Christmas 2022 News

It’s the start of December, and 2022 is not yet over. But it’s time to write another newsletter filled with all the exciting things we have done this year. Unfortunately, we don’t have too many of those, so we must go with what we have.

What a relief not to be walking around with those smelly self-infecting elasticated face pads mandated over the last couple of years! What a relief that, slowly, we are getting a handle on what has been going on around the world. How many people in authority have been found to have made uninformed decisions perhaps because they were afraid of appearing to do nothing. A conversation with a friend who lives near Cardigan on the Welsh coast, revealed that, last year, for a time, he could not go for a walk with his wife along the sea front because the council had closed the carpark ‘to stop the spread of Covid’.

Enough of that topic; we hope we are starting to see the back of it.

Our year has fallen into quite a regular pattern with meeting with friends from our church one of the mainstays. Several times a week friends drop in for a cuppa and a chat, and about every couple of weeks an elderly neighbour from across the road joins us on our weekly Aldi top-up trip. We don’t need to tell anyone about rising prices, but perhaps the vicissitudes of life we have experienced in the past help us to be economical now. We see grocery prices rising weekly but not the 100% we have noticed in other stores we browse.

In the last newsletter we said how five dear friends had died. The figure for this year has been seven, but what a joy to know that though they have passed on, it is to Glory rather than to Judgement. The increasing chaos in the world flows plainly from the abandonment of God and the embracing of humanism and evolution, both such irrational ideologies when a loving God has demonstrated that He has removed us from judgement if we chose to commit ourselves completely to His loving care. The ‘good news’ is freely available yet continuously rejected by the world.

Janet, Ben, Tim and Mike

Zoom runs on with a valuable Cross family linkup every Sunday fortnight. We have met up with Ben and Louise, who live in Swindon, at irregular intervals during the year, and Tim has dropped by one evening a week to refuel. Tim enjoys his own home near M4 Jn 11 where he continues to overwork for National Grid and Ben still overworks for Dell.

The travel industry having become marbleised over the last two years, overseas holiday spots have lost their attraction and we have failed to arrange a full holiday anywhere in the UK. However, we visited Paul (Mike’s frère) and Carol in Aylsham, Norfolk during June and October, and Terry and Fran, Alec and Angela around Hastings in September. Until the National Trust manages to burn down or rewild their properties, and drape them all with rainbow ribbons, we have thoroughly enjoyed what previous generations have ground the faces of the poor to build in the way of glorious estates.

When, in 2016, we converted much of the ground floor of our semi into more gracious living accommodation (who does he think he is?), we lost the use of the integral garage for storing spare bedding and the (unused) exercise bike. Accordingly, we converted the front bedroom upstairs into a replacement garage store room which has been highly successful.

We still have a spare double bedroom at the back of the house and have enjoyed a number of visitors over the year. About three nights is our maximum before we begin to flag. My brother summarised it with the words “Its so nice when you come; its so nice when you go”. In our earlier years we often had visitors to stay, but something has changed… our energy levels we think.

The summer was hot for a few days (though no more extreme than we remember in the past) and we enjoyed our garden, attempting to look like gardeners for a few days, but having to retreat into the house and the relief of a portable air conditioner when temperatures really rose. It seems to be either too cold, or too wet, or too hot to do too much in the garden. Or are we picky? We pride ourselves on keeping British garden centres around Reading in business by checking on coffee quality at regular intervals, and buying dying plants at rock-bottom prices so that we can continue with a good conscience whether we rejuvenate them or kill them (the odds being 50% for either).

Throughout the year we have continued to cut starchy foods and most sugar out of our diet for health reasons, Janet doing sterling servicing driving the chuckwagon into unknown territory, and our weight has been maintained at a respectable level, though still higher than we would like. According to a learned article on a medical website, all diets plateau in the end, so we suppose that, unless something revolutionary happens to our diet, that is as far as we can go. But we will persist.

Friday mornings, Janet persists with a ‘Community Bible Study’ at Wycliffe Baptist Church, and enjoys the content, and contact with a wide cross-section of ladies. This is an opportunity for Mike to escape and go for a walk or coffee with a male friend of which there are a number to choose from. However, he can be a stick-in-the mud, like most older males and needs encouragement. Getting older is a funny business, isn’t it? The way forward is to bring everything to God. Which should be a joy.

We send you much love, and if you should feel to update us with your own news, we should be most grateful. “As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country.” (Proverbs 25:25)

Christmas 2021 News

At the end of March, Tim moved in with us for 5 weeks having given up the rental house he shared with friends. We enjoyed having him to stay. He moved out into his own 3-bedroom house in Whitley on May 1^st, a splendid first house, quiet and with ample parking. He’s enjoying furnishing it the way he likes and now works for National Grid, mostly from home.

Ben continues to live in Swindon with Louise, and works for Dell from home. We see Tim regularly when he pops in for meals, but keep up with Ben through telephone calls and bi-monthly visits. They hope, next year, to buy their own property.

At the end of May (covid restrictions having lifted), and again in August, we visited Aylsham, Norfolk for a few days to see my frère and his dear wife, also visiting Sue, Janet’s aunt in Cambridge, on both return journeys.

During June, we enjoyed happy visits from Janet’s brother Richard with Jeanette (who live on the Isle of Wight), her sister Helen with Phil (who live in Shipston-upon-Stour), and brother Nick (who lives in Andover).

At the close of June, our friendly young neighbours, who we have known for many years, moved and were replaced by a lovely young couple with 2 children. We look forward to getting to know them.

On the attached side, our 70-something-year-old neighbours soldier on, the nicest people you could have through the party wall!

Meanwhile, our garden, though we have hacked it about a number of times in the pursuit of Eden, is giving us pleasure in all seasons, including Winter when we look through our windows and rejoice that we are not outside. We have planted assorted shrubs in the shade of the trees which tower across the bottom of the garden, and they all love it there and are establishing themselves very happily.

At the end of August we spent a few days in Bexhill visiting friends of long standing and sampling the sea air and a local Italian restaurant!

In September we took leave of our senses and drove down to Cornwall for a week in a farm cottage near Wadebridge on the North coast. Mike can drive long distances, but takes days to recover since a TIA in February 2016. But we enjoyed calling on friends who live in those foreign parts, with a return visit to a sun-soaked Treyarnon Bay, which Janet sometimes revisits via a beach webcam.

The year was punctuated by the death of five dear friends, both here and abroad, whose Thanksgivings we attended by Z-o-o-o-o-m. How useful this has proved to be, though we all continue to enjoy a love-hate relationship with technology in general and Zoom in particular.

In October an over-75’s check-up and blood test for Mike uncovered the beginnings of type-2 diabetes. He treats this seriously, but in its early stages it can be ameliorated by embracing a low-carb diet. So, for some weeks we have cut out all potatoes, rice, pasta, most bread and all pastry and sugar, and stepped up vegetables. And we are both heading towards losing a stone in weight. More must follow, as we seek to break through the plateau that everyone who tries to lose weight encounters.

Our church connection with Earley Christian Fellowship continues to be a blessing, encouraging growth in grace as well as real friendship.

During the year, Janet has enjoyed meeting weekly for a Bible Study with ladies from different churches and has enjoyed the stimulation and homework!

She has also kept in touch with many friends through WhatsApp, especially during lockdown. We are both triple-vaccinated, following our personal conviction that this was what we should do. However, our trust is in God. Psalm 91 – all of it!

Christmas 2020 News

What an unusual year we have all had!

