Photographs uploaded

I have just uploaded a lot of photographs from the months of July and August. You can view them by clicking here

Family photo

This photograph was used on the latest edition of the Kilchzimmer Echo Newsletter.

The Mac is Back

Got the MacBook back today and it's working ...at least for the moment. Reading the online discussions about the "random shutdown" issue, many users have experienced the same problem again within weeks of the repair - so I will not be putting my pen and paper into long term storage just yet!


Today we also took a good drive around the BL area (the area between the small town of Waldenburg and the city of Basel). We now have a good idea of the area we would like to live in and we have narrowed our search down to about 6 villages/towns. The area we have identified is less than half an hour drive to Kilchzimmer and is in close proximity to the Christian school in Liestal - with good bus/train connections. It would also be less than half an hour to Basel city.

Another interesting development is that just two weeks ago the German supermarket chain ALDI opened its first shop in BL. We went to it today and we were pleasantly surprised to discover that the prices are much lower than standard Swiss supermarkets. This is really good news because the cost of living in Switzerland is very high and being able to buy cheaper food will definitely help reduce our monthly expenditure. The other good thing is that the shop is inside the area which we wish to move too next year.

Four weeks from today will be our graduation service and then we will be on our way home to Northern Ireland. Time has really flown. Kenny Martin (CEF worker from our home church) is teaching until the end of next week. Last week we also had the classes with Philippe Mayhew on Youth Challenge. He said I will be teaching these classes next year at both the summer and autumn institutes - so it was interesting listening as a student with that in the back of my mind. (Photo: Me and Philippe demonstrating some games which can be played in a JYC meeting.)

As you know, we will be starting deputation in October. Actually I am working at the minute on the design of our prayercard. I am also a little concerned at the moment that we do not have more meetings booked. Can you help? Could you invite a few friends around to your house for an evening and invite us come and show a powerpoint and talk about our future ministry? We are really praying that God would raise up those who would be willing to get behind us in prayer and regular financial support. Could you help us share this need with others? We are so thankful for those who have already pledged their support but we need many more people to get behind us. Please pray for us.

Camp, computer and contacts

• Just said goodbye to over 30 English speaking children from Germany who spent the last week at Kilchzimmer. They came for a camp and all us students were their leaders/teachers. This practical week was a great opportunity for us to apply what we have learnt over the last six weeks. It also marks the halfway point in our course.
• I’m still waiting on my computer coming back from the repair centre in Basel. It is two and a half weeks now since I left it in and there is still no sign of it :( (But on the positive side, I am enjoying using a pen again - it is a bit like riding a bicycle for the first time after many years)
• The bi-monthly newsletter from Kilchzimmer (CEF European Headquarters) has just been published. As we feature on the front page you may be interested to download it. (I will have some printed copies available on deputation and there will be opportunity for you to sign up to receive it regularly).
• While we are talking about deputation… if you would like me to speak at your church, youth group, home Bible study group, etc then please get in touch with me by email ASAP to book a date (Oct06 - Jun07). I still need to do a lot of work in organising meetings so please, please get in touch if you can help in any way.
• Everyone is keeping well - we are very content here and looking forward to returning in July next year.

The official Kilchzimmer student photographs

Click on the photograph to view a larger image.

Above is a photograph of all the students and children at the institute this summer. It includes the English, French and Polish classes.
We are on the back row at the left and David and Joel are on the front row, on the left.

The English Class

The Polish Class

The French Class

Audio downloads available from Belfast MacArthur conference

www.belfastmacarthurconference.com

A very sick Mac - Random Shutdowns

If you are not a computer techie then you better stop reading this now or you will wonder "what on earth is he on about?" :)
I was very happy with my new MacBook until last Wednesday when it suddenly shut down without warning. Since then I have had numerous random shutdowns. I looked the issue up on the mac users discussion board to discover (to my horror) that there appears to be a major hardware problem with the new MacBooks (the topic currently has 18,200 views and 541 posts). Apple havent yet admited that there is a problem but there clearly is and it seems that Apple are still not sure how to fix it.
I rang Apple Support on Friday and they told me to bring it to the Apple Shop in Basel for a repair, but I am reluctant to do that because they appear to be replacing the faulty part (i.e. the logic board) with an identical part. Surely if you do that, then I am going to encounter the same problem again in the coming months?

If you are interested in following the discussion thread then here is the link
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=544012&tstart=0
and if any of you bloggers out there have any advice, please let me know.

Walking in the Swiss mountains with daddy

This past week we took time to go up to the Ankenballen - the rocks we can see from our bedroom window. Joel went all the way to the top with me and to prove it, here is the photo with Kichzimmer in the background. We hope in the coming days to get time to explore more of the area by foot.

A snake in the laundry

Mummy went down to take down her washing tonight and found a snake in the laundry room. When Joel heard about it, he got out of bed and ran down to see it. We had to convince him to let the other children handle it – he didn’t want to let go.

Lots more photos have been added to www.thecousinsfamily.org/albums

Just another sign of life

Hi everyone! This is just another sign of life to let you know that we are all well and really enjoying our time in Kilchzimmer. The teachers are excellent and the subjects are very interesting. There is a lovely atmosphere among the students and staff. We are enjoying getting to know people from many different countries and making new friends.
David and Joel are so at home here. They are really behaving well (most of the time) and also making new friends. They are never bored and always glad to see their bed around 7.00 - 7.30pm. Once they are sleeping we spend the rest of the night in study.
We are continuing to add photographs all the time so be sure to keep revisiting www.thecousinsfamily.org/albums