Moving Week...Saddle up your horses.......

Moving week

We are here......

No turning back...things are moving at an unstoppable speed....and it feels like I am just standing on the side line observing it all. Well, it feels like it, although I am smack BAM right in the centre of this self inflicted organised chaos!!

Two days before the removal company arrives

One week and one day to our official moving date

One month till D-day

So close we can touch it..... Our dream IS UNFOLDING INTO REALITY!!!!!!!!

So we are starting to say our goodbyes. School finished on Friday, for the summer holidays.

Ready for last day of school in Scotland

We celebrated that with having a leaving party for Thomas, Alana, and Philippa in the Onthank Community Centre. Nina had her's last week with a bouncy-castle garden party. We are just overwhelmed by the generosity of the friends of our children. They were blessed with wonderful gifts, cards and the sweetest messages.

Thank you, Travis and Jay!!

Nina was even given her first bouquet by two sweet little brothers!! There were round about 50 guests at the disco party on Friday. We played games with the children, Simon was fantastic with the selection of songs he DJ'ed and we squeezed in a geography lesson based on our route referring to the world-map, which found its way into the hall!!

Bridge building...marshmallows and spaghetti...

We had to say some goodbyes. What was so special, is that nobody was too emotional. I figure this might be because everybody is so excited for us chasing our dream. We are casting our vision and encouraging everybody to take part in our journey by following our blog.

Alana's wee girl friends are just too excited to have a real Face-Time/Skype friend. They were exchanging e-mails and phone numbers.....how far has this tech brought us??!!! When we moved to Scotland in 2000, not many of our family knew much about e-mails. It was a novel way of communicating with us. I remember just checking e-mails once/twice per week...Heee heee!!

We were blessed to befriended an Chinese family. Steward will actually beat us to China, since he and his family is departing tomorrow for the summer. His daddy is helping us to secure overnight train tickets between Suzhou and Xi'an. We hope to meet up with some of Ying and Yao's friends, since they studied in Xi'an. Praise God for setting us up with awesome connections!

Then we also need to make a special mention of our carry-in chefs/ packing-helpers who arrived on Saturday morning. Christelle and Robbie bought all the ingredients for a South African sheep-shank potjie (unstirred stew cooked over an open fire in a black flat-bottom cast-iron pot) Beside cooking, they also helped with boxing up books and dismantling furniture! Wow!! We are so blessed to have these people in our lives.

Not to mention my support crew who joined us today at church to celebrate me receiving a Bachelor Degree in Practical Ministry. Thank you Campbell family, Lannie-family, Katryn and Luc and our new Polish friends Jedrusiak-family for cheering me on today.

CELEBRATION TIME!!!!

Rebecca Tompson, chief babysitter...I missed you so much today. You made it possible for me to achieve what I set out to do 3 years ago. I can not tell you in proper words how much we appreciate you. You have stored up a HUMUNGOUS award in heaven, where no moth and rust will destroy it!!

Katrena and Robin Macdonald, I need to mention you too. Thank you so much for your support and generosity. Since Arno started working away in Aberdeen, now more than a year ago, you were the bearers of the KEY, the dog walker and back-up support system! We love you and appreciate you.

All of yoos(yep...Scottsh pluaral for 'you'...) have made Scotland home to us. Your friendship and love secured us to feel connected to you and to value you as friends and adopted family.

Proverbs 17:17 has become reality in you, to us: A friend loves at ALL TIMES!!

We had so much fun today celebrating perseverance, hard work and successful achievement. God has given us not a spirit of fear, but of POWER and or LOVE and of a SOUND MIND. We can only operate in His fullness for our lives when we step out of our comfort zone, and explore the possibilities, dreams and desires He has placed in our hearts/spirit man or woman. I was created for a specific purpose...you were created for a specific mission. Do you know what it is???

For us as a family, as we are taking a BIG LEAP of faith towards our destiny, our mission is to bring a message of FAITH, HOPE and LOVE to all people. We want to REACH out to them, IMPACT their lives with vision-setting, we want to EMPOWER people to accomplish their dreams and we want to BUILD up and restore marriages, families and generations!! We are on the move!!!!!

"Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes.” Isaiah 54:2

We are strengthening our stakes by investing time in studying to show ourselves approved.

We are lengthening our cords, by stepping out of our comfort zone into a new level of faith-based living.

We are not holding back....we are investing time and energy and resources into the quest of achieving our dreams and goals.

Our curtains are being stretched wider and wider as we reach out to more and more people.

We are trusting God to provide us with a very very BIG and LARGE 'tent' with many rooms to host all of you when you come to visit us in South Africa!!

Now I need my 40 winks before I can tackle the Marine Transit Insurance Inventory......May the FORCE be with me..

….and also with you!!