Last week, we went to visit the much talked about NZ Fieldays (about an hr's drive from where we are) – it's Australasia's definitive agri-business exhibition! The exhibition is to the local farmers what the IT expo is to Singaporeans. Where everyone goes to, whether or not you're into IT and where the gadget lovers gather once a year.

Most of the expo would have been boring to city people like us e.g. tractors, milking machines, tools and stuff. But the atmosphere was amazing! I've never seen so many Kiwis gathered at one place before! It's like the whole of NZ was there! Most times when you drive along NZ roads, all you see are cows, horses or sheep so it was pretty unusual to see so many cars and people. Even got traffic jam!

Sophie got to ride on a real huge farm tractor, ride on kid sized tractors, see horses and other farm animals (we even saw a real highland cattle, not cut up in the supermarket! It was HUGE!), eat an ice cream, sample NZ's latest gourmet food and beverages (my fav part!) etc…

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today was momentous! I drove to town and back on my own! It was all great except at one point, I bumped into an elderly man's car bumper a little trying to reverse out of a parking lot but thank God no damage, phew!

I drove all three of us to town to have brunch at the All Day Breakfast place in town to celebrate Father's Day (erm, NZ doesn't celebrate Father's Day today) and then to New World (supermarket) and Warehouse (like Kmart) for some shopping before we headed back home. I was a bit tensed the whole time coz it's the first time I'm on my own for almost 10 years since I got my license. And it was raining quite heavily at some point. In fact, I'm not sure if I've ever driven on my own before without a seasoned driver!

Anyhow, it's great! Looking forward to more! FREEDOM!!!!!

As the first born in the family, Dad and I share a very special relationship. I can't really explain what exactly it is but it's just special. Maybe coz I had a good 5 years alone with Mum and Dad before Kelvin came along.

I grew up knowing that we were not rich and couldn't afford most things that Sophie would now take for granted. I knew that Mum and Dad had to work just to make ends meet. When I was growing up, they had to work long hours and I hardly got to see them. Yet during the weekends, we would spend lots of time together going to the beach or the gardens.

I also remember the times that Dad will attempt to teach me Math in primary school using Algebra (which I only figured out when I was in Sec sch! So that was what all that A+B=C was all about!). He's REALLY good with Maths being an estimator and involved in budgeting for million dollar projects like building huge oil rigs and all. I guess I kinda took after that. Although I'm a bit rusty now and need the calculator to figure 8×7.

He's an organizer – since he became a Christian (the year I turned 11), he's always woken up at 4/5am to spent time with the Lord. He's always on time and loves to put things together. Guess I took after him in that aspect too. Ok, not that 5am quiet time BUT I'm definitely more an early bird and I love to organize.

Dad loves to read the papers and watch TV, just like every other Dad. He doesn't talk very much but when he does, he always makes a lot of sense. Even though he doesn't talk very much, it helps that he smiles a lot and always give us quiet assurances that he loves us by asking us if we got enough pocket money or asking Mum to make sure we have this and that.

As I grow older and older, I'm more and more thankful for my Dad. He's 61 this year and he's still working. He and Mum just made a career move to Brazil to help to work on the shipping projects there. I think he's super brave. His tenacity for hard work always amazes me.

Dad, you are amazing and I'm so thankful to God for you. May the Lord bless you on this special Father's Day and even though you are far, pls know that we love you and miss you VERY much.

In a world where many are growing up without fathers or absent fathers, Sophie is most blessed to have James as her Daddy!!!!!!!!

Happy Father's Day dear one! You are so precious to the both of us and we're SO glad you've come home just in time so we can celebrate you!

The kitchen is closed SO I've been cooking at home everyday!

I've been craving Tau Yew Bak (Soya Sauce Stewed Pork) so I dug out the slow cooker that Gin left behind and made it! Shiok……… Sophie loved the meat coz it was so tender. And ooo the tender fat…….. Had good three meals out of that, ate it with rice and porridge.

I also made chicken curry (thanks to Prima) for the base dinner last weekend, ba cho mee with mee pok (minced meat noodles) to share with our Korean friend who left yesterday and stir fry beef with Korean marinate today.

Nope, don't miss home food that much this time.

Mama and Yeye, thank you for the Strawberry Shortcake books! Sophie likes them VERY MUCH. She's been reading them everyday.

Sophie is really into Strawberry Shortcake, princesses, dress ups, make up, jewellery and being Cinderella at the moment. I donno how many times we've had to act out the Cinderella scene where she drops her shoe and the prince asks if the shoe belongs to her and they live happily ever after. Btw, she's dropped her shoe on purpose in public many times so that we can reenact this scene! It's super funny!!

She's also been asking me to get her a ballerina outfit! I'm starting to get all influenced and attracted to fairy costumes and frilly frilly things I see on Trademe (an ebay equivalent here)!

Oh my! Oh my! Never thought we'll get here – the day when pink is the only colour on earth.

