Thanksgiving week...

Hello to all our readers, whoever you are. We love you!

Today has been Monday November 22nd. I've spent it mostly on the road as my brother Dan is here to visit! Had to travel down to Sacramento to pick him up which was nice to be able to travel outside of Redding for a change. And I am now in love with cruise control! I've always been a bit sceptical up until now, but after travelling south on the incredibly straight I-5 it has won me over. It was a joy. Ben, our Aussie friend, accompanied me on the trip, many thanks for coming mate! It was Bonza!

So Dan is here until Saturday. He's been in Kansas since last week making a bit of a pilgrimage to watch his favourite American Football team play. His team won at the weekend which was good. We're excited he's here to see a bit of our American life and to finally have some home cooked food after almost a weeks worth of fast food! Don't worry Mum, we'll make sure he eats properly.

Izzy has had an eventful day today, she had a bunch of girlfriends round. They have been making Christmas cards all day (I was gutted I missed out!) and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. They've all made some amazing cards, maybe some of you will receive one this Christmas.

Due to it being Thanksgiving this Thursday, we have the week off of school. Last week was Relationships week. We both got a lot out of it, especially the sessions for married couples, we picked up some really great tips on things like communication, which will no doubt come in handy over the years. We're looking forward to implementing some of the new skills we've picked up. The Thanksgiving break also meant we finally got to go to Bethel Church for a Sunday morning service! After being here for almost 3 months we hadn't ever been to the proper church building for a Sunday morning due to the rotation we've been assigned to. So this past Sunday we walked up to the church and found some seats in the sanctuary part of the church building. It was great, properly felt like a proper church service, rather than the services filled with students every sunday morning. We sat next to and chatted to 'normal' Reddingites for the first time!

The service was brilliant, worship was amazing and Bill was on fire as usual. Listen to this weeks podcast of the sermon if you get chance. It was great to feel part of a regular congregation again.

We spent the rest of our Sunday mainly relaxing, but went to the cinema late last night to watch a film called 'the next three days' with Russell Crowe. It was a pretty decent watch, but really intense, especially late at night. We headed to Walmart after the film finished, both thinking we were being followed by the police and needed to be quick and get out asap! So if you do decide to watch the film, don't do it really late at night.

The new Jesus Culture album came out today, so we've been listening to that. It's another good'un from them. Get it if you can, think it comes out worldwide tomorrow (Tuesday). We're hoping to head to one of the mountians this week sometime, as it's been snowing recently and it's due to get heavier. Hopefully be able to do some sledging. I think they call it sledding over here though.

We had our first meeting with the group we're going to Ecuador in March with this week. They're all amazing, a couple of other Brits which is exciting. Really excited about what we'll be getting up to; prison ministry, street kids ministry, maternity hospital ministry for starters. It's going to be epic! As a team we're linking up with the Toledo's who are heroes of the justice world. Jennifer in particular has been likened to Heidi Baker and here's a link to a page where you can download her testimony and other talks she has done. It'll rock your world!
http://www.heburnsforme.com/Jennifer_Toledo.html

Anyway, Dan is trying to sleep now in the room next to me, he's still suffering a little from jetlag, bless him. So I better go.

Hope everyone is good. Do keep us updated with whats going on.

Lot's of love
Lil and Izzy x