Some things are too private to share here.  I have also learned, coping with the grief of leaving a life and country, not to dwell too long on the hard bits. Equally I have refused to be a minister who only shares the good bits. It is often the bits of the bible that are hardest that we most need to face. It is often our weakness that earths our message and makes us accessible and relevant. I cannot be a concrete Pastor. God won’t let me.

Yesterday we had college day. In some ways we were all “freshers”.  Louise and I had a British experience. Mainly books and lectures and kind of “Britain’s got talent” shows. Almost none of the paraphernalia of an American University. The food at University here is amazing! We had too many missionaries at our college to have great food!

Louise helped make the room look great and Meg has a wonderful roommate from a smashing family. Then goodbye, for a short while. But we know that we went through a defining moment. Through the wardrobe door into Narnia. As Ike Reigard twittered this week: “a trapeze moment”. But hey, Meg wants to be back for all the Welsh Rugby Autumn internationals though! We must look ahead.

Now I am not listening to any Mark Schulz for a few years! Nor seeing that movie. Nor home movies. Not sure how I can run the gauntlet of the kindest people of all: New Hope. Some know how to do it quickly with a nod and a wink. Not sure how easy it will be the wedding tomorrow of one of my dear friends, Mike, whose daughter gets married. Mike also has 3 girls. We take notes from each other. He is a few years older, but is never patronizing to me (don’t you just love that). But I feel for him too.

Then I guess, hopefully a little more tender, not “tenderer” as the spell check tells me, (my English teacher would have had a fit) and even a touch wiser, we press on. So a big day, Sunday, at New Hope. Hoping that the hundreds we have invited to “Be Our Guest” will come. Reasons 2 Believe and the hope for every man and woman, boy and girl, and freshman. So back to the routine in faith. Time with God, two girls to school and head down for sermon prayer and prep. That’s next. I’m also grateful for the iPhone that keeps me in touch with a classy young lady in Birmingham, Alabama.