Love answers all things.

Hello family and friends! We hope that everyone is doing well and finds themselves unbelievably blessed! We have been in the "adjustment phase" here in Sydney and it has been such a blessing. God has been moving in our lives in such a way that we never imagined. Faith, growth and strength  is exactly what we have experienced in the last 3 months of our lives. Believing God for the impossible to even come to Australia was only the beginning of our journey and His plan unfolds day by day in our lives. As for little Evan, he now claims to be an Australian and has a fully developed Aussie accent. Yes, a fully developed one. It is so strong to the point where we have to ask him to clarify what he's saying to us at times. (Ryan and I are holding it down for Texas), he says that he was born in Texas, Australia and has adapted himself into the culture quite well. he is growing so much and each day that passes, we see him truly growing up. Time is flying before our eyes! We have already been here 3 months and it is so hard to believe that the semester is almost over! Hillsong recently hosted the "Colour Conference" which is a womens conference held for over 16,000 women each year. The Lord truly blessed us at this conference. Coming to Hillsong has not just been an "experience" for us, coming here has changed our worldview and love for the Church of Jesus Christ tremendously and we are so grateful for the things that He is doing in us individually and corporately as a family day by day. We are seeing what it truly means to be the Church and operate in the fullness of what God has for our lives on a daily basis. What a privilege to be a small part of something so large that Lord is doing in the earth! This can be in every area of your life! Whether we are smiling at someone at the grocery store, praying for a loved one, offering a helping hand to someone in need, being there for a friend or family, this is all part of being the Church and doing our part to be His Hands and His Feet. Someone raised a question recently about our part in ministering to people on a daily basis and my perspective about the opportunity that God gives us to be used by Him is offered all day every day if we keep our eyes open to Him. It doesnt always mean that you are in an official position in church where you are to minister... this can be your own husband or wife that God is calling you to minister to in this season. It can be the woman who stays at home with the children to minister to her own children, to the full time employee who spends most of their time at work where God is calling them to minister to their co-workers and speak life into their lives, or the full time community college student to minister to their fellow classmates and friends at school. We are learning that there isnt a set time or place to be the Hands and Feet of the Lord, it is everywhere that we go, in everything that we do. We are called to be representatives of Him in this earth. We are called to share the Gospel to all people who may not know Him and bring the love of Him that abides in us to every person we encounter. There arent words to explain what He is doing in our hearts! This has been a season where we have encountered many tests and our faith has been tried, but what we have learned that through all of it, the love that we have for Him and towards others is the love that conquers all. Regardless of what others may feel, say or think about you, our call is to love them. No matter what. 1 John 4:19-21 says, "We love, because He first loved us. If someone says, "I love God, and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also." We have read, and read, and re-read this scripture so many times, but it has come alive in our hearts and has been burning in us since we have been here. What happened at the Cross is not simply the Lord sacrificing Himself for the world and cleansing us from our sin, but it goes so much more deeper than this. It is the LOVE of God that drove Him to lay down His life to give US eternal life and reconcile us to Himself and LOVE is all He asks of us to display during our time here on earth. Displaying love to our neighbor is the way that we show God that we love Him. Our deeds are simply fruit of what He has already placed in us and is evidence of our faith in Christ. Jesus made it very clear to the Pharisees that their deeds and actions would not get them into heaven. This shows that it is our heart that the Lord is concerned about above all things. If we serve in the church, attend service every Sunday and Wednesday, and spend all of our time posting wonderful scriptures on facebook, this is awesome! But what it really comes down to is the love and encouragement that we show towards our family and the people around us. I heard this at college and it truly impacted me, "If the people around you were dependant on your words for their nourishment, would they be well or mal-nourished?" Wow! This truly opened my eyes to so much! It is our duty to infect the lives of those around us with a love that does not come from within us, but love that comes from Him. The challenge is this, to display love in every sphere of our lives regardless of what we are experiencing. Loving the person who may not be very fond of you, showing love despite persecution or even those that may not be so happy for your successes and what God is doing in your life. Loving at your job, at the grocery store, school or whereever you find yourself in life at this point. Maybe your love challenge is a spouse or a family member that you just cant seem to get on the same page with. Whatever the situation is, put the Word on it. I have found that the Word works. I have found that the combination of love and the Word is the perfect equation for any situation. How exciting! We can have peace in knowing that God uses us to display His love for the people in our lives, regardless of the circumstances! We are pumped for what is ahead! So much to learn! The Lord bringing us to Australia is changing us individually and as a family. We are so grateful and expectant to what the future holds. Sending you all our love,

