interesting...

Marc found this article in the Times Online on December 27th:

As an atheist, I truly believe Africa needs God

Worth a read!

... and ...

... to complete my last post, I wanted to point out that although there were no photos of it, we very much enjoyed celebrating Jesus' birth on Christmas morning at Christ Church, Bedford.

Also, we had a beautiful - if chilly! - walk on Boxing Day near Sandy, at the RSPB National HQ.

a cracking Christmas!

our two year old!

Simon celebrated his second birthday on Friday. If he was older, he might have been slightly confused by going to a mums-and-toddlers Christmas celebration and being given a present by Father Christmas on his birthday, but at this age he takes it all in his stride! And just seemed slightly perplexed by having about 50 people sing "Happy Birthday" to him while onstage dressed as a shepherd!

He took a while to get warmed up to unwrapping presents in the morning. I was beginning to wonder whether they'd all end up waiting until Christmas (!) but with some help and encouragement he eventually got on with it and loved his new toys.

On Saturday we had a small party for him. Just two other children were able to come, but since Simon still doesn't like crowds of other kids it was probably just the right size for him. He got on very well with the little girl who came, who is a few days older than him. He led her by the hand into the room where we had lunch, and pushed her around on his pushalong Thomas afterwards. They also had lots of cuddles - very cute!

I made a Thomas the Tank Engine birthday cake, which I was very proud of!

It's funny to think how different Simon's next birthday will be, in Africa!

growth scan

I saw the midwife on Monday and she decided to send me for a growth scan, as my bump hadn't really grown since the time before (2 weeks earlier). She got me an appointment for the next day (yesterday) which was good, though when we turned up at the hospital the midwife and consultant said I was very borderline and probably didn't really need a scan but they'd do one since I was there (they were very friendly and nice). I wasn't particularly surprised, as I was no bigger than this, and probably even smaller, during my first pregnancy.

The consultant asked how much Simon weighed at birth, and when I said 7lb 1oz he said, "A Marks and Spencer's medium, then!" ... and when we got the results back from the scan he said I'm carrying another M&S medium baby, and the amount of fluid is normal, so it really is just the way I carry babies that makes my bump look so modest!

And here I am at the end of November, on Marc's birthday, at about seven and a half months pregnant.

latest

Life goes on, and we are feeling pretty settled in Bedford now. Marc hasn't found work yet, but did have an interview at a recruitment agency on Monday and they said they might be able to find him some administrative work, though it will be a day or two here and there rather than anything very longterm. I was glad he wasn't working last week though, as Simon and I came down with the dreaded "winter vomiting" bug, and it was wonderful for me to be able to sleep all day and leave Simon in Marc and Mum's capable hands!

This week we have gone back to our usual activities before extra things start happening next week for Simon's birthday and Christmas. Marc and I also had an antenatal "refresher course". I had seen that the NCT ran these, and thought it might be interesting to get some English antenatal training, having had the French version last time. We couldn't make the course that was running in the evenings, so we were offered a 1:1 (in reality 1:2!) course with an NCT counsellor who came to visit us at home. She came for an hour on Tuesday morning and an hour on Thursday morning, and the good thing about it was that we were able to talk about what we needed to know and leave out bits that we were less interested in (breastfeeding, for example, which I already know a lot about!). We particularly appreciated her showing us some relaxation techniques, like different kinds of massage Marc can give me during labour - I'm looking forward to that bit!

The hospital is open for tours again, but they aren't running any of their own until after Christmas. But our counsellor, Laura, is running one on Tuesday evening, and invited us to come along on that. So it looks as if we will get our visit after all, and led by someone we already know and like!

I would welcome prayer that my back would remain strong - it is blessedly well at the moment! - and also that as the baby's head engages this wouldn't cause any problems. Last time I had a trapped nerve in my thigh for the last week of pregnancy and I couldn't walk without a lot of pain, which made an active labour impossible. Thanks!

ironic really

I had a phonecall today from the maternity ward at the hospital, telling me that our guided tour on Saturday has had to be cancelled. They aren't allowing any non-essential visits because of the winter vomiting virus in the rest of the hospital.

