lifeincolour.com

The last few months have been quite crazy - I just about feel like I’m catching my breath now.
Straight after Easter I headed to Australia to visit the church where I will be working from August 2008.

I had a great time there, felt very at home and welcomed by Ian and his family, and by the church on the Sunday morning too. I took quite a few photos too - they will follow at some stage on flickr.

After being in Australia I was back in Marburg for a week with Liz and Olivia before heading to Nottingham, UK for the next block of study at St John’s College.

I was back in Germany at the beginning of May for Christival - the large German Christian youth festival that takes place every five years or so. I was co-ordinating the English language stream of morning meetings - we had up to 1,500 young people from Germany and other countries there, and had a great time. I spoke on the second day, using some clips from the great film, ‘Amazing Grace’ and Dan and some guys from Submerge in Guildford (where we were before moving to Germany) led worship. We had a great time, God really worked in people’s lives and as a team we prayed with over 300 people during the week.

By this stage I was emotionally exhausted. But nevertheless I headed straight back to Nottingham to continue with my studying. Liz and Olivia came with me to the UK that time, and are currently in Northampton, about 1hr away from Nottingham, with her sister. We have had some fun times in evenings and weekends catching up again and Olivia is lots of fun at the moment - as you can see from these recent photos.

I am still in Nottingham now - our last day is tomorrow (Friday). Then I have a few weeks of slower life (which I very much need at the moment) down in Plymouth where Liz’s parents live.

Phew….

Our April newsletter is online.

You can download it here:

This election is really important.
So is this speech.
I haven’t heard a speech (or a sermon) this important in a long time.

It is worth the 37 minutes. It really is.

We’ve just published a new newsletter. You can download it here.

This post is an excerpt from our latest newsletter.

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For a number of months now, we have been working through questions about how we will combine my pending ordination in the Anglican Church with a strong sense of calling to international / transcultural missional church ministry.

We had hoped and believed that this would mean extending our time in Marburg beyond the three years which we had originally planned for, in order to be involved in church and mission in Germany in the longer term.

However, we have been unable to negotiate this with the Anglican authorities in the Diocese of Europe, meaning that I am faced with the decision of either postponing ordination indefinitely, or moving away from Germany to take up a post in an Anglican church.

After wrestling with this for a number of months, we finally decided around November of last year that we would move from Marburg in the summer of 2008. Assuming that we are able to find an Anglican church (who want us!) to move to this year, I will be ordained at the end of June, and will take up a new post sometime soon after that.

This has not been such an easy process, as I am sure you can imagine. On the one hand, we have really felt settled in Marburg, and have repeatedly sensed God was with us in our being here, having made it clear to us that it was right to move here, back in 2005. On the other hand, the huge variety within the Anglican church means that no two churches are the same, and a lot rests upon finding the right role to move into next.

Right now, there is one specific church which we have been in conversation with since the beginning of 2008. After the months of being unsure about what would come next, and coming to terms with the prospect of another big move, we are now hopeful and excited about the possibilities we may have.

However, it’s still too early to know for certain what will happen, as there are a number of different factors involved. Watch this space!

Despite not having appeared since 24 November on this blog, we are all still very much alive.

There is much going on in our lives, in our thoughts, in our flat, in our family life etc..

We have been parents for six months now. It’s good fun, it’s tiring, it changes your perspective big time.

It’s fun
I still don’t really understand biology that well - but I am slowly getting my head around the fact that Olivia, this small (but growing rapidly), happy, smiley, beautiful baby is somehow related to me, is part of me (aside from the obvious disparity vis a vis size and beauty..), reacts joyfully when she sees me, enjoys slobbering on my face and licking my computer….

It is fun walking through the woods with a baby strapped to my front (harder work too, and much warmer!) who is perfectly content to watch the daylight breaking through the trees. It is fun to be able to watch CNN and cuddle at the same time! It is fun watching her fall asleep (which does happen from time to time). It is fun watching her grow, find new muscles and ways of moving, learning new sounds she can make with her mouth, lips and dummy in various combinations!

It’s tiring
Most of the above is just as likely to happen at 5am as at 5pm (apart from that involving daylight!). I realise that I used to take for granted being able to sleep in for an extra couple of hours every now and again, and have 30 mins to myself whenever I wanted it.

And I’m only the father…. (!)

It changes your perspective
Whereas the highlights of my week used to consist of a late night with friends in a cafe, a trip to another country to see friends, and a relaxed evening in a restaurant with Liz, the most common source of joy for both of us right now is just an evening in when Olivia is asleep and we don’t have to do anything!! Don’t get me wrong, the trips, the friends and the restaurant still manage to feature in there somewhere, but you really can’t beat a cup of tea, 45 minutes of CSI and an early night!!

A couple of important things going on in the world this week:

The trial in Turkey has started for the those accused of killing three Christian workers earlier in the year. Christians are facing increasing pressure in Turkey right now - please pray for them, especially as public awareness of this situation is high at the moment.
BBC

A north-Korean man, now offically a citizen of South Korea, faces trial on Monday in China after being caught assisting refugees fleeing from the regime in North-Korea. (It still really makes me think, that there are people who are forced to flee TO China to escape repression in their own country….). Mr Yoo became a Christian following his own escape from North-Korea and has since been involved in helping others who have made the same dangerous journey.
Christian Solidarity Worldwide / The Times

Please remember them in your prayers this weekend.

I have just finished another newsletter, with a summary of what’s going on with us and our work in Marburg.
You can download it here:

Let me know if you would like to receive this by email regularly.

The Economist has a whole special report this week about God and religion.

Worth reading…

A few of you have asked for more photos to go online!
I had trouble being in the same place (read country) as my camera, laptop and camera cable over the last few weeks, but have finally managed it.

See our flickr page for lots of lovely photos!!