Hello lovely worldwide family, i hope you all had a blessed christmas, i am just chatting to Adam Wilson on facebook chat, he is up with baby chloe at 7am. So happy for Cat and Adam, and family.
We have moved from staying at ben and sarah and then scott and yaris for christmas into our missions leaders holiday let. its so lovely.its got one bed, kitchen/ lounge and shower room. all you need and decorated really well(they are both creative) we could happily live here! sadly its only for 4 nights. We have just got back from olive house we have been playing games with the Heather family and ben and sarah, minus ad,john and pippa who went to the church evening service at Bethel.
Lil is looking at the books they have here at the holiday let for reading, hes just said he could live here forever.
Our Christmas day was lovely, very relaxed and chilled.Sarah cooked dinner with Yaris help, it was really nice. no crackers tho. then we watched films played games and fell asleep.
We went to church this morning, Brian and Jen Johnson led worship, there was no drums so it was quite chilled.

Anyway its getting late on boxing day evening so i will sign off.
Be blessed,
Lots of love and a Merry Christmas,
Izzy xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas....

Hello to all our faithful followers.

It is Christmas eve eve. We've had quite a busy time since we last blogged so I'll try update you all as to what has been going on....

We finished school last Friday, our last day ended up being a massive party with pizza and some of the revival groups doing various performances, which was all very good and impressive. A good time was had by all. It's been an amazing few months of school, beyond anything we could have imagined. Having said that, it's almost Christmas!

I (Liam) missed thursday's school day because I decided to accompany my friend Ben and his parents from Australia to Mount Shasta for some snowboarding. It was my first time snowboarding, and because I had only limited experience of skiing, I was a little apprehensive. We all got kitted out and after a hearty breakfast at Black Bear Diner (Eggs Benedict was magnificent) we headed for the slopes. Ben and I decided to get some practice so went straight to the nursery slopes so we could quickly learn the basics. After a little while, and encouraged by Ben and one of the instructors, I felt I might be able to tackle one of the easy slopes. So we boarded the chair lift, which was a challenge in itself, and headed for the top of the mountain. Everything was going smoothly, with only one or two minor falls when Ben went on ahead and left me to negotiate my own way down. Which was fine until the run forked into three. I thought we had pre-agreed to take the furthest right of the routes, so swiftly took this option. However, I don't think anyone had taken this route down the slope in a few days as the snow was fairly fresh. The minor falls begun to become quite major falls and the route increased in gradient. After trying for a little while to use my new found snowboarding skills it became apparent that this run was used to boarders much more skilled than me so I took a break and relaxed and enjoyed the view, thinking that I'd soon spot a few skiiers or boarders shooting past me. After a good ten minutes of taking in the view and enjoying God's creation, I began to worry slightly that I hadn't even seen wildlife come past my way. I got back on my board and tried to apply my skills once again.

But again, the slope got the better of me and after taking many more tumbles I decided it was best to walk, or for the most part crawl, down the remainder of the mountain. I set off in the general direction of where I thought everyone was, thinking it wouldn't be long until I stumbled upon one of the main routes down the slope. That's what I thought anyway. So I walked and crawled, walked and crawled. For ages. I thought I'd soon see a rescue helicopter flying over head so I tried to stay out the way of the trees so they could spot me. Eventually a medic skiier arrived to ask if I was ok. Phew I thought, finally they've found me but as soon as he assessed I wasn't in any medical danger he shot off again down the hill. So I went back to walking and crawling my way down. After what seemed like days I finally arrived back at the resort and civilisation, a little battered and quite a bit bruised. I decided that I was best suited to the nursery slopes so headed back there. All in all though, we had a lot of fun.

The weekend was good, it was mainly relaxed and preparing for the Heather's to come and stay and for us to move out. Sunday morning at church was great, Bill and Kris were unfortunately away so we had the priviledge of listening to Bill's eldest son Eric talk. If any of you are able to, get the podcast from the talk he did, on God and Community. It was amazing. Go and download it now, it's free.

Monday came and it was time to head down to San Francisco where we would stay with Ben and Sarah and Ben's parents for a few days but also drop Josh off at the airport to pick his family up. We were really worried about their inbound flight because of all the disruption to Heathrow, but we managed to find bits of information out about the time they would be arriving. They eventually arrived safely, via a unscheduled stop in Seattle and all made it up to Redding safely.

So we had a few days in San Francisco, which was brilliant. We haven't really had opportunity to explore the city since being here although we had heard several times how great a city it was. We did some sight seeing, of the Bay and fishermen's wharf, and had a ride on one of the trolleys. And had a good look round the shops. The vibe in the city is great and we really enjoyed the atmosphere of the place, even though we didn't see too much of it. Above are some photos from our trip.

