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CHRISTMAS 2008 LETTER It is again the time of year when we are writing the Christmas Letter. Only this year we are starting earlier than usual as we are spending 6 weeks in the USA. We are flying to Pennsylvania from Manchester on the 10th December for 3 weeks staying with Danny, Jo, Owen, Seren, and Dakota the dog and on 30th we spend the next 3 weeks in Texas with Tim, Adriana and Mariana, arriving back in the UK on 22nd January!! DECEMBER 2007 Last Christmas we stayed with Nik, Rozanna and Lexi in Ixworth, near Bury St.Edmunds. Christmas day was spent with Rozanna’s family and Boxing Day we looked after Lexi so Nik could take Rozanna away for a couple of nights as she was 21 on the 25th! We came back home in time to host a New Year houseparty at St Winifred’s Christian Endeavour holiday centre. Mark ‘googled’ “New Year” in to his laptop and got plenty of ideas of things to do to celebrate the end of the year. We did a ‘bubblewrap’ stomp to music, bashed a Mexican piñata, which we had filled with wrapped sweets and streamers, and filled balloons with confetti which folk had to burst! The elderly guests seemed to enjoy participating. Mark had written to the guests beforehand asking them to bring an alarm clock with them. He set them all to go off at midnight on New Year’s eve, except one went off 15minutes early. We finished off with communion and stood out on the doorstep singing “How good is the God we adore.” JANUARY 2008 Our landlord, Dudley, was spending Christmas with his son, Robert and Margaret and grandchildren. Robert brought him back before New Year and the next morning Dudley ended up in Llandudno hospital with pneumonia. Although Dudley has a granddaughter who is a doctor and another a nurse, neither of them realized how ill he had been over Christmas. When we arrived back from St Winifred’s we expected him to be at home and it was several hours before Robert phoned to say where he was. We had already told Robert that we would only look after his father until the end of March when we would be moving away. We felt he was Robert’s responsibility, not ours. We had no idea where we were going to move to after Easter as our caravan was too damp for us to live in. Dudley could not bear to stay on his own, even in the day time, so kept asking us if we were going out if he could come too. We went looking at log cabins but most of them were out of our price bracket. There are not many residential parks in North Wales. mostly holiday parks, which you cannot live in for twelve months of the year. MARCH Dudley celebrated his 90th birthday on 5th March and, as his family wouldn’t or couldn’t come on the actual day, some friends arranged a lovely birthday meal at St John’s Methodist, Conwy and invited his friends, including us, to join them. He was bowled over by the love they showed him and he was very emotional. Dudley had a second bout of pneumonia and ended up back in hospital, but his family still did not appear really concerned. They did not want him to live with them, or even near them in Sheffield, and he was, naturally, very upset by this. All our friends at the Conwy prayer fellowship knew we were moving at the end of March and kept asking if we knew where we were going. Our reply was “No, but the Lord does.” Early in March at the prayer group, Ifor and Rhian were there and again the question was asked if we knew what was happening at the end of the month. At the end of the meeting Ifor told Mark there was an empty chapel house at the back of one of his Welsh chapels. Would we be interested? When Mark asked where it was, Ifor said. “Colwyn Bay.” Colwyn Bay is probably second to bottom on our list of where we would not like to live. Rhyl is at the bottom, Colwyn Bay next – they are the 2 “drug capitals” of North Wales! Ifor arranged to meet us with the key. It is a cottage with 3 bedrooms. There are 2 cottages, we were offered the first semi. A young family live in the second one. We were sure this cottage is the place God wants us but are not sure why. The previous caretaker had moved out 18 months earlier, and the cottage was stripped of curtains, carpets, gas fire and all kitchen appliances. We hadn’t much left in the way of furniture, but people just offered the right things that we needed. Freecycle on the internet was a help too. We had a Lockstock container we wanted to clear as we were paying a monthly rent, which had risen twice since we first got it. We moved out of Glasfryn into the cottage on the 29th March, the very day we said we were moving. GOD IS GOOD! And not only that, but Christine and the girls came and helped us move which was a fantastic blessing. I am not sure if Becky is happy with Colwyn Bay – no sheep, no green fields to run in. In the summer Becky and I would get up at 5 am and walk the streets before the rest of the folk got up. As the days are shorter it is now 7.30 each day! Earlier in the month we had the privilege of attending the National Prayer Breakfast for Wales which this year was held in Llandudno. Mark had helped put together names of people who had been invited to what turned out to be a very special event. We again had a table at the Conwy Seed Fair on 26th March, giving away seeds (as a token of God’s free love), Christian literature and information about what Christian activities were going on in the area. Our friend, Andrew Grahame (AG), came and sold marmalade in aid of A Rocha, the Christian nature conservation organization. APRIL Before the Maranatha meeting we went to at the start of April, I (Ann) said to Mark that we could really do with a