Thoughts this side of the pond

A Cycle of Faith: The Bicycle Metaphor

noreply@blogger.com (Cindy Childers) — Thu, 05 Jul 2018 12:54:00 +0000

Yesterday morning I showed up at the gym at my not-normal time of 9:25am which just happened to be before a Spin class was about to start. I waffled back and forth whether to do the class or just stick to weights in the gym. But since it's been 9 months since I took Tina's class I figured what-the-heck. I do love spin classes for several reasons: the enthusiasm of a group, the accountability I feel towards a driven, enthusiastic teacher; but particularly because I always seem to get some type of inspiration from God on the bike. And yesterday was a sixty-minute class overload.

Our family is in a season of big transition...lots of questions to answer about jobs, where to live, school choices; the list goes on and on. And its dizzying. But that's a post for another day when all this has shaken out. Nonetheless, this season has been a doozy. A dizzying-doozy. But with it's deep-digging, soul-searching, faith-fanning demands, it's also been nothing short of a miracle. So though no life-questions were answered yesterday during spin class, what was answered was a heart-question: the miracle of getting another little glimpse into the heart of God. And those latter moments are the sorts of moments that make enduring the wait of the former possible.

The parallels of cycling through a life of faith and cycling through a spin class just kept building and building in my mind's eye during the hour, like a cyclist's ascent up a steep hill.

Firstly, (no shame here, well maybe a little) I couldn't get my seat set correctly. I turned the knob, pushed and pulled but figured the seat was stuck because it needed grease. 'Do they not routinely maintain these bikes?', I thought to myself (says the girl with the "Routine Service Soon" light on her car for 2 months) Nope, I was wrong. The kind lady next to me simply hopped off her bike and turned the knob just a slight different way and wha-la the seat height easily adjusted to my measurement, like I was meant to be there.

So I selected "indoor cycle" on my watch and all fifteen of us set off on our stationary bikes. Immediately, I began getting pictures in my mind. Like God somehow orchestrated this class. In my strange mind's eye, my pedaling was like my faith and God was the bike. God always being available, always class-ready, for us to venture into a faith-exercise with Him. The interaction designed to grow us not only in body, but mind and spirit as well. Somehow for this encounter to be successfull, it was also up to me to join in on the class, to get on the bike and move my legs of faith to make anything happen. It's not like God needs me, but He chooses me. He's given all of us opportunities to exercise our faith in Him; but we do have to do the work. 'Just pedal', I tell myself. 'Don't just sit there.' Sitting there: that's not what the combination of the bike and I were meant for. We were made to move. Me and God too. And just as with God, if I want my faith to grow, if I want my life to feel meaningful and satisfied, if I want to see God move in my life because I know "He loves me and has good plans for me" (Jer 29:11), I have to begin to peddle and exercise my faith. God does His part, but I have to do mine.

There's a story in the Bible in Mark 5 where a woman who had suffered bleeding for 12 years believed that if she simply touched the coat of Jesus when He was walking through the crowd, she could be healed. In doing so, Jesus sensed that "power went out of him when she touched Him". He told her she was healed not because she touched a particular piece of his clothing, but rather her particular faith believed He could do anything. Jesus says: 'Your faith healed you'. God is moved to move when we have faith that He can move anything.

So back on my bike, so many things came swarming to mind. Like, how often we need someone to help us get back on our bikes of faith and get us going again, like the woman who helped adjust my seat. Or with conviction, how mid-class, I just wanted to roll my eyes at the girl next to me who clearly must be more fit because she was sweating so much more than me. Am I lazy God? Why does it look like she's getting such a better workout - I mean we are in the same class? What's wrong with me? I must not be doing something right. And even then, letting my faith metaphor spill over into my thoughts: God, does she have more faith than me? Is that why she's sweating more, because she's pedaling more? She must have more faith I tell myself.

But maybe it's not about what I see on the outside, maybe it's that she's going through something in her own life that requires her to exercise more faith in this season. She initiates more pedaling of faith, thus more sweating, because maybe the dream she's dreaming for is huge, or her problem needs a bigger miracle...maybe they require more faith. Paul's writings in 2 Thessalonians 1:3 allude to this very phenomenon:

"We ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters,
and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more,
and the love all of you have for one another is increasing."

Pedal sister, Pedal.

We are all different and struggle differently at different moments in time. Who am I to judge? So instead of rolling my eyes, our eyes meet 45 minutes into class and we offer a smile of encouragement to one another saying: 'You can do this'. 'So can you'.

I also thought about Tina. She's not merely the instructor; she's so much more. It is an honor to have people like her who prepare routines and music for the class ahead of time, who believe in the power of change through exercise, who show us what do and how to press through a difficult class or journey. Just like Tina, I'm grateful for the faith-encouragers in my life who believe:

God is what will fulfill & change me.

Faith must be exercised. Me and the bike. God and Me must each do our part.

And just when we think the lesson will never end, or your miracle may never come, our encouragers are there to tell us "Just one more song. You can do it. Don't give up. You are SO close!"

Lastly, there came a point in the routine, where Tina instructed us to stand up and with only the very tips of a couple of fingers touching the handle. She said, "Use your core. Don't use your hands to stay balanced on the bike while you peddle. Use your core. It's hard to do, but it will strength it." And I thought how beautifully that illustrates our own faith walks. God is the very core that will keep us upright and strong. And when we exercise using it, it only gets stronger and stronger. When we wobble in faith, it's second nature to grab to the handles of easy fixes, quick solutions, or attempts at making things happen in our own way and time.

But when we use our core, and endure the life-lesson class,

...just like the women with the blood disorder...

God's power can't help but go out from Him,

Miracles occur,

And our Faith cycles on.

Looking for Signs

noreply@blogger.com (Cindy Childers) — Sat, 21 Apr 2018 10:43:00 +0000

Years ago around the age of 25 I used to live in Charleston, South Carolina. Having just finished graduate school I started my first job at the hospital and had this really beautiful 20 minute commute up the I-26 from Mt. Pleasant to North Charleston. It was typically warm, often sunny and always beautiful. The "South" often is. Shortly after May 15, 1999, when I met Clark, I began to get signs. Literal ones. On license plates. It became a game of sorts. And then I began to really look for them.

Let me back up...

The week after that May wedding weekend when young, blonde, Georgian, Beamer-driving, recently mad-church-goer met younger, blonde, Texas pick-up driving, Navy dress-white wearing fighter pilot, God began to speak to me via car license tags. Or so I believe He did & still do. Now to my fellow Brits, you will be like, What on earth is she talking about? So let me clarify. In the United States, depending on what State and County you live in, your license tag has a series of letters and numbers, such as (ie: XVT 875 for say New York, or TXEA 27 for Mississippi) Basically when you drive regularly through your city you can tell who is a local and who isn't based on these varied tag configurations. I can't remember what the Charleston ones were at the time but I know that the week after I met Clark, I was driving to work one morning and right in front of me was a LARGE beat-up, white pick up truck and I couldn't help but notice it. I thought to myself, "wait, I think this is the truck Clark said he drives". So I talked to myself in my head like I often do and thought, "this is cute God". It must be a 'sign'. But the truck wasn't the real sign. After five or ten minutes trailing behind this truck, I glanced at the tag. It was no Texas plate but a regular South Carolina one. But it didn't have the normal series of letters and numbers and spaces for our area. In fact it didn't have any 'normal' series of letters and numbers for any town I'd seen nearby. It read "1COR 2 9"; Spaces and all. If we had cell phones back then I'm certain I would risked life and limb and have snapped a shot of it for what would have been posterity sake. After a few moments, this new-to-me-Bible-reading-gal began to think that it looked like maybe a passage from the Bible....1 Corinthians something or another. Giddy with delight I thought, "God is trying to tell me something!!!" So I raced into work and of course only owning a pager at the time, I did what all people before the 21st Century did, I paged my friend Ann to ask her what 1 Corinthians 2:9 was. My dear friend who knew her Bible better than me looked it up and shared: "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what good things God has prepared for those that love Him." Oh my. Be still my heart. Could this be you Lord telling me something about that Texas-pick-up-driving-Navy-Whites-Wearing fellow? And so I guess it was meant to be. As 3 years later I married him. And Yes, God was right all along. My eyes hadn't seen, my ears hadn't heard, my mind had never conceived all the good ways God would lavish me with His love since those early days of my beginning walk with Him. And I'm still believing God knows so much more & has so much in store for me that my human, simple little brain can fully understand. And to this day, this has only fueled a fire in me to continue to search for Him. His Word does say after all that if we seek Him, we will find Him. And for about fifteen years (& around two dozen perfectly timed license tag verses later), He's now begun to find other ways to send me His love letters and I am so grateful. It's been a new way to search His heart. And some of that became crystal clear to me this week.

