I know it’s been a couple of weeks since we wrote a blog post (sorry 😬). Caleb was off school for 2 weeks over Easter, so we decided we’d take some of that time off to hang out with him, but we did think we’d have some days in his first week when we could work a bit on the one hundred years project too. Unfortunately, that part didn’t quite work out as we had hoped.

Sadly, a good friend of ours who had been struggling with some health issues for a good while, ended up passing away and his funeral fell in the week running up to Easter. His passing hit us all hard – he was a really good friend, and a really good man who loved Jesus in the most stunning ways ❤️ Neil had the honour of taking part in the funeral, and so the beginning of Easter was spent preparing both practically and emotionally for saying goodbye. I think we will write a post about our friend at some point – a few lines in this post just doesn’t feel like enough to honour him! We miss him ❤️ Neil’s uncle also sadly passed away right before Easter, and as we walked through the losses, the funerals, and all the pieces that go around all of those things, we found ourselves coming out the other side feeling tired and in need of some time to rest and begin to heal ❤️

Last week, the week after Easter, we took a couple of days and headed to Dublin for a little family fun! We didn’t have any major plans for while we were away – it was just great to walk and talk together in a new place! Dublin is a beautiful city and we had such a great wee time together ❤️😃 We had to contend with Irish fuel protests which made our journey a little more entertaining than usual but we made it. We did also have some practical things that needed to get done at home, so it was all hands on deck with some gardening fun among other things! None of us really love gardening to be honest – but we still had a lot of fun and laughter while we got it done 😂👍

Neil and I were chatting when we got home from our trip, and he shared with me that he was finding it hard to shake off the effects of the last few weeks. Sometimes things just sneak up on us, and the toll of those losses, plus some complications around them, meant that Neil just wasn’t just himself. We decided that he should grab a little break in Spain with a friend, so he’ll be away next week. However, we know that holidays don’t ‘fix’ everything, and we do have to bring this stuff to God. That’s what he did, in a very public way. 😂 On Sunday, he was leading the service at our church, and he so wonderfully shared with everyone the journey he’d been on the past few weeks. It was so helpful to hear it articulated, and already a few people have approached him to let him know how helpful it was for them too. The other added bonus for Neil was that it really seemed to shift the grief that he had been feeling. It wasn’t like he noticed anything major happening at the time, but this week he feels back to himself again.

This week we’ve also been trying to get back into the swing of school rhythms etc – I find it always takes me a few days to get going properly again after we’ve been off 😂 Among other things we’ve been doing this week, we had a couple of great meetings which were a lot of fun!

We video-called a couple of friends of ours from England the other day, just to catch up and share together about what the Lord is doing in each of our lives at the moment. These guys lead a great church, and it was so encouraging to hear what is going on with them in their city at the minute! As Neil & I shared a bit about what’s happening with us and what we feel the Lord is doing right now, our friends shared some things they felt God might want to do with us soon! It’s so encouraging when friends hear from God prophetically – I love how God has given us gifts that we can use to help and encourage each other as we journey forward 🥳🙌 The cool thing was, what our friends shared with us was the same thing another one of our friends who leads our church had said to us just a couple of days earlier after our service on Sunday morning, so it felt like a lovely confirmation to us ❤️🥳 Now we pray and wait to see what it’s all going to look like 😃👍

We also spent a bit of time with friends who are leading a church about half an hour down the road from where we live, which was so fun! We’ve just recently started to get to know these guys, and we’re loving hearing their heart for their area and the things that they feel God is leading them into going forward 🥳 It’s good for the soul to have friends who are hungry to see God’s Kingdom released on the earth and who excitedly believe how amazing things could be here as we see that happen 🥳🙌

Goodness, I feel like I’ve written a total essay here today – sorry about that 🫣😂 We’re heading into the weekend now, but I’ll pop back on next week at some point while Neil is away cycling in the sun ☀️😃❤️