Sorry its been a while since we've posted on here, its all been a little hectic lately. We're about to head off for Christmas with our families before coming back to pack up the house and jump on the plane. We're going from a houseful of stuff to what we can fit in one 20kg bag each (that's going to be a challange).

The farewell from St Mary's was last weekend, it was a great feeling knowing how much support we are going to have back here in New Zealand while we're away. Keith Smith spoke briefly about INF's work in Nepal and the surgical camp from which Wayne Butt has recently returned. The sponsorship is still coming in regularly which is great, we still need a bit more before we've reached our target but we have faith in the Lord that it will come through.

Merry Christmas everyone, will try and post again before we fly out......

Mark and Jo

We've payed for our tickets and will be flying out on the 12th of January with a three day stop in Singapore before we hit the ground running in Kathmandu. We're busy sorting out the house, meeting property managers and fun things like that. Its feeling quite real now however we still have a long way to go with our fundraising, we still need about forty thousand pledged over the next two years so please keep praying for us.

Its all go...We've printed our sponsorship brochures (thanks for all your help Matt, they look great) now it's time to put in the hard yards to drum up the support that we need. Last weekend we drove down to Wellington to meet the INF New Zealand team. We have a great group of people from INF New Zealand guiding and assisting us on our journey to Nepal, without their support we wouldn't be going anywhere.
January is coming too quickly!!
We have been working hard to get our house ready to rent so have been sanding and painting at every spare moment! The job got bigger when we found that we had a lot of rotten floors so have had builders in - have a new shower and floor coverings - should be good when it is all done but then we can't enjoy it!!! If anyone is bored they can come help!

Well things seem to be progressing nicely though these is still plenty to do. Next Thursday we break the news to the youth group, we're not sure how that is going to go down, I suspect some of them might be a little gutted that we're leaving but they'll survive.

I'm currently sitting in Rotorua trying to write sponsorship letters while Jo is at a physio conference, really I'm just procrastinating so here are a few maps to show you where we're being posted.

Mark

Hi All,

It's now official we're off to Nepal in Janurary 2010. This has been in the pipe line for the last few years but now God is making it happen. The letter arrived via email from the Bissett's on Thursday we have been accepted by INF to serve for two years in Ghorai which is in the Dang district. We'll be spending the first four to five months in Pohokura undergoing language and orientation training. After that we're off to Ghorai where Jo will take up a post working along side a Nepali Physio and I'll be assisting the programme management team.

We've got a really busy six months ahead of us to prepare for two years away, funds need to be raised, the house needs to be rented out.....I'm not going to bother continuing that list those two are enough to think about for now.

Our faith is in the Lord and we know that he wants us there and that he will provide.

Love and God Bless