Spain and that empty house feeling

We've just come back from a wonderful week in Almeria, South East Spain, with our daughter Helen and her boyfriend Chris. A chance to catch up with them, and enjoy some mild weather and sunshine. It was wonderful going from 5 degrees in UK to about 20 degrees in Southern Spain! The trip also let us practice our Spanish. One of the tasks Bishop Philip of Belize gave us, was to aim for a conversational level of Spanish by the time we get to Belize. It was a challenging target, given that we were starting from nothing!

In fact, we were quite pleased with how it's going so far. We managed to ask for the things we needed in shops, ordered a meal in a restaurant and had a conversation with the waitress, and asked for directions in town. We seemed to make ourselves understood, and were able to understand quite a lot of what was said to us. We've a long way to go yet, but it's a reasonable start. And many thanks to our friend Lorna, a retired school Spanish teacher, who has been giving us some lessons over the last few weeks.

Back in Leicester, the house is starting to look quite empty. Much of the larger furniture has now been sold, and many smaller items have been disposed of to local charity shops - or the city council waste disposal site. We're getting down to the difficult decisions now - about what goes to Birmingham with us, ready for shipment to Belize - and what goes to friends to fill up the storage space they've offered. We are really grateful to all of you for this! Living in a house that's much emptier than it has been is rather strange. We definitely have a sense of starting to let go of our lives here, as we let go of the possessions that have surrounded us.

Some other good things. We had a flying visit to our son Kieran and his wife Lucy, in Chester, on Friday/Saturday. They were well and happy, and seem to be making good progress on their teacher training courses. Then we both went out to preach last Sunday, to two different Churches at opposite ends of the Diocese, asking for support - prayer and money. People seemed very responsive and interested, which is encouraging. And the person at USPG in London with oversight of the funding arrangements spoke to us at the end of last week, and was very impressed at the level of support promised so far, given that we are still waiting to begin training. We've had promises now for more than half of the total we need, which is great. Another big "thank you" to everyone who has sent off pledge forms and promises of support.  

We are still waiting to hear if  we can move to Queen's, Birmingham, on the date we were aiming for. They promise they are doing all they can. We will let everyone know our new address as soon as we can. As long as we're there for Christmas!