An update for 2016

Life continues at pace here in London. (Probably does everywhere to be honest!) We are at a stage with the children where they seem to be growing up very fast, in Joshua's case literally! He is taller than Helen now! He has also just made his GCSE choices which begin in earnest after Easter. [English (language and literature), Maths, Further Maths, Triple Science, History, Computer Science, Art and Spanish if you are interested.] Meanwhile we have just had confirmation that Reuben will be joining Josh at Paddington Academy in September which is good news all round. He is very much looking forward to it. Rebekah continues to do well. She will soon be our only child left at Paddington Green School which seems very odd! The school has a new tie-up with Paddington Bear Ltd., so now has Paddington Bear as the school logo. The kids are very excited about this! We happened to pass Michael Bond (the author) in the street the other day (he is very old now) and he seemed quite excited to see the children in their new uniforms! (He lives round the corner from the school.)

Helen is very much enjoying the Cornhill Training Course. It's hard work, but a great privilege to be able to spend this time studying the Scriptures. I am very much enjoying her working with church. It means we get to spend more time together than we have for quite a while! I am still chair of governors in my "spare time". It remains quite a challenge in the school's particular circumstances.

Church has been encouraging recently. Jesus always is, church, it depends!!! It has been great to welcome a number of new faces again recently. People have arrived with a variety of skills and gifts which are a great blessing, and we are have seen a number of areas of church life start to move forward with new energy.

I have an exciting trip ahead of me in May. I have been invited to go to Zambia and teach in a new Bible College there. It will be my first big trip overseas on my own, so I am a little nervous, but mainly excited!

Please pray for us. Pray for wisdom with the children, that the Lord would keep our eyes on him in the midst of all the distractions of London and please give thanks for the Lord's continued faithfulness.

Thanks for reading!

Back too school in more ways than one!

We have had a very enjoyable summer, especially the last couple of weeks of August, spent on the beach in Cyprus. Our friends Pamela and Theo were getting married in Larnaca and we were invited! So we made it into a holiday. Helen, being a magnificent woman, manage to find us a house to stay in right on the beach. It was literally, back door, back garden, beach! The temperature was 34C and sunny everyday, and sea was 28C. The kids especially really enjoyed being to go out into the sea.


Please thank God with us for a very relaxing break.

When we got back it was straight back to school. I am still the chair of governors at Paddington Green Primary. This is a quite a heavy workload, especially at the moment. I would appreciate prayer for wisdom in this role. It is my final year of being chair and I would love to finish well. The children keep growing up. Josh is now in year 9 and starting the GCSE maths curriculum a year early. Reuben is in year 6 and will face SATS at the end of the year. We are also looking at secondary schools for him. Most like he will go to Paddington Academy where his brother is. He is still loving his football and now plays in goal for Camden Elite football club. Rebekah has got to year 3 and continues to enjoy school and ballet.
Meanwhile Helen has gone back to school, not working but to study at the Cornhill Training Course. She will be studying part time and working with the church part time. It is very exciting and quite a big change for us.
Please do pray that the children will learn well at school and be a blessing to their teachers and friends. Pray for Helen as she gets used to study again!

Back to school!

Meanwhile, as ever, church continues to be a place of change. We praise God that we are able to encourage and bless people who are with us for a short time. It is always a joy to welcome new faces, but we miss those who have moved on. The building is being refurbished, which is very exciting. Pictures of that another time. We are looking at the book of 1Kings on a Sunday morning at the moment. I've very much enjoyed getting into it.
The afternoon café, which was called grace café, has got a face lift. It is called Café 39 now and Rich and Kathryn are doing a great job of giving it some much need energy and enthusiasm. Please pray with us that we would grow in grace and love and boldness for the sake of Christ.

Lots of walking

It's been great that Jenny and Roland's kids have been off school for the first two weeks of our trip (so still off this week). The kids have been able to get to know each other and have been having a very good time. We're especially enjoying the extra space.
It's good to be staying outside the usual tourist area. When we came last time Jenny and Roland were staying in the centre of town where all the tourists gather. Now they live to the east of Cusco, closer to San Jeronimo. We get a few funny looks, 9 Europeans wandering round with 2 Peruvian girls clearly part of the clan! But people are very kind to us, and cope with my stuttering efforts to communicate in Spanish!

