Praying for snow

Jess and Sam have been praying every night at bed time for snow and their prayers have been answered, we woke up to a blanket of freshly fallen snow! They went running out to play in the snow but soon returned as they were so cold, it is a sight to behold, what a wonderful creator God we serve.Driving around to all our link visits will be a challenge if the snow persists so please do pray for safe travel for us as we drive around the UK.

Golden wedding celebrations

Today we celebrated Anjanettes' parents golden wedding anniversary, how wonderful for all the family and many wonderful friends to all be together to celebrate 50 years of marriage. It was great to have the opportunity to catch up with family and old friends and in place of gifts people gave donations towards the clinic project which we will be setting up in Huambutio on the outskirts of Cusco next year.

Sam's 6th birthday

We had a lot of fun celebrating Samuel's 6th birthday today. We started the day with a cooked birthday breakfast complete with yet another birthday cake, followed by a boat trip on the Thames , meeting up with Anjanette's parents in central London for lunch, a long awaited ride on a double decker bus and a visit to Trafalgar square. (Anjanette and Jess enjoyed a brief visit to the national gallery)
Samuel has thoroughly enjoyed his birthday and it was a joy to celebrate it with his grandparents this year. We are so grateful to God for blessing our lives with Samuel Peter, today he was dancing along Charing Cross road singing "Jingo Rock!" and he almost flipped his newly acquired finger skateboard into a man's lunch in the posh restaurant (woops!) there's never a dull moment when Samuel's around!

Visit to Didcot

in the recording studio being interviewed by Jonty

This week we have been at Baptist house in Didcot where BMS World Mission (also the Baptist Union of Great Britain) have their head quarters, we had a time of reflection, debriefing, being updated about the mission and also to have planning meetings about future Cusco projects and teams who will be visiting us. Jess Sam and Anjanette enjoyed spending time with the Dunn family, Scott stood in the freezing cold watching Didcot Town play football and he also led an all day seminar at Baptist house for new ministerial students. It was the first time we took Jess and Sam to Didcot and was great to reconnect with many folk in the BMS family.

The Weather report: Fabulous Autumn Colours

An incredible rich feast of autumn colours were awaiting us when we arrived in the UK 2 weeks ago, having not experienced autumn for 2 years we forgot how much we love this time of year , it really is a sight to behold, what a wonderful creator God we worship!

Maybe it's because I'm a Londoner...

Today we had to go to Interhealth for medical checks and our typhoid boosters, it is in central London so was a great adventure going on the London Underground and walking along the river Thames, Jess and Sam were delighted that as we saw Big Ben the bell started chiming! We studied and lived in Central London before we had the children and love being back in London again.

New friends and old friends

NMBC church weekend away

bonfire at Ashburnam
new missionaries preparing for Peru....

studying the Cusco map

enjoying walking along the canal in Birmingham

What fun to go back to IMC in Birmingham last week , the missionary college where we lived and studied for 1 year in 2007. Jess and Sam loved meeting up with old friends and it was a joy to meet the new missionaries in training some of whom are colleagues soon to be joining us in Peru. We led 2 classroom sessions where we shared about and reflected on our experiences in Peru over the last 2 years and once again were reminded of God's wonderful faithfullness to us as a family, it doesn't seem long since we were sat in that same classroom listening to the tales of mission personnel who were on their home assignment!
We enjoyed walking along the canal seeing the barges and Jessica received a warm welcome from her old teacher and school class when she popped in to greet them.
We then drove down to Carshalton Beeches in Surrey where we are staying with some friends from the Baptist church where Scott was youth minister 2001-2003 , they have opened their home and their hearts to us and we are so enoying their generous hospitality and the chance to unpack and feel settled in one place for a while. Over the weekend we were priveleged to attend our home church's weekend away at Ashburnham and once again was a wonderful opportunity for us all to renew old friendships and make new ones!