The Bakers

Welcome to Aussieland

What an incredible journey it has been! When I look back on all of the things the Lord has brought us through up until this point, it is truly amazing. We arrived well in Sydney, Australia! Full of vision, hope, expectation and a hunger to pursue God like we have never experienced before. After 31 hours of flight, we were received by our housemates, Yannick and his wife Damaris. They have a daughter that is three years old and a newborn little girl as well. Before coming to Australia, we assumed that this country would just be like the US, nothing different, only people with an accent would be the only difference between Americans and Aussies. Not the case! It is a completely different culture! A wonderful one, but definitely nothing similar to America! Our hearts are truly overwhelmed. There aren't enough words to described how blessed and privileged we feel about being here, in this country, and being able to experience God's goodness on this level. This has been a dream come true, but we now realize that this is more so the beginning of our dreams becoming true. God is so faithful. We just concluded our first week of intensives at Hillsong College! Ryan began the Worship Leadership program and I began Pastoral Leadership. Evan also began his first week at school at Hillsong Preschool and he absolutely loves it! This week of intensives was a powerful week and God gave us an even more clear vision about our purpose here and the plan is unfolding day by day. I'd first like to start with a story and then share something that happened at college this week to better understand the magnitude of His sovereign Hand over our life. Shortly after Ryan and I married, Evan and I were riding in the car in Houston and I was listening to a Hillsong album and the song, "Yahweh" was about to come on. One of the Senior Pastors of Hillsong, Robert Fergusson began to preach before the song and He was teaching the students of Hillsong about the names of God. It was a powerful message that I heard before and I was listening closely when I heard the Lord say, "This is the school where you will go." I started crying because long before this happened, when Ryan and I first met, he told me that the Lord had called him to attend school at Hillsong, but at the time, I was attending Bible college at CBS in Houston and I didn't believe that there was any need whatsoever to cross oceans and needless to say the other side of the world to go to Bible college. Might I add that God has a way of getting married couples on the same page? After this I called Ryan and told him about what the Lord laid on my heart, we were both crying and thanking God for whatever He had planned next for us. We didn't expect God to move so quickly. That same night, Ryan was working lighting at a young adults service in Houston and a woman in a wheelchair came up to where he was and said, "Young man, I have a word from the Lord for you." She said, "The Lord told me to tell you that this place where you are is temporary, He is going to take you to a far away place, and there, you will go to the next level. Don't give up five minutes before the miracle." That was it. Ryan had no clue who this woman was or where she came from. When he told me about this, I was flabbergasted. I had never had the Lord confirm Himself this way and we were in awe about what had just happened. We ended up finding who she was and her name was Mrs. Pam. That night Ryan was programming lighting for a concert and the young man was who singing had invited her to come to his concert, she was his spiritual mother. We ended up becoming good friends with her, she is a mighty woman of God and He has blessed us with her friendship. Fast forwarding many months ahead, this past Wednesday, Ryan and I walked into class, sat down in the second row, and guess who walks in? Robert Fergusson. This is the man that the Lord used to speak to us about coming to Hillsong that I mentioned. He asks everyone to stand for prayer and then asks everyone that speaks a different language to raise their hands. I raised my hand and he said, "You, what language do you speak?" I said Spanish and he said, "Great, come up here and pray in your language." For those who know me well, I have absolutely no problem praying with people, even in front of people, but I was caught off guard. God is so good!!!!!!! Ryan and I spoke with Mr. Fergusson afterwards and we shared how the Lord had used him and it was truly a blessing to share this with him. Again, I cannot even put into words how GRATEFUL and how overwhelmed our hearts are!!!!! If that wasn't enough, we got some wonderful news yesterday afternoon. For Ryan's first semester, he will be one of the electric guitarist for the Hillsong Chinese Extension services on Sundays morning starting tomorrow! Before starting class, he had a great audition but had no clue that he would be able to start his first semester in one of Hillsong's worship services. The scripture that came to my heart after everything that we have experienced in this week is Ephesians 3:20, which says, "Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us." God is able. He always exceeds what we could ever think or desire. I remember one of the first things that I began to discover about the Lord when I first got saved was that He truly cared about everything we cared about. He is our Father. That means that He is concerned about the smallest things that concern us. I love when David said in Psalm 138:8, "The LORD will perfect that which concerns me: your mercy, O LORD, endures for ever: forsake not the works of your own hands." It is amazing to know that our Father in heaven is watching over the smallest details of our life and taking notice to them. We can be satisfied in knowing that even though people may not be concerned about us, God always does, no matter how big or how small. I believe that somewhere in my husband's heart, he desired to be used by God with the gift of music that He has placed in him. God knew this and honored his hearts desire. Ryan was so happy to be at Hillsong College that he did not care if he was cleaning toilets at the church or greeting people at the door, he was just happy to be here and it did not matter where or what he was doing. I believe that this attitude of humility and submission touches the heart of God and He moves in ways we could have never thought or dreamt of. What a wonderful God we serve. Coming to Australia has not been easy, We all know the story about how Peter got out of the boat and walked on water when He saw the Lord Jesus. Have you ever thought about why only ONE disciple got out of the boat? There is always a lot of conversation that goes on when we talk about pursuing the things of God and pursuing what we believe the Lord has called us to, but when you actually begin to walk it out, things are a lot different. Has it been a challenge? Absolutely it has! But an incredibly rewarding one! We have been stretched in ways we never though possible, and in this stretching, we are growing. We are quickly learning that God will put you in uncomfortable, unusual, and unfamiliar places to stretch and grow you. When we become comfortable, our growth can sometimes come to a halt which can result in a dependence in our own selves than in Him. We thank God for every "uncomfortable" situation that we may be placed in and believe that there is purpose in it all. We love our friends and family and thank YOU for all of your prayers and support. In the words of Brian Houston, "The best is yet to come..."