Very reassuring.

To think that I'm going to be giving birth in Europe because it's supposed to be safer!

our affectionate bilingual son

As we got in from a walk yesterday, Simon said to Marc, "Je t'aime", and then to me, "I love you".

*melt*

si-mum!

It's been a while since I've given news specifically about Simon so get ready for some proud-parent stuff :o)

Simon seems to lost most of his baby looks over the last few months, and with more hair and less baby chubbiness he looks like a right little boy. Of course, it will probably take the arrival of the new baby to make us realise just how far from babyhood he now is!

He is active and engaging, and his report from nursery last year still describes him very well: "happy, loud, energetic". After being very uncuddly (too busy!) for the first year and a half of his life, he has started giving cuddles in the last few months ... but we still have to wait for him to come to us for them!

He loves: playgrounds, sticks, stones, puddles, tractors, Postman Pat ("papa Pat"!), Duplo, rice, porridge, cake (what a surprise!), grapes, Marmite (yes!) and looking at photos of his cousin Andrew (or anyone else, but Andrew is a special favourite!).

He doesn't like: most vegetables (sigh!), mittens, open doors, closed curtains, having his nappy changed in the morning, and having to get out of bed at any time of day!

His language is coming on very well - both of them! A typical remark is one we heard this morning in Tesco when he saw a picture of a cow: "Cow! Vache! Vache! MOO!" He often says the name of something in one language then repeats it in the other. He doesn't really put sentences together yet, but is capable of telling us stories of things that have happened to him, for example he still talks about a hot air balloon he saw in September, "Balloon ... gone .... sky!" (while pointing out of the window in the direction that it went). He loves knowing people's names, and is very good at recognising them in photos (and is also very good at persuading us to look through photos on the computer!).

He isn't used to being around lots of other children - at nursery last year there were never more than 5 of them in his classroom - so that is a bit of a challenge. I've been taking him to a mums-and-toddlers group at church, with about 40 mums and 40 toddlers each time, and he gets quite clingy, though he is starting to gain confidence and leave my side to play with things. Crèche on Sundays seems to be getting worse - last time he screamed when I left him ... and then burst into tears again when I came back to collect him (only until he was in my arms). Oh well, it's all a learning process, I suppose!

We had tried to explain to Simon that there is a baby in my tummy ... but he then seemed to think that everyone had one! In the last couple of days though he has started to put his hand on the bump and say "Baby!" so maybe it's sinking in ... it is a bizarre concept for an adult though, so I'm not surprised if he finds it weird!

And here he is:

life as we know it

We are settling down into our life in Bedford, determined to make the most of the time and opportunities we have here.

Marc has applied for a couple of jobs, one of which he is very interested in (as an assistant dietician at the hospital). Simon and I have been going along to a couple of mother and toddler groups and are getting to know some other mums and kids.

At church we have been placed in a home group (our first meeting is tomorrow!) and we were asked to lead a workshop in the evening service yesterday evening, after going along to the Newcomers' Tea. With these different activities we have been meeting more people and putting faces to names. We have been coming to Christ Church whenever we've been in Bedford for the last four years, but when you meet someone then don't speak to them again for months, it's hard to build a friendship or even remember their name! It feels good to be able to be part of the everyday life of the church for a while.

I continue to be healthy and the pregnancy is going well. The midwife I saw today said things are “wonderfully normal”! I get out for a walk most days because of Simon – he really needs to get out of the house, use up some energy and see animals/tractors/postboxes/phoneboxes every day – and we've been fortunate not to have too much rain so far.

Mum is marking ('O' Level Maths – yes, that's right, 'O' Level, from Singapore) this month so we have been doing the shopping, cooking and washing, which also gives our days some purpose.

