Looks like Zoe & I will be missing a fair bit of college over the next few days as Abigail appears to have finally succumbed to the Chicken Pox outbreak that has been going around College! Not the best time for it to happen, although better than if it was in a few more weeks time and hit us around the commissioning of the Witnesses for Christ!
You never know I might even get sometime to finish the several post I’ve got sat in my Drafts folder!
We’re now nearly at the end of a 2 week break from college! It’s been nice to have, especially after the handing in of 5 essays in 5 weeks that we had at the end of term. Thankfully, I’ve managed to pass both the two papers that we have had handed back! The next stage of the process will see a return to preaching and leading meetings as we will be having 7 Sundays at Chalk Farm corps over the coming weeks. Both Zoe & I are looking forward to this, even though it’s not quite what we’ve been used to in recent years as far as worship is concerned. It’ll be good to spend some time at another corps though and get to know some new people.
The break has been a time of family, friends and travel! For the first time, we were able to get round all the closest family. We spent Christmas Eve and Boxing Day at Zoe’s mum’s and on Boxing Day got to see our rapidly growing nephew, Oliver. It was then off to my family for a couple of nights which culminated with an invite to our eldest nephew’s 18th birthday party in April!! Despite the amount of travelling we’ve had to do, it was well worth the effort to spend Christmas with the family!
We’ve also managed to get some time with friends as well, which is always good. In fact the last three days have been spent with either friends who’ve been to visit us, or amongst the college community now we’re back in London.
And so we’re back! Still quite a bit to do before we restart lectures on Monday, but its been a great Christmas and a nice end to 2008. Here’s to 2009!
Can it really be that it is only a week since we actually officially started this college? The almost frightening truth is that it is! Well actually today was day 9 if you are seriously counting, but that’s not quite as dramatic is it?
Anyway, in the last few days we’ve been well and truly inducted; have got study skills coming out of our ears; have attempted to learn our Sessional song which is ok but tends to get stuck in the mind a little; and have also been faced with a Practice Essay that was of such possible breadth as to blow the mind a little!
So far though the highlight was Sunday, which in college parlance was a Spiritual Day! The Training Principles were responsible for the day and they spoke on the need to be attentive to and orientated towards Jesus. Three things in particular spoke to me during the day: a song, a flag and another song!
First, a song! During the morning meeting we sang Graham Kendrick’s “Knowing you” which of course speaks about knowing Jesus. What came to mind as we sang was that the last time we had sung that particular song in the Assembly Hall was on our wedding day. I couldn’t help but consider how much has changed since that day just over 9 years ago. I certainly wouldn’t have expected to be stood there again as a cadet, in fact it wasn’t even on the radar back then. What I do know though is that I have never been let down by God in the intervening years even though I’ve let him down far too often.
Second, a flag! Yes, you’ve read me right and all those who know me really well can have a laugh at my expense! As part of the afternoon meeting, The Salvation Army flag of the Session is presented. Now despite being a 5th generation Salvationist, I can’t say that the flag has the same meaning for me as for some Salvationists. However, as the flag was marched down the hall and presented to the flag bearer, and then dedicated, a tear came to my eye. For the first time I suddenly realised that I was standing in the same hall in which my mum, dad and grandad has stood and witnessed a similar ceremony. For just a moment it seemed that the decades slipped away and I was stood shoulder to shoulder with them; that I was stood beside Zoe at the time just made it more wonderful. It is a moment that I will long remember!
Finally, the 2nd song! One of the officers on the college had written a song especially for the day with the title, “From this moment on…” and it spoke about the fact that from now on we were dedicating ourselves to the Lord anew for a new task. Again the significance wasn’t lost on me! Whilst my previous work for the Kingdom has been important I really believe that from now on the work I will be training to do and will eventually do as an officer is what God has been leading me towards for many years. I really do want to go for it from this moment on!
We have arrived safely in England and are now starting to take over the in-law’s house for the next ten days.
On Friday we spent the majority of the morning and early afternoon doing the packing for our holiday, and watching the removal men putting the finishing touches to the packing up of the flat. Around 2:30pm they started to take the 79 boxes/packets/pieces of furniture down the 4 flights of stairs to the lorry. There was an emotional moment as Sian’s bed was taken past our bedroom door and the reality of the situation sunk in!
