England Merry England!

We are home, warm and safe. We are totally moved by so may offers of beds, meals and hospitality. It is good to be here with our friends and family but it feels so strange returning to a English culture. As I sat on Oxford Railway station this week in between the roar of the trains and the tannoy was total silence. In a Arabic culture people would be shouting and loudly gesticulating. A television or blaring exotic tunes would be filling the air. There would be sweet cakes and strong coffee available in every spare corner. It is good to be back but I kind of hope it is not too long before we leave again.The blog will continue, the pictures will be of English scenescapes. The story goes on so please continues to track and pray for our movements. J

Back in the UK

Our visas expired on 26 October and because of lack of communication with the Ministry of Interior and our legal representative it couldn't be renewed. We were expecting to be questioned by border control about the reasons why we had over stayed and what we had been doing for the last four months. The least we expected was a fine, but we walked through border control without a single question about our visa - it was if we they couldn't see the stamp in our passports even though they were checked on four occasions. Other friends and colleagues have experienced lengthy questioning and searches because of the length of their stay - not for us. Thank you for your prayers - I've only heard things like this happening to other people. P

Flying the flag so soon

We have bought forward our return to the UK so that visas can be arranged for us. We fly home on Thursday 17 and return whenever things are sorted. Quite a strange feeling after you set up your home and then have to return to being homeless, cold, wet, hungry and without jobs, does anybody have a spare guitar we can borrow so that we can busk? We have invented a new game of visiting friends and family and squatting, 5 points for a night, 10 points for weekend and 50 points if you get a spare set of keys and a rent book. The wonders of skype and email are that you can never avoid us, we will track you down wherever you are, it also means that you can still call us. P

Dance Mat & Settlers

Happy New Year!

New year's eve was spent with J & S and a few friends who persuaded us to show our John Travolta and Olivia Newton John skills on a dance mat - for those who haven't had a go on one you need to. Unfortunately we forgot our camera so you will have to imagine the elegance and artistic interpretation expressed by two semi-retired ballroom dancers. For a demo see:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTBkdy1XjOU&feature=related

I retired to the lounge to let Jane have more time to resurrect her disco skills. I joined in a game of 'Settlers', and having never played this brilliant strategy game before I managed to come last on a regular basis - this game is a must for board game enthusiasts and is now top of my Christmas/birthday list for this year. P

Star Street

Crowds approaching Manger Square along Star Street on Christmas Eve to see Jane appearing again with the college choir, this time in front of TV cameras and thousands who had travelled from the four corners of the earth to see her. The performance clashed with the Anglican service in the Church of the Nativity, which President Mahmoud Abbas and I attended, we were both were disappointed to have missed Jane, but there's always next year. Jane and I got home from our Christmas Eve party at 4am and we were clocking in for work at 9am. Looking forward to the Orthodox Christmas, is there an Orthodox Santa? P

A Frosty Christmas Morning

We have the BBC as our homepage and the weather is set for Jerusalem (4 miles away). Its going to be a frosty Christmas Eve, much like home.
Wishing you all a Happy Christmas and may 2008 be peaceful for us all. P&J

Spot the ginger Santa!

The local tradition is for a 'stranger' to play Santa, they had to look no further than the Bible College! The House of Hope is a school and home for people of all ages who are blind or have learning disabilities. Jane is a regular visitor and volunteered me for the central role in the Christmas party. Previous rugby experience proved invaluable in dealing with the scrummage that commenced when I entered the room, I only had time for three Ho's before I was surrounded by a flood of children, I can't remember there being a session covering this at CMS training. P