bookcase. An hour later, one of the members asked the group if they knew anyone who needed a bookcase! I said, “Yes, please!” The Biswas family had kindly loaned us their transit van to move everything from the Lockstock container and pick up other items, which was a really great help. Dudley returned home from hospital with a 6 week care assessment package in place, which lasted only 2 weeks. He went into a residential home in Llandudno for “respite” but remained there and in fact has settled down well, and enjoys being looked after and being with other people. He has now put ‘Glasfryn’ up for sale, though it needs a fair bit of money spent on it to bring it up to modern standards. MAY Beginning on Monday, 19th May, for 5 days, we hosted the Gardening Week at St Winifred’s. Although only a few people had booked in they seemed to enjoy it. We had some competitions on the gardening theme. We visited gardens in the area from the National Garden Scheme, which are usually open once a year and you pay a fee towards a charity to visit. Mark found out that if you phone the owners asking to visit they are usually quite happy to take you round. We booked 3 speakers to come in the evenings to give a talk – Julian Thompson from Pensychnant, who told us about the conservation centre where he lives and works. We went and visited the centre a day or so later. Clive Addison, who is a judge for the Wales in Bloom, which has now spread out into Europe and Nick Richter on Beekeeping. He came dressed as a Beekeeper. All three speakers were very interesting. We have been asked to come back next year, when we hope to build on the minor success of this year! JUNE We started the month with a ‘new’ vehicle! We had been looking for one to use for future trips to Albania, one that did not look commercial, and the Lord supplied a superb 23 year old Range Rover Classic through local friends, the owner graciously allowing us to pay for it as the money became available. The really good news is that it had a diesel engine put in it which does 35mpg! Then the Lord supplied an excellent, full-length, heavy-duty roofrack via Ebay. Our plan is to use a trailer when we have more than we can get in and on the vehicle. Our Peugeot has at last gone, also via Ebay. On Friday, 20th June, we went down to The Pleasaunce, Overstrand, near Cromer to host their Senior Citizens’ week. Quite different to the Gardening Week. We arranged coach trips and went on one of them. Nik and Lexi came over from Bury St Edmunds on the Sunday and we met in Norwich. Nik found a country park which was really good. Again we have been invited back next year to host at The Pleasaunce! Straight from there we drove to mid-Wales for the Crusoe Albania orientation weekend, which had been wonderfully well-organised by my co-leader Steph Benbow, for which I was very grateful. We arrived home on the Sunday evening and on Monday 30th Mark drove to Albania with Frank Powell from Sutton Coldfield, who had co-driven in the early 1990s, on a ‘quick’ 12 day trip. JULY Mark got home on the Saturday, 12th July, and the following day we went to London to meet Danny, Jo and Owen from the train to take them to Nik and Rozanna’s for a couple of days. They had come to Jo’s sister’s wedding in London, they were in the UK for less than a week. It was still lovely to see them and for the 2 cousins to get to know each other. Then we took them back to Heathrow to fly back to Pennsylvania. Very short but sweet! On the 17th Emelia Mai Russell was born to Rozanna and Nik, 11.02am, weighing 8lbs 9ozs, a sister for Alexia Louise. Our fourth grandchild. On the 20th Mark flew with the Crusoe team to Albania, spending 2 weeks in Libonik working with the Evangelical church. A life changing and challenging experience for all the team, but especially the young people, who were aged only between 14 and 16. Crusoe also involved a training weekend in February and a de-brief at the end of August, both at Urban Saints’ support centre in Luton. AUGUST Mark arrived back from Albania on 6th August going straight to Uncle Bob and Auntie Agnes near Wrexham for tea, meeting Tim, Adriana and Mariana there. On the 12th, Tim, Adriana and Mariana flew back to Texas from Manchester after their 2 weeks in the UK. Auntie Grace passed away on the 12th but we were glad to have visited her when we stayed at The Pleasaunce in June. On 27th we drove down to Auntie Grace’s funeral at Worboys’ parish church and took Uncle Bob, Auntie Agnes and Christine. We met several members of the family we haven’t seen for some years, which was lovely. SEPTEMBER Another Alpha course (and ‘Beta’, using the brand new ‘Discipleship Explored course) at Beechwood Court started in September. Mark and I are part of the Prayer Group of 4. We have had many answers to prayers since we began on the 17th, which has been really encouraging. On the 13th September we did the Conwy Honey Fair, giving away 400 honey portions, just to bless people and as a token of God’s free love for them. AG came and again sold out of his delicious marmalade, sold in support of A Rocha. OCTOBER A special event, well-attended, on the 14th was the first visit to Llandudno of John Mackay, director of Creation Research, from Australia, who spoke on “The Rocks Cry Out.” It was an excellent evening, both enlightening and challenging. Nik, Rozanna, Lexi and Mili came up for the weekend so that they could go to Auntie Agnes’ 80th birthday celebrations on Saturday 25th October. It was lovely having them. A delightful Christian friend, Maeve George, passed away very suddenly on the Saturday, she was a member of the Maranatha group we are