Watering Holes & Hope

How a word from heaven, an Aboriginal artwork, and a new business are bringing us into 2025 with fresh hope. Also: Our bonkers year 2024 in review.

FRIENDS. I have recently finished my next book, Tethered to Hope, and can I get an AMEN to that?!!! I’m honestly looking forward to sharing more about it (because I love it), and, well, just sharing more writing in general. Writing Tethered absolutely kicked my butt and I’ve found it incredibly difficult to write “on the side,” but now that my manuscript is turned in I finally feel freeeeeee in my writing and creative life to get back to short form writing again. Truly, I’ve missed it and the connection it provides. I’ll begin sharing more regularly here at The Foundry soon.

In the meantime, I wanted to do something a little different—share our family “Christmas” newsletter. . . that I send out every January. (I gave up trying to manage getting it out in December years ago. Haha.) I’ll be back at The Foundry soon, but first: Watering Holes & Hope—a little newsletter from the Booker fam. Hope you enjoy.

Love,
A

When I was in the process of becoming an Australian citizen, I wanted to buy an original Aboriginal artwork to commemorate my adoption into the land. Ryan and I came across this painting of watering holes (and the tracks around them) while attending meetings in the Northern Territory, and we knew we had found ‘the one.’

We not only loved the overall look and colors used in the piece, but felt the work had personal significance to us. You see, when we moved to Sydney to pioneer a new neighborhood-based missions initiative many years ago, God spoke to us about creating a “watering hole.” We were to make our home and our ministry a place where people could come and drink—be filled, nourished, and sustained—and stay as long as they needed to until they would continue on their journey. We believed that our ‘watering hole’ was just one of many, yet they were all connected through story and journey.

God showed us many things through this metaphor:

• we were not the ‘saviors’ of our neighborhood, and while we could create a watering hole, we would never be the actual source of the water—only the stewards of it;

• there is no hierarchy to the network of watering holes;

• there is no correct order or ‘way’ to move between them;

• they are connected organically through whatever paths people create between them;

• they are important not only because of what they are, but because of what they sustain;

• they support all forms of life, growth, and flourishing.

Through this concept of creating and stewarding a watering hole, God was inviting us to practice generous welcome and genuine hospitality. Our call was to be faithful to care for our watering hole, knowing God would also provide others, and—we hoped—would multiply them. (God did multiply them but that is a story for another time.)

A New Watering Hole

After more than eight years at that particular watering hole, God led us to move to South Australia. It was a hard but good decision. While we miss the life we had built in Sydney (friends, neighborhood, and community), we are now attached and invested into our new home in Victor Harbor and growing more so each year.

Through our transition, God showed us that the word-picture about watering holes was not just a metaphor for our time in Sydney, but is for us no matter where we are, and so for the last few years we have been considering and praying about what our new ‘watering hole’ should look like. In January last year we decided to take a leap of faith and open a coffee house. Fast forward to this January and we’re making it happen.

Opening Found Coffee House is that new expression. It is our next watering hole—our place to open our doors so people can gather, find real sustenance not only through actual food and coffee, but also the type that comes from community, belonging, and care. Found is our fresh expression of generous welcome and genuine hospitality. It’s also a place where we can nurture community, creativity, and sustainability in several ways we’re really excited about. (I will eventually add some really awesome writing-related aspects to the business, but for now we focus on opening the cafe, co-working, and vintage market—hopefully in late February 2025.) See more on instagram if you haven’t already, or watch our two minute video and see the cafe for yourself:

We’ve never wanted to own a business to maintain a sense of status quo, and we still can’t shake the desire to do neighborhood work and make ourselves available to those seeking community, belonging, and pastoral care. Like the popular old TV shows Cheers or Friends, we hope Found will be an environment where we can foster meaningful relationships and a sense of purpose as we invest in strengthening our local community, while at the same time making space for others to build their own relationships with one another. In other words, Found is our new watering hole.

We Would Love Your Prayer

Are you a pray-er? If so, then please pray for Ryan and I and our family as we make this pivot from ‘ministry’ to business, but know that in doing so our mission and purpose hasn’t changed. We are the same ministers we have always been and at the core of our call as a couple is to serve young people, help them know God, know themselves, and find their place in the world. (We just want to do so with a smart, sustainable business model that won’t require ongoing monthly fundraising like our mission work did.)

