Treasure Hunting

Having been asked to lead the children and youth sessions at a planned camp, I was pondering on afternoon activities and decided that a treasure hunt with a difference was in order.

The camp was no ordinary camp - for one thing there were no tents to sleep in. When I say camp I mean that there were several large meeting tents for various groups of people to meet in. People could decide if they wanted to stay in local camp sites, B&B's or hotels. My family informed me early on that they had no intention of coming if we planned to actually camp. The B& B was consequently booked asap!

We had spent some time teaching and helping the children and youth to listen prayerfully to God. Prayer being a two way conversation we felt it was important that children learn how to recognise God's voice and hear what He may be saying to them.  It becomes an adventure for children when they realise they can hear God for themselves.The idea of treasure hunt  is that children listen for clues from God and ask Him to show them where the treasure is. On the first afternoon we had sevearl clues between us all. A clock tower,  fish and chip shop and post office seemed to point to a town. Not knowing the area, we asked around where there might be a clock tower. No one seemed to know but it was suggested we head for a specific town nearby.

There were 5 adults and 5 children and we were all astounded when we arrived at the town and saw a clock tower, fish shop and post office on each side of us! We realised we were in the right spot and started looking for the other clues which we now trusted would lead us to the people who we believed God would want us to encourage with His love...the real treasure!

Other clues included - a lady with bangles on her right arrm, a man with a green top, teenagers, soemone with a headache and many more. We spotted a lady with bangles on her arm, a man  with a green top and teenagers. We  were able to confidently approach various people and ask if they would like prayer for anything. Eveyone was pleased to receive prayer and the children were able to pray with confidence knowing that God had led them very specifically to these people.

Time off to smell the roses.....

Having hardly seen each other the month of May, Briza and I managed to get a few days short break this last week. We were really blessed to get an upgrade on the room we had booked in a lovely hotel in Cheltenham. The deal was for bed breakfast and evening meal and the room we ended up staying in was a special treat. The bathroom alone was luxury enough to spend a week in! We made use of the flat screen TV at the end of the bath a couple of times and I was particularily taken with the multi colour light which illuminated the loo roll,  making a trip to the bathroom in the middle of the night quite an adventure. 

It was great to have the time together! We had almost forgotten what it was like to be away together without the children. I'm happy to say they were being well looked after by Briza'a sister and hubby who had kindly offered to come and 'babysit'. 

    

For me, the sign of a good break is the number of sketches and paintings one manages to do. There was not much opportunity the first day as we braved the weather which continuously threatened rain - Briza looked quite hunky in the bright yellow rain poncho I had been carrying around with me for months in anticipation of such an occasion! The second day promised much better weather and we set off on a longer walk. Having the luxury of time I actually managed three sketches and various water colour washes as we paused and admired the views over Cheltenham from our vantage point high up the mountain.

One of our stopping points was at 'devils chimney' a natural stone structure which history records was for many years a challenge to climbers. Now cordoned off due to erosion, it was fascinating to learn that at one time 13 people had actually climbed up and perched on top.

It was especially pleasing to have the time to stop and ponder and soak in the land. Briza and I are opposite types of people and it was good to be reminded that when we do take the time to walk together we are enriched to appreciate the view from each others different perspectives. Our lives have been enhanced these last few days and I'm hoping it won't be too long before we have time to do it all again.

Mad month of travel

On return from Israel at the beginning of this month, hubby met me at the airport and handed over the girls. He flew straight off to Uganda for the week and I tried to catch up work, washing, mothering and life in general. Hubby returned the following Sunday and we had exactly one day together before I headed back to the airport to catch a flight to....Uganda!  Same place exactly...our dear friend and work colleague Isobel had made space in her home to accomodate both of us... only separartely!

The time in Uganda was precious and I believe that much was achieved for the networks in East Africa working with children at risk. The cockroaches, slow trickle of water in the shower and the power cuts were a reminder that I should be more appreciative of the standard of living we have here in the UK.
Following hot on the heels of Uganda I travelled to Cape Town, South Africa where I was able to connect with 'CONNECT' the network working with children at risk. This coincided with a Global Day of Prayer summit that was happening in celenbration of 10 years of GDoP.

The time was full and punctuated with wonderful connections with old friends from around the globe. It was a priviledge to be part of this global gathering and I had the added blessing of sharing a room with an Australian friend and her daughter who previously were only skype connections! I did manage a trip to the top of table mountain thanks to two more of my friends inviting me to skive off one of the plenary sessions.....I guess one can always hear Ed Silvosa another time!

