Time flies....

I can't believe the last post was in September - well, actually I can. The last few weeks have been so busy for us that sitting down to update the blog has been the last thing on our minds. We've been juggling our new college commitments, new church life alongside family life and it has just been hectic.

Firstly, college. We both go in on Wednesdays, Jon has lectures on Tuesday and Ali has lectures on a Friday, at least until Christmas! After that it all changes again. The travelling has added a huge amount to our time commitments and our petrol bill! Still, Ali is improving and managed to actually drive on a motorway for the first time last Friday. Making friends isn't easy because we are both part-time and because we meet with different people on each day. The work varies - the lectures are covering some of what we have already studied at Redcliffe but what is new to us is good. Jon has more work to complete than Ali as she is not studying for her degree (yet!)

Secondly, church. Again we are meeting new people with all the blessings and difficulties that brings. It is good to begin to feel more settled as time goes by. We have led a couple of services and been involved in a few different meetings. We are looking forward to taking a bigger role as time goes on.

Lastly, family. Busy is our watchword. Some of the things we have been doing recently include: applying for secondary schools, making time for us and the girls, keeping up with housework, having new double glazing (courtesy of our landlord), etc., etc., etc.

So, where are we now? Tiredness is a constant challenge and finding some kind of routine amid the chaos is also tricky. We have really appreciated the support we've had from Kendal Road Baptist (the church we were worshipping at while at Redcliffe). Catching up with friends seems only possible in the school playground - though we have managed to pop into Redcliffe a couple of times and we have visited Kendal Road during the recent half-term.

What's next? More study, more driving, more church, more juggling!

One month on...

Time has flown by since our last posting. Through the summer we were really busy with visiting family, attending two weddings (friends from college and Jon's brother Chris) and leading a service at our previous church in London. The girls have settled back into school really quickly and we have just begun our courses at Bristol Baptist College. We had induction week last week which involved a lot of early starts and a lot of driving. This week has been our first 'proper' week and has also involved some early starts and quite a lot of driving.

Last Sunday was our first Sunday with Gas Green Baptist Church, the church in Cheltenham that we will be working with. It was their Harvest weekend and we had a lovely lunch together and met lots of new people.

We are planning on catching up with friends at Redcliffe tomorrow which we are really looking forward to.

Weather report: Clear

We have returned from our summer holiday where we stayed in a cottage in rural Brittany which was wonderfully isolated. We have had a much needed rest - marred only by crazy mosquitos that decided to attack us only after we had put the light out at night. Otherwise the last two weeks have been a real blessing. It gave us the opportunity to stop and relax after one college experience before the next one begins and we also were able to think and pray about the future.

And we have decided to move forward with the church in Cheltenham and told them our decision this week.

Cheltenham says YES!

Yesterday went really well and we had a good discussion with the church after the evening service.

They had a meeting for church members and non-members and very nearly all of them said Yes!

We have still to say yes to them - we want to pray a little more first - so we have omitted their name for the time being.

We are off on holiday now, to taps that work and fresh, drinkable water. :)

And the rain came down...and the floods came up...

Today we are letting everyone know that we are ok - we have not been flooded out. We have , however, been affected by the loss of drinking water because of the flooding of the pumping station at Tewkesbury (which got flooded out on Saturday.) We have enough drinking water as we were able to get some from one of the local distribution points yesterday.

We are waiting to find out if we will lose electricity later on tonight if the Walham power station becomes flooded. If this happens we will be moving (temporarily!) to Wiltshire to stay with Jon's family. We did visit them today and experienced the delights of washing machines, toilets we can flush, showers and generally water that comes out of taps rather than bottles or large blue tanks in the street. It is amazing how big an effect one day without water can have. (We trained the children well - they keep flushing the toilet!)

This coming Sunday we are due to lead services at the church in Cheltenham. We are currently preparing for this and all being well this will go ahead as planned.

We apologise for the delay to your service...

We have heard from the church in Cheltenham, and they have said...

... can you come back and speak again, at the morning and evening services, and meet with people in between to give each other a chance to ask questions.

It is only a small church, and some of them (ie. a fair percentage of the membership,) were away, but it is still frustrating to not yet know where we will be in September. It is particularly difficult for the girls not to know where they are going to be living next year.

The end of Cheltenham as we know it!!!!

No - we have not anihilated Cheltenham Spa - it wasn't that bad, but our placement at Cambray Baptist finished on Friday. We have half term at home - busy writing the reports that are required by Redcliffe, then we are back to studying (!) on Monday 26th February. We have two more terms to complete before our graduation in June. So that's quite a few late nights ahead as we contend with the impending assignments/interviews/preaching as well as family life.

February 17th

We made it! We have 'survived' six weeks of placement in Cheltenham! How well we know the Golden Valley...(for the unitiated that's the route we have had to drive there and back, and there and back, etc.)

A slightly odd week, but only in that we had to say goodbye to the same people several times over. This week was fairly normal - no snow, no conferences, no trips to Oxford. We did have lunch with a couple from the church which was really nice. Great to get to know them a little better and it's true that this world is small because we found out that they know friends of ours!

One good thing about only being in Cheltenham was the short journey home once it was all over - no it didn't take us two days to get home this time.

But, that's all folks! For Cheltenham at least - keep up to date with the latest adventures of the Edmondson family at jonandaliedmondson.blogspot.com

Thanks for reading!

January 7th

OK, so we're on placement again, but not quite as far as Brisbane this time! This time we're at Cambray Baptist Church in Cheltenham.
And no, don't expect daily blogs this time because we are not 10,000 miles away, experiencing the delights of a foreign country.
For those who don't know, Cheltenham is about 7 miles away from Gloucester, so we won't have to travel far at all, and will be able to stay at home (the girls are still at school.)
That said, it is a little complicated because it means travelling to and from there every time we need to do something. We hope we won't clock up 20,000 miles over the next six weeks!
We started, sort of unofficially, by attending the services on Sunday.
Cambray Baptist church is interesting because it still has the 'traditional' English Baptist chapel layout - raised church organ, balcony on three sides, raised pulpit, etc...
There are a few mod. cons. such as twin, rear-projected video screens at the front, a fancy lectern that can be raised or lowered, decent chairs downstairs and good lighting.
The morning service was a fairly traditional style Baptist service, with most of the hymns being played on the organ, the kids going out after about half an hour, and tea and coffee after the service.
The evening service was a communion service, but was strikingly different. After the first hymn, the reading was read, then we went straight into the sermon. After the sermon, we sang another hymn, listened to some notices etc, sang a song, then went into communion. This was interesting because we ate the bread together, not when we received it, sang a chorus, then drank the wine as we received it, not together. This seemed really strange to me because every Baptist church I've ever been to, as far as I can remember, does this the other way round. We then finished with a hymn. The whole thing took an hour; half for the sermon, half for communion.
I was really impressed that they had decided to change the format of the communion service, rather than try to cram everything in together or have a service that ran for another thirty minutes.
Apparently the morning service isn't usually quite so traditional, but we'll see next week what the difference is.
So, a good start, glad for a different experience, hope it continues so positively.

January 2007

After a fairly stress-free Christmas and New Year, we're now on placement for the next six weeks. This time we are a little closer to home, just seven miles down the road in Cheltenham. We've set up a blog for the placement (click here), like we did for Oz (see here). We're not planning on updating this one daily, though!
The girls are back to school now, so we'll be trying to juggle school runs and placement.
That's all for now:)