Having said that we did go into Cusco centre on the first Sunday we were here. The idea was to watch an Independence Day parade. Unfortunately (though there are usually parades on Sundays, and Jenny found notice of parades on a website) there were no parades. Still we had a good time wandering round and taking pictures. Not much had changed since we were last there. It was interesting to see McDonald's, KFC and Starbucks in the main plaza. There we the usual plethora of people trying to sell stuff to tourists, or get you to go on their tour bus. Since we were last here red, opened topped double-deckers have been added to the tourist sightseeing fleet! We did our own little tour of the three main plazas, found a chocolate museum (yum) and stopped for an ice-cream before we came home.
The bus rides remain entertaining. Fitting 40 people on to a bus the size of an old VW Camper is fun! To be fair the busses have improved a lot recently. Most of them are bigger now, and actually designed to be busses! Kids under 7 go free, so Bekah is still free. "Dos y dos" is a phrase I have learnt quickly. It means "2 & 2", two adults and two children. A ride for the whole family costs two soles (about 50p).

Over the last week we have been doing a lot of walking. The scenery is breath taking continuously.

Even pictures like this can't really convey the scale of the mountains around the city in the valley. I took this picture on a walk to San Jeronimo market. It took perhaps an hour to get there. Last Saturday I was left at home (asleep) while everyone else went for a trip to Saksaywaman (look it up!) and spent a long time walking and looking at wildlife. When I finally woke up a walked up the mountain behind the house (not all the way up). And that is where we went yesterday afternoon and evening. It is quite a height, and again went no higher than I did previously. But we had a lot of fun with a little camp fire and marshmallows.

On our way up there!

Up there!

The view from up there!

The views only got better as the evening closed in and the stars and city lights came out. The temperature difference is remarkable between day and night. As soon as the sun goes in the temperature begins to plummet from over 20C to very close to 0C. Our little fire was very appreciated.

Toasting marshmallows

The view of Cusco after the sun disappeared

There are lots more pictures on my Facebook page. Hopefully that link will work. If not you will have to find them yourself! There's lots more to say, but I will save that for another time I think!

Adios!

Peru Take 2

Well, we have arrived safely in Peru for a second time. 4 years ago we nearly got stuck here because of an Icelandic volcano doing is stuff. I'm wondering what adventures await us this time.

Apart from our first flight from Heathrow leaving 1 hour late, giving us a bit of a run in Madrid, the journey was easy and the kids did really well. I had forgotten just how in-a-continuous-state-of-construction Cusco is, perhaps now more than ever!

I had also forgotten just how thin the air is here. You really have to try hard to breathe! You suck in a lung full of air and you end up only half full. We'll need to spend a while going quite slowly I think.

We did of course arrive in the middle of life at my sister's house. Friday night is kids cell night. They had around 30 kids plus theirs and ours in the front room for craft and Bible story, memory verses and teaching. I loved landing in the middle of it all and that they didn't even think about cancelling because we were coming!

It is also great to see the cousins getting on so well. Our kids always have with Sammy and Ben, but Hilda and Katy are now part of the family and it is fantastic to see how well our kids have added them in. Jenny said yesterday, "You wouldn't have thought Bekah and Katy had just met".

We're looking forward to the rest of our month here. I will try and add pictures and posts regularly.

A quick update from the Hawthorne household.

A quick update from the Hawthorne household. I'm short of time so it will have to be quick!

Family

We're are all well which is a great blessing. Helen is well settled in now as a Lunchtime Assistant at school. Rebekah has told her friends, "That's not 'Miss'. That's my mummy". So all Rebekah's friends call her Rebekah's Mum! We've just had parents' evenings and the kids are all doing well. Reuben especially academically is nearly two years ahead of the national average in all his subjects. They have a good group of friends each too. Joshua is about to take his Year 6 SATs. The school are putting him in for an extended maths paper, so we will see how he gets on with that.

We spent bank holiday Monday with Helen's parents in Kent. It was a lovely sunny day so ice cream definitely in order. They were both in fine form too.

(If you like the dress Helen is wearing ask her - she made it herself!)

Meanwhile I've had a birthday recently. 37 seems a lot older than 36 for some reason. I don't feel especially wiser but I do feel a little creekier! As usual Helen invited a whole bunch of people over, and some of our friends from church got together to buy me a Kindle. Most appreciated!

Church

Church continues to be a blessing. There are a few new faces about as ever. We've begun a Christianity Explored course on a Sunday evening as part of our Connected series. We've been a little disappointed that not more people have come, but delighted with the few who have. 

Meanwhile our morning series is in the book of Romans. Some of the audio from the sermons is up on our website: www.sjwrbc.org

The website is having an overhaul at the moment, so watch this space. The new one is coming together bit by bit.

Church Anniversary

This year is the church's 187th anniversary. We would love to see you if you are able to meet with us on Saturday 25th May, from 2pm-4pm for a Thanksgiving reception with Geoff Gobbett speaking. You would also be welcome to join us on Sunday 26th May for our Anniversary Service, "Church; It's Not What It Seems" with Dick Lucas preaching for us.

Please do pray for us. Pray that our love would abound in knowledge and depth of insight. And praise God for his continuing faithfulness over such a long time.