Christmas 2012

Very dear Friends,

This blog is well overdue to say the least but it comes in time to say...

A Very Happy Christmas

We’ve tried not to send many cards out this year and we hope you will accept this heart felt greeting

Where to start? Perhaps family first this time.

We saw Luke in October which was wonderful as we hadn’t see him since last Christmas. He’s well and looking forward to taking up snow boarding this winter in Stockholm, this shouldn’t be a problem as he said they woke up to two foot of snow last week! We’ll next see him in February when we celebrate his grandfather’s 92nd birthday.

Luke and Lloyd in Stockholm

Menna is too busy. She’s in the third year of her degree course in Outdoor Education, she’s working part time in Cotswolds outdoor shop and raising Ffion. We don’t see quite as much of her now as she is living in Carmarthen with two girls on the same course. She’s off to Ben Nevis in January on a winter skills course with work, lucky girl.

Menna camping up Cadair Idris

We see a lot of Ffion as we help Menna when we are needed. She’s a busy, talkative three year old. In the summer she obsessed about worms and slugs and still loves walking in the woods lifting old logs to look at any creepy crawlies.

Ffion waiting for Santa Claus

Lloyd is in his second year at WEST (Wales Evangelical School of Theology). He’s enjoying the course very much and is the missionary and prayer sec. He has preached in a few small Churches and is off to Korea in January for a month, on a placement to a Church of 90 000 members! A very different experience.

Lloyd preaching

Gay’s parents are both in their nineties now. Her mum is well and continues to be such a source of joy and laughter. However life is increasingly hard for her as she copes with the ravages of Gay’s Dad’s alzheimers. What a cruel disease it is, in an otherwise fairly healthy man. Having said this, he still prays like an angel. We shall enjoy having them with us over the holidays.

Clive and Gay are enjoying life back in Wales. Our little Church is slowly growing and we are blessed by the preaching of our pastor. Clive is an elder and Gay as usual, is involved with the children and youth work. 

Health wise, Clive is doing okay just a few more seizures, so he’s waiting on an MRI scan. Fortunately they continue to occur at night so his driving license should be safe. It would be pretty awful losing it living where we do.

I guess we both feel we’d like a short break having not really had a holiday for about seven years. It may be a while before we do as we’d both like to see the bunkhouse function for a full year and then we may think of a break. Of course there are also the animals to think about. We love having the sheep about the place, the chickens keep us well stocked in eggs and our big hairy brown dog Dylan is super company. 

And what of the bunkhouse? Well, as most of you will know we finally opened in the summer (so called) of this year. God was so faithful to us over the three years of the project and the result is a very simple but beautiful building. We have been blessed with just the right number of visitors over the past six months and received very positive feedback. Our prayer is that it will be well used to the glory of God. Much prayer went into the development and it is our aim that it will be sustained by prayer to see people come into a relationship with the living God.

If you haven’t visited the website, you’ll find it at www.hiraethbunkhouse.com

Christmas in the Bunkhouse

We’d love to see you, or why not come as a house group or with some of your young people if you work with them.

Thank you for standing with us through the years. Some of you for thirty or more years. We are forever in your debt.

                A VERY HAPPY CHRISTMAS AND A BLESSED 2013

                          Clive, Gay, Luke, Menna, Lloyd and Ffion

IT'S FINISHED!

Dear Friends,

IT’S DONE! FINISHED! COMPLETE!

 How we thank our Heavenly Father. Isn’t this wonderful? We really want to thank you for your part in seeing this vision become a reality. We’ve already had the first full group through this weekend as a tester and everything went really well. We finished the final clean just half an hour before the group arrived!

So much has happened since our last blog. Friends came from St.Johns, T.Wells to help with the painting and make the curtains.The builders returned to the work, the wet rooms were completed, they look wonderful and function well. The floors were tiled and a good friend left Tunbridge wells 3am. one Monday morning and started work here at 8.30am. Pete Hillier worked so hard for two days to lay a beautiful floor upstairs. IKEA gave us a discount on the bunks, mattresses etc and were very helpful indeed on the day of purchase. Special old friends arrived to assemble the bunks and carry out more painting.

