Spring is in the air!

The weather has started to warm, the days are getting longer & the trees have buds & blossoms on them. Although in saying that, we had a light dusting of snow last night. Rather strange!

Work

We have been plodding away at work, which has started to become less fulfilling. We have both realized that we love youth/children & teaching, but the classroom setting is more about management & less about relationship. I will start fulltime at school next term which will help the money saving, but we are really counting the days until the end of year (July 20^th) & will most probably be leaving then.

Church

Been really enjoying church lately, making a few friends & feel encouraged each time we go. Jon has started playing with the band and we feel at home there. We are doing a series at the moment entitled cross/words leading up to Easter, which have been really good. You can check out the sermons at http://www.watfordcommunitychurch.org

Home

Our house has seen some changes with new flatmates (Matt & Tess). Matt is a teacher at school & we get on with them really well. We spend time together eating, discussing & doing stuff, so our house now feels more like a shared home rather than just a place we sleep & eat.

Sport

We started back at playing squash each week, Jon plays badminton with the teachers each week too, & I have started cricket training with a teacher from school. We have also joined a touch team for the coming season. It has been good to get back into sport & socialize at the same time. With Matt moving in, we no longer need to walk to his place each morning, so the sport provides another form of exercise. Plus we have had our fair share of couch sport with the cricket & rugby!

Trips

While my brother was here we lived life at a hectic pace, one weekend we were in Guildford visiting relatives, Brighton another weekend, a monopoly board crawl with photos at each street, & then in the mid-term break we headed off to Ireland for 4 days. We stayed in Dublin, but explored out to the west to Galway, & south to Kilkenny. It was beautiful scenery & really friendly people. We were also there while the Irish vs. English 6 nations rugby game was being played. We watched it in a packed pub & really enjoyed the atmosphere, especially as the English were given a hiding!

My friend from Ukraine who was going to come & visit these coming holidays was denied a visa, so instead for the Easter break we are planning a 7 day road trip through Wales, northern England, a bit of Scotland & the Lake District. Really looking forward to it, as we explore & see more of God’s beautiful creation.

Future

We have had many plans, offers & thoughts about what we should do at the end of our time here. It has been confusing at times & often we felt torn in two (or three or four). But we have waited for God to open doors & at this time we are preparing to go & live in Ukraine. We have been in contact with the British International School in Kiev & it seems highly likely that we will both be offered jobs there, so we are now in the process of dealing with the logistics of shifting & starting there in September.

Little anecdotes & other thoughts & stories can be found on either of these blogsites…

www.roofellin.blogspot.com & www.ruthpastor.blogspot.com