Often we have heavy seasons where it feels like Joy and Sorrow are mixed wildly like in an oil and vinegar cruet, like a dance between Broken and Beauty. And I have to confess that lately it's been easier to feel the mostly broken bit. I guess the acidity of the vinegar has seemed to out-proportion the soothing ointment of the oil. Why? I don't really know. Maybe because that's the gravity of this spinning planet Earth we live on. Like objects, it's easier for our souls to fall down than to rise up. (And I am a glass half full gal!) The gravity of pain sometimes feels like it outweighs the feather-like weight of Joy. These few week's birthday parties and long chats with friends in the English April sunshine have mixed feverishly with the stormy news of tragedy and seriously ill-health of friends & family. My prayers were all over the place. I have felt really sad. I've paused a million times & asked God what to make of it all. How can I find any beauty in this broken? How can I enjoy the Joy but also bear the weight of the suffering for my friends or even myself? Both of these I realize have to be done in communion with one another & with God.

And then something so simple happened last Sunday at church. A new sort of love letter from God. A different kind of license tag. One of the human heart variety. A letter found during worship at church. Something unexpected happened. Something that made me think that this earthly Cruet vessel of mine, can withhold both. Let me tell you about Jan. He is our adorable, young German music "exchange" student who's here for the year who leads worship with our lead pastor, Paul. Jan (pronounced: "Yawn") is his name and he always makes me smile when I see his tall, curly, sandy-brown hair self step up on stage. England is not his homeland, nor English his first language. Yet when he worships, it is beautiful not only because of his gorgeous tenor voice, but also because you see the humbler side of him. He searches for words from an unfamiliar land for an unfamiliar people all for the sake of leading them to worship His God, all our God. It's not easy for him. Yet when he speaks to us from the mic he shares his heart, broken English & all and you can see how God's made an imprint on his heart. And right there on the stage I get to read Jan's love letter from God. And it reminds me again and again that God is everywhere and in every thing. And uses human beings to be the greatest vehicle for His Love.

Caught up in this simple moment last Sunday, I realized that this is the only way. The only cure for enduring this mix of beauty with broken when forced to bend to the heaviness of these earthly gravitational pulls. The cure is to give when it's uncomfortable. To serve when we're grieving. To bend and break for the sake of others. Like Jan, to offer ourselves with risk right there outside our comfort zone. This is not the message the world gives us, which is to look out for #1. But it is the message Christ gives us, to look after others. To be His hands and feet even when it hurts. To help others when we feel like we're not being helped ourselves. Yet it is the only medicine that will soothe our weary souls. And from this comes the Joy, and the Oil, and the Beauty. And for a moment my Soul defies the odds of gravity seemingly pulled up from another type of home, a more permanent, heavenly one and I am lifted so that I might be able to lift another. This is the cycle. This is the secret. This is where my Joy comes from.

"This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time," declares the LORD. "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. Jeremiah 31:33

You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. Jeremiah 29:13

The Magic Number 7

noreply@blogger.com (Cindy Childers) — Mon, 05 Mar 2018 16:27:00 +0000

*tap tap......Is this mic working? Not sure anyone is still here anymore but for 7 years I took a blogging break. I'm not actually certain it's called a blogging break when you didn't really blog very much to begin with. In these past 7 years, a hundred times at least, I thought about writing. Writing because something struck my fancy and I thought I might put that moment down on paper, or rather out into the scary ether of the internet. But a hundred times to that I said, "No". To myself. Mostly out of fear. Isn't that what most writers do? Fear? Better yet, not really sure I can put myself in the 'writer's' category yet. But I will not look at the past and say "Why didn't I?" But for today, I'll take this leap of faith and look ahead right here and say, "What if..."

This Blog originally started because we moved our small American family of 4 (now 5!) across the pond so my husband could serve the US Navy as an exchange officer over here with the RAF. We loved it so much that after we left after 2.5 years (2012), we came right back to the same spot 2.5 years later (2014). Here we are a second time around 3.5 years in! And we are all better for living in this amazing country and raising our kids as 'half and halfs' ;-) Half British/Half American.

But as for blogging, I think my heart grew weary from the upkeep or either I simply ran out of things to say. Because frankly, I tired even myself of 'a day in the life of Cindy Childers' and family' posts (there are MUCH more interesting people out there than us) and craved more about writing how I see God moving, living, breathing, active, uniquely, discreetly, abundantly - in my day to day. Which He can do in every single human's life. I think He's beautiful and I love what He shows me, so that's the blog I've always felt called to write about: God in the everything. A car ride to school, a sunset, a plant, a river, a conversation, a business meeting, a church service, an accident, a storm, a friend, a plane ride, simply everything.

And ironically I've feared that concept of writing simply because even though time and time again I find God's handwriting all over the place, I've simply talked myself out of it. I've reasoned: "Well God did do it today - He showed Himself to me in such a beautiful way; But then I'd question: 'But God, what if You don't do it tomorrow? I won't consistently have anything to write about! How lame will I be? So lame!' I laugh at this simply because my heart knows good and well that God could never, EVER run out of ways to reveal Himself. It's simply always a matter of us to just keep looking. But today is a new day. And each day we are given a new chance. So today I'm here. Trying to be obedient to the one thing I've loved all along, My God and what He's called me to do. And seeing Him in every day life thrills me to no end. It's wild and wacky and beautiful and until I record it (and gosh...I hope I have the courage to hit 'publish'), I will never know what may come of it.

So without further ado, I thought I'd share a simple short story from our snowy English countryside weekend. It doesn't often snow in England...actually hardly ever, at least in the south & certainly not this much. About as often as I write posts...every 7 years. The last big snowfall I experienced here was in 2011 I believe.

(Ironically my very last post includes my husband's infamous Land Rover in the snow.)

So this weekend, it snowed so much (Maybe 8-10 inches?) that school was cancelled 1/2 day Thursday and Friday making for a lovely 4 day weekend. (Unheard of) Friday morning when my eldest son woke up and realized there was only wholemeal bread to make himself french toast with, he jumped at the chance to be the adventurer he is and after piling on layers of warm clothes he trekked into the village for some "white bread" from the Co-Op. Liam is never one to accept boredom easily. But he's trustworthy (for the most part) so off he went. After about 45 minutes to an hour, (the grocery store is only a half a mile down the road) he hadn't returned. The roads were icy slick and he's been known to bruise/break/thump a few bits and pieces of himself, so I started to worry. So I went outside because I couldn't see the end of our driveway from my kitchen window. And this is all I saw. Nothing. Meaning: No child of mine. And so I started to worry. 'Where is he?'

