Post No.11 - The Best is Yet to Come!

The birthday cake from Harrods

"Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you..." Well, today I'm 57 years old.Wow, that's old! I've been reflecting on that over the last few days, as you do, but in a positive way - I don't have time to be morbid! I've been thinking about what I've achieved with my life, especially in relation to the things of God, and I've decided the best is still to come! The best with my family, my friends, my marriage, my golf handicap, my ministry, and St Andrew's! The culture of Bethel does that to you - it is the closest I've come to experiencing a truly kingdom culture, one that is totally confident that what God is about to do is always better than the past because that is the nature of God and his kingdom. It's not that the past is unimportant, just the opposite, but we don't live there, we live now for his future.

Combining work & pleasure!

We are well and still having a ball, but we are starting to look towards home! We've had our last Sunday at Bethel, which also means the last worship experience - they've been fabulous! And the other day we ran into Bill Johnson who prayed for us; that was special. We had prayed that God would set up an opportunity for Bill to pray with us before we left, and God did! On Friday we leave for Bainbridge Island, Seattle to spend 5 days with Jenni & Grant (my sister and brother-in-law) at their church. On the way we are going to stay the night at Molalla with Linley Meisch (nee York - Ken & Wenda's daughter); in fact we are going to be staying in the home of Wenda's sister, Linley's auntie. On the Saturday we will drive through Portland and onto Seattle. While we are there I hope to start writing up my sabbatical report along with a bit of sight-seeing and shopping, I suspect. The following Thursday we fly out of Seattle to SFO (about a 3 hour stop-over) and then on to New Zealand. Hopefully one of our boys will be there meet us at Auckland airport... hint, hint!

Our Anna's hummingbird (female)

We are going to miss the Bethel community as they have been so genuinely welcoming and encouraging; and we're also going to miss our swimming pool. The water in Seattle is cold (brrrrr!) so I think that might be it until the NZ summer. And we will also miss watching the hummingbirds! We have loved these amazing little creatures feeding at out front door. Lenda has spent hours trying to photograph them on our little camera - not as easy as you think! It has been a spiritual experience in its own right, like the redwoods, just different - the big and the small - God is so amazing!

Please pray for us, as we transition once again, that God will continue to provide for our needs and set up encounters along the way where we will be able to witness to his goodness and salvation. Blessings, Ian & Lenda