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 |
No comments:
Post a Comment