In the back of my mind I knew he was probably fine but it's always the 'what ifs' that get us. And sometimes those 'what ifs' do play out, but most of the time they don't. But either way, God has us in our 'either ways'. Yet in this moment, I sensed God. I didn't sense any great revelation about Liam's welfare, to be honest, but I sensed God's heart about all those children He's loved and seen lost. And like a flash, the story of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32) came to my mind as I stood in the cold. I looked down our cloudy, whitish grey drive Friday morning eager to see my 90lb, tall, gazelle-like pre-teen and sensed an even deeper yearning beyond my own: "God is so desperate to catch a glimpse of His beloved sons and daughters to return home to Him." He doesn't just sit in the warm house thinking 'maybe one day' they'll show up. Rather like the Father in the Prodigal son story, I think He stands outside in whatever it takes: in the cold, in the dark, with a lamp, with a gracious and generous heart anxious to greet us with a hug and just keeps looking and looking hoping for a peek of something that looks like this:

And then my own faith gained sight and I got a glimpse of this vision. All 90lbs of him, and I could exhale. And though he was only out for a brisk walk for bread. It stirred my heart to think that if I was as happy to see this young lad walking up my drive as I was, how much more Joyous is God when He sees the heart of one of His children turning to come home to Him?

Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.' Matthew 4:4

A year at a glance...

noreply@blogger.com (Cindy Childers) — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 04:45:00 +0000

Happy New Year My dear Friends and Family!

May the blessings of the Christmas season still be ringing in your hearts -

I know they are in ours!

The Childers are still alive and well in England and loving every second of it. It has been a year, yep, nearly a YEAR since I last posted! Aggh! I am so embarrassed. Can you see the red in my face from there? The more time went by, the more excuses I had as to why I couldn't pick it back up. Sometimes I don't get it (myself, that is) because blogs to me are one of the coolest means of communication in the world. It gives a girl like me, an amateur writer, the chance to express herself and share her daily musings with those she loves and treasures the most. As one who truly believes that God has done nothing short of a miracle in her life, I jump at the chance to share these life experiences.

Plus, it seems that so many of my daily stories end up with a sub-title of "Today's Cindy's Comedic Adventure was....".

Since this post is more like a belated Christmas card, I thought I'd take the chance to update you on a bit of what happened in the hearts and lives of these FOUR Childers in the last 12 months. Note: Now having written, edited, revised, edited some more this poem, I realize how truly crazy I am. Knowing you might not read the whole thing, I mixed some pictures in hoping that it might hold your attention. *grin* I'll get right to it:

We welcomed the New Year, with neighbors and friends,

and a beautiful covering of snow;

Weeks later we traded, our truck known as lemon,

for a Land Rover to get to and fro.

Natalie settled in - quite nicely with Ms. Jill,

who teaches at the local preschool;

She painted, sculpted clay, baked sweet lemon cakes,

that surprisingly would make you drool.

(Peanut is on the front row in pigtails wearing the yellow and pink.)

While Liam excelled right next door to his sister,

in a school known as Newton Tony Primary;

Reading, Writing and Maths (!) became essential,

along with phrases like “bins, squash and ‘blimey”.

(Liam is on the back row far right)

Often we ride (bikes), go for runs, float "boats"

down the river in our quaint little village;

However, one of the prettiest blessings thus far,

are the sunrises and sets over the tillage.

Cindy's busy with bible study, playgroups, and the gym,

as well as being travel agent connoisseur;

She also started singing with the St. Paul’s church band,

*what a blessing*, and something she adores.

Clark tutors the students at Empire TPS,

He flies every day - come rain or sun;

He realized he's got the best job in the Navy,

*shhhh*, don't tell anyone!

April began the start of what became,

An amazing travel season;

First off, was Spain, the beautiful Oviedo,

the amazing countryside of the Northern Region.

However, not an hour had passed did our feet,

hit home soil in the great UK;

That Cindy would get sick and realize later, she had Campylobacter,

food poisoning - NO WAY!

Not one, not two, but three weeks later,

did she began to feel somewhat human;

Just in time to throw a *Circus* Birthday Party,

for her sweet little favorite twosome.

My goodness, your thinking, how much more can there be,

she's now just hit the month of May;

Standby, my friends, there is so much more,

we've only gotten to 120 of 365 days.

If April showers bring May flowers,

then I've seen loads of what the Almighty creates;

By the end of the month we'd been to Venice. Stockholm.

And several enchanting estates.

The summer in England was unusually warm,

High in the 70s with no rain;

Odd for this green grassy land we call 'ours'

where our ancestors, once called this "home terrain".

The month of June was full of firsts,

Liam lost a tooth and had his first campout with friends;

For Clark and Cindy, it was the first time we've known,

the Stonehenge “Summer Solstice” trend. (Brrrr)

The beginning of July, Clark and Cindy had a blast,

At the Boscombe Down Summer Ball;

There were bumper cars, magicians, poker tables, fine china

– it was extravagant, nothing small.

With hearts full of glee, two kids and their Mommy,

boarded a plane back to the great US of A;

Two weeks in Georgia with family and friends,

made the red eye flights worth it - in every way!

Just days after returning to Jolly Ol' England,

Clark had us packed up and ready to go;

Off to Disney Land Paris we went straight away,

a vacation that left "all four kids” aglow.

In September the kids went back to school,

to a place in Salisbury: Chafyn Grove;

We cannot say enough about where our kids learn,

we just count our blessings, in droves.

In October, we were blessed with a visit from friends,

The Howells posted overseas as well;

They came from Italy to tour this land,

we loved showing them where we dwell.

November was a blast, with Clark stepping out

in a new and exciting role;

He played several parts, in our Church’s “Mark Drama”,

giving breathtaking performances to many souls.

We wrapped up the year, just the four of us,

Snuggled 'round our Christmas tree;

Thankful for all the blessings we’ve been given,

Knowing God gave His Son for you and me.

Happy New Year! Be blessed in every way and may those blessings overflow to all those around you.

Love, Cindy

"And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God." Philippians 1:9-11 NIV

A World Away Yet So Close to Home....

noreply@blogger.com (Cindy Childers) — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 21:11:00 +0000

Happy 2010! I hope that this post finds all of you having just had a very happy and blessed Christmas season. We couldn't have had a better month ourselves. Right now, we are ankle deep in snow. The unusually cold weather we are getting here in England is what my British friend has told me is caused by a "Negative Atlantic Ocean Oscillation" (???) (ie: High pressure over Iceland). I'm no meterologist so we just refer to this in our house as: It is COLD COLD COLD! I don't think it's been over 0 degrees celsius for a week. This cold weather is having not only a physical effect on this Southern girl but also a mental one as well. I had a somewhat frightening epiphany earlier today: "I am turning into Mr. Rogers". This is no joke. I caught myself and had to laugh and then cry. I came in this afternoon from taking Liam to soccer practice, opened the Hall coat closet, took off my heavy winter parka and then proceeded to put on my zip-up "cardigan thingy" that I wear EVERY day. Seriously. Every day. JUST LIKE MR. ROGERS DOES!! It's blue, it's boring and it's starting to make me feel really old. (But it's SOOOO cold!) So to offset this somewhat depressing revelation, I headed to Salisbury this afternoon to see if I could "Un-frump" my "frumpy" winter wardrobe. You see, as a Georgia gal, we just don't ever have to worry about cold weather so we don't own any "cute" cold-weather clothes. The few times I can remember it getting really cold and snowing growing up in Athens, we simply donned 'Roman Meal' Whole Wheat plastic bread bags on our feet and adhered them with rubber bands above our calves. Who needs expensive Gortex boots?

