Tuesday 31 May 2005

Hows it going?

Well, things are really firing on all fours now; we had a fantastic bank holiday weekend. On Saturday night we had the party to end all parties - a fantastic disposable barbecue provided the food, of which i ate very little surprisingly!! It was really great to see some friends from Chorleywood, and great to burn off some energy on the dance floor in the Forum!!

Since then, we have been focussing on packing up the house and our suitcases! It turns out we have quite a bit less than we thought, and are doing very well on the space front - it feels quite good to be travelling fairly light, having shed some of our materialism along the way. That said, our suitcases are almost as big as wardrobes!

We said our fairwells down at Philidelphia on Sunday night, and felt really blessed by prayers, and the support of the team down there. We are so sure that this is what God has for us, and are so excited about what he is going to do with us and use us for out there.

With only 3 days left in Sheffield, now is the time to thank everyone from St Thomas church for being great friends and family during mine (and Lauras) time here in Sheffield. We have grown over the years, and learnt so many valuable lessons; I am sure those shapes will come in handy on the other side of the world, but just cant quite remember them! I think there was something to do with a triangle?!!! LOL

We will be keeping in touch of course; issue one of our prayer letter will be circulated very soon.

Love to you all, and God bless
Paul

Wednesday 25 May 2005

Update

Well I have finished my last ever day working for the SOVA Millennium Volunteers. My last job was to upload the website that i have been working on over the last couple of weeks. I'm fairly happy about it, as I am still very new to the whole web design thing. This site being my first effort.

Well, news is that the car sale has fallen through once again so i am afraid its back to the drawing board! Please do keep praying for this, as it is causing a fair amount of anxiety for us. We are sure that God has a plan for this, but are also aware that time is running out fast.

Laura finished her final essay today so she is almost there too - she has to deliver a presentation next thursday, so will spend a couple of days preparing for that.

Just a final reminder that we are having a leaving party on Saturday night. It's a bring and share barbecue at our house, 147 Mulehouse Road, Crookes, Sheffield. Come any time from 6pm onwards and tell anyone you think might be interested. Bring a bottle or meat or some leaves! We hope to see you there...

Tuesday 24 May 2005

Dinner?

A strange request really, but given that we have no pans, plates, cuttlery, or knives (due to being sold or shipped) we are struggling to maintain the healthy lifestyle that we would like. We are in Sheffield until Friday the 3rd of June, and need to be fed until then.

Without sounding massively presumptuous, we would love to be invited out for tea over the next week, so that we can extend our diet beyond things that require none of the aforementioned tools!

We are busy this evening, and of course Saturday nights Barbecue, which of course will be sponsored by paper plates and plastic cuttlery. Other than that, we are available to be invited around for tea any night before we leave.

Don't miss this fantastic opportunity to feed us before we go!! To make a reservation please send us an email!!!

Much Love

Paul!

Monday 23 May 2005

SOFA so good...

Well, the great news is that we might have found a buyer for the car, praise the Lord. The bad news is that the SOFA customers are no longer interested, so we now have 2 beautiful sofas up for grabs. We desperately need to sell them within the next week as they have nowhere to go once we move out.

We are still trusting that God has all of this firmly in hand, and are still overwhelmed at the provision and blessings we are seing in this time.

Please pray, and again ask around if you can think of anyone who is in need of some plum red sofas £300 each or £550 for pair ONO.

Friday 20 May 2005

You gotta have faith, faith, faith!!

I'm so confused. Gods blessing has been awesome over the last couple of weeks, but I just can't understand why we haven't sold our car. I just found out that another car sale has fallen through, so with 18 days to go, we are still no closer to being rid of it.

I know that God has a plan, and I trust that is is to prosper us, but i would just love him to make it a little bit more clear to me. I urge you please to tell all your friends about the sale of our car, so that we can be rid of it ASAP in order to pay off the finance. We really do need God to interveen and do a miracle.

PRAY HARD

Thursday 19 May 2005

So much to do, so little time!

Hi everyone, well as usual, our lives are busy! Weve had non stop social engagements for almost 3 weeks, with the exception of a blissful Monday evening where I lay suffering on the sofa with a cold/flu type bug.

Last Friday was my Uni ball- this was a fantastic evening and I loved every minute of it! Everyone looked gorgeous and it felt like it was really my graduation party with all my mates, as I won’t be able to attend the real thing. Saturday we went to Daisy’s 3rd birthday party, and as a doting godfather, Paul attended but came away saying that we were never going to have parties for our children! I guess he didn’t enjoy the experience of loads of kids running around screaming?!!

We also had Paul’s parents up to stay on Saturday and Sunday; we had a lovely time and we had some really gorgeous meals- a Chinese at the Canton Orchard and a Roast at the Millstone in Hathersage. It was so lovely to see them, but I was a bit gutted I felt so poorly the whole time.

