Monday 19 January 2009

Settling in

After all of the travelling around over the past couple of weeks, we are finally settling in to life in Prague.  Dorit came out last Wednesday and I followed on Friday after a couple of meetings in the UK related to the study centre.  Thank you for all your prayers for us; all the travelling went well but it is good to have arrived!  The flat is gradually being sorted - Dorit was in IKEA today buying shelves!! - and with pictures going up on the walls it is beginning to look and feel a bit more like home.
This next week has been put aside for practical things like settling up a bank account, arranging internet access and buying our passes for the Prague public transport.  Please pray for these things, not particularly exciting but needed for 'normal' life (though I quite like having to come down to our local cafe in order to catch up with emails!).
We were at ICP on Sunday; it was good to be part of the service there in what is now our home church.  They were very welcoming and we are looking forward to working with and for them over the next few years.
Robert and Lucy have arrived safely in India, which is another answer to prayer.  The temperature there is just a touch different from that in Prague.

Monday 12 January 2009

Valedictory Service

If there have been many moving moments over the past few weeks and months, then yesterday's Valedictory Service for us at BHC was right up at the top of the list!  It was great to be able to be there and say good-bye properly to the people we have worked with and served over the past 8 1/2 years, but very difficult to finally leave.
Thank you to all who came along but all who worked so hard in putting the programme for the service together, especially to Steve Sowden for leading in such a sensitive and appropriate way and to Derek Burnside for a challenging and encouraging message.  Not only did the service strike the right note, but the food afterwards was great!  I was asked by a couple of people if I could leave again!  
It was a real privilege to be sent off to Prague with the blessing and prayers of BHC, but especially so as we were able to share the service with Rob, our son, and his wife, Lucy, who are off to Hebron School in India on Wednesday to work as volunteers for 6 months.  Please do pray for them.  Pray also for Kristina and Jon, our daughter and son-in-law as they remain in Exeter.
Do pray also for BHC as they seek a new pastor, details are on the church's website at www.beaconheathchurch.org.uk.

Prague move

Prague is a long way from Exeter by road when travelling in a 7.5 tonne truck at 56 mph!!!
Many thanks to everyone from Beacon Heath Church who helped empty the house and load the truck on Saturday last week.  Everything went very smoothly and the truck was loaded in what must have been record time.
Russell Fenn and I drove out to Prague, leaving on Sunday and arriving at lunchtime on Tuesday.  To say it was cold would be a bit of an understatement!  Even though Exeter had been colder than usual, Prague was more like a freezer!  With great help from members at the International Church of Prague the truck was unloaded and all our stuff taken up 58 stairs and five floors (by lift!) and deposited safely in the flat.  I think Mike Yurkovich must have thought he had changed into a yo-yo as he spent much of the afternoon riding the lift up and down with all our worldly goods.  We really would like to thank everyone at BHC and ICP who lent a hand, without you we would not have managed the move at all.  And a very special thanks to Trev, my brother and his wife, Ali, who have been tireless in doing things for us in Prague as we have planned this move.  From buying water when the mains supply failed on our first day (!) to looking at flats, signing contracts and generally always being there when we've needed help.
Russell left that Tuesday evening to drive back to the UK on his own while Dorit and I tried to sort out the boxes.
We are amazed at God's goodness to us, not just in the people who have shown real Christian love in helping, but in his provision of a great flat for us.  Pictures of it can be seen (with all the boxes and attendant mess) at http:www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=58746&id=609047197.
We both travel back out to Prague later this week to settle in properly.
Please pray for the various practical things that need to be sorted over the next couple of weeks.