"Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord."

Barnstaple is our current location and next stop before our big adventure to India in mid April. We arrived here on Monday early evening, where we were welcomed by each of our host families and started to settle into our homes for this month, dispite James getting slightly lost on the way to his. Since then we have met many of the people who work and attend Grosvenor Church, along with the two people we are working with.

Through out my time here I am mainly shadowing a lady whose main role is involoved in the families and the young children of the Church. She, along with the help of others, runs a mum's and toddlers group through out the week, which I have been along to 3 times already, as well as Sunday school classes and a Monday night Youth group for children of Primary years. On top of helping with each of these groups, we both are joining in with the studying on a Friday that the 3 apprentices of the church are currently doing and also doing our own discipleship course that First Serve have set us. As you can see it is quite a full on programme but I guess that comes with having such a huge church. The people we have met have been so welcoming to us and it has been great to see the work Christians in Barnstaple are doing to spread the Bible to as many people as they can. There is so many great things that Grosvenor Church is doing and it really feels like a great priviledge to be able to be a part of that, even for a short time.

The transition from leaving the students at Tilsley, to an extremely brief stay at home with family, then moving onto working at Grosvenor, has been quite exhausting and I have found it to be alot harder than I first thought. I am so glad God has given James and I these first few steps in order to prepare us for the huge leap we will be taking when journeying across to India in only a months' time.  It has already began to show how much it has started to strengthen us individually and as a couple to be ready for what we will be facing out there. We are so excited and amazed that we have such a great opportunity, but along with this comes expectant fears and worries. This verse in the title, found in 1 Corinthians 15v58, I have really tried to embed in my heart when imagining life when we head over seas, to maintain our focus for going as well as assuring God's protection over us and our time there. It will be such an eye opening experience but we can only do it with God's strength rooted in us and knowing his profound love and affirmation for our travels.

Love Hannah