A small team came from All Saints Church, Crowborough and worked hard for two days, strimming, mowing, painting and laying a path in a difficult area.

Last to be installed was the kitchen. We were given a beautiful piece of granite and a butler sink and the kitchen was built around that really. It’s lovely and coped well cooking for 32 people this weekend. To be perfectly honest, we can’t quite believe we’ve reached the end of the line. We are both feeling very tired but elated.

We have so many people to thank. God has been enormously kind and generous to us through His people. It has been like living in the middle of a miracle on times. While at other times, the process has seemed spiritually exhausting. As with many of our experiences along the way, we so wish we had kept a written diary of events.

We have a good pictorial record and hopefully this will jog our memory. What we do know is that God has been good and that God has been faithful even when our faith has been small. So now the real work begins. All the rest has been preparation for the vision to be fulfilled. Please pray with us that God would send just the right people to us. As Francis and Edith Schaeffer used to pray for their work at L’Abri, ‘Lord send all those you want to be here and keep all others away.’

As for the family, Luke is still in Sweden, though sadly no longer with Emelie. We are looking forward to seeing him this summer. We can’t believe that Menna will be returning to her third year in September. Her second year was less enjoyable than the previous year which was very experience based. She has a job in Cotswold’s which keeps her abreast of all the new gear for the outdoors. Ffion was three on Sunday 1st July and continues to grow into a beautiful, chatty little girl. Lloyd has really enjoyed his first year in Bible College. He hasn’t had his results yet but thinks he’s done okay. It’s good to have him living closer. Well, we must get this blog sent off.

Thank you so much for standing with us over the past couple years.

God bless you and those you love,
Clive, Gay and family

Please check out our website where you will also find photos of the finished bunkhouse.
Just click this link: www.hiraethbunkhouse.com

Spring 2012

FEBRUARY 2012 BLOG……completed end of March!

Though long gone, it was really lovely to hear from so many of you over Christmas. Thank you for your expressions of love and friendship.

Thankfully it has been much milder this year than the two previous winters. Kinder for our water pipes, the sheep and the chickens. Shadrach, the very impressive ram we borrowed, has now returned home and we can get closer to ‘our girls’ again! If he did his job then the lambs will be here soon. Exciting!

We are all well here and rejoicing that at long last, good progress is being made in the bunkhouse. Most of you will know that due to the exceptional generosity of friends, we are now in a position to complete the building work. How we have rejoiced at this kindness and how we have realised that we are slow learners when it comes to knowing that God’s timing is always best.

The relief we feel is enormous. The gratitude to all who have given in order to make the vision a reality, will be on going and especially so, as we see the bunkhouse being used to draw people closer to Jesus.

The whole process has been a testing time but a time in which we hope we have learnt the lessons God intended us to learn. More of this in our next and what may be the final blog before we open the bunkhouse.

So practically speaking, the wet room walls are now formed and all the plumbing in place, all the downstairs walls are insulated and lined and the plasterers have done a super job.
The architraves, fire doors and skirting boards are fixed upstairs and all the electrics are installed including the fire alarm system.

I suppose we have always felt our builders were a bit pre-occupied with their other project for the National Trust but they announced this week that they wouldn’t be continuing with us as they were under too much pressure. It came as a shock as we are so close to completion. However, we will take it as from the Lord and we are now busy sourcing other carpenters and tillers.

We will see what is left in the kitty to furnish the bunkhouse but this seems rather more ‘do-able’ than the large sum we needed to finish the build.

Church life is busy and we have seen reasonable growth over the past months. Lloyd enjoyed a three week placement with our pastor, leading schools assemblies, helping in the youth group, giving the children’s talks in church and leading the Bible study group that meets in Costa Coffee once a month on a Sunday evening.

