Linz in Focus

Oops well I had a bit of a red face last night. Lee asked me to make him some toast for his supper so I said yes he could if he finished his home work which he did and I put two bits of toast in the toaster and returned to what i was doing on the computer. Then the next thing we knew the fire alarm went off not just in our room but in the whole college!Pepole came running to see where the fire was and I met them sheepishly at the door saying how sorry I was but it was just the toast did not pop out of the toaster but they said they were just glad it was not a real fire.  But there were folks starting to  head outside. Oops sorry

Poor Johnny woke up yesterday morning with a sore eye. The doctor thinks it might be conjunctivitis.

Please pray it will get better soon and his eye won’t drop out!

We are also going to vist a church in Northampton! won’t he look pretty.

Photo taken by Rachel Fisher! 

Hello while there is a lot happening I feel like there is nothing to say, but I will probably find something to say and ramble on for a little while about nothing so here goes.

We have been going to classes and learning lots, but a couple of times I thought my head would explode with all the different opinions, contexualization, and post-modern and modern. I have struggled with trying to understand some of the deeper issues but enjoyed it at the same time. Johnny has loved being able to debate and argue his point and generally enjoyed the more theological classes. Johnny likes a good debate!

The kids are doing well. Rachel is settling in to going to school more. Lee is at the point in school where he has stopped being new and now it is time to fit in and I don’t think he knows where he fits. So please keep praying that he will find his path. Lee has also been doing a project on Sutton Hoo and is now putting together a powerpoint presentation for school! Please pray that is will continue to be a positive time for the kids as well as Johnny and I.

Last Friday we went to a read-through of the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe-the whole book! The folks who were involved got dressed up in their character and to get into the room where it was you had to climb through a wardrobe with coats in it and halfway through the read-through we stopped and had Hot chocolate and Turkish Delight it was lovely mmmmmm 

Friday just gone Johnny went to a Bad Taste party where he had to dress really badly-I know a lot of you would say that he has really bad taste anyway and the answer would be yes he does-most folks had to go rumageing around and Johnny he just took them straight out of his wardrobe. It was a lot of fun!

See I told you I would fill the space. I think I have rambled on enough now we might just need to update you more regularly so it is not so much in one go. Thank you for your Prayers. We Thank God for everyone that is sharing our journey with us.   

We  are having a really good time here at All Nations. God is stretching us both so much there are no comfort zones right now.

Before we came to All Nations I thought it would be a great chance to lose some weight. I thought oh the food will not be too good and they will serve a tiny portion and there would be no daily contact with chocolate. Boy was I wrong!
The meals are fantastic! and there is a lot of cake and biscuits on the go every coffee time so that plan is not working yet!

We have done a week and two days of our course and today we did our Myers-Briggs test which for those who don’t know, it helps you understand differences in personality types.  It was very interesting to find out what we both were. They worked out that I was very outgoing and liked change and new challenges and Johnny was very intraverted and did not like change or new challenges. Which was a surprise to both of us! Ha! Ha! Ha! bet you can work out the real way round it should be!                                                                                                                                                                            

There is a lot more to the outcome than just that but it has confirmed to me that God can use anyone no matter what their personality type. People respond in many different ways and difference is good because Johnny will reach some people in a differant way to me. I think when you do a test like this you have to come away saying God is good! and he has made us who we are in his image! Difference is not always a bad thing.

The kids are still enjoying the freedom of being able to play outside. They are also enjoying the fact the Johnny is about more and that he can take them to school or pick them up on a daily basis.

Meal times here can sometimes be a challenge because the kids don’t always want to eat what they are given. We went in for dinner one evening and Rachel told the chef who had spent time cooking this meal that it looked yukky- I was embarrassed He thought it was funny. After us persuading her that it was indeed yummy she did try it and loved it! So meals can be challenging.   But there are no complaints from this mum or dad about meals being made for us!

Thank you to all who made suggetions and to those who just did not have a clue! And to those of you who cheated…. you know who you are!   …well all I have to say is shame on you….  Well drum roll if you please drrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

St Trinian’s "The Belles of St Trinian’s" with Alastair Sim made in 1954

Can you guess in which film the front of All Nations Christian College was used?

Anwser will be posted in a couple of days!!!

you can click on comment and leave your anwsers.

Well when we got back from the biannual we had 3 days to finish packing the house, say goodbye to family and move to Hertfordshire. (Where we are attending All Nations Christian College). What a 3 days we had they were so busy they went by far too quickly! 

