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. :)

Ministerial recognition recognises!

We had our ministerial recognition interview last Thursday and were told later that day that they could also see the call of God on our lives. This is exciting but scary! We are still waiting to hear from Bristol as they haven't got back to us yet.

Other than going to interviews, Jon has had a coldy-fluey thing which has left him with a charming cough (for charming read hacking!). He has kindly shared this with the family, some accepting this kind donation, others refusing to have anything to do with his generosity. Ali has somehow injured her heel - it began to hurt last weekend for no reason and the doctor said that the ligament on the sole of her foot is inflamed. She has been told to rest it - and is finding this really frustrating.

We are soon on our Easter break which will be a fun time of planning, preparing and writing assignments - not so much of a break really, more of a study interlude between terms.

We are planning on a quick visit to London to visit the dentist during the break - whoever said that the NHS system is improving, seeing as we can't find a dentist locally, is not telling the truth!

It is still shocking that when we return to college we will be in our final term!!! Where have the last two years gone?

One down, one to go

We are grateful to all those who prayed for us - for the travel (which was easy!) and the interview which we have managed to survive (just about!) The day itself was very long, tiring and intense and we will have to wait now until after the next interview (ministerial recognition) before we know the results. In the meantime it's back to study. We could both do with time to stop and collect our thoughts and just generally recover, but assignments, lectures, life, etc. are going to put that on hold for the time being.

It was great to catch up with everyone back at college again. It was good to hear about their placement experiences and about how God has been acting in their lives.

We've realised our time here is going all too fast. Our graduation ceremony is at the beginning of June and it is only about three months now before we finish, but this hardly seems possible.

Interviews update...

It is now confirmed: we shall be having our Bristol Baptist College interview on Thursday 8th March, from 8.30am until about 5pm.

However, because we are doing the interviews the wrong way round, we won't know the result of these interviews until after the regional interview at the end of the month.

Please pray for us as we prepare for it, and that the travel there (through Bristol rush-hour traffic) will be relatively painless.

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.

Impending Interviews...

We visited Bristol Baptist College yesterday to meet the new principal and to discuss our options regarding our course for next year. It was good to have some of our questions answered and to discover that there may be more ways to become accredited than we had previously thought. It is possible that we could attend an interview in March if we want to and the college gets the go ahead for this to happen before our interview for ministerial recognition. Apparently this interview is the hard(!) one.

Ali will be preaching and being assessed this coming Sunday evening (11th Feb) and Jon's turn is on 4th March - again in the evening service.

January 2007 update!

We've just received the date for our interview for ministerial recognition - March 29th.

We'll both need to take a service between now and then, and someone from the ministerial recognition committee will have to sit in on them.

Please pray for both the services, the interview, and our preparations for both, particularly because it looks like this will all be happening while we're either on placement or very soon afterwards.