In February we visited Janet’s father Frank on the Isle of Wight, he having been admitted to hospital and then to hospice. He died within a few days, at age 93, and at peace, and in March, in Taunton, we attended his funeral and celebration of his life. It was just before the world began to close down so his family were all able to be present, including Chris, his eldest son from Canada. Janet’s mother had died in 2007 and Mike’s parents died in the 1990’s.

In April we joined the fashion parade with masks of differing shapes, sizes and utility, and dinky, white cotton gloves that others spurned. On the church front, technology flourished and we continued fellowship through little rectangular windows up to 49 in number because Mike took the opportunity to upgrade his PC. Zoom rapidly got its house in order, pulling its datacentres out of China, and we all became exhausted learning to mute, to speak one-at-a-time-please, and to sing to ourselves.

As the weather warmed we rediscovered the joy of gardening. Mike managed to slowly rid himself of the perfectionism that besets computer programmers, and enjoyed doing gardening badly. The plants did not seem to mind, and alstroemeria and other floral delights thrust themselves upwards until frosty days interrupted. Our new Joseph Rock mountain ash produced its yellow berries and we experienced the delight of watching God’s programming through the seasons.

Janet pressed her smart phone into use and, to our delight, was able to maintain contact with friends far and wide, who wonderfully, appeared pleased to reply and to tell us how they were doing.

We attempted to exercise our limbs in a more regular fashion, going for daily walks around the block. And how pleased we are to live in a suburbia supplied with shops, parks and garden centres. We continuously marvel at the way that God has cared for us: in placing us where we are, providing the things we need even before we think of them, and providing friends and connections.

On a number of occasions during the summer, Janet provided cream teas for ones and twos who came to see us. These were always happy times, and we enjoyed people who previously would have stayed for a couple of hours, staying effortlessly three or four.

In August we visited Paul (Mike’s brother) and Carol in Aylsham where they live having escaped N-W London suburbs some years ago. In previous years we have visited more frequently, but this year we have felt ‘clamped down on’ though, in some ways, few liberties have been curtailed. It’s all the little liberties that have been chopped; Garden Centres have been a lifesaver.

In September, we holidayed for a week in Tintagel on the north Cornwall coast, where Tim also joined us for a few days. The weather was wonderful and we paddled in the sea several times. Occupying a modern three storey house for a week, involved extra exercise retrieving articles from the top floor when we were on the ground floor and vice-versa. Alexa introduced her charms to us because the house was ‘smart’, so on our return home we began to experiment with ‘smart’ lights and speakers: two steps forward and three steps back.

Ben in Swindon, with Louise, has been working hard from home for Dell, and Tim in Reading for National Grid. We are blessed with having young men who both enjoy their work and put a lot into it. They are also very affectionate and supportive to us and we are very grateful.

Like most people, we have found this year of restriction trying, especially coupled with political changes in China, the USA, Europe and the UK, and the progress apparently being made towards a new world order.

Here we are recently, with feet excised:

For your encouragement, Psalm 91 (KJV) says: He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.

It continues: Because thou hast made the LORD, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation; There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.

We hope that you are well, and wish you all a happy time at Christmas and God’s continuing blessings into the New Year.

Christmas 2019 News

It’s that time of year again where one writes to all one’s friends to tell them that, like everyone else, we have done nothing vaguely interesting in the last year, BUT WE ARE STILL HERE! Janet is now 68 and I am 74. (You can tell it is Mike writing by his laboured attempts at humour). And we are both generally in good health… apart from the odd bump in the road we all encounter at times. 

We have more or less decided not to venture out of the UK for breaks, the reason being that air travel has become so tedious. We are not concerned about our green footprint and are content to let the world rage on about all that, less you are concerned that we may have become eco-conscious. There is no chance that will happen though we recycle assiduously according to the current dogma though recycling died for me when I discovered that all our glass bottles, carefully washed, had been integrated into junction 12 of the M4. 

So we drove our worthy (non-hybrid and getting old) Toyota up to Norfolk in August and November to attend upon my bruvver Paul and his wife Carol, who are always kind to us. (Despite being an older bruvver and therefore more brainy, Paul does his best not to treat me as the pest who used to bother him when he was 11). We also visited Jean, a cousin of Janet, and her husband Stephen in their retirement in Lincolnshire. Retired but very active. 

In March, June and November we penetrated to the deep south, known as the Isle of Wight, to see Janet’s Dad, now 93, who demeures chez Richard and Jeanette, Richard being one of Janet’s younger twin bruvvers (wot she used to look after when she wuz a little girl). Secrets are being revealed here… read on! 

I achieved a lifelong ambition to visit “disgusted of Tunbridge Wells” which turned out to be a nondescript town, with a drug problem, somewhere in the south east, on the way to Hastings. So our excitement at all this travelling around has known no bounds. (Janet dissociates herself completely from this newsletter). 

In April, to vary our routine I went into the Royal Berks Horspital as a day case for a routine prostate operation and reappeared a couple of days later hardly able to hobble because of overexposure to their air conditioning system. We don’t visit the hospital much ‘cos we can’t afford the parking. 

To inject more excitement we embarked on a lo-carb eating regime a couple of months ago and are losing about one pound a week, except for the weeks I put on a pound. The jury is out on how this will go, but I’m enjoying cream on everything: coffee, jelly, curry, the lot! And our respective clothes fit better. (I put in ‘respective’ for clarity). 

Having retired for the most part from pressing the buttons (we slide our fingers across our iPads more these days), in good weather we are spending more time in the garden and have planted more trees. I refuse to watch Gardeners’ World (a BBC TV gardening programme) or similar because of their impossible standards, but am beginning to value the fact that precisely where you plant a shrub almost does not matter, whereas a missing semi-colon in a computer program could cause the failure of a mission to the moon. 

The sprogs, Tim and Ben continue to work very hard in their respective jobs which, amazingly, focus on computers. They both run sporty, red cars, despite my advice to 'never buy a red car'. They are both very independent, which you would want, and very kind and gentle with their ageing parents.

We enjoy our involvement with Earley Christian Fellowship which continues to grow gradually with people coming from we know not where, and lots of young people. There’s been a couple of weddings this year with more coming. People wonder why we would want to live in Reading. Well, we have the gasworks, chip shops, curry houses. Even IKEA. What else could you want? Traffic is increasing to the degree that we routinely use a satnav to check local routes and avoid the town centre after 4pm most days. But we have dear friends in the church, and we hear that many older people in the world, especially men, have few friends. 

But, apart from day to day living, there are opportunities to be a help to local people, and once you move, it’s not so easy to make new friends. We hope you enjoy the Christmas/New Year holiday, and continue to enjoy God’s richest blessings in 2020.

Christmas 2018 News

December comes around again and challenges us to write a newsletter, not to tell you what wonderful people we are, but to keep in touch. In this astonishingly well-connected age, most people do relatively little keeping-in-touch, hence the reason for this. This is the first letter we have written for a number of years; perhaps it was too much effort before, or we aimed too high.

You probably know that in January 2016 builders began to integrate our ground floor and integral garage into one living space. The garage turned into a little study at the front, plus a utility room and shower room/toilet, and the kitchen and back lounge was renewed throughout. Now we can live wholly on the ground floor should eventual decrepitude render upstairs unattainable, and we are very happy with the results. The garden received a full width level patio and the planting of perennials to reduce work.

Of course, two days before the work started, Mike suffered a TIA from which he has gradually recovered apart from low level memory loss. Being human, we both feel the effects of getting a little older, but remain generally quite well.

