Special Occasions

This week has been one of some celebration, special occasions are one of the things that makes living away from home the hardest. The people you love the most pass significant milestones and something I love about life is joining them in their rejoicing.




At the end of August we remember a very special union, 30th August 2008 was the marriage of Simon and Jasmine and now two years later they are happier and more excited about life than ever. They are a beautiful couple (not just in looks!) they have a generous united heart and love to help and serve anyone they see in need. Jaz is the kind of person you want around in a ‘situation’, she has such a practical mind and knows exactly what to do to make things work! She is very compassionate and she has a special ability to buy good gifts too!! Simon, my brother, is very hard working. He wont let you down if he says he’s going to do something; I remember when we moved back to Bradford in summer 2008, he didn’t hesitate to help us in our sofa dilemma! (I think this definitely deserves a photo!)…

I have always looked up to him as my big brother and I am so pleased he found himself a good wife (Proverbs 18 v 22 The man who finds a wife finds a treasure, and he receives favour from the LORD.) , so guys…although it’s a bit late (c’mon we dont have internet connection yet!) HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!

On the 8th of September we celebrate Phil’s (dad’s) birthday too, and what a dad we are celebrating! I’m sure Mark would do a better job about boasting about his dad but he’s out on his Saturday morning bike ride at the moment (a tradition started by the two of them) so I will have to do. Phil has been the kind of father to Mark that demonstrates God’s grace and love. Mark has watched selflessness, forgiveness and patience in abundance and the way that Mark talks about his dad just shows the impact he has had on Mark’s life. Phil, you are his hero. Happy birthday! (sorry about the picture…well, I’m not sorry! This was also when we moved into Welwyn Avenue and you stayed with us until 4am decorating before making a trip to Kendal to bring a van load of stuff back!) see what I mean bout selflessness!!??

hehehehe!

Another cause for celebration is that two years of dedication have been completed by Joe, (Joe forgive me for boasting). Joe has written, compiled, played, edited and produced a CD. God gave him the inspiration to write some songs two years ago and since then it has been his goal to produce a CD of worship to God and also a call to those who do not yet know God. He wants all the glory to go to God and so has made it available to download for free on his website. I recommend that you do, it has ministered to me so much these last few days, he is an extremely gifted musician with diverse ranges from ballad-type songs to some pretty heavy rock-type stuff. His prayer is that these God-given gifts are used for God’s fame. Well done good and faithful servant!

http://www.josephbateman.com/wehavefoundhim

Permits, cars and appartments....

Well, we've had another busy week in Switzerland! I can see that my blog posts are always going to be epic because I don't get chance during the week to do short posts as and when things happen! So make sure you have plenty of time and a nice hot cup of tea because you're going to be sat here for a while!!!

So last Saturday we eagerly awaited the arrival of mum and dad Bateman (that's Phil and Caroline to you!) and Isaac, they booked cheap flights at the beginning of summer so that they could fly out and drive the car back to sunny UK. It was so great to be able to see them briefly, our host family were kind enough to make room for them in their house too which was a real blessing. They arrived Saturday evening and were able to visit the church on Sunday morning which they really enjoyed. The weather was beautiful so of course we spent the afternoon by the lake...

Isaac: "come on in dad, the water's lovely!"

Mark and Phil take a rather anxious looking Isaac out onto the lake

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Isaac enjoying splashing around with his big brother.

Mark and his mummy sailing and chatting

A cute picture!

So, with Caroline and Phil coming to take their car we were quite pushed to find one ourselves. We know you have been praying because we have quite a story to tell... Mark has been getting frustrated about finding a car, he spent many an hour looking around used car garages only to be met by people who don't speak any English and some quite expensive cars! We were looking for something a little bit more practical than our beloved Micra. (Something that skis, bikes, luggage and young people can get comfortably into!) and Mark has always fancied an estate car, so we were looking out for them and the cheapest we could come across were 8,500 CHF which is about £5k. Now, we don't have anything like that amount of money so we were thinking about getting a loan etc etc. Mark asked a guy from church called Jeff (originally from the US but lived in Switzerland a long time and speaks fluent French) to come long and help us chat with the salesmen. We took one for a test drive, it was ok. We left without it and felt a little more at a loss as to what to do. We had prayed, and we know you had been praying and it was like God was saying 'not this one'. But as impatient children we were starting to get panicky!

 Chapter 2...(!?) So, we carried on with normal life knowing that the Batemans were going to come and with the very real possibility that we could be left without a car. That was Friday night and we had our first 'Youth Discipleship', towards the end of the night we got a text to say that somebody wanted to give us £2,000 towards a new car. This was a great surprise and blessing and our brains started to work out how we could gather the money to maybe buy a car and avoid a loan. About ten minutes later Jeff came to pick his kids up at the end of the study and said that he had spoken to a friend who was moving back to America and needed to sell their car quickly. Guess what amount he was asking for... 3,000 CHF = £1,900 or there abouts! (that sounded like confirmation to me!). There's a little more to the story...practical and boring information so I'll just show you the pics!! And please join us in praising God for his provision once again!...

