Our news letter on line (with a few extra bits)
Happy Christmas to you!
We often marvel at the significance of Christmas with God himself becoming one of us so that we could enjoy a relationship of intimacy with Him. We trust that this will be a special Christmas for you as you recall the wonder of what Christ became.
Family
Our granddaughter April is now 4¾ (one must not omit the ¾) and started school in September. She is loving it and when we asked what the best bit was, she said “dinners”. This image is of her winding her dad in loo paper to dress him up as a snowman at her party. Amazingly for March 1st she actually had snow on her birthday.
Chris and Polly continue to be busy in their jobs and we enjoy spending time with them when possible – often staying in their caravan which sits proudly at the side of their house.
End of an era
In January of this year Ian retired from his ministry at Victoria Baptist Church. We have been serving there for eighteen years so leaving the church, the house and our roles was always going to be a challenging transition.
The church’s retirement celebration, which doubled as their annual party, went under the banner of “I’m a minister, get me out of here.” It was a very moving occasion which combined testimonies from people whose lives had been impacted by us and items that were completely bonkers.
We thought it might be a bit of fun to compare our faces when we went to Victoria and when we left!
New beginnings in Chichester
We have moved back to Chichester and now live in the house we previously rented to students. It has been great to re-establish many of our friendships in the city as well as having lots of visitors.
We have found ourselves leading the church’s Alpha course and it has been really good fun to get back into this type of hands-on ministry. Something has to keep Ian off the streets and he is now acting as a funeral celebrant, coaching A-level maths, preaching, worship leading, mentoring other ministers, moderating a church and developing a YouTube channel with recordings of his teaching!
Rosi is helping with a thriving parent and toddler group and increasingly getting into the pastoral work of the church. This involves the difficult task of sampling the variety of coffee shops in Chichester … you can join her easily!
Leisure
We’ve got back into cycling and been on our bikes more here as the terrain is flatter. Ian has also been off his bike and earned a couple of cracked ribs in the process – OUCH! Ian been getting back into music and we’ve replaced our piano with a beautiful new Yamaha instrument.
There’s an opulence about Harrods which we only dream about, but we were treated to tea there. I was intrigued by their millionaires gallery but don’t expect a picture of either of us to appear there any time soon! A classical extravaganza in the Albert hall turned out to bejust that, complete with cannons sounding in the 1812 overture.
Romania
An autumn visit to rural Transylvania saw us training pastors in how to preach. Ian took the advanced group while Rosi assisted our team leader with people new to the methods. They are a wonderfully committed and warm-hearted people with a faith that is amazingly vibrant in spite of tough lifestyles. We expect to return there to continue in February.
May God bless you richly in 2019.
With love from Ian and Rosi
