Info On This Blog & Family

Hi! Thanks for stopping by our little circus!

The circus theme for this blog is a play on words – from our Family name… which I can’t share with you so just let your imagination run wild there… but also because it is so symbolic of our life.
It is because every now & then I feel like a clown, running around in (amusing?) circles. With so much noise and laughter and silliness and chaos.
Sometimes I feel like a trapeze person (do they have a title?) who is flying through the air & trusting someone will catch me. Flying gracefully, dangerously, recklessly, and sometimes feeling flung out unnaturally.
Sometimes I am the dressed up animal, put on parade, owned by an audience and sometimes needing training and boundaries so I don’t hurt myself or others….
Sometimes I even feel like the bearded lady – a freak no one understands. (NOT making personal remarks about women’s right to facial hair. If it’s there – love the hair. Just saying it is a traditional circus themed ‘freak show’ act. Don’t hate me!)

But throughout the Circus and the different acts… I am trusting there is a Ringmaster.
And no matter where the Circus travels,
it is always in His control.

Our family has prepared for and now left our home culture of Australia. We have traveled to the Islands of South East Asia to serve God in His work of missions. The country that we now live in, has one of the greatest population of Islamic believers in the world and we feel blessed to bear witness here to the light of Jesus and the truth of the One True God. We spent some time on one island and learnt language and scratched the surface of the culture…
only to move to our final location and become learners all over again 🙂 Isn’t that just always the way!?
So we are in an isolated location, in a pretty wild part of the world, focused on a people group (UPG) of approx 5million, 99.9% Islamic… and we can fit in my house, the number for workers (across all agencies) that live and serve in this whole huge area. Crazy right!

Our family is a family of 6 and pretty they are the coolest people on the planet. No offense to you and yours.

Since our country is creative access, I wont write using our names. I made up silly new ones. (and just so you know I meant to write Hoosband like that.. I use spellcheck.)
So introducing;
Myself – *awkward wave* I go by the name, Catherine Grace, in all written material. Fun fact, it is a name made from the combination of my daughter’s middle names.
I love the color yellow, the froth on a cappuccino and reading to my kids with all the character voices. I have learned to dance, parent, exercise and play while living with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome & I am now learning how to live across cultures well too.

My Husband, I call Hoosband, for no particular reason. He is a carpenter by trade though, he left it a few years back to study theology and ministry. He loves watching cricket, drinking a nice cappuccino and eating maltesars.
Our eldest daughter was born in 2006. Miss E is our princess though she is getting into sports lately and wants to run for Australia in the Olympic relay team. She is quick to laugh and even more ready to ‘mother’ her younger siblings.
Buddy is our 2nd daughter who was born in 2008. She is giggly and snuggly and loves slapstick humor. Buddy is our adventurer and is usually outside climbing trees and adopting the local insect population into her devoted care.
Our Little Lion Man is our eldest son. He was born in 2010 and has a heart of gold. He is always within reach of a cuddle, always the fastest to say he loves me and is a delight to watch play. His imagination means every piece of food is a knight and every chair a potential rocket ship.
Roo is our youngest son, born in 2012. He is energetic joy on legs. His delight is in our attention and his goal is our affection, a goal he always achieves. He is a running, laughing, barreling, unstoppable mass of wet kisses and mischief which is usually aimed at one or more of his siblings.

If you are here and you are reading then you know that I am a person.
A real life person with weaknesses and flaws, bad hair days and hormonal weeks of the month… oh and terrible spelling… and bad grammar.

When I looked at myself, many years ago (a few children and a horde of late night stress-Magnum ice creams ago – just saying) I was a skinny little weakling.
I was, and still am in many ways, half of a person. Physically.
I looked at everything I was afraid of and everything I couldn’t do. I searched my heart & came back with doubt and fear and insecurity. I looked at my body and saw a list of limitations and “probably shouldn’t”s.
I never considered myself suitable for the mission field.
I never thought I would be useful to God.

And so, this blog is for me. IT’s for you.
IT’s to say that I really do suck and God doesn’t. That I didn’t mistake my weakness but underestimated His ability to use me, sustain me and hold me here.
This blog is to say that you can be used, that those you know who are being used.. are not super Christians either. Don’t expect it of them.
Pray for them, walk with them.
This blog is a choice to share how very unremarkable I am, to tell my unremarkable part in God’s remarkable work of bringing the Nations to Himself.

I am a broken clay Jar
living in the land that needs to see my treasure.