involved with. We had only been with her the week before at Crosslinks on Anglesey. We went to her funeral on 3rd November. NOVEMBER Our 5th grandchild arrived on the 7th (same birthday as Billy Graham but 90 years apart!), Seren Renée Russell, daughter of Jo and Danny Russell, weighing 8lbs 4ozs at 3.18am (Pennsylvania time), sister for Owen. Seren is Welsh for star! She was 2 weeks late. On 8th we went to Delamere Forest in the evening to watch husky sled racing with Alan Tudor and his family. We had dinner with a street minister, Kelly Lee Anderson, who works amongst the ‘down and outs’ of Warrington, and who we had met the previous Tuesday at Beechwood Court for the first time. We stayed the night at AG’s, went to his fellowship the following morning and met Audrey Stringer and Daphne (Hall), neither of whom we had seen for quite a few years. In the evening we went to a FGBMFI’s outreach in Warrington, meeting Dave Riley, a former colleague of Mark’s, there. Mark should have gone to Albania on the 20th but it was postponed after a rollercoaster of a couple of weeks – was it on? was it off? Was it the devil causing problems? Or was the Lord saying, Now is not the time. Delayed by having to have a faulty fuel tank replaced the day he was due to leave, after praying about it and also receiving a call from the Evangelical Sisters of Mary in Darmstadt, sharing their concern regarding severe weather warnings along their route, Mark made the decision not to go, and only then had peace. Mark’s co-driver, who had only offered to go the day before, is keen to drive, along with his wife, on the re-organised trip, sometime in early Spring. Regular events that we have endeavoured to get to include the weekly Conwy Prayer Fellowship on a Tuesday afternoon and Urban Saints (for Mark) on a Thursday evening. Fortnightly Mark has had an Urban Saints leaders’ meeting and we have started going to a Bible Study on alternate Thursday mornings, which is proving a real blessing. Mark’s involvement with Urban Saints also involves group and area leaders’ meetings, an excellent leaders’ training day and area events bringing the young people from the different groups together. Monthly we have gone to a local prayer breakfast for the persecuted church, Crosslinks on Anglesey, the Albania prayer meeting on Wirral, and more recently we have started going to the Penmaenrhos family service and Mark has attended several of the new A-men men’s breakfasts in Llandudno. Bi-monthly we go to the local Maranatha Community gathering, usually held in Craig y Don, and on the intervening month we meet up for coffee at Kingdom Krafts in Llandudno. Mark is also involved with the Llandrillo College CU project, supporting their worker and the annual mission in May and Carol Service outreach in December (which sadly this year we will be missing). A new project worker was appointed for September and we are excited at the potential in this large FE college. Mark has been called on to help out at St Winifreds and Beechwood Court CE holiday centres on occasions to ‘entertain’ the guests of an evening and provide an epilogue at the end. Mark has continued to have opportunities to speak at the Coedporth Fellowship, near Wrexham, Old Colwyn English Baptist Church, Oaklea Chapel, Irby and The Evangelical Fellowship in Llanfairfechan. New opportunities are opening up and Mark has shared at Bethel Church, Deganwy. We continue to be amazed at requests for the Free Prayer boxes (we brought a hundred back with us from the States last year), although we have not advertised them, as we are still awaiting for the Lord’s provision to have them made here in the UK. We know that in His perfect time He will make this possible. We have continued to produce the bi-monthly North Wales Calendar of Christian Events and keep the Wat’sOn website up to date. We are thrilled at the blessing these are to the body of Christ across North Wales and count it a privilege to be able to serve in this way. Ann has finished as librarian of the Conwy Christian Library, a volunteer role that she has undertaken for the last 5 years, stocking many of the shelves with Christian books that she has bought from charity shops, and sorting the misplaced books most Tuesday mornings. The library has been based at Beechwood Court and we do not know what plans they have for it in the future. Somewhere in all of this we visit Ann’s mum, Evelyn, at High Pastures nursing home. Evelyn was 93 in September and is incredibly frail, but on occasions we have wonderful conversations with her, though at other times we get little response if any from her. She spends most of the time in her room, which is now a nice, light room with windows on two sides, and although she can’t enjoy the lovely views across the estuary to Conwy and the mountains behind, she is pleased that her visitors can. Auntie Agnes, Christine and Christine’s two granddaughters visit regularly from Coedporth and usually sing choruses to her, which she clearly enjoys. Apart from that and other family visits, Evelyn receives very little stimulation, and is more than ready to go “home.” We cannot believe a year has passed since the last Christmas letter was written! So it leaves us just to say 2 things. Firstly (hoping you have got this far!), before you do anything else, please up-date your records with our new address, at the top of this letter. Secondly, our prayer is that each of you receiving this will have the most awesome Christmas ever – and that can only be if the Lord Jesus Christ is at the very centre of it. With all our love, Mark & Ann |
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