home sweet home!!

We praise God for bringing us safely home on the weekend. Now its back to work, and I am excited and thankful for it! (lets hope that lasts!) I have piles more pics to post, but time will tell if that ever actually happens.

Since the pics are all only on the laptop for now, I will leave you with our recommended reading. We managed to read a few books, mostly while on trains and planes.

I LOVED this book (Everyday Talk)! It is basic, but excellent. I gave it to someone on the plane, but I plan to order another one so you can borrow it from me when I do!

two books from the wonderful people at Christian Focus that I thoroughly enjoyed

I had read Twice Freed before but Kev and I both enjoyed it just as much the second time through. That is the good thing about having such a lousy memory as I have, I guess :)

http://www.christianfocus.com/item/show/1295/-

I didn't read this one (about Cambodia), also from Christian Focus, but Kev is reading it.

What good books have you read lately? Please share!!

And just so you know, I plan to make the blog private again later this week.

Have a great Monday and a God-glorifying week! :)

beautiful Brugge

We are here in Brugge, Belgium. I will skip right over Luxembourg for now since that was not my favourite place to be!! Nothing in particular, I just didn't really like it. Maybe it was that I had to adjust to the language barrier, or maybe it was that a lot of the French-speaking people we ran into there were quite rude, or maybe (probably?) I was just grouchy (sinful) and missing my kids...or something. One nice thing about it was all the gorgeous roses everywhere! Anyways, I was happy to be out of there and on to Brugge which is noticeably friendlier and so beautiful.

We missed Sunday worship today. Last weekend was so wonderful to fellowship with believers in Scotland. There was not an English speaking church for us to attend today (that we could find, anyway) and so today was strange for a Sunday. We listened to sermons, and did a lot of reading and walking around. So at least it was restful. But I look forward to touring some more tomorrow, and I am really looking forward to Holland and seeing family there. And thats our last stop before we are reunited with the kids again, God willing on Saturday. I CANNOT WAIT!! I feel guilty relaxing and reading so much when that is my momès favourite thing to do and she canèt (why does my computer do this sometimesÉ) cannot read barely a word these days. I am sorry mom!! I cannot wait to come back and clean your house for you while you sit on the couch and read!! (now that Iève said that for the world to read, i had better do it too! AFTER I read to the kids and take them to the park :) )

I had planned to put some words from the book I am reading (the biography of John and Betty Stam, excellent - one of the books I got from Christian Focus!) but it is upstairs right now and I am 3 floors down in the lobby here...so maybe I will do that later. And after this, I am off to call the kiddies! I have been waiting until they would be home from church. :)

Here is Kev checking out our room at the B&B. I don't think the service could get any better...she picked us up from the train station yesterday, pointed out all the sights to see in Brugge, makes three different types of homemade bread from scratch (none are regular white) every morning PLUS croissants and all the other typical breakfast fare, insisted on ironing Kevin's shirt herself (!!! that is the one that really impressed me) and is just a really nice person!!

this is the front of the B&B
and the street it is on.






haha!! I would certainly have taken the regular bikes!!

I don't mean for this to be obnoxious, but I find it boring to stand and smile for a camera. Apparently I can't manage to make this seem authenticly romantic, though...even in Brugge

Kevin gently suggested that I am taking too many pictures of flowers. :) He is probably right, but I can't resist them!! How are my flowers doing at home, Ashleigh??

you might think it looks like i am always dressed the same. Its because I am!! And if you hadn't noticed that yet, you will if I ever blog the rest of the pictures of this trip. I did not pack properly at all!! It is so COLD here!! my two hoodies and two pairs of jeans are getting lots of wear. although, it flashes between cold and hot and rainy and sunny. But in Brugge this weekend it has been unseasonably cold and every time we step out it seems to start to rain. :) We can't complain though, since we had great weather for the rest of the trip until this weekend. Besides, the book I am reading used the weather (how we respond when we don't like it) as one of its first examples of how we teach our children (through our everyday talk) what we think of God and His control over the world. Its a great book! (this is a parenting book, not the John and Betty Stam one)

Wishing you all a wonderful week! How are you, anywaysÉÉ (that is supposed to be a question mark) :)

Changing of the Guard

thought the kids might like this. :) what a great city, but too much to see...I'm overwhelmed!!

how fun to see the kiddos on Skype just now, and the video that Charlene posted! We have an early flight to Luxembourg in the morning so I had best be off! Good night, all!

a quick glimpse of the hilly, historic, beautiful Edinburgh

the early morning view from our window, today in Edinburgh.
i hate seagulls, but have never seen baby ones and I thought they were cute!

our hotel was in a great location, right in the middle of the beautiful Royal Mile


Edinburgh Castle, the great fortress...I have piles of pics that I will have to blog later. It blew me away!

the Central Library

the Royal Mile again

St. Giles Cathedral, where the fascinating John Knox preached and is buried next to (more on that later maybe!) and below, the Grassmarket...where many Christians were executed for their faith.

There were 18,000 Covenanters martyred for their faith in Christ. I took a wonderful tour called the Spiritual History of the Royal Mile by the guy in the robe. He wrote a small book which I bought...and I found it online if you want to read it. http://www.theroyalmile.org.uk/index.html Here is an excerpt about the Covenanters:

"King Charles II declared private gatherings (‘Conventicles’) of Christians unlawful and began persecuting the Church. From 1670 onwards any minister caught preaching in these gatherings would be executed. Thus began the ‘Killing Times’ in which over 18,000 Covenanters perished, over a hundred of them being executed here in Edinburgh. Some of them were executed for taking an armed stand for freedom of speech; most were murdered for simply practising their faith.

Many are the tales of the Covenanters. It was a brave but sad period of Scottish history. Often a Christian’s only crime was to be at a prayer meeting or to be found with a Bible; regularly the soldiers shot them on the spot for these unlawful things. James White was caught at a prayer meeting near Kilmarnock and the soldiers shot him, then the Captain cut off his head with an axe and used his head as a makeshift ‘football’ on the grass."

ok, that was quite graphic and completely horrific but such is the tragic history! Of course, what happened here in those days had a direct impact on the freedom we enjoy today in North America, so we owe much to those precious souls who were faithful to God's word and were willing to fight for the faith, even to be martyred.

Today many of the churches in Edinburgh were not being used as churches, and of the remaining churches likely not many are still faithful. Some church buildings are now being used to sell freaky ghost tours and "tour of the dead" type things of the underground. Very spiritual, and very ungodly. I was really saddened by it, and thats why I was so happy to stumble upon this dear man from the Edinburgh City Mission giving this tour, complete with a gospel message. I praise God for him, and will try to remember to pray for his work there.

On to more pleasant things...

We are married 10 years this summer, you know. :)

Edinburgh was fascinating. I thoroughly enjoyed my time there. Poor Kev spent most of the time in meetings yesterday, but we did enjoy some time over dinners and walking the Royal Mile. This morning we took a flight to London and he spent the afternoon in meetings here (day 2 of 3 days of business done!) while I toured about. There are so many beautiful things to explore and I am thankful for the opportunity! But I realized fairly early on that as beautiful as this world is, and as enchanting the cities of the old world are...nothing compares with the joy of being a mother and the beauty of my children's faces. No matter how many great things Kev & I will leave unseen and historic cities we will leave unexplored, next week I won't care at all and I will be just aching to have them in my arms!

Whether or not they will want to come to me or if they would rather continue this great life they are living with Oma....well, that remains to be seen. They sure don't seem to miss us yet!!

We hope to be busy touring London tomorrow. Have a great night!!