June...

After quite a break we have been back doing a few deputation meetings. Last weekend we were up in the north of Scotland. It is impossible to describe the encouragement we feel when people assure us of their prayers and we hear how people are following the blog. I was reminded that we haven't followed up on Tabitha's visit to the hospital. Thankfully she was given the all clear. She does have a murmur but the cardiologist was confidently happy that it shouldn't cause her any trouble. It is a relief and we are so appreciative of the medical care here...and that it is free!!

In terms of follow up of previouse posts I am also happy to report that we finally got our car back. It was a complete hassle at the time but it's over now which is great. The evangelism seminar was fun and hopefully is bearing some fruit for God's glory.

This past week Andrew flew over to NI to share in the missionary weekend at Moira Baptist Church. Another benefit of the trip was being able to spend the day with his mum!

Work in the house continues. The garden has been cleared, walls stripped of paper and holes filled, painting has been started, the kitchen has been cleared out among other bits and pieces. This week the plumber will fit the heating system etc. We have a date for new doors to be fitted, the carpets are ordered and we have a date for the commencement of work to get gas piped into the house. On one side of us there is a little family who have just welcomed their third child into the world last weekend. On the other side is an elderly widower. Last week we found out that his grandson who is now 18 was a regular at our kids' club in Edinburgh before we went to Mexico!!

This week we have a team from our church helping in Wallyford. The boys are staying the The Living Room (the centre we work from) and the girls are staying in the home of some friends nearby. Andrew will be staying with the guys. They will be doing some drama in the school, putting on a show for kids and parents, doing odd jobs for people in the village and hopefully helping the Agnews with a bit of cleaning in the house (getting grime out of the floorboards and off the windows). They will also participate in some of the regular weekly activites. We are so glad to have so much help this week with the school SU group. We are currently a team of three but for various reasons one of us has been off for the last 3 weeks which means that we have just had two of us each of those weeks. With 40 kids at lunch time that is quite a challenge! Next year we will hopefully be able to split the group and run 2 clubs each week. Please pray that this week with the team will have a positive impact in the village and continue to raise awareness of who we are and what we are doing.

We have decided to put a pause on the OAPS meetings on Wednesday mornings. The two main helpers are away for the month of June and with so much work needing done in the house Andrew doesnt have enough time to be able to commit to visitation for the event. Once we are in the house and summer is over we will relaunch.

Tabitha and Oscar are both doing well. Tabitha will go to P1 in August. Effectively that means she is starting school. She is eager to start reading and while she has little time for colouring she loves to 'write'. She has also started 'piano lessons' with mummy. She loves to try and pick out a tune but is less keen to practice saying her finger numbers and other theory items (much like her mummy!). She has a great wee singing voice and an amazing memory for lyrics.

Oscar's main loves continue to be football and anything technological - ipods, computers, phones, cameras, video games and the like. He has quite a sense of humour and loves a good laugh.

Both kids are pretty strong willed and know what they want (no comment about where they might have got that from!) which is an ongoing challenge. We appreciate your prayers as we seek to wisely train those little wills to be conformed to Christ's image :-)