Allie's 1st Blog

Vaccinations

Andrew (17) and Harry (10) are both off school today after pretty horrid reactions to the vaccinations they had last night. Andrew started shaking at 4am but by 6 still didn’t have any other symptoms eg. temperature. By 8.30 his temperature had rocketed and he was saying he ached all over, but half an hour after taking 2 paracetamol and 2 ibuprofen he was feeling a bit better. Harry is a bit hot, very tired with achey arms, and looking quite grey (the remains of eye make-up and moustache from yesterday’s school play rehearsal don’t help!).

The boys started their vaccination programme last Tuesday, in preparation for our planned trip in February. Harry went first last week and seemed fine, although would rather not have had to have them. However last night he went into total Harry meltdown, sobbing that he couldn’t do it, and holding his shirt sleeves down, it was awful. The nurse was brilliant and talked him round, and immediately afterwards he was completely back to his normal self, if a little subdued.

• ·         Please pray for the next round of vaccinations on the 30^th December;  for Harry’s emotional well-being, both boys physical health, and for money to pay for them.

I thought you may be interested to see what vaccinations the children are having:

Yellow fever - 1 injection – some African countries won’t allow entry without this certificate

Hepatitis A - 1 injection FREE ON THE NHS!!

Typhoid Fever - 1 injection, again FREE ON THE NHS!!

Hepatitis B – 3 injections at day 0, 1 month and 6 months

Rabies – 3 injections at day 0, 7 and 21 or 28; or paediatric dose day 0, 1 month, 2 months

Meningococcal Meningitis – 1 injection

Tuberculosis (BCG Vaccine) – 1 injection, although I’ve yet to find somewhere outside London that will give this to children. Cost for London clinic approx. £100 per child...

NB. These are not all necessary for travellers, but highly recommended for people planning to live there. There were even more vaccines on offer which we didn’t feel were necessary eg. Cholera

Approx. cost of vaccines £350 per child

Although all these vaccines may seem extreme, we feel it is wise to be protected, especially when healthcare in Burundi is often basic, and vaccinations there may not have been stored properly (with electricity supply so unpredictable, refrigerators are unreliable) or be out of date.

As a Mum it’s hard watching the children go through this (I feel guilty), but I keep reminding myself that hundreds of Mums today will watch their child die from one of the illnesses which we are vaccinating our children against. Most of us have no idea how that feels, and I’m aware that what mine are going through doesn’t even compare.

How are the children feeling?

The younger children continue to be excited about their adventure next year. Caspar and Felicity regularly play aeroplanes and fly to Burundi to see their friends there (a boy and girl the same age as them whom they will go to school with, who Jez and I met in September – it’s wonderful being able to offer them some ‘real’ friends to look forward to playing with). They also tell everyone they meet that they are going to Kings School in Burundi next year :0)

Harry thinks it’s ‘cool’, when asked, but his constant questions reveal his very harry-ish tendency to worry. “Will I be able to take ALL my teddies?” “Can I take my skateboard?” “Is there a skate park?” He very much has all the essentials covered!

It will be a real blessing to be able to take him there in February, to see the wonderful school he’ll go to (hopefully the new secondary school building will be nearly built by then) and meet some of the children in his class. I’m also really looking forward to seeing our Burundi friends again.

Andrew is still making plans for his gap year and looking forward to experiencing a different culture in February.

• ·         Thank God for Caspar and Fliss’s enthusiasm.
• ·         Please pray for Harry to put his trust more and more in God, leaning on him and relying on him when he’s anxious, and ‘casting his cares on Him’.
• ·         Pray for us to have wisdom to know how best to love Harry.
• ·         Thank God that Andrew is seeking his will for his future. Please pray for doors to be opened or closed according to God’s will.

February Funding

We're beginning to get some sense of what it's like to live on gift income and faith. We still need approximately £3,500 more to pay for flights, vaccinations, visas etc for the February trip. It's scary...although next year will be harder.

We have received support from unexpected places and in unexpected ways...but are also having to step out in faith and pay for things without the funding to cover them.

Jeremy found this passage helpful yesterday: 'Just Enough'

• Please pray for funding...
• ....but, and perhaps more importantly, please pray for us to trust God.