Linked to that, I have at last realised one of my ambitions – we have started to order a veg box! It's great to have vegetables delivered from a local farm, and to have a good selection and some vegetables I'd never cooked with before (swede and squash) to give me a bit of a challenge. Here is our first veg box:

change of plans

We are back in Bedford again, and will be here probably until next May. We haven’t got 100% of our monthly support raised yet (we’re currently at 55%) and anyway have been advised by SIM Benin-Togo to wait until after our baby’s birth before leaving. They are concerned about the stress of moving abroad at the end of my pregnancy, and warned us that there is currently a shortage of doctors at the Evangelical hospital. The slightly frustrating thing is that by the time we get a passport for the baby (due mid-Jan), the hot season will have begun in Benin, and we’ve been told not even to consider moving out there before the end of it, in May.

We do believe that this is God’s will, and not just “chance”. It was good to be aiming to leave in November, as it made us get on well with preparations for leaving and with our support raising. But we believe that while it is right for us to make plans, we also need to allow God to guide our steps, and that does seem to have happened in a very clear way.

So what this means for now is that we have at least six months in the UK which we weren’t expecting to have. It is a bit of a limbo time, not having our own family home (though very grateful to be able to stay at my parents’) and not having a real sense of purpose. However, Marc is looking for temporary work, and Simon and I are starting to build up a social life! At least now that we’ve stopped moving around every week or so it becomes more possible to have a weekly routine and to build up friendships.

We are very happy to be able to get more involved with our church here, Christ Church Bedford. They have always welcomed us when we visited in the past and were very helpful supplying beds when we got married and had friends and family over from France. They are going to be supporting us in our work in Benin, so this is a good opportunity to get to know people better before we leave.

photos from our travels

Amanaki, Simon and Lupeni in Lyon


Amanaki, Marc and Elias


Mummy and Simon in the sun in Valence


The SIM guesthouse in Orange

back to simon's roots

Our visit to Nancy was short but sweet! We stayed in the same flat as we had in the summer, but this time we were able to see the friend who lent it to us before she left. It was kind of her to leave it to us, as she was in Nancy this weekend but stayed with someone else so that we would have a whole flat to ourselves. I think it was nice for Simon to be back somewhere familiar. He definitely recognised it, and not only the flat – on Saturday morning I took him to the park, and as we passed a corner where a digger had been parked last summer, he shouted, “Digger! Digger!”

Our church was having a special weekend with a guest speaker, Raphaël Anzenberger, and Marc went to the Saturday morning meeting which was a kind of training session on apologetics and sharing your faith with neighbours and work colleagues. We spent some time with our pastor that afternoon, and on Sunday morning went to both the services (9am and 11am). Marc gave a testimony in the first and I did in the second.

As usual, it was great to be back and to see everyone again. Having been there for ten days in August we didn’t feel frustrated at not being able to see people for long, and we ate with a family from church and had a relaxing afternoon with them. It was colder than it had been in Orange, but still sunny and we found yet another playground for Simon to explore!!

We’re now back in Paris for ten days with Marc’s parents, with various people to see while we’re here.

Sun-warmed training

We are coming to the end of our week of informal training at the SIM base near Orange, in the South of France. We may have had a long drive to get here, but at least we were rewarded by warm weather. After winter coats in Paris, it made a nice change to be sitting outside in short sleeves for our discussions with the team here!

We have been able to talk about the practical side of the preparations for our departure - finances, visas, health considerations and so on - and also many other aspects of missionary life. The team here are a great source of knowledge but also encouragment, support, friendship ... we're very thankful for them!

Tomorrow (Friday 17th) we'll be driving up to Nancy where we'll be spending the weekend with our home church, and taking part in the Sunday services. Please pray that it would all go well!

news from the road

Our "Tour de France" is going well so far. We left Paris on Friday for Lyon - five hours driving plus stops. Sunshine and autumn colours made it very pleasant, though by the end I was glad to unfold myself from a sitting position!

We are in Lyon mainly to visit friends Marc made when he lived in Lyon ten years ago. We're actually staying though with a friend from their church who has a mezzanine for visitors, including private bathroom! Her flat is beautiful, and with Simon's bed tucked under one side of the roof, and ours under the other side of the roof, we don't disturb each other too much at night. We did wonder if we were actually going to arrive the first night, as the friend who took us there got a bit confused, and led us on a nighttime walk through a dodgy part of town before (fortunately!) finding the right place!

