Madison Missions

05/05/2026

We are praising God for how fast this property is shaping up. One of the not quite rights lately has been the faithful table saw in the shed. Blades are sharp, motor checked by a mob in Albury and it's all fine, so why is it struggling to cut skinny pine planks. If the motor and blades are okay, what's wrong with it?
So a local retiree who's superhandy put on his cape and came down and within an hour I'm buzzing up hardwood easily again. As he heads out he says 'I can fix pumps and mowers too....', so we have a new best friend and will be baking his favourite cakes for a while yet. And I understand belt tensioning just a bit better.
What else is happening?
The plumber next door saved us from something nasty in that line of work, and the generous visit of a couple of sparkies from Melbourne and their Dad, a painter, have made a fabulous contribution over the past couple of days. Room 5 is no longer a plastering job, it just needs door jambs and skirting boards. The laundry is now brightly lit and the new shed has conduit waiting to bring power to it.
Did someone say shed? I'm pinching myself, cos the first sheet of tin cladding is on. Only a few purlins on so far, but it'll speed up. I'm sure you're almost as excited as I am.

Righto, back to work: we're tidying up for The Maker Heals program which starts here Sunday. If you know anyone who'd benefit from this spiritual and physical health 10 day burst, please encourage them to come along. I'll be putting a flyer on here too.
Thanks to all the volunteers and the extravagant God who moves them.

29/04/2026

Another one of our weekly onsite team meetings at Granya - Training school plans are in full swing!

29/04/2026

There's been 2 projects racing each other, and I haven't had a tight enough grip on either one to be sure which I'd be celebrating first.
You know I'll be keeping you informed about the shed's every move, but I haven't said much about the website.
Well, it's done. Big thanks to Jylan Wynne, Ken Moore and Eman Higgins for getting it sorted, alongside your busy lives.
Please take a good look at www.madison.org.au and share it with everyone who's half interested, especially POTENTIAL STUDENTS; be sure to tell them about the APPLICATION FORM therein.

Madison is implementing a balanced approach to ministry with a revolutionary health program, supporting businesses, youth ministry, literature evangelism and more. Check out our website for the full vision, activities & plans.

01/04/2026

Well, that was a working bee, and what a 4 day weekend it was. Bring it in close and let's go over what's been achieved:
1) a very ugly pair of storerooms have been emptied, joined, cleaned, refloored, and is ready to be prepped, painted, carpeted and occupied. Woohoo!
2) We had 70+yo Sonia out from Albury helping in the garden all day Sunday, and so that's been refreshed and garlic is being planted this very minute.
3) Some tree tidy-up occurred. That's about all I should say.
4) The shed, of course, you want to hear about the shed. No trusses on I'm afraid, which was the goal. But without extra high lifting gear, I'm stoked that a 10m heavy steel beam supporting two big heavy sliding doors is on. Feel free to ask how we used a tip truck to put it up on the posts.
5) Cos it's a working bee, we ate like healthy kings and sang plenty and were inspired by worships about the schools of the prophets in Bible times. No time to tell of the plaster and guttering installed, hothouse improved, loading compost and retaining wall steel, plus other odds and ends. And the nature strip is on its way from machete jungle to managed lawn. We even found a hidden set of concrete steps in there, that's how pristine it was.
Thanks for reading. Let us know if you want to join us for the next working bee. They're fabulous, especially if you can handle a few puns. Thanks to 3 extra visitors for a super Sunday and the Big 4 for 2.5 days' hard work. Bring on the next one.

16/03/2026

Well, you've all been very patient, but I know you're dying to know how The Second Shed Sunday went. I'll let the picture speak to it.

Another big day from Daryn with help from moi, Kellie and Ken, and we didn't need to work so twilighty this time. I can just stand and stare at it, feeling like I'm in Athens looking at the Parthenon or some other classic columns! But not getting the Pisa feeling at all, those columns are all straight and square.

Please keep praying for our prospective students - there's been a healthy trickle of inquiries and we don't need too many for the pilot program. If you know anyone who's interested in our Medical Missionary Training School, please connect them to us soon.

09/03/2026

I enthusiastically and perhaps foolishly declared 2025 to be 'The Year of the Shed'. We'd dismantled it (picture included of the original) and nabbed a planning permit and I thought we were right ready to reassemble it. Finally by Christmas 2025 we had a flat pad with footings poured and the building permit we needed. Every shed ingredient was still piled against the fence or filling the existing shed. There's the tale of woe.
So you can imagine my delight when a couple of recent Sundays were designated shed working days, and a small crew got busy. Now there are posts pointing to the sky and and things are happening. Huge thanks to local teacher/welder Daryn Nixon and Simon Jacob with his survey nous and general can-do abilities. We're on the move!
As dark fell yesterday, we stopped to celebrate something tangible above the ground. Plenty more to do, but an excellent start. Keep an ear out if you're local or want to travel here for future working bees.

06/03/2026

Do you value happy neighbours? Our neighbours are mostly cows, and they are as excited as we are about the 100mm of rain we've received over the past 2 weeks.
The miracle of water falling from the sky has turned our crunchy yellow desiccated ex-grass into lush green 'where's the machete' grass! We had to dust off the mower after a couple of months of forced inactivity, but I've never appreciated the colour green as I have this week. Praise the Lord. What extra goodness has He put into the world's colour scheme that it makes a difference to us.

PS School planning rocketing along, with important and exciting decisions being made daily.

23/02/2026

Two very exciting things here at Granya yesterday: productivity madness on the Room 5 makeover, and precipitation. Yes, it rained for at least ten hours on Sunday - very welcome rain that made the very ground purr with delight!
And with the help of Sue from TMH SA, we had plaster on the walls of Room 5, our dorm room that's too big for regular guests, but will work better as two regular-sized rooms. Another key step towards housing students from July!

16/02/2026

Our team had a terrific morning at the Yackandandah Market on Sunday. In partnership with the Alpine Valley Church's book stall, we sold a couple of hundred dollars worth of garlic, potatoes and those watermelons - almost a complete meal! Plus some yummy bread and gluten free baking, and we appreciate our volunteer bakers very much. 'Twas a wonderful day meeting folks in the district and sharing our story along with the produce. Well worth the effort, and we learned a few lessons we'll apply at future markets.

11/02/2026

As the first of the big 20kg watermelons gets the chop, it's a good time to remind locals that we're starting to sell produce. We'll be at the Yackandandah Market this Sunday, and we're keen to spend half a day delivering prepaid subscription veggie boxes around the district. Let us know below if you're interested. That bigfella melon was beautiful, by the way. Plenty more where it came from.