Our House

We continue to make plans for the house when we leave, and kind friends have agreed to help us with some kind of house clearance sale in August, to sell everything we can’t take or store. We’re over the worst of realising we’ll have to sell most of our belongings, but the reality will still be hard (isn’t it amazing how attached we get to ‘stuff’?).

In the mean time, Christmas has come early to the Wisdom house. I, who used to be snobby about coloured lights, and insist on ‘tasteful’ decorations (haha!), only decorating the house the weekend before Christmas etc. , am now making the house look as close to a winter wonderland as is possible. If it stays still long enough it will be decorated – beware sleeping dogs (whom I have actually decorated before!). For who knows when we will next have Christmas at home, and I want to make the celebrations last as long as possible (visitors to the Wisdom house may wish to wear sunglasses due to glare from excessive tinsel)!

To-do List

In the next month or so I need to:

• Apply for All Nations College online course (13 weeks cross-cultural mission study – cost £400, still need £170)
• Send off our application for ‘Preparing Families for Life Overseas’ 1 day course at Redcliffe college (cost £140 for all of us)
• Buy 12 months supply of all toiletries to take out with me in February for a friend to store for us (cost – trying not to think about it...)
• Plan our trip in February to make best use of our time there.

• Please pray for God’s provision, for time and finances 

We're Now Official!!!

It’s been a busy and exciting couple of weeks (and should’ve been reading this last week…but I typed it and it disappeared. If you’re reading this, I’ve got it right this time…if you’re not, I’m talking to myself J)

Church Support

Great news! On Wednesday evening the All Saints PCC approved the Mission Awareness Committees (MAC) recommendation to formerly make Allie and I Mission Partners.

This followed a great evening with the MAC recently, where they probed, questioned and challenged for a couple of hours. It was good to be put through our paces as we felt very comfortable with all the questions. I managed to keep my gags to a minimum and, when asked whether we expected to encounter corruption, resisted the urge to say that it was an essential part of my retirement plan.

Being Mission Partners at All Saints is really key as at it enables the following:

·         Sharing our journey with the church

·         Sharing our blog more widely

·         Lots of prayer support

·         Opportunities to fund raise

·         Some financial support

I am, however, still waiting for my membership card that, I assume, will give me preferential seating and complimentary snacks at the 10:45 service.

Although that, in some respects, nothing has changed since Wednesday, it does make our journey and plans feel a little bit more real!

Please pray that God will help us to really promote awareness and support in the church.

Give thanks for the MAC's support.

Blogging

We really want to be getting our blog out there….so please:

a)      Sign up for regular updates

b)      Pass on the details to other people.

We’ve ordered some cards with the website address on it to give to people. If you would like some to hand out, please just ask.

Please pray for discipline in our communication with supporters and for many to sign up to the blog.

February

The flights have been booked and some of the children will start their vaccination programmes. All very exciting, although it’s a shame I can’t get the time off work to go. No money yet,  but God will provide when we need it.

Please pray that we will continue to trust the timing of God’s provision.

Tough Times

The family’s had a tough and tiring couple of weeks…usual family stuff…but it’s really made us reflect that we’re having tough times in a familiar environment now and they’ll still happen in the much more difficult environment of Bujumbura.

Please pray that we will continue to seek to be ‘God-sufficient’ rather than ‘self-sufficient’.

Planning

Both Allie and I have time allocated to preparing for Burundi each week. This is fantastic and really helping us to read, plan and generally get on top of what we need to do for next year.

Please pray for us to use our time wisely.

French

My French progress continues to be slow and I’m still very anxious about attempting to utter French. The children are making better progress than me.

Please pray for my lunchtimes with Christophe.

That’s all from now. Allie’s hoping to write the next blog…so finally something worth reading on this blog.


Jez

Learning, Planning and Stuff

We’ve had a busy few weeks full of challenges and answers to prayer.

We’ve seen letting agents for our house, submitted our applications to become mission partners with our church and started to think through vaccination programmes for the children.

I’ve also added some FAQ’s to the blog. Do have a look and do remember to subscribe to this blog for automatic updates.

There seems like so much to do and it’s really overwhelming sometimes; but we keep putting one foot in front of the other trusting that God will guide us on what to do next and give us enough time to do everything.

