Dreaming away.

Well this week we took Mark, our son, back to the airport and wouldn't you know it, that was the day it chose to snow again, so a two hour drive took about three hours. At least we got him to the airport and his flight left on time and then we had to entertain ourselves while the plane flew him home and our next guest, Ian (the one moving in to Ergli - gosh this is getting confusing) over to Latvia. Ho hummm! Well we spent most of the time in Spice, a big shopping mall (well big for Scandinavia), and it is amazing how long you can take to eat when you are not in a hurry. We then wandered round the mall a bit, picked up some groceries for Ian so he had some milk and bread for his flat then stopped for a pot of tea, then wandered around again, in all we spent 5 hours there. There was no point in shopping as such as we don't really need anything- oh apart from some books, managed to get some more penguin classics to add to our collection, we didn't know there was a shop with english books in them. So as Spice closed we headed for the airport with our books and settled down for another hour and a half or thereabouts. It was around 3am by the time we crawled into bed that night. 

Some good pieces of news this week, first we sold our American car, unfortunately we had to accept a rather low sum to get someone to take it off our hands. Oh well! At least it is gone now or at least in the process, and the money will be useful. The second is that we are in the process of getting our house rented to the guy we hope will eventually buy it. All we have to do now is hope he absolutely loves it and is still prepared to pay what he offered in a few months time, and pray his buyer stops mucking about. Oh the joys of selling houses! At least we get an income off it in the interim period. 

The other good piece of news is that I got 71% for my last assignment on my course which is another distinction. I was rather relieved as I wasn't sure if I had got the approach right at all for the essay. It is so long since I have written essays myself, and the approach to the essays for the course is very different to what I did used to write. I certainly feel rusty trying to put work together but I think it is getting easier and the course is very well written so it does lead you in the right direction, certainly for the early part of the course. The next stage is more reflective - whatever that means, and I will find out in the next week when I sit down to study again. It is amazing how this course just seems to fit so well right now for me, I enjoy what I am learning and feel my experiences are helpful, and it seems to draw on all those things I have found fascinating over the years, I do hope this is one of the tracks down which God is leading me and not one of the dead end tracks. 

You may have noticed that I have installed one of those tracker thingymagigs in the corner of this blog. It is intriguing to see where the spots are located and makes me wonder who is reading the blog and how they got here. Some are easy to see as I know some folks who regularly read this (gulp! - keeps me on my toes) but others, I have no idea who they are. It makes you realise though how accountable you have to be for what you say in public, what information you disclose. It is so easy to rattle something off and not think about who might read it. On the other hand it also reminds me of those significant moments that come along when you meet someone out of the blue, and you know that God is working in it, and they say something to you that can turn your situation around, or lead you in a completely different direction to the one you thought you were on. I love those moments. 

On a different note, every morning Ian brings me a cup of tea, and normally I am awake and praying  for my kids (well trying to pray and keep my mind on track) and just generally chatting with God or reading my Bible but this morning I was still fast asleep, in fact I was dreaming. I have said before I don't normally dream a lot but since coming to Latvia I have had a few, one of which set me on the road to doing the course I am doing now. This morning I was dreaming I was at my Nan's (grandmother's) house in Blackpool and I was just preparing a salad for President Bush who regularly pops in for some rest, away from the clamour and stresses of regular life - as you do! Why any of those things should be in my dreams I have no idea but the idea of providing a safe place for people to relax and just chill out as always appealed to us. The reason we had two houses in England side by side that we made into one big house was to provide a relaxing safe place to be, and we had a few families and individuals over the years who stayed with us. While I am not sure we will be providing a place for President Bush to chill out, I do believe that we will be able to provide hospitality again for those in need of rest and I feel that is something we need to work towards. 

I wonder as well if this land is also a place of dreams, some places seem to be dream filled places. Many Latvians seem almost afraid to dream anymore. They dared to dream when they broke away from Russia, they then dared to dream when they joined the EU and this year things are crumbling again and for some life has never been easy with the changes and for some it got harder. Maybe this is the year when God wants to reawaken some dreams, especially those dreams which seem so distant and impossible to realise, after all that is the time when our creative God often steps in and helps to remind us that he is the God of the impossible, don't you think?