wet plaster

here's nigel inspecting the newly plastered kitchen walls

6x rewards

after helping mal and his family move last night, martin had really earned a very special reward...
so we introduced him to the delights of wadworth's 6x at the rose and crown
(I know what you're thinking - we can't take giles anywhere!)

norwegian inspection

martin and anne-marie had a quick tour of the house
the old back door has been blocked up and the plumber has started work

en norske frokost

martin and anne-marie also arrived last night from norway, bringing kaviar and blåbær syltetøy (that's blueberry jam for the uninitiated! or blueberry jelly for uninitiated americans)
hmmmm!

sweden meets bristol

great to see jonathan and susan in such good form!
skye and joseph loved connecting with their cousins

bish bash bosh

the builders are making steady progress on the house, here's the new back door ready to be fitted (you can see the electrical fittings cut into the walls too)

friends

we spent a lovely evening with friends wayne, tracy, mal and chriscelle and their families

can we fix it?

yes we can!
planning permission for the building work on our new house was officially approved today by the local government! woohoo!

little helper

just like skye, jojo loves to join in with whatever is going on - one of his favorite things is emptying the dishwasher!

steel!

the new steelwork is going into the kitchen

scooter

thanks to aunties annie and margaret and grandparents for the amazing pink birthday scooter - what a hit!

birds

a future bono?

more joe cool!

joe cool

focus on the fairy

had a fantastic fairy princess party today...

skye's birthday breakfast

click here for part 2

father and son

opening up

another view of the dining and kitchen area
as you can see, it's still early stages!

said goodbye to olivia today

as she starts a new season working with with glo in burundi

demolition progress

this is where the kitchen will be (once the walls come down...)

finally

got the builders started on the house today! woohoo!

the calm before the (building) storm

so is it just me?

I don't know how I got thinking about it

maybe it's the exagerated speech, the almost-maniacal gesturing, messianic tendancies even...

but were doctor who and robert peston separated at birth? or is that - like clark kent and superman - you just never see him in the same place at the same time?

big (and overdue) review

so here's our big christmas review and news update!
we've gone back to may 07 when we left america and landed in the green and pleasant land of bristol, england...
wishing you a very merry christmas and happy new year!

(do email us or catch us on facebook for more)

december 08

house! woohoo!

november 08

a fantastic ministry trip to norway!

october 08

we love our kids! they love each other!

september 08

we enjoyed a fantastic family break in the mountains of norway
along with our friends kari, geir, andreas and christopher

august 08

we spent our summer vacation in yorkshire
we learned about traditional 'kissing gates'!
(after this phil had a weekend adventure in the mountains which ended with a viral infection and 3 days in hospital with vomiting and diarrhoea, ooo)

july 08

the fantastic year team bristol group graduated! well done everyone!

june 08

we had an amazing time in india seeking God and learning loads, as well as joyfully reconnecting with our beautiful friends francis, esther and jean in bombay!

may 08

we moved out from the city to the countryside!
here's mags and jojo in our cute farmhouse style kitchen

april 08

jojo and booboo! the smiles say it all

march 08

we made a trip to visit friends at a church in northern ireland
they're challenging us in a lovely way by taking God's love out on the streets and praying for healing with the people they meet

february 08

since arriving in bristol we have made (and deepened) some wonderful friendships! here are our big pals greg and sophie
they've taught us lots - including the game they call 'boygirl'

january 08

the year team hit home/six runs in ministry in norway! flott!

december 07

here are some the good people involved in the volunteer mentoring scheme that phil coordinates in the local youth prison
the aim of the scheme is pretty cool - to support young men, help them get their lives back on track and stay out of trouble when they are released from prison

november 07

our man of the year! joseph! woohoo! praise God!

october 07

lots of good things started this fall/autumn...
here's one of them - the year team bristol discipleship group, small but powerful!

september 07

by the grace of God (and the owner) we began to meet in an amazing historical house, which has become our base for prayer, retreat and training
the house was built more than 370 years ago, making it older than the usa!

august 07

so this is bristol! a small city with 400 000 souls
it's important as the regional hub of south-west england
bristol is home to europe's largest balloon festival and the world's first
suspension bridge, pictured here spanning the avon gorge at clifton
(can you spot the rock climbers?)

july 07

the adventures continued through the summer...
phil and mason visited yellowstone national park and climbed the grand teton in wyoming – a beautiful mountian known as the matterhorn of north america

june 07

we celebrated skye's birthday as we moved into a fantastic spacious shared house in central bristol - affectionately called 'the ark'

may 07

after leaving south carolina and before landing in england we spent a few very happy days with our fantastic friends eric and jill in washington dc
here's skye and mags (and joseph - can you spot him?) at the capitol

mmm

häagen-dazs pralines & cream is surely the finest ice cream on earth!

new house

woohoo! our big news is that we bought a house today!
we have lots of building (remodeling) work planned so it may be a while before it becomes 'home'
we're really pleased and thank God for His provision and blessing

thanksgiving

thank God for thanksgiving!
mags made a delicious turkey dinner with all the trimmings and we told each other (and God) the things we want to give thanks for
(sadly no picture of the meal as our camera has died)

wonderful

to be on a God-adventure with some of my best friends in the whole wide world! here's tchad, phil, christian, christoffer and olivia having fun in norway

caught making a monkey of myself

by lars in norway - thanks mate

from the mouths of babes

we had a conversation at dinner time that went like this....
(phil) so skye, who do think will win the election?
(skye) you will, daddy!
(phil) I'm not in the election
(mags) obama or mccain?
(skye) banana!

sad day

for a very famous phillip

a happy day

to see the gamecocks stick a w on the vols!

recovering in bristol

so we're happy to be back in bristol, all in one piece!

mis-adventures

well, 3 of us managed to climb 4 of the 14!
it was a weekend of adversity: gearbox failure on the way saw one car retired early, inhospitable weather with strong winds, heavy rain & low cloud made it feel more like march than august, one tent sunk & destroyed
one camping table crushed, one man went home early, five soaked through, finally jim & I fell ill with suspected food poisoning and were admitted to hospital in sheffield!
a great weekend, an epic, almost a classic!

here's a pic richard took on saturday looking north from crib goch to llanberis

welsh adventures

we got up at 4am to climb all 14 of the welsh mountains over 3000 feet high
here's richard on crib goch around 7am
and yes, you guessed it, the weather was bobbins

sheffield and wales

off to sheffield today
phil's going on to wales to climb mountains with some of the men-folk in honour of jon's 40th birthday

mor mor & mor far

skye had some fantastic mor mor & mor far time on a trip out to the lovely parcevall hall gardens today

who's that with our joseph?

it was so great to see joe and michelle again recently and celebrate their marriage with them - thanks for coming to england guys!

chilling

I can't remember the last time I watched so much tv in the daytime...
I'm loving the olympics, shouting for nicole cook (and then crying when she won), even distracted from food by the us v china basketball
all with no commercial breaks, bliss!

grandpa time

joseph and cousin adam have been getting some good grandpa time

holiday and family

the holidays have started! woohoo!
here we are (just woken up) with family who've dropped in too: adam & marianne, cousin gerald & his lovely girlfriend aise

spike

star

despite the haircut, I've got to hand it to michael vaughan
he's not just a great cricketer, he's also a brilliant captain and a real star

fun