Boxes, boxes everywhere

I'm not exaggerating either. Our house is full of boxes. Thankfully very soon these will all be transferred to our parents, and we're sure they will be delighted.

Our long, wet, summer is drawing to a close. We've managed to keep ourselves busy, mostly organising stuff for moving, however with less than 24 hours till we move everything out it still seems to be all last minute and rushed.

This evening we are off to a farewell BBQ with our church housegroup. Then tomorrow we will fill our hired van and transport all the stuff we have accumulated over the years back to our Mums & Dads. I'm sure it will only seem like yesterday they managed to get rid of it all. We then have only a few hours to get back up to Liverpool with our van or they will charge us an exorbitant amount for late return.

We leave our house for good on Friday, handing over the keys to the two girls who will be renting it. We are staying in Liverpool for the weekend, a farewell meal with friends at our favourite Curry house and then a goodbye meal at church on Sunday.

We then return to the south and have a week with our family before a week on holiday in Portugal with our two little sisters. Then we head for Birmingham and the start of our training.

It still seems a long way off, but in 3 weeks from now we shall be living in Birmingham! We were talking the other day about how strange, and sad, that our days in Liverpool are coming to an end. I've been here 9 years and Becky 6. As long as either of us have lived anywhere. I've now managed 9 years in Thetford, 9 in Grove and Liverpool has completed the set. Hopefully it won't be 9 in Birmingham too!

As Liverpool celebrates it's 800th birthday today, it seems fitting that the celebrations are rounding off our stay here. It's been a great city for us both, we came not knowing the other and leave on a joint adventure.

Dan & Becky

Leaving Work

Hello again. Thought it time we update you all on our adventures - even though they are barely started.

We've now both finished work. We won't teach another class for 6 months! It's weird to think that we won't be going back to our respective schools in September, I guess it'll really start to sink in about then that we are making big changes. Mind you if we were going back in September we wouldn't have got such nice presents from our friends at work.

Knowing my fondness for a certain football team my form brought me a huge Norwich flag which they all signed and a Norwich football. We also received many other gifts that will remind us of our work there.

We're now working our way through the summer. I'm keeping busy marking coursework and this week Becky is helping out at our church Summer Kids Club. It means she's dressing up as a pirate for the week!

Things are beginning to fall very smoothly into place. Becky's car was sold with minimal fuss and no need for advertising. Hopefully mine will follow suit in January. Our finances are starting to take shape too. We've set up a bank account that allows for free withdrawals abroad, slightly better than £1.50 every time with our current bank! We are also in the process of setting up a Stewardship Account, which will allow anyone who wishes to support us financially to have the money gift aided. Those of you who would like details about this then just make a comment to this message(we won't publish it) or email us.

Next week we celebrate our second wedding anniversary, which appears to have come round staggeringly fast. It will also see a sad day as we will be giving away our cats. Never thought I'd say that but it's strange what effect 2 little cats can have on you when you live with them for 2 years! Still, they are going to a good home!

That's all for now,

Dan

Birmingham

Thought it was time that I added my voice to this blog since Dan has started it off.

Last Saturday (9th June) we went down to Birmingham for the day to see where we would be when we go down in September for 3 months training. We met 2 of the people who run the training as well as some others who will be doing the training with us as they also prepare to go overseas.

While we are there we will have classes each morning, and then some study time each afternoon. We will be doing a variety of courses on the Bible, Christian doctrine, other religions, mission, cross cultural preparation, BMS, practicalities of moving and living abroad and so on.

The training centre is all in one building, where we will live, eat and study. We will have a small en suite room to ourselves, food is fully catered and there are quite a few communal facilities such as a lounge, computer room, gym and library. We are really looking forward to the change from normal life for a term, seeing it as a break from work and a great opportunity to prepare for going abroad. However, we are a little concerned about the lack of private space we will have there, but it is only for one term and I'm sure it will be character building!!

In the last week or so we have found 2 girls from our church here in Liverpool to rent our house, and a friend of mine (and her boyfriend) from uni has agreed to adopt our two gorgeous cats! Which is great news!

Becky.

All official now

Well there's no going back now, both Becky and myself have had our replacements appointed. It's brought to us a clear realisation that we are out of here!

I think I've found this harder as I'm more established in my school than Becky. We have both enjoyed strong departments and a good group of friends which we will miss.

We've also realised we're going to be missing at least 3 weddings while we're away, probably more, my Mum's 60th birthday and of course Norwich City's assault on the Championship title next year and their successful qualification for the Champions League the season after. We're definitely disappointed about this (not the football, the other things), but also recognise that this is all part of the sacrifice you have to make to have this amazing opportunity.

We've also been reassured that we're making the right move in the past few weeks. Everything is slotting into place relatively smoothly. Whenever we seem to hit a problem or a snag the solution is quickly apparent.

We are still looking to rent our house. We have some interested parties, but nothing certain yet, so if you do know anybody that is looking to rent a very nice, fully furnished 2 bedroom house in South Liverpool then get in touch!

We're going down to IMC in Birmingham in a few weeks. This is where we'll be living in September. It's a chance to look round and get a feel for what life for 3 months might be like. Hopefully we'll also meet some of the other mid-term people we'll be training with at the same time.

Dan

A brand new start

Hey, it's here, the one you've all been waiting for!

We've decided to set up a blog to keep people uptodate with us as we prepare, train and go with BMS to Nepal.

I guess theres not much to say at the minute, if you're reading this you'll already be aware of our impending move. Just to go over the details for you:

In July we'll both finish at our schools in Merseyside. In September we'll move to Birmingham to train at the International Mission Centre in Selly Oak. Then after 3 months of being students again we'll fly to Nepal in early January 2008!

We'll be teaching at a school called Kathmandu International Study Centre, or KISC for short. Check out the website www.kisc.edu.np .

We'll try and use this site to keep you up to date with what's going on with us and hopefully include some photos so you get and an idea of what our lives our like in Nepal.

We hope you enjoy reading this blog.

Dan & Becky