Guests

We had a very nice weekend with our guests!
We enjoyed the food, Dutch pea soup and apple-pie!

We were aible to go through a lot with Francis and Margreet. It was also very good to have Wigcher and Anja around.
They joined for our shared dinner at our house. Food from India! (Spicy)
We learned a new Indian game called "Mancala"
The Werstraete's oops.. Verstraete's are back in Holland when we write this.
Thank you for ever so much!! (Especially for the Dutch treats!)
We are ready for the next week
!

Saturday...

We finished this week. Saturday is a day of rest for us.
Not that the kids stay in their bed longer than normal,
but we take turns to sleep :).
10 o 'clock to the ASDA for our weekly stock. Stefan is so tired that we try to get him to sleep after lunch. He doesn't want to go to bed, but we think he needs it. Marcel is going to lie next to him and when he is asleep Stefan climbs silently out of the bed.

After coffee Mintje is going to shop and then it's already time to pick up Margreet en Francis from OMF-NL from the train station.

They had a good journey and are brave enough to have dinner with us.
We eat pea-soup, a typical Dutch soup with Dutch peas! After dinner Margreet and Francis offered to do the washing up, so we had the time to bring the children to their beds. After their hard work we bring Margreet and Francis to their apartment for some rest :). Meanwhile Wigcher Calls from Idburry.
Wigcher and Anja stayed with their brother Anton and his family.
They arrive at 21:00 at Gloucester station.
The wind blows our car almost from the road...

Wonderfull to meet with Wigcher and Anja. After a nice chat we bring them to Redcliffe. Wigcher is back to his student time in Zwolle. I hope we shut down the Fry-pan.
Good night.
Tomorrow a new weeks starts again…

Friday...

Stefan woke us up at six
So we enjoyed an early breakfast. Strange, but with more time we were later then we usually are...At the end everybody was at the right time at school.

Naomi goes to the crèche together with Harmen.
Because we woke up early, she may sleep at the crèche today.
Mintje and Marcel enjoy their weekly marathon lecture 'Between the Testaments'
Marcel had to do some research about the Sadducees.
He discovered that some of the sons of the High Priest had a surgery to restore the appearance of a foreskin, for gymnastic purposes.
You can understand that this is interesting stuff between the other things I read, but I could not figure it out. Sijmen could explain it to me the other morning. The Greek sported at that time naked, so this Jews didn't like to be different!
Again I have learned something here at Redcliffe!
After lunch we went to the ASDA for some shopping and after that we collected the children. We get the shock of or live as Thomas nearly escapes from a bad accident. A car stops just on time, he hits Thomas at his leg, but he is not harmed.
It is just the shock and we praise God for that!
You just realize that these things can happen every day. Daily live is a miracle!

In the afternoon we did nothing important. At five Tim Wray came along to eat some Dutch fries. Later we watched an Afrikaner movie which was fun.
We also watched BBC's 'around the world in 80 faiths'.
Bedtime. Tomorrow Saturday! Nothing!! I think I will find time to post this message..

Thursday...

Every morning we feel like waking up the whole house by waking up ourselves. When our morning ritual is ready we are able to get some rest in the lecture hall at our lecture about 'The Biblical Basis of Mission' while our children are at school.




It is interesting to see that even in the Old Testament you can read a lot about
God's Mission to bring Salvation into this world. We learn a lot from the lectures.
This term it tends to be more work, but we enjoy taking the same classes.
Mintje passes for her essay about The Old Testament!


The children were looking forward to this day, especially Anoek and Leon because they had an art-project.
Thomas brought back his Kingsholm book home with all his work from term 1.
in Stefans classroom is a real beach with a surf board and water.
After our lectures we had some time to do our reading for the lectures tomorrow.



After washing up duty we collected the children.
At half past three we drunk thee together.
Anoek had her keyboard lessons from Ju Hee.

