www.thegilmours.co.uk

Its about time we gave you an update on our lives.

Last week Douglas returned from the UK after a two week trip for work and leisure. He returned to take an active role in the National Christian Resources Exhibition at Sandown Park Racecourse in Surrey, in particular, promoting the new CRE website to be launched later in the summer. He also had a chance to meet his new managers from the Bible Society (who have bought the company from Douglas’ energetic but aging director Gos Home). The exhibition was a great success and he really enjoyed being a part of the show, meeting the faces behind the names and email addresses of clients he communicates with from Chile.

Following the exhibition, he spend 5 days in Scotland, with friends and his family. It was great to visit and assist in the redecoration of Chris Reilly’s new flat (Doug’s best man). He also spent two days walking and sailing, in the borders and central Scotland respectively. The latter, sailing on Loch Earn, seems to have rated highly on the “most exciting experiences of his life” list and might have convinced him on the benefits of rain and wind again!

Well, he made it back to Chile with almost 50kg of baggage including a rather erroneous set of “skis” which were actually a set of roof rails for the car, padded with around 15 books, both of which are a pain to source here (a pain in the butt and to the wallet!). The books include a range of stories and Godly guidance books for our youth group, Cross Connexions. Not only can’t you get these in Chile, but they are subject to a book tax of 10% (a rather ancient law enacted during the Pinochet years to discourage the spread of radical ideas and, ermmm, education).

We hosted our mad youth for a sleepover at our house while Doug was still recovering from his flights. We studied the Holy Spirit and the theme of Pentecost by playing silly games, making a kite, eating fajitas, cake and popcorn and anything else unhealthy!

News emerged this week that water and hydro power firms in Chile faced bankruptcy after an extremely long period without rainfall. Yesterday we had the first rain (with the exception of a one hour flashflood in early March) since November. This has restored the quality of air in Santiago to the relief of everyone and has restored the green to many plants and lawns. It also, unsurprisingly, restored traffic jams to unprecedented levels! More news to follow regarding a failed new public transport system (Transantiago) in the coming weeks.

Rachel has been working hard to submit her first paper for publication. It is very exciting to finally reach this stage after several rounds of comments, criticism and amendments. She is now attempting to resucitate a pipeline model developed as part of her PhD in Edinburgh to full health in order to develop her second paper on the subject of where black holes are found in galaxy clusters (more or less, right darling?).

Rachel has just received her shift rota for the next 4 months. Praise the Lord! as it gives us much needed time together (3 weeks, then 5 weeks of regular life in Santiago with 3 weeks of holiday in August with Rachel’s family). This is exciting and encouraging too. It gives Rachel time to work on her research, a part of her job she feels she has neglected during the madness of night shifts on Paranal.

We’re hoping to enjoy a weekend away in Mendoza, Argentina one weekend soon. There is always a risk that you will not be able to cross the Andes on the international pass, due to snowfall. In fact, more often, returning is a problem! So we’ll just have to watch the weather and act spontaneously.

Your prayers would be appreciated for the following concerns:

Thanks and we hope to be in contact with you all soon.

I may as well advertise the National Christian Resource Exhibition, between the 15th and the 18th May at Sandown Park, Esher, Surrey.

For more information, visit CRE’s website, whose maintenance and content is managed by me, here in Chile.

As some of you know, I got a job with Christian Resource Exhibitions in December 2006 and am now managing the implementation of a new website (to replace the one you see), due for launch in April. I’m really enjoying it, despite early starts (7am Chile time is 12noon UK time as of today) and inevitable pressures to post content “yesterday”.

The annual national Exhibition really is a special event, bringing together more than 350 exhibitors who supply to the Christian community or who depend upon the support of that community in the UK. These can be companies, charities, foundations or teaching/bible colleges.

Some of you may not know that Doug got a job, in late November, before returning to the UK for the Christmas and New Year period!

