www.thegilmours.co.uk

“When the time was right, God sent his Son, and a woman gave birth to him. His Son obeyed the Law, 5so he could set us free from the Law, and we could become God’s children. 6Now that we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts. And his Spirit tells us that God is our Father. 7You are no longer slaves. You are God’s children, and you will be given what he has promised.”

Remembering God’s timing is really important when you are flat or house hunting and waiting for air freight!

Thank you for your prayers. Two answers to prayer stand out: Joy, my sister, who recently got a job in High Wycombe area, needed a house. She was contacted soon after posting the prayer request by a flat of Christians close to Marylebone station. They attend All Souls Church. Although the deal is not settled yet (the housing association must select from candidates the flatmates put forward), it has provided some relief to us and to Joy to know there are flats for Christians in London!

Secondly, here in Santiago, we decided not to take the house after the owner required our decision earlier and earlier. We felt the house was too far from the centre of the action, from church and from the city centre (if i get a job), and would imply responsibility that we are not yet ready for.

Thanks for you prayers, children of God! When it was the right time Christ died for you and for us. When the time was right, our prayers have been answered.

I’d like to sound enthusiastic about this, but i had my 4th day on the road with our assistant in relocation today… and i’m getting tired of searching for accommodation and tired of dealing with property agents who attach adjectives such as “impecable” to flats that are far from it!

Two issues:
Flat or house?
Number of bedrooms/floorspace?
Safety in an earthquake (my worry)/Security from ground-based theives (Rachel’s worry)

I, Douglas, with the relocation consultant, have found a beautiful house, north of Rachel’s work, for rent. The owner seemed very gentle and helpful, but requires a contract to be made by the 15th, before Rachel returns from Paranal. While very beautiful and luxurious (swimming pool and jacuzzi), the house seems very large for two people and would require a lot of furnishing. We look forward to receiving guests, but this would allow for 4 to be permanent!

However, today i have seen a flat that meets our criteria. While less luxurious, this does open opportunities to join the British Country Club to use their facilities and to witness to those ex-pats who attend it.

Please pray for guidance on three things:

For excellent pictures of the James Bond style residencia, visit this site:
Residencia@paranal

Hello from the Atacama desert, where the sun always shines. I’m up at the telescopes at Paranal, learning the trade and generally being bewildered by acronyms. This is my first shift - 8 days on the mountain, on day shifts at the moment. Paranal is a fantastic place - over 100 people in a James Bond style building over 140km from the nearest
(moderate) civilisation. And even further to the nearest decent plant-life.

I arrived here on friday, after a 6 hour journey in a plane and across the desert. It is surreal to travel for hours without seeing anything except sand, rocks and burst tyres. Your mind keeps playing tricks on you, thinking that a rock is a sheep, house, anything really…. . I’m staying in the resedencia, which is about 5km from the telescopes, and caters for over 100 people. It is built into the hilside, almost underground, with a big glass dome and tropical trees. There’s even a swimming pool, to rehumidify the living area, as it gets very very dry here.

The telescopes are amazing. Take a look at this gallery for some pics. It takes a lot of people to run the telescopes and instruments and do all the maintenance, installations and fixing bits. At the moment I’m learning about the day time science operations of UT2, the second telescope. It’s mostly taking calibration images (such as blank images) and checking that everything has worked OK during the night. It’s interesting work, but long days (typically 12 hours) and there’s a lot to learn. In a couple of months I’ll start training on night shifts too.

In the mean time I’ve got another 5 days here, then I’m back to santiago to see my dear husband (who will have washed up by then!) and get on with house hunting.

Well as some of you may know, Michelle Bachelet, the lefty socialist favourite for President didn’t get enough of a majority against the other two main candidates, so now the two favourites have a run-off election in a month’s time.

So there was no party at 6pm this morning and, indeed, no elation. Just the usual monday morning rush hour and smog… in fact, the smog was worse than usual today. I haven’t seen the mountains at all today. But it has been a little cooler today; a relief after 2 days of extreme heat (over 32C). I even had the air con on last night before bed, to cool off.