Some Pictures from the Family Album

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'The best is yet to come'

Thomas Carlyle, a great philosopher, wrote, "Let each become all that he was created capable of being." This is the real definition of success.

This photograph was taken in the summer of 2003 just before I took the boys on holiday to Cape Town, the last time we travelled as a family (Edward joined us in Cape Town halfway through the holiday).

I remember it was a beautiful day and the boys had lots of fun, posing and messing around with all the seaside fun and games. I remember thinking that this was as good as it was going to get. Edward and I had been given permanent contracts with Lambeth and life felt really good, the weather was perfect and we were all happy.

At this stage, the boys were not playing any real competitive sport. We had reconciled ourselves to the fact that Timothy was going to be the one who knew about sport and loved it, but didn't play. Already he was going to all the football practices at school, often walking the 2.5 miles by himself on a Saturday morning to be there, but never making the starting line-up. Christopher was at a school that offered very little beyond a place to be during the day and Daniel's asthma had taken such a firm hold that although he seemed to know the name of every premier league footballer and manager, he was never actually going to play any game himself. If we had only known then what we know now.

Tim Hansel (yes, another Tim) is an adventurer, speaker and author. He wrote the following; "The good news is that the best season of your life can be ahead of you no matter what your age or circumstances - if you choose to make it so." And he was only echoing something that was written a long time before by a young man named Jeremiah who was given a promise by his Heavenly Father: "I know the plans I have for you ..." How true those words have been shown to be in our great adventure. But that is a tale for another day.

Suffice for today to say that like all adventures, it has come at a price. We have had to choose between family holidays and the boys' opportunities and sometimes it seems like they grow out of their kit even before the box has been recycled. But what an adventure it has been.

PS. If you get a chance, take a look at the whole of Chapter 29, it is a chapter that never ceases to amaze me.

The start of the UK adventure

It's hard to believe that we've been in the UK for nearly seven years. It seems like just yesterday that I was at an interview at the Waterfront in Cape Town asking Edward what I should stay if I was offered a job.

However, when I look back at the pictures taken soon after we arrived, it's clear how much the boys have grown up since then. Here's a peek just to remind you of the boys: first there's the three of them washing the dishes in our first flat. Daniel was just a baby, Timothy was a chubby chappie and Christopher at just thirteen was younger than Daniel is now.

The other picture shows Chris with Ulf Maske. They found us by calling the university I was based at for the first four days and reached me just as I was leaving the dormitory for the last time. They were leaving on holiday that day and were calling to tell us where they were leaving the key if we were looking for a place to stay.

What an adventure it all turned out to be: we travelled on the train and underground without any idea of where we were going. Can you imagine a family with all their bags on the train???? We were convinced people would find us just a bit strange but soon discovered that this was how people travelled in London all the time. And soon we were in the swing of it too: using the bus, train, tube and tram to get everywhere.

Ralph Waldo Emerson said: "Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood." Here was a critical lessson for us - we had said that we were coming to London for the start of a new season in our lives and the only way we would cope was if we were prepared to move away from the way we had done things in the past and be ready to embrace the different way of living, even if we weren't entirely sure where it would take us.

Sometimes we forget that life is meant to be an adventure, and adventures are not a walk in the park. Sometimes they are scary, often they are unpredictable but they always bring change and help us grow.

One of the hardest things to deal with is the issue of death. We try to avoid it but it has an amazing way of finding us, often just when we least expect it. In John 11, the experience of Mary and Martha showed that there are shadows in the love of God. His people feel pain and there are personal struggles they have to deal with. God's love for us is not self-indulgent; it is working for our good. Yet, there is compassion. And, when Jesus came to the tomb of Lazarus, he wept. He saw the invasion of death in his father's world and shed tears of sorrow and compassion. But death was not the end - for into. the normal equation of life came the resurrection and the life (v25). And out of their tears and pain came a wonderful new chance of life: for Mary, Martha and, most importantly, for Lazarus.

Why am I talking about death? Because we cannot outrun it and we cannot make it go away - but we have the victory over it