Brighton 2

Two things that just have to happen when we go to Brighton are a trip to Brighton Beach and eating Fish & Chips.  Here is Sarah combining both by actually eating fish and chips while wading in the sea on Brighton Beach, you can see the Brighton (nee Palace) pier in the background .

Of course if you would rather not be pestered by seagulls and you would rather like to do the job right you need a nice cup of tea and that requires a slightly more refined atmosphere as portrayed on the right in the local chippery.

Now this a part of our city that has a spectacular view of the dales, which is north of the downs on which Brighton is situated.   Tradition has it that the devil planned to flood the Dales with sea water but this was where he was stopped; hence the name devil’s dyke.

While we did get to visit Mum every day we did take a little time out to enjoy the scenery.

Also situated on the Dyke is this plaque which Sarah just fell in love with so I tool a picture with her.  The county side in UK is so pretty, I wish I had space to post all the photos that we took.

On the way back our attention was caught by these lovely horses on the side of the road.  Sarah loves  horses and was impressed by the size of these guys.

Well  there is so much more to Brighton and our visit there.  I need to get on with my work though and  will post again some time soon.  Hee Hee.

Brighton

Our Trip to Brighton to visit my mother for her 88th birthday was wonderful.  Special big awesome thank you to all of you who helped financially to make this trip possible.

Here is the car we used for the trip.  Initialy we had hoped to be able to take my mother out and about in Brighton, but her physical condition meant that she was not able to leave the care facility during our stay.

The car did however, enable us to get around as we were staying on one side of the city and the care facility was on the other side.  Fortunately there were no incidents and we returned the car safe and secure at the end of the trip.

Here is the reason for our trip. Every day Sarah & I were able to spend time with my mother which meant many meaningful but short conversations and some times just sitting holding hands while she slept a little.

On her 88th Birthday we were also able to meet other family members who gathered for the occasion.

Brian my big and only brother with his wife Janet.  they had flown in from the Channel Island of Jersey.  I think the last time I saw Brian was at our father’s funeral.

Elizabeth my big little sister.  I have two little sisters and Liz is the elder of the two.  Here she is with her husband Peter.  They flew in from Auckland in New Zealand.

So not only did we spend time everyday visiting at the care facility but we also had time to meet family from all over the globe.  I hope to give  you more information on our trip to Brighton soon

Back in Merry Old England

Hello everybody,

We would first like to thank you all so much for your support and prayers for us in this time. Papa and I (Sarah) are doing well and are excited by what God has and is doing in our lives! But before we give any updates we would like to first fully explain how we got here.

For those who don’t know, the reason we are here is because of Papa’s mother’s failing health.

Around May of this year I was talking with our Father God when He communicated that He had something important to tell me. I listened and waited and soon had a vision. In my vision I found myself on one of the many white chalk cliffs of south downs (Papa’s home area in England). I looked around and saw in the distance a man pushing an old woman in a wheel chair with a woman walking by his side. (You can imagine my confusion as to what God was trying to say to me!) As they came closer to me I saw that it was my father and myself with my gran (grandmother). Then God spoke to me in my vision saying, “You will go with your father to England this year to see your gran” then the strong impression of ‘October’ was left with me.

I was very confused by this message as I had just recently been to England earlier that year and also despite the fact that Papa had not seen his mother in years there was no great need for him to be there that we knew of. But I knew that I had heard from God so I shared my vision with Papa and together we submitted our confusion to God and gave ourselves to His will.

A month or so later we heard from family members that gran’s health was deteriorating quickly and we were encouraged that if we could we should try to come out and see her. We were amazed by this news because of what we had just heard from the Lord but we were even further amazed when a great emphasis was being placed on the month of October! My father’s sister’s birthday is the same day as my gran’s in October and plans were being made around us for that time frame. My father found himself being encouraged to travel in the month of October!

So, we knew God’s will was with us but we had no money to travel on. Papa and I went before our mighty God and submitted the situation to Him and asked Him to do His will in our lives. Very soon after this we received communication from a community of Christians that they felt led to give toward Papa’s trip. The money we received from them would cover about half of one ticket but this was enough for Papa to, by faith, book both tickets. A mere two or three hours later we received further communication from individuals from the same Christian community that they would like to give towards Papa’s trip! And amazingly his ticket was payed for in full within the day of Papa’s step of faith!

Then there was me. You can imagine my wondering why God would want me to go with my father, with money being as tight as it is. It seemed frivolous that I should go as well but God confirmed in my heart that I was to go.

So, I submitted myself to His will again and waited for His direction. Under God’s guidance, an individual came to me and told me that God had told them to pay for my ticket! Praise God!

We flew out a few days later and here we are! God has been so good to us and has blessed us immensely! And that is the story of how we are here in England. Please keep us in your prayers as we seek to use our time wisely.

Wedding Anniversary

Hello one and all.  It was great for us to have David and Tamara over for supper on their way to church tonight.  We had a special curry made by Jonny and Mary followed by strawberries and cream for dessert.

As it was going to be David & Tamara’s very 1st wedding anniversary we all sat down and watched the video of their wedding and enjoyed the special moments from a year ago.

During the meal, however, we were caught off guard when David asked my help in reading something on a piece of paper from his bag.  After I located my reading glasses and took the paper from David it was VERY obvious what the paper was all about.

Apparently the due date will be January the 8th and we are all sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo very excited.  This is a little late as I am sure everybody on fb and the internet already knows.  However, I did feel like I needed to post something too.

Rhonda’s Birthday

1st a Coffee

Well, every year in January, at least for as long as I have known her, Rhonda has had a birthday.  This year was no exception and while I don’t quite remember which birthday it was we celebrated I did manage to remember to take her out for coffee and a meal.   The first part was quite easy to do as Rhonda received both a brand new Starbucks tumbler and a Starbucks gift card, so I just naturally took her to the best Starbucks location in Yokohama.

CoCo's

On the way home, unbeknownst to Rhonda, all our family present here in Japan was awaiting at her favourite resturant.  CoCo’s.  Plans had been afoot for awhile and the scheme worked wonderfully as we walked in and already seated and waiting were David & Tamara and of course Mary.  We had a great meal together just being family and celebrating the goodness of God for the last year.

Birthday Cake

After a wonderful meal together we took  David & Tamara to the station then headed home.  The birthday celebrations stretched into Sunday.  Right after the service we brought David & Tamara home for a birthday dinner followed by a wonderful home made cheese cake courtesy of Mary the baker.

Monopoly!

Well, this all began last month when the mailman delivered a large brown parcel addressed to me.  It also said it was a board game so, as Mary loves games, I thought that I should wait until she came home to open it.  Well,  Mary finally came home and we took off the outer wrapper only to discover that it was a birthday gift for me.

It turned out that David and  Tamara had ordered it while they were on honeymoon in  England.  As the company would not deliver abroad they had it sent to a friend in Brighton who then sent it on to me, hence the double wrapping.

So I had to wait until my Birthday to find out just what was contained in the package.  Yes.  As the title of the blog says it was a game of Monopoly.  The special part was that it was based on the cities of Brighton and Hove (I am from Brighton and go to church in Hove) So here you see Mary and me having waited for what seemed like forever finally getting to play the game.

Wedding

OK!   So I am a little late.  One of these days I will catch up and post some real news on this site.  David and Tamara have already celebrated their one month anniversary eating roast Lamb.  Their honeymoon trip to England is having a great impact on the level of culture in their new family YEAH!!!!!!  I chose to post this picture because no one else has a copy of it so I am sure none of you have seen it before.

It really was an awesome wedding.  I enjoyed every second of it except for standing in the reception line after the ceremony.  It was great to greet family and friends but my feet were killing me – probably because I had stood right through the ceremony too.  The reception was fun too with David and Tamara proving what a great friendship they had by scoring 100% on questions about each other.

TWU Graduation!

One of the reasons we went to Canada in April was to see David graduate from Trinity Western University, and to our surprise – he did.  No…only joking..it was a tremendous joy to celebrate with him at the culmination of sooooooooooooo much study and hard work.  The ceremony was awesome and even our girls were impressed with how things were done!.

Here they are so happy to be with their big brother on his big day.  YEAHHHHHHHHH!

Not to be left out, two sisters from his to be family,  the Braunbergers, also wanted to congratulate the boy on completing his studies.  Here you can see Erin  - who had just completed her graduation ceremony that morning – and Tamara (at that point, his bride to be!),  who had survived the ordeal the year before.

Oh, well , it will be Jonny’s turn in a couple of years…………