It will be apparent to you that our intention is to remain in Reading where our friends are. Road traffic increases and we routinely use a sat-nav even for the weekly visit to ALDI to bypass jams.

In January we attended the Thanksgiving for Janet’s Aunt Lucy in Stourbridge. She was 96 and a much-loved Auntie. Janet had always felt close to her because they had followed a similar career in nursing.

In April we attended the Thanksgiving in Reading for Pam Jarvis who had been a particular friend to Janet in Reading.

In June, long haul flights having become too tiring especially for Janet, we enjoyed a couple of week’s holiday near St Mawes in Cornwall on a farm with entertainment provided by moo-cows scratching their heads on an adjacent stone wall, a boat trip across the water to Falmouth and excursions to National Trust gardens, a death experience for Mike because he will never be able to emulate them.

In July we travelled up to Liverpool to attend the Thanksgiving for Alan Turnbull who, with Marion his wife, had been very supportive to us in the mission work in which we were jointly involved in Malawi, Central Africa between 1993 and 1995.

It is quite impossible to express our gratefulness for their kindness for so many things, even lending us their house and car at different times, and their love especially when Malawi felt more like a war zone than the warm heart of Africa.

In August, Janet’s father moved to the Isle of Wight and we visited him after some weeks. Richard, one of Janet’s three brothers and his wife Jeanette are caring for him in their beautiful home in Wootton Bridge, and he is settling in well to his new surroundings and enjoys being part of a family again.

In September, our dear Japanese friend Kik died after a long illness. She had lived with us all together for about seven years, had become a part of the family, been a bright and shining light, and we loved her dearly.

At intervals we travelled north-east to Norfolk to visit Mike’s brother Paul and wife Carol in Aylsham; they always look after us very well.

Both of us are wired into the 21st century with PCs, tablets and smartphones; Janet to keep in touch via WhatsApp, etc, and Mike to read the newspaper. Mike is known to occasionally use computers for useful things when they are not requiring updates or repairs.

We greatly value our church, Earley Christian Fellowship, are concerned about the immense moral, cultural and political changes occurring in the UK, and fully aware that the only way forward is dependence upon God. Our church friends, here and around the country, continue to be a great blessing to us, and we hope that we can be a blessing to them through hospitality, through input into the church, and having people to stay from time to time.

Sons Tim and Ben, in their thirties, are making their way professionally: Tim is working in Reading in systems management, and Ben is working in Bracknell and is engaged.

We want to assure you of our love; we increasingly value the love of family and friends.

A Guid New Year to Ane an' A'. (Christmas 2010 News)

Mike and Janet
at the World Outreach Summit
in South Africa in 2007
(the paunch is an illusion)

Again, we want to thank you for Christmas Cards and Newsletters that we have received over the last few weeks, all pored over (or should that be pawed over) with great interest.

We value all our friends and relatives, and hope that we will be able to maintain more contact with many of you as increasing seniority slows our pace of life.

However if our experience since Mike turned 65 is anything to go by, Parkinson’s law - activities expand to occupy all available time - continues to operate.

Mike writing…

Over the last few days we have been trying to reduce the paperwork in the house, and, in the process, have come across copies of letters going back to 1990. It was in January 1993 we went as a young family to Malawi to do whatever the Lord showed us to do. We had felt for some years that it was too easy to carry on as we were, in a lower-middle-class very comfortable existence, and we wanted to ‘up’ our contribution to the spread of the gospel.

Somehow we were accepted by World Outreach, although our background must have been very different from others that they had partnered with, and they must have been aware how naïve we were. But they were willing to run with us and be supportive in whatever way they could, and in January 1995 we unilaterally decided to return to the UK.

The two years in Central Africa were life-changing, and it is even possible that others benefited from having us around in Africa just as we definitely benefited greatly from them. Financially in today’s terms it cost us about a quarter of a million pounds in terms of the smaller house we now have, but it was a good deal, and we would do it again.

It is not possible to evaluate what benefit it was to the children young men Tim (now 28) and Ben (26) both grown up and now away from home. Except that one evening a few years ago I gave Tim a lift to football, and after he had parked the car, found him playing without self-consciousness in the middle of a game of 25 or so big, powerful black lads with dreadlocks, any one of whom I would have been scared to meet on a dark night.

Since then the years have rolled on, and God has continued to talk to us about many things – we don’t imagine that we are any different from you in this respect – and cared for us through redundancy, church splits and varying health, and we are wondering what next we can do to ‘up’ our contribution to the spread of the gospel.

We see opportunities to become involved with charities working in the town – there are so many ways we could help others – but something stops us each time. We are aware that it is so easy to be exclusive – so many people are and we need to consider “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me”.

So we have come to 2010 with me reaching 65 in August with Janet a few years behind. Since 2003 I had worked as Operations Director for World Outreach UK, creating office systems and running the UK office. In November 2009 I relinquished this responsibility and one year later resigned fully from the UK trust to allow me to completely clear my desk.

Since December 2009, Janet has been caring in our home for a lady friend with early-onset Alzheimer’s. Because she has been a friend for almost ten years, Janet felt that it was something that we could do for a time, with my agreement and support. So Janet does most of the caring, and I the paperwork, and both are almost full time jobs.

We enjoy the company of dear friends at Earley Christian Fellowship, but feel that life is ‘on hold’ for the moment. In the mean time we try to ‘shake the house down’ – to discard non-essentials: books, furniture, clothes, without knowing what the next stage is going to be. Will we move? We don’t know. We hang on to the Lord and live a day at a time. Will we go abroad again? We read somewhere "25,000 people come to the Lord in sub-Saharan Africa every day". Is there some way we can help? We are open to doing so.

It’s too easy to settle for being comfortable, but we don’t think it’s what God made us for. We see a heavenly city and want to secure all our futures there.

This comes with all our love to you – thank you for your love and for continuing to be a friend.

Janet writing…

Over the last few years it’s been difficult getting to all the jobs that need to be done to rejuvenate the house, mainly because Mike’s stronger muscles have not been available for these tasks.

So, in answer to prayer, we were very pleased to obtain the service of Polish builders to replace the back fence – the neighbours were delighted – the low front wall – the neighbours were even more delighted – and to repaint soffit and fascias – the bits around the roof overhang. Mike even entered into the spirit of renewal and got a ton of topsoil dumped at the front so that he could re-grass the garden and plant shrubs in soil rather than clay – the neighbours were ecstatic. They are keen gardeners.

The Polish builders turned out to have Russian and Rumanian components, and we discovered that they had to use simplified English to communicate even among themselves!

In our holidays this year we have been unable to chase the sun, but have enjoyed the generous hospitality of friends in the UK. In July we spent a few days with a friend who lives in Babbacombe on Tor Bay and moved on to other friends in Penryn near Falmouth. How clear are the skies and bright the colours in that part of the world! And what a delight to bask in the sun at Kynance Cove; we were last there 30 years ago on our honeymoon!

In October we were able to spend a couple of days discovering Symonds Yat, followed by a few days with friends in Leintwardine. And in December we visited family in Aylsham for the 70th birthday of Mike’s brother, the only other relative Mike has in the UK.

To sum up the year — I have learned more about the faithfulness of God. His strength in my weakness and His incredible kindness to us as a family.

To finish off...

It is three years ago that Tim left Computer 2000 in Basingstoke where they increased targets every time he got near them, and took a job in DEFRA - you know who they are: they used to pay subsidies to farmers with fields that they later discovered to be in the middle of the North Sea. That's all sorted out now!