Now, fast-forward 30 years to this frigid Island, and I have daily decisions to make.... like: Do I wear the one pair of black leather gloves I own that are not water proof nor warm or do I go for function and wear Clark's water-proof sky gloves? Do I wear boots that are stylish and look great with my jeans or do I wear ones that will prohibit me from falling on the ice? Do I fix my hair and forgo the hat today or do I cover up with one of those full head/ear covering wool hats with dangly thingies that looks like my 2-year old daughters?

These are the tough decisions I make daily. If only I were from Chicago like several of my friends, I wouldn't have these issues. So just to let you know I did have a bit of success today and I bought myself a "cute" pair of hiking boots. Wait, is that an oxymoron? Oh well, it's a start.
Speaking of starting, I have no idea where to begin with covering the last six weeks of the Childers' activities. We have been so busy that I am somewhat embarrassed that we didn't get around to doing Christmas cards...that is a first in 7 years! (Don't worry, next year I am all over it!) There were so many wonderful things that happened over Christmas. Here are a few of the highlights:

We celebrated Thanksgiving at our home with 3 of our favorite British families. The food was excellent but the company was even better...made us feel like we were back at home :)

We then followed that up with another Thanksgiving meal two days later on the base with 50 other good friends. Everyone brought a dish and we ate like Kings and Queens, or rather James' and Elizabeths'. The children played on a bouncy castle and our friend Frank taped one of the Thanksgiving Day Football games and we had it playing on a large screen TV. Really working hard to create a true "American" Thanksgiving.

In December, both Liam and Natalie were in their school Christmas plays. Natalie was an angel and looked like a princess but refused to wear her halo......no comment. Liam was a Shephard in Newton Tony Primary School's "Nativity Story". Both events were absolutely amazing and brought tears to this proud Mama's eyes.

We celebrated Christmas Eve at the children's service at Salisbury Cathedral. Mary and Joseph made their entrance into the cathedral with real donkeys, a host of Angels (children) sang from the balcony, and the children's choir serenaded those of us celebrating the great anticipation of Christ's birth with many beautiful christmas carols. It was spectacular and the kid's had twinkles in their eyes for hours afterwards.

New Year's Eve was somewhat mellow but absolutely delightful. Our next door neighbors hosted us at their house for dinner. A small group of about 15 of us rang in the New Year and then proceeded to play a "Murder Mystery" game until the wee hours. It was hilarious and let's just say I'm no good at lying and Clark killed me off early during one of the rounds....hmmm.

I feel like there will be much to write about as 2010 gets into it's full swing. I rejoice that we are where we are and am so grateful that God brought us to this little space on earth for this season of our lives. Make no mistake, God has all of you where you are for good reasons. Give thanks for the little things and look forward to all He has in store for you this year! Be blessed friends, you are so dearly loved and thought of much. Cindy

Thanksgiving from a 2-year old perspective

noreply@blogger.com (Cindy Childers) — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:51:00 +0000

So I have been asked by Natalie's teacher if I (the great historian! ha!) will come give a mini presentation to the kids in her class on the meaning of Thanksgiving. Originally, I thought they just wanted some cupcakes that might look like Turkeys, spurred on by the Halloween ones I did in October, but oh no! They want the real deal. So I figured that since most Americans don't know or like me, remember much about the original Thanksgiving story, I thought I'd google it and see if I could find something kid-friendly. Much to my dismay, "quick-and-easy" Wikipedia did not come through and was somewhat weak in their explanation so I did another google search and this one was the first to pop up.
http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=14379
Pretty decent and a quick read as a reminder about where our ancestors came from - particular interesting to me now being on this side of the pond. So now having had the story refreshed in my mind, it will make it more interesting to share about how we (Now:Americans, Former: Brits less we forget) were looking for a "better way" and left their country of England. Tell me how to explain THAT to these British 2 and 3 year olds. Thank goodness I'm not having to do this for older kids!!!! You know how my heart is so fond of the British people. Really quite fond. If anyone out there can direct me to a more kid-friendly website that gives a beautiful description of this great holiday, please feel free to share. That's what blogs are for! In the mean time, I'm going to stick to a good standby and have them make Turkey Apples. You know the ones you make with toothpicks, marshmellows, raisins, gum drops and such. I think this will be the real hit. For me though, it's been a good afternoon of remembering what next week's holiday is really about. God bless, Cindy

Wonderful Wiltshire

noreply@blogger.com (Cindy Childers) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:14:00 +0000

Greetings Family and Friends and Happy November from England!
It's been a month since I posted - goodness where has the time gone. So much is going on! I'll try and remember some of the highlights or low-lights as us blondes like to say. I've also added some pictures too. I put captions with each one but when I added them to the blog, it doesn't show them. Anybody know how to get around this? So here goes an update on our last 30 days...
Our truck - the only vehicle the Childers' own is on the brink. Yep, and the cost to fix the 5,000 pound truck was 2,000 pounds! Not such a great thing but in the end, we made contact with the dealer up in Peterborough who sold us the truck and they have as of yesterday just come to Salisbury to pick it up and take it back to their dealership and will fix it there and won't charge us a thing: NADA, ZILCH, ZIP - super happy about this and we are thankful as can be. Clark would actually like to just give the truck back and start over shopping for a car but we figured we'd give them one more chance to fix it (we've had 3 major things go wrong with it so far).
Our village - Newton Tony is heaven on earth. I can't even begin to share how much I love this place. We are living the life of a Brit as much as any American can. And we're so glad we made the choice to live out in town. For instance, just the other night as Clark was about to paint our downstairs bathroom, he shook the Laura Ashley paint can and exploded about 2.5 litres of paint all over the hardwood floor, front door and our nice rug. I was so proud of him though. Without as much as a cuss word, he promptly cleaned it all up, took the rug outside in the pouring rain and the 12 degree celsius weather, knocked on our beloved neighbor David's door to borrow his pressure washer and the two of them pressure-washed at 10pm to save the rug. GOOD Neighbors RULE!! Have I mentioned how much I love these people?
:-)
Another hilarious story about Newton Tony this past week...the kids were on mid-term break and we didn't have a car so we spent a good 3-4 days poking around the neighborhood on foot. I had to walk to our post office for milk when I got desperate for groceries. Just the day before my Aunt had posted a comment on Facebook about our lack of vehicles and she sweetly (or sarcastically) suggested "Find a donkey to ride". Well, God has a sense of humor and as we were heading back from the post office, we ran into a local boy, 12 y.o. Thomas, who was working in his yard. I'd never met him before but I had met his mom. We got to chatting and he said, "Hey, do you and your kids want to come up the hill and help me take care of the 2 donkeys I care for - they can go for a ride, too." My jaw about dropped as I thought of my sweet aunt's comment and never wanting to miss a photo opportunity I emphatically answered, "YES! We'd LOVE to go! Just let me go grab my camera." So off we went and here's the photo to prove it! :) Touche'!!!
As for settling in, we are getting there. Clark is worried our family alone might be supporting the UK's economy. Too bad the pound for dollar rate is not so good. It's so hard to not shop and decorate though - they have such cute things and wandering around the streets of Salisbury is just too tempting.