Anyways, I've gone on for far too long. We had a really nice day today with the Heather family and I took and passed my Californian driving test! Only got a few minors, although after chatting to the instructor about how I think it's great the speed limit in a residential area is 25 compared to it being 30 in the UK, I got a minor for speeding in a residential area! Which was rather embarassing. But I'm passed and qualified now.

Really hope everyone is good and enjoying the run up to Christmas. Have a great time and we wish you all an amazing and blessed time celebrating Jesus' birthday.

Hope to hear from you all soon.

God's richest blessings,

Izzy and Liam

Luke 1:30-33:
the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favour with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”

Hello all our lovely friends,
We just got back from an ugly christmas sweater birthday party for our friend Scott which was fun, we played games, ate and prophesied.
This week has been good, full of parties and christmasy things. On monday we went clay pigeon shooting with Bens parents who are in town for a week. Lil was really good at it and got a lot of the clay pigeons, i thought i'd be good at it but when it came to holding the gun it was so heavy that i could only hold it for 2 shots, both were non moving targets. =(
This week at school has been fun, the talks have been really amazing, and we are just loving being around so many wonderful friends everyday. Kris Valloton did a question and answer session which was interesting... some strange questions. We love that Kris doesn't try and answer things he doesn't know the answer to, he just says he doesn't know! He is so relaxed and funny when he talks.
Last weekend the church did a 'holiday feast'. its put on for the people in Redding who live in poverty. Its amazinggggg. so much love is poured into them, around 800-1000 people were fed, given clothes, toys, love and much more.
Tomorrow is our final day of this term, then we have 2 weeks off for Christmas. We are moving out of Olive Ave to Ben and Sarahs house, then we are at Scott and Yaris for christmas eve and day. we are very excited, we even have english christmas pudding.
I have got go and finish my homework thats due tomorrow, only a little bit thankfully. It does get on top of you if you dont do some everyday. (which we mostly do)

Check y'all later

love izzy xxxxxxx

Hi all,
This weeks been fun so far. Tuesday was good, it was my, izzys, creative track. Theres 70 people in it. we have personal projects to do and get to choose a group project. I've applied to do this group project:

4 – Healing Art (Team Leader: Petra D & 2nd yr) We want to explore the ways that Art brings healing to others and are looking for people to research healing arts through Art therapy, gather testimonies from the healing rooms on how art is healing others, as well as our Arts activation testimonies. We want to then begin to write and explore training in Healing in the Arts which can be taken in hospitals, missions, and other places. You will become activated to explore and do healing through art as you begin to practice healing in various places.

wow.hopefully ill get it.

Theres 17 to choose from, from fashion, to culinary art to film, drama, interior design (they wanna do mini extreme makeovers underpriviledged childrens rooms).
so theres loads.

Tuesday night we had healing rooms training. on a Saturday the church open some big rooms and people from ALL over the world come to get prayer for healing. you can even skype in, they have 3 skype stations. and every week 200+ people come. its amazing. EVERY WEEK God touches people, every week deaf people from births ears pop open and they can hear, cancers fall off, blind people see, one week(they called it popcorn healing) 10 people in the rooms ears popped open all who had been deaf, just because Gods presence is so strong. crazy huh! although it become less crazy and more normal now.
oh they also have artists painting in there and dancers dancing and a band worshiping. :) cos God loves it when we create.


A man called Joaquin Evans spoke who runs the healing rooms with Chris Gore(-this is chris' website.) ...
http://www.kingdomreleasers.org/about-us.html

They talked about the healing rooms, then got us all blasted with the Holy spirit. Funfunfun.

Wednesday we had revival group in the afternoon.They led us into an encounter with God. It was interesting what different people saw. We had dinner with our friends, Scott and his wife Yari, Ben and Sarah and Alan. Then that night was housegroup, we worshiped, prayed and heard from Michael, a guy who has just got back from a mission trip to Texas with Bill Johnson (our senior pastor).He told us about the trip and a little about Bill and we had a great time praying and hanging out together.

Today was really good, we had worship in school, then teachings, then we went to Shasta Lake City, where we are every thursday, just being there for the community. it rained and was cold but we stayed and hung out there with some local kids and a local man who was in the park.

Then we went back to school to get picked up and outside was a man called Kedric, there was a small crowd around him so we went over and listened to see what was happening. it was like being in a youtube clip. This guy who we found out later was only 19! was so in tune with the Holy Spirit that he was telling people their birthdays, mums name, sisters name etc. every time he was right, it was amazing, and he kept sayin 'its the same holy spirit, same God in all of us its just our mind that gets in the way, we just have to keep practising'. It was so good.
Its called words of knowledge, when God tells you something you wouldnt know, like someones birthday.

Its getting late now, and we're tired. so i'll say goodnight.

Thankyou for reading.

love izzy xxxxx

Back to school....

Hey everybody!