Ben is working hard for a company in Bracknell, getting close to or achieving targets. For both of them, it’s the business of establishing themselves where the longer-term future is a little bit clearer.

For the future for all of us, it’s a case of ‘watch this space’. According to the astronomers, we live in an expanding universe, and that’s how we see things too.

---

And lastly, for your entertainment, since we all know that the world is going mad, we offer:

€400,000 for the “Flying Gorillas” dance troupe

The EU’s Culture Programme funded the “Flying Gorillas” with €200,000 in 2007 and 2009. Hornchurch’s Queen’s Theatre described the show in 2005: “Using their own language of rhythm, music and gibberish, The Flying Gorillas explore ideas of friendship, tolerance, argument and understanding. Featuring the exciting Tango, the brilliant Smelly Foot Dance and the incredibly difficult Iguana Four-Step, Tango Argumentino has an all-acoustic score using saxophones, clarinets, steel pans, didgeridoo, musical saw, Chinese percussion, rhythm bananas and some spectacular belching.” The project’s website says, “If there is any message, it’s that serious dance, music and theatre are fun.”

See Top 50 EU Waste 2010

And EU wastes £3.6bn in one year

Christmas 2009 News

How wonderful to receive Newsletters from dear friends at and around Christmas. And how grateful we are that they have not given up when we have failed to reciprocate!

Mike
Although he was supposed to hand over responsibility for the UK World Outreach office at the start of October, six and a half years of development work takes time to document, especially since development continued right up to the end. So it was on December 17 that the final version of the 180 page Operations Manual was sent to the new Operations Director in Market Harborough.

Christmas was a peculiar time for Mike; a massive anticlimax with plenty to do but no energy to do it. Janet said 'Relax, and enjoy having some time', but it's not so easy when all you've been doing has suddenly stopped.

• No longer is he waking up in the middle of the night and writing a list of jobs to do the next day.
• No longer does he suddenly realise a better way to program something and go out to the office to bury himself for hours till the changes are made.
• No longer will he wake up at 4.30 in the morning with a brilliant idea that prohibits further sleep so he starts work that day at 5am.
• No longer will he still be out in the office at 9pm because 'there's still something he must finish'.
• No longer will he have to be in the office for several days over month-end to ensure that all financial transactions are up to date and all month-end transfers to missionaries have been made. It has meant that holidays and trips always had to kept away from the end of the month so as not to impact office schedules.

Janet serving the meal

Much of the work has had nothing to do with processing donations or liaising with supporters, but much more to do with development work, something that will not need to be repeated by those who come after. It would have been a doddle if there had been no development. But that's how it was, and he's completed it now.

Janet
Always supportive and understanding; always gentle and kind. Her father is 83 and doing very well. We try to go to see him at regular intervals, but our visits have not been as frequent as we would have liked, although Janet rings every week.

Tim
Continues to share a house with a number of other young professions a mile or two from home and calls in for a meal at least once a week. He is doing well working for the Civil Service and is no stranger to hard work. He enjoys regular visits to the gym and football twice a week with friends.

Ben
Has returned to enjoy the pleasures of home life for a season, though we realise that next time he moves out it will be permanent. He is working hard for an American company in Bracknell after suffering for a while in a post that seemed to be going nowhere. When Ben is motivated, nothing can stand in his way and he is doing well.

Kik, Ben and Tim enjoying a
traditional Christmas meal

We enjoy watching our sons, now 27 and 25 respectively, growing up into fine young men and pray that God will make them well-pleasing to Him.

Kik
Our Japanese friend Kikuyo joined us again in the middle of December to our great pleasure. She had stayed with us before for 5 years from about 2002 to 2007 so the whole family know her well.

Since this is going on a blog, there is no need to tell you about other events that have taken place during the year. These will be the subject of other entries.

Christmas 2008 News

"Really!" you say. "Have we not heard from them for 5 years?" It is very likely that there has been radio silence on our part for all of that time, but we will now attempt to rectify the situation.

It was in 2003 that Mike took up the responsibility of 'Operations Director' of World Outreach, an international Christian mission. Over the last 5 years the role has grown and developed, providing continuously changing challenges, which he has generally enjoyed. He has spent a lot of time writing computer programs 'to make the work easier', and hopes to spend a good part of his Christmas 'break' moving the website www.wouk.org onto a new, easier to maintain basis..

Over the years we have visited people in foreign places like Thailand, Cambodia (Mike only), Malawi, Tanzania, South Africa, Florida, Scotland and Cornwall, and even tried a short cruise to the Bahamas from Miami! Mike has this terrible idea that every holiday has to have a purpose while Janet is very happy to enjoy a rest and change of scene.

Having been a part of Whiteknights Church in Reading for about 10 years, we have this year removed ourselves back to Earley Christian Fellowship, enjoying friendship across both situations. Mike also attends the Leaders' Prayer Meeting in town at Greyfriars Anglican Church once a week, enjoying association with the wider church.

Janet continues in the calling of a housewife, looking after Mike, and keeping the house and the food supplies running. She keeps up with friends and family around the place and spends an hour every morning in a warm corner by the French windows reading theological tomes alongside the bible. We like the little house we have owned in Reading since 1995, it's warm and dry with a pleasant outlook front and back, and we feel God has been very kind to us in providing it.

Janet enjoyed the pleasures of the NHS from the 'other side of the sheets' when, while visiting South Mimms service station on our way to visit Mike's brother and sister-in-law in Norfolk, she fell into a flower bed and heard a snapping sound on the way down. A passing St John's lady diagnosed a broken arm and the satnav took us directly to the nearest A&E where it was put into plaster. Some days later, the Royal Berkshire Hospital, discovering that the arm was not healing correctly, put 2" stainlesss nails into Janet's wrist, and it took six months for her arm to return almost to normal. The lengths we go for excitement! A month previously, Mike had tripped over a kerb-stone in Morrison's car park. As he went down, a voice said in his ear "roll into a ball". He obeyed and rolled across the car-park, sustaining no damage except slight bruising. Amazing.

Tim (26) now works for DEFRA in the town centre, awarding subsidies to qualifying farmers, and enjoys applying his quick wits to using their computer systems and helping others who work with him. He's now moved out to a bedsit a couple of miles away in a large Victorian house and is enjoying a bit more freedom carving out his own lifestyle.

Ben (24) works for Slipstream at Green Park on the edge of Reading, ringing up companies to interrogate their technical experts about their computing needs. It's been a steep learning curve for him, but he's making the grade and growing into a very socially competent chap. But they both are; it's called growing up!

So, what else can we tell you? Well Mike is 63 and Janet's a bit less, and we're both wondering what the future's going to hold. For some years we have been thinking about moving to a flat, but the time hasn't been right. We both enjoy the garden, so if we move to a flat in the future we'd like there to be a mature garden around it. Ben still lives with us, and we don't want to turf him out, so he's got to be settled before we would move.

The World Outreach position involves routine office work which Mike tires of, and computer work which is beginning to become too difficult, so the writing is on the wall to pass the work to someone younger, more energetic and hopefully with a 21st century vision. At such time as this happens, we have wondered if it might be possible to live abroad again for a while and perhaps to become involved in some kind of Gospel work until it is no longer possible. We do wonder if all the bible reading and study over the years will find this kind of outlet again. It all depends on continuing good health and the will of God.

We read your newsletters with delight and great interest, so thanks for keeping up with us.