Menna, as some of you will know has had very real hassles from the press recently. If you want to know what she has to say on the subject you may want to look at her blog site http://aimevenhigher.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/response.html She will be away on and off for much of April on course work so we’ll be looking after Ffion, who now talks without pausing for breath and is busy, busy, busy and quite beautiful.

Luke is still ensconced in Stockholm, he seems very happy there and has lots of friends. We were saddened to hear this week that he and his lovely girlfriend Emelie have broken up after six years. He is naturally upset and it’s at times like this when it would be so good to be closer to each other.

So dear friends, thank you for your interest in and prayers for this great project, we’re almost there, so please continue to stand with us.
If anyone is interested in sponsoring any of the following items we would be so pleased to hear from you.

Bunks – we need 10 @ £99 each

Mattresses - we need 20 @ £100 each

Duvet sets – we need 40 @ £20 each

Commercial Cooker @ £900

Crockery @ £100

Carpets - 4 @ £200 each

This comes with much love,
God bless you all,

Clive, Gay and Family x x x

Photos here:

SPRING 2012

CHRISTMAS BLOG

Hello dear friends,

May we wish you a very, very happy and blessed Christmas time! We are sending out a techie greeting to save on the pennies.

As Christmas approaches - rather more quickly than we are ready to cope with, this is just a short update as we continue to make progress on the bunkhouse.
All the work on the septic tanks, drainage and the driveway is now all but complete, just a few tidying up issues. It looks very different to the time of writing the last blog.

In our last blog we spoke of the down stairs walls being ready to insulate and line, however due to the delay in having the windows, there has been a knock on effect and the downstairs is as it was. But thankfully there has been progress.
The drying room has been completed and we are ready to paint.

The water pressure tank and filtration system is connected and up and running.
The upstairs and downstairs have now seen the first fix of electricity for lighting, plug sockets and fire alarms plus all the outside lighting. The whole of the heating system is now complete and was passed as ready to use just a few days ago.

The newly commissioned windows have just been installed and they look beautiful. The upstairs has been plastered which is very exciting and it all has a more finished feel about it. Just the skirting boards and the fire doors to go.

This is as far as we can think of progressing at the moment, even though there won’t be much more to do. We’ll be completely out of funds once we’ve paid a few bills and although we know we can trust God to complete the project, it’s another period of waiting on Him to supply our needs and learning more lessons in trust and patience. Feeling a little weary now and not a little frustrated!

Our hens have been very generous in their egg laying and at present, we have a rather magnificent looking Jacob ram with us for a couple of months, known affectionately as Shadrach! We are hoping that by early May there will be a few lambs on site. We’ll all enjoy seeing them but Ffion should be over the moon.

Luke still enjoys life in Stockholm; it’s the longest he’s been in one place for quite a while. Lloyd, Menna and Ffion have visited him for a few days before Christmas and they’ve all travelled back to the UK for us to have Christmas together along with my parents. Emelie, Luke’s girlfriend is in her first year of a nursing course under the eye of the Red Cross which means she’ll be qualified to nurse in areas of conflict or natural disasters.

Menna is thoroughly enjoying her course in Outdoor Education at Trinity St. David’s in Carmarthen. She is in her second year and the time seems to be whizzing by. Just last week she was canoeing on the River Wye and sleeping in a hammock slung up in an open barn, how we would have loved this a few years ago. Not now I’m loathed to say! Plans for next year hopefully include sea-kayaking around the Scilly Isles, rock climbing in Greece and France and climbing in Snowdonia in the clothes women would have worn a hundred years ago. She and another two girls from the course are applying to Landrover to re-enact a journey made by some army wives in the 1950’s to the Himalayas. There’s a lot of work to be completed before the application can be submitted but it sounds very exciting.