We had big plans to take down Natalie's crib over the weekend as her new "big girl bedding" arrived a week or so ago. After dinner last night Clark said, "Ok, she reeeeally wants her new bed, I'm off to go set it up." Being sentimental, I said, "No, I just can't do it yet(take down the crib)...you might have to do it by yourself." Clark proceeds to go out in the garage and get all his tools to take it down, he heads upstairs and I notice it's quiet for a few minutes. Five minutes later he comes down with the tools in hand and with this sheepish, sweet 'Daddy' face and says, "I just can't do it. Not yet at least." OH boy, does he ever love those sweet babies!!
October was also full of lots of fun pumpkin and halloween activities. We went with some dear, new friends to a pumpkin patch in Antsy (funny name) about 45 minutes away and the kids got to play all kinds of pumpkin games, we had tea and coffee and cakes (always gotta have your tea) and they picked out pumpkins to take home and carve. It was so much fun! On Halloween night we went with 3 of our closest friends trick-or-treating and this year Liam really got into it and my usually shy boy (at least around bigger kids) was racing to the front of the pack to ring the doorbell and scream "Trick or TREAT!" For their school party, Liam was Batman, but then decided for Halloween he'd rather be a pilot. Natalie was a sweet Ladybug for both events. Clark and I had a village party to go to after the kid's TOT'ed and he dressed up like the "Greatest American Hero" and I went as a cheerleader (ironic b/c I can't even do a cartwheel). I told him not a soul would know who the GAH was and I was right but he did win a costume contest and was the talk of the party. He was clad in red tights and all. One thing about Clark - he doesn't mind being different.
We have found the coolest church. We fell in love almost instantly with it and one of it's pastor's, Richard, his wife, Ruth and their kids. Richard and Ruth had us over for a "Sunday Roast" after church and I can't explain it but we just knew we were home. They are amazing! Richard cooked a mean "Curry" -- that was his rendition of a Sunday Roast. Ruth is mom to FIVE kids and makes it look as easy as you've ever seen. I'm still trying to figure out how they do it all. They are awesome!!!
We have so much coming up in Nov/Dec - we are thrilled to be a part of so many festivities and the chance to celebrate Christmas in this area! We have two formal fancy Balls to attend. There is the Salisbury Cathedral Christmas Children's Service on Christmas Eve that is supposed to be out of this world. There is something called Pantomine in many of the big cities which is a play-type event for the whole family. We are participating in an American "Thanksgiving Dinner" on the Saturday following Thanksgiving on the base for anybody that wants to celebrate Thanksgiving. I am hosting a Coffee at our house in December as well as I'm sure a few other Christmas gatherings. We can't wait. The remembrance of Christ's birthday excites me like no other celebration! The pomp and circumstance is wonderful, but knowing HE arrived here on earth is glorious beyond words.
Oh, one other thing, I began a women's bible study at St. Paul's (our church) and we are doing a book by the british author, Michael Lloyd called "Cafe Theology". It is really really good and causing me to scratch my head a bit and examine my perspective on different theological topics. It's amazing! At first I thought it was going to be on how to have a theological discussion about Christianity while sharing a nice cuppa tea (duh, blonde girl); but boy was I wrong, it goes way deeper into discussions on Creation, the Trinity, the Resurrection and Ascension. Pretty nifty. You should check it out if this sort of thing interests you.
Time to wrap up and fix my sweet cousin Heather's French Dip Au Jus sandwiches. Yummy. Yummy. Love to you all :-) Please come visit us!
All my love, Cindy
p.s. Answered Prayer - Something simple but nonetheless amazing. Quick story - I left Clark's laptop on a park bench at a kid's playgrounds this last weekend on the Lakenheath base (about 4 hours away). I realized it when we got home about 10pm. I immediately called and the receptionist went down to the park to check but no laptop could be found and no one had turned one in. That night I tossed and turned all night and felt horrible about the whole thing. The next morning, while walking the kids down to school, I was thinking over the events that led to me loosing the laptop and thinking about Clark's reaction to me loosing something so valuable to him. While praying, God quickly brought to my mind Clark's response and how he had truly exemplified the character of Christ when he demonstrated, "compassion, and slow-to-anger" qualities toward me upon the news of his missing laptop. Me, on the other hand, I would have probably screamed my head off. But no, not Clark, he never even raised his voice. Later that morning, I called and talked to the manager, Rebecca, who then proceeded a full-on hunt for Clark's laptop. One of the housekeepers whom Rebecca had told, then told her husband who works in maintenance. Two hours later he comes back and says, "Wait, I think I just saw a post on the base online newspaper that someone has found a laptop in a park." So Rebecca calls Clark with the link to the ad and Clark emails the girl that found it and Rebecca retrieves the laptop and today spent her own money to mail it next-day back to us!" (Rebecca will be getting reimbursed for her expenses as well as a much deserved thank you gift.) We could not be more grateful. I know there are bigger and more serious prayer requests in God's ears but God heard my plea all night and I'm so grateful he cares about the little things. But two good things came from this, no three.
One, it showed me what an amazing husband I have and how his character, as was demonstrated through his response to me is so admirable and how much I want to possess those traits. Patience is a virtue.
Two, I felt just sick about loosing his computer. (It has his thesis on it) I thought, why couldn't I have lost mine? It showed me that when we mess up whether intentionally or unintentionally that we can really hurt other people and cause them suffering or at the very least inconvenience. Though we can't always be perfect and we are going to make mistakes, I've learned it's important to show mercy to those that don't deserve it and it's an honor and privilege to be the recipient of mercy when WE need it. Thank you Clark!
And Three, WOW! What a chain of miraculous events (there's even more to the story but I just couldn't fit it all in) that led to the finding of the computer - only God could have orchestrated all that.

Pros and Cons

noreply@blogger.com (Cindy Childers) — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 14:00:00 +0000

Cheers, Friends!
As with anything new to adjust to, you suddenly catch yourself playing the comparison game. "Man, I like how I had access to XYZ in America" or "Why don't the Brits use BLANK?" or "Goodness, why don't Americans do things this way?". So after having been in Salisbury for nearly a month now, I find myself daily making little mental notes of what I like and don't like. I thought I would share with you some of the pros and cons to living in England and how I've adjusted mentally and physically to their way of living. If I'm lucky this might give you a sense of some of the unique and wonderful things about life here in the UK and the British people as a whole.
Change is good.

