Good evening y'all!

As you can see we've picked up a little bit of the local lingo. We're still having an amazing time out here in California. I'll try and remember what we've been up to since we last post....

We had a very long weekend last weekend. Bethel Church hosted a Leader's conference for, you've guessed it, Church Leaders, from all over the place, which ran Monday til Wednesday. As they were using a lot of the church facilities it meant we had a few days off. The weather picked up as well so we had a really good few days. the idea beforehand was to catch up and get on top of homework but as the sun came out we all decided to take advantage and get up to various activities while we still could. So our weekend consisted of mainly hanging out with some good friends of ours and playing football.

Tuesday was a great day. Izzy had some girls round and they had a baking and Disney day. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. Meanwhile, I decided to take advantage of America's slightly different laws concerning gun use and having never fired a gun in my life went out with some people to fire my first shots! The whole idea was completely alien to me but fascinating all the same. So we went to a nearby hillside where man made driving ranges seem to have been created. We all took turns having a go at shooting some clay pigeons, and after shooting the second one thrown I thought I was a natural, a James Bond in the making. I then proceeded to miss the next 30 or so, meaning Daniel Craig is safe in his job for now, even if I do have the right physique for it. But Ben, my Aussie friend and me had a great time, firing our first ever gun. We paid for it slightly, with bruising to our shoulders the next day but it was worth it. I felt very American. Thanks to Marty Reid for organising it all, and the two Chelsea's and lot's of the Tesauro family for accommodating us!

So we were back to school yesterday, Thursday. It was exciting to be back after having so many days off. The highlight of the day was undoubtedly Pastor Bill talking to us. He was amazing. He spoke a lot about the renewing of the mind, and how it comes through intimacy with God rather than just us memorising Scripture or just believing good things. He was very open, sharing some of his experiences and encounters he has had with God, which was very inspiring but also very challenging. One memorable line was:
'Your experience should equal your confession'
Which is very challenging. But awesome too! Come on!

Thursday night we were invited to the very lovely Lynda's house. Lynda is a lady in our revival group who is like our mum while we're here. She has taken it upon herself to invite everyone from our revival group over for dinner at some point. So Thursday was the couple's night. Lynda, along with her sister, Trina, and housemate Katherine, were amazing hosts, and the Sampsons, Pridmores and Rossiters had a brilliant time. Thanks ladies!

Today we had some Bible teaching from Dann Farrelly, followed by a time of worship and finished off with some time in our small groups. A great finish to a great week.

We really hope everyone back home in Somerset is well and being blessed. Please do keep in touch with us, we love to hear whats going in.

We're recently found out we'll be heading to Ecuador in March for our missions trip which is really exciting. We'll be part of a team of 28 and our trip will involve exciting things like getting involved in a maternity hospital impoverished families, helping to deliver clothes and food to the needy, ministering in youth prisons and feeding malnourished children to name a few things. We're really excited about it. We have to raise some money for the trip so if you feel like you'd like to help us out please get in touch.

Thanks for taking the time to read our blog we really appreciate it. Hope everyone is well.

Lot's of love and blessings from Redding.

Liam and Izzy x

P.S. Sorry about the formatting!