Robinsons Ministry Update July 2023

Robinson ministry update - July 2023

Greetings from a slightly damp and drizzly Lancaster, UK.

In Mid- June Tim and I had a fantastic 20th anniversary holiday. I think we almost spent more time in the water than out. Absolute joy for me as a former Marine Biologist. Tim loved it too and in fact, after our first dive Tim asked me what I thought about cancelling our "romantic" meal on the beach so we could afford to do more diving. I wholeheartedly agreed. We also had fun identifying the fish and other species that we saw. A grand total of over 100 species identified by the end of the holiday.

A highlight was seeing turtles up close and personal and a couple varieties of rays at a bit of a distance.

Meanwhile, Dan survived his time at home and didn't look any thinner when we returned than when we left. He spent most of the time we were away working on the project he has been doing for Wycliffe UK, which is now very nearly finished. This week he has been putting the final touches to it, making the final edits and hoping for final sign off by the end of the week. The end of next week Dan is off to Nefyn in N.Wales to help with a Scripture Union beach mission. He enjoyed it so much last year he decided to go back this year. Then in mid-September he is off to University in Newcastle to study chemical Engineering and so final preparations for that are ongoing, including having a date booked for his driving test before he leaves.

All three of us were able to attend the Wycliffe UK members gathering, Tim and I as Wycliffe UK members and Dan was helping with the young people's program, which was greatly populated by folks we knew from Nigeria. It was a great time to reconnect with long-time friends and colleagues. It was especially sweet to see many of our SIL Nigeria friends who are also Wycliffe UK members.

Tim and I have continued with our many zoom calls to colleagues all over the world. We both feel like we are making progress in our different areas. As we are both working with data we are appreciating that we can also speak into each other's roles at times. I had a rare opportunity yesterday to give an in-person presentation to an SIL team who were meeting in the UK 90 minutes down the road. Tim and I rode down to the meeting on his motorbike which was an enjoyable, if slightly less than comfortable that the car. It was also great to be able to really connect face to face with the participants, even if it did result in more banter and interruptions than I normally get!

We also had a visitor for a week. A new colleague who is planning to join SIL Nigeria and will be taking on one of the elements of my (Ali's) old job there. She came and stayed with us for a week to do some training on the database that I set up for tracking Nigerian languages and language projects. It was fun connecting with someone who feels much the same way as I do about databases and data management. We enjoyed geeking out together!

This weekend Tim is catering our friend's wedding down in our former neck of the woods (Chinnor/Aylesbury). It will be all three (six?) of our hands on deck to make it happen but glad to be able to bless them with our help!

Thank you for your prayers and support, we really value you! Do drop us a line to let us know how you are doing and how we can pray for you.