Thank God she's still wearing what I choose for her to some extent. (Love the tights that the Sept Mums got for Soph! Thanks girls!)

The weather was wonderful today! It was 15 degrees but the sun was shining bright and strong.

I took the opportunity to bring Soph out for a sun bathe! She played in the sand pit with Toby and Eli for a long long time before lunch. We spent most of the day outside. It was great fun.

This is the class that James is teaching this week! Everything is going great and God is moving in amazing ways. Praise God!

Keep on praying pls, two more days!

James is away in Vanuatu this week.

This is the first time that he's away for "work" and I'm on my own as a stay home mum. Feels kinda strange.

He'll be teaching on a DTS on the Lordship of Christ and Father Heart of God from Monday to Friday. There are 27 students on this DTS! How cool is that! We're really excited that we can contribute this way to the Vanuatu base coz they have such a big place in our hearts.

So please pray for James and the students and pray for Sophie and I to have a great time on our own too. Sophie and I miss him very much but we are really glad to know that God's in this and He's watching over us.

I'm finally driving after more than 10 years of getting my license!

I've had a phobia of driving after getting my license coz I was horned at by a police car (!) and almost reversed into a drain with a group of youths in the car. And I'm generally a scaredy cat. Driving was just too stressful a thing for me. There was never a real pressing reason for me to drive since transportation was so easily available in Singapore and it was too expensive to own a car anyways.

But here in Matamata, we can't go anywhere without a car! Plus James doesn't have a driving license although I think he can prob drive better than me.

You ask, how did we survive the past 1 and a half years? The first school we did, we thought we were just staying for 3 months and it wasn't so important that we couldn't get to places. There was a van run to town every week and if we needed to go into town, we could just get a lift from someone.

When we returned in July last year, Gin was here too and we decided to buy a car together. I thought I'll try driving then but still, the inertia was just too strong. She drove most of the time so I didn't feel like I really needed to.

BUT NOW! We have a car (7 seater at that!) and no one to drive us around anymore! So…………….. I decided to just get on with it. Turns out, it's really not that bad. Funny how fear can grip us so tightly that we can't see past anything and everything is an excuse to why I can't do it. But I believe God answered my prayer and gave me a breakthrough. I felt so at ease the first time behind the wheels and today, I actually drove into town and back with Claire as my coach. Sophie even fell asleep on the way home!

I'm SO thrilled!!!!! For those who know me well prob know what a breakthrough it is for me! I am so looking forward to driving into town on my own soon…. yay!

We're back in New Zealand! It's really cold! It ranges from 4 to 16 degrees celsius through the day. This morning was frosty and our car was covered with frost! Apparently it was snowing further south in the North Island!

We are very grateful to have had the past 5 weeks of holidays (1 week in Brisbane and 4 in Singapore).

It was a really good break for us. We got to see our family whom we missed very much. Sophie is much older now and she can better appreciate the family relationships. She really enjoyed going daily to Jurong Point Mall with Mama and Yeye and being blessed with lotsa toys, books and clothes. She also enjoyed spending time with her cousin Janice and was so happy to finally see Grandpa after a year and a half and of course Grandma too. She got to eat almost whatever she wanted and slept as late as she wanted.

With the grandparents around, James and I actually had quite a bit of time to ourselves! We went shopping, met up with friends, ran errands, watched late night movies, went out for supper etc, things that we hardly get to do here.

It was such a good trip although we do regret that we didn't get to meet up with everyone we wanted to and could not really go deep in conversations as we wanted to but we hope you understand and you all mean so much to us.

We feel refreshed and recharged with fresh words from God and just filled with amazing grace.

We are carrying this grace into this week as we resettled on the base. Everything has slowed down here.

- The FMS outreach team is almost done with their local (NZ) outreach.
- Base duties are limited. We're just cleaning up the base in between schools.
- I'm back to homeschooling Sophie. The other big thing is I'm starting to drive again! And this time, I'm actually enjoying it! And I'm really enjoying the space and quiet.
- James is preparing to go to Vanuatu this Saturday for a week to teach in the DTS on the Lordship of Christ and Father Heart of God. His sensitive nose is reacting to the weather change so he's having a cold but praying that with rest, that'll soon past.
- Sophie's doing great. She spent 2 nights asking for me just before midnight and crying for her friends Evan and Eli but she's alright now. She's now back to sleeping 8pm – 8am. She's totally enjoying the outdoors once again but I have to keep reminding her to put on her coat and shoes.

We thank God for the rest we had and are ready for the year ahead here. We're going to be on base staff from July – Dec and after that we're staffing the next FMS from Jan 2011 onwards.

Thanks for supporting us in so many ways. We feel really blessed. This morning I am reminded that we need to abide in Him (John 15). I think that's going to be our focus for the year ahead – to really learn to abide in Christ and allowing Him to prune us to bear fruit for His glory.

Please continue to pray for us.