We Do Adventure

Yes, this is it. After a false start - we had arranged to leave yesterday - we will be packing a van at 10pm tonight ahead of a midnight departure. I'm particularly excited our van driver has booked a ferry crossing. Since we discovered how quick and easy the tunnel is it's been years since we've set sail (metaphorically) for foreign shores. I'm just hoping the weather is nice to us as heavy swells and stuffy diesel-smelling environments don't mix well in my experience! So before we go a few thanks. Thanks to my parents for putting us up over the last couple of days - and putting up with all our clutter and the constant stream of friends we kept inviting over! Thanks to the friends for coming over, particularly those sitting downstairs waiting to say goodbye while I type this! And with that I'll leave you with a video I made earlier :)

A month today we'll arrive in Mostar. In the words of Europe: it's the final countdown ! So how are our plans progressing? Well, our house is rented and our car will be advertised for sale online from tonight. We are at NoviMost HQ next week for trainnig and orientation and then the packing begins in earnest! Having not done this before it's hard to know if we're on target or not, however we're not panicing so that must be a good thing! In other, not entirely unrelated, news I joined a new video social networking site the other day. Vloggerheads is still in an 'invite-only' stage of development but it seem I have friends online! I made a video introducing myself and talked about our move. Within hours someone had repsonded with a video asking if we were being salaried, or how we were being supported. This provided the opportunity to make a very un-English video about asking for money - including mentioning the PayPal button on our Facebook profiles . Anothe...

Two months today we'll be driving across Europe with all our most important possessions packed in the back of a van. It's a funny thought. There's still something slightly unreal about it. Perhaps it won't dawn on us until the morning we leave, perhaps it won't hit home until we walk into our new accommodation in Mostar. I have so little experience of moving it's really hard to predict. I was telling a friend today that part of me would like to fast forward from now until then - skipping the whole, undoubtedly painful, process in-between. But it doesn't work like that. And nor should it. The leaving and grieving is important. So far it's not been outwardly emotional, or at least not in a sobbing kind of way. (Doubtless that'll come!) But locking the door on our church youth event on Saturday night was strange. It's been one of the centre points of almost every weekend for the last five and a half years. It's over now. That the event won't...

Time is flying by and 'that was the last time...' is finding itself a well-worn phrase. Last night was the last time we'd attend a youth meeting at Kingdom Faith Church. For me this draws to a close 15 years of involvement in the youth work. I was at the very first youth meeting and haven't missed many in the last decade and a half! To mark the occassion I made good on a throw-away comment and condensed all the wisdom I've gathered over that time into a three-minute online video. My parting gift, as it were, is The Way It Seems To Me...enjoy!