Glory to God in the Highest,

And on Earth PEACE, Good will toward men. Luke 2:15

Dear family and friends,

First we apologise for not giving an update to our lives at the end of 2017. We finished building an office and second garage for Arthur as he works from home. Now he has made good progress building a new version of ASReml under the name Echidna (www.EchidnaMMS.org).

Ellen has enjoyed several visits to see the grandchildren in Newcastle and in Hobart. Julie-Ann is worker for KPMG and Keith is managing the home front. Poest has passed his HSC and is intending to study programming at TAFE in 2019. Daisy, dressed for her Year 10 formal looked remarkably like Julie-Ann did at that age. Truli is enjoying participation in a Hunter region youth choir. Sterling has 1 year of Primary school to go and enjoys his sport.

Kathleen and Kelvin have moved to Hobart, have managed to sell most of their property in LaTrobe and have bought a house, moving in in January. Kelvin has continued to visit Indonesia to encourage mother tongue Bible translation projects. Kathleen has just obtained her second litter of Cocker Spaniel pups, regularly attending local dog shows. Hannah enjoys the animals too and enjoys History/Geography at High School. Hyland is very much into soccer and Theo into life. He starts school proper next year.

Lois has settled back into Glebe where she has some long-time friends. Her dog Meg passed away with cancer but she has made a small garden. Andrew works 3 days, has internet friends as well as local friends and is helping me with IT.

Ellen and I have just returned from 10 days in New Zealand (Hamilton, Rotorua, Mount Manganui and Thames). Highlights were the Huka Falls, Matai village hangi, Kauaeranga Kauri Forest (near Thames). Julie-Ann has organised us all (15) to go on a 7 day Cruise from Sydney on 8^th January for a week. Should be fun.

The assembly is now very small but we still manage to attract some children for Sunday School. Arthur teaches Scripture at Cargo School which will have 32 children next year (up from the 14 of six years ago). 1035FM has had a facelift (1035fm.com.au) with new management; Arthur continues a daily Scripture reading program. Arthur.Gilmour@cargovale.com.au 16Dec 2018