Last Days in LA

Donald, Katie and Hannah went on this roller coaster and Katie and Hannah went on the ferris wheel. On the ferris wheel they chose to go on the swinging pod!! Yes that is right this ferris wheel has pods that swing and they swing a lot.
Donald and Katie with the Kaya Family when we went to Venutra Beach.

Well here we are just about at the end of our trip away from home. I must say that it will be nice to be home - to see our kids, to see our friends and to be home and not have to live out of a suitcase anymore.

We have had some amazing experiences, lots of fun and lots of meeting new people. It has also been really good catching up with old friends.

Today is Sunday and we went to Grace Community Church. It was great being there and we got to go to Cornerstone Sunday School Class, which is the college group that Rick Holland is pastoring. He told them all some of the stories from our Kiwi Ranch days and told everyone we were crazy!!!

I actually haven't been back to LA since Donald graduated in 1995 so for me it has been really fun to be back. For Katie it is her first time here so she has enjoyed lots and lots of 'firsts'. Today after church we went and showed Katie the house we used to live in. I didn't realise how steep the road was!!!

Tonight we are going to Placerita Baptist church. That is where Scott Ardivanis is a pastor so we are meeting with him after the service and with Patty and also Patty's brother Steve. We knew Steve from Kiwi Ranch Days as well. It will be a lot of fun. Donald will be giving a report on Samfya.

Yesterday we met with Grandpa Gerry, who just happens to be Patty's and Steve's Dad. He supported us when Donald was in Seminary by taking us to Price Club and also by paying some of Donald's Seminary Fees.

We have also been able to spend time with some of the Sheahan family which has been wonderful as well. The Sheahan family took us in when we first went to the Masters Seminary. We stayed with them for a month and they helped us to find our home and showed us where to do grocery shopping etc. We are very grateful to them for everything they did and taught us. We love them loads!

Tomorrow we are going to try to catch up with Marcia. She actually came to NZ to Impact not the last time that Martha Peace but the time before. I knew her when we lived here and sat in her counseling class to learn some of the counseling techniques. Then we will have to make sure we are all packed and ready to go. Our planes leaves here at 9:30pm Monday and we will be arriving at 12.30pm Wednesday in Napier. We actually fly into Auckland and we are going to be able to spend some time with Donald's mum at the Airport.

Well this will be my last report here. We will see you on Wednesday!
Thank you all so much for this lifetime opportunity.

Gwen

UK to LA

Greetings from Simi Valley in Los Angeles. I am long overdue an update - sorry for the delay!

Our time in the UK was a real blessing for us. In many ways it was unwinding from the previous 3 ½ months of the work in Zambia, time to take a breath and as a family enjoy seeing some amazing history as we travelled to various churches and stopped with ministry contacts and friends. The meetings were valuable in making further contacts in relation to partnership in Zambia and we look forward to seeing how God uses this visit in the future.

As we travelled through the UK, we have had impressed on our hearts how unique our church fellowship is in New Zealand. We are blessed beyond our imagination, and while we are by no means the perfect church, we have an amazing fellowship at RBC. God has richly blessed us as a fellowship and we must rejoice in the blessings that He has given and continue to share with others from the abundance that we have. We must be an outwardly focused church sharing the love of Christ through all the blessing we have in people, ministries, finances, teaching... Praise God for his blessings to us!

The meetings we had the day before we left UK with Echoes of Service in Bath was certainly a high light and was alone worth the time spent in the UK. The men we met were very gracious and supportive and we were able to be encouraged together in the cause of mission. The trust that these men work with has given gifts to Samfya each year for many years and they will be very interested to see the long term plans for infrastructure development at Samfya with the potential of helping the school as well as having contacts with a wide number of churches who could be made aware of the work as well. Praise the Lord for this valuable meeting!

We are now staying with our friends the Kaya family in Simi Valley. It is a blessing to catch up with them - they are people that we interacted with when we were here at Seminary, a wonderful relationship in Christ and discipling. They have four children and are also caring for a nephew, so the house is very full but loads of fun.

Yesterday we fellowshipped with Christ Community Church in West Covina (where Greg, Traci & Micah come from). I can’t tell you how much of a blessing this time was and how welcoming this church was to us. Donald was able to share in the preliminary parts of both morning services and then give a detailed report to the youth ministry in one session and then to two adult classes in the second session. Then in the evening Donald also taught one further adult class. The people of the church were very supportive about Samfya and they may even be interested in short term missions there in partnership with us. What a great day and what sweet fellowship!!

This week will be further meetings with missions people, Grace Church staff, Scott & Patti, other friends... (and a side trip for Katie to Disneyland!!). Thanks for your ongoing prayers. We are really looking forward to getting home!!

The Roman Bath house in Bath.

Donald and Katie with Sylvia - Donald's mum's friend.

Hi there,

Well here we are here in Los Angeles! Oh it is so nice to be here with the Kaya Family. I don’t know if I told you before but I had said to Donald (in NZ) that I wanted to catch up with the Kaya Family and he gave me a really funny look. I then asked him if he didn’t want too and he told me we were staying with them.
Let me tell you a bit about the Kaya Family. There is Jon and Debbie – they are the parents. We knew them when we lived in LA when Donald was attending Seminary. They had Hannah and she now 15 years old. Now there is Jonathan (13years), David (11years), Joey (9 years) and they are also looking after their nephew Levi (8 years). Debbie home schools all the children and they attend Grace Community Church. They live in Simi Valley and it takes them 30 minutes on the freeway – depending on traffic! They all play soccer. Debbie used to play soccer when she was at Notre dam College.

