5 Minute Monthly: April

Happy May everyone! We apologise that our blog is a bit late this month-- Tyler had a major essay due at the beginning of May and with having only one computer his project took priority. But now he's completed his essay and we are glad to sharing our month of April with you! The past month didn't have any crazy highs or lows, in fact it was rather mundane and normal. Yet I think through the simplicity we were able to get a picture of normal British life and also understand that all of life doesn't have to be overwhelmingly exciting to be significant. A concept that I like to remind myself of often.

Life Happenings

Our family chugs along as we continue to navigate the demands of our new life as well as those of our busy toddler. Josiah is active and distracted, focused and contemplative all at the same time it seems. He loves to read books and will quietly sit and play independently then the next minute he is running around the house, sticking his hands in the toilet and dumping out my tomato plants. he has endless energy but will still sit on my lap and give 'kisses to baby'. He is sweet and sensitive, silly and sporadic and we love him so much. my days are filled with chasing Josiah around (which gets harder as baby is due in a couple weeks) and making our house a home. I have also had many opportunities to connect with moms both in the church and the community. During Easter break I had a few friends over to the house to dye Easter eggs - a tradition I grew up doing that is not practised here. I had so much fun hosting and teaching the moms about this fun American craft. The kids had a blast dipping their eggs and making special designs. I was thankful for the opportunity to show my new friends a bit of my culture.

Easter also marked our first major holiday spent in the UK. We discovered that Brits celebrate the holiday differently than Americans. First of all, Easter Sunday is not a time to dress-up for church and no one really wears fancy Easter outfits. We were certainly the best dressed at church on Sunday. Easter is also not really a family holiday, so people don't usually have a big dinner; it's much more low-key. Also, chocolate eggs are the thing to hide and find, not plastic eggs or decorated hard-boiled ones. These are all quite minor differences, but when being in a different culture, these things stand out quite a lot. Despite the differences though, we had a very enjoyable Easter weekend, and did spend the holiday with a meal at our pastor's house.

Ministry Update

Our involvement in the church and its programs looked a bit different this month, mostly due to 'half term.' It's a the two week break that happens around Easter, so for what feels like a month, most of the usual ministries that we are a part of -- students, youth group, toddler group and English Café -- took a break, which meant seeing people less often. However, this opened doors for us as a family to do different kinds of activities and plan get-togethers with other families in the church.

Tyler's role in the church has been growing as we become more familiar with the congregation. He has been given some leadership roles, and is looking forward to preaching during the summer. This past Sunday, he got to lead the service. This is a pretty common role for a Sunday service here, which most American churches don't necessarily have. This role involves picking out the worship songs, praying, sharing announcements and also giving a brief overview of last week's sermon. The leader is a support to the one giving the message and his main goal is to tie the whole service together so the congregation is continually aware of what they are learning that Sunday. This role in the church is a bit new to Tyler and I as it is not a common practice in America but it is one that we greatly respect and see the benefit of. It is also a great role for Tyler to step into on occasion to integrate into the church culture here.

In addition to that, Tyler has continued to meet with some people in the church regularly. Meetings were harder to plan this month for him because of half-term, but he is really glad to see them growing in knowledge of God and wanting to know more of Christ. He is also able to dedicate time to going to many church functions to meet more people and get to know the church family closer-- our friendships here within the church are growing and we are thankful!

As you all well know we are expecting a little addition to our family in the next two weeks. The church is kindly aware that we will have to take a bit of a step back and have therefore not overwhelmed Tyler and I with tasks for the month of May. We will be focusing on the birth of the baby in the next few weeks. However, I am still able to participate in a few things while we await the arrival of our little one. There was a women's bible study that recently started up and I am helping with the church nursery which is called creche. I am looking forward to becoming more involved after we are settled a bit with new baby.

Pray With Us

As always, we are so thankful for your prayers and are always in need of more of your prayers. Please take a moment to pray with us:

Requests

• Pray for the safe delivery of baby and that everything goes smoothly with introducing a new baby into our house

• We ask for prayer on our church's behalf. There has been a significant amount of loss to people in our congregation. We pray for peace and comfort.

• We pray for the friendships that we are beginning, that they would continue to grow.

  
  

Praises

• We thank God for all the kindness shown to us and blessings given to us as we prepare for baby!

• We are thankful that our family has begun to feel settled in Portsmouth and really able to integrate into the ministries of the church.

We are blessed to have all you wonderful people in our lives! Thank you for taking the time to read our blog and stay updated on what's happening! Next time you hear from us, we will most likely have a new member in our little family! God bless!!