A Tribute to a Godly Man--My Grandfather!

Donald Ferguson husband of Norma Ferguson, father of Robert Ferguson, grandfather of Eleanor Ferguson Matthews and great grandfather of Gaius Ferguson Matthews has received his final reward of Salvation on this day Monday 29 January 2007 at approximately 10.30 am Canberra Australia time.
My dear grandfather has left us to join his Savior in Heaven, though for us who are left behind it may be very sad and difficult to let him go, we must rejoice for him.
Donald Ferguson was a godly man who serviced his Savior through out his 91 years of life. He has left behind a heritage of the Lords blessings and an example for all to see the reward of serving the Lord.
Donald Ferguson was given from the Lord a lovely virtuous wife, two (2) children (son and daughter), eight (8) grandchildren, and fourteen (14) great grandchildren (and Lord willing many more still come!) twelve of which he has had the blessing of holding on his lab, and the last two he rubbed the tummy of the mommy's while they where on the way.
Donald, Dad, Grandpa, and Great Grandpa will be greatly missed!
To my Grandpa in heaven,
"I love you with all my heart and will miss you so very much. I will see you soon, my grandpa, I look forward to the day we will once again be reunited and worship the Lord together as a big family just as we did on your 90th Birthday! Till then please look down from heaven from time to time so you can see how we are doing. I love you and will miss you-your grand daughter Eleanor"

What is it like where you live?

We had someone request a few photos of our house and what it is like at the little Matthews' Cottage. The house is very nice though it is quite small--easy to clean!! As you enter the front door there is a small hallway the first left is Gaius' play room and the guest bedroom. (Which we would love to have our friends and family stay in!!!) The next left down the hall way is our bedroom and at the end of the hallway is the bathroom. The bathroom has a toilet, sink and a shower/bath tub. The first door on the right is our living room/dinning room and through that room is the office/doggy sleeping spot which is a room half the size of the other bed rooms. The kitchen is also of the living room/dinning room it is small but it gets the job done well. Off the kitchen is a small laundry room/fridge storage room/pantry/storage.

Gaius "Helping" Around the House

Gaius does his part around the house. If you where to look at a house as an equation there would be "+" when Andrew does the dishes and "-" when Gaius does the dishes. For the most part Gaius adds a lot of fun "+" and tuns of cute-ness "+" however for the most part the "-" though they may cause more clean up we sure do love them. This is Gaius new way of "helping" he does dishes, perhaps one day his "doing dishes" will become a "+" to the family math equation but for now we will injoy all the "-" and the cute photos we get from them:)

Our First Snow

We recieved our first snow two days ago! Though it was only "almost" an inch we all four went outside in the evening and stood in the midst of beautiful snow flakes. The brown dog was covered with white snow when we came back in. The next morning we still has snow on the ground, though it was not much Gaius went out in is "new" snow boots, they call them "wellies" here. Maximus the dog loved the snow under foot he ran around eating it where as Gaius enjoyed the look of it but not the cold feel of it on his hands. (!!!AT BOTTOM OF BLOG ARE MORE NEW FUN PHOTOS!!!)

LOOK BELOW FOR NEW PHOTOS
!!!PRAYER REQUEST!!!
Please be praying for us as we are not well. Andrew has had a cold for over a week, Gaius and Eleanor are fighting one off. There is sickness all around us as the cold and flu season has been particularly bad this year.
!!!INTERESTING FACTS!!!
1) Andrew started a sermon series in the Gospel of John which should run this whole year. This Sunday was the introduction to the Gospel of John and we look forward to diving in next week.
2) We had our first Wednesday Congregational Bible Study. We are holding it in our home and we had so many people that we are conscious that when more people come we will be quite tight on space. The bible study is studying Hebrews 11 (Faith hall of fame) and Andrew is leading it.
3) The Women's Thursday Bible Studies. We had the first EVENING study this past week with 9 ladies and 3 ladies sending their appologies as they were ill or could not be there but will be next week. We also have one or two more women expressing interest in coming.
We are excited to see the morning study grow. We now have a women in the church who has volunteered to mind the children in the morning so we look forward to seeing more stay at home mums/moms. We are studying Christian Virtues and Eleanor is leading both studies.

Father and Son

Gaius Up Date:

As reluctant as I might be to admit it, “daddy” is by far the word of choice for Gaius.
A Cute Gaius Story:
Gaius sleeps on a small bed that is low to the ground in our bedroom. Most mornings Andrew is long gone when Gaius decides to grace us with his presence. In the morning when he opens his eyes the first thing he does is climb down off his small bed walk to the bedroom door and pry is open with his little fingers. He opens the door, peers around the corner saying, “dadadada.” No daddy to be found in the hallway so off he goes down the hallway where he pushes the bathroom door open, looking into the bathroom crying out, “dadadadada.” No daddy to be found in the bathroom. So out of the bathroom he runs down the hallway and shoves with great force and excitement the living room door open crying, “dadadadada,” he is sure daddy must be in the living room. This is where I find my poor sad little boy. Standing in the doorway looking into the living room where no daddy is to be found. With a heavy sigh he turns around and is quickly distracted by some toy or another.
Daddy and Gaius are becoming great friends; they love to play together whether it be with stacking blocks or finding sticks in the front garden and making a blazing fire for mummy.

Christmas Holiday

During our Christmas holiday we decided to stay close to home as we have a "wee" pup who needs tending to. We did however take a few day trips to see the some local historical sites. One of which was a place called Fort George. The largest European military base still in use. Fort George was built by King George the Second in the 1750's to stop the Jacobite rebellion once and for all. However it turned out to not be needed. This fort was never attact and thus never destroyed and is still in use. This base is located on the Moray Firth (Scotish for a bay) and boy was it cold and windy. We all enjoyed this amazing structure, the architecture was very innovative. The chapel in this fort was beautiful and still in use. They have upwards of 150 people attending the services. This photo is of Andrew and Gaius standing next to one of the many cannons facing out to sea. Following a well needed warm cup of tea we headed to a place 20min. east called the Dallas Dhu Distillery. The distillery was very interesting, it is not in use making it a wonderful tour and an interesting way to find out how wiskey is made. The monks in Aberdeen created wisky because the king had commissiond them to come up with a cure for the common cold. I do not know if this cure helps a cold but it is sure to help your disposion when you are suffering from a cold.

Do you want to know more?

If there are any questions you have for us concerning our ministry here, what we are doing or what is going on in our family here is the place to ask. I have tried to put new I thought you all might find interesting in the Newsletter portion but if I have left something out you would like to know more about someone else might want to now also so here is the place to ask us!

WELCOME

I have just finished setting up this blog web site and I hope you enjoy it. Please take a look as you scroll down at the prayer points. We recognize the power of prayer which is why we have posted ways you can be praying for us, so please check these regularly to find out new ways you can pray. We have a news letter portion. I will let you know the date I post them so you know if you have read it or not. If you miss out on reading a newsletter and would like to catch up look in the archives. We also have updates on what is happening at the church we work with. And of course more photos!! Let us know what you think and please feel free to post a blog on our blog. Question for anyone out there: What’s in Haggis? I made Haggis a couple nights ago for Andrew and he we ate it like true Scots accompanied with sweeds and potatoes. We like it do you?