Big Day Today

So, Today we fly out! We've managed to sort all our stuff out on time and get everything we need and somehow manage to pack everything so it fits in our huge baggage allowance although when you're taking your life with you its not so huge.

We're off after church this morning, we're sorry if we didn't ever get round to saying goodbye to you personally, if you're offended by this then you'll just have to head to zambia to visit! (the offfer also extends to anyone as long as you let us know!)

Since last blog, Rich had his last day at school, which was a weird day, everyone was saying have a happy Christmas while to rich it was have a nice time in africa, they got me a stoke city shirt with crouch 25 on the back because they all call him crouch even the pupils tho not generally pupils don't call rich that to his face.

Our house is now clean and empty, something that definately wasn't the case when we wrote our last blog, Thats to our wonderful family which includes Henry we managed to mainly clear the house out on the 22nd and then we spend a few days after christmas doing a final clean and final move. It was a very traditional affair, with Men in charge of lifting things and Women in charge of making it clean.

Christmas was great, having a few days to have a break was just what we needed although we could have done with a few more days, it was great to see all the family before we go being in both Cornelius family and Miles family was really great and we know that we are very blessed/ lucky/ what ever word you want to use to  have such great families who support us in what we're doing and are just great fun to be with.

Any way that'll do for now, we've got to leave at 8:30 so we can meet corneliuses at Rich's Sisters house at 9 and pack both cars then get breakfast then go to church then off to heathrow!

2 weeks to go

So, In 2 weeks time we will have been flying for 2 hours (as long as everything is to time) so i guess we'll be over Southern France, as long as thats on the flightpath which i have no idea about but i'll keep you updated in 2 weeks!

So in the last few weeks heaps of stuff has happened. We've sold out car which was great as it was very easy Simon williams dad needed one so he's got our one now, last i heard it was all working fine so, hopefully that continues.

We've got new and not warped doors fitted which is good although probably more handy to our tenant who we've got and will move in to our house on the 4th of jan so 5 days after we fly off. Which is great timing which lets be honest shouldn't be a surprise to anyone who knows anything about Gods  timing! In slightly less ideal house news, the boiler guy came and issued out landlord certificate saying that it doesn't throw out any nasty carbon monoxide and it doesn't but, it does have a leak so we need a new heat exchanger which hopefully we're getting installed on Tuesday, which is not too bad but could do without that costign £300 just now but, hey these things happen.

We've started to pack, we've 2 bags packed at 20ish kg's so we've only another 4 bags to go.... plus a few as hand luggage. Next saturday is the day we pack up our house which will be sad, but it'll be good to get it packed up and sorted a week before we head off and packed away before christmas.

Packing up!

So we're busy packing up our house. Ok we still have 5 weeks to go but, it takes time and things won't pack themselves so, we're slowly packing things away and then finding places to put boxes mainly in the spare room for now,and later moving to other places, one of the main places is likely to be lofts so, if you know us then watch out, we might use your valuable loft space! If I'm completely honest saying we're packing is not quite as truthful as saying Lucy is packing things away. Luckily  Lucy is organised as Rich would most likely leave any packing until boxing day and then wonder why he didn't get it all done.

Other things that we've done in the last 3 weeks. Had a great time up at our Mission orientation program course up in motherwell, it challenging especially sitting in lectures again! but really useful getting information and thinking about possible challenges and how to overcome them. We were also able to meet up with the Parks who are old friends of the Cornelius family from their time in zambia. I just sat back while Lucy and Rhona suddenly transformed from English to African.

Our house has been on the rental market for about 10 days so far, we've had a few people look round our house so far hopefully we'll manage to get it rented out shortly, Given that we've only just over a month until we fly out its time to start telling people we're leaving phone, broadband, gas, electricity etc... hopefully that will all go smoothly.

There is lots going on in the next month as we lead up to christmas and to our departure, which is both exciting and scary, we'll try to keep you updated with how we're getting on!

 

So things move on and on, developments in the last 3 weeks are.....Got a lot of things jabbed in our arms, this time Rich didn't faint which was an advantage. We're all good against yellow fever and rich is 2 out of 3 down for Hep B... or A... one of them anyway it says in our vaccination book so don't worry about us getting the wrong one! Turns out that yellow fever is expensive to be vaccinated against, £60 ish each and we don't even need it for Zambia, just if we ever have to go to South Africa (where we'd go in a medical emergency) from Zambia then we need it so, hopefully we never need it! In other news, Echoes are happy to add us to their short term list which we kinda thought would happen but, its good to have it confirmed. This is good news as we get added to their prayer list which is good as we need prayer... lots of prayer, also it means they help us with sorting out finances, they will forward any money on to us from gifts that people give us, plus they'll gift aid it and do all that without a charge which is good news for us.

