WE ARE MOVING BACK INTO TOWN!!!

Good Bye Beautiful Valley.

Greetings everyone in the blogosphere!  We just wanted to write  to let you know that we will finally be back on the air after 12 long months without the mod-cons.   Our children are over the moon about many things. Drew will be closer to sport, school, work and his favourite family.  Jake will be closer to all his favourite things + the advantage of television so he can catch the soccer games.  Georgia will be glad for the internet availability, library, mum and dad date opportunities, shopping etc.  The little ones will be closer to footpaths for family walks, parks, the library, Jungle Gym and maybe the occasional MacDonalds outing! Paul and I have many things we are looking forward to, one will be the cut in driving time and fuel costs.

But the most awesome thing for all of us will be living in a house with more then one bathroom and toilet - ahhhh listen to the Angels sing!!!  Hopefully we will be up and blogging soon after our move.  Wow, this is so exciting.  My only request is that you pray for us during this week.  Our greatest needs in prayer are for - safety, strength, patience, no rain (that may be pushing it), understanding for the little ones (they tend to freak a little when a move is happening) and that I am able to keep calm and tend to the needs of my family.  Thanks to all of you that shower our family with the vital need and blessing of prayer.  God bless you all.

In His love and for His Glory...

Katrina.

A Georgia Blog Post.....

This is a new one from my favourite singers.  We need more of this kinda love taught in our schools and churches.  Rise up brothers of the faith and teach these little boys what love is meant to be.  True love is only found in a marriage, not in a boyfriend.  Come on girls, 'we could wait for more'.

Love from Georgia.

Caring for that which God has given....

She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness.

Prov 31:27

I just love this scripture.  this is one of my many 'call to arms' verses that I cling to.  The ESV version puts it like this... she looks over..., just as precious in my eyes is this word 'looks'.  Both words either - watches or looks are words that demand action. When I first discovered this little gem I did a word search in the thesaurus.  'Watch' had words such as attend to, concentrate on, keep your eyes on associated with it.  This morning when I searched the thesaurus for 'looked'  I found- gaze, glare, goggle and leer.  On a more biblical search I found the meanings to be - hedge about, to peer into the distance, to behold, wait for and to keep watch.

18 years ago I become a mother, the ability to watch and look came natural to me.  I could loose hours just watching Drew sleep!  In fact that is a gift I still have to this day and it will most likely still linger when I am a grandmother.  14 years ago God called me and saved me from my miserable life.  There is a different kind of watching that happens when you mother as a Christian.  As Ephesians 6:12-13 says, We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against rulers, against authorities, against cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.  Therefore take up the armour of God..... my 'looking' over the affairs of my household is crucial, it is powerful, it is expected, it is fruit and evidence of my love, it is also generational.  God has called mothers and wives to this and be sure that He has enabled us.  With my three older children now at school my role has not lessened but the bar has been raised.  My priorities have shifted and there is now an outside focus, 'watching and looking', that now happens.  I rejoice that He has enabled these changes in me.  I rejoice in how much more I need Him.  Do you know how your children are spiritually?  Do you share your faith regularly?  Do you know what they are reading? What they are listening to?  Who their friends are?  What about there time on the net?  If they have mobile phones, do you know what sites they frequent?  How often do you talk with them?  I know lots of people that think that their good and moral children are doing fine as long as they are obeying or keeping under the radar.  Believe me none of that is Biblical.  God expects more of us as parents.  My children have met some really broken and sad kids over the past 3 weeks.  It breaks my heart to think that these little ones are in so much pain.  What is so important that it leads to the breakdown of your child?  Some of the saddest and most rebellious children are from christian homes.  WHOA!  What are the fathers doing?  What are the mothers so busy with that they are not detecting these things? 

Some christians trust in wacky religious people that write books on how to abuse your kids without detection and call it 'training up a child', people that instruct you on how to keep all your little ducks in a row and as long as your children are sitting quietly in church then you have made it.  Others use child psychology books and chat shows, talk back radio etc.. I feel so sorry for them, their marriages and their children.  As christians our only text book on raising children should be the Bible. Paul and I have read other books that have helped us to understand our children in other ways but these books are always Gospel soaked and never religious and outward appearance focused.  Ted Tripp and Paul Tripp have been helpful in our home. 

As a child myself once, I walked a path that day by day led me away from home and onto my own path. As a daughter of God, however, every step I take is deeper into Him.  Every morning I wake up I run into His arms, in desperate need of His will, His lead and His love.  As a Christian wife and mother with a call to watch over the ways of my household, I am not to eat the bread of idleness, I know full well this means more then having a clean house and tucking my kids into bed each night with a prayer and a kiss!

