Robert and Jenni Alley
May-June newsletter
April-May newsletter
March-April newsletter
Feb-March update
Hi all!
The time has rolled around for us to say g’day to you all once again! We hope you are all going well in this year that already seems to be slipping away quite quickly.
This past month for us has gone well. We have been continuing to work toward the trips that we have coming up and develop the way we go about things at home. We have begun reviewing our work on a weekly basis which helps us both be on the same page, plan our weeks and pray more often.
Rob attended the field council meeting at the beginning of February which was a positive time. We travelled to Newcastle the following weekend and attended some meetings with our sending church regarding their support of us as well as potential tours. We have booked a tour in with them for 2011 which is great and also plan to spend a week doing deputation with them this May. It was a boost to spend time with our spiritual family there. Thanks for your prayers regarding the Debrief Day on the 20th. It did run well and we pray helped people to process their short term mission experiences. We were then able to go and spend some time with Jen’s parents in Canberra for a few days and also fellowship and share with the church there (always an encouraging time). On our return, Rob went and picked up a gentleman from the airport who is potentially looking to work with AIM – it was great to chat with him and so encouraging to see the Lord begin to answer our need for workers in this harvest field.
This coming month brings a few events. We will be attending the first of the E-track conferences held at SMBC this Saturday – these are mini mission conferences designed for Christians to be challenged to grow in their heart for global mission. There will be a speaker, seminars and time for people to chat to mission reps (us!). The following weekend takes us to Tamworth to work further with a church that we made contact with last year. They hope to arrange for an ongoing relationship with an AIM Church in NSW.
Earlier last week, we discovered that our tour trailer is going to be too heavy with the modifications that we need to make to it. As a result, we have done some research on rebuilding this one or purchasing a new one and selling the one we have. At this stage, after much thought and prayer, we are looking at modifying the one we have. Thus, we are looking at heading to Rob’s parent’s place in Harrington for two weeks (from next week) to do the rebuild. Please pray for speedy work and clear minds as we plan and do the work. Join us in thanking God for the generosity of Rob’s parents in providing the work space, the living space and their time too.
We’re looking forward to taking a few days off over Easter to go camping.
Our girls are going well and keeping happy. Miriam is coming up to her 2nd birthday – my how the time flies! Katie is almost 10 weeks old now. They make us laugh lots and bring us much joy.
For those of you who pray:
· Thank the Lord for the support we receive to do this work – financially, prayerfully, spiritually and many other ways.
· Praise God for the encouragement our sending church has been to us in their support of the work.
· Praise God that the Debrief Day run by the Short Term Missions Committee (part of Missions Interlink – Jen is newly on the committee) went well and pray that people may be able to move forward to learn what God would teach them and serve him the best way possible.
· Praise God that he is bringing workers in to this organisation – please pray that their work will enable training of Aboriginal Christian leaders and ultimately, the conversion of our Aboriginal brothers and sisters.
· Please pray for the tour trailer build over the next couple of weeks (as mentioned above).
· Please pray for the E-track conference on Saturday, that we might be able to have effective conversations and that the conference will come together well. Please pray that Christians might be challenged to work hard for the Lord, in whatever way that might be.
· Please pray for us as we travel to Tamworth, Taree and around the traps – that we will be gracious and content wherever God has us on that day!
· Please pray for Jen – that she will know the ‘peace of God which transcends all understanding’ (Phil. 4:7).
We hope you are well – we would love to hear from you!
Love Rob, Jen, Miriam & Katie.
Jan-Feb update
Hi everyone!
And yet another month has rolled by! We hope you all had a good holiday season and feel ready and focused for the year to come, especially now that all of the routine things have begun.
In our last AIM newsletter (the one before the ‘baby’ news!), we mentioned that we had had several cancellations for trips this year. We held on to one of these bookings for the October holidays and preparations for this tour seem to be going well. We praise God for his goodness! Additionally, we have arranged an advertised tour for the middle of the year for individuals who might be interested. Around this time, we also hope to aid in a tour run for a group of pastors in Sydney.