Ffion is a pretty, chatty little girl. She spends quite a lot of time with us, as Menna studies or is away on expedition. She’s happy with us but is always glad to see Mama return.

Lloyd has now completed his first term at WEST (Wales Evangelical School of Theology) He has settled in very well and is enjoying the course. It’s good to have him closer and we see him regularly. He misses his Tunbridge Wells friends but he’s making new friends and is helping out in a small local church.

Clive and Gay are happy and both involved in our not so local church, being 25 miles away! Clive has become an elder – in more ways than one – and Gay as usual, is helping out with the kid’s work. The church is growing and we are enjoying the ministry of our pastor.

Well that’s about it and once again, our love to you and heartfelt thanks for friendship and support.

God bless you all,
Clive Gay Luke Menna Lloyd and Ffion x x x x x


Photos here as always:

Winter 2011

AUTUMN BLOG 2011

AUTUMN BLOG 2011

Well, this didn’t fall hot on the heels of the last blog as promised. Apologies.
As we write, our drive way has been described as a scene of carnage! You may agree when you see the photos, though these do not convey the depth of the mud. This is all due to the installation of a new septic tanks and drainage system. Hopefully this will be the last of the really messy jobs.

We are moving forward slowly and we have so much to thank and praise God for. Some of you will know the wonderful answers to pray we have been blessed by, we’ll tell you all now, that you may join with us in giving praise and thanks to God who alone is capable of completing this project.

You may remember us saying in our last blog that we needed about £25,000. The builders completed a very good phase of work and needed paying. The Lord impressed upon us a wonderful verse in Ezra 8 v ….Clive did indeed approach the bank – read this in the context of the last blog. While sitting in front of the banker he had a change of heart and told her that as God had always been so faithful in the past, we would trust Him for the future and terminated the interview. In the space of a few days we received gifts of about £20k, a day before the builders gave us their bill of £19k which we were able to pay them on the spot. God’s timing is indeed perfect and it has given us many opportunities to tell of the Lord’s goodness.

Then in the last few weeks we had a quote of £7K for the drying room etc and we saw £8 arrive just when we needed it. How can we adequately thank Him for His kindness to us?

The last joiner who was to have made the windows and doors let us down quite badly so we have placed the order with a local man and they should be ready in about six weeks. In the meantime the builders will be back in to insulate and line the downstairs walls and ceiling. With all the building regulations we are insulated to the nth degree and although the building should be lovely and warm, it does mean we lose lovely stone walls but hopefully we’ll keep the beams as we have done upstairs.
We have been blessed by seeing many friends visit us and we have both had opportunities to visit Tunbridge Wells, though not seeing as many folk as we would have wished due to other commitments there.

We are both keeping well. Clive had an MRI quite recently to keep an eye on what’s happening to the small tumour as he’s experienced a few more blackouts of late. He’s seen the neurologists and all is well.

Luke is still settled and happy in Stockholm. He and Emelie are pleased to have got a new flat in the centre of the city which will be more convenient for them. We look forward to seeing him at Christmas.

Menna is now in her second year of her course in Outdoor Education. She is in the process of working towards her rock climbing award, mountain leadership and kayaking qualifications. She has now moved into a house with a girl from college but we still look after Ffion a few days a week. Ffion is a beautiful, chatty, curly haired little girl with a mind of her own! She loves splashing in puddles and with the rain we’ve had lately there’s been plenty to keep her amused.

Lloyd has commenced his three years at WEST (Wales Evangelical School of Theology) He has settled in well and seems to be enjoying his lectures. It’s good for us too as we see him more often.

Gay’s Mum and Dad are reasonably well, now in their 71st year of married life! Dad’s Alzheimer’s makes its own steady cruel progress. We see them at least once a week and it will be so wonderful for us to be together at Christmas, all four generations. Hopefully this year, with a new water system in place, we won’t be breaking ice on the river or hauling water from kind friends in the village again!