The final day was spent networking with new friends around the 'World Weekend of Prayer' for children at risk - This year falling on 5-6th June. God was in the house and we all felt a sense of divine connection especially regarding raising children as 'Child Ambassadors' - something I was championing in Africa and have a vision to see expand across Viva's networks globally. Children being raised to hear God's voice in prayer and to be a voice on behalf of their peers who suffer so much in the earth.

On hindsight the month could have been planned a little better - regardless - I now find myself back home 2 weeks later having to catch up on hubby, children, work , washing and life in general. I came back to discover my neighbour has had a baby....that's how long it seems. (Last time I saw her it was a small bump.)

The trip has saturated me for travel- my only desire right now is to be home based for a good length of time. Maybe until October when there's something else brewing on the horizon.....

Car park fiasco

Since the beginning of the year we have been on a mission to help sort out and update my mum's kitchen. My Mr Fixit husband was on hand and we set aside a weekend to complete the job. All I had to do was take mum to a local DIY store, choose a paint colour,some tiles and a border.Easier said then done. The plethora of paints, tiles and border tiles left us with too many decisions to make in a short period of time. When we finally got out of the shop the car park was full with people queing to find a space.

We were delayed leaving the car park because a lady had driven the wrong way to reverse into a space and was then pipped at the post by another impatient driver resulting in the lady stuck in a tight spot. The queue forming behind us grew as she laboriously reversed back out of the car park into oncoming traffic! We breathed as sigh of relief when we arrived home!

Thinking that was the end of it and pleased with the results of our labours and the final colour  and tile decisions I was somewhat dismayed to recieve a letter the following week, It was from some company acting on behalf of the DIY store threatening debt colletion of I didn't pay up a parking fine. To my amazement there was a picture of my car entering and exiting the car park.Apparently there were signs everywhere which were totally lost on me, my mum, and my 12 year old daughter, saying you had only one hour free stay as a customer. In the small print it said you could appeal and appeal I most certainly did. Horrified at the idea of debt collectors turning up at my house - yet having no intention of paying what I percieved to be the most ridiculously unfair car park fine. I composed a letter stating three VERY good reaons why I felt it unreasonable to expect payment and tried to remain logical despite my inner fury at at the injustice.

The letter worked! I had listed the fact I was with my elderly mother and to expect decisions to be made in an hour when purchasing the items we did was unreasonable, I listed the fact that we had NOT seen any signs warning us of the hour limit, and my final reasoning was the fact we had been severely delayed exiting the car park taking us well over the allocated hour.

The fact my mother is a sprightly and tenacious 77 year old who, on hearing about the fine had insisted on speaking with the manager if the DIY store is neither here nor there....my letter had apparently done the job.

Power to the people!

When a Wii is not cricket!

Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure Wii is succesfully joining families together over generations and miles, just not this family! The reasons are many and varied; traditions have become deeply embedded as the years have progressed and the majority of my family have remained firm novices when it comes to correct gift purchasing.
The ‘secret santa’ tradition of placing our names into a ‘hat’ and taking out the name of another family member in order to buy just one present every Christmas, began when my generation became adults and started having children of our own. We decided that £20 was a good sum of money in order to buy a decent present for each other and looked forward to unwrapping the ‘family’ gift every year.
From the outset it became evident that certain members of the family were easier to buy for than others. The ones who didn’t specify a gift choice would inevitably end up with traditional and obvious types of pressies. Socks and aftershave for the men and scarves and perfume for the ladies. The more difficult to please and choosy members of the family became the ones everyone would groan over and the ones you hoped you wouldn’t end up with. The fact this was all kept secret from each other left for much deliberation and leg pulling.
2009 has been one of the most notable of family ‘secret santa’ efforts. A number of things have dawned on us – firstly, £20 is nowhere near enought these days to purchase anything half decent and secondly the family saga that has ensued signifies that it might be time to re think the tradition.
The long suffering relatives who didn’t used to mind what they got have finally bitten back and have become the ones who now specify EXACTLY what they want every year. My husband has become one of these and decided that this year his precious £20 family present should be some water proof covers for his shoes for when he’s cycling. I think they’re called gaiters, (well that’s what I told the person who ‘secretly’ had pulled his name from the hat.)
I had given up being subtle in my efforts to find out what my chosen person wanted for Christmas. Cutting down on time and confusion I came straight out with the question- needless to say my person got EXACTLY what they wanted and was very happy with the resultant gift. My sister and brother in law on the other hand struggled to find ‘gaiters’. The cycling magazine hubby ended up with had the £20 attached with a note admitting defeat – they had tried and tried again only to be confounded by the notion of such things. (Annoyingly my brother in law had actually come across them at £30 a pop in a sports shop only to be told by another member of the family that these were not the sort because they didn’t reach his knees! (HIS KNEES!)?)
The brother in law threw in the towel completely however, when, on opening his family present, he was dismayed to see the title ‘Cricket’ across what looked to be a DVD. To contextualise his disappointment it might be helpful for you to know that on a previous Christmas the ‘family’ had given him a set of video tapes showing the ‘complete cricket test series’ (or something of that sort). Although graciously received at the time, I don’t think he ever got round to watching them! This hstory blinkered him to what might have been a redeeming feature in the fact that this was in fact a Wii cricket game and not the DVD he had initially thought, he went off on one about how he hated cricket and could think of nothing worse than cricket and that he no longer wanted to be part of the family!
So...we are potentially one family member short for next year, which, I’m sure you’ll agree, will mess up numbers. So.... I am going to tentatively suggest that for 2010 we think more creatively about celebrating our saviours birth.

