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.