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2. It is now July and we’ve finished our furlough time in Australia. Here are some pictures from the last few months.

3. Sick of being sick! Luke in a Police car at a school fair Luke’s Kindergarten

4. Mainly Music – music classes for kids. Click on image for video. Don’t click unless you’re a grandparent or something. It’s seriously boring. Sharing about Tanzania at our Friday night homegroup

5. In April we were happily plodding along, speaking at various events, taking Luke to kindy, and vaguely thinking about getting things ready for the birth of our expected child…

6. …when this little guy decided enough was enough and came out on Easter Sunday (instead of 4 weeks later in May). We named him Elliot Pasaka Nicholls – ‘Pasaka’ being the Swahili word for Easter.

7. Being 4 weeks shy of fully ripe, Elliot had to stay in the hospital for the first week while being closely monitored. It was a difficult time, as Kelly stayed in the hospital with him, and I stayed home with Luke and Malia, going in to the hospital every day, often two or three times.

8. But, thanks to some great medical staff, and an inherited Nicholls disdain for being in hospitals, Elliot was able to come home after a week, and there continued to thrive, putting on weight, feeding well, and even occasionally letting his parents get some REM cycles in.

9. May “No more photos!” Elliot’s passport photo

10. One of the cool things that Luke’s kindergarten did was on his last day they let Malia spend the day there, and at the end of the day they showed some pictures to the group of our life in Africa. Luke sat up the front (Malia just ran around like she usually does) and got to tell his classmates about Mama Sofia, cutting the grass with a scythe, cooking, and riding daddy’s motorbike. But what really impressed the kids was the pictures of lions, elephants and giraffes.

11. June was our last month in Australia, which meant the beginning of winter, and packing up our life there and beginning the trek to the USA. We left Adelaide on the 8th and headed to Melbourne for a couple weeks, mostly to organise Elliot’s US citizenship and passport. December 2010 June 2011

12. The Details(for those who read more than just pictures ) After a 30 hour trip from Melbourne-Sydney-Guangzou-Los Angeles-San Diego that we’d rather forget, we made it to Kelly’s parents’ house, and will be here in San Diego until September 14, at which time we will return to Tanzania. We will be spending our time here traveling, speaking at various functions, raising support, and, in August, I will be attending a week long Koine Greek speaking class in Fresno, which will inimitably improve my translation skills. We will also fly to Seattle in August to visit friends. We haven’t been involved with the ongoing translation work while we’ve been away, but we hear that things are going well, albeit more slowly in the absence of many key people. And although specific ‘Bible’ translation has slowed down, many other important tasks are taking place – such as training-workshops for the Tanzanian translators, and translation of ‘The Jesus Film’ into the Mara languages*. We’re looking forward to getting back ‘home’ and focusing our time on the translation work. As much as we enjoy telling others about what we’re doing, we long to see Tanzanians reading the Bible and developing a new understanding of God through His message to them. Although September seems far away, the time will go quickly, so if you’re in the San Diego area and want to catch up, contact us soon (use facebook, email, or mobile: 619-277-5014). *The languages with which we are working in our office: Jita, Kwaya, Zanaki, Kabwa, Ikizu, Simbiti, Ikoma, and Zinza.

13. Explanation of Support requirements (FYI) Many wonder what it means when we say “We’re at 65% support” or “We’re up to 80%,” etc. Over the last few years, for various reasons, financial support has dropped off considerably. While we can still get by with the basic things, it means that we’ve had to dip in an out of debt at times (PTL, that’s no longer the case!), we have no assets/savings, including college funds for the kids etc., and we haven’t been putting away retirement funds. We also have a car badly in need of being replaced so that we don’t find ourselves stranded (yet again) in the middle of nowhere, broken down. Other needs for our work also go unfulfilled. While we’re just happy to be out there doing God’s work, our organisation has a duty of care to us so requires us to be at 100% before we go back. We are a little hesitant to talk about our financial needs, but because you are our partners we entrust this need to you for your prayerful consideration. Ultimately we know that God is our provider, and when He leads, the doors open. We’ve already bought our return tickets to Tanzania because we know that that’s where He wants us, and the finances are just one of those details that He will work out in the meantime.

14. Prayer Updates • One of the purposes of our time in Australia was to raise our support level, which had dropped to about 65%. It’s sitting at around 80% now. • Thanks to a generous family in San Diego we have a (nice, big) car to use for our time here. • Baby Elliot is doing well and growing (big!). • We still need to get to 100% support! If you want to partner with us in making this happen, click the large button* with your country’s flag (or the country that you like best): • Luke and Malia have been through a lot of transition in the last few weeks. Pray that they’ll settle. • Pray for the team in Tanzania who are still hard at work. Work has begun on translating the Jesus Film, a powerful tool for communicating the gospel. • Pray for the Greek workshop that I’m attending in Fresno in August to improve my translation skills. support us support us *our large button has no affiliation with the one on woot.com. ;)

15. LINKS/INFO • To read our blog & join our online discussion click here. To see more about our work, visit thetask.net. • To sign up for newsletter notifications send us an email. • To join our Prayer Team send us an email. • To support us financially go to this link, or send us an email & we’ll send you a card. • Our current mailing address is: • Michael & Kelly Nicholls1820 Garrison Way • El Cajon, CA 92019 • USA • michael-kelly_nicholls@wbt.org • or catch us on facebook.