Photographical content

Ignoring the fun play with mirrors...note the CityLink e-tag! I guess we're pretty much "real" Melbournians now.

Our first tram ride into the city. Once we worked out how to insert the ticket (with some help from a friendly local), it was a smooth ride.

We saw Sherlock Holmes movie. It was very good. Quaintest cinema ever (next to Lobethal)!

The documentary we watched on our wedding anniversary. Fantastic story about how Kevin loved puppets from a young age and managed to meet Jim Henson and eventually work for and with him. Brilliant.

The rest of January...

Greetings, friends!

It's been a busy couple of weeks for us Urmstons.

One of the main appointments was our interviews with the Ridley faculty. Stephen and I were interviewed separately. It was a good time, good conversation. The staff laid out the expectations of the College (such as getting involved) and we got to talk through things like subject choices.

Stephen begins his Greek intensive classes on Monday, and has started his preparation - learning the alphabet. The intensive runs for 2.5 weeks and squeezes a semester's worth of learning into that short time. This means the rest of the course can be spread over 2 semesters. Please pray for Stephen in his preparation and learning that the information would soak in quickly, and he'd be able to pick it up well.

Last Sunday we attended St Jude's in Carlton. The service was fine and we met some lovely people. It was an interesting experience, to go to church again as a 'newbie', be introduced to people and accustom ourselves to a different space. We'll be back again tomorrow at the 11am service. At the moment, it seems this is where we'll call our church home. We've tossed up about spending more time visiting different churches vs 'settling'. Our priority at this time is to plug into a community, join a small group as quickly as we can and feel 'at home'.

On Thursday, while everyone celebrated Australia, we celebrated 4 years of marriage! It was a great day. We went to our favourite place in the city - ACMI (Australian Centre for the Moving Image) and watched a documentary about Kevin Clash (who operates Elmo and is now director of Sesame St). Followed that with dinner at Brunswick and then back home to watch the tennis!

And finally, due to her love of words and reviewing each day in detail, Sarah has started her own blog! You can read it here: http://sarahurmston.wordpress.com/

Even more finally, here are our prayer and praise points:

Praise points:
- Family! We're enjoying regular catch ups with Stephen's sisters and parents. Sarah's also enjoying staying connected via SMS to her mum over their love of tennis.


 - That the application with Ridley is proceeding smoothly

- We enjoyed our visit to St Jude's and can see ourselves settling in there

Prayer points
-  For our application to Centrelink....just need to drop in some final documentation on Monday and then it all remains with them.
 - For Stephen as he begins the Greek intensive
- For Sarah, that she'd be productive at home, while Stephen is studying!

Some photos

Life's sometimes more interesting with pictures. So here are a few from this week (10-18 January).

From the drinks fridge at Blockbuster, Sunbury. South Australians will be able to tell what's different (yep, avoiding the word 'wrong') about this picture...

We started with a kitchen full of boxes. A near insurmountable task!

But we did overcome the boxes and, with a bit of help from our friends at Ikea, have a great cooking & eating room.

We're still trying to work out where the plate from the microwave has gone though. We'll keep you updated on the mystery as it unfolds...

Unfortunately, we did suffer a couple of casualties.

But God has a sense of humour.

One of the boxes that contained mugs had a terrific gash in its side. Fearing the worst, we opened it up. Fortunately, all mugs made from delicate, easily breakable material (like most mugs) were fine.

The plastic Australia cup, however, is another story...

Australi works for me. Anyone else for Australi as the new name for our great nation??

Guess you can't win them all!!

And the unpacking goes on (like the beat)

So it's January 18th. And a lot has happened in a week.

Praise God the unpacking of the container proceeded uneventfully. We had some great help from friends and family. The meal that Zelma (Stephen's mum) had prepared was much appreciated. While the container took 4 days to pack, it only took 2.5 hours to unpack - and 2.5 hours for the beautiful new house to look like a bomb loaded with boxes hit it!

The house itself: is an older style 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom house, with a private lounge/study downstairs as well. It's located in Coburg, not far from Sydney Road. We are sharing the house with another couple, Chris and Gill Porter, who have also moved across from Adelaide to study at Ridley College. God has really blessed us with a house that is more than sufficient for our needs. At this stage, it looks like there will be enough room for everyone to spread out and have their own space as needed.

Since that day of unpacking the container, a lot more unpacking has been happening. This has also involved several trips to Ikea, a visit to Costco, strolls along Sydney Road and time figuring out what we need to be prepared for College.

Just for fun - our housemate Chris put together a time-lapse video of the unpacking of the container. Enjoy in 1:18 what took us 2:30:00 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHU5cjp6CLQ

We also enjoyed a late Urmston family Christmas at Ellice's house (Stephen's sister) on Saturday evening, which was a great chance to catch up with everyone and marvel at Ellice's gorgeous pregnant belly! We're looking forward to welcoming our first niece/nephew in the first week of May!!

We got an exciting phone call yesterday from Ridley, to confirm our interview times (Monday next week). This is nearing the final step in the application process, which will be good to take.
Down to business this week, making the move seem more real, will be changing our licences to Victorian ones, swapping the number plates, joining up with RAA and other things like that. A big prayer point at the moment is going through the process of organising Youth Allowance (Sarah) and Austudy (Stephen) payments. Centrelink can be an unwieldy beast, so we pray that God will go before us and give us patience to work with the system! Edit: Having been on hold for 20 mins to ask a question, this prayer is more pertinent than ever!!

Praise points:
- That we've been able to settle in well and house God has provided is amazing
- For minimal breakages in the move (and nothing that mattered, anyway!)
- For the continued support of family and friends

Prayer points
- That we continue to put God first in our lives, and rely on him for everything we need
- Still to find a church home to settle into quickly. Feeling a bit 'loose' at the moment, with fewer local connections
- For our application to Ridley to go through successfully
- For our application to Centrelink to be successful and be as smooth as possible

Leaving...and arriving!

Hi everyone,

We've arrived!

We left Lobethal (from Sarah's parent's house) at roughly 10am, and with a quick stop in Mt Barker to pick up the all important car charger for the phone, were on our way (with one very full car!).

The trip was very smooth, and by 5.30pm (Adelaide time) we had arrive in Sunbury at Stephen's parent's house.

It's a very strange feeling to be staying here and yet not be on holidays (well, not officially). Like a strange time warp, waiting for something to begin (cue West Side Story's 'Something's Coming'....)

Tomorrow sees us unpacking the container, so we'll probably post pics and more info on Thursday.

For now, I hope this'll be tradition, I'll leave you with some prayer and praise points:

Praise points:
- For safe, uneventful travel.
- For the amazing fuel economy of our car! (700km on 42 litres!!).
- That God continues to sustain us and is always moving before us.
- For the volunteers helping us unpack the container tomorrow.

Prayer points:
- That the unpacking of the container would flow smoothly.
- If things are broken, Sarah wouldn't be too disappointed (and take it as a reminder that this world and its material possessions are but temporary!!)
- That we would settle quickly into our new home and be able to find a church home quickly.


Photo: This is how you play tetris with cars. Thanks to Dad Lieschke for lending his handy spatial eye to get it all to fit! We love wagons...