On The Road

The centre of Palmerston North!

We've been on the road for just over a week now. We've seen Hamilton, Otorohanga, the Waitomo glow worm caves (better than they sound!), the Tongiriro National Park (which is often better than it was for us - wet and cloudy!) and have visited friends in Wanganui. We are currently in Palmerston North for a few days - me meeting students and Ines and the kids doing touristy stuff.

The caravan is feeling more homely (especially since the purchase of a heater!) and we are a bit more in the pace of life travelling in NZ. There have been some real high points of the last week (the bush walks, the scenery, meeting students who are keen to proclaim Jesus, seeing friends again) as well as some real low points (the car not starting and having to call the AA out, the reality of missing home and friends). We expected both, doesn't stop the good being great and the lows being hard to take.

Ines and I are listening to some tapes from Word Alive this last year - seminars on the Trinity and the importance of adhereing to Biblical faith. They have been a real encouragement to us and have helped us to look to Jesus in the midst of the highs and lows.

Thank you for praying for us it makes all the difference. Will write more when I get the chance. We're off to Wellington next week: I hope to get time to write more from there...

till then, see ya!

the jeep!

for some weird reason the pic would not load with the text - but here it is the new Shudmobile!

Where we belong?

Our arrival in Auckland has been heralded by some of the worst weather, for the time of year, in living memory – it is perishingly cold! We are all wrapped in various layers of clothing and trying to keep warm. We also landed into a general election we don’t really understand and the theft of a small plane (that’s right, the theft of a plane!) which was flown around central Auckland and the guy who stole it threatened to crash it into the Skytower (“the tallest building in the southern hemisphere”) before crashing it into the sea. He was rescued by some of the people who watched gob-smacked by his aeronautical antics. To say that it has been an eventful weekend for the people for New Zealand is to say the least. Things, as they say, can only get better!

In the haze of jet lag and the frantic search for a caravan and car almost all of this has passed us by: the wind we’ve noticed, as it has cut us in two! The search is over – not only have we secured a caravan, we’ve also bought a HUGE monster of a jeep to pull it up and down the beauty of New Zealand (see above). It’s called a BigHorn – and it lives up to its name. We’ve joined the AA, insured ourselves and are just about ready for the beginning of the adventure.

It seems like we have been here a huge amount of time already – but in reality it has been just 3 days. I am so aware of God’s people praying for us – despite being grumpy (us/me – not the ones praying!) due to jet lag and the stress of sorting out a lot in so short a time, we’ve known God’s provision again and again. We’re really grateful and humbled.

Nigel Pollock is in town at the moment, he’s been travelling around NZ for the last 10 days meeting church leaders, sharing the vision of TSCF, as well as meeting with the staff team. He and his family are coming out in December. We’ll be meeting him in Auckland on Thursday – it will be good to catch up with him: our first meeting since we both left UCCF staff. Val Goold (TSCF Head of Student Ministries) is travelling with him and hopefully we’ll catch up with her as well.

In the “Warehouse” today (imagine a mix between Aldi, B&Q and Asda and you have the Warehouse) the woman at the checkout asked the kids if there was no school today. We told her that we were new to New Zealand and that it would be a while for us to sort out a school – she smiled kindly and said, “aren’t you lucky?” to the kids. A fellow shopper at the next till, made a bee-line for us and said with a clear estuary [south east England] accent – “so you’re new in are you? You’ve come to the right place!” We mumbled thanks. But the thanks should be shouted and declared with praise – we are in the right place, despite jet lag, plummeting temperatures, aeronautical threats and the stress of getting our living arrangements sorted out WE ARE IN THE RIGHT PLACE. This is where God wants us, we need to remember that.

Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest for herself,
where she may lay her young, at your altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God.
Happy are those who live in your house, ever singing your praise. (Selah)
Happy are those whose strength is in you, in whose heart are the highways to Zion
Psalms 84:3-5

We're here...

Home sweet home - well for the time being anyway!