Please keep in touch with us, the best email address is gayp@hotmail.co.uk we would love to get your news. We would really appreciate your on-going prayers for the project, particularly:
*Safety for the workmen and more conversations about the Lord.
*Further funding to complete the project, there is now light at the end of the tunnel.
*Godly decision making for the remaining work.
*Early prayers that God will be glorified in all that takes place in and through Hiraeth Bunkhouse

Thank you for your time, your prayers and your friendship,
God bless you and all those you love,

Clive, Gay and Family

AUTUMN PHOTOS HERE:

Autumn 2011

At long last - Summer 2011 Update

This was written a couple of months ago.
Recent news will come hot on the heels of this blog.

Hello dear friends,
After a dry and beautiful April, we’ve had quite a lot of rain; consequently the fields, mountains and gardens look spectacular in so many shades of green. Though we lost a number of plants due to the severe frosts of the winter, it’s truly amazing that so many plants have burst into life with a ‘Look at me, I’m back looking more beautiful than ever!’

I think the best way to show you the progress being made is by way of our photos this time. However here too, is how we see it in words...

The carpenters have now completed the dormitory walls, complete with sound proofing and two layers of special plaster boarding. One of them remarked, ’There’s more sound proofing between the dorm walls, than I put into some semi detached houses!’ Such is the wisdom of the directives issuing out of Europe.
The first fix of the electricity has also been installed upstairs.
It’s quite exciting walking around the rooms, praying in each one and planning how they will look when completed.

The water tank is now in situ and will shortly be connected to the bunk house.

The ground floor has been excavated the damp proof membrane and the drainage installed, the first layer of insulation laid and the first layer of concrete has been poured. Once that had dried, more insulation went down and the pipes for the under floor heating went down and finally the screed.
The outline walls for the wet rooms, four of them, and the drying room have also been laid.

The joiner is about to commence work on the windows – to European standards of course! They should be installed in the next two weeks.

Now that the work has begun, we are realising in takes on a momentum of its own and if we had all the finance, the work could be completed very quickly indeed. We have all the work men we need. Now all that is necessary is the financial wherewithal.

To be specific, we are needing £25K very soon and another £35K to continue and complete the work!

So, we are spending much time on our knees.

Help us. Keep on reading, praying and seeking God’s mind for us dear friends.
Do we keep on praying and make arrangements at the bank, or do get taken to the wire and wait to see God at work. We are finding it very difficult at the moment.
Clive likens it to the time of his cancer. He asked people to pray and he sought medical help. For us now……………?

If you would pray for guidance for us, we would be very grateful.
We know that for us personally, the journey we make in this venture, is as important as the end result. We want to be the people God intends us to be.
We remember the first trip we made to the Soviet Union back in the Seventies, how the preparation for the trip was as important as the trip itself. What we learned about prayer, fasting and stewardship are life lessons for us as Christians even now. Those days were and remain extremely precious.
We don’t want to miss out on something wonderful that God has in store for us but we also realise that workmen and bills have to paid promptly.

The word we seem to be coming across on a regular basis in our prayer times is, Persevere.

We are all well. Can’t believe Ffion was two years old July 1st. She’s a very chatty little person. We lost a chicken recently, it went missing for nearly two days. It appears that the little girl had picked it up and put it in the spare coop we have and shut the door!! Inside we found eggs and a very hungry and thirsty hen.

So dear friends, walk this road with us. Enjoy the photos, we’ll send more as progress is made.

Write or call (01550 777 144) we would love to hear from you.

With our warmest love and prayers that God will bless you and all those you love.

Clive, Gay, Menna and Ffion in Wales
Luke in Sweden
And Lloyd in Tunbridge Wells
x x x x x x x x

PHOTOS HERE:

Summer 2011

Greetings from a very lush Wales!

Greetings from a very lush Mid Wales!

April, like the rest of the country was very dry and pleasant but lately it’s rained and the country around us has burst into life and beauty.