We have spent most of our time with our friends and their three boys, but yesterday evening visited another family who Marc also knew when he lived here. We went to their church this morning, and they invited us to say a few words about our plans to serve in Benin, which was a lovely opportunity to share.

Tomorrow we leave again to go down to Orange, and the SIM France base.

changing plans changing seasons

We originally said that we would leave for Benin in November if we had the necessary monthly support, and if my pregnancy continued to go well. It is now looking unlikely that we will have found 100% of our support by November, and although I am perfectly healthy, we have been advised by SIM in Benin to wait until after our baby is born to travel there. They don't want to risk too much stress in late pregnancy.

We had started to see this coming, so it wasn't as if our hopes were dashed overnight. Although it is a bit frustrating to have to wait even longer before getting there, we aren't going to just sit around kicking our heels until we leave. This month we are visiting family, supporters and the SIM base in France, as planned. Then we'll go back to my (wonderful) parents' in the UK, and will be there until the baby's birth. Marc is going to try to find temporary work, and we'll get more involved with our church in Bedford.

Here are a few photos of autumnal France:

back to beds

We are just back from a (very) long weekend in the south-west. We first spent a couple of days with my aunt and uncle in Wiltshire, then went on down to Somerset to see friends and to visit St John’s and St Andrew’s, a parish which has adopted us as mission partners. My teenage years were spent there, and it was wonderful to go into both churches and see familiar, smiling faces.

Support raising can be quite a lonely business, so it did us good to be surrounded by welcoming, encouraging people who we know will be praying for us over the months to come.

Thanks to anyone who prayed for my back – it survived the weekend very well and actually feels better now than it did last week!

A couple of photos:

prayer request

I'd appreciate prayer for my back. Not that it's particularly bad at the moment, but I always have to be careful not to overdo things. Two of the worst things for my back are packing and travelling. And wouldn't you know it, those are two activities that feature highly in our life at the moment! My back is starting to feel the strain, so please do pray that I would be able to be wise about what I do and know when I need to rest it.

Support-raising is going slowly but steadily. The most difficult thing is not knowing whether we'll be leaving for Benin in November or not. So I don't know if I'm having my last month in the UK for a couple of years, or whether we'll be back here for several months over the winter. It's quite unsettling. At the same time, I'm impatient to leave - my last trip to Benin was in 2003, and I've been heading back ever since! But I have just about come round to accepting that God knows best, and that even though this November seems like the ideal time to arrive there (for several reasons), if we aren't able to leave then it will be for reasons that are just as valid.

love and bugs

We have just spent a very happy week with my sister Ruth and her family. They came and stayed at Mum and Dad’s, and Ali took the week off too, so we were all together! That doesn’t happen often, so we wanted to make the most of it. It was the first time I’d seen my nephew, Andrew, since he was about 4 days old – he’s now 17 months and a similar height to Simon.

I was a bit worried that Simon might not want to share his toys with someone else, but the two boys played very happily side by side most of the time. Simon became very attached to his cousin, and whenever he woke would ask for “Andoon”. For the rest of us it was great to have time and space for long chats, shopping trips and walks around the lake!

It was a very sad moment when we had to say goodbye again yesterday, but we try to hang onto the thankfulness that we had the opportunity to spend that time together, rather than dwelling on how much we wish we could spend more time together usually. It is part of the sacrifice of all serving God where we believe He wants us.

A few photos:

"I love my cousin!"

family time

No big news to report - we've been spending time with my parents, keeping Simon busy and starting to get on with support raising.

I had my 20-week scan on Thursday and the baby is growing well and looking healthy. The sonographer was brilliant - not only friendly but also taking the time to point everything out in detail. Even things like the four chambers of the baby's heart, which part of the brain controls movement and so on. It was good to know that the placenta is nice and high up, so no potential problems for delivery.

Later today Ruth (one of my sisters), Rob (my bro-in-law) and Andrew (my nephew) arrive to spend a few days with us. My other sister Ali has taken the week off work too. We are very rarely all together, so this is a real blessing!