Hope this post finds everyone well and ready for the countdown to Christmas! It's not quite started here in Redding, but people in the UK will be waking up to December 1st.

So today was our first day back at school since the Thanksgiving break. We really enjoyed having a week off, relaxing with friends, spending time with my brother who had come over from Cheddar, and having our first ever Thanksgiving! It seemed to me to be a bit like Christmas-lite, where everything seemed like Christmas but there was no presents. It was great though, and having a day to be thankful is a brilliant idea. We should all be more thankful, it's definitely encouraged me to develop a more thankful attitude to life.

So yes, today we were back school. When we arrived the atmosphere was electric. Most people seemed to enjoy their holidays but everyone missed having school. We started with a worship session led by some of the second year students. They and the session was amazing. Really awesome. I'd happily buy a CD if they made one.

We then had a special guest speak to us. Tracy Evans is a lady with some amazing stories to tell.
She currently lives in Mozambique, Africa, where she has been for almost the last 10 years, but her life has taken her all over the place. She spoke to us about stepping out over the edge (not literally) but that as we do God will catch us and give us flight. Into her message she weaved many stories of her own life that to say has been adventurous would be an understatement! One story that stood out was how she literally was shipwrecked somewhere in the Pacific ocean, so she swam to shore and made the island she landed on her home for the next year. She didn't have any clothes, food, knowledge of the language or customs or anything. But she had God.

She finished by talking about the work she does in Mozambique, where Tracy and her team are responsible for about 800 orphans. She didn't ever think she would have this many or would be doing what she is doing but she is faithful to what God brings her way and looks after any that come to her for help. She has a clear revelation of our responsibility to the poor, and after outlining it to us we were almost convinced to join her and her work in Mozambique! that was until she started talking about the snakes that live there. So don't worry parents, we won't be leaving just yet for Mozambique!

We ended the day with our first session of a new module we had all selected. Izzy had her first session with the Kingdom Creativity track, which she will follow for the rest of the year. She's incredibly excited to see how God is going to use her through her artistic and creative ability. The first session was mainly outlining the rest of the course and hearing stories of previous years efforts, which all added to Izzy's excitement. I had my first session with Joaquin Evans, which is elaborately titled Cultivating the presence and Encounters. Joaquin oversees the Healing Rooms at the church and is an incredible guy. He shared many of his stories since he first came to the church 7 years ago, which started with a missions trip to South Africa. His experiences in South Africa were really powerful and have increased ever since. The session was brilliant, a great introduction and I'm really looking forward to the other 4 sessions I'll have with Joaquin. A great thing Joaquin reminded me was that it's all about relationship with God. Joaquin has seen many incredible things over the last 10 years, many healings for example through his work with the Healing Rooms, but it's all about spending time with God and developing the relationship.

Tomorrow is Sam's last full day with us : ( Sam has been our extra housemate for the last month or so as he's been doing some work experience with Bethel Media. So tomorrow night we're having a small party for him, as well as celebrating Emma's birthday. Tomorrow promises to be another great day!

Thanks for reading, we're really blessed by people reading our blog and keeping up with what we're doing. We still need money for our missions trip in March to Ecuador, so if you feel led to give or would like to contribute that would be awesome. You can give through:
https://www.ibssm.org/?action=donate&target=missions&student_id=212223 (- for Izzy)
https://www.ibssm.org/?action=donate&target=missions&student_id=212224 (- for Liam)

Just copy the link and paste it in your web browser bar. Any problems give us a shout.

Many thanks. We love you all and if you can't give, prayer would be more appreciated.

Have a great Wednesday.

Love and Blessings

Izzy and Liam x

Hi all,
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

So, Dan has left us, lil just dropped him at the airport and is now home and watching college football chatting to Adam. Dans flights delayed so he is waiting at Sacramento airport. Sorry Dan! :( We have loved having you stay with us, and hope you enjoyed your time here.

Thursday was Thanksgiving. We went to our home groups house and had wonderful food and company, and then the boys went outside and had a game of american football on the road, with us girls trying and failing to cheerlead. We went back in the house and the games started, which always end up being prophesying over each other. One game was putting someone in the middle blingfolded, and someone is picked to go and stand in front of them, the blindfolded person has to ask the Holy Spirit what he is saying to that person, and say what ever comes to mind, amazing results, everyone was spot on, and even could tell who it was who was standing infront of them!!

Yesterday it was 'Black Friday' which is a bit like boxing day sales. people camp overnight outside the bigger stores waiting for them to open at 3am for the 80% off sales, as they day goes on the % gets less.

Today we are catching up on homework and relaxing, its raining outside. :( Then tonight we are going to a friends house whose having a christmas party so we are looking forward to that.

Hope you all had a lovely day.
love izzy xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

we went to mount lassen today. and heres what we found :)