Of course, it had to be big enough to fit bikes in...standing up!

You could potentially drive the yellow Micra up inside this car like a ferry! ha!

(for the blokes; it's a Chrysler Voyager minivan)

So, this week was full of practicalities. Getting bank accounts, getting to send off for our 'Permit Bs' (so that we can live and work here), getting cars (!?)...and...getting the keys to our appartment!!! Yes-we are officially residents here in Switzerland and are moving in as we speak so I'm going to have to keep this final bit brief!

For those praying for me at work this week, I am definately gaining confidence and although it was a challenge to 'lead' I really felt equipped to work with the children. I would ask you to pray that I learn French very speedily, something I am keen to do and it will definately help a lot with the younger children who hardly have any English.

Well, it wasn't all solid work this week; we did manage to scrape some time on Wednesday afternoon to get out into the hills...wow, still can't believe we live in this place!...

I had a bit of a 'Sound of Music moment', I'm sure there'll be plenty more of those!

A beautiful little man, oh how we miss him!

Mark in his element

Reflecting on God's goodness to us!

Please keep praying, we are blown away by how God has provided every need, truly we can testify that "The Lord is our shepherd, we shall not want" and he is leading us beside still waters and green pastures and our souls are being restored! Thank you Father for your love and grace!

Please keep in touch, we'd love to hear how you are doing.

~~~~~~   Ephesians 3 v 16-21   ~~~~~~

Phew...what a week!

Well, We've been in Switzerland just over a week now and we've been hard at work (despite what the following pictures are going to look like!) This week saw us both getting straight into our new roles here.


I worked Monday, Tuesday and Thursday at Edukids. This week has mostly been about observing the other helpers, getting to know the children and the daily routines. My schedule looks like this on an average day:


9-11 am; Bilingual preschool, kids aged 2-5 yrs. crafts, singing, playing etc. Pretty hectic!


1:30-4pm; 'Enfantine' 5 and 6 yr olds not quite in school, English lessons (of a sort)


4-6:30 pm; 3 lots of 45 minute English lessons at varying degrees of difficulty.


I opted out of a Tuesday morning to add on some extra at the end of a Mon & Thurs, so I work long days Mon & Thurs and just afternoons Tuesday.


It all looks fairly organised on paper but I'm still getting my head around to it and re-learning all my nursery rhymes! Who would have thought that 'wind the bobbin' has a new tune!!?? And that 5 green bottles is now 5 green apples! My, how times have changed!! The biggest challenge comes next week when in the mornings I will be the 'leader' as the only English speaker there, the other two helpers speak only in French, so I will have to do the 'hello circle' and lots of other highly energetic, big smiles, soft voice type things that I am not used to!! Prayers please!!


Mark has had a fantastic week and really feels the joy and fulfillment that comes when you are doing what you know God has called you to do. He is really enjoying the training and mentoring of Martin as they meet together every weekday morning to pray and study together. Depending on which day it is they might be reading a passage of scripture and discussing, or listening to/watching a sermon which they then discuss, reading up on a theological issue and discussing etc. The afternoons is given over to pastoral work, visits and admin. Including preparing for the various midweek studies as well as Sunday. Mark is beginning to take a lead role in the worship band also.


On Monday evenings around 5:30-7pm the men meet together at the 'Skipper' in San Sulpice for a drink and an informal chat after work.


On Tuesdays we are going to a home fellowship which Martin leads, we'll go 4 or 5 times maybe just to see how the homegroups work here. This Tuesday's was a great opportunity to get to know some people in the church better, we discusssed what the book of Proverbs has to say about the sluggard!


On a Wednesday we will be meeting with university students for a Bible study, this wont be starting until the back end of September when the students roll out of bed to re-start their studies!!


Thursdays will be our time to kick back as we go along to the 20's-30's study group, we are very much looking forward to these times as we have met the majority of the young couples who make up this group and we know we'll have some deep spiritual chat as well as a good laugh.


Which brings us to Fridays when youth will be the focus...every other Friday we have 'refuel' when we meet at a church family's house to enjoy a meal, have fun and do a bible study together with the teenagers, some of which are from the church and others come along because there aren't many things like that going on around here. We see a real hunger in these young people and it is our delight to be a part of the tools God is using to draw them closer to Himself. The other Fridays will be 'Youth Discipleship' which will be a more intimate study with the Church youth where our aim is to develop strong relationships and see God work in their lives. Our first Youth Discipleship was last night, we had 21 young people turn up to the church offices and we had a great time getting to know each other and studying in more detail the sermon which was preached on Sunday. The young poeple were so grateful and all seemed to really enjoy themsleves.