Firstly, I must walk in obedience to God.  I must walk in the Spirit.  I must walk repentantly.  I have to be constantly prayerful and another thing I do is to think generationally.  What legacy will I leave my children and my great grandchildren?  How will my faith affect my generations?  So many preachers talk about the 'things' we leave our children and I have always disagreed in part.  

For example, the Christian father in Haiti that now has nothing left but his faith, his children and the clothes on their backs. (See Mark Driscoll's 32 hours in Haiti sermon.)  How is a house and possessions going to help that family now?  How will the law of reaping and sowing now touch the lives of those little ones?  If that mother had faith in the One true God.  If she believed in the Son that became God in the flesh and died for her sins, Jesus.  If she shared this truth with her family during her daily walk.  If she poured her life out for her family.  If she had prayed and educated and worshipped and looked and watched well after the ways of her household, then I believe that the inheritance that she left is incorruptible and imperishable.  Her family will lift their hands up in worship to the God that claimed her life that day and that still washes over them with the same love that held her.  

So lets raise up holy hands and offer praise, glory, love and thanks to the One that called us, set us apart and gave us the name sons and daughters.  Gave us the name 'mummy', honey or sweet heart (or whatever your husband calls you)  Lets not eat the bread of idleness and lets seek Him on how to best look well to the ways of our household.  Our household, not our friends household.  But lets look well to the ways of our 'own'.  Lets fight for our husbands our  children and our generations.  Lets pray and believe that those sleepless nights we have are our Father calling us to pray and intercede (2 Cor 6:5, 11:27)  Lets love our husbands passionately. Lets be theologians and spiritually stimulating for our husbands.  Lets cook like we are cooking for Jesus Himself.  Lets dance, play and sing.  And do all to the glory of God.  Lets live for the Saviour that is coming back, that sustains us as mothers and that will have our household (not our material possessions - but our real household) stand before Him on that great and terrible day.

Bless you all and may you seek Him every minute of your day.  His is the strength that endures and the joy that can not be diminished.

I love you.

THE SHACK - IS EVIL AND HERETICAL.

WARNING...

THE SHACK is a dangerous book.  The books subversive undertones seek to dismantle many aspects of the faith and these are subsequently replaced with doctrine that is just plain wrong.  Error abounds. - Tim Challis

My heart is completely grieved because of the spiritual blindness that is infesting so many of my so called mature Christian brothers and sisters.  Unfortunately many of the mislead are fellow sisters.  It reminds me of the time that the Apostle Paul warns of those that will creep in and lead many women astray with vain babblings and false doctrines.  I am being encouraged to read this heretical book because it will help me to 'understand' the Godhead.  I use God's own WORD for that, not fairy tales.  Come on sisters where are the Susannah Spurgeons and Sarah Edwards among us.  We each should be theologians in our own homes, 1 to draw us nearer the Cross, 2 to be the helpmeets our husbands need and 3 to train the young minds we are so blessed with.  Wake up ladies!  Let's seek to know Him by going straight to the source or if outside help is needed try...J. I. Packer, Knowing God or the many other good books that help us to understand His attributes.  Following is a link that may be helpful to any that are thinking about reading The Shack.  I also posted a video comment about the book by Mark Driscoll on September 1st, 2009

http://www.challies.com/media/The_Shack.pdf

My prayer is that you will seek His truth and not be as the Galatians were, foolishly led away from what Christ accomplished.

In His Love and for His Glory,

Katrina.

Faithful Sojourn Abagail Unterburger (Suki)

Suki has turned 1 - Praise God!

Some updated pics.

As promised some updated photos of the children...

Its raining, its pouring....