Christmas 2005 News

All this year Mike has continued to work as the 'Operations Director' for World Outreach, a job that he enjoys but spends too much time doing. The problem is that he is always thinking of better ways to do things, and so the job expands to overfill available time. He is trying to get a final grip on things as the paint drops off the house, and the garden continues to grow even when it isn't attended to.

In February, normally a quieter time for the UK office, Mike and Janet went to Thailand to see some of the World Outreach projects.

We began in Bangkok meeting up with Patricia Green the founder of Rahab Ministries who operate among prostitutes in Patpong, the red-light district of Bangkok. By daytime the area looked innocuous, but in the late afternoon as the stalls come out onto the street in readiness for the night market, we no longer wanted to be in the area.

We also visited the Good News team who, working from a three-floor townhouse in as suburb of Bangkok, run a bible correspondence course for 100,000 Buddhist Thai schoolchildren. They publish their own material and also go into schools all around the country taking assemblies, and placing Christian literature in school libraries. They have also worked among children affected by the tsunami, encouraging them to play and to laugh again.

From Bangkok we travelled to Chiang Mae in the north-west of the country. Chiang Mae is home to the largest concentration of Christian missionaries in Asia, because of it's proximity to Burma, Cambodia, Laos and, of course, China.

From there we visited two Children's Hostels for hill tribes run by World Outreach, one in Doi Sacket, and one in Mae Chaem where we happened on the annual festival and enjoyed the flower-covered floats as they came through the town, with youngsters playing all kinds of instruments, and dressed in traditional tribal costumes.

We also met up with the Brellenthins who run another Children’s' Home in Chiang Mai, and the McKnight’s who also live there.

Our last few days we spent down at Hua Hin at the Juniper Tree, a rest house for missionaries in need of recuperation. Unfortunately, by that time, we were both under the weather and couldn't wait to catch the flight home.

During our time in Thailand we were very impressed with the quality and dedication of the missionaries we spent time with and the quality of the job that thy were doing.

At Easter, we joined our church at Moorlands Bible College near Bournemouth for our traditional Easter house-party, a time of exercise in the New Forest, visiting National Trust piles, and eating well. About half our party were from overseas and we had an excellent time.

In June we collected Ben from Coventry at the end of his first year studying German and French and playing computer games. By general consensus it was agreed to call it quits and Ben began an intensive process of job hunting. He was told everywhere he looked that they needed someone with experience - at least not the experience that he had, so it was with considerable relief that he finally landed a job in a call-centre in central Reading answering the phone to elderly people who were interested in the 'Stay Warm' scheme to cap the cost of their electricity and gas supply. He has stuck this humble pursuit and won a number of rewards for good results.

In August we made our annual pilgrimage to Devon to participate in the conference that is held in the grounds of Rora House each year. Mike was particularly encouraged to follow through on a series of creationist talks by Arthur Jones, and, having now read more widely rejoices in believing that the account of creation in Genesis is literal and that the days were days as we know them now. A great weight has slipped from his mind and a quantity of other biblical truth is also beginning to slot into place.

At the end of August, Mike had his 60th birthday, a time to reflect on the goodness of God over the years, and to seek to ensure that whatever time is left should be lived to His glory.

Tim continues to work in Basingstoke at Computer 2000 which buys computer parts and software from manufacturers and sells on a low margin to the likes of PC World and E-Buyer. He normally leaves the house at 7am and doesn't return until 7pm, so it's a long day, and he works hard. Mike asked him one evening if he was undervalued, and he replied that he would work hard whether they paid him well or not. A good attitude we think.

Christmas 2004 News

We didn’t manage to write a newsletter last year because there never seemed to be time. So we need to cover two years in this one.

You’ll remember that we lived in Malawi from January 1993 until January 1995, working as missionaries under the cover of World Outreach, an international mission recommended to us by Keith and Christine Kelly. Back in the UK, in 2001 Mike was invited to become a trustee of World Outreach, and in 2003 the trustees decided to completely regenerate the UK operation.

At the beginning of 2003, Mike was continuing his self-employed work, fixing customer's computers, and teaching secondary school maths as a private tutor, but felt to offer his services to World Outreach to set up the new administration that the UK branch of the mission required. So in June 2003, Mike visited the international World Outreach office in Singapore, and national offices in Brisbane and Auckland to learn the ropes. He then set up shop in a chalet in the garden, complete with telephones and broadband, evaluating office software and importing the donor list.

From September 2003 he became Operations Director to World Outreach in the UK, responding to letters and donations, emailing missionaries, writing new software to interface with the database, and all the 101 tasks that needed doing. Intended to be a 3-day-a-week job, it kept Mike going all the time including evenings and weekends.

Meanwhile at the end of August 2003, Janet stopped working as a Practice Nurse for the Christian GP Practice in Lower Earley. She had continued her research into producing greetings cards, visiting trade fairs from time to time, and keeping up with craft magazines and new materials. She developed beautiful designs - Mike was amazed by her talents in this direction - and sold a few cards, but knew that the whole thing could not take off without a lot more input from Mike in producing a website from which to sell the cards. ‘Mary J Cards’ was started to secure income because Mike felt that tutoring and PC repair would not provide enough to live on.

Janet also became involved with an outreach to overseas ladies every Tuesday morning that alternated bible study and craft or cooking, and she sought to be a friend to these ladies.

In February 2004, responding to a kind invitation from the Sheats family in Florida, we visited all around West Palm Beach. Hiring a car we were able to visit Janet’s aunt Kate and cousin Simon, Cape Canaveral Space Centre, numerous shopping malls and eateries, and sample the obligatory Ben and Jerry’s ice-creams. The whole Sheats family could not have been more kind.

In May we enjoyed a short break with Peter and Jane Richards in Cornwall, visiting around the Lost Gardens of Heligan and the Eden Project.

In August we relaxed for a few days of spiritual refreshment at Summer Conference at Rora House in Devon.

In November we travelled up to Scotland, visiting our old stamping ground of Edinburgh on the east and Glasgow and Auchenheath on the west, with a visit to the Myerscough cottage under construction in Aberfeldy. It was great to stay with Alec and Angela Workman in Carluke, and to visit all our other friends of long-standing.

Tim completed his three years at Keele University in Staffordshire with an English and Economics degree, and eventually moved into a job with Computer 2000 in Basingstoke where he sells PCs and PC supplies to the likes of PC World, Dixons, Staples, Comet, etc. He is very motivated by the work leaving the house at 7am and not returning until 7pm.

Ben spent a gap year working as a lifeguard at the Loddon Valley Leisure Centre a mile away, and from October has been settling in to the Coventry Business School, Coventry University to study German and French. In February he went to Tanzania while we were away.

Kik, our Japanese friend continued to stay with us for the fourth year. We enjoy her company very much.

Whiteknights International Church continues to prosper and grow slowly, and Sunday evening meetings still attract overseas students from the university, some of whom are responding to the gospel.

We’re all getting older – Mike is now 59 – and we are starting to ask the question: Where do we go from here?

We have just booked flights to visit World Outreach missionaries and other friends in Thailand in February 2005, and we remain open to the possibility of new horizons. The Lord holds our future in His hands and will lead us on. Of that we are sure.

Christmas 2002 News

The time has come around again in writing to one other to share what has been going on during the last year. At this time last year, our annual newsletter was written, and printed in colour, but was never circulated. We can’t remember why, except that each year seems to be busier than preceding years whatever we do to reduce non-essential activities. Having decided that friends like to get news rather than a few words in a card, this year we have again sent out very few cards, and only to family members.