We had a quiet time work wise over the Christmas period which left us thankful (as we were having a baby!) but also a little unsure as to how to get in to things. The end of January brought some focus to us and we both feel a little bit more on top of how to approach this job for the year. We’re excited about the tours that are booked in and pray that the Lord will use these for his glory. Additionally, we are both part of an organisation called Missions Interlink now. Rob is part of the Leadership Committee and Jen is part of the Short Term Missions Committee. We’re excited about these opportunities to serve and also develop some relationships that might help us with our work too. The first event that we will be part of is on the 20th February – a Short Term Missions Debrief Day run at the Sydney Missionary Bible College (SMBC). This is a day dedicated to helping those who have served short term (anything from 2 weeks to 3 years) to process their experiences and work out where to go from here. Amongst these things, we are also travelling to churches to chat with them about opportunities for tours. Rob has been working on maintaining the tour bus as well as developing the tour trailer to better serve our purposes. This work is ongoing. We also are trying to pull together the information we were able to gather last year and develop our administrative approach to trips.
Our girls are going well. Miriam is adjusting to having a new member of the family and she loves giving Katie cuddles. Katie seems to be healthy – she is packing on the weight which they say is a very good thing! She is almost 6 weeks old already – the time is slipping by so quickly! We are thankful to God for our girls and pray that they might grow to love and serve him.
On the home front, we are attending Winmalee Presbyterian and enjoying getting to know some people better. We have a bible study group on Monday nights that we go to and Jen is going along to a Women’s Bible study on Tuesday and a Playgroup on Wednesday. We are thankful for these opportunities and Miriam has a great time with the other kids.
For those of you who pray:
· Praise God for his goodness to us in sending Jesus as a sacrifice for our sin that we might be saved.
· Praise God for the support that we receive from a lot of you – it is amazing to be part of such a big family!
· Praise God that Katie seems healthy and is so far mostly settled.
· Praise God that we have a few trips to work on for the year – pray that those who come might be challenged to adopt a heart for global mission.
· Pray that we will be able to use our time wisely to do the work that God has for us.
· Pray for the Debrief Day at SMBC that God might use this day for his glory and that things might run smoothly.
We hope you are all well and would love to hear from you.
God bless,
Rob, Jen, Miriam & Katie
Hi everyone!
We praise God for the safe arrival of Katie Rose Alley on Sunday evening, the 3rd January, at 10.15pm!
Katie is named for her Aunty Cate and her Nanny. She weighed in at 3525g (7 pounds and 12 ounces); she’s 49 cms in length and has a head circumference of 34.5cm. Mum and baby are doing well. Miriam is fascinated by her new sister and we are all filled with joy at our new addition.
Thankyou all for your thoughts and love for us.
Love Rob, Jenni, Miriam & Katie
A Christmas letter from the Alley’s (click on the link below to download the pdf)…
Hi all,
We had aspirations of keeping in touch with you a bit more regularly whilst we have been away but it ended up being something that was hard to get to! We do apologise for the long silence. Our prayers and thoughts of you have not dulled and we continue to be thankful for your friendship and your support.
To get you back in the loop, we as a family have spent the last two months or so touring our Northern Territory centres to continue developing relationships with our missionaries on the field and develop our trips as best we can.
Our trip began with our yearly visit to Katoomba for the ‘Reachout’ conference. Once again, we were thankful to the Lord for good times spent with other missionaries from different organisations and some good conversations with those that came along. As time goes on and we visit more of our AIM centres and speak to more people, we are beginning to feel more equipped for these conferences and the conversations that people like to have
– we praise God for this! We were privileged to hear some wonderful speakers this year at the conference and heard of exciting revivals that are going on with Dalit (untouchable) people in India as well as people in the Middle East. We were encouraged once again to pray for the whole world, that they would know Jesus and pray that people will go to tell them about him.
