Month: February 2019

We’re heading towards two weeks of being in this fair land and it is becoming more real that we’re not just here on vacation! We are thankful to have the certainty of knowing that God has called us here… we cling to that on the days when the challenges come and the desire to be back where we were comfortable rises up! Our God is so good to have made it very clear and to have spoken in numerous ways so that we can stand in these days of transition and change.  It definitely requires us putting our eyes on the Lord moment by moment, quick repentance when we turn and look at circumstances or let stress come in, and a deeper level of trust and faith – all of which is wonderful training and a beautiful thing, but also messy and vulnerable!

We are gratefully still in the OM (Operation Mobilization) guest house and the girls have made friends with the 11 year old daughter of the couple who run the house (to the point of tears if they don’t get to say goodnight to her in the evenings!!)… but we hope to be moving to our new, albeit somewhat temporary, house on Saturday! We are very much looking forward to having a little more space and not all being in one room, and to getting to unpack our suitcases! Last week Pr Jonathan was at a prayer gathering with other pastors and happened to ask if anyone knew of accommodation available – and a place had just opened up in a ‘Manse’ – a house next to a church provided for the minister of the church –  in Bromley Commons, only a few miles south of Bromley. Gratefully we were able to negotiate the rent to be about half of what we would otherwise be paying for a house here. It is only short-term accommodation as they are looking for a new minister for their church and when they get one we will need to move, but as we’ve prayed we have felt it is the next step, so we take it not knowing how long we’ll be there or where we’ll be beyond that, but thankful that our loving Father is providing for us and leading us. We just simply have to follow.

    

Our days so far have been filled with exploring Bromley and getting our bearings on where things are; increasing our boldness/courage when driving; working on Bill’s visa; looking for a vehicle for when we return our rental one on Wednesday; hanging out with Grace; playgroup at the church; visiting new friends; and sampling almost all of Sainsbury’s microwave meal selection!! We did have one very wet, cold & windy trip to Farnborough to meet up with my mum and sitting on the M25 (the highway that circles London) in the pouring rain in solid traffic on the way home we had one of a number of moments when we really wanted to be back in our comfort zone and wondered what on earth we were doing here!! The grace of God IS sufficient to keep us and we will seek to dwell in that grace!

   

We are grateful and thankful for your prayers – please do continue to pray as we move on Saturday and as we are still very much in transition! The girls are doing well and making new friends…for them there is still maybe the feeling of vacation (although its a fairly wet and cold one) but they are adapting and enjoying Bromley Town Church and new adventures! We are facing issues with Bill’s visa that definitely need prayer, and we need strength because we are both very tired and not sleeping particularly well – which can definitely add to the feeling of vulnerability and the desire for the ‘comfort zone’ we were used to!

 

Not the greatest pictures, but this will be our home as of Saturday

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After a hectic few weeks of packing day and night we are delighted to have finally arrived in England. However, it is with much sadness that in preparing to leave Bill’s mom became critically ill from the flu, from which she never recovered. She passed away on January 23rd, with Bill and all his siblings at her side.  It still doesn’t seem real that she has gone, but over 20 years ago the Lord miraculously visited her, called her by name and replaced her shattered elbow bones with new bones. It was so amazing that even her doctor, who was an atheist, called her on his deathbed and said that hers was the only miracle he ever saw and wanted her to tell him about it… so it is with peace that we continued our journey knowing that mom, with certainty, is seeing the face of the One who healed her so many years ago. A celebration service has been scheduled for June 2019 in her hometown of Owego, NY.

God has been gracious to us and has kept us steady throughout this transition! We are definitely still in the transition as we don’t yet have a house to live in, but we know God called us here and we know He is going to provide for us. We are thankful for all the friends who helped us so much in the last few weeks in Orlando…helping with packing, bringing meals, loving on us and making it possible for us to actually be ready to fly when we did! A week before we flew our shipping crate began it’s journey to England and it began to become more real that we were leaving.

We saw God’s favor in many ways on our actual journey here – our bags were not even weighed (we’d been fretting about the weight of them as they were overweight) and it seemed like we could have brought as many bags as we’d wanted and they’d just have waved them through!  The flight wasn’t full so we were able to move seats and spread out such that the girls were able to sleep…even Audrey, who has had a hard time sleeping on planes in the past!  We were ushered past the long immigration line & Bill had minimal questioning before being allowed in – all praise and glory to God!

 

We still didn’t know where we were going to be staying when we arrived at the airport, but were greeted by Pr Jonathan, Rick & sweet Grace (to the delight of the girls) and prayed together to seek direction as to where we should be going with all our stuff!! Pr Jonathan was prompted to call a guest house run by Operation Mobilization and a family room had opened up that morning… so we’re here for a few days whilst we wait to see where the Lord will take us next!

The day we arrived it was very chilly but the skies were blue and there had been a light sprinkling of snow, so everywhere looked especially lovely. It has remained bitterly cold and we’re adjusting to having to put on many layers to go outdoors, and we were disappointed that the forecast snow last night was barely there this morning and had melted in the rain by the time we left the house at 10:30. We’re continuing to pray and seek the Lord – tomorrow morning we’ll go to our first Saturday morning church prayer time together as a family and we’re looking forward to being at service on Sunday! So much ‘new’, but at the same time we are at peace and gratefully trusting that God is with us and will lead us on.

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