Top 10 reasons to do things the British way....
1. They use POSTCODES. We use Zip Codes. Postcodes are unique to about three houses. So in England, when you type in a Postcode into your GPS (no long address required), you can pretty much get to where you want to go within 100 yards. In America you punch in a zip code in your GPS and you'll get as close as a small town.
2. They use round-a-bouts. Ok, at first I was totally NOT accepting of these. For those of you who don't know what a round-a-bout is, do google it and check them out. The reason they are more user friendly than 4-way intersections is that you never have to stop - you just proceed through the round-a-about and if you miss your turn you just keep going around the circle until you get it right. Plus, this means you NEVER have to make a U-turn. LOVE them now.
3. They are SOOOO patient. Goodness, gracious, don't ever try to act perturbed in a checkout lane or for that matter in line for anything. They are NOT in a hurry. I've realized that this is reflective of their more laid-back, easy-going personalities (remember much of this country is still doing things like the US was doing in the 80s or even older for that matter - not necessarily a bad thing). I've caught myself several times trying to hurry the cashier along only to realize it was useless and convicted me that maybe life wasn't always meant to be played at neck-breaking speed.
4. Fresh Produce - OH MY! There is fresh Fresh FRESH produce everywhere! And it is soooo yummy and sweet! Every Saturday for the past 200+ years, in downtown Salisbury they hold the Salisbury Market. You can get all the local produce you want which is to-die-for. I do miss my Harris Teeter but to buy it local from a fellow whose family has been doing this for centuries is just the coolest thing ever.
5. 240 Watt bulbs/power/etc. Ok, by most accounts this level of wattage is just ridiculous. I mean, when I turn my oven on the entire oven gets smoking HOT, like even to where you can't touch the outside of the oven (not good for kids btw) and when you blow a light bulb in one socket, you will loose power in 3 adjoining rooms (seriously, we've done this). HOWEVER, the very bright side(no pun intended) to British 240 wattage verses our American 120V is that you can blow-dry your hair in literally 90 seconds with their hair-dryers. Talk about a time-saver.
6. Another slightly weird thing they have in ALL sinks (no matter where you go) is that they have 2 faucets. This really puzzled me at first because one is for hot and one is for cold. Duh, right. Well, the problem arises when for instance you want 'warm' water to wash your face. You merely have to cup your hand in the hot, then cold, then hot again, then cold again and wha-la you get warm water. Peculiar, right? However, I have found the brilliant side to this 2-faucet thing of theirs and that is when you help your 2 year old go potty and you both need to wash your hands afterward you BOTH get to do it at the same time (time saver). Natalie gets the cold and if Mummy is really fast she uses the HOT faucet before it has time to reach the scalding point. Love it!
7. Their Gardens. They are as lovely as you've seen in movies. The bright side to getting 11 months of rain here (like Seattle) is that you have GREEN everything. No need to have a green thumb yourself, God does it for you by watering this piece of earth nearly ALL the time.
8. If you are like us and you like Indian food, there is a plethera of it here. In restaurants and the grocery stores. It's EVERYWHERE. Literally, my first trip to the grocery store had an end-cap that said, "Make a little curry tonight?" and had an entire section devoted to such. Kinda the equivalent to our "easter candy" sections. We like this!
9. Coffee Shops. Oooo, I am becoming a huge coffee fan! America does have a coffee shop on every corner but they do too here and they have the most amazing cakes, biscuits, Pasties and treats inside each one. AND, your choices of Latte's is endless. It's much more than your usual Vanilla or Caramel latte. Name it and they have it. Just a few to love are Amaretto, Ginger or my now personal favorite: An ALMOND Latte. Just scrumptious!!!
10. And last but not least...they walk EVERYWHERE. Ok, so I've really not adapted completely to this yet. But I have been forced to try a few times. For instance, the one car we have right now was in the shop last week for 2 days I had to walk my kids to and from school. Not a biggy though, it's only a 10 minute walk. It happened to be absolutely gorgeous those days (thank you Lord) and it really made me think about my choices and how when we choose to take the time to do things the longer, less convenient way like walk instead of taking the car, we find all kinds of new things to love. For example, Natalie was able to point out a "Forest" she and her class went hiking through where they picked leaves for a Fall/Tree craft project. Liam, Natalie and I also had the chance to meet a few new neighbors and help one gentleman find his way through the village. Imagine that. Me, now a local, able to give directions. Liam also showed me some houses where he and his classmates had delivered "harvest" food to some of the elders in the village that aren't able to get out easily. All this would have been impossible to do in a ride that takes 32 seconds by car. Though I am not one to generally take the slower pace, I am doing my best to try and find the good from it when life requires I take that route.

God is really up to something big here in England. I found myself again this morning saying to myself, "Gosh, I just really, really love it here." God is so good and He does know best. He reminded me today of a time earlier this year where my "First" choice for Clark's assignment this go-a-round was Pax River (which is awesome too). But after we stepped out and said, "Yes, we'd like to go to Pax". God quickly (within a day) closed that door and we were told, "No, you'll be going to England instead." It was almost as if He said to me today, "See, I knew which one you'd love the MOST." Our 'good' is not always God's 'best' and we are wise to trust that He knows which is which.

Friends, you are so loved from here. I think about you all the time.
Be blessed today,
Cindy

And on the 14th day, there shall be rest....

noreply@blogger.com (Cindy Childers) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 15:18:00 +0000

Greetings Dear Friends from the English region of Wiltshire!
I certainly should have taken a break before now but as most of you know, I am not one to sit down until everything is DONE. Just plain DONE. This afternoon is the first time in 14 days that I have taken the afternoon off and rested. Boy, it's quiet around here. The kids are napping, my mother is storming through the Salisbury Cathedral and Clark is driving home from a busy 9-flight work week in Wales. Last night, as my mom and I were unpacking the very last dish in the kitchen at 1am, I had this sense of "A-Ha". Peace. Tranquility. This place I can call "My Own" for now. I am Home. It was beautiful. You know that moment...When all the sudden the hustle and bustle just subsides. It was dreamy. I am thrilled to say that I am 'in love'. In love with this land, this house, this village, this area, these people. So let me tell you a little bit about where we are spending this amazing season of our lives....or at least what little I know so far....
This Land...as a Southern lady from Georgia would say, "Goodness, Gracious, it sure is pretty!" How can one describe it? Let me give it a whirl... though September here is their "4 Week Summer", it's cool-cool in the morning. Not sure what it is in the British preferred Celsius but in Fahrenheit it's around a brisk 50. It is stunning. Cool breezes, crisp, and I mean CRISP clean air. My favorite part of the day is waking up and opening up our bathroom window that offers the most glorious view of rolling hills, a small cattle and chicken farm (rooster and all) and miles and miles of wheat fields. Yes, friends, Cindy Childers has gone country! And I LOVE it!! The streets are narrow especially for driving, hedged in by tall lush green bushes that are meant mostly for privacy. I just drive past wondering, "What kinds of things are all these people up to?" You know me - I want to meet them! Don't hide! One of my favorite things is the abundance of horses where we live. Everything is about horses here. Kids take lessons early, people ride them down the streets, even to the pubs (at least in little villages like ours). There is a herd of horses just across the street and down a bit from our house...the kids think this is so cool. Living "out in town" as one says, we are truly experiencing the life of an Englishman/woman. I must say, I had to trust Clark to pick out our house and I couldn't be happier.
Our home.... It is two-story, 5 bedrooms plus an office. (But all you can do in the office is turn around.) We have a guest bedroom set up for all of you; as well as another room with a double bed in case you come with your kids in tow. The kitchen is relatively small by American standards but my hubby put in extra cabinets in the laundry room so I could house all my kitchen "bits and bobs" AND food! We live in a cul-de-sac of sorts and on our left are David, Rachel, Emily and Imogen, they are super nice and I'm hoping Emily can babysit for us. On our right are Laura and Marc and not sure their kids names (I think they are in boarding school). Marc serves in the British Army and is currently home on a 2 week respite from Afghanistan but will be home for good at Christmas. They too are awesome and I think we've managed to pretty much 'come in with a bang' as us Childers' folks often do. They don't really know yet what's hit them...standby... :)
...About our Village, Newton Tony... Remote, farm country, incredibly nice, nice people, slightly affluent (not us), cozy and the people are very friendly. It's as charming as they come. There is a famous local pub in the village called Mallet Arms that is older than the United States and is a popular hangout for the residents here and folks from far off. It has some of the best food for pubs and the one meal I've eaten there so far was YUM-MY! We've already been invited by some neighbors, Maxine and Bob to their Halloween party so we are excited to meet even more people. Clark has already made a footprint for himself here before I came and knows all the goings-ons about who hunts what and where and when. He's a little leary though to go with one group because they shoot while riding horses and he's not sure he won't make a fool of himself trying that out. You know how those Texas boys like their tree stands. Across the street from Mallet Arms is Liam and Natalie's school. (Yes friends, this town is small :) Their school is as precious as you can get. As my mom says, It's very "School House". Natalie's pre-school, the "Puffins" meets in the village town house and she goes MWF for 1/2 days with Miss Jill and several other little tots. (sidenote: My girl is completely potty trained - Yee-Haw!) Liam is in Reception which is the same as American Kindergarten. It's hard to believe, but they start Kindgertan here at FOUR years old! He is going 5 days a week for 3 hours. He could go all day but mummy is just not ready for that. They both LOVE their classes and their teachers so that was so nice to have such a smooth transition with schooling.
...This area...Newton Tony is about 5-10 minutes from Clark's royal air force base in Amesbury England. For the Brits, this is a very easy bike ride as so many choose to ride their bikes to work. Go Clark! Stonehenge is about 10-15 minutes away and Salisbury is about 20. I have done a good share of driving the last two weeks and almost feel like a pro now driving on the left side of the road. It took a bit but you just have to act like you know what your doing and then people actually think you live here. There is alot to do around here and I'm sure now that the moving dust has settled i'll have more interesting stories to share. I guess in order to blog about Life you have to Live it first!
...Last but not least, the People. The British people on the surface can tend to appear more reserved and less gregarious than us Americans but they are wonderful. I do tend to be on the extraverted side (duh) and wanting to talk and meet and chat but what I've found is that they do to. Surprisingly so. You will have to come here and see for yourself. I'm trying to think about how to describe in general the people I've met so far and I'm finding it's hard to choose the words just as it would be if someone from another country came to America and met a cross-section of 100 different Americans. It's just too hard to do. Wonderful that life is like that actually. How boring would life be to only hang out with people that share your own culture. However, in light of that, I must add that the other morning in my quiet time I was feeling a little homesick and missing my friends and just wanted to talk to somebody who I didn't feel like I had to audit my words (because so many American words are not appropriate here) and I asked God to help me have a heart for them and to fall in love with this land of people. I said something like, "How can you help me love them like they are my own from home?" The words from John 21 quickly came to my mind, "Do you love me? Feed my sheep." I am certain God has a sense of humor and I began to laugh. What? Really? Cook for them? Me? I guess I would say I'm an Ok cook, no extraordinare, but I do love to share food with friends. And maybe that's His way of saying that's how I'll begin to get to know them. I guess the saying is true, "To know them is to love them." God is so good. He always hears us when we ask. Guess I've got to go get the conversion chart out that goes with this oven and see if I can't whip something up.
Love to you all,
Cindy