We hope our blogs may be a little more regular as work commences. We only have finances to go so far at the moment but we continue to bring our needs before the Lord.

Work has started on the first floor of the barn. Dear friends that we worked with in the past while at People International came to visit us from the States, one of them via Pakistan and Afghanistan. They gave us two weeks free labour and made a wonderful start, insulating the eaves and getting all the timber frame work in place for the dormitories. We were so encouraged to see the work actually get off the ground.
Since then the carpenters have picked up where Chuck, Cathy, Ron and Donna left off.

A 2000 gallon water tank was delivered this week, shortly to be partly sunk into the ground and fed by a new spring.
This week should also see the ground floor excavated.

After this then who knows? We are trusting God knows. He knows all things, the end from the beginning and every star BY NAME!!
Psalm 147v.4

We’ve just said goodbye to good friends from our previous church in Tunbridge Wells. Sixteen arrived on Friday evening and worked so hard, erecting fences, clearing brambles and weeds and making the entrance to the property much prettier and more welcoming. The fellowship was sweet, food was good and six folk even slept in the semi constructed rooms in the barn! We must thank our dear friend Alan from our church in Carmarthen for all his help with the catering over the weekend.

We are all well here. It’s hard to believe that Ffion will be two in the not too distant future, Menna has completed her first year at University and Lloyd commences his first year in September.
Luke is still living in Sweden, though we are really looking forward to seeing him and girlfriend Emelie in July.

Thank you for taking the time to read this, we hope you enjoy the photos.

From all the Pritchards with our love.


Photos here:

Spring Summer 2011

More photos from Menna's degree:

Menna - University

Spring 2011 at Min Yr Afon

Greetings to you all from what has been a pleasant spring. It’s good to know we are almost past the threat of anymore really cold weather. We lost our water on several occasions this winter, so to know there is milder weather ahead of us is quite a relief.

To look at the building here, there would seem to have been little taking place and construction wise that is true. However much has gone on in preparation. Inevitably, there has been more waiting. Waiting on building regulations, waiting to know whether we have been granted help from a local investment fund under Carmarthenshire C.C. and most of all, waiting for quotes from builders.

However we feel we are at last on the cusp of moving forward on phase one of the work. At the risk of boring the socks off you, this will include:

Harvesting more spring water and sinking a holding tank and pump. This will ensure there will always be a good flow of water when twenty people arrive off the hill all wanting showers and a hot meal.

Secondly, we have to excavate the ground floor put in a damp proof membrane, hard core concrete, an insulating layer, the under floor heating pipes and a screed top coat. The drainage goes in at this stage as well.

A friend has been more than helpful in advising us and working out costs of the very demanding specifications with regard to insulation. In fact many of the specs. in the building regs. are incomprehensible to the lay man!

We also have friends arriving from the States – via Northern Pakistan! - to help construct the dormitories up stairs, that is, if we have the go ahead from official channels.

Funds will always be a challenge. We can complete phase one but after that……………………only the Lord knows! And He does. He just asks us to trust Him and on His past dealings with us, we have absolutely no reason to doubt His provision. As fund raising in the current economic climate is not easy, it is more reliable to trust the God of the universe don’t you think?
Can I be bold and ask, that if any of you go to a Church that would like to support this project, we would really appreciate hearing from you. A kind friend printed a fund raising leaflet for us and this is available if you would like to receive some. This explains our intentions in setting up the bunkhouse and the charitable trust.

At a family level, we are all well.
Luke continues to live in Sweden, learning the language and looking forward to spring after a long snowy winter. We are hoping to see him in May, which will be great as we haven’t seen him since Christmas.

Lloyd has been offered a place in WEST (Wales Evangelical School of Theology) to study for a degree in Theology. He will really miss his friends and the church in Tunbridge Wells, however we are looking forward to him being closer to us.