....and that is the sum total of it.  It is raining today, has been for weeks and there is more forcast.  So what do we do about it?  Well we could scream and cry, go outside and stamp in the puddles!  Or we could just postpone the move and have carpet picnics with the kids.  That sounds heaps better and we have chosen that in part.  Paul and Jake are hiring a trailer today to move the outside things over to the new place.  We have packed as much as we can inside and all of the outside jobs have been done (mowing, pulling down fences and gardening). So now we just have to wait for good breaks in the weather over the weekend to move things into the container. 
Drew is recovering from bronchitis, he has been sick for a while and is looking forward to a few days off after we have moved.  We were watching him round up some calves this morning in the paddock and it looked like he was floating in some parts of the paddock.  The boss may have to buy in some jetskis if things keep going this way.  There is water everywhere, if Drew stood still long enough he would probably get mouldy.  Tomorrow I am sending him to work with little yellow floaties on his arms!
Jake is keeping the pace going here, he has become Mr J J Packer (not the wonderful J I Packer).  Maybe he could look into the removal business if he ever gets sick of cooking!  He is a champ and has been a great help to Paul.  I think it is a bonus because I am not having to fight for my kitchen.  We are making the most of our last few days with the big stove/oven we bought when we moved in here. Pretty soon it goes into storage and we go back to the teennny little 4 plate stove top and one pie oven way of cooking.  Should be fun!  From now on I will have to make our lasagne in 3 parts!
Georgia has been pricing rentals in the Minnesota area (unfortunately airfares are a killer at present, so she may have to wait a few more years!!) so she can settle into Bethlehem Baptist where Dr. John Piper is the preaching pastor.  Just joking, she hasn't really, but I am sure she has had it with packing - it is not her thing.  Georgia is an out doors kinda girl and is really missing her afternoon walk.  So I will have to find a way to keep her sane over the next few days.
The babies are really coping well considering they spend a huge part of their day outside playing normally.  School work was packed on Friday so they are free now for a few weeks (school holidays down here), but free to play inside is not the same.  They are going to wear the colour off the Leggos if the sun does not soon start to shine.
Our little angel, Suki, is using this time grow teeth and scream a lot.  She is nearlly 8 months old and has 6 teeth so far.  She is still not interested in solid food, so I am now not only a food source but also a chew toy!  Other then that she is totally gorgeous and the older children are loving the fact that she is crawling around ruining there games.
Yesterday we bought a few more board games to add to our collection and I want to send out a formal warning to any other parents considering purchasing the Ice Age game - DO NOT DO IT - it is a noisy one, that can not be turned down.  It has become the favourite of Elijah, Emma, Samuel and Jemimah and it is loud and extremely annoying!  We are glad that they like it though.
Paul and I are both doing well, looking forward to it all being over so we can settle in at the new farm.  Paul had to get Emma's collarbone checked out the other day - it is fine.  We had a low key anniversary, we plan to do something after we move.  Paul bought a new table for me as an anniversary present a big, nice, solid, family table.  We did have one of those already, but we are a little snug now and it was time for an update.  It seats 12 so only 2 of our children can get married. Works out perfect. I have given Paul a ton of books for his pressie.  Books from  his favourite authors, such as - Spurgeon, J I Packer, C J Mahaney, John Piper, Mark Driscoll, Randy Alcorn and Ravi Zacharias. 
We will update things again maybe next week. 
Until then blessing to everyone and if you don't know Him, then you are 'Wasting Your Life'.

Very Insightful Pastor Mark.

If only we had more pastors preaching this from the pulpit!  Unfortunately this book is spreading like the plague and causing just as many deaths (spiritual deaths)! 
2 Timothy 3:6-7 

The count down begins...

We have only 5 days left until we move house.  We are off to greener pastures!  Drew has found a job on a dairy farm in another area that will take a keener interest in his love of all things 'dairy'.  His new employer will be more hands on, so he will finally be able to get into 'the other stuff', as he puts it.  Tractor work (off course), irrigation, pasture management and all of the other stinky smelly things that he and Paul so love!  Drew has been working 13 - 14 hour days lately, he has been birth coach to the cows, personal trainer to the heifers, fencing expert and linguistics artist (the new guys speak a whole new language) he is looking forward to this change.
The move is exciting for the rest of us because we get to move (again) to a beautiful region in our beloved Tassie.  Jake has a flowing river that will run through our paddocks so he can fish on a daily basis, Georgia has millions of photo opportunities (our little budding photographer), I will have a larger home  (I will not miss my yurt), Paul will again have the chance to work with his boys (he loves that) and the babies - well they just love life no matter where they are, as long as we are all there together.
So the packing and cleaning is now  kicking in, Jake is leading the charge ( he is  planning trout recipes already - our chef).  Georgia and Emma are enjoying the onset of Spring as our yard is delectable at present.  We have been cooped up inside for days with all of the rain, however  our daffodils and jonquills are popping up everywhere.  So we are now bringing the smells and colours of the garden to the inside, our little princesses just love gathering huge bunches of flowers to decorate the house- even in the rain. 
The strange mix of snow on the mountains and the deluge from the rains  (we have reassured our littlies that God is still keeping His promise, not to flood the earth again) is complicating the packing of the container that sits eagerly outside awaiting our household contents.  But we do still have plenty to keep us busy inside the yurt.  Apart from the work of arranging selling cows/phone/net/power disconnections and the many other moving tasks life is the same as always, Friday Family Night still happened and tonight was mummy and daddy date night.  We do have our anniversary and 2 birthdays coming up in September, all have been postponed until further notice though.  Samuel has his eye operation on the 15th.  Emma  needs to be x-rayed again, hopefully for the last time, after breaking her collar bone a few weeks ago.  She has already had 2 x-rays and this should be the last one.  God is, even in this time, blessing us all with perfect peace.  We continue to give Him thanks for this.