When we arrived last Thursday it was late and the collage is in hibernation. A lot of the students are away on Easter holidays there were only a few around. They all came to help us take our stuff to our rooms it was fantastic. What would have taken Johnny and I about 1 hour to do ourselves only took about 20mins it was so good. It had been a long drive down from Scotland to Hertfordshire. We also had to make a stop at Northampton to drop off the bulk of our stuff which took a couple of hours to unload. We had hired a van and a trailer. My dad towed the trailer down thanks Dad!!!! he and Margaret left at 4am thanks guys!! It was sad to say goodbye when they had to leave on Friday  

When we got here we were told that the college were doing some essential maintenance on the heating and hot water, so the first three days of our stay were a challenge and a cold one at that!    

We have met some lovely people since we got here.

We have only had one cross cultural issue since we got here and it was not with the international students we are living with! We went to a bakery to get some lunch and when we tried to pay for it the lady told us that they did not take Scottish notes they only took sterling!!! Johnny and I looked at each other and Johnny said that Scottish notes were sterling and the lady replied "yeah but we don’t take those!" We said that we would have to find a bank to pay then this man said I’ll take your Scottish money I am not fussy! He then told us he too was from Edinburgh and had been living down here for the past twenty years! "Thanks Mr" whoever you are our lunch was fabby and next time we go we will take English notes!!!

The kids started school on Monday. Lee has slotted into school life very well down here. The girls in his class are asking him to say different words because it sounds funny. He seems to be doing a lot better and fitting in well. Rachel has started big school and has also settled in very well, she has also not been very well but now seems to be recovering! She came home the second day claiming she could now read! School and Rachel seem to be a good mix. Please just keep them in your prayers that things would continue to be positive for them. It is a real answer to prayer that they have coped so well with everything we have done so far! Thank you all for your prayers.

Johnny and I start our course this Monday coming and everyone keeps telling us that this is the calm before the storm! We have had a bit of a holiday week it is strange not having any kids during the day it is very cool having time for just us. It is so good when the kids come home because they are full of stories of what they have done and learned. long may the excitement continue!                                                   

Greetings from sunny Spain!!!

We made it in one piece, I had my eyes closed in car most of the way to the hotel!  It took a while to get used to driving on the opposite side of the road! (Johnny is enjoying the challange as always!)

It is the middle of the afternoon and we have been to some really good meetings this morning, then after lunch the kids had a swim! We are having a great time! No cooking, no tidying and definitely no packing boxes!!!!!! hooray!!!!!! 

We are enjoying meeting up with friends that we have not seen for a while, catching up on what they are doing. The kids are having a fabby time. Lee is enjoying playing with friends he met at the last conference and now Rachel is older she is making friends of her own which is so good to see. We hope that these are friendships that will last a lifetime!  

When we get back to Scotland on Sunday 6th April we only have 3 days to pack up the rest of our flat and get it into the van to head to All Nations. Our course starts on 19th April but Lee and Rachel start school the week before. We are not looking forward to saying goodbye to family and friends but we are looking foward to starting at All Nations. Please pray that all will go well with the move and that we will manage to get everything done!

Praise God we have sold our car. You may remember that back in September it broke down on the way back from Orkney, well we had been looking for a new engine but could not find one, but just last week we finally sold it (without an engine!).  We have also managed to rent out our flat too! So that is two big issues sorted. We feel so blessed that these things are finally getting sorted. 

I have taken a short break from packing boxes to just say hello…..     Hello.

We are hoping to get our flat packed up before we leave to go to spain (a week today!)and i think we might do it. The boxes are getting stacked high and we are having to scramble over them just to get up and down the hall. The kids have said goodbye to nursrey and school it was a day of mixed emotions for Lee. He was glad to be leaving but was sad to say goodbye. Please pray for Lee that he will cope with changes he is making. On the other hand no such problems with Rachel she can’t wait to start "big school" and she wants to know if she can eat her lunch at school.

Johnny is in his last week at Bethany and i know it is going to be hard for him to say goodbye to such good friends.

This weekend we are going to enjoy being with family and just having fun! Happy easter to you all and enjoy celebrating the fact that God is alive and living in us!

The 9th March was our comissiong service. Family, friends and supporters came as we were comissoned. It was a really good service we would like to say a BIG THANK YOU to all who came and were involved, it was a special day for our family.

We are just a few weeks away from our move to All Nations we are really looking forward to it. This week i have been packing boxes so much so i have even been packing them in my sleep. Johnny has been sorting out the paperwork for our flat that we will be renting out while we are away. The kids are looking forward to Easter!!! Each year we have an egg hunt with family and it is usually a lot of fun.

We are also looking forward to the biennial in Spain.    It is somewhere we have not been before so we are looking forward to meeting friends that we have met at past ECM events. 

This is just a short post and we will keep you updated soon!