Out on a walk at Priory Park:

nancy nostalgia

We're back from Nancy (overnight in Paris) and we've had a fulfilling holiday! A friend lent us her flat, which was a real blessing, and it happens to be just down the road from our old flat, so we were back on familiar territory. In fact, we arrived on the Saturday afternoon, went down to the local park for a walk before tea, and bumped into two different people we knew! It's funny to think that Simon spent the first seven months of his life in Nancy, yet to him it was all new.

We were back in our home church for the two Sundays we were there, and Marc preached on the second of them. We spent most of our time seeing friends or visiting our favourite places. It reminded us that as a family, Nancy is the closest thing we have to a home, and we are very grateful for the opportunity to spend time there. We were also very touched by the warm welcome back we had from the church family.

It was great too to be able to be there for the wedding of our friends Pascal and Hélène – a wonderful day, a beautiful bride and a proud groom!

We also went over to Alsace for a day to visit a family who returned in May from a year in Benin with SIM. We had lots of questions for them, and they were able to advise us about what we need to take with us, and what can easily be bought over there. Their third child was born over there, and I'd already exchanged several emails with Rachel, the mum, about her experience of childbirth at the hospital of Bembéréké.

Simon seems to have taken very well to our nomadic lifestyle, which is an answer to prayer. He enjoys meeting new people, especially babies, and has been very excited about all the new toys he's discovered at different people's houses. It's been interesting to see how attached he's got to some Matchbox-style cars we have borrowed from Marc's parents (which used to belong to Marc and his brothers and sisters). Being worried about having to give them back again, we've been out and bought some similar ones for Simon, hoping that with the change in environment he'll accept the loss of the old ones!

time out!

Just to say that I will be off-line during our holiday in Nancy, 9th-21st August. Happy holidays, everyone!

baby talk or "le parler bébé"

It is fascinating to hear the way that Simon's language is developing. He picks up words all the time, some in French and some in English. We're pretty sure that he often chooses between the languages according to which word is easier to pronounce. So we have "car" rather than "voiture", but "pain" rather than "bread". But he understands them in both, so his papa can ask him, "Où est le voiture?" and he'll point, saying, "Car!" and I can say, "Simon, would you like some bread?" and he'll say, "Pain!"

I'm also amazed by how much he understands. Sometimes far more than I expect him to. I have a tendancy to think that he pays attention to intonation and guesses the meaning, rather than going by the meaning of all the words. But his reactions can floor me. This morning he had eaten most of his raisins, and was pushing the others around his tray. So I said, "Simon, if you don't want your raisins then Mummy can eat them for you!" and he immediately started picking raisins up and feeding them to me! Ok, he might not have understood more than "... raisins ... Mummy ... eat" but still!

He likes communication in general, and is going through quite a kissy phase. (Well, he is French, so he needs to learn the correct way to greet people!) He will make kissing noises, and hold his cheek out to be kissed ... which is certainly one way to charm people when you are a cute 19-month old! His parents are not so keen on him doing this with complete strangers at the supermarket!

Simon trying out a local slide near his grandparents' in France:

10 things I love about you...

France:

• Family
• Friends
• The bread
• The cheese
• Croissants, escargots (pains aux raisins lorrains), crêpes...
• Tisane réglisse-menthe (mint and licorice infusion)
• The countryside (especially the Pyrenées)
• When it comes to shopping: Kiabi, Yves Rocher (and the fab free gifts), LaRedoute, 3 Suisses...
• French: the language of lurve ;o)
• The way people are so French!

England:

• Family
• Friends
• The bread
• The cheese
• Marmite, crumpets, Bakewell tart, Bath buns...
• A nice cuppa
• The countryside (especially the Lake District)
• Next Baby, Mothercare, JojoMamanBébé (English, honestly!), Argos...
• English: my mother tongue (thanks, Mum!)
• The way people are so English!

I could write a similar list for Benin, but I've never lived there for long, so I don't think I can compare it in the same way! But I believe God has prepared our place there just as He has always done for me whenever I've moved somewhere new.

knifed...