Tim is still at Keele University studying English and Economics. The English he finds relatively easy, but perhaps that is because it comes very naturally to him, but the Economics is requiring some steady hard work. He’s enjoying being a student, but we can see that he doesn’t enjoy being under pressure to perform. He continues to be very sporty, playing football regularly and going to the gym. During the summer he supplemented his income by working nights at our local ASDA, an experience he didn’t enjoy, but stuck to with his usual perseverance.

 

Ben is in the second year Sixth form at Reading Blue Coat School taking French, German and Economics at A level. Moving into a new school for sixth form has not been easy, but Ben has adjusted and his teachers are generally pleased with him. He has a conditional place at University, but we are by no means convinced that University would be the right choice for him because although he is very bright, he is not academic, and some other way forward may be better for him. At a time that the government is moving towards 50% of young people going to University, we are aware that the failure rate is about 23% with 17% dropping out of higher education altogether. Ben keeps himself in necessities with a paper round.

 

In the middle of March, Mike was made redundant from Hogg Robinson, where he worked as a database programmer, fallout from the September 11 World Trade Center event. Having been told by the CEO that no one would be made redundant, this came as a surprise, but was welcomed eventually as an opportunity to change direction.

 

Easter was at the end of March, and the family joined Whiteknights International Church (with whom we worship) at Moorlands Bible College for a long weekend away with some of the international students who join us on Sunday evenings. The college is close to Bournemouth, set in delightful grounds, and has a well-appointed sports hall, so there was always something for everyone to do. Tim joined us from Keele, and we all enjoyed the few days away, Mike walking in the New Forest and Janet enjoying gentler walks up Hengistbury Head on the coast. The weather was pleasant too.

In the middle of April, Mike celebrated his unexpected liberation with a week in Portugal visiting Peter and Jane Richards who work as language school teachers/missionaries in the areas around Mondim de Basto where they live. He very much enjoyed the time (spent moving from restaurant to restaurant - please don’t get the wrong idea), and commented (continuously) on the similarity between modern Portuguese architecture and what he had seen in central Africa where there is a strong Portuguese influence. Janet had to stay at home because Ben was taking A/S levels during May and June.

 

At the start of July, Ben went on German exchange to the northern Black Forest for two weeks, sampling youth hostelling, visiting Bodensee, working in a kindergarten, and attending a German school along with Lotte and Eva his exchange partners. Ben’s German improved rapidly during this time because we had made a pact with Lotte’s parents, Sebastian and Rita, that they would feign ignorance of English during this time. Originally, Ben had been partnered with Lotte, and one of Ben’s school friends had been partnered with Eva. However Eva’s partner dropped out, and Lotte had written to us (in excellent English) suggesting that Eva, who had not been to the UK before, should take her place. We felt that Lotte had been so kind in offering to drop out, that we should invite them both to come the UK, although Lotte would remain Ben’s official partner. This arrangement seemed to work well.

 

While Ben was away, his parents exploited their unusual freedom by going away to ‘little England beyond Wales’ where friends offered the use of a holiday cottage in a place called Marloes, southwest of Haverfordwest in Pembrokeshire. This was the second visit to this delightful area where we felt very much at home, and although the weather was unpleasant in most of the UK at this time, Mike and Janet enjoyed lazy days on the sandy beach and visits to sundry craft shops scattered in towns around. They did not repeat the horse-riding they had tried last time they were there when Mike had suffered extreme chafing on his legs and Janet had not been able to get off the horse (dismount is the technical term) at the end of the ride. Neither did they repeat their inability to get round a 9-hole golf course in less than two days.

 

At the start of August, Mike and Janet went to Summer Conference at Rora House in Devon for a few days, staying in an American tent, similar to a poly tunnel. The tent appealed to them because it had been designed for full-size Americans rather than the midget Europeans most tents are built for. As an example, the family car could have been parked inside the tent (but not with inner tents in place) and not be noticed by passers-by. The conference was enjoyable and valuable, as well as being an opportunity to renew friendship with many people.

 

During the summer, plans to erect a summerhouse in the garden changed somewhat, and with the help of skilled friends and an extended period of dry weather, a high specification chalet (insulated, decorated, carpet, power) at the top of the garden now houses desk, filing cabinets and a computer with broadband connection and all Mike’s books. This was a major physical effort, and Mike wondered at times whether he was going to make it.

 

Near the end of August, Lotte and Eva arrived for their visit to the UK and we broke all records and visited Buckingham Palace, the Tower of London, and Windsor Castle, and even went for a couple of rides up and down the Thames on a cruise ship. It was in London that we parked the car in a most unusual car park that, at high speed, carried the car up and away in a pod, and returned it to us some hours later, on proof of ownership and £20. We enjoyed the girls’ visit and managed without anyone having to sleep in a tent in the garden.

 

Meanwhile, continued attempts to get programming employment met with failure, the bottom dropping out progressively from the employment market as corporates followed each other like sheep into stagnation. Company after company in Reading laid people off month after month and it began to appear that self-employment may be the only way forward. Mike began to advertise his services locally, offering (i) to fix computers, (ii) to give advice on buying and using them, and (iii) to provide private tuition to secondary level students in mathematics and computing. Towards the end of the year work came in dribs and drabs from agencies specialising in tutoring.

 

During September and October, Janet started seriously designing Christmas cards to sell for profit under the name Mary J Cards. It became clear to Mike that Janet had hidden talents, because the designs were without exception very saleable, and the quality was high. They visited a few craft fairs together to clarify the designs and also called on shops and garden centres to see whether they could sell them through them. In the end it became clear that they would sell best through local contacts and eventually through a website when this could be set up. Nearer Christmas, Janet turned to designing general greetings cards selling well over 100 cards within a few days. Watch this space.

 

Later in the Autumn, Janet accepted the offer of an extra morning at the surgery where she works as a nurse, and, in addition to Monday and Tuesday mornings, with a colleague, ran a blood clinic from 7am to 11am on a Wednesday morning. It proved very pressurising with a record 120 patients packed into four hours, and after four months, Janet had to abandon it on doctor’s orders.

 

In October, we heard the very sad news that Jack Kelly had died, and Mike drove up to Scotland for a few days to be present at the funeral. Jack and his wife Eileen, had been loving friends for many years, and Mike had stayed in their big house in Auchenheath near Lanark for six years, driving through to Edinburgh to work and being involved in the building of the church that met for many years in that place. The funeral provided an opportunity to join with hundreds of other friends, and Jack’s family, to remember his life, and the tremendous influence for good that he, Eileen, and their family had been for many years.

 

Throughout the year we have had the pleasure of having Kikuyo Shinohara, known to us simply as Kik, staying with us as part of our extended family. Kik has been working in Gyosei College, now renamed Witan Hall (whatever that means) by City University who have taken it over, as a teacher of English. We enjoy her company and also the dilution to a house full of males that she provides. We also benefit from numerous discussions about far-Eastern culture and all that sort of thing.

 

Churchwise we continue with our friends in Whiteknights International Church with about 28 to 45 people meeting together on a Sunday morning (someone has provided me with accurate statistics!) at Leighton Park School where we rent rooms. Whiteknights Park is the name of the University campus close by, and we have a lot of international people coming, so that’s where the name came from. At present we have representation from Russia, Korea, Japan, Venezuela and China on Sunday evening meetings so we do have an international flavour. The big thing is that there’s opportunity for input into the meetings, something you don’t get everywhere.