Menna is loving her course at Trinity Carmarthen. This term she’s been caving, and working on the hill, she spent five days in Snowdonia rock climbing and four days on the river this last week.
She has also been chosen to assist with a party of school pupils from the British School of Paris, as they have an adventure holiday in the French Alps this summer.
We are grateful that Menna walked away unhurt from quite a serious car accident recently.

Ffion is learning new words all the time and is a busy, chatty little girl, just like her Mum! She gives the chickens a hard time as she loves picking them up and dancing around with them. They don’t seem to suffer from the experience and they lay copious numbers of eggs!
She is still very wakeful through the night.

Gay’s parents keep in reasonable health, both of them now in their nineties. We see them at least once a week and now that the really cold weather is over, we hope they will spend more time here with us.

Clive had another MRI on his brain quite recently. He’s had a tiny tumour for a while now which we have been told is nothing to be concerned about.
The doctor has told him that this tumour is very dense and they are not sure what it is, he sees a neurologist soon so we’ll know more then we expect.

Church is great, enjoying the ministry and the fellowship. After saying that we felt our time for serving in a church context was past, we are both fully involved again. Inevitable I guess!

So that’s about it. If work starts soon, we will up date the blog more regularly and send some pictures of the work in progress, ooh, that sounds good!

Please continue to pray for us. Do please send us your news, we would love to hear from you.

Much love and God bless you.

Autumn (and Winter!) at Min Yr Afon

Hello dear friends,

Very warm season’s greetings from a very cold Wales.
Our love and thanks to all who have supported us for so many years. How can we ever repay you?

It’s very odd looking back at a previous blog, we find ourselves in a very similar situation, freezing temperatures and frozen pipes. We are really hoping they don’t burst again. We thought this year might be different with our new heating system installed but the temperatures here have been extraordinarily low for this time of year, minus sixteen we’ve heard!

The new residents at Min yr Afon seem to be thriving despite the cold weather. The hens are still laying (November to February they are less productive) and our newest residents, four beautiful Jacob sheep. Have a look at the story at the end of Genesis chapter 30. We thought we would get them ahead of the bunkhouse opening, in order to domesticate them as far as possible, so that children and youngsters can pet them. At present, two will eat from our hands, though whether through friendliness or greediness we are not sure!

We have recently become members of Living Word Church Carmarthen. We are very happy there amongst a loving fellowship. Our pastor Matt Bownds has a wonderful teaching ministry. Have a look at the website (link above).

We hope you will be as pleased as we are to hear that at long last, the architect’s plans along with all the other surveys have now been submitted to the planning department. Praise the Lord. We will now have to wait between five and eight weeks to hear from them. Please continue to pray for a successful outcome. We have to confess we thought we would be up and running by now. Our next job is to raise the money needed to complete the vision we have.

FAMILY NEWS
It was our joy to celebrate the 70th wedding anniversary of Gay’s parents in September. We feel enormously privileged to have in them, such an example of faithfulness and commitment. They continue to be very loving and supportive and of course take great delight in their great grand daughter.

Luke was 30 this year! He is living and working in Sweden at the moment. This is where Emelie’s family live. He will be there until next summer at least. After that who knows, he still has the wander lust! We look forward to seeing him over the Christmas period.

Menna has commenced her degree course in Outdoor Education at Trinity St. David’s University in Carmarthen and she is absolutely loving her course. This term has concentrated on river and coastal work Brrrrrrrrrrr! Take a look at a few of her photos.

Menna - University

Lloyd is in his second year of serving at St. John’s Church Tunbridge Wells. He’s very happy there and we hear great things about him. He’s now praying about his future and at present he’s thinking of theological college. Lloyd will be with us for Christmas. How wonderful that we’ll all be together.

Ffion is now 17 months old and she’s as busy as a proverbial beaver. She’s been walking for quite a while and her language is just kicking in. She loves feeding the chickens and throwing sticks into the river. She has just started sleeping through the night. It has been a long time in coming but Menna is really grateful she’s got there at last. She’s very beautiful!