... or should that be knived? Anyway, someone slashed one of our tyres! The car was sitting innocently in the carpark behind my parents-in-law's house ... and I don't even think it was a racist attack as the car next to it had been attacked too.

Oh well, Marc was able to put his Basic Car Maintenance training into practice and change the wheel, and the car was in fact already booked in at the garage the next morning. (We had to get our dipstick changed because the bottom of it had dropped off into the oil tank!)

But it does annoy me when we have to pay for someone else's random violence.

no work and all play means we're on holiday!

After a year of deadlines and busy-ness, it feels odd to be able to relax ... but we're getting used to it! Simon is enjoying meeting the local "wildlife" - he's a real animal-lover! - and trying out the local playgrounds.

en France

I'm glad to say that we have made it to France safely, despite the slight hassles of trying to pack when we hadn't unpacked properly from our move yet! Also the move wiped me out, so I couldn't even find much motivation for unpacking.

On the positive side, I am definitely feeling less and less sick and finally feel like I'm actually getting some rest and finding a bit more energy. I know that theoretically I'm in the second trimester of this pregnancy, but I'm looking forward to actually feeling that glowing, all's-right-with-the-world feeling again.

It is good to be here, lovely to have sunshine, great to see family! Simon is loving the box of toys his French grandparents have, especially all the cars, buses and tractors!

No recent photos, as we ran the batteries down and didn't get round to recharging them until just before we left!

where all is revealed ...

... as Hilary admits that the reason she has been feeling sick and not blogging so much is because of this tiny being inside her:

We are of course very happy ... though I will be able to rejoice more when I stop feeling so sick. I've been back on medication which does help, but it's been eight or nine weeks now, and it really is miserable! Anyway, I'm not here to complain but to share good news!

Assuming all goes well with the pregnancy, and our support-raising, we will still leave for Benin in November, and I will give birth out there. Which is a slightly daunting thought, but not as much as it would have been for a first child.

on the move

We are Packing - definitely with a capital "P"! With a little letter it's the kind of packing we do to go away for a weekend/fortnight/month, but now we're actually moving out of our flat. So it's a big deal, but I just keep reminding myself that it's a much smaller job than when we moved out of our French flat a year ago. Then we had several years of accumulated junk to sort through, whereas now - because we did a good job last year - we have a LOT less stuff! And even what we brought over then, we've been gradually whittling down over the year.

Still, I suspect that come Friday it will still look quite a lot all boxed up!

The End (of the school year)

It's hard to talk about the end of our year at college without falling into clichés. So I will try to avoid them, but apologise in advance for any that crop up despite my efforts.

Spending a year living and studying with fellow students from countries all around the world leaves us with the inevitable feeling that things can never be the same again. We've got so used to being together, yet this particular group of people will never all be together again before we get to heaven. The moment that sticks with me is our Commissioning Service on Friday morning when we all stood and sang about the Gospel being proclaimed throughout the nations, and I suddenly realised that that is literally what we will all be doing in the months and years to come. It has been such a privilege to be here, to get to know these brothers and sisters, and to be trained side by side.

But for now, parting is such sweet sorrow, goodbye seems to be the hardest word (er?!) and so on and so forth.

We're sticking around on campus for another 10 days to get our stuff sorted and flat packed up. I can't decide whether that makes things better or worse!

And here's a photo from the masked ball on our final evening of term:

all gone!

The above is one of Simon's favourite expressions at the moment. Along with "more!" (meaning "I want ...."), "please!" (thanks to nursery!), "down", "up", "book" ... and names of various people, which he shouts out apparently randomly, though perhaps he suddenly thought of them for some reason.

Anyway, I originally started this post to say that I had my last Hebrew exam last Monday, and Marc and I managed to get all our assignments in by Friday's deadline ... so now we are free as birds! Or at least free to go to our last two weeks of lectures, feeling sorry for our poor lecturers who have to carry on lecturing while also trying to get all our assignments marked and second-marked by the end of term.

