Day one was a bit shaky, with me trying to do too much too soon and having to walk half way down a mountain. The resulting scars on my shins look more painful than they actually are.

By day three I was competent, day five pretty good and the final day was a blast as I made it down a black run without causing serious injury to myself or anyone else.

We even had a class race, in which I got second place and a silver medal to prove it. I can’t remember the last time I won a prize in sport.

The pictures don’t come close to telling the full story, the Italian Alps are stunningly beautiful, but then I guess my memories will just keep improving with age.

Monday night, however, was not perfect. I was on duty for new arrivals we had someone get to the main railway station in High Wycombe on the last train and not be able to get to the centre from there. So at 1:30am I was up and in the car going to collect him. Not a problem, but I then didn’t really get to sleep until 3am. Tany was up for work at 6:30am – I was immediately tired.

Today I just haven’t been able to wake up. Once again there’s lots going on but not really the time to get on top of any of it.

Hopefully tonight I’ll get a good night’s sleep and tomorrow will feell a little more like I’ve had a holiday. Work’s ging to be quiet though, once again it’s snowing.

This evening Tany and I went to see Holmes at the cinema. Not a great film, and not a wonderful cinema. The film took 2 and a bit hours. By the time we got out there was about 3 inches of snow on the ground, making the drive home good fun!

We arrived on Thursday in time to be at Tany’s cousin’s wedding at the weekend. On Friday evening we went out for a meal just as a tornado warning was being issued. A tornado warning is sounded by pick up trucks driving around town with a siren in the back, it’s a bit like a mobile air-raid warning. Then there’s the radio, which is a bit ‘War of the Worlds’ as an automated message is sent out across all stations, and panicked announcers try to find the words to describe what’s going on.

Most sensible people are told to hide in their basements – most property’s have basements either to hide in or keep warm in during winter – we were less sensible and went out to the restaurant.

At some point I’ll upload the pictures for this, but it really was quite impressive. While we waited for a variety of steaks to be cooked we stood outside and looked at the swirling dark sky and waited for something to happen. The wind picked up and it looked as though we were going to get hit by something, but then the storm front moved through and the rain fell. Something like 7 inches fell in about an hour. Enough to make the Red River rise (this is a popular place for flooding) a few more inches and make the charge to the car after the meal a really soggy experience.

Fortunately, for the wedding which took place outside in a park the next day, the weather was near perfect. It was still blustery, but that was probably good for drying the ground out, and the rain didn’t arrive until well after the ceremony. We did think that the clouds were going to settle right over the top of us at one point, but I honestly think prayer held out as we watched another weather front slide by.

Today is Sunday and it’s still breezy but the sun’s out and we had a pretty good day. Tomorrow, after a bit of shopping, we are heading out of town to the family property by a lake in Minnesota. Working up to 4th July celebrations and for me to attempt to waterski. I’m not sure what the internet situation will be like there, but if I have the opportunity I will keep you updated.

The site is more spread out than Wycliffe, with a range of huts, hangers, buildings dotted across a 200 acre site. We took a tour of the facilities which gave us the chance to look around the buildings and see the planes. It was pointed out that we were pretty fortunate to see the Kodiak, a new plane that works on Jet fuel rather than aviation gas.

JAARS assisted with the design of the Kodiak, making sure that it was able to deal with short take-off and landings – runways of about 700ft – was able to take passengers or freight and could deal with tough landings. It’s proved to be a really successful design, so there are a whole load of planes on order, JAARS are getting 1 in every 8 until they have 5.

The place also has a really interesting Alphabet Museum, which shows the development of a whole variety of writing systems. It’s probably not for everyone, I hit information overload after 30 minutes, but if you’re interested in how language is written down you could probably spend a day or so in there.

On Wednesday evening Tany and I were able to have a meal with Noel and Catharine Carpenter and their two kids. Noel’s been at JAARS doing some flying training for a new role in PNG and they are aiming to be out there later on in the year. It’s strange, I met Noel and Catharine in Australia in 2001, they then visited the UK in 2002, this is the first time I’ve seen them since. The world appears to be shrinking.

I’m here because Wycliffe’s US base is in Orlando. They moved here a few years ago from southern California when the cost of living there had become prohibitive from having any kind of operation there. The office is now on 200 acres of land on the outskirts of a newly developing community.

It’s a bit difficult to draw direct comparisons between the Wycliffe operation in the UK and what they do in the US. The countries are different. For all our similarities there is still a greater proportion of the 300 million people that live in the US who at least attend church and hold to a Christian belief system than there are in the UK. That immediately means that there is a bigger marketplace for Wycliffe to work within here than in the UK.

There’s also more engagement between the church and business than in the UK. That’s not to say that the US is more professional, but Christians here are happier talking about money, wealth and the need to finance operations properly. It costs to operate translation work around the world and provide support at home. While often it’s easy to ask for money to support people working overseas it’s more difficult to ask people to put money into buildings, stationery and computers at home.

That’s not really what I was talking about today, it’s just an introduction really.

Despite the grander size of the operation in the US, Wycliffe here and in the UK are facing the similar problems of a shrinking number of ageing donors and a lack of interest in Bible translation by young professionals and the next generation. The question of how to proceed is something we are both thinking about.

I’d show some pictures but I haven’t been outside for long enough with a camera to take any shots. What there is though is the Wycliffe US YouTube channel with some video about the associated benefits of Bible translation. I watched some of these this afternoon and they are worth a look.

Tomorrow morning I meet Ruth Hubbard, Senior VP for Wycliffe here in the US and fellow blogger. Then Tany and I fly on to Charlotte, NC.

This evening I went to my first baseball game ever, and it was at Fenway Park. We had pretty good seats and, although we didn’t get a home run, we did see Boston win 3-0 against a pretty good Falcons side.

Tomorrow we journey on, flying down to Orlando and going off to find the American centre for Wycliffe Bible Translators. I’ll try to put some more pictures up when I have a better internet connection, and some more time.

We went up the 6,882ft on Wednesday. Tany drove the 8 miles to the top where we enjoyed the view out across the mountain range. Some interesting facts: the strongest wind ever recorded was on the top of the mountain in 1934, 231 mph. There’s a hotel at the top – now a museum – and one of the buildings is tied down with chains to stop it blowing away (kind of reassuring).

Yesterday we drove out to Bar Harbor on the coast of Maine. We were hoping to go out Whale and Seal watching, but the weather has become progressively worse and since the middle of the afternoon we’ve had solid rain. So instead, it was a quick look around the Whale museum last night, and today out to look at a museum dedicated to the life of Lobsters. Actually, pretty interesting. We’ve both faced the challenge of eating them too.

So tonight we’re hiding in from the weather before driving back to Boston tomorrow and facing the challenge of tickets for a Red Sox gaem.

Tomorrow I fly to the US. Boston to be precise, where Tany and I will be hanging out for a few days before driving up through New Hampshire and Maine. We then fly down to Orlando, FL and then up to Waxhaw, NC to visit Wycliffe type places before going up to Grand Forks, ND to join Tany’s family at her cousin’s wedding.

I hope during that time to relax, take a Duck Tour of Boston, see the Red Sox play and drop in at the Park Street Church. As well as learning a whole lot more about Wycliffe, JAARS and Tany’s family.

The odd update may appear but don’t expect to hear too much until I get back.

Bye