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: