Okay, it is waaaaaaayyyyyyy too long since i did this for you but believe me things are not slowing down at all in our lives. The new year has brought along with it a sense of the lack of time we have left in USA and the amount of things we both have to do and want to do before we leave. Into this we add the continued joy of being parents to Eva.

This is in fact the greatest honour an individual could have - to be the parent of such a wonderful gift as a wee baby girl - especially one who sleeps through every night!~!!!!!!!! Since I last updated, Eva has learned to crawl. I have likened this to a 16/17 year old getting their drivers license in that now we no longer have control of absolutely everywhere that Eva goes. She now has the ability to crawl to her desired destination. If we leave her in her room to play with toys while we sort something out in the kitchen, we will soon see her crawling out towards us. It is a very cool thing alongside being a very scary thing. Being a parent is all about protecting, caring for, looking out for and knowing about your child, but it is also about helping the child become an independent individual - whatever that means at whatever age. For Eva, we now have to learn to let her crawl and be independent in that way, in some weird God-given way it is maybe her first expression of independence- though you just try and stop us looking out for her wherever she crawls.

This makes me mindful of how God must feel with us. We read in the bible all the time and hear from preachers often about how God is our Father and protector, constantly looking out for us and helping to take care of our real needs in life. I am sure he giggles at me in the same way I giggle at Eva as she crawls around in her mini journies of discovery. To continue to meet God in this parental form is the revelation of my life right now. Jools asked me what the biggest change in my life was in becoming a parent - I thought for a moment and then said this, "I never knew what love was until we had Eva". It is so true - I cannot express to you in words how much I love that wee girl. And the good news is this - I am incapable of loving as God does and so his love for us as his children is infinitely more than what we can imagine it to be. That is something to be embraced and enjoyed.


What has also been happening in the last number of weeks is that we been watching a couple of our good church friends enter their last days here on earth with us. Gus Garcia had been in Intensive Care since Christmas evening and just last week was taken from their to a ward in the local hospital where he would spend his final days. Gus went home last night. He was 31 and leaves Jodi, his wife, and Jordan and Austin his two great kids. Our other friend was Dr Dee Dorgan. She was a remarkable lady in her 70's who had fought hard over the last 30 years against many forms of cancer in her body. It came back to haunt her again this last year with some other problems. Dee had a stroke yesterday and then died last night. Both of these individuals had deep faith in and relationship with Jesus and both of them had the most amazing fighting spirit. I will miss them both deeply. Death is hard for those of us that are left here without our loved ones, but I can't help be reminded of the hope that Christ offers in the face of death. Hope is always there - never to be diminished.

The thought of moving home is getting harder and harder. It is almost surreal to think that in three weeks from this day we will be on a one way flight to Belfast. We have become so attached to this place and all our family here that it is difficult to imagine life without them all being so close. It is also getting to the point where others are realizing this reality also. It is not just hard for us, but it is hard for that family that I have mentioned. I cannot imagine that we will be in membership of a church like this one again - the love and sheer sense of community that we have here is hard to describe with my limited vocabulary - suffice to say that from the very moment of our arrival we have been loved like one of their own and that expression has only grown.

I don't know how to talk to people about it - especially our youth. I really am stuck for words everytime it comes up. It is easy to say that this is what is right for Margaret and I and that this is the direction that God is prodding us in - but even if you get that, it is still hard to accept. I wish that I had magic words to comfort people or magic prayers to help them understand that God really does work in all things for the good. I know this though - whatever we feel now, God is always faithful and never let's us down. he knows us better than we know ourselves and he knows the plans he has for this place and for Margaret, Eva and I. In that I trust - in that only can I trust.

The call to go home got a lot more meaningful for me and Margaret over the new year. Something amazing happened on New Years Day at church. I was asked to help serve communion with Rich at our service that day and as I did it, I was faced with an amazing realization that being able to offer communion to people is one of the highest privileges a person can have. As I spoke the words of grace to people, not knowing what it was they were bringing to the table, I had a profound sense that I was being involved in one the most intimate experiences a human can have and I knew that I wanted to be involved in this way for people as many times as I can. A day or two later, I was browsing the Irish Methodist website and found myself reading up on what it would take to become a Methodist minister back home. To cut a long story short, I was very moved as I read it and knew that something was calling me to ordination. I have known that this would happen in my life for quite some time but not until now did I feel that it was the right time. If all goes according to plan, I hope to begin studies at Edgehill Theological College next September and from there move towards ordination. It's a huge step in our life but the right one. The call is there for me to preach and it is time to face that and do it.

I have run out of time for now. There will be more to follow though it will probably be from northern Ireland the next time I get to this.

Blessings