Bugs, Babies & Life Stories

Please excuse this interlude to our holiday blog, however I felt this was a little more important than the other right now.

We would greatly appreciate your prayers at the time, on Sunday at 11am we are having a special Church meeting to finally vote on selling part of the church property, which will get us debt free, for the first time in 7 long years...... This been a rather stressful time over the few weeks. In previous meetings leading up to this vote things have gotten rather messy and nasty and we so just don't want that on Sunday. There have been many meetings behind the scenes to alleviate this, but until the 11th hour we will not know what is going to happen. As you can imagine this as made life very stressful for both us and the Edwardes, and this is where you come in if you could please pray for Noel and Anne and Andrew and I, but especially for the guys as ultimately their jobs and lively hood hinge on Sundays decision.

But this is not where it ends, actually this is where it starts, you see yesterday Andrew was picking up his mum to take her to the nursing home to feed Nana as David & Dee are down and had her car, when the power steering went on him. He limped it to our Mechanics (Our Car Dr as Caitie calls them) and rang for Noel to pick him up. We all thought it was just want had happened last time and it would be just a case of putting the belt back on and tightening a screw!!!! We were sadly mistaken. Step rang and said "Jo i have some bad news, Yes the pulley fell off cause the nut has fallen off (a common problem with our model apparently!) but the nut that holds the crank shaft has shawn off and the other piece is inside the bottom of the motor" Ah Ha says Jo and that means what? "Well we have to pull the entire engine out and strip it down" and cause it has done over 200000 and is leaking oil and the lifters have needed doing for a long time, bottom line is the engine needs to be reconditioned!!! So what are we looking at to do this asked Jo? about $6,500!!!!!!!!!!!!! AND EVERYTHING AFTER THAT IS A BLUR REALLY.
I just laughed, and Steph said " I'm glad your laughing" I said it is that or cry (that I did later)... So the up shot of all of this is, that they are reconditioning the engine and it is going to cost $6,500 and we won't have a car for 2 weeks. This is where our other problem appears as in 2 weeks on the 7th July to be exact we are leaving for Nyngan and were to be taking the van!!!!!

Praise God that this happened now, 5 kms for the mechanic and not 2 weeks ago on the Great Ocean Road with the van or half way to Nyngan

Andrew said to me last night, Do you think we are finally do the right thing in regard to the Church and Satan is trying his utmost to interfere, both with the congregation and with us personally, my response was, yeah well I can see that and deal with it, but did it have to be so flopping expensive!!!

So please pray for the following:-

For Noel as he chairs the meeting.
For Andrew that he keeps his cool and behaves in the meeting.
For each and every member at the meeting.
That the meeting will be holy and full of God' s grace.
That we get the car back before the 7th.
That we can arrange some other transport if it doesn't.
That we can find some more accommodation in Nyngan to alleviate taking the van.
For the team as they prepare for Nyngan (Us 4, Kimberly, Heather, Lizzie, John, Anthony, Adam & Sarah).

And praise God for our wonderful friends Marcus and Majella, without them since Mum's death, I know Andrew and I would not have been able to survive, they love our girls and are willing to take them anytime, they love us and do anything for us and most of all they have lost of cars, so every time we need a car, all it takes is a phone call and it is here that afternoon. We are so truly blessed by this family and we love them dearly as did Mum.

This is the New Ducati 2007 1098S Tri Colore Very Nice!!!!! But lethal weapon - see specs below

This is Andrews thank you letter that was put in the Bulliten :-

I want to express my thanks to the many people who have helped me in my journey to this point. From the moment I became a Christian at age 13 God has placed mentors in my life, usually men, who modelled faith, encouraged and taught me. Among those were Pete Davies, Mark Davies, Colin Phillips, Sid Grindley and Noel Edwardes. I would also like to thank two of my closest friends and prayer partners of many years, Graham and Alan whose prayers, advice and chocolate got me through many a trial. The people of this Church have been a constant source of support and encouragement and people like Lionel Walters and Morris Bell have been an invaluable source of affirmation. To the parents who entrusted me with the care of their kids, thank you for your trust and I just want to say that it is not hard to love your kids when they are so fantastic. To the young people themselves, you are awesome and It has been a privilege to be a part of your spiritual journey and I thank God that I know you will be in heaven with me and our Lord. To my greatest supporter, my wife Jo, who believed in me even when I doubted myself, who sacrificed so much for me and continues to compliment my ministry in many and varied practical ways, THANK YOU. You make my ministry possible and you make my life complete. You are the greatest wife and mother I know and I know, without a shadow of a doubt that your mother would have been proud of both of us.