After we did some of the cleaning that was needed we headed off to Sarah & Aivis’s flat to spend the weekend with them. There was a slightly surreal moment as we realised that our first night in Latvia had been spent on their sofa bed and that we would now be spending our last 3 nights on the self same sofa bed! This was one of a number of closure moments that we have experienced over the last few days.
Most of the weekend was actually spent simply relaxing with Sarah & Aivis which was so nice after the hectic nature of the last couple of weeks. Sian and Josh spent most of the time playing together and this included a 
series of several races down the hall of the flat. Aivis took a number of photos of them and in the one you can see the sheer concentration that they put in before the obligatory “1, 2, 3, GO” command was given.
Going to Riga 1 corps on Sunday was going to be difficult. For me, Riga 1 has been the corps I have spent the longest time at of any corps I’ve soldiered at. With the way officership works this is likely to remain the case until the day I retire! Sian couldn’t quite understand why we were “going back home”. For those who don’t get this, for the last 6 years we’ve lived, worked and worshipped within the same building and for Sian the whole building has been her own supersized house. She’s been equally at home in the flat, Corps, Patverums, and Regional Headquarters!
The meeting itself was really good, if a little noisy from the various children, at times. Both of us got a chance to have a word, mine being a testimony I’ve been trying to give for a couple of weeks now, and Zoe’s being the Smith family farewell message! We were prayed for as a family and for me personally, that settled my mind a little bit more!
Sunday night saw us back at Sarah & Aivis’s and Aivis took a few family pictures for us on both my camera and his own.
Then came Monday. After a hectic morning finalising the repacking of the holiday bags we headed back over to Regional Headquarters for the final little things and the official farewell. A few words were said by our Regional Commander before we had coffee and then we just spending time chatting to people. We did our final bits and pieces and then left for the airport.
Everything went really smoothly and after a quick and uneventful flight we arrived at Gatwick to see Zoe’s mum and step-dad, and The Salvation Army’s Overseas Services Secretary, Elizabeth Burns, waiting for us. After a lovely cup of iced latte (paid for by THQ) we loaded up the cars and headed off up the motorway to Taunton, where we finally arrived at 11:40pm.
A long and emotional day was finally over. The reality of our return has not really started to sink in yet. As I write we’ve been back less than 24 hours and both our girls are fast asleep in bed. The next few days will be quite busy, but its nice to be able to relax fully for the first time in weeks.
Well the Latvia adventure is nearly over! In less than a week our stuff will be taken away by the removal company and we will be staying at Sarah’s for 3 nights. Which means in 9 days from now we will be on a plane flying back to England!
Friday was a strange day! We said goodbye to Evie of course and I basically finished up the last but one job that I have to do. Now all I have to do is finalise my ‘brief’ and meet with the Regional Commanders and I will be done here.
We are not the only English people leaving the country. The British Ambassador is also leaving and when I opened my e-mail on Friday I discovered an invite for Zoe & I to go to their residence for a dinner on Wednesday. Our Ambassador and his wife are really nice people, who we have had the privilege of meeting a number of times. They have also been very supportive since finding out about Patverums, so it will be nice to spend some time with them before we leave, even though we will be only 2 amongst quite a number of people.
So our 5 years, 10 months and 13 days are almost over and we’ll have so many memories, and of course will be taking two beautiful girls back to England with us! Not sure how much I’ll get to blog before we leave but I have a few things in the pipeline!
Today was Abigail’s dedication and it was a wonderful occasion! To celebrate with family, friends and the wider church family the wonderful gift that God has given us in Abigail was great. To have the opportunity to dedicate Abigail’s life back to the service of this God who means so much to us, was the most important part and made me think about what her future will hold. Sarah who did the dedication included Sian as being just as important to Abigail’s faith as Zoe & I, and it reminded me that we now have the task of leading two wonderful daughters to a living faith in Christ!
Thanks to Evie who is her godmother, and also to the godparents in abstentia, Jane & Jon Bishton, for their willingness to help us in the awesome task of educating this precious girl in the faith we all share.
Last night (21 April 2007) at 11:07pm our second beautiful daughter, Abigail Evie Smith, arrived in the world weighing in at 8lbs (3630g) and measuring 53cm!
Everyone is doing well!
(click on the images to see the full size photos)