Clive and Gay
We were invited to a very Jesus centred wedding in the autumn in Tunbridge Wells. It was just lovely seeing old friends who we miss enormously. There were so many more we wish we could have seen.
Clive has experienced his first surgery free year in five years, for which we are very thankful. He is in reasonable health but gets pretty tired fairly quickly. He is in the process of gradually putting up some new fencing to move the sheep around the property. They make great lawn mowers when the ground is too soft for the mower, and they get good fresh grass.
Gay LOVES living here, enough said!!

So dear friends, we hope that by the time we next write to you, it will be to say that the work is under way.

Would you pray with us, that there will be no further hold up. We have felt quite disconsolate at times, faithless, impatient people that we are. As we look back, it probably won’t seem as long and tedious a process as it has been to live through.

Please pray about our funding. The architect gave us a ball park figure of £100.000!! We are sure we’ll do it for less but as you can see we will need to raise a considerable amount.

And please pray that ‘Hiraeth Bunkhouse’ will achieve its potential for Jesus sake.

Praise God for all His faithfulness in so many ways

We wish you all a wonderful time over this Christmas period. How blessed we are to know what Christmas is all about. JESUS.

With warmest love and God’s richest blessings,
From all the Pritchards xx

Autumn Winter 2010

Summer at Min Yr Afon

Greetings again from us all at Min Yr Afon.

Early summer was absolutely glorious here in Mid Wales with week after week of sunshine. This proved more than helpful to us, as the roof was off the barn. The work is now completed, taking about seven weeks in total.

We have had an on site meeting with two men from the Environment Agency, the hydrologist and the architect. They had a very good look around the grounds and in the building.
As the computer projection for the one in a thousand year catastrophic flood is, that the building will flood, the fact that we have an escape route via the first floor on to a high bank behind the house means that, providing we put in place certain measures, the Environment Agency has written to say they will have no objection when the plans are submitted.

So, thank you so much for your prayers. As you know this decision has been a long time in coming but here we are, ready to talk about the actual plans. The next step is probably to sound out the planning officer. We don’t want to incur extra costs if there is something we need to do prior to submitting the plans for the bunkhouse, hence a pre-planning meeting. We would so appreciate your on going prayers as we move forward.

Family updates includes the lovely news that Ffion is taking her first wobbly steps! Menna has just passed her driving test, pretty essential as in September she commences her three years at Trinity College Carmarthen studying Outdoor Education.

Lloyd is as busy as ever in his apprentice post at St. John’s Church T.Wells. Next week he is off to help at a Christian camp then back to Holiday Club at Church. Hopefully after this he’ll grab a few days holiday.

Luke is now in Sweden with Emelie and her family. He’s trying to get a job there so he can once again save up to make another trip, this time to Northern Pakistan and North West China. We are hoping to see him in the autumn.

Clive had a check up in hospital this morning, he has been cancer free for five years now! Gay is in good health as usual, just feeling ever so slightly older, eek!
Dylan our gorgeous Labradoodle is as curious as ever about the chickens! We have thirteen hens who are keeping us in eggs.

We have welcomed many friends in the ten months since moving here, staying for varying lengths of time. About 150 we think. This is why God brought us here, though catering for folk will be much easier when the bunkhouse is up and running.

We are very happy in our Church in Carmarthen. The fellowship is warm and welcoming and the preaching is wonderful.

Most of you will be reading this via your email, for those of you who have received this via snail mail but could receive it via email, please let us know by sending us your email address to gayp@hotmail.co.uk Many thanks.

We will keep you up to date with any progress we make and would really love to have your news. Please write to us. Thank you so much for your support.

With love and prayers,

Clive, Gay, Menna & Ffion
(Dylan the dog and the chickens !!!!!!!)

Summer at Min Yr Afon