 

This newsletter went out by email to those ones we regard as our dearest friends. However, to keep the size down especially for people in Africa, or those who don’t have a fast modem, we included links to photographs, rather than include the photographs in the text. Our websites are undeveloped, but we hope to work on them over the next couple of months so they will improve. Mike has bought a digital camera, so current pictures of the family will be much easier to obtain.

 

In the new year, Mike hopes to develop his business with help from InBiz, a private company who provide business advice under a government initiative, but we have no doubt that “dependence on God” is what it’s all about. As we get older in the Christian life, it seems to us there are two things we need to do. The first is to hold fast to the former things: don’t allow ourselves to get ‘old’, but to hang on tight to first-love, etc. And the second thing is to learn to depend on God more and more as our own abilities decrease. You may have more insight, but it’s the way we see things appear at present.

Christmas 2000 News

The time has come, (the walrus said), to write another Christmas newsletter. I had the misfortune to read an article recently in the Times, where an opinion was aired that Christmas newsletters were typically produced by the middle classes to tell everyone 'how well Johnny is doing in the orchestra', and that 'Celia has been presented to the Queen', not to mention that 'the holiday in the Bahamas was so relaxing'. I felt sorry that the writer had such 'friends'.

The letters we receive are full of real interest, and it with joy that we open and read each one, catching up on news we can get in no other way. We're all too busy! So, if you wrote, thank you for writing! Keep up the good work! And, if you didn't, we understand.

And so to our news. But let me first explain that, in the course of the year, we've experimented with sending some updates by email. So, if you're technologically enabled (i.e. you know the frustration of a computer), you may suffer a repeat of what you've heard before. Our apologies. Unlike historians, we do not rewrite history as the whim takes us.

Building work.

During May, a company of builders did a lightning assault on our house, in four days fitting a new bathroom, basins in each bedroom, a downstairs toilet, and pouring concrete bases for a greenhouse, an office and a shed! Phew! Tim studied for 'A' levels in our caravan in the front garden while Mike worked alongside the wreckers. Janet tried to keep her eyes and nose shut (to keep out the dust) and kept the chuck wagon rolling.

There are still many things to finish off in the house: cupboards to put up, shelving, papering, tiling, wiring, carpeting, in addition to daily working and living. For a time, Mike felt totally unable to make progress. Is it anno Domini catching up? But the situation is improving.

Tim's peregrinations.

In June, Tim (18) achieved sufficient grades to do English and Economics at a good University, but decided to have a gap year. He was taken on as a partner by the John Lewis store in Reading in September, and has been working very hard in the gift food department to earn money for a computer, and to prepare for university.

Ben's deliberations.

Ben (16) seems to have a gift for languages, and has done well in German and French at school. He's already been looking at Universities although he still has to take GCSEs. He has started a 12-hour a week job at ASDA superstore to finance strawberry laces and a projected visit to Tanzania.

A car accident.

At the start of August, travelling late at night in our Renault 21 with a caravan on tow, we had to swerve violently to avoid an articulated lorry that came out at speed into our path. Although we jack-knifed, by the grace of God rather than Mike's skill, the car ended up on the edge of the road with the caravan still attached. The vehicles were still upright, and although Ben had a scratch, we were otherwise unhurt. Tim had not been travelling with us. The vehicles were beyond economic repair. We were able to use our week-old cell-phone to call up the police and Automobile Association who sent out relay trucks. In a couple of hours all the mess was cleared up, and we were on our way home by chauffeur.

The next day, very compassionate friends, hearing of our accident, towed their own caravan to where we had intended to holiday, collecting it again after a week. So we had a week's break, but not quite as we had planned!

A replacement car.

We were able to replace the Renault with a Toyota Carina, which we are enjoying, money from a company merger unexpectedly arriving when we needed it. Amazing timing! But we failed to remove the removeable front of the CD player one evening when the car was parked in a dark spot. Although the thief did not get into the car, he left us with a large repair bill.

A new job for Mike?

Mike had been looking around for another computing job for some months, but younger management assumes that 55 implies obsolescence. But he is quite clear the new job will come at the right time. Meantime he plugs away, grateful for the job he has.

Janet presses on.

Janet continues to work for two mornings a week at the local Christian medical practice. She enjoys the contact and stimulation, but with the lads fast growing up, demands on her increase all the time.

For one reason or another, We have taken no real break of any length together for a number of years, and we probably need to make a real effort this coming year to correct the situation.

Church commitment.

We continue with a local fellowship, meeting on a Sunday when God habitually speaks through one and another, and where we also find warm friendship. On a Sunday evening we normally go to a Christian meeting for overseas students who mainly attend the University. We have enjoyed contact with families from China, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, Mexico and other places. We cannot tell how much they understand, but we know they enjoy coming.

God continues to be faithful to us through the pressures of life. We are amazed at all the things that happen.

Christmas 1999 News

At this time of year our thoughts turn especially to our family and friends scattered throughout the world. Newsletters have been arriving at a steady trickle and we enjoy reading them so much! It's so good to hear what is happening to those we love.

Our year seems to have been "more of the same thing"! We're very happy with our situation in Reading: a pleasant and warm house, a stable environment for the boys and ourselves, a good employment market, good friends and neighbours, a slowly-expanding church scene, and warmer weather than many places in the UK!

Tim, now 17, is now in the second year of his A-level course and will leave school in June next year. He has applied for a place at University majoring in English, but deferring entry until October 2001. We see him increasingly coming to terms with the need for hard work as his exams draw closer. On Saturday mornings he plays football enthusiastically and well with friends of long-standing from the church we used to attend, and plays many other sports regularly at other times. Computer games still feature in his interests and more recently he's begun to make use of the internet at home as well as at school. Tim has recently signed up to work at ASDA supermarket on the checkouts on Saturdays from 1 till 9pm. This will be the fifth run of part-time employment he has undertaken and we're sure it will be beneficial.

Ben, now 15, and at 5'10" as tall as Tim, has begun his GCSE course at school. His interest in sports is more 'observational' than Tim, and altogether he is much less 'physical' in his interests. He does a paper round every week, which meets his small financial needs. We know that if we told him that we intended to return to Africa, he would go like a shot, something Tim would not.

Janet continues to work as a nurse at the local Christian surgery for 12 hours a week spread over 3 mornings. She is well-received and continues to enjoy the stimulation and interest of the work. More recently she's tried her hand at selling Avon cosmetic products to households locally. It's something she's always wanted to try, and she feels that it will be interesting to do it for a while.

Mike has completed over a year within the Information Services section of Hogg Robinson who sell healthcare and travel services to large corporations. His job involves sorting out problems with big databases as well as writing enhancements. Although his associates are friendly, as he gets older, he finds more difficulty in remembering the enormous detail and therefore is considering the way ahead.

In April, in response to the difficulty of finding holidays to suit the whole family, we decided to experiment by buying a second-hand caravan, and made a couple of excursions, one to the beautiful Thames Valley, quite close at hand, and one to the New Forest. We also used it for a week at Summer Conference in Devon in August, a great success. But, because it takes us away from the home at the weekend, and Mike presently has only the Saturday to catch up with himself and do jobs around the house, there is a conflict of interests, so we may not continue with it next year. The neighbours were very encouraging when the caravan appeared, despite the desecration of our front garden by this enormous white apparition, which says something for the excellent relationship we appear to enjoy with them.

