I realised tonight that it's been nearly two weeks since I have added to the blog. After two years we have tried to add to this every week and sometimes have blogged twice a week. I guess that shows how busy we have been. Plus the fact that we haven't traveled anywhere!

Last week we had the volunteers from Virginia here and we got a lot of work out of them. Painting, rebuilding stone walls in the garden, a murphy bed in one of the flats we rent out was made and installed, patio furniture re oiled, all the bookshop and library books wiped down and the shelves that they live on, tools sharpened, our bathroom floor repaired, the prayer hut door realigned so that it now locks, several windows repaired.....we saved lots of money with this group.

We have added three new people to the centre. As soon as I can get them to hold still, I will put some pictures up of them.

First is Hannah Clymer who grew up in Pennsylvania, went to university at EMU, most recently was in Niger with Dr's without borders as a nurse, and is now here to take a class a the London school of hygiene and tropical disease university. She will be here until late July.

Also new to us is Wayne and Lois Hochstetler. What we know of them after one week:
Wayne comes with a background as a pastor, having served in several Mennonite Church USA congregations and as conference minister. He is an ordained pastor with skills in pastoral care, using the perspective of family systems theory. He is trained in conflict mediation. He holds an M.Div. from Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary. He has served as a consultant to pastors and congregations in areas of congregational life, purpose, vision and effectiveness.

Lois has a Master of Social Work degree and is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker. She is a skilled and experienced psychotherapist with a family systems approach. She has skills in dealing with childhood abuse, relationship stress, depression, anxiety, grief and other challenges. She is experienced in individual, group and marital therapy. She has served as a retreat leader and seminar leader. She is trained in conflict mediation.

Wayne grew up in Pennsylvania, Lois was born there but at 8 moved to Alberta Canada. They met at EMC, and later married, Wayne was a science teacher until going to seminary at Elkhart. Evidently they were on an Outspokin' trip at the same time Ed was on the Outspokin' staff. They were later in La Junta, CO pastoring at Emmanuel church, then in Hutchinson, KS at Faith Mennonite for 15 years (?) before their last move to the Champagne/Urbana, IL area where Wayne served as the conference minister.

They are taking some time to settle in and get to know London a bit before they head off to parts of Africa, Asia, & Europe where they will be support to mission workers in those areas. Their small little flat was not quite ready for them when they came as we were waiting on the Virginia volunteer team to do some of that work. And like most plans, things didn't progress as fast as we had hoped. They are being champs about sleeping on an air bed until their mattress is delivered on Monday.

They are a breath of fresh air and an injection of new energy.

Tomorrow I am cooking for a seminar that the centre is having on church planting, specifically in the urban area. Hopefully, pictures of all this tomorrow???