Sunday was an emotional one; we said our final goodbyes to Gareth, Lizzy, Daisy and Lucy who went of to the US this week. It was a reality check for us as we realised how hard it will be to say goodbye to everyone- we’ll miss you all!

This week is just as hectic as the last couple, however Becca and Emma are taking me to the Spa this afternoon which will be both wonderfully relaxing and lots of fun with the girls! Uni is VERY BUSY! Although I’ve finished lectures, my work has a way to go, but hopefully this time next week I’ll have finished all of it and be able to relax fro the first time this year!

We value your prayers and support during this time and we hope to see lots of you in a couple of weeks at our leaving BBQ (May 28th).

Lots of love, Laura xxx

Wednesday 11 May 2005

Our New Address

Well, Gods hand of blessing is still firmly apon us; Further to the financial blessings I mentioned in an earlier post, we were given a gift of £500 on Tuesday - isn't God awesome?

I know for some there will be an issue far greater than moving that is playing on your mind? yes thats right, its Lauras 25th birthday on 13th June, just 3 days after we arrive there. I know that it would really bless her to receive cards on her birthday, so we have gone to great lengths to find out where we will be residing for the 1st couple of weeks of our move.

Katie and St Pauls has been so helpful, and must have been listening in to our prayers because she has found us a place by the beach to stay, with internet access, so we can keep you all in touch. The address is 44 Kohimarama Road, Kohimarama, Auckland, New Zealand. The couple we are staying with even have a car that we can use for our first couple of weeks so that we're not housebound.

If you're like me, you'll want to know exactly where that is, if so click here to see a local map.

Well keep praying for us folk as time runs down; Its such a massive journey for us and a huge step of faith - we literally have no idea what we are going to find when we get there, but are more and more sure that this is Gods plan for us. Please pray that God will use us and bless people around us as we move.

The Pudding :-)

Tuesday 10 May 2005

VISA

Well, just to update you we have now officially been issued our VISAs so we are legal to work in New Zealand for 3 years once we arrive! Wahey :-)

Things are moving forward

Well the weekend was fairly manic, and it has taken a couple of days to recover; I'm sure it was meant to be the other way round!!

Firstly I want to give thanks to God for his provision for us over the last couple of weeks - we have received several generous financial gifts from folk, and we love to see God moving in this way. We heard some really encouraging stories at the Heidi Baker conference on Saturday, and this has once again boosted my faith in God for his provision for all our needs. We are still attempting to sell the car -we're hoping we may have found a buyer, but time will tell!! Please pray that we can be rid of it soon, and pray for about £2000 to cover the costs of the finance (comfotably!)

We received a phone call from NZ immigration at the end of last week, and it looks like we should receive our VISA this week, but maybe next week. The good news though is that we WILL get our VISAs. There was a little thought in us that something would go wrong somewhere, but God has it all in hand.

Well my mind is wondering, and not really on the job in hand. Have a thousand and one things to do today. Ciao

Thursday 5 May 2005

Calling All Music Fans

A great friend of mine, Rob Hill has recently started a band called Airborne and they now have a website. Robs writing is some of the best around in my oppinion and i thoroughly reccomend that you check out their site and listen to the demo.

If you like them. please sign up to their mailing list so that you can find out when they will be playing in your area - it will be a massive encouragement to them i'm sure.

The website to visit is www.airbornemusic.co.uk

Wednesday 4 May 2005

Photos

Well after much deliberation and attempts at posting photos onto the website, our photos section finally works. We only have one album online so far, but more will be appearing over the next couple of days, assuming i get the time. Once we are in NZ we will continue to post new albums to keep you all in touch with what were up to. So then, click here to take your 1st peek at gallery number 1 - our snowboarding holiday last year.
Enjoy!!!

Please note you will need flash player to view the gallery. If you don't have it, or aren't sure if you do or not, please click here to download it from the macromedia site. Its very small and takes minutes to install.

Tuesday 3 May 2005

Bank Holiday Weekend

Well, we’ve had a busy weekend with my (Laura) parents coming to visit on Friday to Sunday. We had a relaxing time together as well as finding time to go into town to buy our luggage for the journey ahead (thanks to Mum and Dad for buying it for us!); a final huddle at Gareth and Lizzy’s also took place on Saturday morning, and then a trip to church and a yummy lunch on Sunday. Monday was also busy with the weekly shop, a lot of visa forms to fill in and a wonderful BBQ with friends in the evening watching the snooker final. I feel thoroughly exhausted!

Other events in my life include the completion of my dissertation (in rough) only minutes ago!! Thank you Lord! As well as the communication with my fellow name bearer Laura Kingsley-Smith who e-mailed me to share her surprise in finding someone else with the same name. Having e-mailed her back I am even more taken back with the news that she lives in New Zealand- even better, Auckland and attends the uni there which I believe is on the same road as St Paul’s church- it’s a very small world we live in!