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

The latest from Min Yr Afon

Hello Friends,

Well at last we have something positive to report. The license to re-roof was granted last week and…
THE ROOF IS OFF!!

Dyfed our roofer tells us it will take about four weeks to complete as many of the timbers have to be replaced. So thank you for praying about this. We have enjoyed a month of sunshine, it’s been glorious. I wonder what the next few weeks will hold for us! (Photos below!)

Spring has been sensational here at Min yr Afon with day after day of blue skies and sunshine. Thank you Lord.

We’ve recently hosted many friends who have stayed with us over the holiday period. Seventeen in all, it was lovely seeing folk and fortunately their visits were nicely staggered so we never felt overwhelmed.

Last weekend we enjoyed the company of sixteen men from Christchurch in Tunbridge Wells. The idea was to work on our grounds in the day and enjoy and deepen friendships in the evenings. I can’t begin to tell you how hard they worked and what they accomplished. They even brought their own food and a cook!!
They cleared large areas of brambles and cleared old ditches and dug out new ones. They were such good company and we thank God for all their hard work. We hope we’ll see them again, perhaps for a holiday next time. We are sure there were many aching limbs on Monday morning (link to Photos below).

In a week or so, we welcome about ten folk from our church St. Johns, T.Wells. There are plenty more jobs to do and we look forward to seeing them. It’s a long journey and we really appreciate people making the effort for us.

Both Clive and Menna have hospital appointments on Friday. Clive will see his consultant following his last stay in hospital and Menna for results of a colonoscopy.

Menna received exciting news yesterday following an interview last week at Trinity University, Carmarthen, for a degree course in Outdoor Education. She’s been given a place for September this year. We were surprised to hear so quickly but are absolutely delighted for her. We shall do all we can to support her and Ffion. In time, the qualifications she will gain will be a huge help in offering activities from the bunkhouse.
Ffion has cut two teeth and started crawling this week. Now we’re in trouble!

Lloyd continues to be happy working in the Church in T.Wells. It was great to see him over Easter along with five of his friends from his Thailand trip, who met up for a reunion. We hope he’ll be here again as part of the work party from St. Johns.
Luke returns from India in the middle of May and will stay with us for about a month before going to Sweden for the foreseeable future. He also celebrates his 30th birthday in June. We can’t possibly have a thirty year old child, we’re much too young! (Then we look in the mirror!!)

Gay’s wonderful Mum celebrates her 90th birthday in May. She remains in good health generally speaking, some aches and pains but she’s as jolly as ever and it’s always a pleasure spending time in her company. She and Dad will have been married for seventy years in September. Isn’t this marvellous, God has been ever present in their marriage and they’ve been an extraordinary example of faithfulness to our family and many others.

We are continuing to enjoy our Church in Carmarthen. Matt our lovely pastor preached really well over Easter. We have taken a number of our visitors with us, all of whom have enjoyed it.

So thank you for your friendship, please keep on praying for a positive answer from the Environment Agency. Hopefully we’ll hear this week and if it’s a positive reply, we can go ahead with the planning.

The blog should be more regular from now but we will always let you know. Come and see us some time, we can always find room for you, even if it’s in a tent!

Lots of love and God bless you and those you love.
From all at Min Yr Afon x

Spring at Min Yr Afon

Christ Church Work Party

St. Johns Work Party

Bannau Sir Gaer and Llyn y fan fach

Yesterday we were privileged to explore a part of the Beacons less well know than the Pen Y Fan area.

Llyn y fan fach surrounded by Bannau Sir Gaer (the Carmarthenshire Fans) is just 20 minutes from Min Yr Afon. We were blessed with a glorious afternoon - blue sky, sunshine and a foot of snow on top!

A must-do walk when visiting us!

(You can read more here:
http://www.breconbeacons.org/geopark/enjoying/llyn-y-fan-fach)

Photos here:

Bannau Sir Gaer

And more pictures

Here:

More from Min Yr Afon

Update from Min Yr Afon

Well, we survived all the freezing temperatures relatively unscathed! Hope you did too.

We are all well, Clive has a check up with his surgeon next week and Menna had a colonoscopy last week. We should have the results soon. Ffion is gorgeous even though she’s teething – noisily!

Lloyd is still serving in our church in T.Wells, learning how to live independently as he shares a flat with one of the other church apprentices. We look forward to seeing him in March.

Luke is still in India, we assume! We haven’t heard from him for a while. Luke, if you read this, write to us!!!!!!

There isn’t too much news and that’s why we’d like to ask you to pray for us and the lack of activity. We seem to be taking one step forward and two steps back in regard to the various permissions we are seeking.