And as always, ‘religion’ is not a prerequisite for us to build genuine connection and friendship. While we are a missional couple who unapologetically loves Jesus, Found is not a bait and switch operation and we have zero hidden agenda. In fact, we hope our agenda is loud and clear: to provide a place to nurture community, creativity, and sustainability. These are the three pillars of the business we are building. Our hope is that doing so will be a natural way for our family to provide a faithful witness in a world that’s rapidly losing trust in institutional systems—including religion—because our experience shows that while many people no longer want to be involved in churches and even have a general distrust of Christians, they remain open to honest, compassion-based spirituality and truly want meaningful community and IRL care.

Please pray our endeavors would be fruitful. Pray for partnerships with other missions-minded folk who want to see new pathways created for people to find connection with others and with God in neighborhood-based spaces outside the walls of church. Pray our financial and practical needs would be met as we continue to seek support for the start up capital we still need to finish our fit out and purchases so we can get the business off the ground. (We do have some urgent financial needs related to our start up costs.) Pray we would stay hopeful as we grapple with our own disappointment over the state of the Church (particularly in places like the USA and Australia) and the ensuing reputational damage sustained in our polarized society—some of which is deserved. Pray for our physical health as we do the renovations necessary to get our doors opened, specifically Ryan’s back and legs and my neck and shoulder. (We are not as physically robust as we once were!)

Looking Back & Ahead

Below I’m going to share a bit of a bullet list ‘year in review’ that I shared on my instagram because it’s been a huge year for us and you may like to see some of what’s happened in our family. (Sorry I won’t be including a photo year-in-review this year—I simply don’t have time to go through my messy phone in that way!) But mostly, we want to give thanks for the journey that has led us to 2025 as we step into a new endeavor:

Old dream, new vision. Same values, new expression. Old truths, fresh hope.

We hope you and yours had a beautiful Christmas—we did and we’re so thankful. (Having both sets of parents visit was the best gift we could have asked for.) And as we consider so many of our loved ones facing losses, relationship challenges, health crises, job stress, and more, we also think of those newly impacted by the catastrophic fires in LA and we ask God to meet all of your needs with practical care as well as with divine peace and with in-the-flesh human comfort.

May you know sustaining hope and the grace of God this year.

With Love,

Adriel for the family

p.s Please consider my Christmas and New Year greeting, albeit a little late! I’ll throw in some festive emojis and dress up a family selfie to make it official! 🎄🎅🏻🥂🎉✨

2024 in Review:

• I finally FINISHED writing my new book (coming out in 2026!).

• Ryan and I officially became pastors (on paper!) after completing the required Bible college courses. Feels good to be formally recognized for work we’ve already done for years.

• Ryan and I both completed a Cert IV (training course) in Business and Entrepreneurship.

• We started our new business! See: @found.au (We hope to open in late Feb!)

• We sought out business mentors and advisors who will walk alongside us for the first year of our new biz.

• Welcomed and hosted more than two dozen friends from interstate as well as both sets of our parents from interstate and overseas.

• Celebrated Ryan’s 50th birthday!

• Ryan finished his time pastoring at Victor Harbor Church of Christ.

• Watched another child (Judah) surpass me in height.

• Took our first family vacation in years, just the five of us, and loved every second of our eight blissful days.

• Said goodbye to my grandmother.

• Had more teenagers than we can count crashed out on our floors.

• I spent time with my brother in New Zealand and wrote part of my manuscript there.

• Celebrated Mum and Dad Bookers’ 80th birthdays in NSW.

• Was constantly wowed by our children who amaze us with their personalities, ideas, sense of humor, and growth.

2024 was truly bonkers, but we know that’s par for the course when you’re in the parenting years. All of our peers feel the same. And we’re still here, grateful for the lot of it—life with all its challenges and surprises and rewards and losses and little and big wins. So here’s to the new iteration of bonkers 2025 will inevitably hold. We’re here for that, too. XO