We had a speaking engagement to attend at a church in Sydney on the Monday and enjoyed our time with them. Join us in praising God that this church appears seriously interested in running a tour next year. After this meeting, we hit the road and began our journey.
Over our time away, we have had the privilege of visiting many centres. It is difficult to know how much detail to include in a letter such as this. If you are interested in hearing more, we would love to have you come and see us in Winmalee or jump on the phone and we can catch up!
Other than our AIM Missionaries, we were able to visit a few extras too. We dropped in to see Neville Naden in Broken Hill who is affiliated with us through Bush Church Aid. It was encouraging to hear of the wonderful work God is doing through him in this town. We also saw some other friends who live and work in Broken Hill which was lovely. We have two good friends from Newcastle who have taken 6 months to work in the outback before next year. Both of them have spent time overseas as short term workers in Kenya and Bolivia. We caught up with Jen in Alice Springs who is working as a Physiotherapist; and Ez in Mataranka who is working as a teacher in an Aboriginal community called Jinkmyngan. It was a real treat to catch up with these guys and see how God is using them and working in and through them.
We were able to spend close to a week in Alice Springs, Canteen Creek and Camooweal. We made shorter but equally rewarding visits to Tennant Creek, Elliott, Katherine, Darwin, Borroloola as well as a couple of days in Walgett and Moree in NSW on the way home. There is too much to tell for each visit individually in this letter but on the whole, we were so privileged to spend time with these people and get to know them. We were able to see what ministry is going on in the centres, get to know the workers, and talk with them about how our tours might fit in with each place appropriately. We praise God for the wonderful work that God is doing in many places and the faithful Christians who face much persecution in their culture but continue to stand firm. Our hearts continue to cry out for Aboriginal people to come to know the Lord Jesus as their Saviour. We pray that he might send more workers into this harvest!
For two weeks of the trip, we had a couple from Newcastle come and join us on our travels. We enjoyed the fellowship we were able to have and the experiences we had too in the few places we visited.
Other than work, God enabled us to stop in a few beautiful places along the way such as Wilpena Pound, King’s Canyon, Finke Gorge National Park, Kakadu and lots of driving through the magnificent Australian desert. God’s creation is indeed amazing and we praise him for the glory that is shown through it!
We have just spent a few days with Jen’s family in Wollongong which has been a real treat. We are now going away for a holiday before heading home to continue in our meetings and preparing for a new family member in January!
For those of you who pray:
· Praise God for his glory and grace. That he would send his Son to save us from the punishment of our sin is a remarkable truth!
· Praise him for the work he is doing through the workers in the Northern Territory as well as across Australia and the world.
· Praise God for those who have recognised their need for Jesus and are standing firm in the faith. Please pray that they may continue to stand firm despite the pressures of the world.
· Please pray for workers in Australia and the world – pray that people will recognise the great need for unreached people to hear the good news and to go. Please pray that the Lord might use our bus trips as a stepping stone for this very thing.
· Praise God for the fellowship we were able to enjoy with those that we visited and new friends made as well as friendships continued. Praise him for the worthwhile time spent doing this trip and how helpful it will be for us in running bus tours.
· Praise God that we already have a potential four trips running next year with others in the pipeline. Pray that we might be able to effectively arrange these tours and that people will grow and change through the experience.
· Praise God for safety while we travelled and that Miriam continues to grow happy and healthy.
· We thank God for the opportunity to have a break over the next couple of weeks before we have a baby and get stuck in to our work for next year.
· Please pray for us as we prepare for next year with meetings and paperwork. Please also pray for us as we prepare to have another baby in January. Praise God that the pregnancy appears to have progressed well.
Thankyou all for your love and support of us. We love to hear from you and will pray for you if you so desire to share!
Love Rob, Jenni & Miriam