Baptism by Fire!

noreply@blogger.com (Cindy Childers) — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 22:02:00 +0000

WE MADE IT!!! We are officially in England and it's even more beautiful than I remembered. It is 11:02pm here in the UK which means it's 6:02 on the East Coast. No worries about me not falling to sleep at 6 o'clock at night though because I have had I think a total of 6 hours of sleep in the last 72 hours. Sleep is inevitable -momentarily. I will try and make this brief since I can barely keep my eyelids open but I just wanted to let you guys know we made it safe and sound and how happy we are to be here! It was not an easy day but whoever said 'easy' was the funnest way to go. My prayers from the get-go were as follows: Safe Travels, Timely flights, that ALL my luggage would make it, and that the kids would be great and that God would give us favor with whomever we needed so that everything would go smoothly. Ironically, nothing happened like I had wanted or expected it to but God answered ever single request with an affirmative "yes" but went about it completely differently than I would have imagined. It all began when we got a call Friday morning as we were literally walking out the door at 9:30am for the airport that our Delta flight from Atlanta to Newark was delayed by what ended up being 4 hours because of bad weather in Newark. We decided to head on to the airport where we checked our bags and managed to miraculously get out of paying overage charges for 5 out of 6 "Heavy" bags as well as extra bags since they didn't consider Clark's military "Orders" my "Orders which meant we surpassed the suitcase allotment. We then headed to our gate which we realized once going through security and walking to the very other end of the Atlanta airport that our flight was further delayed and had moved to again another further away part of the airport. So here we went, me, my mom, Liam, Natalie, 2 large car seats, one stroller, one rolling carry-on suitcase, a duffle bag, 2 purses and 2 kids' backpacks and two kids in tow. Yikes! We looked like the most ridiculous pack-mules. It was painful but hilarious at the same time. Y'all know I don't know how to travel light. So once we got on our Newark flight we were certain we would miss our connection to London because our flight was to land 1 hour after the other took off. We land in hopes that maybe we'll get on the later flight out that night but once we deplaned there was a lawyer gentleman guy who I guess saw how ridiculous we looked and he literally helped us cart all our stuff to the other side of Newark's airport in hopes to get us on a good flight that night and not allow us to be stuck in NJ for the night. We quickly learn at the counter that our 6:30pm flight has not taken off but does so in 17 minutes-yes, 17 minutes. Some lady directs us to the first class check in and the man who I'm expecting to say, "good luck, try again later." Says with out me saying hardly anything, 'Come with me'. He then proceeds to take us to the front of security says, "Run to your gate I'm going to have them hold your flight." We run (a good 5 min run) and arrive out of breath and they say, "Are you the Childers...get on!" As the lady is checking our passports, I turn and see these 2 men (angels)standing there in airport uniforms. They say to me out of the blue, "are you from Atlanta and did you have 6 bags?" I said, "Yes, sir, why?" He said, "because we just put all 6 on this flight." My mouth dropped and I said, "But we JUST got off our flight like 8 minutes ago." He said, "Yes, we're good." I was amazed. I turned around and they were gone. We have a wonderful and uneventful flight into London. We land and get our pack-mule set up going and as we are getting in line for customs (which is no less than 250 people deep), a gentleman comes up and says, "Hey, come follow me." He takes us around past all the people to the front and as I walk past these people embarrassed, he hollers out loudly, "Coming through, celebrities coming through." I was SOOOOO embarrased and wanted to hide but what can you do when you are toting all that stuff and trying to catch up with the customs agent. We swiftly get through customs and go to get our luggage. We end up now not only with our pack-mule items, but also now TWO seperate "suitcase rolly-things." So tell me "How are we (me and my mom going to now push THREE giant things. A wonderful man who had worked there 30 years sees us from afar and without us even saying a word or looking in his direction he marches over and proceeds to take 2 of the carts and says, I will help you get to your husband. And so he does! So how about that for a whirlwind of a day. It was so stressful I can not even begin to tell you how I felt all day but in the end I realized how good God is and he wanted to show me that He can make anything happen even in the midst of chaos. One last story...maybe the best. Clark picks us up at the airport but we have to drive both our new truck and his work rental car home (long story later) so he says, "Come on honey, you can do it, your not tired and you can drive on the other side of the road,... a stick right" "Yeah right! Is what I'm thinking." I reluctantly accept the offer knowing somebody has to now make this long trek back to our house. Well not sooner than 10 minutes down the road does Clark loose me on a round-a-bout and whooosh he is out of sight and my mom and I are L.O.S.T. in England, driving a crazy car, in a crazy place AND my cell phone doesn't work because I forgot to have AT&T allow me to make calls once I arrived here. So we proceed on knowing that there is nothing I can do about it but drive and just hope I can kind of remember roughly how to go these remaining 200 miles. About 30 minutes down the road, their beside me rides up my sweet darling husband who had waited for us who knows back where and now had been going 100 mph realizing we were up ahead. What a ZOO! So our first day in England has been a busy but memorable one and you can see why I must get some shut-eye. I love you all dearly! ZZZzzz, Cindy

Can't turn back now...

noreply@blogger.com (Cindy Childers) — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 04:55:00 +0000

Dear Friends! How I have missed you! It's been 15 days since I've written a thing and I have thought of you no less than 15 times (at least). I must say that my lack of updates has not been lack of news (whether mundane or sublime) but because I have developed this fear of writing and not a soul reading this or even worse not caring one iota what I've written. So with that true confession laid out on the table I realize I must get back to this thing or how the heck will I get any better at it and update you sweet souls on what the latest and greatest is with the Childers' clan heading East to the UK (thank you so much for those have been asking!) Here's your update....

