First of all, let us apologise for our lack of updates over the past couple of weeks. Whilst we have been missing in action online, things have been super busy offline which has meant we haven’t been updating very well!

As you know, we had our niece over visiting for a couple of weeks, which was soooo good and we got to do so many things with her, and with it being half term we took some time off to spend together. Then last Monday Janet travelled back to California with our niece for a lovely week with our family over there. Meanwhile, back in the rainy, blowy and freezing North Coast, Caleb and I were super busy with life!

I want to take a minute and say how proud we both are of Caleb. We always are, of course, but he has been working so hard over the past number of weeks without complaining (too much 😂). He’s been balancing his studies and end-of-year tests, which have all stepped up this year, alongside playing and training with his football team, serving in church, attending youth, etc., and added into all that, he is also part of his school play this term. The latter of these has meant staying in nearly every day after school for the past number of weeks, as well as being in rehearsal for 4-5 hours every Saturday (he has to arrive late to rehearsals because of football, which means he is always getting changed and eating lunch in the car). Last weekend, the poor kid only had about 5 hours in total where he wasn’t studying, rehearsing, doing sport, serving, or attending something! (Rest is coming for him soon thankfully, but what a wee legend 💪😎) All of this has also meant a lot of running for both of us, but with Janet away this week, I’ve been doing that solo. I have no idea how you folk that do this, either as single parents or with more than one child, do it – you have my TOTAL respect! 🫡

Outside of being Caleb’s schedule manager, chef, chauffeur (I realize that this is just parenting 😂), I’ve been doing a lot of other things too. I was working on podcasts as we wanted to keep up the pace there – this meant recording 4 episodes before Janet left, which always means editing fun. We had Miracle Halls again last week, which was great. We still haven’t had anyone come in yet, but the team got to pray and share with a man with whom we have been building a relationship over the past number of weeks, and we now have a growing number of people who have expressed their desire to come along. We’ll wait and see what happens!

I also was teaching at our church this Sunday. This is the first time I have taught in a church service, on ‘home soil,’ since October 2023. Thankfully, I didn’t include 2 years’ worth of material, and it was such a privilege to get to share God’s word, and I look forward to hearing what God did in the midst of what was shared. As I’ve grown older, that’s become the barometer of ‘success’ for me when it comes to teaching. Obviously, you want the talk to be coherent, helpful, etc., but ultimately none of that truly matters if you aren’t partnering with the Holy Spirit and there is no life change or room for God to move in peoples’ lives. The recording is here on Apple Podcasts if you want to check that out – no pressure at all! I also had the chance to meet with a friend I’ve known for a number of years and hear about the incredible work they have been doing in trying to establish more youth pastors in churches throughout Ireland. So inspiring to be in and around those kind of conversations again.

In total, last week I put in 600 miles with all the driving about and who knows how many hours of stuff. Just to be clear, I’m not complaining, or comparing 😬 I know there are so many others out there who are doing way more than me, I just wanted to share a wee update on life over the last couple of weeks 👍