Walking the Line

I’m not sure if any of you recognize the name Robbie Williams.  One of the things that we have realized since moving out of the US, is that there is literally a whole other world out there that we were previously unaware of.  We first became aware of Robbie Williams soon after moving to Germany.  He’s very, very popular there but we soon found out that he is huge everywhere, except in the States.  In the UK he is second only to the Beatles in all time popularity.  He can draw a crowd of 100,000 anywhere in Europe and do the same in South Africa, Brazil and then in Singapore.

The video in this post is from his live concert in Knebworth, England a few years ago.  I(DeAnn) chose this particular song in hopes that some of you might have heard it back in the 90s.  Robbie was a member of the boy band Take That and they had a hit with “Back for Good.”  This version expresses more of his personality that the original.  I would be interested to know if anybody had heard of him or what you think of the song.

Here are some pictures from India Nite at the Place.  Everybody had a great time.  There was a presentation on India, great food, games and Indian dancing.

The Indian guys (only male students so far here) put on a great food spread and shared a presentation about Indian culture, music and places.  They were so proud of their land, people and history.

The best was watching everyone learn to play Indian group games and to dance the traditional dances!

Keeping this blog updated has been a little more difficult than we anticipated.  We got behind when I(DeAnn) flew to Bakersfield for a week to be with my family for my grandmother’s memorial service.  Chris had the kids and all his ministry duties while I was away so he just didn’t have the time.  I’ve been back 2 weeks now and in that time it has been almost nonstop action. 

The day after I returned was America Nite at The Place.  Chris put together a power point presentation and we had corn dogs, veggies dipped in ranch dressing dip, brownies and coke.  It was interesting to hear what people from other cultures thought of America. 

On Sunday the 29th, there was a joint service of St. Paul’s and NIC to say farewll to Bishop Clive, the Anglican Bishop for the Middle East and Gulf (Cyprus is part of this diosese.)  The order of service was Anglican, but NIC led some worship.  There was a fellowship lunch with both churches  afterward.

The next day the kids had school pictures, finally.  They were postponed 2 or 3 times before finally taking place.

 Tuesday was a holiday.  May 1st is Labor Day here. We took the opportunity to go to the beach.  The water was as warm as a bathtub compared to California’s.  Even though we used sunscreen, the kids managed to get sunburned.

The next day I went with 2 friends to the British base near Larnaca.  We ate lunch out and spent time visiting and relaxing. Chris met with a Lebanese man he is descipling in the afternoon.

On Thursday, I started my Greek lessons.  This is the first time to learn a language starting at zero and after 15 minutes both my brain and my face hurt.  I managed to get through 1-5.  Today I will tackle 6-10.  One of the women from NIC is my language helper using the materials we learned in PLANTS.  Then it was The Place in the evening.

Friday is youth group and on Saturday Cali and Colson play soccer out at the UN.  Friday night we had Chris and Marcus Dugan (Rick’s youngest sons) over night.  We are blessed at how well our kids get along.  Saturday Ann(English) was over to hang out and Gagan(Indian) was over to use the computer and have Chris help him put together a power point for India Nite.

Sunday was family service at St Paul’s.  Chris and Cami did the reading and Chris had a chalice for communion.  We had to leave the NIC service early so Chris and the kids could make it the airport to catch their flight to Athens.  I had just left the country to go tot the States so it was their turn.  That night was African Worship at NIC.  Unfortunately the camera had dead batteries so I wasn’t able to get any pictures.  It was the sound that was amazing anyway.

Monday was spent on catching up with bookkeeping, laundry, etc.  I had dinner at my friend Ann’s and met a Chinese student.  It was so interesting to hear about her life in China and her plans for her future.  One of the neatest things about living here are the opportunities to learn about other cultures.

Tuesday Rick and I met at the cafe by the museum for our team meeting.  We were joined after a while by a young African man and I had another informative conversation about cultures. (This place would be like Christmas for a cultural anthropologist.)  I had to leave to go to the airport to pick up Chris and the kids. (For those of you that know about my driving, the fact that I drove both home from the airport and back to it again is an adventure in itself.  My arms were numb when I arrived from gripping the stearing wheel so tight!)  We decided that we should go to the beach because we were only 5 minutes away.  No sunburns this time.

Yesterday, it was back to school for the kids and back to sermon prep for Chris.  I go to Bible study Wed. mornings.  Chris plays futsol Wed. evenings.

And now we are back to Thursday.  Chris left this morning for Larnaca for a men’s breakfast where Rick will be speaking.  I need to start some laundry, pick up a package at the post office and prepare for my language lesson.  I’m looking forward to India Nite.  When we lived in Germany I became a big fan of Indian movies and music.

Well, this gives you all an idea of some of the things we do here.  If you have any questions please leave them on the comments.  We would like to keep you all as informed as possible.

 On April 15th, Cami, Colson and Cali were baptized at the Nicosia International Church baptism.  All three decided they wanted to be baptized and to do it together.  Chris performed the baptisms.  It the first time for him to baptize anyone so it was a blessing and a joyful experience to be able to that with them. 

The crowd represented the usual crosssection of cultures (2 Sri Lankan women were also baptized.)  There were some there who had never seen a baptism so there were many questions and discussions.