Church tomorrow will depend on the rain, as we have a few that are unwell, Drew will be working late and well the whole moving thing!  Thankfully we have a few John Piper and Mark Driscoll sermons that we still have not watched.   We are thinking it would be nice to have a day where we just do nothing, yeah just typing that felt great.  We are sending off emails to update everybody, in the hope that our movements will be known by all.  If we do slip out of reach our mobiles numbers are still the same.  As for all else The Good Ship Unterburger will be out at sea for a few weeks so God Bless You all and we look forward to catching up when we have settled in.

THE RIVERS ARE FULL!

The Guys and Girls Guide to Marrying Well

Paul and I recently found these little booklets and thought they were too good not to share!  They are full of helpful points and things to consider both for parents and your children.

Hopefully the links work.  For the guys  -  http://www.focusonthefamily.com/downloads/boundless/guysguide.pdf 

and for the girls  - 

 http://www.boundless.org/girls/pages/girlsguide.pdf

Love from all of us in the Unterburger Clan.

Paul's Favourite.

The truth we subscribe to, way to go Lecrae. PRAISE HIM!

Music for Wartime Living.

These are family favourites they can be found on youtube (Lecrae, Sho Baraka, Trip Lee, Tedashii and Flame) or they have a website - www.reachrecords.com.
Bless you.

8 Incredible Years and counting....

8 years ago we were all eagerly counting down the minutes until the marriage of the century (in our books!) took place.  As new Christians we had no idea what that would entail, but this was to be different for us both.  We had both been married before and had one thing in concrete before ever making a commitment, this marriage had no 'open door' policy.  Divorce was not an option.  We spent 10 months talking these issues out, it made all the difference.  Prevention has truly been the better cure.  Paul came into our union with a dog named Zoe, I came with 3 gorgeous children named Drew 8, Jake 5, and Georgia 4.  So neither of us was taking this lightly.

So I look back in amazement that time has flown by so fast. We have been through so much together that I feel as though we should be having our 20th!  We have moved 11 times (thankfully homeschool has helped here), Paul has been a bus driver, baker, delivery man, dairy milker and student, we have searched for fellowship and met many interesting people along the way.  Change has come in many ways during this search.  We have lost family members.  We have learnt a lot about living on the land raising chooks, cows, sheep and horses.  Then there were the gardening experiences, too many to mention, but wonderful times and great food.  The pests, snakes, possums etc, that made life fun and scarey.  Drew's driving lessons have been a learning curve for me!  We now have 5 great cooks in the house.  But most precious and more memorable then any other thing has been the delivery of each of our new additions! 

Paul 'Elijah' Karl came 13 months after we were married, Shekinah Emmanuelle Grace (or Emma as we know her) was delivered at home by her daddy 17 months later, Samuel David 13 months later - another daddy delivery, Beloved 'Jemimah' Joy  at home 2 years after that and finally our latest little darling (and last child) Faithful Sojourn Abagail (or Suki) born at hospital 7 months ago.  

 I am amazingly blessed to have the husband I have.  He has always led me, protected me and cared for me, but seeing him grow as a father has made my love for him grow deeper than imaginable.   5 years ago he placed the Bible  on our dining table, opened it and made the decision to camp out there from that moment on. He has read to us all everyday, we have all grown in many ways, but watching our family grow because of his 'Family Bible Time, has been beautiful. It has become my favourite time of the day and these memories are priceless in our marriage.  Our little darling Georgia has grown from the little girl that answered nearly every Bible question with, 'Uumm live a godly life',  to enriching interactions. We have studied the Bible all over Australia in many different settings.

 I am so thankful for you Paul, you drop anything to help me around the house, to chat with me or to pray me through something.  I am not sure of the 'ways' of other husbands, but I am sure you, my honey, surpass them all.  You know the importance of investing in the spiritual growth of your family, for that I am truly thankful. 

So as we draw closer to this anniversary my darling, I want to say thanks for being the man you are.  And more than this, thank you for constantly expecting more of yourself, learning more and hoping more.  Your love, faith and devotion to God and all of us is my little glimpse of glory. 

I love you Pauly.

My favourite quote,

              "Marriage is 98% living and 2% looking - so learn to value character over appearance".