We're about to send some boxes out to Zambia via MMN School (thomas gainsbrough) where Rich works have donated some old power supplies which we're sending out as well as some books that we've got that we'll use for teaching out there and then hopefully will people who come there after us, so hopefully it gets there within a few weeks of us. As the books are useful, for our teaching.

Our house will soon be put on the rental market, so if anyone is after a 2 bed house near the west suffolk hospital then let us know!

Tomorrow We're off up to Glasgow for our mission orientation program at Tilsley college which is in motherwell, we'll be staying with old friends of the Cornelius family the parks so Lucy is excited to be seeing those guys again. We're there til sat eve, when we head down to carlisle and then the rest of the way on sun morning. Rich is hoping to  be back in time for the F1 but, not sure that'll happen!

only 3 months to go!

Just a quick update to the blog that no one currently knows about, hopefully soon people will! So, Flights have been booked, we fly out on the 30th December at 18:50! flights were slightly more expensive that we'd been quoted back near easter so they came to £992 in total which is a shame as thats around £200 more than it was earlier but these things happen. We weren't in a position to buy tickets much earlier so you have to expect price to increase.  Also, we've had estate agents round to our house and we've decided who we'll get to be our agent and they think we can get more than we were expecting which has got to be good news.

25th november at 6pm is nitelife ex Zambia special, will involve curry, talk on mission and me and lucy talking about Zambia and what we'll be doing.

In 3 months time this will hopefully be a more interesting with more pictures and more information about what we're doing in Zambia!

update - 4months and counting

Hello

So, we're now down to under 4 months until we head out to Zambia, We've filled in even more forms and echoes now has one of them and will decide if they're happy to support us next month after their trustees meeting, We've had a estate agent in to look at our place and value it for rental and it turns out they said about what we thought which was good. During the summer we had a week at Sizewell at summer madness a week in Devon with the miles family and another week at sizewell helping with over 50's. Also last weekend was Reubens dedication, the little chap is bigger than he was only 2 weeks earlier and its weird to think that he's already 7months old.
Saturday is Bekah's wedding so all is go for that should be all good when that is done then we can start on the last bits we need to get done before we head out.

things progress, slowly!

So, we now have our new shiny passports so, now we need to finish off filling in form 23 (Zambian Immigration form) and then we can send all our stuff off and get our work visa for Zambia sorted out which will be great. Hopefully Church has been in contact with Echoes, Brian is away at Keswick so, we won't be able to speak to him until mid august i don't think which will be a bit later than ideal so, hopefully he's sorted all that out. That will mean that we will need to go and get our medical which is the next thing. I can't see we'll have any problems with that, then we just have to sort out our house! Hopefully someone from church will want to rent out our house but if not we'll rent it via an agent and just hope that we get someone decent in! Also need to start to sort our mission pitch type thing so we can actually tell people what we're doing and why we're doing it, nothing need to happen soon but, thats a job for after next week when we're on summer holidays!

in other news my phone has gone to the fixing shop, it works fine but, doesn't recharge so, hopefully they fix that soon enough should be 2 weeks. We'll see what they say!

From lucys tablet

This is a post from lucy's tablet. Things are good, church are happy with us going to zambia which was good to have confirmed. Now just waiting for passports and stuff so we can get copies sent out so we can get visa's. Also got a quote for flights to zambia about £800 for 2single tickets leaving on 2nd jan 2013! Don't know if we'll leave that day but it'll be some time around then. Its a little scary that its about 6 months until we neef to be packed up and ready to go! Sure it'll all be fine!

Off to Italy

Rich's off to Italy this afternoon off on a football tour with school which seems slightly unfair seeing as Lucy is the football coach and one who is good at football but hey rich does have to sit on a bus for 24ish hours which he's not designed for.

In other news things are growing in the garden tomatoes potatoes carrots courgettes runner beans onions are all growing away so we're on our way to emulating the good life.

Ammo stuff seems to be going well all applications are off and so hopefully we'll soon get an official letter saying that they're accepting us. Hopefully soon meeting with elders at church to sort out support and commendation from them which i hope will be ok. Once that happens it really will seem real and scary. School have already stated to timetable Rich out of next year so, what ever he'll have a bizarre 1st term of next yr

Things start moving

It seems that things are moving on. We've spent this evening filling in the first set of amano application forms. They seem pretty long winded but that's the way it goes.

Lake district.

Just got back from a few days in the lake district. Greeted by snow and wind when we arrived and it was freezing. Wednesday was sunny but windy and cold. Drove from ambleside to keswick and then back and around coniston. Thursday we drove to windermere and walked round there. Then down to frodsham and visited Leon and Victoria

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