Spanish encounter!

Meet our Spanish club. We try to meet every month over tapas.

In the second photo, in the front, Enrique and his fiancée Laura, second row, from the left, Jenny, Maria, Helga, Clarissa.

Last row, Joanna and Francisca.

This is not the whole group as that evening, quite a few could not make it.

Hopefully, we will all be there for the September meeting. We do have very interesting conversations. For example, our friend native speakers end up discussing accents and diversity of cultures across Spain. As themselves come from different areas, it is so refreshing to hear all their individual stories. However,as they live here in England they are united by this strong feeling of belonging here and there, enjoying it surely but at times missing the good things at home. I do feel the same.

Shout to the Lord

My Jesus, My Savior,Lord, there is none like You;
All of my days I want to praise the wonders of Your mighty love.

My comfort, my shelter,Tower of refuge and strength;
let every breath, all that I am never cease to worship You.

Shout to the Lord, all the earth, let us sing power and majesty, praise to the King;
mountains bow down and the seas will roar at the sound of Your name.

I sing for joy at the work of Your hands,forever I'll love You, forever I'll stand,
nothing compares to the promise I have in You.

Another joke.

Smart Parrot

A guy goes to a pet shop to buy a parrot. There he sees a parrot with a red string tied to its left leg and a green string tied to it's right leg. He asks the owner the significance of the strings.

"Well, this is a highly trained parrot. If you pull the red string he speaks French; if you pull the green string he speaks German," replies the shop keeper.

"And what happens if I pull both the strings?" our curious shopper inquires.

"I fall off my perch you fool!!" screeches the parrot.

By train or by car ? euh, euh, i say train!

Last Wednesday, I drove Camille to Manchester airport for 4 pm as she was off to Cyprus with her best friends, Cheryl and Grace. Not too much traffic and I was in the middle lane at a speed of 70 miles an hour of course. Suddenly, Camille said: What's this noise? - what noise? oh, it's just the road surface. It does happen. Then I heard this hissing noise coming from under the bonnet! Oh oh, not quite right. Now some cling clang were firing under there. There was a sign for services so I went to the inside lane and slowing right down entered the services looking for the petrol station. Stopped the car. What do we do now? There was no water in the cooling tank. We were in Sandbach services. The guy from Egerton car rescue team was pretty pessimistic and suggested I'd leave the car with them or I'd contact the AA. However, my priority was that Camille should get to the airport so we called a first taxi.He said it would take him half an hour to get to us. So we called another one who arrived within 10 min. Relief! Camille left.
I couldn't get hold of Steven and i guessed he was somewhere round Millwich as there is never any signal there! Eventually Steven told me that Trevor, the mecanic who looks after his car, would toll my car! Brill news! My prayers were answered. Camille rang me to tell she arrived safely at the airport! I can't remembered much of the evening apart that I was shattered. The following morning I had to get up at 6 a.m. and I still think that i had not quite recovered.
Now, it always puzzles me to see how a situation can quickly deteriorate. Here we are chatting away in the car when suddenly...The good thing is that I managed to park the car in the services. I thank the Lord for helping us to cope under stress and giving us guidance. Praise the Lord!

My soul finds rest in God alone..

Last week, we learnt with great pleasure that Verity gained a first class degree in Physiotherapy so we were over the moon! Steven will go to her graduation on Wednesday.

Then on Friday, Camille found out that she passed her first year course in English Language and Italian so we celebrated today with a superb bbq, crispy Chinese duck champagne, and chocolate tart. Camille and Imogen managed to sun bathe for a while in the garden.

By 5ish Camille and I watched a french film: Mon meilleur ami, my best friend, with Daniel Auteuil. Very enjoyable. An art dealer goes to a funeral not to mourn but to make sure he gets an item the guy promised him, there were only about 6 people there...soon he realises that he hasn't a best friend. His partner in business makes a deal with him, if by the end of the month, he can show 'evidence' of one best friend, he can keep an antic Greek vase he's just acquired..Steven went for a long walk as he is not keen on French films as he finds them too slow!

I would like to conclude with some lines of Psalm 62.

1 My soul finds rest in God alone;

my salvation comes from him.

He alone is my rock and my salvation;

he is my fortress, I will never be shaken.

...8 Trust in him (God) at all times, O people;

pour out your hearts to him.

for God is our refuge.

Last night, I could not sleep well and I thought about David, writing those amazing psalms, bringing confidence and encouragement to generations of Christians, children of the Holy One. As I read today's Encounter with God reading, Allen Goddard tells us that : the psalms provide us with every kind of answer we could ever express in response to God, the world around us, and the vicissitudes of our own hearts! I agree totally with this.