Thursday 13 February 2014

What's new?


As you may know, South Sudan has seen a great deal of unrest since we last wrote a blog post. Violent clashes between the two main tribes have led to many deaths, scores of refugees and cities being reduced to rubble. We have been monitoring the news with obvious concern for the people living there and with MAF evacuating staff before Christmas, we wondered what the future holds for us now. Peace talks between opposing parties were successful in January and MAF families have returned to Juba but fighting is still going on around the country and we are considering whether this is a suitable assignment for us at this time. Please pray that the correct decision will be taken.

In contrast we had a relaxing Christmas spent with family and then have hardly been home since! January saw us take our longest road trip while support raising, spending some time in Leeds and a quick weekend talking at St Hilda's church in South Shields (or very far north shields for us!!). We also stopped off in Northampton on our way home to catch up with friends from uni.


Helping Grandpa open his presents


Stopping off to meet Thomas and friends on the way to Leeds


Enjoying time with Ruth 

In the new year we reached 100% of our support raising target so we have the green light to pack up and go! Praise God that the money is in and we can now focus on preparing to move overseas. The pile to sell/give away is getting ever bigger but so is the list of things we need to get!

We have just returned from a 2 week course entitled 'Facts and Friction' that is run by MAF to prepare us for life in Africa. It was designed to open our eyes to some of the difficulties we will face adapting to an unfamiliar culture and gave us useful advice on everything from compound conflict to carjacking! We stayed in the Ashford Holiday Inn, where the course was held, with other families that were starting service with MAF in the near future.

Enjoying the mini gym at the hotel in Ashford

We really enjoyed the course with the knowledge that Bethan was in safe hands. Our need for childcare was wonderfully met by our friend Ruth and Matt's aunt, Nikki who came with us for a week each and were brilliant at keeping Bethan busy.