Randy & Linda Perkins Email 8/5/08

Hello Kasey,

We received your letter and will send you some prayer cards in the mail.

1. What God has accomplished in your ministry.

Our church is 7 years old in September. The Lord has put together a wonderful, loving group of people

who want to be fully devoted disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have seen people saved from many

different countries. Canberra is a very multicultural city and we have many different nationalities in our

church.

We also have a radio ministry, a Vietnamese ministry, as well as 7 missionary projects that we support.

2. What your needs are

We are in a position to hire a full time Youth Pastor. We live in an area that has lots of young families

and lots of teens. We are praying the Lord will provide a young couple to come and help us reach these

teens for Christ.

Financially we need to continue to raise money for our Missionary Home Project. That would save us a

lot of money that is just going down the drain in rent.

3. What your prayer requests are

We are praying for a complete healing of my cancer. But if that is not God's plan that He will be

glorified in what ever He wants to accomplish.

Pray that we don't get so busy that we don't have time to spend alone with God.

Attached is a recent picture of Linda and I at a youth concert where I was able to share the gospel with about 180 people.

Until All Have Heard
Randy and Linda Perkins
Australia
www.bbfi-oceania.org/Perkins_R/

Randy & Linda Perkins - Special Prayer Request

Saturday, June 7, 2008

This is Linda's description...she has a way with words

Dear, dear Family,

What a "roller coaster" ride we have been on this week, and we didn't even have to get in line to buy a ticket!!

As I sit down to write an up-date to all of you who have been so faithful to pray, I try to imagine just sitting and having a coffee and just looking in your sweet precious faces and sharing yet another day in the lives of the Perkins!!

The Harvesting of the bone marrow did take place on Tuesday and what a day for this precious man of mine. If I ever thought he was weak at enduring pain, I take it all back!! He was so strong and put up with heaps. The dear nursing staff only had to try 4 times to get 14 gauge needle in his left arm, right arm was easy, as it was just a regular size needle. The hard part was that for the next 5 hours he could not move, bend, squeeze, tighten that left arm at all. Except for the terrible pain he was in, I think he loved the side-effects--me feeding him. Such a baby, but a dear one!!

After a full day we headed home and knew tomorrow could be another repeat. We enjoyed some smiles, and laughs and prayed that eyes would stay focused on our Father, and not what could be.

Wednesday morning, we arrived nice early at Pathology, yet again another needle, and another 3 tubes of blood...off they went to be tested for bone marrow. Please, please...we needed 4 million, yep you read it right 4 million bone marrow cells. Which we were told is pretty impossible the first time and especially with the previous readings Pastor had had on the Monday. Well don't they know we serve a God that still moves "bone marrow"!! We waited again for the results, and honestly the atmosphere in the "Transplant Unit" could be felt, the anticipation from everyone was incredible. The phone rang, and everyone just turned to listen, watch expression, and try and pick up any indication!! Well as Karen, one of the nurses, hung up the phone all eyes were on her and as a smile broke across her face we knew there must be some good news. FOUR MILLION. 2 Honestly the whole unit clapped and cheered...except me I added a few waterworks...but remember that's my job. Then a quick call to Dr. D and he gave the all clear not to go through another day!! I cried even more and Pastor just said "thank you Father!"

We rejoice in answered prayer and fresh new grace for our lives daily. The next few days there will be trips to the hospital, ex-rays, test, a Hickman line put in-- but a few days of repreve...that we are indulging in. We know that there are some really hard days ahead, but we also know that God continues to cocoon us in His almighty, everlasting arms. Even the shadow of His wings is such a place of peace.

At the beginning we both said that "we wanted to live our lives as normal as we could for as long as could, and that's what we are doing today!! Cleaning house, doing laundry, making visits, and just doing life together!!

Please continue to pray, and know that every prayer that goes up on our behalf is totally treasured by the two of us!! We couldn't do this journey without YOU!!!! To say we love you seems so small, but oh we do!!

Love,

Linda

Randy & Linda Perkins - Prayer Letter

20 June 2008

Dear Valuable Partners,

It is often in the midst of the uncertainty of life and the adventurers that God allows, that we realize how valuable we are to one another!! You are incredibly valuable to this Missionary couple, for more than just financial reasons. Linda and I have just celebrated our 33rd year of arriving in Australia, WOW!! It seems like only yesterday, well until we look at our 3 adult children and our precious 7 gran’angels. Thank you for partnering with us and being so faithful to what God is doing through us in the land of Australia.

Happenings over the last few months…

WOW (Women of the Word)…has grown and we are adding a new session for the new term. It’s exciting seeing our ladies growing in the Word, and with one another.

MOW (Men of the Word)…we beat the ladies!! We already have two sessions, breakfast and evening. In our breakfast session we have a young dad coming along that is searching and needs Jesus. Please pray for Chris. What a joy to watch as these men take the Word in their own hearts and lives, and then openly share with one another.

COMMUNITY OUTREACH…We spent 3 afternoons during April holidays in our local park, serving and loving. Our church family prayed, planned, and worked hard!! We served sausages something like American hotdogs) to 100’s of kids and parents, coffee, pancakes, face painting, storybook tent, balloons, Wordless Book bracelets!! It was a great outreach and a time to say to our community WE love you and so does JESUS!!

God is always so faithful to us and nothing we do in His name goes unnoticed!! Please know that nothing you do for us goes un-noticed also!! Thank you for sharing with us in the Work God has blessed us with.

Grateful for YOU,
Randy and Linda Perkins
Australia