The latest news...

Where did summer go?
One minute I was sitting in the garden with a cup of tea and reading my book through my purple tinted sunglasses, the next minute I'm frantically trying to get the washing in and wringing out my book!!! is that the total of the summer?
To be fair, we have had some good days, been able to get most of the washing dry on the line!!! We spent the summer in Belgium... would sound like a long holiday if we didn't actually live here! We had quite a string of house guests over that time, some family, some new friends from uk, Ireland, Australia, America... had a few of the girls school friend and church friends over... Lost Elsie to 'Les Alpes' with a school friend and her family for 2 weeks, throw in 3 trips to Holland for Pete with various attending parties and you have the sum of our summer!
I am currently putting together our latest newsletter and as many of our friends are in other countries with poor internet conections, they cannot get the photos... so had had a MASSIVE brainwave, and thought I could use my blog site as a communications place.... good one eh?

So the purpose now is to update regularly so that tout le monde can read/seewhat is going on here.
The family
We have enjoyed several family trips With our visitors and some as just us.This was on a trip to Brugges with Madeleine and my parents.

The kitchen has reached its final phase... the tiles are up and cupboards in place, just one more part of worktop to go in then we should be done. Mum helped construct the cupboards which was a 1st for her, it was me that needed the help from Dad having put in a piece upsidedown!!! doh! Here I am demonstating the base unit. It's so nice having such a HUGE kitchen now, it really it the focal point of the house.

Church.
A family (Dad, Mum &daughter 8) at the church opened their butchers shop last Friday for the 1st time. It has taken the months to wade through the mountains of paperwork in France, but finally they achieved what they felt is their dream AND their vocation. They want it to be used as an evangelical outreach tool. Isn't God good, the first day he was open, he was 1 1/2 hours late closing because the customers kept coming. When we chose to follow God's will there will be mountains to climb, but the blessings will be there, the view is always best from the top. This is the new boucherie where we are now regulars also. Please keep them in your prayers. He and his brother work in the shop, his wife does the admin.

Another church thing, please pray for a building that we have found to be our new meeting place, it is expensive by our budget standards, but we as a church feel it is a good place. Please remember us in your prayers, that the money will be found and that we get through the mountain of paperwork that the French love!
Home

When the house was at its fullest 5 family plus 5 extras staying, we had a couscous evening, 4 more came over to teach us how to prepare a proper couscous meal from scratch.

I hope we were good students... We did show our appreciation by eating it all! This is the meat and vegetables cooking in my, what I thought was massive but turned out to be not quite big enough, biggest pan called a couscoussiere.
We have had many a meal cooked in our new kitchen, but this machine taked the 1st prize...

Madeleine bought it for us and you can do anything in it, so far, that I can recall, we have done pizza, toasties, waffles, heated pitta bread... Madeleine has a longer list, she does ALL her cooking in theirs!

Thank you Madeleine, looking foward to you coming back again to use it together again.

I hope this brief update finds you all well. The goal is to update it weekly, well see.

Meanwhile, I need to continue with my French studied, although I am not progressing as much as I had hoped or wanted, I am still going in the right direction, my goal is to find a teacher who can teach me on a 1 to 1 basis, a good prayer request.

On Wednesday I am singing with the BIGC (Belgian International Gospel Choir) at a football match in a Brussels stadium, I think it's Anderlecht will let you know next time!

The girls started back at school wit no problems, they continue with their music studies twice a week after school. They continue also in their various church activities and it is encouraging to see them so happy there.

Pete is having a short time out to catch up with home developments and plan the next step, which is too develop some discipling courses to be used in small groups or on home visits. He wants to study and teach the bible to encourage personal growth and development in the new Christians coming to our church.

I will catch up with you all soon

Be blessed

Zanne