Week 26 (14 – 20 Jan 2007)
On Sunday we were seeing friends at Brentwood Baptist Church and gave an update on our progress so far with photographs. It was an African 10 minutes (nearer 20 mins in the end) but with so much to tell the time went too quickly. We were also late for lunch as again we were ‘fighting against time’ as we spoke to many friends after the service. We had a good time in the evening with Gill, Steve and Emma but it was much too short.
Monday was spent trying to pack our cases with throwbacks to July. The cases are too small and everything is too heavy. Yet again, we had to leave behind some things. My trainers now have an inferiority complex as they have now been rejected twice. Serves them right for being cheap ones in the first place! There were various other things to sort out and finish off so it was a fairly busy day.
We returned to Brentwood on Tuesday to have my attempts at cutting Andrea’s hair assessed – favourably, but then Paula has to be kind to keep our business! Last minute shopping and a visit to Doris and Dennis were priorities but meant we didn’t have time to visit school again. Pity, as we wanted to see some other friends. Brian kindly arrived at 4pm to take us to the airport. The cases were closed (just) by this stage but the hand luggage just wouldn’t fit. BA only allows one bag on the return so the laptop had to be put inside a rucksack. Heavy! We arrived on time and the flight was delayed by 2 hours due to a faulty valve which was replaced while we were on the plane. It left at 11pm.
Our arrival on Wednesday went smoothly although we had little sleep and the film entertainment system wasn’t working. We booked into the AIM conference hotel with no problems and had time to rest before others arrived later in the afternoon.
Thursday was one of those traumatic days. At 7.30am we were told that the 15 year old daughter of an AIM (US) family had just died of malaria with complications. Andrea and I had not met the family, who were working in Jinja, Uganda and have four other younger children. Many others at the conference new them well so the atmosphere was very subdued as we prayed for them and those, such as our friend Lyn, who were with the family and sorting out funeral and travel arrangements back to the US via UK.
Although many of the key people from the conference committee and AIM were unavailable for the conference it went ahead as planned and very little was changed. The accommodation and food was good although the programme left little time to chat with other folk. We made the most of the free time and renewed friendships as well as meeting some for the first time. With three from N Ireland and three from Scotland there was a considerable Celtic influence – and some interpretation was needed! On Saturday evening we had a bar-b-que by the swimming pool where Andrea and I had a brief swim earlier. We celebrated two birthdays, with Lyn being 31 again. It was very pleasant sitting outside as the sun set before retiring to one of the conference rooms nearby to play a board game.
Monday was spent trying to pack our cases with throwbacks to July. The cases are too small and everything is too heavy. Yet again, we had to leave behind some things. My trainers now have an inferiority complex as they have now been rejected twice. Serves them right for being cheap ones in the first place! There were various other things to sort out and finish off so it was a fairly busy day.
We returned to Brentwood on Tuesday to have my attempts at cutting Andrea’s hair assessed – favourably, but then Paula has to be kind to keep our business! Last minute shopping and a visit to Doris and Dennis were priorities but meant we didn’t have time to visit school again. Pity, as we wanted to see some other friends. Brian kindly arrived at 4pm to take us to the airport. The cases were closed (just) by this stage but the hand luggage just wouldn’t fit. BA only allows one bag on the return so the laptop had to be put inside a rucksack. Heavy! We arrived on time and the flight was delayed by 2 hours due to a faulty valve which was replaced while we were on the plane. It left at 11pm.
Our arrival on Wednesday went smoothly although we had little sleep and the film entertainment system wasn’t working. We booked into the AIM conference hotel with no problems and had time to rest before others arrived later in the afternoon.
Thursday was one of those traumatic days. At 7.30am we were told that the 15 year old daughter of an AIM (US) family had just died of malaria with complications. Andrea and I had not met the family, who were working in Jinja, Uganda and have four other younger children. Many others at the conference new them well so the atmosphere was very subdued as we prayed for them and those, such as our friend Lyn, who were with the family and sorting out funeral and travel arrangements back to the US via UK.
Although many of the key people from the conference committee and AIM were unavailable for the conference it went ahead as planned and very little was changed. The accommodation and food was good although the programme left little time to chat with other folk. We made the most of the free time and renewed friendships as well as meeting some for the first time. With three from N Ireland and three from Scotland there was a considerable Celtic influence – and some interpretation was needed! On Saturday evening we had a bar-b-que by the swimming pool where Andrea and I had a brief swim earlier. We celebrated two birthdays, with Lyn being 31 again. It was very pleasant sitting outside as the sun set before retiring to one of the conference rooms nearby to play a board game.
posted by Anonymous at 8:45 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home