We have been totally embraced by the church here in Lausanne, and most evenings have either been in Bible studies or we have been invited to eat with people. We're quite popular at the moment but I'm sure the novelty will wear off soon!! Well, I seem to have written reams in this post and I bet you're a bit fed up of reading so I'll give you some pics!






This is Caleb, one of the Youth in the church, his mum, Marinette is the church administrator and has been doing lots of work in order to make our living here smooth and legal. His dad is Alfonz, one of the church's elders. They invited us around to their house in the countryside for a meal last Saturday night along with the Slack family. We are truly blessed!





On Sunday, after our first Sunday service and first experience in the worship band we were invited out to dinner with some of the University students here, then it was such a glorious afternoon we just had to visit the 'local swimming pool' for some cooling down!



...And here it is, that pool I was talking about! (That's Martin and his daughter on the sailing boat!)



This is Ellie and Drew, the young people who are kindly letting us stay in their house and the four Slack girls after a very fun swim in the lake and war over two dinghies!

A beautiful view of the mountains from the lakeside

This is the view on our drive into work on a morning, the white one is...yep, you guessed it; Mont Blanc way out in the distance, To give you an idea of perspective it is about 3 or 4 times higher than the mountains in the foreground!

This was our meal out at a local restaurant called 'The Skipper', the men (Mark, Martin and Gustavo- one of the 20's group who we will be living very close to) had some cook-your-own steak! They gave these bibs out to avoid fat splashes on your shirt!! Very manly!!

The view from our table was breathtaking! You can just about see Su, Martin's wife on the end ans Su-Lady is Gustavo's beautiful wife; they are from Puerto Rico.

Well, here endeth my mammoth post for this week, please don't hesitate to leave your comments (only nice ones though please!) and if I'm missing any details out let me know or if there's any picture requests then let me know too! We'll endeavour to keep you posted!

Love and blessings.
Prayer update soon
xxxxxxx

Wach out Switzterland...the Batemans have landed!!!

Well, what a week! We were all packed and ready to go late on Monday night, we had to call in a few favours from people (thanks to the Barbers for lending us their roof box, without which none of my clothes would have been able to travel with us!) there seriously was not an inch spare anywhere in that car (thank you mum and dad Bateman for lending us your voiture!)

We woke up early on Tuesday and I know that people must have been praying for us as I felt such a peace about the fact that our lives were transitioning that day!






We set off on time with a prayerful and tearful goodbye to Ma and Pa Clarke and travelled down the A1 to meet the Slack family (The pastor, Martin, his wife, Sue and ther four girls; Naomi, Lydia, Hannah and Katie) I know I have mentioned this in a previous post but it was totally God's provision that they happened to be in Harrogate for a wedding that weekend and could accompany us on our journey to Switzerland.

We arrived early for our scheduled 18:15 ferry and managed to get an earlier crossing, this is a picture of 3 out of the 4 girls waiting in the front of our car to get on the ferry!


We arrived in France and found our hotel (all without once showing our brand new, especially purchased passports!!) and then drove into a nearby town for something to eat. I just want to praise God for the smootheness of the journey, I didn't feel sick at all on the ferry crossing, and there were no problems in customs, in fact, they pretty much ignored us! We had a good night's sleep in our hotel ready for the second and final leg of the journey.

The next day was our trek through France, a bit different to our 'Tour de France' last year as we sailed down the toll road motorways which meant that we covered more gruond in less time. After a few wee stops and a lunch break Switzerland was fast approaching...I was beginning to get a little nervous about crossing the border and wondering whether they would want to search the car which would mean unpacking then packing it back up again. However, we sailed through the borders and they even gave us a smile on our way through! God has been clearly speaking to me about trusting Him recently, I was meditating on Isaiah 40 v 28-31 the day before we went and it was almost like God was asking me to just trust Him, on the same day our friends Sam and Hannah brought us round a leaving gift that had Proverbs 3 v 5 on it "trust in the LORD with all your heart". I love when that happens!

At about 5 o'clock we arrived at our hosts' house The Bottimore family. They are a family of four from Phoenix, Arizona and I can honestly say we have been extremely spoiled by them since our arrival! We are staying in their guest quarters and are being fed like royalty! They have made us feel so welcome here already. We will stay with them until we can move into our appartment on the 1st (God willing!)



This is us preparing our own pizzas in the Bottimore's kitchen, yummy!


So, since our arrival on Wednesday things have been mostly about finding our feet and atempting to get things sorted here. It is quite difficult to do the practical things (like mobile phones, bank accounts, etc) without having our work permits and address/rental contract. So those things are on hold for the moment. We have officially started our rolls out here though. Mark has been shown his office and begun his work, and we'll both be in the worship band on Sunday morning.