We even went out on Saturday afternoon, to a garden centre near here which has a mini-zoo (mainly farmyard animals) and a miniature railway. At the zoo Simon saw his first turkey - these being his favourite creatures in his farm book - and rode on his first steam engine. He is quite a fan of Thomas the Tank Engine, and it's nice to think that he now knows that steam engines do exist outside books! Here are a couple of photos:

fun run

Sorry about the gap, I haven't been feeling too well.

Here are a few photos of last weekend's Fun Run here at All Nations. It replaced the Open Day, and attracted a far wider attendance. A great day seemed to be had by all - and we were particularly blessed by the weather.

ticking over...

At the moment I'm working on:

• my practical ministry report on our church placement
• my research paper on Bible translation (translating Hebrew idioms)
• a sermon for 1st June
• my Prophetic Literature assignment (on Jonah)
• my African Studies assignment (on marriage/singleness)
• my Hebrew (exercises, translating Ruth, revising grammar)

I'm feeling a little stretched ... and thinking that I need to finish off the first two, which are closest to being complete, and get ahead on the third. At the moment I'm trying to work on them all at once, which means I don't feel I'm making much progress on any of them!

Not the most interesting blog post ever, but this is what's on my mind at the moment!

BBQ with tutor group

A Day in the Life of Simon

See photos and videos from a typical day for Simon by clicking here.

cogs turning

Just a few thoughts from the last week:

From my research paper on translating idioms – it makes me realise how difficult it is to translate anything, let alone the Word of God … yet how important and necessary it is to be able to read the Bible in your own language. I’ve been reading again about those who insisted on the importance of the Bible being translated into English for all to read, instead of only being available in Latin, which meant it could only be read and interpreted by the clergy.

But that said, on whose initiative should a translation be carried out? Should a mission decide for the local people group, or should they wait until there are believers who ask for the Bible to be translated? Some say that it is better for it to be a project motivated by the felt-need of the locals, others say that the Bible is important in evangelism and important to be able to give to the first believers as early as possible, so that they don’t have to rely on someone else telling them what the Bible says (and often what it means, too).

Another question – in an oral culture, how should we, and perhaps even should we, encourage people to learn to read? Is it enough that we know that education in general improves people’s lot in life? Can we impose our values on others? Or are they ultimate truths, not just our values??

If culture and religion are as interlinked as they are in Africa, how do Christians re-construct their culture in such a way that it remains African yet frees them to worship Jesus only and not be tied to their past rituals and fears? We already know that Western culture shouldn’t have to be adopted along with Christianity, but how do African Christians contextualise their faith to remain true to themselves?

(If you do have any thoughts on any of these question to enrich my thinking, feel free to leave a comment!)

and they're off!

Third day of the third term, and I’m already trying not to feel overwhelmed by all that I’d like to do in the next ten weeks ! The essentials are four modules – Advanced Hebrew, Prophetic Literature, African Studies and a research paper. The research paper is on the translation of Hebrew idioms, and it’s been fascinating to read up about that. We also have our church placement, and I’ll be preaching there for the first time on Sunday, and once again during the term. I'll probably also have a couple of children's talks to give, and readings to do or prayers to lead in other services.

There is a practical course about Tropical Health and Hygiene running two afternoons this term which one of us will attend (maybe Simon?!), and during Specialist Study Week I’m going to go to a morning seminar about Spiritual Deliverance. On May 31st we’ll be taking part in the College Fun Run (though Simon and I will be walking it!).

And those are just the “official” things, there are also lots of interesting conversations to be enjoyed, walks to be gone on, hot chocolate to be slurped … all in all, it promises to be a full and exciting/exhausting term!

back to school...

... but term hasn't started yet, and we're enjoying being here! Since during termtime there is so little time to do anything except study and look after Simon, I'm doing things like getting Simon's feet measured, colouring my hair, painting my toenails (seriously!), visiting friends ... and of course getting a headstart on work for this term! I'm writing a research paper on translating idioms from the Hebrew Bible, which is fascinating, and Marc has been reading up about African theology.

And campus is so beautiful that it's great to be back in our own little flat here!