Meanwhile Mintje prepared some 'hachee' and at half past five we could eat.
After that Naomi, Stefan and Thomas had a shower.
Mintje is going to a 'social' at the college.
After bringing the children to bed Marcel likes to play a silly game Bop IT Extreme!
Mintje comes back at nine and then Marcel has to go to the 'resource' room to do some printing. Tomorow it is Friday...
We hope to get some pictures from the crèche and of course our Fryer!

Wednesday...

Yesterday evening we already prepared the
lunchboxes for today! All our children eat
lunch at Kingsholm primary school.
Mintje, Marcel and Naomi eat lunch at
Redcliffe College.
This morning the alarm clock
did go off!


We had enough time for a relaxed breakfast.
We walked to school together with the
Mongolian family. It takes us about ten
minutes to walk to school.
It is a good exercise in the morning!
The children are talking about so many things.
They also see the typical English busses driving by.




Naomi and Marcel cleaned the table and at 8:50 Naomi attended crèche.
A lecture about Post modernism was on the menu...
Rob Cook did a great job, because even Marcel could understand it :)
After this lecture of two hours we had our Redcliffe Devotions.
We had a visitor from Gloucester Prison and he shared about working with prisoners.
After that we had our weekly community group.
Adelina from the Ukraine shared her testimony.
Amazing how different life as a persecuted Christian family is!
It was encouraging to hear Gods work in her life.

After community group we had lunch at the college.
Today there was fish and potatoes.
At 15:10 we collected the children from school and we enjoyed an early thee at 17:00.
The children played together and watched a funny movie about a tribe in Africa.
This evening Marcel and Leon will play pool and after that there is still some reading we have to do for our lectures tomorrow.
eindstand 0-3

Tuesday...

The Alarm clock did not go at 6:45,
but Stefan saved us by waking us up at 7:00!
Today we all go to school.
Naomi goes to the crèche and the other children are going to Kingsholm.
Thomas has a special day because he is going to the seaquarium in Weston!
He had a wonderful time!



Mintje and Marcel are going to the same lectures this term. Today it's wealth and poverty. We found out that affluence is not the opposite of influence :)
These lectures are good for us because it raises questions we need to answer in our future.

After this lecture we studied in the library on several subjects and after that we picked up Naomi.
Naomi was the only one so she had all the attention.
We had a nice lunch but we could not figure out what it was.
Marcel had to do the washing up and after that he fixed his bike.

At 15:10 we picked up the children from school.
We baked some pancakes and eat them at 17:00.



The children now have time to play before they go to bed.
At 20:00 Marcel and Mintje are going out for a run.
After a shower they are going to spend some hours studying.

Whats in a week?

This week we post a message every day about our daily routines.
Sunday we started the week in Kendal Road, The church we join every Sunday. In the afternoon we had supper with the other families in our house. We had 'hutspot' en 'snert' and applepie as desert, easy to gues who prepared the food!







After supper we played some games. It is very special to live with different family's in one house.



In the evening we prayed and talked together about the advantages and disavandtages of living together in the same house. Funnie to see that the new family goes trough the same fases we went trough, also amazing to see how soon you forget about that.

It is Monday and the children are at school. Leon and Anoek have a visiting trip to the River Severn. They first go to a farm and then follow a whole program. It's raining here so we hope they will enjoy themselves!
Mintje just left to go on her placement with the Salvation Army. Naomi and Marcel stay home today.

After lunch Marcel has to do his cleaning duty and after that we pick up the children from school.

Snow...

This year we got a good start: There was snow and the children where still free from school! For some children this was their first snow experience. Enjoy the short movie and the pictures.



After this one snowmorning we all started to study again. Mintje and Marcel have new interesting lectures and Leon, Anoek, Thomas and Stefan have started a new term at Kingsholm.
Naomi started her third term at Redcreche University.

Home again...

I stole this picture off Redcliffe College from Marijn en Noortje's website:
www.marijnennoortje.nl.
We are back in England. Redcliffe House is still there although you can't see it on the picture. The new family from mongolie is already here. It is a new change in the house. We hope they enjoy it! This Monday the lectures on Redcliffe start. Kingsholm primary school starts on Wednesday. We are looking forward to the new term