Okay, so here goes.....my first blog....public revelations of the soul.  I can't imagine anyone will want to read this but let's treat it as a sort of sanitised travel diary.  A sort of extra long facebook status update.

Well, this blog is really meant to be all about our big trip to China (rather than my soul) which will be starting at Bridgwater Railway Station next Tuesday morning at 09.49 when we depart for Paddington London.  I can't wait for that moment when we set off and leave everything behind - with some sadness at saying goodbye but also excitement at being 'footloose and fancy free' (where did that saying come from?).  Within 24 hours we will arrive, via Eurostar and Paris, in Berlin.  I think the sleeper train is called the Perseus.  For some reason, trains on the trans-Siberian route are given names as well as numbers - well not all of them - the un-named ones are apparently the ones to avoid!

The tasks for today include doing a bit more work on China ie. where to go, what to do...  After a week in Beijing and a week in Harbin for Ian to work on his Nuffield, we have 2 weeks in one of the most exciting countries in the world - and I don't just want to be another tourist seeing the sights.  The challenge of reading Safely Home by Randy Alcorn, and The Heavenly Man about Brother Yun, make me want to see another side of China, and perhaps contribute something, however small, to the life of Christians in this vast and confusing country.  The public face of China is very much success and optimism, but reports about Christianity and the house-church movement today indicate there is still very much a darker side.  Probably not the right subject for a blog but thoughts to mull over and more importantly talk to God about.  Whichever country we are in, we want to be listening to Him and others.