach, Knott’s Berry Farm, Balboa Island (in Newport Beach), LAX (several times), the Hollywood hills and the Hollywood sign, Hollywood Boulevard, one small bit of Beverley Hills – Wow! Ali has done Disneyland – a childhood dream come true. We’ve driven many, many, many miles and visited countless shopping centers and malls. We visited Saddleback Church, Mariner’s Church, Newport Church and Cottonwood Christian Center. Oh yeah, can’t forget – we went to see Switchfoot at The House of Blues in downtown Disneyland. They ROCKED!

Daniel started 2nd Semester here at Pioneer Middle School. He’s made a bunch of friends, and one in particular who skates and comes to our church.

Somewhere in amongst that we’ve had church 8 times. We’ve had Adam Meredith and Cathie Dixon visiting, then Penny Webb with Jaxon and Tayla and Amanda Powell, then Kristy Howarth and her friend Jo on their way through to Kiev in the Ukraine. Just hours ago we said goodbye to Phil, and Adam will be back in about a week. Gavin Eva will also be here in a week’s time, Adam will be back again and Rian and Jess Van der Merwe will visit at the beginning of April... and then Garrick and Simone at the start of May.

So as you can see, we haven’t been short of things to do. We miss everyone back in Perth (but haven’t really had a chance to feel it too much). We're loving life and looking forward to whatever the next 8 weeks brings.

Maybe you could be part of it?! Drop us a line or come and visit!

Hollywood!

Last week Daniel had Friday off from school so we thought we would take a bit of a drive (it's about 100kms or so) to Hollywood and look around. We drove up as far as we could to get close to the Hollywood sign up very skinny windy hillside roads past some amazing homes and managed to get... this close. (You can't drive or even walk right up to the sign.

As we were exploring this particular bit of the Hollywood hills we came across a horse riding place. It was like being way out in the bush, but it's only 5 minutes from Hollywood central. There were lots of horses, some chickens and a few dogs too. It was a very unexpected but very cool find.

Ohh, isn't that nice!

Even the chickens have big hair!

We took a walk down Hollywood Boulevard 'cause Ali wanted to see the "stars". It's a sad stretch of city that's for sure. These stars on the pavement are as glamorous as it gets. It's a very seedy area and you almost feel sick being there. But at least I can say I've seen Jimi's star!

A Moment To Myself

Yesterday morning Ali went along to Imagine, the weekly women's group for Newport Church (Pastors Jonathan and Di Wilson, ex Hillsong in Sydney). I took the opportunity to drive down to Newport Coast and just look around a bit, take some snaps, and just have an hour to myself.This was taken at Lookout Point on the Newport Coast. I just thought it was interesting and you could make up a thousand stories to go with it. (The guy is actually a personal trainer. I just caught him in the act of sitting down while the 2 girls he was training had gone for a short run. It was about 10:30am and the Marine layer was still fairly thick... there you go - the story you make up is probably going to be better than the truth!)
This is a little bay hidden away along the Newport Coast. (Can you see the puppy dog rock?) It amazes me how many places you can find without going hours out of suburbia.
Driving under a freeway overpass I saw this out of the corner of my eye and had to go back to see if I really saw what I thought I saw. Now is this random chance, or did someone put it there? My guess is that it's a bit of both. Some creative person saw the opportunity to add eyes and a mouth to a random windblown pile of dirt and leaves. Good work! That is very often how creativity works. We take something reasonably ordinary and add an element to it in an unexpected way, resulting in an engaging piece of work.

Winter in California

Well, there sure are a lot of Palm trees in California... We are enjoying being here.
We've had a few Riverview people through in the last couple of weeks which has been nice - giving us a good Aussie fix.

Huntington Beach Pier on a cold Winter's Day.

The Mighty Ducks! Yep - we were lucky enough to go to the 1000th game of the Anaheim Ducks. Ice Hockey is a crazy game!

A Few LA Sights

On New Year's Eve we were given this car - WOW!!! We have been so blessed, embraced and welcomed by everyone here. This was the best gift we could have been given as we've had to do a lot of driving around - getting our bearings and having to shop for stuff for our new home. (Of course, Ali's been hating that! ;-)

We visited Newport Beach one afternoon and saw this vibrant scene. What an amazing area. Cool (and very expensive) houses and lots of character.

Yes folks, we are in America! This is looking back from the Newport Pier. We are wide-eyed and soaking up all the sights and trying to enjoy the journey of settling into a new culture. So far, so good. I'd have to say we haven't found too much not to like at this point.This has to be seen to be believed. It's the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) headquaters with their Christmas decorations dazzling all who pass by on the 405 Freeway. This picture doesn't do it justice.

Famous Laguna Beach.

Laguna Beach sunset.

These "binoculars" didn't work very well but they sure looked cool!

A New Day - A New Life

We left Auckland around 8pm and about 11 hours later this is what greeted us... an absolutely beautiful Southern Californian winter day! This was our first glimpse of mainland USA...

...and the huge expanse of LA. This is a big city... and everything we saw after this was big too! Big Freeways, big cars, big houses, big shopping centres, and some pretty big people too.

Leaving Aoteoroa (The Land Of The Long White Cloud)

I know I haven't kept you up to date too well, but I'll try to catch you up a bit on our journey so far... a little at a time...There was some amazing light as we were getting ready to board the plane for our trip to LA.

LA, here we come! 29th December 2006.

Passing Through

We are in Arkle's Bay, Whangaparoa, NZ, passing through on the way to LA. We spent Christmas Day with my parents and one of my sisters and her husband. which was nice. It's been a long time since we've been able to be together at Christmas.
I wonder what's on the other side of this door? ... I wonder what's in store for us on the other side of the Pacific? Well, we begin to find out at about 10:30am on Friday 29th December! We're looking forward to it ;-)

No , This is not Ali's new Lap Dog!

We went to Melbourne at the start of December and stayed with Ali's parents. This is Lucy - perhaps a bit bored with everything.

We visited Christian City Church Whitehorse on Sunday 3rd in the morning and were involved in leading the worship and doing a couple of items. We then went to Bayside Community Church at night where I was the "guest artist", leading worship and doing a40 minute set as well. It was a great day in church (as well as a very long and tiring one for Ali and I).

We have been absolutely flat chat the last couple of weeks trying to wind everything up here in Perth ready for our move to California. We fly out on Christmas Eve and spend Christmas day in NZ with my parents and one of my sisters and her husband, before heading to LA on 29th December. We'll be in church on Sunday 31st - New Year's Eve! Wow!

New Horizons

Hello friends,

Just wanted to let you know about some exciting developments for us as a family.

As of January 2007 we will be moving from Perth and living in Orange County, California. There is a church there called Destiny People that was started from scratch about 5 years ago by Wes and Ellie Beavis. This church is going to become a Campus of Riverview Church. Wes and Ellie will become the “Lead Pastors” (as opposed to Senior Pastors) of the campus, and Ali and I (and Daniel) will come alongside them bringing the Riverview “DNA” and all the support we can. We will lead the Worship Team as well as having input in many other areas.

This is an exciting new phase for Riverview Church and for us and we’re excited about the new opportunities and challenges that God has for us. We’re particularly pleased that even though we’re leaving Perth we are still very much part of Riverview.

Please keep us in your prayers and stay in touch.

Big love,

Mark & Ali