We have tickets! Yep, that's right. This crew (Me, Liam, Natalie and my mother, Janice) are all England-bound in just 6 short days. That date is Friday, September 11th to be specific. Now we are not going to go and get all "superstitious" and think crazy things. But rather, we are trusting and praying that our flight will be uneventful, that the children will sleep the entire leg from Newark, NJ to London (Heathrow) and that we will land on September 12th fully rested and ready to set our footprints in the proverbial sand of our new home, Amesbury, England. OH, how glorious that day will be! Hopefully, Clark will be there with bells on. Or at least a nice hot cup of Starbucks. :)

On a second note. Which leads me to the "Title" of this post. Natalie Annabelle has most recently, 3 weeks and 1 day to be exact (but whose counting) begun a new world all to her own - that of potty training. This Mommy only has one word to say at this point, "UGGGH!" But you know what, you just can't stop what's been started. At this point, she knows exactly what the following mean: "2 M&M's for peeing, 5 M&M's for pooping (can I say that, oops, I just did), Smiley stickers for #1 and Princess stickers for #2, the urge to go means tell Mommy or Grandma and run to the potty, and finally and most importantly she knows what her new cute Gymboree undies look and feel like and most importantly where mommy tries to hide them (I mean, really, pull-ups are so much easier). I, somehow, have forgotten all the fun doing this with Liam was. But in the car earlier today, I had an epiphony. Here's how the story goes...

Back in Virginia Beach, earlier this spring/summer, I had the priviledge of hosting 15 ladies at my home for a bible study. Nothing, and I mean nothing, could have prepared me for what God would do to my soul during those eleven weeks. Though strangers to a few, acquaintences and good friends to many before we began, I treasure these ladies more than words can say. They will always be near and dear to my heart. There was just something amazingly unique and special about that group that tendered my soul as we studied Beth Moore's "A Heart Like His: The Study of David". During those eleven weeks, the LORD undid my heart and created in me a huge hole for His very own One. This was all very well and Good. But now herein lies the problem. Literally, just a few short days after the close of that study, we began the tireless task of packing, cleaning, selling stuff, saying many farewells, moving, visiting family and friends in multiple states and all this busyness did what busyness often tends to do and that is crowd out God. For the eleven weeks of that study, I lived and breathed 1 and 2 Samuel. I mean, I spent morning, afternoon and evening with King David and if you hadn't told me otherwise, I would have considered him my best friend. I would even wake up finding myself having conversations about him and things I'd learned through his life example. So I say this, not to say that I'm crazy (or at least I hope I'm not) but to just be real with you that these past 7 weeks have been tough and I miss all that quiet, focused time in the Word. I know in England I may have more quiet time that I can bare but for now I am craving it like nothing else. It's in those quiet times, when I wake up before the sun rises, before those little footsteps come dancing in that God speaks so tenderly to my soul and just makes things, well, better. I have seen what Goodness God brings and just like with Natalie's potty training, there is now "No turning back".

"Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him." --Psalm 34:8

I love you all dearly and will keep you updated as we land next week in our new home! Please keep us in your prayers. Be blessed, Cindy

Attic Spaces

noreply@blogger.com (Cindy Childers) — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 10:31:00 +0000

One of the most beautiful things about moving whether physically or spiritually, is God never expects us to do it alone. As I write, I am nestled in the upper "attic" of my parents three-story home in Athens, Georgia. Just two weeks ago, when the kids & I stayed at my in-laws house in Richmond, I too had the spot of the "attic" on their third floor. Now when I say attic, don't picture in your mind a dusty room lined with wooden floors with storage boxes to the ceiling, but rather, I must confess, they are carpeted, cozy and for some reason the place I migrate too. I realized the other day why I love these rooms in my dear loved ones' houses more than other more convenient spaces. In 1997, more than 12 years ago, God met me in an attic space. A dear college friend's mom lived alone in Columbia, SC, where I had just finished graduate school. I had no job, no money, no home and very few local friends, maybe one or two. I thought to myself, "How can you have a great degree and have nowhere to go?" Her mother kindly offered for me to stay in one of her twin daughter's bedrooms which happened to be situated in their attic. It was a tiny, and I mean tiny space, with slanted ceilings and one small window. Only a small twin bed and little dresser filled the room. But for some reason, I loved it. In that room I cried my eyes out nearly every day for four months searching for something that I would later realize was greater than simply a degree, a job or a plan. In that space, God gave me a purpose. He tucked me into that small space, away from the world, isolated from the things that so easily distract and He introduced himself to me as my loving, heavenly Father. I will never forget that season of my life and I will never forget that room.

Though my family has been "homeless" this past month, God has done a beautiful thing. He's reminded me no matter where I've been, or where I'm going, He has always been and always will be there. I woke up a little earlier than usual this morning, was headed to the bathroom and the hum of a old song came to my mind. One I've not heard in years. I couldn't place the name of the song but the band FFH came to mind so I quickly grabbed my laptop and youtube'd FFH and found what melody God woke me with first thing this morning. It's their song "Still the Cross". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdnFIYtN4XA&feature=related

Have an awesome day friends!
Cindy

Mission Statement

noreply@blogger.com (Cindy Childers) — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 21:47:00 +0000

Three times in one day! This could be addictive. I promise it won't always be like this but I've got beginner's excitement and this is just too much fun. I did however, want to put an explanation or description of why I am doing this blog. I am not a naturally gifted writer and this will be quite some work - but I am up to the challenge. There are lots more people out there that have a greater propensity to write and also have more training than me. But I begin this BLOG with 2 missions in mind. One, to share with my friends and family my new experiences and adventures in England and two, more specifically to share how God's hand is moving in my families life as He has chosen this place for us for this season of our lives.

"See, I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared." Exodus 23:20

Have a blessed day,
Cindy

Housekeeping

noreply@blogger.com (Cindy Childers) — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 21:42:00 +0000

I have so much to learn about the world of blogging. I must confess the only blogs I've ever read have been my best friend's from high school after the birth of her twins and several friends who have posted through the amazing Caring Bridge blog pages. I've never had the slightest idea how to do my own....so much so that after I just typed and posted my first blog, I didn't even know if I had to do anything to "send it out to my friends". Maybe somebody out there can clue me in on how it works. I did just go see the amazing film, "Julie and Julia" so if that's how it works than I am a few steps closer to blog-literacy. I guess you simply post a blog and then people just do searches for blogs that have subject material that interests them and maybe yours will match up and wha-la...someone may find you. I guess you can also cut and paste your "address" and send that out to your email "Contacts List". That's probably what I will do...but is that cheating? I'll test this with my husband and send him my link and see if he can find me. :) I love this! Cindy

p.s. Standby, for my next post..."Why in the world is she doing this in the first place?"

New Beginnings...

noreply@blogger.com (Cindy Childers) — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 21:27:00 +0000

Hello! This is a first. Actually, a season of firsts for me. First for blogging and first for moving my family overseas. I am thrilled for both and have known both were inevitable for some time now. The Navy told us a few months ago we would be heading with my husband's job to England for a 2-3 year stint serving alongside the British RAF. What a treat for Clark! As for the blog, I have felt God's leading in some area of writing and this may just be how He spurs me on to get something going. I honestly don't know where this will lead but simply feel His call to begin this as we journey forward in this new season of my life: To Serve Him, To Follow Him, To Share the Gospel and To Change from the inside out. I believe these next couple of years are going to be nothing short of remarkable, amazing and life changing. I know the LORD has a good plan for us.

Jeremiah 29:11
For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

Welcome! This is going to be a fun ride! God is so good! :) Cindy