BATS
We lost two or three weeks, when someone who had agreed to apply for a license for us to re-roof (due to the bats) said they were unable to do it. We now have some one else, but he is telling us a different story about how to proceed. If matters don’t move along fairly quickly we will lose the opportunity to complete the roof work before the bat breeding season occurs and then it will be September before anything can be done. Please pray it will now go through more smoothly and in a timely fashion.

FLOODS AND PESTILENCE
After being told the flood model would be in our hands last week we are still waiting for it. Then does it need to go to our architect or off to pre planning?? Who knows?
We are really hoping the architect is going to make all things clear in the morning when we call him.

Wasn’t that really boring for you? – For us too, waiting. But we need your prayers hence the information overload. We know that God is in complete control, it’s our

We’ve had a quote for a change in our heating system and this should go ahead fairly soon. We don’t mind the hard work of the logs and coal (although it’s not great for Clive), but we are finding it HUGELY expensive. We have considered all the options, the wood pellets are far too expensive to install and can be unreliable to run, not always but sometimes and for us but particularly the bunk house, we must be sure that what we install ensures hot showers and a warm environment.
We could go on, but after talking to lots of people, praying and looking on the web we feel we must go with, of all things, oil! Sorry to the greens among you, but it’s the way to go for us at present. Maybe solar or hydro power can be installed at a later date to supplement heating and power, but not now. If you have any better ideas, NOW is the time to speak!

Now for something that is close to our hearts and that’s Church. It’s now been five months since we had a Church we could call home. We seem to be travelling further each few Sundays to find somewhere that we will know is the place God wants us to be. Somewhere that will cater particularly for Menna and Ffion. We have never been in this position before and it’s very strange not being in the thick of Church life.

We’ve had precious friends visit us for Australia and hopefully we’ll be welcoming many more into our home in the coming months. It’s why God gave us this lovely home.

The snow drops are peeking through the earth now and we look forward to hosts of golden daffodils in a few weeks! Hopefully it won’t be too long before we get a hen house up that is mink and fox proof, ready to welcome some feathered ladies that have been acquired after their days at a battery farm. We are sure they will enjoy roaming around and will still lay enough eggs for us to use as a family.

We’ve taken up enough of your time. We hope you’ll enjoy the new photos and our news. Please send us your news we love hearing from you. Talk to you soon and please pray for the project.

God bless you and all those you love
With much love,

The Pritchards

Winter at Min Yr Afon

Dear Friends,

A very Happy New Year to you all. We hope you had a wonderful Christmas.

We are currently writing from a very cold Wales!
(link to photos in post below)

Obviously all of Britain has been in the grips of a deep freeze - we hope you are keeping warm!
Our pipes are currently frozen and we have had no water for 4 days. Flushing the toilet involves breaking the ice on our river to fill a bucket! We are brushing our teeth with bottled water and have filled up two 25L jerricans for washing up/cooking. Washing ourselves involves Ffions baby wipes!! So we are now eagerly awaiting the big thaw before we get too stinky!!

We have managed to have some fun in the snow though! (video of Gaynor sledging... with a little help from Dylan - video here)

We had a lovely Christmas with family. Gaynors parents joined us from Merthyr and we were so glad to have Lloyd with us from Tunbridge Wells. The only thing that put a 'dampener' on things was a burst water pipe on Christmas Eve which involved a late night call out to a plumber with an emergency fee of £440. Who charges £250 per hour?!?!?

Last time we wrote we were waiting to hear from the Kent and Sussex hospital regarding Clive's operation. As most of you know, shortly after that Clive was admitted to Carmarthen hospital for a few weeks. After a weekend of pain and vomiting we took him to hospital late one night. A few days later he received an emergency operation to repair what was an obstruction caused by a twisted gut. At the same time his hernia was repaired (saving us a trip to Kent). After 16 days recovery he was finally allowed home and is still in recovery for a few more weeks.

Thank you so much for your prayers during what was a very difficult time for Clive and a tiring one for Gaynor and Menna.

The bat survey is being prepared for submission to the Welsh Assembly for a license to enable us to re-roof (you may remember in our last post that the builder was actually booked in to do this but we then found out that before we even touch the roof for repair we needed this special license from the Assembly!).

Please pray for:
*A favourable response from the Welsh Assembly and similarly from the Environment Agency re: the flood consequence assessment.
*Continued recovery for Clive (up to this point it has been fairly slow)
*And for no more burst pipes during the big thaw

Thank you for your continual support, financially, and in your prayers. It means so much to us.

Please do let us know how you are and anything we can prayer for for you.

Lots of love from us all x

Photos of Winter at Min Yr Afon

You can view photos here:

Winter at Min Yr Afon