More holes?

I just had a phone call from Chris - They are drilling holes outside our house! It turns out the water table is too high to continue sewer work, and these holds are part of the solution. Trouble is, there are pipes left poking out, and one is right outside our gate, so we can't get the car in for the next two weeks...

Arise! Again!

I've been listening to recordings of the Arise! conference from a couple of weeks ago. Quite amazing. This is the first conference where I have voluntarily listened to the recordings afterwards and actually enjoyed them, if enjoyed is the right word. In fact, I am getting more out of this conference the second time round.

My first baptism!

This is the first time I've baptized anybody! It was a young Bulgarian translator. Also in the water is the wife of her pastor, representing the cover of her church. The water was warm, praise God, and it was a very good time.

Synthetic blood?

My eye was caught by an article in today's "Independent" about a new scientific project. This is how it was described:

A major research project is to be announced this week that will culminate in three years with the first transfusions into human volunteers of "synthetic" blood made from the stem cells of spare IVF embryos.

"Spare" embryos. What a wonderful way to describe human beings. Then it stuck me - there is amazing scope here for solving a huge number of medical problems! We can take other "spare" human beings - mentally handicapped, prisoners, orphans, social misfits, the insane - and use them as a convenient source of donor organs! After all, no-one will miss them, just as no-one will miss the "spare" embryos...

Sewers at last.

Traffic on our quiet village road has been brought to a standstill this week, but nobody is really complaining. The reason?...We are finally joining Ancient Rome, the 19th Century in Hungary, and the rest of the civilised world!
We are getting sewers! - And the water company has promised that they will be connected by the end of November!

Now we are waiting to see if the Mayor will keep his promise to have the road surfaced instead of left as rutted sand for another 70 years. Progress is a wonderful thing...

Romanian School

This is the Romanian Modular School in Timisoara - over 200 people learning about Deliverance Ministry. Praise God!

Happy Chicken

We just had a takeaway meal in Romania. Not sure about the name of the firm though. Why would the chicken be happy? We are eating it!

It's been over a week!

I honestly thought I could write this sort of diary at least three or four times a week! - but we've been sort of busy, first at the International Leaders' Conference at Ellel Grange, and then catching up with things back in Hungary.

Tomorrow we are back on the road again, this time to Romania where we will be teaching Deliverance Ministry to about 230 students at the monthly Ellel Modular School. We'll let you know how it goes...

Two worlds, two kingdoms.

... And here's another view of Ellel Grange. Last week we stayed in a ground-floor room; it was at the left-hand end of the building, behind the left-hand door of the two that you can see between the huge bay windows.

We flew home from Liverpool Airport on RyanAir. Not a pleasant experience. Not only were we limited to just 15 kilos (33 lb) each for checked bags, our carry-on bags were weighed and were found to be too heavy, so Roger had to stuff brochures, books and Chris's netbook into the inside pockets of his fleece jacket. He went through passport control looking like the Michelin Man!

All through the flight we were treated to shouts and "songs" from a big group of tanked-up scousers (contact me for a translation) heading to Budapest for a stag party. To cap it all, the £3 on-board cup of tea was only luke-warm, with no apologies, just an explanation (when I complained) that "it all comes out of the same tap".

This was all a huge contrast to the wonderful fellowship and hospitality we had at Ellel Grange. We were thrown right back into the world! Something similar happened at Blackpool at the end of the "Arise!" conference; a large "hen-night" group came to the hotel on a "drinks-included" package and in all the public areas there were women getting steadily more drunk, carrying around six-foot plastic inflated representations of male anatomy. A totally different spirit had re-established its authority, in contrast to the Spirit who ruled in our rented halls. It was a sickening reminder of who the prince of this world is.

When I've had a chance to review the conference DVDs again I'll be able to make a comment! As I said before, watch this space...

Wonderful conferences!

We just got home from two wonderful conferences ... the Arise! conference at Blackpool, followed by the International Leaders' Conference at Ellel Grange. Both were amazing. I can't even begin to describe the things that have started to happen. Watch this space...

Aaaah!.....

We're at Ellel Grange. These sheep were just next to the driveway. Aaaah!....