Travelling

As well as visiting the travel agents to book our flight to Jordan/Israel we have been regular visitors to the travel hub of England, namely Yatton railway station. On our last visit tickets were bought for our next trips to Birmingham, Blackburn and Devon - and so far we have not experienced any delays on our many journeys to far, far away lands (we were baby-sitting this week and managed to watch Shrek 3 - a trilogy to match 'Lord of the Rings' and 'The Matrix'). Just heard that BA international flights will be transferred to Terminal 5 at the end of next month - hopefully after we leave on the 24th, perhaps the Yatton station-master should offer his advice to Heathrow - the wikipedia photographer got bored waiting for a train to appear for his photograph, strange because there is at least one train a day!! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yatton_railway_station

House still in one piece !!

This is a picture of my parents house in North Somerset. P and I have just been for a sunny spring walk up a local hill. Mum and dad have v kindly left us to house sit for a couple of months whilst they truck around N.Zealand. It is a regular 70's grey brick house, but to us it has been a sanctuary; somewhere to rest and re-group before returning to the Middle East in April.
'Mum and dad' as u can see its all in one piece! So far we have had no breakages; just a slight cracking and a melting of some kitchen implements ( nothing serious!). Those of you who are aware of my culinary skills will appreciate this comment above. J

Plans

Following meetings with CMS this week here are our provisional plans:
24th April: Fly to Jordan for CMS regional conference.
7th May: Fly from Jordan to Israel, either using our volunteer visa (still not processed) or trying to get a tourist visa.
24th September: Start at All Nations Bible College, Hertfordshire, for a foundation course in cross-cultural service.
Christmas & New Year: With family and friends – wherever there's a spare bed.
2009: Learn Arabic at a language school in Jordan for 5 months before returning to Bethlehem or another Arab country.
And when we have time, we will be visiting our supporting churches in the UK. P&J

CMS Mission Partners

The result from our CMS selection conference is that we have been selected to be 'Mission Partners', which means that we will have the support and prayers of link churches, individuals and CMS, we can now be committed to going on a longer placement. Following meetings at CMS next Tuesday we should have a better idea what we will be doing over the next few months/years. In the mean time we retrieved some of belongings from our storage crate, not a huge crate (7' x 7' x 5'), but difficult to find things when the storage boxes weren't properly marked!!! P

Another Week

Last week, during the school holidays, we helped at the church kids club. We had a great week and I think the kids did as well - especially the gunging of the leaders at the end of each session. We also enjoyed the opportunity to house-sit for friends whilst they were on holiday. The next blog will have the result from our CMS selection conference where we find out if we will remain as short-term workers or possibly become mission partners (long-term workers), we can then start making some plans for our future. P

What wet weather?

After a very wet UK winter we had only blue skies for our holiday in Cornwall. We had a great time and we were able to go on some lovely contry walks, which weren'y too muddy - a good thing as I only had one pair of shoes! On our return we have decided to help at our home church children's holiday club , so you know where to find us next week - up to our necks in 'gunge'.
We have decided to go on a Mission Partner selection conference weekend on 29 February, if selected we would then have support from various churches & individuals, which would enable us to have a longer spell abroad, and more time to getvisas! Selected or not we would hope to return to Israel in the spring when our visas are sorted out - still no news. If selected, then we would have to go to Bible College some time later in the year, and then review where in the world we go next.
Still lots of unknowns and uncertanties, still living out of suitcases and staying with friends & family, still learning what its like living day to day and not having definite plans. P

The Future

Our immediate future is now a bit clearer - a holiday in Cornwall followed by a Mission Partner selection conference at the end of the month. We are currently working as volunteers, which means that we are self financing, if we are selected as Mission Partners it would mean that we would receive some support from churches and individuals through CMS, it would also mean that we would probably serve a longer term abroad.
We have returned to the UK so that our visa extension application is processed, this will take as long as it takes and then we hope to return. P&J