Rev. Parko

"The Brotherhood of the Golden Brick"

"Aunty Paula & Her God Daughter Caitlyn"

Windsor District Baptist Church, thank you so much for loving us through all of this and allowing us to be part of your lives and minister to you all. You are all very special and Andrew thanks God daily for the opportunity to be your Pastor and love your kids.

Thank you to the Catering Ladies for a yummy lunch and your hearts of servanthood. You truly have the gift of hospitality and you will slave in that kitchen when ever it is asked. Thank you for loving us all through your food.

Thanks to Rev. Alan "Hoody" Hood for a great sermon that was so inspiring and so appropriate for our church at this time. You are truly awesome .
Thanks to Rev. Noel Edwardes for all your love and support of us through out this journey and for being the one to ordain Andrew. You were the most appropriate person to do this as you have had so much influence on Andrew and he thinks very highly of you. He values your thoughts and opinions and feels very lucky to be in the position of work with you as a team.
Thanks to Rev. Pete Davies for being our Union repesentive. It was God's doing that you were the person to give Andrew his certificate, as you have been there from the beginning of his journey and are such a great mentor and confidant still today.

Sunday 5th November, will be a day to remember. We had the BEST day! The service was FANTASTIC filled with great music, kind words from so many special friends and a great lunch to follow.

Thanks to :-

Steve Gray for leading and playing Guitar
Phil Jones and Nathan Walters for playing Guitar
Dave Pathuis for playing the Base
Daniel Cook for playing the Drums
Kaylene deRooy for playing the Piano, Singing and Praying
Lauren Azzopardi and Rachel Pathuis for Singing

The Worship was so great, the songs were perfect and you guys ROCKED!!! and looked sexy in your good clothes too!!!

Well another formality down and only the 5th November to go before we will be know as Rev Parkinson and Family......

It was a great night, Andrew spoke on behalf of those going for accreditation which he did really well and made us all SOOOOO very proud.

Thanks to Aunty Merra who took a rather over tired and crying Philippa so I could sit with Caitlyn and watch the accreditation Service part of the night. Of course after 10 days of being in this world Pip chose last night to discover her voice.

A special thanks to all from Windsor that came down to support Andrew and cheered as he was presented, this meant so much to both of us, especially to Andrew. I know he was getting a bit discouraged as the day went on, with each new text message that someone else couldn't make it. But those who did make it covered all aspects of Andrew's Ministry and were all people that mean a lot to us and made us feel very special and loved. Thank you.

As I was videoing there are not any photos....., but we are hoping to get a copy of the professional ones that were taken.

While daddy was at the gym we decorated the lounge room with lots of balloons and then we waited for him to come home to give him his presents. One of which was a Lambs Wool Seat Cover for the Ducati.

We had a nice day around the house, cleaning the car to put the new car seat covers on and just general tidy up. For dinner, we had a nice family dinner of pizza on the coffee table and once Caitie was in bed a 7pm we sat back to watch 'Breakfast at Tiffanys'

He did it!

He wore the dress, the cap and the cape and looked very sexy too!!!

It was a great night shared with family and special friends.

Now all we have to do is wait for the Baptist Annual Convention in September for accreditation and then on the 5th Nov, 2006 Andrew Parkinson will become

Reverend Andrew Parkinson.

It is all so very exciting!

Helping Daddy put on his tie at home

Andrew putting on his sexy dress

That's MY DADDY!!!!!

Receiving his well earned Degree

On stage proudly holding his degree