I'm on holiday...

I'm on holiday, skiing in Chamonix, see you in a week, enjoy the view...

Byeeeeee!

Back in Brum

Well I've made it back to Birmingham again after that travelling trip of last week, I'd like to be able to say it was over, it's not, on Friday I'll be off again to Liverpool for a meeting before a real exciting and enjoyable trip, CHAMONIX to ski for a few days!

The last week was good, a great opportunity to see some of my friends from Miami up in Liverpool on their Spring Break mission trip. It wasn't as big a group as usual with just seven visitors this time but it was good to see people and get the chance to some ministry with them, I went out and met some students with my friend Scott on Thursday afternoon. Here's a photo of the team that came across for the week along with our resident American team in Liverpool.

I went from Liverpool up to Newcastle (HOORAY!) and spoke at CU last Friday. I was a bit nervous beforehand but it went well and it was great bringing God's word from Psalm 91 to my old CU. It seemed to be pretty well received and people had nice things to say about it which was nice, some people said it really helped them.

I had a great time the rest of the weekend hanging out with various friends in the Toon and catching up on news. I even enjoyed an afternoon playing 3-a-side football in the hall at the North East teams new office, that was good fun! I ended the fun by taking in the ice hockey where my Nottingham Panthers were playing the Newcastle Vipers...unfortunately we lost but again it was fun.

So now I'm back and busy working on our teams study assignment for the year, investigating what the Old Testament has to say on the subject of "Make Poverty History", I can't say I was that excited about it when we started a few months ago but it's been interesting going through the Old Testament and researaching. That will take up the rest of the week to get it finished.

On Friday I head for Liverpool to continue the tour of teams I'm doing with Martin Russell, it's short and sweet and we'll only end up being there for a couple of hours as we have to be back for something in the evening, still it should be fun, I like excuses to go up there.

And so to France...poor me. I can't wait to get away as things have been a bit hectic with all the travel and things despite term finishing, blowing away the cobwebs bombing down mountains will be VERY helpful.

On the road again...

Well I'm about to get myself back on the road for another few days away from Birmingham!

Tomorrow I head to Liverpool for a couple of days to be with the Spring Break group who have come in from Miami for their Easter holiday. I'm going to hook up with some of the people who I will be working with next year and who are good friends, it should be a good couple of days.

From there I'm heading to Newcastle on Friday to speak at the CU. It will be the first time I have been back to speak and am talking on Psalm 91, its all about God's protection and then further about the example Jesus sets us in Matthew 4 when the devil quotes Psalm 91 to him during the temptation. The last week or so have been hectic with talk preparation but its all gone Ok and hopefully God will be in charge and Friday will be successful!

Travelling here, tavelling there...travelling just about everywhere!

Newcastle-upon-Tyne. That's where I was over the weekend, for the first time in goodness knows how long! Martin Russell and I are currently embarking on trips to visit all the local teams around the country to discuss the national operations function and what teams would like to be provided with so Thursday afternoon had me pounding the A38, M1, M18, A1(M) all the way to the Toon for their teams Friday meeting. It was pretty fruitful, good ideas coming out and a good chance to see my old team.

I had a nice weekend to boot, staying with Sean and Jen (which was a pleasure) and catching up with lots of friends, I even managed to take in the CU meeting which was odd having moved away...it'll be interesting in 2 weeks time when I'm the speaker! It was nice and relaxing if a little hectic but pretty sad too as various people had difficulties both over the weekend and in the recent past which meant there were some people i couldn't see. It was great to get back to Heaton Baptist Church on Sunday (much as I love Oasis), being there at my sending church was excellent and a good chance to share with people what is going on.

I came home on Sunday night after a lovely afternoon with the Lillicrap's in Gateshead but life didn't stop and I was quickly up on Monday and back on the road (or air) as I took the short flight to Edinburgh with Martin to see the Scotland team! I love Edinburgh...

We had a great time up there with Jon, Chontelle and Al, they gave us more great insight into how operations can help them better and were very welcoming, they feel pretty isolated up there so it was good to be able to go and visit. After dealing with all the business we had a bit of a wander around Edinburgh before having dinner with Al and coming home.

Now Martin had never been to Edinburgh before and said on the plane on the way up "all UK cities, are the same, its just another one, its quite depressing really". After spending the day there he now totally loves it and couldn't believe how different it was from the British norm "I feel a weekend break coming on...". Don't you just love Edinburgh...

In other news I am feeling a bit under the weather, a bit of a cold I think so please pray for that. Tomorrow I am meeting the 2 guys I met doing surveys last week to discuss what they think of the Knowing God Personally booklet, wooo!

And finally...today I had a phone call from some student at Newcastle who was on the team phoning alumni asking for support for the university. I'd had a letter about it so was expecting it. As it happened the guy must have had my alumni info there and knew some of the things I'd done at uni and he asked me about the CU. HaHa! It was great, a student getting paid to phone me up and basically ask me about the gospel because it relates to my life at uni. Them calling you? I feel a new evangelistic strategy coming on...now if only I can sell it to the universities...