Back from Holiday

Just got back from an excellent family holiday in France. We spent three days in Paris by ourselves visiting the Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe as well as getting the kids portraits drawn at Sacre Coeur (something Lottie and I did on our last visit 12 years ago before kids!). It was a brilliant family time with simple things like just getting around the City of Paris on the Metro with 4 kids and a buggy was great fun.

Then it was off to Brittany to join up with the rest of my family: Mum and Dad, four brother, one sister, three sisters in law, one brother in law, one brothers girlfriend, five nieces and three nephews - 26 of us in all (I think!). We hired five Gites on the same site with shared swimming pool and play area and we all had a great time. The kids loved playing with their cousins with Floella every morning up and dressed at some ridiculous hour asking to go and play. We managed to keep them in most mornings until 8 am...

Then during the day it was beaches, parks, rock climbing, eating ice creams, drinking coffee, great photo opportunities, sun cream, hats, sand in your shoes and all the normal stuff of holidays and then back in the evening for a BBQ. We all took turns cooking each night - which meant we only had to cook one night each - perfect...

Anyway we are back home now, rested and relaxed and I am more desperate than ever to get on with doing a great job leading my wonderful, beautiful family and serving the church and helping it to connect the world with Jesus. I pray for his presence to impact our church meetings and our every day lives so that the Power of God becomes a reality and not just a phrase.

This week I am giving a lot of thought to the future leadership team of New Community Central as well as preparing budgets for September and developing the teaching programme for our morning congregation. On Sunday we will be dedicating our fourth child Jemimah to God with family and friends for a BBQ at ours afterwards - it will be a great day I am sure...