Our journey out of Singapore did not begin in a very relaxing way. We sat on the plane and the pilot announced;

"ladies and gentlemen, we want to apologise for the delay in take off, we have a small problem with our air conditioning"

After the tragedy in Greece that was the last thing I needed to hear. The first two hours of the flight were not the most relaxing - finally I got over it, watched some films and tried to sleep.

We landed just 90 minutes late and were met by Jeff Lane, another member of TSCF staff. We're so humbled by the way in which we've been welcomed. We've been lent a home, Jeff and his wife made us dinner, Val gave us a goody bag and someone (as yet unknown) has given us the use of a very nice car for as long as we need it. We are so grateful to God for his generous provison (again).

Since then we've slept (the kids did 14 hours last night! though R and D had a 3am jet-lag confusion moment, but they soon got back to sleep after a few stern words from a very sleepy me) and started shopping - we've already bought a caravan - check out what we got at http://www.trademe.co.nz/structure/auction_detail.asp?id=35697444 and remember it is a $2.5/£1 exchange rate - and are currently working on a car/jeep to tow it: please pray for wisdom as we make big decisions. The touring adventure begins soon.

We are all well, tired but satisfied that we are here. We've spoken with our families and the good phone lines make the distance and time difference seem irrelevant, which is weird.

Ready for bed: goodnight!

Shudall's on the Way!

The Shudalls - jet lagged in Eden?

Singapore is beautiful! We arrived after a great flight: tired, a bit freaked out but also relieved that we are finally on our way.

We chilled at our very nice hotel (http://www.holidaycity.com/allson-singapore/) before heading out to explore the city a bit. We took the bus to the botanical garden and spent some time wandering about on a rainforest walk and then we went through the national Orchid collection. It is amazing to see plants and flowers out in the open that are limited to green houses in the UK.

It is so hot and humid here that in the orchid collection area there is a "cool house"! I could have stayed there longer - not for the plants but for the temp. It was weird emerging into the open air only for my specs to mist up - something that's happened to me in winter coming in from the cold but never going outside before!

The terror (almost totally!) has abated and has been replaced by anticipation and excitement - we are VERY aware that people are praying for us and that prayers are being answered. We are jet lagged (the kids slept for 14 hours last night) but are having fun - today we are heading out to a huge minigolf place and then tonight we are going to the night safari in the zoo.

We are really grateful for this pause and rest before moving on to New Zealand (Thurs 15th) but NOW we are ready to move on. Thanks for coming with us!

Terrified

I’m terrified. There is no other word for it. I’m not quite sure why exactly – in fact, there is no ‘exactly’. The magnitude of what I’m about to do with my family in tow terrifies me.

(NO KIDDING - As I’m typing this, a tourism advert for NZ is on TV – the song in the background? “you’ve been waiting too long”!!!! Don’t know whether to laugh or cry.)

Right now, the next 3 days could not pass slowly enough. It’s not that I’m having second thoughts, if anything I’m all the more confident that this is the right thing to do. I’m just terrified.

I wish I could say that I’m handling the terror well, that it was driving me to prayer, that I’m aware of God’s presence – but you know, I’m not handling it well: I’m crabby, irritable and a bit unbearable. If you’re praying – pray more for patience for those around me as well as for transformation OF me!

No matter the height or depth of terror (which is more correct – to be discussed in the comment section no doubt?) that I feel at the moment, Monday morning will come and we will board the plane. We have emptied our house in Leicester and entrusted the keys to the estate agent, said goodbye to friends, eaten more goodbye meals than is healthy, shipped 6 suitcases on a slow boat to the southern hemisphere and we’re all but ready to go. Not to go, would at the very least be rude!

The next few days will have more goodbyes, at least one more goodbye meal (seven weeks of plenty to be followed by several months of famine?) and a lot more terror.

Please do pray for us – especially for the kids: saying goodbye is hard for us all, but for them the terror is harder to express, harder to quantify and more difficult to put into perspective. They look to us for their safety and security: pray that we’ll provide what we can and point them to the One who is the greater rock of security.

Monday we fly to Singapore for 3 days – a bit of a break/no man’s land to prepare ourselves for all the hello’s of the coming months! I guess the next time I type it will be from the other side of the equator. Toodle pip!