This was a real answer to prayer after many months of unemployment, voluntary work and, ermmm, “husbandry”, as Rachel likes to call it! Thank you if you were praying. Although God has a funny way of working sometimes…

News of the job came from a reliable although rather unexpected source, Joy, Doug’s sister. But within 2 days, he had confirmed employment, 2 days a week, for a trial period of 3 months! Perhaps God also has a sense of humour? Doug is working in cooperation and, sometimes (although i’m not sure he’d admit it), under the direction of Joy, at Christian Resources Exhibitions, an organisation which organises three exhibitions a year around the UK, which bring together suppliers to the Christian market (designers, furniture makers, DVD and media sellers etc) and the Christian community (leaders and individual Christians).

“How can Doug do this from Chile?” you might ask. In the same way as we operate this website, Doug is responsible for the maintenance, operation and upgrade of the CREonline website. This can be done almost entirely remotely, despite the difference in hours.

He is really enjoying the job so far. The design and development of the new website is a real challenge for him and has tapped into some of his project management skills, learned as a consultant almost 2 years ago.

More than that, he is just delighted to have his own wage slip and therefore the sense of responsibility (read into that freedom to spend!) he thrives upon.

There isn’t much news on the job front so this will be quite short.

In Chile, it is entirely normal for HR departments to advertise a job and, after publication, to deny all knowledge of said job. They never, NEVER confirm receipt of your application and rarely still (if that is possible!), contact you to ask more questions, despite being a gringo with more qualifications than they have space for on the wall.

Thus, here is current state of applications. Pray, beg, call on your contacts or just cry.

God has a plan for me, I am sure of it, so I’m not despairing about jobs any more. In fact, I don’t really care that much now, as I’m enjoying working for La Esperanza, a christian charity working with adults with mental and physical disabilities, and I’m getting fairly regular calls to design and build websites (using the same super-flexible platform i’m using here, Wordpress) from various Chilean organisations and churches.

I’m considering enrolling on another postgraduate masters course, either here in Chile (if possible) or in the UK by distance learning. Please pray that I would have wisdom in deciding where and what course to do. I’m meeting with a professor from the Catholic University today to discuss the work of the Economics Department and to enquire about jobs.

Or so our friend Dave from Australia hopes….

Well the World Cup is well and truly started.
My unemployment continues.
My job search…? Errrmmm. Progressing. Just.

Being 6 hours behind Germany, it seems firms, families shops and even city regions in Santiago have spared no expense in re-arranging schedules, meeting rooms, televisions, whole streets and television time to allow football-loving Chileans to watch each and every game.

On friday morning, I spent an hour in an office I intended to visit for only 5 minutes. On friday afternoon, despite the rain, I joined a crowd of 20 men- most in their lunch hour or on their journey home- outside of a shop with a television in the window…. to watch the Ecuador-Poland match! We shared a strange camaraderie, exchanging quips and laughter, explaining to passers-by who was playing and why it was worth stopping for.

So, as we kick-off (sorry) another week of footie, what games should we be watching for and why
Australia-Japan. They may be a small pacific country with a national debt equal to the GDP of Holland and relatively small men to match, but, despite our friend Dave’s attempts to convince us otherwise, Australia has a battle on its hands. Can the men from a land with Aussie Rules really kick a ball under and between posts rather than just between them?

England - Trinidad&Tobago. Well Sweden got a shock on saturday, drawing 0-0 with T&T. But can the small islands do it again? With Rooney the Loony on the subs bench and Sven smiling again but Beckham bending balls rather than netting them and 30C sun rather than English 15C rain, could mean it will be a rough ride! Using the associated beer taste assessment scale (Carlsberg vs. Carib), watch out England!

USA- anyone. Rachel and myself are really hoping that the USA don’t get a beating against Czech Republic today or against Italy next week. We’d like to see a diplomatic solution to the nuclear weapons crisis forged through a football game- yes, that’s right, a USA-Iran quarter-final!

Brazil-Croatia (tomorrow) should be a cracker as two top teams fight it out.