I recently found this thought from UCB really helpful:

Who Are You Depending On?

'My help comes from the Lord...' Psalm 121:2

If you desire to do God's will but don't draw on His power, you'll fail in spite of your skill, your connections and your resources. You must develop an increasing sense of dependence on God. Now you can't just sit on the sidelines expecting Him to do everything for you. You've been called to step out in faith, obey His instructions - then trust Him for the right results. God-sufficiency should become your goal, not self-sufficiency! This calls for praying, 'Lord, I'm tempted to do things in my own strength, but I don't like the results. Teach me to strive for excellence, not omnipotence; to maximise my talents and minimise my ego. Remind me that You will never give me an assignment that doesn't require obedience, commitment, and Your enabling grace.' The Psalmist cried, 'My help comes from the Lord.' Think: if He's Lord of every situation and He's promised to help you, then your victory is assured. It's when you think you can do it without Him, or with limited input from Him, that you get into trouble. Jesus said, '..."The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do..."' (John 5:19 NKJV). Jesus knew He couldn't do anything apart from the Father, so He never bothered to try. We, on the other hand, quote the verse, '...without Me you can do nothing' (John 15:5 NKJV), then go out and act like it all depends on us. And what happens? We fall flat on our face. So learn to stop regularly and ask yourself, 'Who am I depending on?' Then answer, 'You, Lord!'

February

One of our biggest next steps is for Allie to take Andrew (17) and Harry (10) out in February for a visit (Becky Longman (17), a friend of the family, will be joining them as well). Whilst for Caspar (4) and Felicity (3), home is where Mummy and Daddy are, for Andrew and Harry, this move is going to have a massive impact on them. As such we feel it is reallyimportant that they get a chance to see where they’ll be moving to.

Flights are being reserved, vaccinations booked and passport forms filled out…all in faith as we don’t actually have any money for this trip. The total cost is likely to be just under £4,000!

This is going to be a common theme for the next few years I suspect. However we have really seen recently how God provides what we need, when we need it…so I guess the money will turn up when we need to pay for these things.

Please pray for us to have peace about God’s provision and timing

Stuff

For a little while now we’ve been wrangling with whether to store or ship our belongings…both of which are really expensive options. However, recently, we’ve felt really challenged about our ‘stuff’. And it’s not our stuff; it’s God’s and we should hold on to it lightly.

That’s all well and good until you find yourself in a situation where you’re talking about getting rid of most of your stuff…then it’s just really scary!!

Please pray that God will help us to hold on lightly to ‘stuff’

Learning

Allie’s been great at making contact with so many people in Burundi and the UK who have experience of living in Burundi. Their support and advice has been wonderful.

Please give thanks to God for providing us with some many great friends and advisers

We’ve also been eagerly reading ‘Funding The Family Business’, which is a ‘how to’ guide to raising finances and living off gift income. Its bible based approach is really helping us to adjust to a very counter-cultural way of living.

Planning

Finally, despite my moan at the beginning, the planning is going well. I have managed to change my working hours so that I now have one morning a week to prepare for our move.

Please give thanks to God for how EDF have been so accommodating with our plans.

New FAQ section

We've added a new FAQ's section to our blog to, hopefully, answer some of the basic questions about why we're going, what we'll be doing and what it'll be like.


I've put loads of links in too which help to explain a bit more about Burundi and the organisation we'll be working with.


Do take a look...and don't forget to subscribe using the box to the right of this post.


Lots of love,


Jez and Allie

E-Mail Subscription Changes

When we were building this blog, we were very indecisive about the name. The 'subscribe by email' function was looking for an old blog name.

If you had previously subscribed or would like to follow our adventure, please enter your e-mail in the little box to the left.

P.S. the spell checker for this blog doesn't recognise the word 'blog'!?!

School Photos Now Online

The photos from The King's School, Bujumbura are now available.

There's a page showing the site with Capsar's primary section and Felicity's preschool and a page showing the secondary site where Harry will go.

We've finally gone live!

This is where we'll put the latest news and updates on our move to Burundi.

If you'd like to receive our updates, sign up for e-mail alerts (on the right).

Photos from our September trip to Burundi coming very soon :0)