Easter

So it's Easter weekend and the sun has arrived in Edinburgh.

The past week has seen great weather here but I (Steve) wasn't here to enjoy it as I spent most of the week in Germany again.

Monday proved very frustrating. I had decided to travel to Germany on an earlier flight so I could drive in the light rather than the dark as I had the last few times. As I arrived at Edinburgh airport, I was just in time to see everyone streaming out, evacuating for a fire alarm. When we were finally allowed in, everyone that had already been through security had been taken out to mix with all of those of us who hadn't so that meant huge queues to get through security again. Arriving at Frankfurt airport an hour and a half late, I collected my hire car with a comment to the girl that I would have preferred a German car to the Fiat Stillo that I was given. The Avis girl laughed. But an hour later I was back there again after my Fiat broke down just a few km away from the airport. So the embarased Avis staff gave me a nice Audi A3 2ltr Turbo Diesel Injection instead.

The main reason for this visit to Germany was the first module of a training course that the executive team had been asked to undertake. Although I had covered a lot of this initial material before, it was good to find out more about all the other team members.

Today, Saturday, was another beautiful sunny day and a reminder of why it is such a privilege to live here in Edinburgh. We went into the city to see the Edinburgh Easter Play, performed in Princes St Gardens right below the castle.

Lasting some 2 1/2 hours, with some 60 participants, the story of the passion week is told out at 7 different sites around the gardens. It was a powerful retelling of the Easter story and encouraging to see 3 -4,000 people watching in the sunshine. Liam and Kara were among many children being challenged by the reality of the truths portrayed by the play.

We are now looking forward to Easter Sunday when we celebrate the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. We will be attending a large gathering of up to 7000 Christians from across central

Scotland at the Royal Highland Centre for Resurrection07. More details to follow.

A Reunion and a Race

This was a big weekend in the Packwood household.
Steve headed down to his hometown of Southport for a reunion with the youth fellowship of his church of 2o years ago, and Heather ran the Edinburgh Half Marathon for which she had been training for many months.
For Steve it was a great trip down memory lane as friends who had shared so much together in the early 80's traveled from across the country to attend. One girl even came over from Canada.
It was an amazing afternoon and evening of sharing memories and stories and remembering God's faithfulness to us. To everyone who made the effort to come, thanks for a special day.
It was a weary Steve that climbed into bed at 1am after racing back up the road to be ready for Heather's big day.

At last after so much training the race day has been and gone.
Heather left the house at 7.45 am to get down to Leith for the start.
Steve took Liam and Kara to the half way point at Cramond to meet up with Heather's parents to cheer her on.
She came past us at just over an hour after the start and we then jumped back into the cars to head for the finish line.
We joined many hundreds on the last straight to cheer Heather to the finish, with one eye on the clock which was just ticking up to the 2 hour mark. Would she manage her target of doing the race in 2 hours? Well with a last spurt she crossed the line with a minute to spare. 1hr 59 mins for her first ever half marathon.
Well done Heather, we are all so proud of you.
She has also raised around £1000 for Logos Hope which is a great result.
Tomorrow Steve is back of to the ship's office in Mosbach Germany for another 3 days of meetings and training. It just never stops does it?






See all the pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/stehevpackwood/Reunionandrunninghalfmarathon