At the moment Jonathan is making pancakes – they smell very good!
The kids are great and Katie has fitted in just fine with them all and has just become one of the clan! She is having a blast.
Today we are meeting with the Sheahan family. We stayed with the Sheahan’s when we first came to LA and stayed with them for about a month before we found our own place. Terah (their oldest daughter) has kept in contact with me over the years so it will be really nice to catch up with them. We will be meeting with Terah and Josi and their husbands and children and also Tom with his new wife.
We will be going to Disneyland at some point as well but are not sure when! Yesterday we went shopping – Donald bought some shorts for just over $3.00 and a t shirt for just over $1.00. Katie and I bought some Jeans and belts and Katie bought a hat and also some hair stuff. I also bought some boring stuff like sheets and table runners – stuff for the house.

The kids are all watching America’s funniest home videos and you should hear all the laughing – it is so nice to hear them all enjoying themselves. Jon has just come in and said that he and Debbie just love Katie’s laugh!!

Well back to the UK. We had a great time there and the history is just amazing. We got to see so many places and meet so many people. People we have stayed with have been so kind to us and have spoiled us. We were able go to England, Scotland and Wales – we didn’t get to go to Ireland. Katie says that Mr J will be disappointed that we didn’t get to see his homeland!
Well I need to go now and get ready for the day.
Talk to you all later.

Up, up and away ... again!

Hello there everyone,

As I am typing this we are 36000 feet above the ground – Yep that’s right we are in the air on our way to L.A. So far it has been an ok flight with the pilot putting the seat belt sign on a couple of times. I am so sick of watching bad movies and the only age appropriate movie for Katie has been ‘Cars’ and she has seen it a lot of times before. She has now decided to have a sleep but that isn't working. Donald has had a snooze and is now reading a book called ‘Liberating the African Soul’ by Felix Muchimba. Felix is the principal of GLO in Ndola.

Ohhhhh I sure hate the loos on the planes and I especially hate how loud it is when you flush it!!!!! Hahahaha It sounds as though it would suck you right out with it! Ohhh well only another 4 hours to go! We are above Winnipeg, Canada.

The Uk has been a very interesting place to visit. We have met lots of people that Donald has been able to talk to about Samfya and has had a positive response to the work at the school. Even on our last night he had a meeting but we did that over dinner and it was with Malcolm Houghton.

Malcolm Houghton is Stephen’s cousin, and Levy and Agnes’ home was once his. His parents were missionaries there in Samfya so he was very interested to find out how the Bible School was. We had dinner in a pub which had amazing food and even a few different types of curries that were all part of a smorgasbord dinner.

Last night we stayed at a Holiday Inn Express so that we were close to the airport. It has only been opened for 3 ½ weeks so it was really flash (well for us anyway). Thankfully it didn’t have a flash price!

I don’t think I would like to live in England. If you live in the city there are sooooo many people, but if you live in the country well.... there are still so many people and the old country roads are sooooo narrow, that in some places (a lot actually) there is only one lane! Some of the places looked like Coronation Street with all the houses all joined together. There are some individual houses but they cost the earth to rent or own and they all have to be a certain style.

Ohhhh dear we are going over some bumps again – I really don’t like them! Katie is becoming very restless. It is hard to do a long flight during the day when you are usually awake. It is a lot easier when you fly at night and you can sleep! It will be about 1.30pm when we land in LA.

Anyway back to England. There are so many castles and when we first got here we would all get really excited about seeing it but then at the end it was oh look there is another castle! We got and English Heritage Pass which enabled us to see a lot of the castles and Hadrian’s Wall. All of these were on our way to different places. More bumps again!!!

We went to Goodrich Castle which is just outside of Wales and we looked over the river (that separates England and Wales). When we got into the car Katie said “oh isn’t it a shame that we couldn’t just drive into Wales to say that we have been there. She obviously hadn’t seen the signs saying Wales! Oh dear now we have to put our seatbelts on ohhhhh I don’t like this!

Just as we went past the sign that said Welcome to Wales, Donald passed a truck so she still didn’t realise that we were in Wales! We soon told her and she smiled and told us we were mean. We stayed the night in a place called Chepstow. Well I must close the computer now as I don’t have much battery left – I will finish this blog update later.

Motherwell, Scotland

Hi there everyone,
Well we are at the GLO centre in Motherwell, Scotland. Donald had a meeting yesterday with the principal who used to be the principal at Samfya Bible School, many years ago. He also took the devotions for the students this morning. Today it has been raining a lot.
We went to see a Loch(a lake) today, but it was too wet so we just drove around looking and window shopping!

Katie's cold seems to be getting better but the little (or not so little) rascal decided to share it with her parents!!! Hopefully we won't get it as bad as she did!

We are just about to head out for dinner so I had better go. We are certainly getting sick of living out of suitcases and are really looking forward to coming home again.

We leave Motherwell tomorrow (Saturday) and are going to be in Manchester. Donald still hasn't been able to get to a football match which has been a shame.

Well Donald has just woken up, so we will now go and get some dinner.
Talk to you all later.

Gwen.