Reviewing the year...

My Godson and his baby brother...

X factor final and our friends the Hatchers came for the second year running...must be love...our tv screen is postage stamp size compared to theirs!

Melody meets the new arrival and discovers she will come in very handy to have as a friend because she is 14 VERY soon and can legally babysit. (Though 4 boys between the ages of 10 yrs and 2 weeks old would not be for the fainthearted.)

The Viva team in La Paz treated us like royalty and made us feel very welcome.

Our beautiful translator Kattya on the right.

The Christ statue in Cochabamba is larger than the famous one in Rio and much more accessible!

The children in Refugio were a delight and full of joy. THere was much hope as these children were counselled and allowed to be children maybe for the very first time in their lives.

At the start of 2009 I had every intention of writing at least a monthly blog!

Life's been too busy to keep that sort of commitment and I find myself at the end of the year with too much to unpack and catch up on. Take the photo's alongside for example.....

Costa Rica, Bolivia, new babies, more fundraising activities, the X factor final....I guess this photo diary will have to say what I haven't time to.

Latin American travels of a mum and teenage daughter.

For those interested in such things there's an interesting dynamic to travelling on long haul flights with your children. We've been doing it since before babies had to have passports of their own and over continents and time zones.

Pre children of our own, my first experinece was taking my godson Ben on a flight to Switzerland. At 10 months he sat straddled on my lap and fell into a deep sleep cuddled into my chest. He was blonde and blue eyed and no one considered that he wasn't mine as I proceeded to lay a napkin over the top of his sleeping head and tuck into the meal provided by the airline. The friendly passenger to my left commented that I was obviously really experienced at such things and I felt it would be tempting disaster to apologise for having such a natural 'talent'.

Life continued to give opportunity for the practise as I travelled single handedly with a four and two year old across America and then to Uganda via Nairobi when they were six and four respectively.

As the girls have grown we have tried to tailor our trips to suit their personality and giftings and have the luxury of being able to take them individually. The younger daughter seems to have come off best, so far having travelled with me to India last year and recently to New York. Both long haul flights were a dream for me as this self motivated and avid reader used every opportunity to learn and take in every piece of information she could.

Our eldest has been poised and at the ready waiting for an approriate opportunity to travel and was finally thrilled when it worked out that she could accompany me to Latin America. At thirteen she is not at the easiest of ages to have to deal with long haul flights and changes of culture. Her memory of previous travel was hazy and her observations of airline and service were astute and comical. The first thing that grabbed her attention was the age of the cabin crew. She has a specific interest in cabin crew as she thinks this is what she wants to do when she grows up! 'Mummy, when I'm 50 I could come and work for this airline.' was her loudly whispered conclusion. I marvelled at her positive outlook and resigned myself to the fact we were travelling on what must have been one of the cheapest low budget airlines around!

Due to the fact our final destination was Costa Rica we had to enter America in order to connect to an onward flight. This was SO annoying as we did not want to be in America and would only be there in order to catch the next plane. It has been this way since 9/11. At this point patience was at it's shortest having travelled 9 hours. I needed to use the bathroom as we disembarked and consequently we ended up at the back of the queue for customs. This was too much for my thirteen year old and she flipped at the fact we were at the back. A very public confrontation followed which did not make for an easy wait in the passport queue and I became quite nostalgic for the days when I could simply stick a napkin over her head.

We've arrived and it's day two of our adventure....more to follow I'm sure.