In October, Mike went to Zimbabwe for three weeks to teach at Ameva Bible School, which operates from a farm run by dear friends of long standing near Chegutu on the Harare to Bulawayo Road. He enjoyed the contact with the students greatly, and also the company of his hosts and the others who were working there. But he returned immeasurably saddened by the very high incidence of Aids among the Africans, which may wipe out a generation. He was also affected deeply by the anti-white stance of government at the present time, just one of the factors contributing to the increasing economic chaos within the country.

So, for all its boring uniformity and copious weather, the UK is not such a bad place in which to live! To come down onto truth, it is where God would have us for the present, and we have daily opportunity to live for Him, and to build the personality and lifestyle that He desires to see. Wherever we live, we can do that.

We send you all our love, and whether you're going to spend Christmas "around the tree" or "on the beach", we hope you will enjoy the celebration of the coming of Christ.

Christmas 1998 News

“The time has come,” the walrus said, to write a Christmas letter to all our friends and family around the world. “A Christmas letter?” I hear you saying, “What is the man talking about? Christmas is long gone. Perhaps it’s a little like my 50^th birthday party, which we hope to hold before I reach the age of 55. Perhaps we’ll hold a joint one when Janet gets there.

The fact is, that Christmas came, and Christmas went, and we were busy. Too busy to add to the list tasks that could be done at some quieter time. I think that we are learning (i.e. I am learning) not to take on so much. Life is given to be lived, and enjoyed where possible, not to be spent chasing the ‘next thing’. We ignored the January sales. It was very nice. Perhaps our time in Africa has done us a bit of good in reinforcing real values, that “people matter more than things”, and “Who told you that you needed this or that?”

Anyway, in a Christmas letter, one traditionally goes through the events of the past year, highlighting achievements, explaining respectfully that our children are child prodigies scaling the giddy heights of human achievement with a humility that leaves us speechless. However it’s not exactly like that; they are grossly normal, and any parent living in our culture will not need to consult a textbook to discover what that means. Let me add that we rejoice that they are normal, because, we have reason then to believe that they will grow up to be an asset to the people around them.

So, what has been going on since we last wrote to you? Mike (the guy pressing the buttons, and pouring out his eloquence via this ‘ere letta’) has given up teaching. Following an unpleasant year at university studying for a PGCE (postgrad. cert. in education), which occupied every hour he was not actually sleeping, eating, washing or dressing and culminating in the reception of a sheet of paper from the university carrying the one-liner “M.Cross – PGCE – failed”, you will remember that, putting the course behind him, he plunged into a part-time job teaching Maths at a private school, Bearwood College, near Wokingham.

The year went well, he enjoyed it, got on well with the other staff, students and parents, and received a good reference from the headmaster. 

Notwithstanding he was re-examined and failed again by the same implacable female guru from the education department of the university who had decided to fail him before. Obviously he had failed to attain the astral plane required. 

[You may be aware that there's a lot more to this story than that which meets the eye, but I will not write it here.]

A letter to the Vice-Chancellor received the anticipated reply “I don’t believe there is anything you can get us on” (paraphrase). So, with the universities' credibility seriously holed, Mike decided that the other 400,000 or so teachers in the UK would just have to struggle on as best they could without him, and he made another change in direction.

He rewrote his CV, emphasising programming skills, visited a couple of employment agencies, rewrote his CV twice more, and then, using email, circulated it to 30 agencies within 10 miles, following up with phone calls. 

At the end of two weeks of intense activity, he had two interviews, one of which was at Hogg Robinson where he had worked 10 years before. They sell travel and healthcare services, plus a lot more, and following the interview by staff who remembered him positively, he was offered a job. Quite amazing. 

There’s a great skills shortage in programming, and he’s been taken on in a humble role, but the people are pleasant and respectful, and there’s very little pressure. HR is year 2000 compliant, and almost year 1999 compliant too, so no surprises there.

Janet continues to be her excellent self, continuing with her part-time job as a nurse at a local Christian practise, which we have discovered is the second largest group practice in the UK. Last year she stopped doing travel immunisations which were becoming too stressful, a typical 10-minute appointment beginning with the words: “Nurse, I am going to Tasmania and Penang, stopping off at Lusaka and Sao Paulo, and I’m leaving tomorrow. Can you tell me what injections I need?” 

In exchange for avoiding some of the more stressful parts of the job, she also took a cut in salary. Janet now does four mornings a week, with plans to reduce to three or less to give her more “free” time to do housework, the shopping, cooking, cleaning, ironing, gardening, buy petrol, and talk to the neighbours. Time hangs heavy on her hands as you can see.

Tim has now moved into the 6th form at school and has become involved in a Young Enterprise group, making videos of school dramatic productions and printing T-shirts, all at great profit – he hopes. Football and computer games still rank very highly in his consciousness, though the need to work for A-levels is beginning to knock on the door with more insistence. He is studying Economics and English, with Biology to make up the load. He attends a couple of school youth clubs in the area and delights in coming home covered in mud after matches with friends two days a week. You would say that he is socially adjusted. Over this last year he has worked Friday evenings and all Saturday at KwikSlave (Oh dear! Have I spelt that wrong?) a grocery store in town, rubbing shoulders with little old ladies and half-honest store managers, one of whom went on extended leave after they had to retrieve his keys from the local police station one morning before they could open the store. So Tim’s education moves ahead on all fronts.

Ben is a completely different character, now almost as tall as Tim, with the promise eventually to be well over 6 feet. He enjoys French and German at school, but half hopes they will clamber on board with not too much effort on his part. Very affectionate and amazingly independent at times, he has just decided to join the local Air Training Corps. Although we would not want him to be channelled into the armed forces, we are aware that the ATC provides opportunities for adventure and experiences that are woefully lacking here in an over-ordered UK. He continues with the keyboard and also has his own circle of friends.

During August, we went Eurocamping in France and Germany, covering too many miles in the car. The weather was disappointing, and, at times half of France seemed to be where we were. The boys seemed unimpressed by the cross-cultural experience although they have waxed lyrical about it since. But we were very glad of the opportunity to visit Mike’s Aunt Mabel living in retirement in Villingen in the Black Forest.

We are now committed members of a small house church that meets together on a Sunday morning, meets to pray midweek, and opens the door wide to overseas students on a Sunday evening. Presently we’re running an Alpha initiative, which is stimulating and enjoyable, and numbers are slowly growing. The sector of the Christian church that is currently growing the fastest is apparently those who do not go to church. We understand that many are fed up with being told what to do and how to do it, and are opting out. So it is good to be part of a caring fellowship with no controlling influence except the love of God.

We continue to remain outward-looking, particularly towards Africa, where we follow events in what was British East Africa and South Africa with great interest. However the Lord has put us here for the time being, and we have to get on with whatever comes to hand. That doesn’t stop the heart being almost continually exercised about involvement overseas, and the hope that one we shall return to where we know there are wide-open doors for the gospel.

We have received very many newsletters bringing us up to date on the exploits of friends and family, and have read them with great interest. One contained a brief book review, and we should like follow their example and recommend a book to you. “Adventures in Reconciliation” (ISBN 0-86347-215-X at £4-99 pub. Eagle) tells the stories of twenty-nine Catholic believers. Some came from active membership of the IRA, and some from crushing personal tragedy, to a personal experience of the indwelling Christ and new meaning in their lives. We seek oneness with all who confess the Lord Jesus, from whatever church group they come, and consequently found this book very interesting.

We appreciate your love and friendship over the years. We are grateful for genuine friends who do not fluctuate or change, and send you our loving greetings.