On friday morning I met with the lady from Edukids (the preschool/English teaching school) and she handed aload of materials to me and asked me to start on Monday! So that's what I'll be doing Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. I'm quite excited about the opportunity to be honest, I know it will be a challenge but I also think it'll be fun to work with kids younger than those I'm used to working with. (In fact, the first minute I walked in the place a little boy walked up to me expressionless and proceeded to smell me, which happened to be about my tummy button region-his nose height, then walked away. This happened several times which I presume is a good sign-he must have thought I smelt nice!) The preschool also gives me another opportunity to trust God!

After all that we were exhausted, it has been a surreal yet challenging week. And what we really needed was a sunny Saturday off...and guess what....today has been blazing! (For those who are struggling with covetousness I will leave this post by saying...this is where we live and this is Mark enjoying our new homeland!)



For those of you who still love us (!?) and want to pray for us, here is how you can:

Praise God for our safe journey
Praise God for the opportunity to be out here, we both keep having moments where we look at each other as if to say "is this really happening?"
Pray for a shower of blessings on the Slack family who are being so gracious with us and the Bottimores who are looking after us.
Pray for Mark as he officially starts work this week
This week's joblist is pretty long, pray that we prioritise well and get stuff done
Pray for my new job starting Monday
Pray for the young people and others in the congregation at Westlake church Lausanne!

Thank you, we love you and would love to hear from you! x

Passport waiting for us on our return from Creation Fest!

In other news...

We returned from Creation Fest late last night after a pretty tiring 8 hour drive! Yikes! We had a fantastic week serving with a team from York and Bridlington Calvary Chapel in the youth tent, fondly known as 'The Zone'! We spent the week befriending teenagers who came to 'the Zone' to attend our worship and seminars, meet the band sessions, Truthology workshops, topical Bible study, silly games, craft activities and more... It was a busy schedule as the tent was open from 9:30 am until 10 pm every day. But we made sure we had some down time too; for me that meant getting to listen to Cheryl Broderson's seminars and chilling in the tents with a cuppa. For Mark, it meant finding the nearest beach and having a good surf! Mark also had the opportunity to teach on a subject which is close to his heart; music.

We had music from bands such as MOD, Dweeb, Brenton Brown, Shell Perris, Superhero, Crave, D-Cype, E-Tizz to name a few... which was fantastic. And of course we had a good laugh with our 'zone' team members.

Anyway, pictures are worth more than words right? So here's a few from the week:

The sun came out for a bit!

Mark on lunch duty...mmmm!

Our home for the week...as we discovered...not very waterproof!!

A craft and a clever photo, don't you think???

Brenton Brown leading worship.

Mark taught while I helped him with his presentation...another bit of clever photography eh!!??




The Zone team!!!

Well, last minute packing is under way, we have finalized travel arrangements for Tuesday, we will be (God willing) aboard the 18:15 ferry from Dover to Calais on Tuesday. Keep praying please! We need it. Next post will be from Switzerland...crazy!!!

Bon Voyage!!!

Standing room only at the Batemans' home this Sunday, our nearest and dearest came to gather en mass and send us off to Switzerland. Here are some pics of the day and We'd like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who came and made the day so special...we even had Mark's Aunt from Southampton and the Greens from Stavely! What a blessing!





Drinks and nibbles were enjoyed by all



Mum and Dad Bateman kindly allowed us to use their 'work in progress new kitchen' as a venue



The weather stayed nice enough to venture outside



Isaac enjoyed socialising!



The boys enjoyed a game of footy...





Pa Clarke and Grandad...any resemblence?



Bateman family gathering



Thanks again to everyone who came, we love and will miss you all x

Mark's passport....

Great news! Praise God...Mark's passport arrived on Saturday morning! It took just 7 days to get a new one, that's amazing...keep praying though as it is difficult not to be concerned about the wherabouts of my new passport-we sent them off together! Well, one of us is definately going to Switzerland on the 17th August! We decided to go ahead and make plans and book ferries etc hoping that my passport would soon follow. We are leaving Bradford on the 17th August (my Grandad's birthday-sorry Grandad), we are driving over to Switzerland. Mum and Dad Bateman have been extremely kind in allowing us to borrow their big car to drive our belongings down in. They will then fly out and drive the car back at the end of August. We are leaving the famous yellow mobile (Bumblebee as she is affectionately known as) here in Bradford. We will have an overnight stop in France and then continue into Switzerland to arrive on the 18th August. The wonderful thing about this journey is we will not be travelling alone- Martin and Su (the pastor and his wife) and their four beautiful daughters just happen to be in Harrogate at a wedding the weekend we leave, so we made our travel arrangements coincide with theirs. God is just taking care of every little detail in this whole operation, what an amazing God we serve!