It really has been a long time since I have written anything here, and that is some indication of how busy life has been. It would be impossible to give an overview of the whole six months of absence, so I'll just tell of a couple of highlights.
Tracy travelled to France in October to see Shawn, Mel and Charlie. They stayed in Rick and Ulli's beautiful cottage for about a week. It was the first time that the two little cousins met each other, and I think they got on quite well. Annabel loved going to a winefarm, and eating the grapes. They are right on the top of her favourite things to eat list, and she just about exploded when she saw the amount of grapes that could be collected in one place.
I travelled to Copenhagen in November for a week's conference with the theme "Power relations in Music Education". It was an interesting conference, although I cannot say that this kind of research really convinces me, but I met some very nice people and got a chance to present my work and get comments on it.
We also travelled to South Africa in December. It was a welcome break from the snow, which had come early this year, and was already half a metre deep. It is still half a metre deep, and we have had some ridiculously cold temperatures these last two weeks. The highlights of our time in SA were the times with friends and family. We really had a full program, and saw so many people, all of whom encouraged us and gave us fresh impetus to keep going here in Finland. Especially encouraging was our time with Paul and Shannon, who have planted a church in Harding, and are seeing wonderful restoration in people's lives, and Brendon who has started a church in Cape Town that approaches community in a very different way. They encouraged us to keep praying about our current situation and to look for more of God's activity in those around us. We have come back to Finland carrying a greater expectation that God would use us, and that He would be glorified here.
Since getting back it has been a wild rollercoaster ride. I organised a week of prayer and fasting for our church, preached at a student's meeting, Tracy led worship at a women's prayer meeting, we were invited to go and pray for a group of Chinese believers - who God touched wonderfully, including healing a lady of the pain she had in her shoulder for three months after I has word of knowledge about it. It has been busy at work as well, planning a school trip to Spain, preparing for two conferences, rewriting my research plan, all this on top of leading worship every week, and a bible study, and being a member of the church board, and being a family. Having written it all down, I have to say that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us, because I don't think we would be able to keep going without that strength.
